Ashaiman revisited: Unpacking Ashaiman as a slum of hope or slum of despair

Debates on informal settlements often portray slums as spaces of uniform deprivation, obscuring internal variations in socio-economic trajectories, housing investment, and residents' aspirations. Drawing on the conceptual distinction between slums of hope and slums of despair, this study re-examines household survey data collected in Ashaiman, Ghana to assess the settlement's position along a continuum of hope, despair, and transition. Using a multidimensional set of indicators capturing livelihood dynamics, housing consolidation, tenure security and social capital, the analysis provides an integrated assessment of informal settlement trajectories. The findings indicate that while Ashaiman continues to face significant infrastructural and environmental constraints, most households exhibit characteristics consistent with a transitional settlement, combining elements of economic agency and social resilience with persistent vulnerabilities, particularly in relation to tenure security. By moving beyond binary classifications, the study highlights the value of incorporating both objective conditions and lived experiences into slum analysis and contributes to broader debates on urban informality and socially sustainable urban development in the Global South.