Scrap-worlds in Ghana: assembling migrant livelihoods, metal markets and transnational interventions

This doctoral thesis is based on fieldwork in second-hand markets, scrapyards, e-waste sites, smelters, and metal buying companies in Ghana. The thesis argues for keen attention toward technologies across their life cycle. While technological consumption in the global North drives corporate profits and enjoys warranty assurance, many consumers in Ghana buy from second-hand entrepreneurs and rely on repairers and scrap dealers to maintain or recoup purchase value. In this context, technologies represent considerable financial risk and environmental hazard. The thesis argues that viewing technologies from Ghana's perspective foregrounds the environmental constraints and dangers of technological progress, revealing its ultimate reliance on regulatory frameworks and social organisation to realize consumer value. This contrasts sharply with popular associations between technological progress and visionary corporate design that increasingly justify economic inequalities, intellectual property supremacy, and deregulation.