Angela Dziedzom Akorsu, Akua Opokua Britwum, Shaibu Bukari, Benjamin Yaw Tachie and Musah Dankwah
Platform work challenges the traditional modes of workers' organising for interest representation. This paper aims to examine the political potential for voice and representation…
Abstract
Purpose
Platform work challenges the traditional modes of workers' organising for interest representation. This paper aims to examine the political potential for voice and representation of the organising efforts by ride-hailing drivers in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The study design was qualitative and exploratory. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with individual drivers, key persons and leaders of ride-hailing drivers' associations were employed. The total number of participants was 40.
Findings
The analysis reveals a bottom-up approach to organising, starting with drivers' exercise of associational power (AP) to self-organise with a membership logic. Affected by mundane internal challenges and limited by the non-existent institutional power and the near absence of structural power for right claiming, they affiliate with TUC as the traditional structural power holders for political influence.
Research limitations/implications
The study has limitations that can be addressed in future research. First, the targeted and small sample size only allows for rich context-specific generalisation. Future studies could target more categories of respondents such as vehicle owners and riders and also seek to include the experiences from other African countries to understand country-specific contextual issues. Second, the allowance for researcher reflexivity inherent in the methodology adopted has the potential for researcher biases. Therefore, a deliberate effort was made to ensure that biases remain only a potential. This was done by participant validation of the data and constant peer-reviewing of the data analysis processes by the authors.
Practical implications
The empirical findings provide trade unions with a stronger basis for and pointers to represent workers in the platform space.
Originality/value
Platform work in Ghana is an emerging phenomenon, and organising amongst platform workers remains unexplored.
Details
Keywords
Justice Mensah, Benjamin Yaw Tachie and Harriet M.D. Potakey
The sixth of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has access to improved sanitation as one of its targets. Sanitation is important not only for environmental quality…
Abstract
Purpose
The sixth of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has access to improved sanitation as one of its targets. Sanitation is important not only for environmental quality and public health but also for the outstanding universal value (OUV) of heritage monument sites and tourism promotion. The study examined the causes of open defecation (OD) in the neighbourhood of a World Heritage (WH) site in Ghana and the implications of the practice for sustainable tourism and heritage management.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the qualitative approach. Data were gathered from purposively targeted respondents (an Environmental Health Officer, Heritage Managers, a Tourism Expert, Hoteliers, Zoomlion Staff, Open Defecators, Community Opinion Leaders and Ordinary Community Residents) and analysed using the thematic approach.
Findings
It became evident that the causes of OD were: the lack of toilet facilities in many houses in the community, filthy and foul-smelling public latrines, poor attitude and heritage culture, mental and income poverty, inadequate sensitisation and a poor law enforcement regime. OD threatened the sustainability of heritage tourism and its associated livelihoods, as well as public health. In addition, it impaired the authenticity and integrity of the heritage monument, culminating in a detraction from the OUV of the heritage property.
Practical implications
In collaboration with the local, national and international stakeholders, the managers of the heritage monument should design and implement a comprehensive environmentally friendly plan. The plan should consider demarcating the boundaries of the heritage asset, monitoring the protected area, enforcing sanitation laws and mounting intensive sanitation education campaigns. It should also consider providing a decent toilet in the vicinity of the monument for the transit population, facilitate the provision of a toilet in every house through the community-led total sanitation approach, installing digital cameras at vantage points in the buffer zone of the castle to capture open defecators and punishing offenders severely to deter others from engaging in the ignoble practice of OD.
Originality/value
The authors argue that sanitation at heritage sites in developing countries merits further discussion within the WH network to promote sustainable heritage conservation management and tourism.