Dr. Pius Siakwah

Pius Siakwah (PhD) is a development geographer with a special interest in extractives and development geographies, natural resources governance, network and assemblages, energy geographies, sustainable development, climate change, agriculture, and tourism development. Currently, Pius is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies (IAS). Before joining IAS, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Over the period, he has peer-reviewed for some of the leading journals in his area of expertise. I have also published several articles and books in some of the leading global publication outlets. As part of his research activities, Pius has presented globally at several conferences. At the University of Ghana, Pius teaches various undergraduate and graduate courses, including Research Methods, Ethnography of Conflicts, Resources and Development. Additionally, other engagements over the years included, an IASH-SSPS Research Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh (January-March 2025), Consultant for ILO on Precarious Work in 2019, Guest Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin, Geography Department, March 2015, STETS Summer School, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, on emerging pathways on sustainable development in May 2015. Pius received several distinguished awards – Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Johannesburg (2016–2018), Trinity College Graduate Studentship Award (2013–2016), Brock University Graduate and International Fellowship (2010–2011), and Quota Scholarship, University of Oslo, Norway, 2008–2010.

Research Interests:

• Extractives and resources geographies
• Natural resources governance
• Energy geographies
• Network theories and development
• Climate change, agriculture and development.
• Globalisation and development in Africa.
• Tourism governance and development.
• Qualitative research methods

Current Research Projects:

• Mapping energy geographies and livelihoods and energy transition in Ghana, 2020 to date
• Transregional research on the changing nature of precarious work in Africa and the Arab region funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2020 – 2022
• Future DAMS funded by the University of Manchester and the UK Government, 2018 - 2020
• Domestic Security Implications of UN Peacekeeping (D-SIP), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019 - 2023

Journals

• Harris, D., Jaw, S. M., Siakwah, P., & Vittorini, S. (2025). Neo-colonialist, perennial underdog, or smart influencer: India in The Gambia and Ghana. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2025.2567088.
• Ablo, A. D., Zaami, M., Siakwah, P., Sheburah Essien, R., & Yaro, J. A. (2025). Compounding the Peasant Struggles: the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ghanaian Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X25100980.
• Siakwah, P., Ablo, A. D., Sheburah-Essien, R., Zaami, M., & Yaro, J. A. (2025). Adapting to Climate Change Amidst Innovation Diffusion and Declining Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge and Practices in Ghana. African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 17(2), 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2025.2459355.
• Yaro, J. A., Sheburah Essien, R., Ablo, A. D., Siakwah, P., & Zaami, M. (2025). Female Farmers’ Struggles and Responses to COVID-19 in Ghana. African Geographical Review, 44(2), 235-248, https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2024.2370865.
• Musavengane, R.., Siakwah, P. & Leonard, L. (2025) Tourism politics and mobilities: re-imagining equality and inclusion in Southern and West Africa’s urban tourism governance. International Journal of Tourism Policy, 15(3) 252 – 274, https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTP.2025.147447.
• Lawer, E. T., Siakwah, P., Mba, C. C., & Asante, K. T. (2024). The political economy of natural resource conflicts in Ghana: The case of the Songor. World Development Perspectives, 36, 100641, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2024.100641.
• Siakwah, P., Ermolaeva, Y., Ermolaeva, P., & Agyekum, B. (2023). Sustainable Energy Transition in Russia and Ghana Within a Multi-Level Perspective. Changing Societies & Personalities, 7(3), 165–185. doi:10.15826/csp.2023.7.3.246, https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2023.7.3.246.
• Siakwah, P., & Torto, O. (2022). Analysis of the Complexities in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Ghana's Bui Dam Experience. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, 734675, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.734675.
• ​Agyekum, B., Siakwah, P. & Boateng, J.K. (2021): Immigration, education, sense of community and mental well-being: the case of visible minority immigrants in Canada, Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2020.1801488.
• Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. & Leonard, L. (2020). The nexus between tourism and urban risk: towards inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable outdoor tourism in African cities. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 29 (2020) 100254, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2019.100254.
• Siakwah, P., Musavengane, R., & Leonard, L. (2020). Tourism Governance and Attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Tourism Planning & Development, 17(4), 355–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2019.1600160.
• Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. & Leonard, L. (2019). "Does the poor matter” in pro-poor driven sub-Saharan African cities? towards progressive and inclusive pro-poor tourism. International Journal of Tourism Cities, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-05-2019-0057.
• Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. (2019). Challenging formal accountability processes in community natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa. GeoJournal, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-10040-2.
• Siakwah, P. (2018). Tourism geographies and spatial distribution of tourist sites in Ghana. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 7, 1: 1–19, 2018.
• Siakwah, P. (2018). Actors, networks, and globalised assemblages: rethinking oil, the environment and conflict in Ghana. Energy Research & Social Science 38: 68–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.01.021.
• Siakwah, P. (2017). Are natural resource windfalls a blessing or a curse in democratic settings? Globalised assemblages and the problematic impacts of oil on Ghana's development. Resources Policy 52: 122–133, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.02.008.
• Siakwah, P. (2017). Actor network theory, globalised assemblages and the impact of oil on agriculture and industry in Ghana. The Extractive Industries and Society, 4: 462–472, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.04.007.
• Siakwah, P. (2017). Political Economy of the Resource Curse in Africa Revisited: The Curse as a Product and a Function of Globalised Hydrocarbon Assemblage. Development and Society, 46(1), 83–112, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90011213.
• Siakwah, P. (2014). Sustainable development: reflections on poverty-environment dilemma in Africa. Sacha Journal of Environmental Studies 4, 1: 8–24, http://www.sachajournals.com/user/image/sjes2012013siakwah002.pdf.

Books/monographs

• Ermolaeva, Y., Brears, R. C., Minakova, A., Siakwah, P., & Torto, O. (2025). Rethinking Water and Energy for a Sustainable Future. Springer Nature.
• Andrews, N. & Siakwah, P. (2021). Oil and development in Ghana: Beyond the resource curse. Routledge, London.
• Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. (2021) (eds). Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience. Routledge, London.
• Siakwah, P. (2010). The dilemma of microcredit, empowerment and poverty reduction, VDM, Verlag, Monograph, Saarbrucken, Germany.

Book Chapter(s)

• Siakwah, P., Torto, O. (2025). Modern Theoretical Approaches and Methodology for Water and Hydro Energy Systems. In: Rethinking Water and Energy for a Sustainable Future (pp. 13-35). Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-04485-3_2.

• Torto, O., Siakwah, P. (2025). Exploring the Complex Interdependence Nature of Marine Renewable Energy Sector: A Developing Country Perspective. In: Rethinking Water and Energy for a Sustainable Future (pp. 153-172). Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-04485-3_7.

• Siakwah, P. (2024). Extractive Industries in Africa. In Handbook of African Economic Development (pp. 199-217). Edward Elgar Publishing, https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800885806.00023.

• Siakwah, P., & Lawer, E. T. (2024). Global Pressures in Policymaking: Insights from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Ghana’s Petroleum Industry. In Public Policy in Ghana: Conceptual and Practical Insights (pp. 181-199). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

• Agyekum, B., Siakwah, P. and Biney, I.K. (2022). Oil production, dispossession, and community development in Africa: A development education perspective. In, Reimaging development education in Africa, Kwapong, O.A.T.F., Addae, D. and John Kwame Boateng, J.K. (eds), Springer, p. 171 – 190.

• Siakwah, P. (2021). The political economy of unplanned urban sprawling, waste, and Ghana's tourism development. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 47–58.

• Leonard, L., Musavengane, R. and Siakwah, P. (2021).Urban risk and tourism in Africa. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 1–14.

• Musavengane, R.., Leonard, L. and Siakwah, P. (2021). Conclusion: Navigating urban tourism amidst environmental, political and social risks. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 247–256.

• Siakwah, P. and Musavengane, R. (2021). Re-Imagining community-based tourism in rural Africa through networks and management innovation. In, New Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Africa, Michael Z. Ngoasong, Ogechi Adeola, Albert N. Kimbu, Robert E. Hinson (eds.), Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management Series, Springer, London, p. 227–244.

• Siakwah, P. (2018). Political economy to globalized assemblages: actor network theory, hydrocarbon assemblages, and problematizing the resource curse thesis. In, Network Theory and Analysis, Jorgensen, A., (ed.), Nova, New York, 2018.