Contentious connections: infrastructure, dignity, and collective life in Accra, Ghana

Infrastructural systems have emerged as productive ethnographic sites for analysing political subjectivities and rationalities. Through the case of shared electricity prepaid meters in compound housing system Accra, Ghana, I suggest that infrastructures’ potential lies their imaginative hermeneutic abilities to foster desires dignity, sustain well-being, question moral ideals collective life. In contrast recent anthropological work has emphasized material basis infrastructures ‘techno-political’ devices materializing certain logics rule governance, reclaim a poetics sociality whereby mobilize politics (unwanted) ‘electricity stories’ circulated by tenants, chart how economy infrastructure context precarity redistributes marginalization freedom ways always exceed rationales energy reforms policies. Connexions controversées : infrastructure, dignité et vie à Accra au Ghana Résumé Les systèmes d'infrastructure sont devenus des ethnographiques productifs pour l'analyse subjectivités rationalités politiques. À travers le cas de l'électricité partagée compteurs prépayés dans système logements collectifs d'Accra, l'autrice suggère que potentiel politique réside leurs capacités imaginatives herméneutiques encourager les désirs dignité, soutenir bien-être remettre en idéaux moraux la collective. Contrairement aux travaux anthropologiques récents qui ont mis l'accent sur base matérielle tant dispositifs « techno-politiques » matérialisant certaines logiques domination gouvernance, revendique une poétique socialité par laquelle mobilisent (non désirée). histoires d'électricité racontées locataires, montre comment l'économie morale un contexte précarité redistribue marginalisation liberté d'une manière dépasse toujours politiques réformes énergétiques. Kwame had an unusual, but highly entertaining, strategy exposing neighbours whom he suspected tampering with his meter own use. Here is what would do: evenings, when people retreated room watch latest telenovela (at time fieldwork, ‘Simply Maria’ or Indian drama ‘Kumkum Bhagya’, Fig. 1), wait crucial moment – say, Alejandro runs away after Maria announced her pregnancy. Then, flick switch, cut off power. The result, laughed, was radical: culprit neighbours, wrapped up suspense, come out protest courtyard, thereby attesting crime dramatic fashion. Stories like Kwame's are revealing role plays domestic living Ghana. As current powers technologies entertainment, pleasure, productivity, inspires deep passions frenzy. known housing, where several households share infrastructural facilities meters, does more than supply vital goods: it creates urban network dependency exposes vulnerabilities through demands struggles others. This makes contentious public good, prone widespread suspicions resentments. tenants depend on neighbours’ ability pay increasingly elevated cost bills, they find themselves situation caused not so much perennial difficulties access reliability, socioeconomic relations dependence obligation generated meter. While this quite unique feature part particularity prevalence want also reveals general aspect connection undergirding mediating Since 2008, experienced prolonged periods power outages (commonly dumsor, Twi off-on) national company struggled reconcile growing demand heavy financial debt, high technical losses, decreased generation at country's main hydroelectric dam Akosombo due droughts lowering water levels (Eshun & Amoako-Tuffour 2016; Kumi 2017). some its boasts one highest electrification rates continent, reaching average 85 per cent nationally (IEA 2018). country construction Dam wake Independence 1957 figured Pan-African vision African industrialization put forth Nkrumah, Ghana's first Prime Minister President (Miescher 2014). historical context, dumsor manifestation failing grid became crisis, indexing both breakdown wider symptom social fracture, encapsulating mixed feelings frustration nostalgia ruined imaginaries postcolonial modernity (Yarrow midst government turned emergency solutions form foreign-contracted Independent Power Producers (IPPs) embarked privatization distribution company, Electricity Company (ECG), $500 million sector reform package from US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).11 MCC foreign aid agency finances specific projects (mostly education) ‘reduce poverty economic growth’. view redressing ECG's situation, series set were introduced 2016, including revision tariffs, substitution postpaid neighbourhoods smart (see details here: http://www.mida.gov.gh/pages/mca-program#fndtn-ghana-power-compact-4, accessed 2 November 2021). 2018, concession agreement granted PDS (Power Distribution Services), consortium led Manila Company. takeover short-lived: July 2019, suspended amidst allegations fraud, terminated October leading United States withdraw $190 grant. To date (November 2021), ECG resumed management distribution. Aimed improving access, revenue collection, reintroduced since 1990s been gradually deployed lower-income means recuperating lost revenues ‘waging wars’ against illegal connections that, insisted, prime culprits losses (ECG 1991). article, follow introduction these houses low-income neighbourhood Accra. argue materialized only calculative logic regime (von Schnitzler 2013), sociality, eliciting peace, freedom. response scholarship tends over-emphasize aspects engagements, foreground interrogate connective asking intervenes in, delimits, particular years, there flurry interest around such roads, systems, pipes, communication channels analytical engaging ecological between human nonhuman agents institutions (Anand 2017; Anand, Gupta Appel 2018; Degani Jensen Morita Knox Harvey 2015; von 2016). networks circulation ‘relational worlds’ (Harvey, 2017: 2) enable delivery matter services (Larkin offer new possibilities rethinking life (Collier, Mizes 2016) precarious livelihoods ‘splintered’ modes governance (Graham Marvin 2001). But while qualities (rightly) gathered attention debate (Knox Mitchell 2011; Venkatesan al. 2017), complexity forms ‘collective life’ neglected relegated by-product processes. Susan Star's (1999) seminal manifesto ethnography ‘relational’ nature ceaselessly asserted whilst remaining largely unspecified. relational ‘always already social’ (Boyer 2015)? What kind ‘social work’ do perform? conditions limits ‘relationality’ enable? extent create unviable relations, aporetic asocial connection? relationality compounded ongoing services, connections, binds unviable, necessary yet compromising. Beyond providing basic necessity life, complex landscape which voice visions critiques order, subjectivities, personal aspirations dignified existence, peace conviviality (Abram, Winthereik Yarrow 2019). By examining dependencies arise others infrastructurally, involved sustaining peaceful (if materially fraught) Far simply operating service delivery, constitutes interprets identifies Lauren Berlant called ‘the inconvenience other people’ (2016: 393; press), mobilizing make clear move emphasis studies intended devalue materiality indeed reify unhelpful arbitrary distinctions meaning nonetheless analytic space encounters Whilst literature tended adopt approach, focusing questions citizenship, rights, entitlements, interpretative register (Coleman 2014) allows us think about through, instance, people's quests dignity freedom, conflicts aspirations, conflicting ideal conviviality, (a)-sociality. words, far relationship state, elicit affective states being. ignites constant suspicion conflict, becomes deeply zone fragile consuming efforts relating detaching oneself These leaks starkly defy supposedly embedded materialize order. shifts delimitation large-scale processes rationality, micro-politics interactions ordinary coexistence, describe contributes theorizing publics interrogating under realized, sustained, rendered unviable. popular tales told (their stories’), consider techno-political geopolitical capacity govern (Barry 2013; Chalfin 2014; 2016), aspirational espouse Based drawn seventeen months fieldwork conducted 2015 2019 participant observation ECG, semi-structured interviews residents stakeholders, archival research National Archives Tema, explore weaves templates communal living. start telling stories three scenarios conflict. binding into another's monetary flows, operates desired divisive long then found expression adoption individual ‘one-one meters’, company. redefining previously shaped politics, offered ‘prepaid dignity’ enabled withdrawal humiliating unsustainable At same time, meters’ requisite prepayment created marginality guise control self-management. tracking changing alongside implementation reforms, attempt ‘electricity's dialectical institutions’ (Gupta 2015: 563) domesticity weave seams political. opening story narrated ‘scenario’ unfolding conditional, way neither incriminates nor identifies. mode storytelling indicative discursive talking matters shame, dignity. making sense my data, struck me interlocutors reluctant disclose accounts experience. After insistence, mention few details: bill amount, year, outcome type acquired. Scenarios house living, however, enthusiastic comments prolific debates interlocutors, sometimes adding variation plots, questioning implications interpretations outcomes. established eschew identification blame, narratives distil experience familiar plots. Testing expectations state policy, orders strikes very core sociality: live (apart) together, expectations, carve existence tolerates intrusions unchosen deflecting responsibility, indirect voicing humiliations arising consumption, articulating concerns infrastructure. Closer idiosyncratic stories, enounce patterns guide most appropriate negotiating They inadequacies state's distribution, aimed maximizing eradicating sources loss evicting ‘unattractive consumers’ (Wamukonya 2003). Infrastructure appears just ‘terrain negotiation’ ‘site entitlements’ (McFarlane Desai 2015) essential formation citizenship 2016); works critique. popularity22 Life figures abundantly Ghanaian representations productions, award-winning TV Efiewura (‘Landlord’) and, staging disputes sharing houses, movie LilWin Agent. partly Ghana: according census (Ghana Statistical Service 2014), 67 all dwellings consist predominant (Afram Korboe 2009).33 writing preliminary report 2021 Population Housing Census (to be released 2022) include data household composition. A typical usually comprises rooms organized common various activities take place, food preparation, childcare, laundry, celebrations meetings (Fig. 2). congested inequitable market provide cheap accommodation unable afford separate (Grant 2009: 67). follows, collect scenarios: (1) Landlord Cheat, tenants’ acquire backdoor routes; (2) AC Hideaway, use high-consuming electrical items room, elaborate ‘gadget-points system’ devised fairly; finally, (3) No Money, Pay Force, dreadful scenarios, contribute risk humiliation debts. Auntie Habibah44 All names pseudonymized. ‘fresh’ (new) she moved youngest daughter husband. newcomer, agreed landlord bill. months, realized subsidizing landlord's failed bills amount contributions. Today, says proudly, enjoys meter, placed outside entrance self-contained room. Landlords, explained, often tried money setting someone humorously ‘mini-ECGs’. request no proof purchase enjoy back tenants; malpractices eventually discovered visit disconnecting team, unpaid debts contracted over years. interlocutor it, short-changing ‘cheating state’, pocketing asset disreputable ventures. For reason, acquired own. because required bring owner's card is, forced turn routes procure meter.55 Administrative structures pushed unofficial routes. addition card, requirements qualify cumbersome costly: included minimum consumption 300-400 units month; payment former Mother Meter; Energy Commission-licensed electrician certificate; GHC 82.25 fee (£15) installation. Only if fulfilled, available (which half time), paperwork processed. It during see customers coming office buy express surprise numerous ‘Meters sale’ signs plastered wall. Some paid 350 (£63, equivalent two months’ rent) bought landlords, received politicians, negotiated workers themselves. Mr Mensah, who lives six route unbearable. He decided hire middleman, price high: took him save enough money, electricity, having study exam (he pursuing HR qualification) lantern light. ‘sacrifice’, described worth it: getting avoid conflict ranked priorities. Many spoke sacrifice deed good one's well-being: order preserve ‘peace’ (asomdwia), those bonds, ‘free’ receive ‘peace mind’. later, preserving avoiding disgrace unleashed anger shameful responses. appeared, scenario, costly investments self-preservation restoration liveable week, Adjei's go credit households. queuing local vending station recharge compound's account, tapped onto load credits went bed. hours awakened screams angry accused cheated them: used (‘finished’), leaving without light fans. Fortunately him, kept receipt booth. quarrel ensued recalled, receipt, blows. Once innocence established, another actor: air-conditioning (AC) box. How could run fast? must secretly using expensive appliances privacy perhaps concealed unit standing cooler. problem you never sure split fairly, (and electronics) ‘equal’. protagonist solemnly professes sparingly, co-tenant unashamedly sucks indulge wonders high-powered flat-screen TVs, cool AC, bright lights. Daddy Yaw mimicked extravagant behaviour me: day, complained, ‘working hard’, happens compound? twerked body left right, singing Shatta Wale's dancehall beats: ‘“BOOM BOOM BOOM, Adwoaaa, eh, babe!”: will blasting music, watching day!’ Because this, get refusing others’ enjoyment absence. Like Mensah above, electrician, entrusting ‘a nice envelope’ promptly. Differentials wealth prized power-hungry electronics subject countless pondered morality incommensurability current. Tenants developed fairer division based possessions consumption. According system’, each tenant contributed proportion points allocated appliances. standard count ten points: lightbulbs one, one; fridge, three; fan, two; TV, two. rice cooker iron add points. gadget-points approximate calculation landlords sheet provided 3). Accordingly, rife, spied interiors wasteful usage.66 Compare Tanja Winther's account Zanzibari village try hide Zanzibar (ZECO), fearing disclosing them result higher billing (2008: 110). initially surveyed other's ascertain easily introduce high-consumer air-coolers kettles unknowingly compound. turn, attempted prove longer appliance, broken (‘spoilt’), taken list. When comes agree things: first, cannot ‘life itself’; second, itself’ become unaffordable. With utility tariff increases approved frequently came close equalling monthly rent. uncommon time. ‘non-consumption’ option: couldn't share, still cover forcing debt. Abena, orange seller next door, explained ‘if don't it's “by force”: force” pay’. challenging times full liabilities incurred being part, unwillingly, connectivity: obligations, obligations met increasing difficulty reluctance. People's ensured continuous supply, consume afford. situations, revealed struggle. befall man household's share: ‘When morning’, said, ‘they teasing your wife home: disgracing you, darkness’. reasons driving seek meter: ‘to disgrace; ‘If meter’, ‘you can plead understand difficulties; can't expect similar understandings mocking shaming household’. Here, disgrace, payments utilities within ‘political recognition’ ascribes status ‘profiles achievement self-realization’ (Guyer 2004: 147). above describe, different ways, infrastructurally. bolstered factors: administrative legislations property organize advantage (scenario 1); unknowability value resulting fairness inequalities 2); made upon participate pricing premium such, situations vulnerability evidenced uncertain brought interference others, reliant daily indeed, itself’. Belying progress smooth connectivity, ‘fragile achievements’, failure, need repair maintenance Thrift 2007; Jackson Studies fragility breakdown, disruption, leakage, intermittency, disrepair Chu Graham 2010; McFarlane Nye 2010) relations. Yet