Globalizing City: The Urban and Economic Transformation of Accra, Ghana

3. Globalizing Residential Spaces: The Spread of Gated Communities

42 3 Globalizing Residential Spaces The Spread of Gated Communities gated cOMMunities h av e becOMe a striking feature of contemporary urbanism. Gated communities have been defined as “privately governed residential areas with restrictive entrances in which, normally, public spaces have been privatized. . . . They include new developments and old reconverted areas, they exist in cities and suburbs, in wealthy and poor neighborhoods” (Blakely and Snyder 1997, 2). In a much cited study, Blakely and Snyder (1997) estimated that up to 9 million U.S. residents live in 20,000 proprietary residential communities bounded by walls and entrance gates, and that the trend has increased since this estimation. More recently, research has confirmed that it is not just a U.S. phenomenon; this form of residence has also greatly expanded in cities in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia , Lebanon, China, etc. (Donaldson and Lochner 2002; Landman 2004; Webster et al. 2002; Coy and Pohler 2002). To date, their emergence in Accra has not been studied. The presence and extent of gated communities is an important marker of a particular form and order of residential development. Gated communities are foreigninspired communities based on international architectural designs. Private enclave living is a clear spatial demarcation of globalizing spaces in the urban environment. These areas are physically separated and clearly demarcated in the residential environment; furthermore they clearly delimit property behind the walls and gates. The gated community phenomenon appears to represent a counter-response to the spread of informalization in land and housing that characterizes much of the residential building in Accra. Locally, gated communities represent a complete break from the past: a movement glOba lizing r esidenti a l spaces | 43 away from traditional conceptions of land and dwelling units, a preference for a different type of community, and a product that can be place-marketed, packaged, and sold to upper-income individuals and expatriates. The development of gated communities in Accra is the latest and most salient episode in the transformation that is taking place in urban land markets . The change commenced with the introduction of liberalization policies in 1983. Prior to the 1990s, government legislation was unhelpful to private developers (Konadu-Agyemang 2001b; Tipple and Willis 1992), most land developed for residential purposes originated from the traditional land system , and transactions in this system created considerable impediments to developers interested in private residential project development (Quarcoopome 1992; Kasanga et al. 1996; Odame-Larbi 1996). The liberalization era has also radically transformed property markets by the globalization of finance and the restructuring of FDI. The lowering of barriers to FDI in land, the development of vastly improved sources on residential projects (e.g., Web sites, brochures), and international lending and mortgage programs have all transformed the local real estate markets. Parts of the Accra real estate market now operate within an international real estate industry that facilitates the purchase of properties by wealthy individuals , many of whom make their living outside of Ghana. According to Mueller and Ziering (1992) real estate represents between 20 and 60 percent of the world’s wealth, and its share of wealth is rapidly spiking in globalizing cities where property is integrated into the international market, often for the first time in the country’s history. Property prices in Accra’s gated communities are reasonably priced by international standards (but not by local). The influx of foreign funds into Accra residential developments has resulted in a marriage of local development processes and FDI. Portions of the Accra’s residential real estate participated in the global real estate boom of the last decade. How and why parts of the Accra residential environment became globalized can be understood only by a transnationalism lens. Transnationalism researchers (Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004; King 2004) have shown that in recent migrations streams many migrants have been able to settle in a new country, and at the same time maintain close contacts with their place of origin. Transmigrants draw on commodities and objects from different habitats of meaning to create global culture 44 | glOba lizing cit y “here” and “there” (Hannerz 1996; Pellow 2003). Their lifestyles and housing tastes are greatly affected (Okonkwo 1999); for instance, popular housing styles and residential models in migrant receiving countries can gain a global currency. We do not have reliable figures on how many Ghanaians live abroad: estimates suggest 3 million (Anarfi et al. 2003) and that 30 percent of all highly educated Ghanaians...