The gendered right to the city: Mediated access, urban agriculture and women’s empowerment in Kumasi

Source abstract

Urban space is a vital resource for city dwellers. While literature examines the use of formal public spaces by urban residents for commerce and social activities, scholarly attention to informal agricultural spaces remains limited. This study uses a synthesis of Kabeer’s empowerment framework and Lefebvre’s right to the city to analyse women’s access to and use of urban space for agriculture in Ghana as a transformative space where gender, body and empowerment intersect. Our findings reveal that male networks serve as gatekeepers through whom women access urban space for urban agriculture. While women’s access to this social capital is empowering, it indicates that women’s right to the city and to spatial justice is mediated, achieved through relational networks and experienced as a relational right. Our findings further reveal that women appropriate these urban spaces in ways that enhance their general well-being, bodily sovereignty and promote intergenerational rights to the city for their children. By demonstrating how women’s spatial access enables agency, bodily sovereignty and the pursuit of intergenerational rights, we argue for a more nuanced understanding of empowerment and rights within informal urban contexts in the Global South.