This thesis focuses on the intersection of human mobility and technology diffusion in Africa. With Ghana as a case study, it looks at how the diffusion of internet access and use are influenced by international mobility. The research is based in the literature on the diffusion of innovations, international knowledge transmission, migration and development, and Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). It begins from the hypothesis that international mobility may contribute to lowering barriers to internet penetration in developing countries by facilitating flows of resources, including equipment, finance, skills and knowledge. The research is based on four different datasets: a survey of the internet cafes in the North of Ghana and in Accra; an online survey of users in northern internet cafes; a network study incorporating internet cafe owners and managers in higher-value-added areas of the IT sector, and in-depth interviews with policymakers and donor organisations involved in ICT4D interventions. The data was analysed using a combination of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and network analytic techniques including visualisation, statistical analysis and qualitative analysis. The findings show that international mobility makes an important contribution to the base of adoption capacity for new technologies in poor and remote regions. It enables entrepreneurs and IT workers to address market gaps that restrict access to material and financial resources; by providing access to international circuits of knowledge and ideas which help individuals gain a foothold in the IT sector, and by facilitating local private-sector provision of the internet through internet cafes which serve the hardest-to-reach populations. The thesis concludes by suggesting potential entry points for ICT4D and migration policy in developing countries regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of ICT4D interventions, the role of the private sector in promoting internet usership, and the role of mobility in building adoption capacity in low-income areas.

In the south-eastern Volta Region of Ghana, a form of female religious affiliation to local shrines commonly known as trokosi, has been the subject of a campaign consisting of Christian-based NGOs and various government agencies that has successfully criminalised the practice and organised ‘liberations' and rehabilitations of the initiates. Protagonists of the abolition campaign argue that trokosiwo are illegitimately initiated to specific shrines based on an offence committed by another lineage member, acting as a perpetual figure of restitution. They also argue that the practice constitutes a form of ‘female ritual slavery' by translating the term trokosi as “slave of the gods” and arguing that the socio-economic status and social relations of the trokosiwo indicate their ‘slavery'. The highly publicised abolition campaign stimulated a counter-campaign, led by a neo-traditional organisation, that argued that the female shrine initiates are Queen-Mothers (rather than slaves), role-models to their lineage (rather than figures of restitution), and are socially privileged. Central to these contestations has been the figure of the fiasidi, particularly those initiated to shrines in one locality, Klikor. Abolitionists define fiasidiwo as being a variant of trokosi, despite some key differences. Those that contest this representation justified their position by highlighting the socio-economic position of fiasidiwo in Klikor's three shrines and pointing out the critical ways it differed from the representation of the Trokosi Slave. Members of the Klikor shrines also became political actors in the debates that ensued, by developing a close alliance to the neo-traditionalist organisation and creating their own organisation to network with similar shrines. This thesis considers the debates around trokosi and fiasidi at the national level and explores in detail the meaning attached to fiasidi and her position in the Klikor shrines and community. At its core, is an ethnography of the three shrines, their ritual specialists and initiates. I explore the way in which meaning is ascribed to the fiasidi, through narratives of the past, through the symbolism of key rituals and through the structured interactions between petitioners and ritual specialists. A concluding section then considers the intersection between these meanings and the contested terrains of religion in the debates about the Trokosi Slaves.

The thesis proposes to approach the idea of human rights as a specific truth regime on ‘the human' that contests those regimes of falsity which deny the essence of humanness on grounds such as race, sex, colour, gender, national or social origin. This theoretical proposition is supported by a case study of the deployment of the idea of human rights in the Gold Coast from 1945 up to Ghana's independence from colonial rule in 1957. As such, the study analyses how the concept of human rights, affirmed in the 1945 United Nations Charter and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articulated in the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, influenced domestic politics in one British colony in Africa. At the same time, the study highlights the way in which post-World War II nationalism produced some of the most important political changes affecting this region in this era. Relying on a first-hand investigation of archival and primary sources, the thesis scrutinizes the formulation of demands for the collective right to self-determination which emanated from nationalist movements, the evolving drafts for a bill of rights in Ghana's Independence Constitution and the debates on whether or not to extend the European Convention on Human Rights to the Gold Coast. The particular and disprivileged position of women in the colony is a subject of critical commentary throughout the thesis. By examining critically the emergence of the human rights idea, the study draws attention to the complex interplay of factors as well as actors that inspired a new-fangled notion of universal rights, while highlighting the way politics, including Cold War politics, contributed to define the subject of human rights in an ambiguous, incomplete but promising way.

This study explored the interface between the forces of globalization and a given place, at a given time, the Gold Coast during the 1980s. The global economic boom of the 1980s was one in which the role of Japan was particularly important. In less than half a decade capital flows from Japan surged to make it the world's largest investor. Locations in the Pacific Basin were favoured destinations for Japanese investment, one of the most significant was the Gold Coast. Japanese capital and tourism helped transform its urban area from a national resort to an international tourist destination and resort centre, The surge of capital arriving to the Gold Coast was a function of economic conditions in Japan, as was its steep reduction after November 1989, Thus the Gold Coast became integrated into global capital flows and so dependent on decisions made in Tokyo, one of the main financial centres of the world. However this study has also sought to explore a more complex reality; namely, that this place also became the interface of complex cultural forces and perceptions. The wealth of the Japanese investors on the Gold Coast enabled them to realize their dream of developing projects in the most fashionable global styles. These styles were essentially Western, and it was onto these that their Japanese owners ascribed their own meanings; meanings that reflected the cultural baggage that they had brought from Japan, and through which were filtered the economic and environmental realities of the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast as locality also included residents. Hence it became an interface between two different groups of people, the Japanese and the strongly Anglo-Celtic local community. Some in the local community perceived the Japanese presence as a threat to their perception of the Gold Coast, in fact, a threat to their perception of Australia's national identity. A campaign based on the politics of memory of the Japanese developed on the Gold Coast. Within weeks it became a national debate in which isolationalist, if not xenophobic traditionalists, concentrated on the Gold Coast challenged the economic rationalism and multicultural tolerance of the self-interested and ideologically convinced advocates of globalization. Governments at all levels sought to arbitrate, to legitimize standpoints, but more often than not were seen to move into positions of ineffectual flexibility. The forces of globalization on the Gold Coast were catalysts for change that in turn provoked local opposition which rapidly became a debate about national identity and direction. It is in the exploration of the complex and contradictory economic, cultural and political forces engendered by globalization that this study has sought to make a distinctive contribution.

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No description available.

One of the key issues surrounding participation in basic schooling is the phenomenon of school dropout. Dropout is known not as a single event but a process that is not well understood. The rationale for this thesis argues that unless the dropout process is understood, there will be no meaningful intervention to curb it. This study therefore explores the dropout experience of basic school children in Ghana. In the context of this exploratory study, informed by the concerns of achieving education for all children by the year 2015, I sought to gain insight into the processes that lead children to drop out of school, how dropout occurs, the manifestation of dropout and the policy implications of dropout for free compulsory universal basic education in Ghana. The research inquiry is guided by two main research questions: what are the experiences of dropout children? And how is school dropout manifested? Specifically, the research questions sought to explore children‘s understanding and interpretation of dropout, how dropout occurred; what conditions within and outside school do children regard as responsible for their dropping out, and what the implications of the findings are for universalising universal basic education in Ghana. In exploring the experience of dropout children, I tracked 18 children who had initial access to basic education but stopped schooling at some point for their stories. I used multiple methods of data collection, viz. in-depth interviews, observations, photographs and school records. From the data gathered, the following are the main findings of the study: Concerning the dropout process, children experience dropout first as temporary—sporadic, event and cohort based on their economic survival needs and later permanently—unsettled and settled as a result of becoming significantly overage and the diminished value of schooling. Conditions both within school – teacher factor, school practices and processes, and outside – poverty, opportunity cost of schooling, networks among children to encourage dropout by pushing and/or pulling children out of school. As a process, pupils go through three phases – disadvantage, disaffection and disappearance to become school dropouts. It is argued that, to prevent pupils from dropping out of school and to encourage children who already dropped out to return to school. Education policy would have to focus more on addressing the peculiar needs of children who show sights of entering the dropout process. Also, it is necessary to differentiate out of school children – dropouts from out of school children –never enrolled when designing and implementing interventions for universalising basic education.

Currently there is a resurgence of the role of traditional chiefs in the development of sub-Saharan African countries. It has been proposed that African countries need to adopt more effective and pragmatic approaches, which are rooted in local societies and cultures and can therefore provide developmental outcomes. This thesis examines whether traditional chieftaincy in Ghana, which is a highly respected institution compared to other African countries can be effective and legitimate providers of public goods. This is done by analysing the way chiefs' exercise authority over community land and the revenue it produces. The study analysed land management practices under chiefs' authority and the dynamics of the politics of negotiating compensation for land and public goods. The main finding of the thesis is that investment in public goods might be facilitated by the development of multi-institutional arrangement that ensures collaboration among state and non-state institutions at the local level as a form of co-production for development. The implications of this arrangement on the political authority of chiefs at the local level are examined. The thesis questions the notion that it is custom and tradition that makes leadership provided by chiefs effective, and argues that what matters for development is how legitimate traditional authority is exercised in practice. The main conclusions of the thesis are that: firstly, although chiefs' are important traditional authorities in Ghana, they do not exercise political authority that is effective, as expected, for the development of local communities. There should therefore be caution in elevating traditional authority as the most effective legitimate form of locally rooted authority in Africa, given that Ghana is a country where chiefly authority is still extremely strong and respected. Attention should rather be focussed on the use of local cultural repertoires and multi-institutional collaborations, which have local problem-solving characteristics for development. Secondly, the thesis also provides evidence that shows how activities of mining companies potentially contribute to development of local communities. As a result there is the need to take a more nuanced view of how mining companies operate in Africa.

This thesis investigated the effects of photographic and text information on respondents' attitudes and willingness-to-pay for a proposed beach protection scheme in the erosion prone Gold Coast region on the east coast of Australia. The research developed two alternative expectancy-value attitude-behaviour models to test residents' attitudes toward relevant targets and behavioural intention, expressed through stated willingness-to-pay, and compared the proposed models with one established attitude-behaviour model. The thesis set out to investigate three central research questions; one question relating to the effects of information on attitudes and willingness-to-pay, and two questions relating to the relationships between attitudes and willingness-to-pay. It was hypothesised that photographs that depicted severe erosion damage would result in more positive attitudes toward, and greater willingness-to-pay for, beach protection than photographs that showed only mild levels of erosion damage. Positive relationships were hypothesised between variables representing attitudes toward beach erosion, attitude toward beach protection, attitude toward paying for beach protection, and willingness-to-pay. Finally, it was hypothesised that the relationships between attitudes and willingness-to-pay could be adequately explained by the proposed attitude-behaviour models. The thesis describes how seven information treatments and eight attitude measurement scales were developed and tested in a pilot experiment before use in a survey of homeowners in the region of interest. Analysis of variance showed that, while respondent's attitude toward beach protection was affected by the information treatments, their willingness-to-pay for the proposed program was insensitive to information. There were no significant effects that could be attributed exclusively to text descriptions of the good but there were significant effects that could be attributed to photographic information treatments. However, none of the effects on attitudes resulted in significant effects on the behavioural intention expressed in stated willingness-to-pay. Analysis of respondents with low previous knowledge of the proposed good revealed more extensive information effects on attitudes, but still not on willingness-to-pay, and this suggests that high levels of previous knowledge in a large proportion of the sample had a moderating effect on attitude change caused by the information treatments. Regression analysis showed that seven of the eight attitude and behaviour variables in the proposed attitude-behaviour model were significant predictors of willingness-to-pay. In the final phase of the analysis, goodness-of-fit indices, estimated using Structural Equation Modelling, indicated a good fit between the data and the attitude-behaviour models tested. Standardised coefficients on the model indicated that perceived behavioural control, expected utility of outcomes, and subjective norms all had strong direct relationships with stated willingness-to-pay, and strong indirect relationships on willingness-to-pay via attitudes toward payment. These results are consistent with the relationships proposed in attitude-behaviour models and the moderating effects of these variables explain why significant information treatment effects were observed on attitude to beach protection but not on willingness-to-pay. This research showed that respondent's willingness-to-pay in a contingent valuation experiment is quite insensitive to photographic treatments when previous knowledge is high and that costly and time consuming testing procedures, recommended by authorities, may not be necessary under these conditions. It also demonstrated that measures of attitude, consistent with an attitude-behaviour model, can be collected easily in a contingent valuation study and can contribute to understanding of participant responses and to identification of protest responses.

Hydraulic lock structures have been used for hundreds of years to control and maintain water levels in waterways. The most common are gated water regulation structures used to catch and divert water, and form an essential and critical part of many flood control and agricultural schemes. Although there are clear economic advantages to building the structures, they can contribute to major water quality problems for the waterways they influence (i.e. increased residence times and a change in mixing ability). Further, in most cases, the methods previously used to assess how the structures and their operations influence the flow regimes between the two connected systems were limited, thus hydraulic designers rely on simple formulations, existing literature and experience. Consequently, the objectives of this thesis were to undertake a detailed field study and develop a methodology and computer simulation tool to calculate the flow through a hydraulic structure connecting two water bodies so that future designs can be undertaken based upon sound knowledge. To demonstrate the outcomes of this thesis, the methodology and model were applied to an existing hydraulic structure (referred to as Structure C). Structure C is used to connect and exchange water between the tidally dominated section of the Nerang River estuary and an artificial lake system (Burleigh Lakes) on the Gold Coast, Australia. The gates of this structure open four times each day (once during each semi-diurnal tidal phase) and remain open for a period of 2 hours, allowing alternative and partial exchange between the two water bodies. To gain a better understanding of the dynamics of each waterbody under the influence of the structure, a series of detailed field experiments were initially undertaken to understand and quantify the exchange of water and its mixing ability. Tide gauges deployed within the lake indicated a water level change during each opening of up to 22 cm, equating to 413,600 m3 of water entering the lake over the 2 hour discharge period. Salinity profiles showed that the structure permitted the exchange of saline and freshwater between the two systems, during each tidal cycle, in turn maintaining the lake system as a saline (brackish environment). However, the field study also revealed that the controlled exchange of water between the systems perpetuated a permanently stratified environment on both sides of the structure. To simulate the flow dynamics influenced by Structure C, new routines were incorporated into an existing hydrodynamic model (BFHYDRO) within the model's grid and computational code, as part of this thesis. To achieve this, the flow in and out of the hydraulic structure cell (used to represent the hydraulic structure's location within the model grid) was calculated entirely from the local water level gradients on either side of the structure at each time-step, and not prescribed. This was found to be essential for complex tidally-dominated systems, such as the Nerang River. Routines were also developed to replicate the opening and closing times of the gates. Following the development of the methodology, the hydraulic structure cells were tested and applied to simulate the flow through Structure C and the complex exchange between the estuary and lake, in 2 and 3-dimensions. Tests indicated that the opening and closing times of the gates and the calibration of the discharge coefficient (which forms part of the broad-crested weir formula) were the most sensitive parameters to ensure the correct volume of water exchange between the two systems. Statistically, the model-predicted results compared very well with available surface elevation data within the estuary and lake, and thus, quantified the ability of the hydraulic structure cells to simulate the flux between the estuary and lake for each opening. Following the model validation process, results from the existing configuration were compared with hypothetical design alternatives and are documented herein. Further, part of the thesis also explored a practical and effective computer based learning strategy to introduce and teach hydrodynamic and water quality modelling, to the next generation of undergraduate engineering students. To enhance technology transfer a computer based instructional (CBI) aid was specifically developed to assist with the setup, execution and the analysis of models' output, in small easy steps. The CBI aid comprised of a HTML module with links to recorded Lotus Screen cam movie clips. The strategy proved to be a useful and effective approach in assisting the students to complete the project with minimum supervision, and acquire a basic understanding of water quality modelling. Finally, it is anticipated that this new modelling capability and the findings detailed herein will provide managers with a valuable tool to assess the influence of these structures on water circulation for present and future operations within the region. This model can also be set up at other sites to pre-assess various design configurations by predicting changes in current flows, mixing and flushing dynamics that a particular design might achieve, and assist with the selection process before the final selection and construction.