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Austin Dziwornu Ablo

Austin Dziwornu Ablo
Senior Lecturer
aablo@ug.edu.gh
+233557006245

Education

  • 2016: PhD (Development Geography), University of Bergen, Norway.
  • 2012: Mphil (Development Geography), University of Bergen, Norway.
  • 2009: BA (Geography & Resource Development) University of Ghana, Legon.

Areas of specialisation

  • Urban studies
  • Natural resource governance
  • Energy
  • Agriculture and rural development 
  • Entrepreneurship and employment 

Courses taught 

  • Geog 622: Sustainable Agriculture Systems in the World
  • Geog 617: Agricultural Land Use Theories and Policies
  • Geog 468: Agriculture Land Use Systems in the Developing World
  • Geog 469: Agricultural Land Use Theories and Policies
  • Geog 332: Introduction to Resource Analysis
  • Geog 325: Theories and Practice of Geography

Current Research:

 

  • 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.
  • Co-PI: 2021-2023: TranSforming InsTitutions to Advance women leadeRS in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (SISTARS) funded by IDRC.
  • PI: 2018-2022: Patterns of global futures in three African cities funded by the Research Council of Norway.
  • Co-PI: 2018-2022: 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: 2020-2021: The New African Urban University: Building partnerships to realise the promise and potential of sustainable urban transformations funded by World Universities Network (WUN).

Previous Research Project

  • PI: 2019-2021: Urban water futures: Bridging supply-demand gaps in Accra and Johannesburg through reuse funded by the International Science Council.
  • 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 with funding from 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. E. T. Lawer & A. D. Ablo (2022). 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

  2. A. D. Ablo & Anita Etale (2022). Beyond technical: delineating factors influencing recycled water acceptability, Urban Water Journal http://10.1080/1573062X.2022.2155847

  3. 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.

  4. A. D. Ablo (2022). Private urbanism and the spatial rationalities of urban governance. Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221110692

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

  1. Ablo, A. D. (2020). The Routledge handbook on informal urbanisation, Eurasian Geography and Economics,  https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1768136
  2. 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.
  3. Ablo, A. D. (2018). Handbook on the geographies of power. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 59(5-6), 762-764.