Institutional complexities and power structures: Shaping urban land transactions and spatial development in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ghana

Legal pluralism is a central feature of urban land governance across cities in the Global South, generating interaction between customary and state institutions. While land governance challenges in developing countries are well-documented in scholarship, the precise mechanisms that create the contested institutional field through which negotiations among actors produce urban spatial outcomes remain underexplored. This study examines how diverse rules and different sources of legitimacy of state and customary institutions shape land transactions and urban form in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. Employing an interpretivist qualitative approach and in-depth interviews, the study collected data from representatives of Spatial Planning and Sub-Technical Committees, customary landowners, and assembly members. The findings show that while customary landowners exercise primary authority over land allocations, local planning authorities perform oversight functions after land transactions. These practices allow economically and politically powerful actors to exploit the gaps, thereby using financial incentives and political influence to shape land transactions and urban spatial outcomes. The study proposes mandatory validation of land parcels to confirm compliance with the spatial plan as set by the Spatial Planning Committee before transactions are finalized, providing a lens for analyzing the political production of urban space in plural land-governance contexts across the Global South.