About

I am an Associate Professor of Geography.  I draw upon relational perspectives, political ecology, political economy, and organisational and institutional approaches to explore human-environment interactions at multiple scales. My research centres on urban governance, rural-urban linkages, natural resource governance, energy, and agriculture. I teach the following courses.

Undergraduate courses

• Geod 101: Introduction to Human Geography
• Geog 469: Agricultural Land Use Theories and Policies
• Geog 468: Agriculture Land Use Systems in the Developing World
• Geog 332: Introduction to Resource Analysis

• Geog 451: Regional Development

  Graduate courses

• Geod 622: Sustainable Agriculture Systems in the World
• Geod 617: Agricultural Land Use Theories and Policies
• FSSP 701: Philosophy of Social Science
• CUMS 703: Urban Economic and Spatial Structure

Outside of research, I enjoy drumming, swimming, and exploring nature. 

Education

2022: SPIRE Visiting Scholar, University of Bergen, Norway.

2022: BECHS-Africa Fellow, Washington University of St. Louis, USA

2017: BANGA-Africa Postdoctoral Fellow, University of South Florida, USA

2016: PhD, Development Geography, University of Bergen, Norway.

2012: Mphil, Development Geography, University of Bergen, Norway.

2009: BA, Geography and Resource Development with Psychology, University of Ghana, Ghana.

Research Interest

I draw upon relational perspectives, political ecology, political economy, and organisational and institutional approaches to explore human-environment interactions at multiple scales. My research focuses on urban governance, natural resource governance, energy, rural-urban linkages, and agriculture. My recent research projects include the Norwegian Research Council-funded project on private urbanism in Accra, Johannesburg, and Maputo. Deploying the concept of enclaves, the project examines the co-production of new forms of urban housing and the management of social inequality. The project traces the emerging cultural orientation and political predisposition that structure contemporary urban practices across the globe. I also completed the International Science Council-funded LIRA-Africa project that explored wastewater reuse acceptability in Accra and Johannesburg. Here, we sought to answer whether and how water reuse can address existing demand-supply gaps for water. By delineating criteria for acceptance of reclaimed water from a risk paradigm, the project explores the influence of risk perceptions on the acceptance of various uses, including potable, as the first step to sustainable, demand-driven reclaimed water introduction in these two cities. Currently, I am leading the Ghana team working on a British Academy-funded project investigating how different energy infrastructures affect everyday livelihoods and prospects for land tenure, use, and accessibility in Ghana. 

Ongoing research:

• PI: 2024-2026: Energising Landscapes: lands, livelihoods, and energy infrastructures in Ghana, funded by the British Academy. 
• PI: 2024: The challenges and opportunities of housing, water, and waste in informal settlements in Accra, Ghana, funded by Cornell University. 
• PI: 2024: Building Urban Resilience: Volarizing the informal solid waste sector in low-income communities of Accra funded by the Open Society University Network and Talloires Network.
• Co-PI: 2022-2024: Transforming Institutions to Advance Women Leaders in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (SISTARS): Lessons from Ghana and Kenya funded by IDRC.

Past research

• Co-PI: 2022-2023: Building resilience via climate-smart agriculture adaptation in Ghana in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic (BRECSA) funded by BANGA-Africa. 
• Co-PI: 2021-2022: Socio-scientific issues of global relevance for today’s youth – Intercontinental learning with and from each other funded by Leading House Africa.
• PI: 2020-2022: The New African Urban University: Building partnerships to realise the promise and potential of sustainable urban transformations funded by the World Universities Network (WUN). 
• PI: 2019-2021. Meeting water demand in African Metropolis: Social and Technical aspects of recycled water integration in Johannesburg and Accra funded by the International Science Council.
• PI: 2018-2022: Enclavong: Patterns of global futures in three African cities funded by the Research Council of Norway.
• Co-PI 2019-2020: Socio-economic impacts of natural resource extraction in Ghana: The case of illegal mining and charcoal burning in Eastern Region and Northern Region Respectively funded by USAID SEVIR.
• Co-PI: 2018-2021: Small Fish and Food Security (SmallFishFood): Towards better utilisation of fish resources for nutrition and food security in Africa funded by the EU Leap-Agri.
• PI: 2017-2018: The employment effects of Ghana’s local content and local participation law for the oil and gas sector. This is a University of Ghana project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York under the BANGA-Africa initiative. 
• Co-PI: 2017-2018: The implications of sprawl-induced land use change on land tenure and land security in rural communities, funded by the African Development Bank Japan Trust Fund.

Publications

Journals

1. Siakwah, P., Ablo, A. D., Sheburah-Essien, R., Zaami, M., & Yaro, J. A. (2025). Adapting to climate change amidst innovation diffusion and declining indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices in Ghana. African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2025.2459355
2. Teye Ayumu, E., Ablo, A. D., & Bertelsen, B. E. (2024). Meeting Ghana’s housing needs:‘(un) affordable’ public housing in a rapidly urbanising context. International Journal of Housing Policy, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2024.2438266
3. Yekple, E. E. Y., Overå, R., & Ablo, A. D. (2024). Dynamics of land access in Ghana’s real estate sector. African Geographical Review, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2024.2432568
4. Frimpong, L. K., Mensah, S. L., & Ablo, A. D. (2024). Households’ access and expenditure on water services: Examining intra-urban differences in the Accra metropolis, Ghana. Urban Governance.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2024.07.002
5. Ofoli, A. L., Ablo, A. D., & Wrigley-Asante, C. (2024). Urban sprawl and the changing socioecological systems in peri-urban Ghana. Local Environment, 1-19.https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2024.2378068
6. Yaro, J. A., Sheburah Essien, R., Ablo, A. D., Siakwah, P., & Zaami, M. (2024). Female farmers’ struggles and responses to COVID-19 in Ghana. African Geographical Review, 1-14.https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2024.2370865
7. A. D. Ablo (2023). Private cities, land, and the transformation of Africa’s urban fringe, Urban Geography, http://DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2023.2271748
8. G.A.B. Yiran, A. D. Ablo, F. E. Asem (2023). Is mango farming sustainable? An integrated analysis of remote sensing techniques and smallholder farmers’ perception in mango farming communities in Ghana, Ghana Social Science Journal, 20(1), https://journals.ug.edu.gh/index.php/gssj/article/view/2279
9. E. T. Lawer & A. D. Ablo (2023). Accumulation by dispossession: The timber ‘salvage’ project on Ghana's Volta Lake, The Extractive Industries and Society, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2022.101205
10. A.D. Ablo (2023). Private urbanism and the spatial rationalities of urban governance, Urban Studies, 60, 3 https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221110
11. A. D. Ablo & Anita Etale (2022). Beyond technical: delineating factors influencing recycled water acceptability, Urban Water Journal http://10.1080/1573062X.2022.2155847
12. A. D. Ablo, L. Osei, F. X. Jarawura & J. A. Yaro (2022). Sacrificing the savannah woodlands for energy and livelihoods? Charcoal production in Ghana. Energy for Sustainable Development, 70, 549-559,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2022.09.001.
13. S.K. Kutor, E. Annan-Aggrey, A. D. Ablo, A. A. Poku, & E. Kyeremeh, (2022). Harnessing the tenets of health promotion and wise reasoning in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and similar contexts. African Geographical Review, http://10.1080/19376812.2022.2092160
14. A. D. Ablo and B.E. Bertelsen (2022). A SHADOWY ‘CITY OF LIGHT’: Private Urbanism, Large-Scale Land Acquisition and Dispossession in Ghana. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13085
15. E. Andriesse, K. Saguin, A. Ablo, J. Kittitornkool, C. Kongkaew, J.Mang'ena, P. Onyango, V. Owusu, J. Yang (2022). Aligning bottom-up initiatives and top-down policies? A comparative analysis of overfishing and coastal governance in Ghana, Tanzania, the Philippines, and Thailand. Journal of Rural Studies, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.03.032
16. Owusu, B., Kutor, S. K. & Ablo, A. D. (2022). COVID-19 pandemic: Ghana and the geographies of blame. Geojournal. 10.1007/s10708-022-10586-8
17. Prins F. X, Etale A., Ablo A. D. & Thatcher A. (2022). Water scarcity and alternative water sources in South Africa: can information provision shift perceptions? Urban Water Journal, DOI: 10.1080/1573062X.2022.2026984
18. Ablo, A. D. (2022). Carceral labour: Offshore work relations, conflicts and local participation in Ghana's oil and gas industry,
    Political Geography, 93, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102556
19. Otechere-Darko, W. and Ablo A. D. (2021). Labour power, materiality and protests in Ghana’s petroleum and gold mines. International Development Planning Review, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2021.24
20. Ablo, A. D. and R Boadu (2020). Assessing foreign direct investment (FDI) in agriculture and employment in rural Ghana. Ghana Social Science Journal 17 (2), 16-40.
21. Denchie, E. O., Ablo, A. D., & Overå, R. (2020). Land governance and access dynamics in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. African Geographical Review, 1-14.http://doi:10.1080/19376812.2020.1831560
22. Yiran, G. B. A., Ablo, A. D., Asem, F. E. (2020). Urbanisation and Domestic energy trends: Analysis of household energy consumption patterns in relation land-use change in Peri-urban Accra, Ghana. Land Use Policy.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105047
23. Yiran, G.B. A, Ablo, A. D., Asem, F. E (2020). Urban Sprawl in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of the literature in selected countries. Ghana Journal of Geography 12(1), 1-28. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjg/article/view/198012
24. Ablo, A. D. (2020). Enterprise development? Local content, corporate social responsibility and disjunctive linkages in Ghana’s oil and gas industry. Extractive Industries and Society. 7(2), 321-327. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214790X18302703?via%3Dihub
25. Yang, J, Owusu, V. Andriesse, E. and Ablo, A. D. (2019). In-Situ Adaptation and Coastal Vulnerabilities in Ghana and Tanzania. Journal of Environment & Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496519852992
26. Ablo, A. D. (2019). Actors, networks and assemblages: local content, corruption and the politics of SME's participation in Ghana's oil and gas industry. International Development Planning Review. http://DOI:10.3828/idpr.2018.33
27. Ablo, A. D. (2018). Scale, local content and the challenges of Ghanaians' employment in the oil and gas industry. Geoforum, 96:181–189.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.08.014
28. Ablo, A. D. and Asamoah, V. K. (2018). Local participation, institutions and land acquisition for energy infrastructure: The case of the Atuabo gas project in Ghana. Energy Research & Social Science, 41: 191-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.03.022
29. Ablo, A. D. & Yekple, E. E. (2018). Urban water stress and poor sanitation in Ghana: perception and experiences of residents in the Ashaiman Municipality. GeoJournal, 83, 583-594. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-017-9787-6
30. Ablo, A. D. (2017). The micro-mechanisms of power in local content requirements and their constraints on Ghanaian SMEs in the oil and gas sector. Norwegian Journal of Geography. 71:2, 67-78.https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2017.1299213
31. Badwi, R., Ablo A. D.  and Overå, R. (2017). The importance and limitations of social networks for labour market integration of Ghanaian immigrants in Bergen, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geography. 72:1, 27-36.https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2017.1406402
32. Ablo, A. D. (2015). Local content and participation in Ghana’s oil and gas industry: Can enterprise development make a difference? Extractive Industries and Society, 2: 320–327.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2015.02.003
33. Ablo, A. D. and Overå, R. (2015). Networks, trust and capital mobilization: challenges of embedded local entrepreneurial activities in Ghana's oil and gas industry. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 53(3): 391 – 413.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X15000385

Book Chapters

34. Ablo, A. D. & Otchere-Darko, W. (2022). Petroleum Extraction in Africa: A Review of the Local Content Policies for the Oil Industry in Selected Countries. In Onyango, G. (Ed) Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa. London: Routledge.
35. Ablo, A. D. & Otchere-Darko, W (2022). Local Content and Local Participation in the Oil and Gas Industry: Has Ghana Gotten It Right? In Acheampong T and Stephens T. K. (Eds) Petroleum Resource Management in Africa: Lessons from Ghana: Examining the changes, challenges and opportunities from 10 years oil and gas production in Ghana. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

36. Ablo, A. D., Asem, F. E., Yiran, G. A. B. and Owusu, G. (2020). Urban sprawl, land use change and the changing rural agrarian livelihood in peri-urban Accra, Ghana. In Kapfudzaruwa, F., Kudo, S., Matsuyama, K., and Allasiw, D. I. (Eds.). Rural-Urban Linkages and Sustainable Development: Case Studies from Africa (Vol. 6). Spears Media Press.

     

Book Reviews

37. Ablo, A. D. (2020). The Routledge handbook on informal urbanisation, Eurasian Geography and Economics,  https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1768136
38. Ablo, A. D. (2018). Africa’s natural resources and underdevelopment. How Ghana’s Petroleum can create sustainable economic prosperity. By Kwamina Panford. Palgrave Macmillan. 2017. 249 pages. ISBN 978-1-137-54071-3. Available as eBook ISBN 978-1-137-54072-0. DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-54072-0. Geography Research Forum, 170-171.
39. Ablo, A. D. (2018). Handbook on the geographies of power. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 59(5-6), 762-764.

Technical Report

40. Oteng-Ababio, M., Ablo, A. D. & Wang, Brad (2020). The cost benefit analysis of the urbanisation challenges in Ghana: Ghana Priorities, Copenhagen Consensus Center. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0.
41. Yaro J. A., Ablo, A. D. & Osei, L. (2020). The dynamics and socio-ecological effects of charcoal livelihoods in the Savannah woodlands of Ghana. SERVIR-USAID Report.

42. Yaro, J. A. Osei, L. & Ablo, A.D. (2020). Socio-economic and environmental impact of natural resource extraction in Ghana – the case of artisanal and small-scale mining. SERVIR-USAID Report.

    CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

43. Cape Town, South Africa, 9th – 11th October 2024: CARP Workshop: Leveraging and scaling up in-situ solid waste management strategies to reduce flood risk in low-income communities of Accra.
44. Accra, Ghana, 23rd October 2024: Energising lanscapes: Livelihood impacts of energy infrastructures in Africa. 
45. Dakar, Senegal, 3rd – 4th September 2024: Urban Enclaving Workshop: On the trails of an enclave urban development: Mapping the fissures and reflecting on a private city projects in Africa.
46. London, UK, 29th – 31st July 2024: Making Africa Urban Conference: From gated communities to privatized cities: Land, capital and the changing face of urban development in Africa.
47. Accra, Ghana, 15th July 2024: Housing, water, and waste in informal settlements in Accra.
48. Accra, Ghana, 28th March 2024: Building urban resilience: Volarizing informal solid waste sector in low-income communities of Accra.
49. Shanghai, China, 13th – 14th September 2023: Urban Trajectories: Comparing Integration, Enclaving and Development in Africa and China: Private cities, land, and the transformation of Africa’s urban fringe.
50. Freiburg, Germany, 4th May 2023: University of Freiburg Erasmus Plus Mobility Lecturer. Accumulation by dispossession: The livelihood effects of large-scale land deals in Africa’s urban fringe.
51. Philadelphia, USA, 17th – 19th November 2022: African Studies Association Conference: Accumulation by dispossession: The scourge of large-scale land deals on Africa’s urban fringe. 
52. Johannesburg, South Africa, 25th April to 1st May 2022: Enclaving Workshop: Private urbanism and the spatial rationalities of urban governance. 
53. Virtual Conference, 16th March 2022: Royal Geographical Society Conference ‘Early Career perspectives in Carceral Geography’, Carceral Labour? Offshore work relations, conflicts and local participation in Ghana’s oil and gas industry.
54. Virtual Conference, 3rd to 4th November 2021: School of Social Sciences International 
55. Conference. ‘Addressing Africa’s Challenges In The 21st Century’The role of small fish in food and nutritional security in Ghana: An analysis of the discords between policy and reality.
56. Virtual Conference, 13th to 17th September 2021: ITD21 ‘International Transdisciplinary Conference’ Research and pandemic-related restrictions: Reflections on transdisciplinary research practice.
57. Virtual Conference, 28th June to 2nd July 2021: MARE Conference ‘Limits to blue growth’. Prioritizing small fish for food and nutritional security in Ghana: A policy and institutional analysis.
58. Virtual Conference, 3rd September 2020: ‘Southern Africa cities Conference’. Urban Enclaving in Ghana.
59. Accra, Ghana, 15th-20th February 2020: ‘Enclaving Workshop’. Governing the private city: Dynamics of urban governance and inclusiveness in the city of light.
60. Santa Barbara, USA, 9-10th May 2019: ‘Mellon Sawyer Seminar Energy Justice in Global Perspective.’ Energy (in)justice: The livelihood impacts of land acquisition for energy infrastructures in the Western Region of Ghana.
61. London, UK, 10th November, 2019: ‘At the frontiers of the urban: thinking concepts and practices globally.’ Urban Enclaving: Conceptualising private urban development in Africa.
62. London, UK, 14th November, 2019: ‘Making Africa urban.’ A city of light or darkness? Reflections on private city development in Accra
63. Accra, Ghana, 19-22nd November, 2019: LIRA workshop on transdisciplinary approach in urban research. 
64. Maputo, Mozambique, 9-14th January, 2019: Enclaving Patterns of global futures in three African cities.
65. Cape Town, South Africa, 4-5th June, 2018: ‘Africa Metropolitan Futures’: A city of light or darkness? The large-scale land acquisition, real estate development and changing livelihood in peri-urban Accra, Ghana.
66. Bergen, Norway, 8-9th March 2018: ‘Small fish for food and nutrition security’. Characteristics of Ghana’s emerging aquaculture industry and food security implications. 
67. Rabat, Morocco, 5-6th September 2016: ‘Local content in the Extractive Sector: Insights for New Producing Countries’. From local content to local participation: Findings from Ghana’s oil and gas sector. 
68. Bergen, Norway, 26th -27th November 2015: ‘Power in Political Ecology’. 
69. London, UK, 15th October 2015: ‘The “resource curse” or economic transformation Local content policies and realising the potential of hydrocarbon reserves.
70. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10th- 13th September 2015: Institutions, Development and Globalisation: Institutional capacity and the constraints to local participation in Ghana’s emergent oil and gas sector.
71. Antwerp, Belgium, 24th- 26th June 2015: Development 2.0 or ‘business as usual’? Private sector, institutions and development: Enhancing the capacity of local SMEs: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and local participation in Ghana’s emergent oil and gas industry.
72. Bergen, Norway, 3rd June 2015: Oil wealth and Africa’s petro-states: Local content and participation: Can enterprise development make a difference?
73. Tampa, Florida, USA, 8th-12th April 2014: Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual conference: Sustainable enterprise development for Ghana's oil and gas industry: To what extent is Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR), promoting local participation in the oil and gas industry?
74. Bergen, Norway, 7th-8th November 2013: Ghana Workshop: Living in an extractive state: exploring impacts of oil and gas industries in Ghana: Challenges of achieving local participation in Ghana's oil industry: Actors’ interplay
75. Accra, Ghana, 20th-23rd October 2008: United Nations University Global Seminar on strategies for sustainable development and the pressures of globalization: Social, Economic and Policy Challenges in Africa.