%T Managing complexities associated with planning and implementation of rural market infrastructure projects in the Ashanti region of Ghana.
%L theses_frw493
%D 2017
%A A. A. Darkwa
%X The complex and open features of communities coupled with their changing nature have increased the need for adaptive planning approaches to manage challenges such as abandoned projects.This study aimed at exploring the complexities accompanying planning and implementation of market infrastructures and proposing measures needed to make their planning meaningful in complex and open communities. Using a qualitative research method and theories from complexity sciences which focus on changes and possibility of unplanned developments, four cases of abandoned rural markets in the Ashanti region of Ghana were investigated. Unplanned developments as ‘mini markets’ and ‘small scale shops’ have emerged to function as markets in rural communities but planning focuses on providing every community with a market. This study therefore, emphasise the need for an acceptance of the possibility of unplanned developments in communities in planning processes like stakeholder participation to handle recurrence of abandoned markets and manage associated complexities.