On translation: Problematisation, demolition and dispossession in Agbogbloshie, Ghana

In this study, I draw on Callon's four moments of translation, that is, problematisation, interessement, enrolment and mobilisation, to trace how Agbogbloshie was translated from a hub of livelihood, trade, and e-waste work into a problem space for which decongestion, demolition and peripheral relocation were constructed as obligatory passage points (OPP). These socio-material arrangements produced uneven and incomplete translations. Onion traders were selectively enrolled and partially mobilised, while scrap workers experienced failed enrolment and blocked mobilisation, loss of work infrastructure, incomplete relocation, and the gradual re-occupation of the demolished scrapyard. This unsettled outcome grounds three contributions: (a) I reframe urban eviction as translation work to show how demolition and relocation operate as OPP within heterogeneous networks; (b) I trace the uneven effects of dispossession within informality by showing how the same environmental intervention selectively relocates, recognises and disperses different groups of informal workers; and (c) I contribute to debates on urban political ecology, ANT/STS and studies of dispossession in African cities by showing how problematisation reshapes recognition, livelihood security and claims to the city.