Irit Ittner

• Dr. Phil
• Senior Researcher at German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

This study provides an analysis of environmental observations by farmers, as well as of models of blame in Northern Ghana, an agricultural region of high vulnerability to climate change. Qualitative data were collected through a standardised questionnaire on the community’s consensus on how to explain observed changes. Responses were transcribed to...

This chapter supports the argument that social science research should focus on adaptation to climate change as a social and political process, by analyzing the politics and interests of actors in climate change adaptation arenas and by acknowledging the active role of those people who are expected to adapt. Most conventional climate research depol...

SEE FRENCH ABSTRACT BELOW Northern Ghana has been a pilot region for implementing drinking water programs. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has acted as a key player in constructing hand pumps and small-town water systems, as well as in designing institutional frameworks for their delivery and management, which have been subseq...

The ethnographic study was conducted in the unplanned settlement of Adjahui, which is located in Port Bouët municipality of the Abidjan metropolis, Côte d’Ivoire, where, after a short period of self-building activities, rental housing was constructed on a massive scale. We asked about the motivations behind these investments into the lowest price s...

The paper analyses the motivations of actors who reclaimed and appropriated the banks of the Ebrié Lagoon in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, which were in many cases marginal lands under public ownership. The analysis focuses on the evolution of two unplanned settlements, Soweto (from 1964) and Adjahui (from 2011). Practices of incremental place-making and...

This study analyses marine governance and knowledge politics of sediments in the Borkum Reef Ground from a historical and German perspective, as well as in the context of litigation against marine gas production from transboundary Dutch and German fields. The authors analysed interview transcripts, project documents, environmental media campaigns,...

Contested Airport Land draws attention to the accelerating airport development in the Global South. Empirical studies provide nuanced analysis of socioeconomic, administrative, and political dynamics on the land beyond the airport grounds, such as the project area of greenfield development, the airport city, or land resources reserved for future ai...

With the acceleration of airport construction and expansion in low- and middle-income countries, a multi-disciplinary scholarship that relates infrastructural development to social aviation is unfolding. By shifting the focus to the Global South, the authors of this book reveal colonial trajectories, the role of foreign investment and ownership, an...

L’étude se concentre sur la prolifération des conflits fonciers et de leadership sur le domaine public d’une ville aéroportuaire en expansion. L’ethnographie montre l’enracinement des conflits et les relie à l’expropriation et la mise à l’écart des propriétaires fonciers coutumiers à Abidjan. Afin de retrouver leur visibilité et leur poids politiqu...

Ce rapport de recherche résume les résultats de l'enquête auprès d´un village Ebrié dans la métropole d'Abidjan, qui connaît depuis 2012 un processus d'urbanisation rapide, non planifié et irréversible. L’étude estime la population au milieu de l´année 2018 serait de 60 000 habitants au minimum. Nous avons observé de façon qualitative et quantitati...

Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d´Ivoire, is built around the Ebrié lagoon on the Atlantic Ocean. Boats and ferries have always been part of the urban transport system. Ferries (pinasses) are essential to enable particularly the poor to maintain their mobility. The objective of this study is to analyse the establishment, operation and sustain...

The Chinese water bureaucracy increasingly utilises information and communications technology (ICT) in order to strengthen interaction with the population, which is severely affected by industrial pollution. Government webpages, mailboxes, and online interviews with officers have become prevalent tools for environmental governance, including inform...

Climate change adaptation (CCA) has emerged as a new paradigm of development politics. As adaptation has turned out to be less tangible than mitigation, controversies about the meaning and implementation have come up. This paper is based on empirical research in The Gambia analyzing how CCA is mainstreamed into development strategies. There is much...

This study analyses the climate change discourses and political dynamics in south-western Burkina Faso from three empirical entry points: (a) the production of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action; (b) climate change discourses in the Ioba province; and (c) the role of the public media. Climate change is not a popular discourse in Burkina F...

Water storage can help to safeguard livelihoods and reduce rural poverty. However, ill-conceived water storage will fail to deliver intended benefits and, in some cases, may worsen the negative impacts of climate change. More systematic planning is required to ensure suitable storage systems that support development targets, as an international res...

The Koga project is the first new large-scale irrigation scheme in the Blue Nile river basin since the 1970s and may thus serve as an example of the tremendous changes of landscape and liveli- hood that are accompanying current water development projects in Ethiopia. This article analyzes the impoverishment risks arising out of the development-indu...

The Koga project is the first new large-scale irrigation scheme in the Blue Nile river basin since the 1970s and may thus serve as an example of the tremendous changes of landscape and livelihood that are accompanying current water development projects in Ethiopia. This article analyzes the impoverishment risks arising out of the development-induce...

The diversity of small-scale irrigation in the Ethiopian Blue Nile basin comprises small dams, wells, ponds and river diversion. The diversity of irrigation infrastructure is partly a consequence of the topographic heterogeneity of the Fogera plains. Despite similar social-political conditions and the same administrative framework, irrigation facil...

Climate change and the adaptation to its negative impacts not only rank high on the political agenda, they also open up a field for social research where anthropologists and social geographers can add valuable contributions. The paper outlines conceptually the challenges in conducting research on adaptation to climate change by presenting the uncer...

With the growing youth bulge in sub-Saharan Africa, existing social contracts between generations, age-specific role models and economic domains are shifting. With regard to the efforts to redefine youth as a target group for development, it seems high time to conduct more research on youth-specific livelihood strategies that may be innovative, as...

In rural northern Ghana, changing hydrology and donor policies impact on household water supply and water rights. Ghana has adopted the community-based management approach in its national drinking water policy. Irit Eguavoen looks at how some policy concepts contradict pre-existing water rights; water users are challenged to balance project require...