Franklin Obeng-Odoom

In the last two hundred years, the earth has increasingly become the private property of a few classes, races, transnational corporations, and nations. Repeated claims about the "tragedy of the commons" and the "crisis of capitalism" have done little to explain this concentration of land, encourage solution-building to solve resource depletion, or address our current socio-ecological crisis. The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty presents a new explanation, vision, and action plan based on the idea of commoning the land. The book argues that by commoning the land, rather than privatising it, we can develop the foundation for prosperity without destructive growth and address both local and global challenges. Making the land the most fundamental priority of all commons does not only give hope, it also opens the doors to a new world in which economy, environment, and society are decolonised and liberated.

Decolonizing Nature, Economy, and Society

The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty

The world development institutions commonly present 'urban governance' as an antidote to the so-called 'urbanisation of poverty' and 'parasitic urbanism' in Africa. Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the meaning, nature, and effects of 'urban governance' in theory and in practice, with a focus on Ghana, a country widely regarded as an island of good governance in the sub region. The book illustrates how diverse groups experience urban governance differently and contextualizes how this experience has worsened social differentiation in cities. This book will be of great interest to students, teachers, and researchers in development studies, and highly relevant to anyone with an interest in urban studies, geography, political economy, sociology, and African studies.

Lessons from Ghana

Governance for Pro-poor Urban Development

Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development

Neoclassical economics, the intellectual bedrock of modern capitalism, faces growing criticisms, as many of its key assumptions and policy prescriptions are systematically challenged. Yet, there remains one field of economics where these limitations continue virtually unchallenged: the study of cities and regions in built-environment economics. In this book, Franklin Obeng-Odoom draws on institutional, Georgist and Marxist economics to clearly but comprehensively show what the key issues are today in thinking about urban economics. In doing so, he demonstrates the widespread tensions and contradictions in the status quo, showing how to reconstruct urban economics in order to create a more just society and environment.

Towards a Political Economy of the Built Environment

Reconstructing Urban Economics

Global Migration beyond Limits provides a citique of mainstream economic accounts of migration, environment, and inequality. Obeng-Odoom argues that migration is an expression of an unequal political-economic system rather than principally driven by regional and environmental factors.

Ecology, Economics, and Political Economy

Global Migration Beyond Limits

Raymond Talinbe Abdulai

Edward Ochieng

Vida Maliene

Real Estate, Construction and Economic Development in Emerging Market Economies examines the relationships between real estate and construction sectors and explores how each sector, and the relationships between them, affect economic development in emerging market economies (EMEs). Throughout the book, the international team of contributors discuss topics as diverse as real estate finance and investment, housing, property development, construction project management, valuation, sustainability and corporate real estate. In doing so the book demonstrates how the relationship between construction and real estate impacts on economic development in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, China, Ghana, Nigeria, Turkey, Lithuania, Hungary and Slovenia. Topics include: the role of real estate brokerage in improving the living standards of citizens; the effect of a mineral boom on construction cycles, real estate values and the socio-economic conditions of people in boom towns and cities; corporate real estate management practices and how they affect economic growth; and the synergies between construction and real estate and how they, in turn, affect economic development. This book will be of interest to those studying and researching real estate, construction, development studies, urban economics and emerging market economies.

Real Estate, Construction and Economic Development in Emerging Market Economies

In this book, Franklin Obeng-Odoom seeks to debunk the existing explanations of inequalities within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world using insights from the emerging field of stratification economics. Using multiple sources - including archival and historical material and a wide range of survey data - he develops a distinctive approach that combines traditional institutional economics, such as social protection and reasonable value, property and the distribution of wealth with other insights into Africa's development. While looking at the Africa-wide situation, Obeng-Odoom also analyses the experiences of inequalities within specific countries; he primarily focuses on Ghana while also drawing on experiences in Botswana and Mauritius. Comprehensive and engaging, Property, Institutions, and Social Stratification in Africa is a useful resource for teaching and research on Africa and the Global South.

Franklin Obeng-Odoom

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