Profile of Victims of Neighbourhood Crimes in Ghanaian Cities

Generally, urban crime research in Ghana is non-ambiguous on the socio-cultural, political economy and environmental ramifications of neighbourhood crimes in emerging cities, but the personal and neighbourhood level characteristics of the most likely victims of neighbourhood crime in Ghanaian cities remain meagre. This paper fills the gap in knowledge by answering the question ‘who/where is the most likely victim of crime in urban Ghana?’ This study employed a sequential mixed methods approach to collect data through the administration of a household survey, as well as focus group discussion (FDG) sessions. The survey data were analysed using binary logistic regression while the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that socio-demographic characteristics, which are associated with a higher likelihood of victimisation, include young unemployed persons, residents of a detached or ‘self-contained’ apartment, household of increasing household size, residents of neighbourhoods with less police visibility and residents of unsafe neighbourhoods. Cognisance of the limited capacity of the Ghana Police Service, this study recommends the need for the Ghana Police Service to consider neighbourhood demographic characteristics in their efforts to enhance distributive justice in the provision of internal security.

Towards a cultural political economy of the illicit

This article intervenes in debates on the illicit in economic geography, notably in the tensions between cultural and political economic approaches. First, it assesses critiques of political economic evaluations of the illicit. It then offers a ‘trading zone’, drawing upon both cultural and political economy, and argues that the two economic epistemologies are complementary, not mutually exclusive. The article instates political and ecological missing links in cultural political economy to foster multidimensional analyses of illicit practices in discursive, material and ecological registers. It concludes by discussing the broader implications of a cultural political economy of the illicit for economic geography.

Understanding Education on China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Cultural Political Economy Approach

The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (bri) is a state-driven development campaign that promote economic integration and infrastructure building across Eurasia and beyond, aiming to reconnect countries and revive the prosperity of the historical Silk Road region. Since its inception in 2013, there has been a growing literature surrounding the initiative, yet the studies of education within the bri context remain relatively under-researched. This paper aims to explore such connection by undertaking the task through a combination of policy review, semi-structured interviews, and empirical fieldwork data. It adopts a Cultural Political Economy theoretical framework to analyzes how education policy and practice has been positioned, constructed, and coordinated in relation to the wider cultural political economy in assisting the bri planning and development. Against the background of China’s resurgence as a global power and its ambition in reinvigorating the Silk Road, I argue that the strategic positioning of education into the bri represents a constructive force in imagining, empowering, and materializing the New Silk Road Project. This reveals education and its multifaced properties in promoting cultural outreach, fulfilling political obligation, and accelerating economic growth in line with the overall bri building.