Wealth in people: Social networks and access to resources among female market gardeners in Kakasunanka, Ghana

The way in which people relate to their environment in the context of agricultural production in Africa is directly related to their ability to gain access to productive resources---land, labour, and capital---and to use resources effectively. All people do not, however, enjoy equivalent rights to access and control resources within a society or household. Macro-structural accounts of environmental processes often overlook local differentiation among resource users, particularly those revolving around critical productive inequalities mediated by gender, class, and age. These axes of difference play a key role in determining the kinds of resource rights that different individuals are able to call upon within local social relations of production and exchange. Although it is often assumed that women in Africa are powerless victims of male-dominated social structures and institutions which restrict their rights to resources vis-a-vis men, the purpose of this thesis is to look beyond social structure to explore the nuances of women's livelihood and resource struggles. Research with female market gardeners in Kakasunanka, Ghana suggests that women are, in fact, social actors who challenge established practices, experiment with new ideas, and renegotiate the rules and boundaries which they find unacceptable under particular circumstances. The case study findings suggest that by investing in social relationships and networks with women locally, women have been able to create opportunities, or spaces, through which to mobilize local and state resources, legitimate their individual and collective interests, and to effect change within local social and political relations. Diversifying channels of access have, in turn, shaped strategies of agricultural production and investment, and have affected the way market gardeners allocate and use resources.