Geologising Urban Political Ecology (UPE): The Urbanisation of Sand in Accra, Ghana

This paper makes a call for an urban political ecology (UPE) which engages more extensively with Earth’s geological formations. As material at the centre of global urbanisation process, sand is offered as entry point. The presents analysis sand, or ways in brought into realm, grounding this reading Accra—a growing city on Ghana’s Atlantic coast. Drawing from 14 months ethnographic fieldwork, charts socio-natural politics through first unearthed edges city—an extractive processes otherwise known “sand winning” Ghana. By examining forms power govern uneven revenue flows to communities, displacement farming groups, widespread loss farmland and contested regime governance, exposes city’s baseline unearthed.