Business as Usual? Urban Actors and Transnational Investments in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Many businesses around Accra have foreign links. For some their link is immediately clear, visible in their exotic, foreign names, or in the products they sell, such as Italian floor tiles or foreign fashion items, or secondhand cars displaying bumper stickers that indicate the country they came from. Yet other businesses provide services to customers seeking connections to the outside world, such as communication centres. Beyond these kinds of businesses are many others that also have strong transnational connections, albeit more subliminally, as in the case of locally oriented businesses such as bars or restaurants, which were set up with the help of a loan from a migrant.

This chapter draws on earlier work (Smith, 2007; Smith and Mazzucato, 2004). In its final form, it benefited a great deal from comments provided by fellow contributors to this book at the occasion of the ZiF Workshop held in Bielefeld (19–20 February 2009). Particular thanks go to Boris Nieswand and Gudrun Lachenmann, for the issues and comments they raised in the capacity of referents. Further thanks go to Valentina Mazzucato for her critical comments. Notwithstanding this input, the contents of the chapter remain my sole responsibility.