| Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism Contributor(s): Quayson, Ato (Author) |
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ISBN: 082235733X ISBN-13: 9780822357339 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $102.55 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: September 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Africa - West - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Sociology - Urban |
| Dewey: 966.7 |
| LCCN: 2014000767 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.3" W x 10.1" (1.20 lbs) 312 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - West Africa - Demographic Orientation - Urban - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana's capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra's most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city's evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra's salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards. Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city--and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s--prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today. |