Title:
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Gender and embodied mobility : learning in Tarsaw, northern Ghana
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In many rural areas of Africa, people rely on intermediate means of transport (IMTs) or
walking and head-loading to transport themselves and their produce, due to the limited
availability of motorised forms of transport. IMTs have been increasingly seen as a way
of improving rural accessibility, mobility and subsequently food security (Doran, 1990,
1996; Riverson and Carapetis, 1991; Starkey, 2000,2001) and a counter to earlier
transport projects that overwhelmingly focused on infrastructure. Donors have invested
significantly in IMT promotion since this time. There is particular interest in promoting
IMT use among women because of their disproportionately heavy transport burden, low
income and often restricted access to motorised transport (Bryceson and Howe, 1993).
However, despite this recent interest, the uptake, success and overall sustainability of
IMT schemes have been, on the whole, disappointing (Starkey, 2000). IMT projects
have generally failed to take account of the gendered nature of transport tasks, or the
underlying power relations that constrain or assist mobility and access to transport in
different cultural and socio-economic situations.
The performance of transport tasks is embedded in a wider social and cultural situation
in which individual's carry out particular roles and responsibilities. This thesis seeks to
explore the complexity of women's travel and mobility, within the context of Tarsaw in
Upper West, Ghana. In Tarsaw, rural mobility has been revolutionised by the bicycle
and through the gradual introduction of animal traction and bullock-drawn carts over
the last thirty to forty years. Despite these changes, there are clearly quite serious
inequalities between men and women in accessing places and resources, since
women have little or no access to motorised or intermediate forms of transport and
continue to carry their supplies on their heads. In Tarsaw, as in much of rural Ghana,
women do not own any means of transport apart from their feet, and have very little
money with which to pay for the use of public transport. Furthermore, there are limited
opportunities for women to borrow IMTs, or other means of transport, from their
husbands, brothers, or other family member. This thesis seeks to understand why
women suffer in this way, despite women's greater burden of transport. This thesis
focuses on the gendered and embodied nature of mobility (embedded within everyday
life), rather than the actual mechanics of getting from A to B. The thesis provides an
ethnography of life in a rural area of Ghana, giving substance to the lived and
embodied experience of mobility for men and women and setting this within a broader
framework of gender roles and relations. This thesis seeks to discuss particular issues
at the intersection of gender, embodiment and mobility, bringing in various aspects of
social theory and feminist thought.
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