Casos de uso

It is important to engage in scalar analysis to render transparent the power held by various actors in the agricultural sector. Scale as an inherent feature of political ecology has historically characterised political ecology research (see, for instance, Offen, 2004; Peet et al., 2011; Robbins, 2012; Watts, 2000). Political ecology, in particular, has stressed the multiscale nature of power.

The concept of scales has been adopted in this thesis to better understand how different actors occupying different social spaces deploy power as part of shaping agricultural transformation in Ghana.

Scale has been defined as the compartmentalisation of a socially constructed space through power systems and relations (Brenner, 2001; Green, 2016). Reflecting this, scale in the thesis represents any socially constructed spaces occupied by international or local actors whose roles and activities are shaping agricultural transformation, and by actors whose livelihoods are affected by agricultural transformation outcomes. The scale considered in this thesis is hierarchical, and includes socially constructed international, national and local spaces occupied by actors in the agricultural sector. Of particular importance to the thesis is how these “hierarchies of socioeconomic organisation” (Neumann, 2009, p. 400) empower some actors to exercise power over other actors in the agricultural sector in Ghana.

Political ecologists use the concept of scale to analyse power relations among various actors occupying social positions, whose roles produce environmental outcomes. From a conceptual perspective, Neumann (2009) explores how scholars integrate the politics of scaling with political ecology, thereby producing a political ecology of scale. He highlights three themes emerging from political ecology literature – which he calls a political ecology of scale – “that suggest a richer theorisation of scale: (1) the interactions of power, agency, and scale; (2) socioecological processes and scaling; and (3) scaled networks” (2009, p. 403). Neumann highlights these themes because power relations, which is a dominant interest in relation to analysis of access and control over resources and space, is central to political ecology. Neumann concludes that political ecology of

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scale “incorporates the key precepts of the politics of scale – scale as socially constructed, relational, contingent, and contested – into an existing framework that highlights power relations and a dialectical approach toward nature-society relations” (2009, p. 404). Despite advancement in the application of scale in political ecology, Neumann (2009) identifies persisting problems associated with the conceptualisation of scale in political ecology. One such problem is that the terms and concepts including scale, level, site, network, and assemblage are not explicitly distinguished in the literature. Reflecting this, Neumann (2009) prescribes a political ecology of scale that is “rigorous and concise in its conceptualisations and use of terminology, and clear in its epistemological and methodological choices” (p. 405).

Kathryn Green conducted one of the recent studies that integrate political ecology and politics of scale. Green (2016) adopted the politics of scaling to explore the power dynamics and politics of natural resource management in Tanzania. She highlighted the importance of socio-spatial aspects of the politics of natural resource management and emphasised that power dynamics and politics of community-based natural resource management are largely shaped by scalar arrangement of power. To do this, she distinguished between three scales (institutional governance scales, community-based natural resource management scales and unrecognised socioecological scales) at which power is contested for the management of natural resources in Tanzania. These socially constructed and contested spaces are important in understanding power relations and struggles among various actors occupying these spaces.

This thesis integrates politics of scaling and political ecology to render transparent the actors occupying socially constructed spaces in the agricultural sector in Ghana, whose roles are shaping agricultural policies and practices at the national and local scales. The politics of scaling is applied in two ways in the thesis. First, in Chapter Six, the scalar analysis has been applied to analyse how development partners/donors occupying ‘international scale’ wield power to shape agricultural policies at the ‘national scale’ and how these policies are shaping agricultural practices at the ‘local scale’. By occupying the ‘international scale’, development partners assume a powerful position that enables them to shape national agricultural policies. The ability of international donor actors to interact with national policies is enabled by integration of development planning at a ‘national scale’ into the ‘international scale’ through neoliberal development aid and assistance (Debrah et

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al., 2015; Moyo, 2009; Teye and Torvikey, 2018). In Chapter Six, the thesis also analyses how modernisation narratives at the global level are shaping national agricultural policy narratives through the uptake of Green Revolution technologies at the ‘local scale’.

Second, in Chapter Eight, the thesis analyses how global demand for cashew and national commercialisation narratives are incentivising the production of cashew nuts for export. Moreover, in Chapter Eight, the thesis analyses the control of land by local elites, who occupy a socially constructed space at the local scale. In particular, the thesis analyses how control of land by local elites (re)produce material consequences for migrant/landless farmers because they have limited resource power at the local scale. Through integration of political ecology and politics of scaling, this thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of work in political ecology in Ghana (see Awanyo, 2001; Campbell, 2013; Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2014; Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner Kerr, 2015; Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2017). Figure 4.1 represents the socially constructed agricultural sector space in Ghana, and the actors who occupy these socially constructed spaces. The roles played by actors across the different space or scale determine outcomes of agricultural transformation in Ghana. The thesis takes a key interest in understanding how livelihoods of actors (peasants/migrants/landless) who occupy the least space at the local scale, are affected by the decisions of actors (international donors, government actors and local elites) occupying the international and national scales.

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Figure 4. 1 Scalar configurations in the agricultural sector in Ghana

Source: Adopted and modified from Green (2016) International Scale

Examples of Actors: World Bank, USAID, FAO, AGRA,

IMF, DFID

National Scale

Examples of Actors:

MOFA, Private sector, CSO, other

Ministries

Local scale

Brong Ahafo Region

District

Village Local elites

Peasants

88 4.5 Conclusion

The chapter introduced political ecology as the analytical tool adopted to foreground analysis in this thesis. Political ecology, which emerged through efforts to theorise how global capitalist relations of production were shaping agrarian production and environmental change in the global South, has expanded over the years to gain wider focus. Political ecology provides insights into power relations over local resource use and management. In particular, the framework enables understanding of the social, economic and political processes that shape local livelihoods in a way that produces embodied consequences and environmental outcomes. The concept challenges development scholarship to move beyond apolitical explanation of poverty, hunger and environmental change to consider complex political, social and economic processes as responsible for poverty, hunger and environmental change.

Reflecting this, political ecology was adopted in this thesis to enable a nuanced analysis of complex political, economic and sociocultural processes across different scales that shape agricultural transformation in Ghana. Specifically, the thesis aims to make transparent the power relations and dynamics at various socially constructed spaces (international, national and local scales) that shape agricultural transformation in Ghana. Through political ecology, the thesis aims to render visible the material consequences of the processes of agricultural transformation for farmers at the local scale. To do this, historical, power and scalar analysis of political ecology has been adopted to analytically situate the thesis in historical, power and scalar contexts. These analytical tools present a systematic and nuanced understanding of broader political processes across different scales shaping agricultural transformation, rather than using simple apolitical narratives.

In summary, adoption of political ecology enables a critical analysis of the complex broader forces shaping agricultural transformation in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo Region. Through political ecology, the thesis analyses the outcomes of this market-based agricultural transformation including poverty, social differentiation, patterns of land accumulation, commercialisation of social relations of production, erosion of indigenous genetic resources and farmers’ agency to solve their own problems, and creating dependency on external inputs and market relations. All these are analysed and discussed in the three results chapters (Six, Seven and Eight).

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