Trader associations and urban food systems in Ghana: Institutionalist approaches to understanding urban collective action

Abstract:
This article uses an institutionalist approach to analyse associations of vegetable wholesale traders in a number of Ghanaian urban markets. In the markets, there is an association for each product. Each association is headed by a market queen, with the self-employed market traders forming the membership base. The associations have several responsibilities: they distribute information about prices, production, reputation of other traders and farmers, and transport; they help with welfare, for example assisting members with funeral costs; they settle disputes; and they control the supply of goods and number of traders allowed to sell at a specific time in order to keep the prices steady. These associations help in supporting the women members by limiting the economic risks of the individual members.