Where I stand

Kwadwo A. Gyan · Urban planning researcher · University of Texas at Arlington, College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs

I study how what people can afford decides who is included in the systems that everyone depends on. My field work in Sakumono, Tema, Ghana, uses drainage as the case, and the argument reaches beyond drains: residents have to afford to be included. My foundational empirical contribution makes the mismatch between small-scale development (heterogeneity and incrementalism) and large-scale infrastructure (centralization) measurable at the lot scale.

Turner→Stöhr & Taylor→Booher & Innes→van Noorloos et al.→Gyan 2021

Explore the interactive research lineage map or return to the personal website.

Foundational empirical contribution: the work operationalizes the mismatch between small-scale development (heterogeneity and incrementalism) and large-scale infrastructure (centralization) as a micro-spatial causal pipeline, linking household affordability and building decisions to regional infrastructure connectivity.

What I built on, and what is new

Foundational empirical contribution: My 2019–2021 work makes the mismatch between small-scale development (heterogeneity and incrementalism) and large-scale infrastructure (centralization) operational: it isolates and tests the micro-spatial forces by which household affordability, building timelines, material choices and setback conditions scale into regional infrastructure disconnectivity.
From abstract mismatch to diagnostic pipeline: My framework links: individual affordability and 5–15 year building timelines → material and completion heterogeneity → easement/setback non-compliance → broken drainage connectivity → regional flooding. Lot-by-lot ArcGIS unique IDs and Fulcrum transect sampling turn the relationship into a testable spatial mechanism.
Affordability and inclusion, joined: Earlier work shows that ability to pay shapes access to infrastructure. New here: affordability is treated as a mechanism of inclusion in a collective system, tested through physical conditions rather than left as an abstract socioeconomic category.
Inside the network: Exclusion is usually described as being kept out. My finding reframes it: affordable household choices can fragment a shared system from within, so one lot's constraints can become a regional connectivity risk.
Heterogeneity made measurable: Instead of treating informal areas as homogeneous, my work disaggregates internal variation through material types, completion stages, density and physical conditions, then traces how that variation affects network continuity.
Two scales of coordination, together: The framework connects bottom-up resident action with horizontal institutional coordination, from the individual lot to regional agencies. The TDC/TMA institutional relationship is part of the structural explanation for why centralized coordination can fail.
Infrastructure as social evidence: Drain gaps, materials, waste service and connectivity are not only engineering conditions. They are evidence of who can participate in the system and whose affordability boundary the system is being asked to absorb.
Contextual justice and equity: The planning conclusion is contextual: equity depends on capturing conditions at multiple scales. Contextual justice is the next conceptual development, extending the empirical baseline toward a citable framework for how context should shape equitable planning.

What I am working on next

Extend the foundational diagnostic: measure decision-making access directly through interviews with residents and officials, so inclusion is tested at both the physical and political levels.

Formalize contextual justice: define and publish the concept as a citable framework, placing it in dialogue with Fainstein, Young, recognitional justice and experiential justice.

Bridge disciplines: use the structural Tema baseline to connect urban planning/design accounts of infrastructure with newer sociopolitical accounts of authority, citizenship and everyday infrastructure.

Placement of earlier and later work follows publication dates and topic overlap. It does not claim that any author cited or drew on mine.