The report highlights the long history of commodification of land and labour in Ghana, linked to speculative activities and more recently to the activities of international capital, agribusiness, international agricultural centres, and agencies of the state. It makes the case for a new land, agrarian and natural resource regime that prioritises domestic economic needs to provide security of livelihood to the generality of the people.

We examine the impact of ambiguous and contested land rights on investment and productivity in agricultural in Akwapim, Ghana. We show that individuals who hold powerful positions in a local political hierarchy have more secure tenure rights, and that as a consequence they invest more in land fertility and have substantially higher output. The intensity of investments on different plots cultivated by a given individual correspond to that individual's security of tenure over those specific plots, and in turn to the individual's position in the political hierarchy relevant to those specific plots. We interpret these results in the context of a simple model of the political allocation of land rights in local matrilineages.

Meist wird der Staat in Afrika, wie auch anderswo, als Träger von Ordnung, Fortschritt und Disziplin gesehen, da er über die Autorität verfügt, Gesetze zu erlassen und deren Einhaltung zum Wohl der Gesellschaft zu sanktionieren. Dieser Band untersucht die Bedeutung der staatlichen Gesetzgebung für die Bevölkerungen im subsaharischen Afrika und setzt diese in Beziehung zu bereits existierenden lokalen Normen, mit denen die neuen Gesetze konkurrieren müssen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Assembling Export Markets explores the new ‘frontier regions’ of the global fresh produce market that has emerged in Ghana over the past decade. Represents a major and empirically rich contribution to the emerging field of the social studies of economization and marketization Offers one of the first ethnographic accounts on the making of global commodity chains ‘from below’ Denaturalizes global markets by unpacking their local engagement, materially entangled construction, need for maintenance, and fragile character Offers a trans-disciplinary engagement with the construction and extension of market relations in two frontier regions of global capitalism Critically examines the opportunities and risks for firms and farms in Ghana entering global fresh produce markets

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