Ambivalent complicities and knowledge production: Researching migrant women farmers' reproductive health experiences in the middle belt of Ghana.

Using a critical reflexive process (An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 1992; Theory, Culture & Society, 13, 1996, 17), this article identifies and examines issues of power, complicity and knowledge production as they emerged in the first author's master's research on migrant women farmers' economic and reproductive health experiences in the middle belt of Ghana. We examine the ambivalent positionality of the international graduate student researcher as "other of the other" (Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30, 2005, 2017, p. 2025), and how diverse fields of power, including the researcher's educational institution and cultural norms regarding gender relations, mediated interactions among various actors in the research process. Specifically, we examine how the student researcher was complicit in reinforcing patriarchal standards, perpetuating western saviourism and committing symbolic violence. Situating these reflexive findings in relation to insights from feminist postcolonial theories, we highlight how power relations, gender and social class informed these ambivalent complicities. Rather than erase/silence these tensions in the research process, we argue that such ambivalences may be an inevitable dimension of transnational knowledge creation, and thus, it is imperative that researchers consider how their ambivalent positionalities and complicities may be navigated and leveraged most productively and with the least harm to research participants.

Differentiated agrarian vulnerabilities and generalized national responses to COVID-19 in the Upper West Region of Ghana.

The experiences of COVID-19 differ at both micro and macro levels. This emphasizes the need for differentiated responses that account for the varying vulnerabilities of diverse groups regarding the pandemic. In Ghana, much of the attention on COVID-19 has been on urban centres, particularly the country's two largest metropolises in southern Ghana. This has created a gap between national level policy and the experiences of COVID-19 among rural dwellers in Ghana. This is despite evidence that the world's poorest populations will bear the brunt of COVID-19 effects, and that globally, four out of five people living below the poverty line reside in rural areas. Using the Upper West Region as a case study, we discuss the differentiated vulnerabilities that agrarian communities in Ghana face regarding the pandemic. We situate our discussions within the theories of vulnerability and feminist political economy to highlight how interlocking vulnerabilities regarding historical, environmental, geopolitical, socio-economic, health, and gendered inequalities affect the disposition of agrarian communities to cope with and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. We call for more nuanced COVID-19 responses that account for the needs and experiences of agrarian communities in Ghana.

Mothers in a 'Strange Land': Migrant Women Farmers' Reproductive Health in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana.

As a coping strategy towards climate variability, smallholders from the Upper West Region (UWR) migrate to rural farming areas in the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) of Ghana in search of better livelihoods. Although previous migrations were seasonal and maledominated, recent migrations have become permanent and involve more women migrating. Despite these changing dynamics, little is known about the effects of internal migration on women's reproductive health in rural migration destinations. Using qualitative methods, we explored migrant women farmers' reproductive health experiences in BAR. Findings from our study reveal that migrant women face limited autonomy in family planning decisions, lack access to maternal and general health care services, and have limited social support in the migration destination. Our findings contribute to the migration literature and highlight the unique reproductive health challenges of agrarian migrant women in rural receiving societies of Ghana.