UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Simmering Tensions and Emerging Conflicts Among Key Group Actors Amid Capitalist Transformation in Northern Ghana

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1111/joac.12613

Authors

Ibrahim Wahab · Joseph Awetori Yaro · Gloria Afful‐Mensah · Michael Ben Awen-Naam

Reported year

2024

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.782648+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.782648+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Lund University · University of Ghana · University of Gothenburg

Reported affiliation countries

GH · SE

Documentary abstract — original language

ABSTRACT A capitalist agrarian transformation is unfolding in northern Ghana, marked by shifts in crop types, rapid increases in farm sizes and deepening rural social differentiation. This paper investigates these dynamics through a mixed‐methods approach across six farming communities in two districts, focusing on how social differentiation, accumulation, dispossession and exploitation reshape the region. Urban male capitalists, in collusion with local chiefs, drive mutual enrichment, while women and landless youth are disproportionately disadvantaged. Their land rights are increasingly eroded as powerful elites and traditional ruling families appropriate and accumulate capital at their expense. This transformation, rooted in patriarchal structures, is fuelling tensions and pockets of resistance among affected groups. The paper highlights how powerful individuals and groups can thwart often well‐intentioned state‐led agriculture modernization initiatives for their parochial interests. It shows how predominantly urban‐based elites and power brokers frequently hijack the state's effort to reform the rural sector in the context of neoliberal capitalist economies in the Global South. It offers broader insights into social differentiation and the tensions that arise between and among the various competing group interests. Finally, it raises questions of justice across generations and gender which have broader implications for the political economy of agrarian change and structural transformation in rural northern Ghana. The implications extend beyond social cohesion, with potential impacts on biodiversity loss and climate change.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W4405687049

DOI

10.1111/joac.12613

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

GH

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12613
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W4405687049

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

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• openalex:w2015818860 · CITES
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• openalex:w2061937522 · CITES
• openalex:w2127160466 · CITES
• openalex:w2138072124 · CITES
• openalex:w2464215636 · CITES
• openalex:w2487377520 · CITES
• openalex:w2549847898 · CITES
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• openalex:w2801293244 · CITES
• openalex:w2970477996 · CITES
• openalex:w2987468845 · CITES
• openalex:w2999810152 · CITES
• openalex:w3095003813 · CITES
• openalex:w3100414326 · CITES
• openalex:w3113341629 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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