Research Group Member Profile

Dr Gina Porter, BA, PhD

Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology

Contact Dr Gina Porter (email at r.e.porter@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Gina Porter has been based at Durham University since 1986, first in the Geography Department, since 2001 in Anthropology. She has undertaken field research in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and India but considers herself primarily an Africanist. (She taught for 10 years in Nigerian universities). Her research combines ethnographic approaches with a strong interest in spatial perspectives.

Current research focuses primarily on young people's mobility, transport and use ofmobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa. Other recent research has been mostly related to mobility issues [gender and transport, older people's mobility and access to services, Intermediate Means of Transport, off-road communities and issues of physical access, social networks of refugee youth] and to marketing and trade [market institutions, conflict in market place trade, gender issues in rural trade, contract farming, local agricultural labour markets]. Uneven power relationships and associated issues of exclusion are linking themes through her work, much of which has a strong gender component. Associated with this is a strong focus on developing innovative methodologies for effective field research (co-investigation with children and with older people, action research, mobile methods, networked approaches).

Topics on which she has supervised British and overseas postgraduates include: gender and embodied mobility in Ghana, gendering of sustainability in Cuban organic agriculture, transport impacts on agricultural production in Ghana, microcredit and transport in Ghana, road impacts on women's health in Nepal, masculinities and microfinance in Colombia, trust and farmer-trader relations in Ghana, decentralisation and poverty alleviation in Ghana, gender and fuelwood knowledges in Kenya, sanitation issues in Nigeria, empowerment in Honduras.

Research Groups

Anthropology in Development

Research Projects

Action research to evaluate the impact on livelihoods of a set of post-harvest interventions in Ghana's off-road settlements: focus on IMTs
Children, Transport and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Developing a Child-Centred Evidence Base to Improve Policy and Change Thinking Across Africa
Improving children's mobility and access
Improving market institutions and urban food supplies for the urban poor: a comparative study of Nigeria and Zambia: scoping phase
Investigations on Building a Food Marketing Policy Evidence Base in Nigeria
NGOs and the state in Ghana and India: an exploration of new NGO-state relationships and their impact on poverty eradication programmes
Rural Access Issues and the Supply of Urban Food Markets in Nigeria: Focus on Market Access for Smallholder Vegetable Producers on the Jos Plateau
Scoping Study on the Role of Trade and Markets in Conflict Development and Conflict Resolution with special reference to Nigeria
Social resilience among young Liberians

Selected Publications

Articles: magazine

Porter, Gina & Mawdsley, Emma (2008). Mobility and development. Geography Review 21(4): 16-18.

Books: authored

Fatima Alikhan, Peter Kyei, Emma Mawdsley, Gina Porter, Saraswati Raju, Janet Townsend & Rameswari Varma (2007). NGOs and the State in the Twenty-First Century: Ghana and India. Oxford: INTRAC.
E. Mawdsley, J. Townsend, G. Porter & P. Oakley (2002). Knowledge, power and development agendas: NGOs North and South. Oxford: INTRAC.

Books: edited

Grieco, M., M. Ndulo, D. Bryceson, G. Porter & T. McCray (2009). Africa, transport and the Millennium Development Goals: achieving an internationally set agenda. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
P. Fernando & G. Porter (2002). Balancing the load: women, gender and transport. London: Zed Books.

Edited works: contributions

Lyon, F., & Porter,G. (2010). Evolving institutions of trust: personalized and institutional bases of trust in Nigerian and Ghanaian food trading. In Organizational trust: a cultural perspective. Saunders, M.N>K, Skinner, D., Dietz, G., Gillespie, N. & Lewicki, R,J. Cambridge University Press. 255-278.
Porter, Gina (2009). Children, (im)mobility and transport in sub-Saharan Africa: implications for 2009 Africa, transport and the Millennium Development Goals. In Africa, transport and the Millennium Development Goals. Grieco, M., M. Ndulo, D. Bryceson, G. Porter & T. McCray Cambridge Scholars. 177-195.
Townsend, J., Mawdsley, E. & Porter, G. (2008). Development hegemonies and local outcomes: Women and NGOs in low income countries. In Globalization: Theory and Practice. Kofman, E. & Youngs, G. London: Continuum. 87-97.
Porter, Gina & Lyon, Fergus (2006). Social capital as culture? Promoting cooperative action in Ghana. In Culture and development in a globalizing world. Radcliffe, Sarah A. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 150-170.
F. Lyon & G. Porter (2005). The social relations of economic life and networks of civic engagement: social capital and targeted development in West Africa. In West African worlds: local and regional paths through development, modernity and globalisation. R. Cline-Cole & E. Robson London: Pearson Education.
J. Townsend, E. Mawdsley & G. Porter: (2003). Development hegemonies and local outcomes: women and NGOs in low-income countries. In Globalization: theory and practice. E. Koffman & G. Youngs London: Continuum.
J. Townsend, E. Mawdsley & G. Porter (2002). Challenges for NGOs. In The Arnold Companion to Development Studies. V. Desai & R. Potter London: Arnold.

Journal papers: academic

PORTER, Gina , HAMPSHIRE, Kate, ABANE, Albert, MUNTHALI, Alister, ROBSON, Elsbeth, MASHIRI, Mac, TANLE, Augustine, MAPONYA, Goodhope & DUBE, Sipho (2012). Child Porterage and Africa’s Transport Gap: Evidence from Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. World Development 40(10): 2136-2154.
Porter, G., Blaufuss, K., Owusu Acheampong & F. (2012). Gendered patterns of IMT adoption and use: Learning from action research. Research in Transportation Economics 34(1): 11.
Porter, Gina (2012). Mobile phones, livelihoods and the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa: review and prospect. Geography Compass 6(5): 241.
Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Robson, E., Munthali, A., Mashiri, M. & Tanle, A. (2012). Youth, mobility and mobile phones in Africa: findings from a three-country study. Information Technology for Development 18(2): 145.
Porter, Gina (2011). 'I think a woman who travels a lot is befriending other men and that's why she travels': mobility constraints and their implications for rural women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa. Gender, place and culture 18(1): 65-81.
Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Tanle, A., Esia-Donkoh, K., Amoako Sekyi, R., Agblorti, S., Owusu & S.A. (2011). Mobility, education and livelihood trajectories for young people in rural Ghana: a gender perspective. Children's Geographies 9(3-4): 395.
Porter, G., K. Hampshire, A. Munthali & E. Robson (2011). Mobility, surveillance and control of children in the everyday: perspectives from sub-Saharan Africa. Surveillance and Society 9, (1/2): 114-131.
Hampshire, K. Porter,G. Asiedu Owusu, S. Tanle, A.,Abane, A. (2011). Out of the reach of children? Young people’s health-seeking practices and agency in Africa’s newly-emerging therapeutic landscapes. Social Science & Medicine 73(5): 702.
Hampshire K. Porter, G. Mashiri, M., Maponya, M. & Dube, S. (2011). Proposing love on the way to school: mobility, sexuality and youth transitions in South Africa. Culture, Health & Sexuality 13(2): 217.
Porter, G., K, Hampshire, A. Abane, A. Munthali, E. Robson, M, Mashiri & Augustine Tanle (2010). Youth transport, mobility and security in sub-Saharan Africa: the gendered journey to school. World Transport Policy and Practice 16(1): 51-71.
Porter, G., K. Hampshire, M. Mashiri, S. Dube & G. Maponya (2010). ‘Youthscapes’ and escapes in rural Africa: education, mobility and livelihood trajectories for young people in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Journal of International Development 22(8): 1090.
Porter, Gina, Hampshire, Kate Bourdillon Michael, Robson Elsbeth, Munthali Alister, Abane, Albet & Mashiri, Mac (2010). Children as Research Collaborators: Issues and Reflections from a Mobility Study in Sub-Saharan Africa. American Journal of Community Psychology 46: 215-227.
Porter, G., Lyon, F., Adamu, F. & Obafemi, L. (2010). Conflict and cooperation in market spaces: learning from the operation of local networks of civic engagement in African market trade. Human Organization 69(1): 31-42.
Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Robson, E., Munthali, A., Mashiri, M. & Tanle, Augustine (2010). Moving young lives: Mobility, immobility and inter-generational tensions in urban Africa. Geoforum 41(5): 796-804.
Porter, Gina (2010). Transport planning in sub-Saharan Africa III. The challenges of meeting children and young people’s mobility and transport needs. Progress report 3. Progress in Development Studies 10(2): 169-180.
Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E., Mashiri, M. & Maponya, G. (2010). Where dogs, ghosts and lions roam: learning from mobile ethnographies on the journey from school. Children’s Geographies 8(2): 91-105.
Robson, E., G. Porter, K. Hampshire & M. Bourdillon (2009). ‘Doing it right?’ working with young researchers in Malawi to investigate children, transport and mobility. Children’s Geographies 7,4: 467-480 7(4): 467-480.
Lyon F & Porter, G. (2009). Market institutions, trust and norms: exploring moral economies in Nigerian food systems. Cambridge Journal of Economics 33(5): 903-920.
Porter, Gina & Abane, Albert (2008). Increasing children’s participation in African transport planning: reflections on methodological issues in a child-centred research project. Children’s Geographies 6(2): 151-167.
Hampshire, Kate, Porter, Gina , Kilpatrick, Kate, Kyei, Peter, Adjaloo, Michael & Oppong, George (2008). Liminal spaces: changing inter-generational relations among long-term Liberian refugees in Ghana. Human Organization 67(1): 25-36.
Porter, Gina , Hampshire, Kate, Kyei, Peter, Adjaloo, Michael Rapoo, George & Kilpatrick, Kate (2008). Linkages between livelihood opportunities and refugee-host relations: learning from the experiences of Liberian camp-based refugees in Ghana. Journal of Refugee Studies 21(2): 230-252.
Porter, Gina (2008). Transport planning in sub-Saharan Africa II: putting gender into mobility and transport planning in Africa. Progress in Development Studies 8(3): 281-89.
Porter, Gina, Lyon, Fergus & Potts, Deborah (2007). Market institutions and urban food supply in West and Southern Africa: a review. Progress in Development Studies 7(2): 115-134.
Porter, Gina (2007). Transport planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Progress in Development Studies 7(3): 251-257.
Porter, Gina , Blaufuss, Kathrin & Owusu Acheampong, Frank (2007). Youth, mobility and rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa: perspectives from Ghana and Nigeria. Africa Insight 37(3): 420-431.
Binns,Tony, Porter,Gina, Nel,Etienne & Kyei,Peter (2006). Decentralizing poverty? reflections on the experience of decentralisation and the capacity to achieve local development in Ghana and South Africa. Africa Insight 35(4): 21-31.
Porter, Gina (2006). From periodic markets to supermarkets: what hope for sustainable food markets in Africa? Journal of Sustainable Development 2(2): 2-8.
Porter, G. & Lyon, F. (2006). Groups as a means or an end? Social capital and the promotion of cooperation in Ghana. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24(2): 249-262.
J.G. Townsend, G. Porter & E.Mawdsley (2004). Creating spaces of resistance: development NGOs and their clients in Ghana, India and Mexico. Antipode 36(5): 871-889.
Porter, G., Harris, F., Lyon, F., Dung, J. & Adepetu, A.A. (2003). Markets, ethnicity and environment in a vulnerable landscape: the case of small-scale vegetable production on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria, 1991-2001. Geographical Journal 169(4): 370-381.
Porter, G. (2003). NGOs and poverty reduction in a globalising world: perspectives from Ghana. Progress in Development Studies 3,2: 131-145 3(2): 131-145.
, G. Porter (2002). Improving mobility and access for the off-road rural poor through Intermediate Means of Transport. World Transport Policy and Practice 8(4): 6-19.
Porter, G. (2002). Living in a walking world: rural mobility and social equity issues in sub-Saharan Africa. World Development 30(2): 285-300.
J.G, Townsend G. Porter & E. Mawdsley (2002). The role of the transnational community of non-government organisations: governance or poverty reduction? Journal of International Development 14(6): 829-839.
Porter, G., Rufino-Dabat, C. & Ramos da Souza, H. (2001). Local labour markets and the reconfiguration of the sugar industry in north-east Brazil. Antipode 33(5): 826-854.

Journal papers: online

Porter, Gina (2012). Reflections on a century of road transport developments in West Africa and their (gendered) impacts on the rural poor. EchoGéo 20(April-June 2012): 1-14.
Porter, G., K. Hampshire, A. Munthali & E. Robson (2011). Mobility, surveillance and control of children in the everyday: perspectives from sub-Saharan Africa. Surveillance and Society 9(1/2): 114-131.
Lyon, Fergus & Porter, Gina (2007). Market institutions, trust and norms: exploring moral economies in Nigerian food systems. Cambridge Journal of Economics 2007: 1-18.

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Supervises

Ms Kathrin Blaufuss