Dr. Kofi Takyi Asante

Biography
Research Areas
Publications
Projects
Teaching Programmes

Kofi Takyi Asante is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana. His research lies at the intersection of political, economic, and historical sociology. His substantive research areas include colonialism and state formation, citizenship, governance, and development. His research over the years has focused on exploring the emergence, transformations, and contemporary character of the Ghanaian state, as well as the implication of these political economy trends on citizenship and civic engagement. He has consulted for many local and international organisations, including UNDP, Open Government Partnership (OGP), CAMFED Ghana, International Budget Partnership (IBP) among others. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Ghana Studies; an Editorial Committee member of the Child Marriage Information Portal of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MoGCSP); and was a part-time Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG). His publications have appeared in African Economic History, Ghana Studies, and International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, among others. He studied at the University of Ghana, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Northwestern University. Before joining ISSER, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).

Economic and Political Sociology
Citizenship and Participation
Corruption and Social Accountability
Political Economy of Development

Selected Publications

Asante, K.T. (2022). Residual capacity and the political economy of pandemic response in Ghana. WIDER Working Paper 22/44. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.

Shaw, Jo, Kofi Takyi Asante, Ambreena Manji, Maarten Vink, and Bronwen Manby. (January 2022). GLOBALCIT Review Symposium of Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa, Robtel Neajai Pailey. Global Citizenship Observatory: https://globalcit.eu/globalcit-review-symposium-of-development-dual-citizenship-and-its-discontents-in-africa-robtel-neajai-pailey/

Quartey, P. and Asante, K. T. (2021). Overview: The Socio-economic Impacts of Pandemic. In ISSER and UNDP (eds.) The Socio-economic Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Ghana, 2020-2021. (pp. 1-8). Accra: Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research.

Addoquaye Tagoe, Cynthia and Asante, K.T. (2021). Community Resilience against Challenges of Employment under COVID-19. In ISSER and UNDP (eds.) The Socio-economic Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Ghana, 2020-2021. (pp. 125-143). Accra: Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research.

Manu-Osafo, M. J., Lamptey, E. and Asante, K. T. (2021). “What are we celebrating?”: Nation-Building and The Politics of Independence Commemoration in Ghana. E-rea: Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone, (19.1).

Takyiakwaa, D., Tetteh, P. S. K. and Asante, K. T. (2021). Explaining the Weakness of Associational Life in Oil Palm Growing Communities in Southwestern Ghana. APRA Working Paper WP 68, Brighton: Future Agricultures Consortium.

Asante, K. T. and Saul Mullard. (2021). Social Accountability and Anti-corruption in Ghana’s Fertiliser Subsidy Programme. U4 Issue 2021 :6. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute.

Asante,K.T. (2021) Political Economy of the Oil Palm Value Chain in Ghana. APRA Working Paper WP 54, Brighton: Future Agricultures Consortium.

Asante, K. T. (2020). ‘Citizens not spectators’? Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 7(2), 1-17.

Asante, K. T. (2020). Political Identity in a Postcolony: Citizenship, Belonging, and Nation-Building in Ghana. In Political Identity and Democratic Citizenship in Turbulent Times (pp. 113-128). IGI Global.

Asante, K. T. (2020). Individualistic and Collectivistic Orientations: Examining the Relationship between Ethnicity and National Attachment in Ghana. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 20(1), 2-24.

Asante, K. T. (2020). Imagining Citizenship and Belonging in Ghana. Development, 63(1), 90-94.

Asante, K. T. (2020). Nested Patriotism: Revisiting Collaboration, Resistance and Agency in Colonial Ghana. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 33(3), 347-364.

Asante, K. T. and Khisa, M. (2019). ‘Political Corruption and the Limits of Anti-corruption Activism in Ghana’, in Inge Amusden (ed), Political Corruption and Development: Extraction, Power Preservation and Donor Responses, Cheltenham and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

Asante, K. T. (2018). ‘Strategic Coethnicity: Social Capital and Entrepreneurial Strategies of Two Ghanaian Migrant Businesses’, Journal of Enterprising Communities, 12(4): 418-436

Anyidoho, N. A. and Asante, K. T. (2008). ‘Truly National? Social Exclusion and the Ghana@50 Celebrations,’ Ghana Studies, 11: 139-173.

Period	Employing organization:	Project	Role
August 2020 – July 2021	International Growth Centre	Improving Labour Market Efficiency	Co-Investigator
August 2020 – December 2020	International Growth Centre	Mitigating the Impact of Covid-19 on Ghanaian Firms	Co-Investigator
January 2020 – March 2020	Volontarito Internazionale per lo (VIS) and Don Bosco of Ghana	Ghana! Supporting Local Development, tackling Irregular Migration from West Africa	Co-Investigator
March 2019 – present	Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) consortium – IDS (University of Sussex)	Oil Palm Commercialisation in Ghana’s Western Region [Ghana Workstream 1]	Lead qualitative researcher for Ghana WS1
May 2019 – July 2019	Campaign for Female Education – Mastercard Scholars’ Programme	The Role of Volunteering in Developing Transformational Leadership Qualities and Employability among Students	Co-Principal Investigator
January 2019 – present	Open Government Partnership	Assessing the Extent of Implementation of Local Action Plan by the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly	Principal Investigator

Theories and Methods of Development - MA Development Studies (since 2019/2020)

Gender and Development - MA Development Studies (2019/2020)

Development Training Workshop I & II - MA Development Studies (2021/2022 - 2022-2023)

Advanced Qualitative Methods and Analyses - PhD Development Studies (since 2018/2019)

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development - PhD Development Studies (2020/2021)