I am a human geographer mainly working in Ghana and other African countries. My research always involves fieldwork where socio-economic processes in local communities are viewed in context of processes on national and global scales. Research interests include gender, entrepreneurship, innovation, informal economies, market trade, food and nutrition security, small-scale fisheries, land tenure, petroleum industry, ICT development, migration, globalisation and political ecology.

Current research projects:

• 2024-2028 Reimagining Food Systems for Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Social Justice. Funding: The Research Council of Norway through the International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation from The New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). https://www4.uib.no/en/research/research-projects/smallfishclim-reimagining-food-systems-for-climate-change-adaptation
• 2024-2027: Small fish for food and nutrition security in Africa (SmallFish4Food). Funding: The Research Council of Norway through the SDGs Pilot Call by the Global Research Council. (Co-PI WP3: Markets and Consumers). https://www4.uib.no/en/research/research-projects/smallfish4food-small-fish-for-food-and-nutrition-security-in-africaSAMAKI https://www.uib.no/aktuelt/153487/kampen-om-sm%C3%A5fisken
• 2018-2022: Small Fish and Food security (SmallFishFood): Towards innovative integration of fish in African food systems to improve nutrition. The SmallFishFood project is funded by LEAP-Agri (Long term EU Africa research and innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable Agriculture, Horizon 2020) and is led by Jeppe Kolding, Department of Biological Sciences, UiB. Together, biologists, nutritionists, anthropologists and geographers investigate the contribution of small fish species such as anchovies and sardines to the food and nutrition security of low-income groups in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. My research focuses on the processing and marketing links of the fish value chain.
  • Nytt om prosjektet (Norwegian news, switch language for same articles in English)
    • Nytt prosjekt skal kjempe mot underernæring https://www.uib.no/matnat/117374/nytt-prosjekt-skal-kjempe-mot-underern%C3%A6ring
    • Betre utnytting av fisk som matressurs https://www.uib.no/geografi/103277/betre-utnytting-av-fisk-som-matressurs
• 2018-2023: Enclaving: Patterns of global futures in three African cities. This Research Council of Norway (FRIHUMSAM) funded project is led by Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Department of Social Anthropology, UiB, and investigates urbanisation and multiple inequalities in three African cities: Johannesburg, Maputo and Accra. My research focuses on gender and socio-economic dynamics of households in a newly constructed high-cost residental area in the capital city of Ghana, Accra.
  • Prosjektets webside: https://www.uib.no/urbanenclavingfutures
• 2019-2022: Mapping marine resource conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa: patterns, drivers and solutions for coastal communities (MARICA). Project leader. Elizabeth Selig, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA). Funding: NORGLOBAL, The Research Council of Norway.

Development; globalisation; gender; natural resource governance; agriculture; fisheries; food security; political ecology; migration; the power of maps; qualitative methodology; research ethics; theory of science.Environment and development

 

Masteroppgave

• Ragnhild Overå; Nicola Joanna Trier (2014). The Role of Norad's Oil for development programme in environmental management in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Emmanuel Brayie Agyemang; Ragnhild Overå (2008). MIGRATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS: A CASE STUDY OF KWAMANG IN ASHANTI. (ekstern lenke)
• George Freduah; Ragnhild Overå (2008). Poverty mitigation and Wealth creation through artisanal fisheries in Dzemeni area at Volta Lake, Ghana.. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Beth Cathrine Fagerlid Oduro (2014). Irregular and Incomplete Primary School Attendance in Rural Ghana. A case-study of late enrolment and early drop-out in the Eastern Region.. (ekstern lenke)
• Henry Musoke Semakula; Ragnhild Overå (2008). Consequences of the reduction in the water levels of Lake Victoria on poor people’s livelihood in Rwanjaba lakeshore community, Uganda. (ekstern lenke)
• Henrik Ødegård Lindblom; Ragnhild Overå (2010). Tilgang til vann gjennom det uformelle vannforsyningssystemet i Luanda, Angola. (ekstern lenke)
• Petter Inge Nes; Ragnhild Overå (2017). Mobile Phones and Innovations. An Empirical Description of Farmers´ Utilizations of the Mobile Phone in Upper East Region, Ghana.. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Akua N. Darko (2014). Health advocacy and practice: Exploring the influence of social structures in the health related lifestyles of adults in the Asokwa community in Kumasi, Ghana.. (ekstern lenke)
• Naa Ansaa Ansah-Koi; Ragnhild Overå (2008). IBI TSE YIE ( SOME PEOPLE ARE BETTER OFF):RE-DISTRIBUTION MECHANISMS IN THE COASTAL TOWN MOREE, GHANA. (ekstern lenke)
• Owusua Diana; Ragnhild Overå (2012). Gender and Informality in the Construction Industry in Ghana’s Oil City Takoradi. (ekstern lenke)
• Joanna Amiteye; Ragnhild Overå (2015). The Proposed Re-development of the Takoradi Market Circle and its likely. Implications for Market Traders' Access to Trading Space.. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Festus Boamah (2010). Competition between biofuel and food? The case of a jatropha biodiesel project and its effects on food security in the affected communities in Northern Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Patrick Kuranchie Owusu; Ragnhild Overå (2009). RESOURCE MANGAGEMENT IN THE ANLOEWE MIGRANT FISHING COMMUNITY ABAKAM IN THE CENTRAL REGION, GHANA. (ekstern lenke)
• Ernestina Ohenewaah Denchie; Ragnhild Overå (2016). Land Governance And Competition For Space In Ghana's Emerging Oil City, Sekondi-Takoradi. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Dashakti Reddy (2014). Managing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Liberia: Exploring the syncretisation of Western and traditional approaches. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Vincent Kofi Asamoah (2014). Ghana's emerging oil and gas industry. Livelihood impacts of Ghana gas processing plant at Atuabo in western region, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Austin Dziwornu Ablo; Ragnhild Overå (2012). Manning the rigs: a study of offshore employment in Ghana's oil industry. (ekstern lenke)
• Moses Adjei; Ragnhild Overå (2017). Governing the ocean space for the coexistence of fishery and petroleum industry in Ghana’s Western Region. (ekstern lenke)
• Abu Razak; Ragnhild Overå (2011). Processes and Effects of Land Sales on Local Livelihoods in Communities located near the Oil Industry in the Western Region of Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Marte Dæhlen; Ragnhild Overå (2007). Fattige fiskere: Fanget eller frigjort av eget fiskegarn? En studie av fiskeribistand og fattigdomsforebygging i Kasafal -India. (ekstern lenke)
• Rosina Badwi; Ragnhild Overå (2016). INTEGRATION OF GHANAIAN IMMIGRANTS IN BERGEN’S LABOUR MARKET.. (ekstern lenke)
• Victoria Dowokpor; Ragnhild Overå (2015). Impacts of the oil and gas industry on the livelihoods of men and women working in the firsheries: A study of Shama, Ghana.. (ekstern lenke)
• Dickson Ayirewuje; Ragnhild Overå (2013). Housing in the era of black gold: A study of access to housing in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Anna Dybwad Alstad; Ragnhild Overå (2018). The Gendering of a Farming System. A study of the relationship between gender and agricultural production in Ghana.. (ekstern lenke)
• Lisa Knatterud Wold; Ragnhild Overå (2007). Gender relations and household livelihood security in Lake Kariba fishing communities, Zambia. (ekstern lenke)
• Marama Zaami; Ragnhild Overå (2010). GENDERED STRATEGIES AMONG MIGRANTS FROM NORTHERN GHANA IN ACCRA: A CASE STUDY OF MADINA. (ekstern lenke)
• Agnieszka Barbara Dylewska; Ragnhild Overå (2009). The Impact of tourism on socio-economic development in Busua in the Western region of Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Astrid Maria Cabrera; Ragnhild Overå (2017). Matsikkerhet i Aasiaat, Grønland. En studie av interaksjoner mellom matpreferanser, klimaendringer og globaliseringsprosesser. (ekstern lenke)

Konferanseforedrag

• Ragnhild Overå (2022). Privat byutvikling og urbane enklaver i Afrika. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2011). Motivations, challenges and performances of local entrepreneurship in the emergent oil city Takoradi, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2020). Living the dream in a cool Place: Gender and spatial relations among enclave pioneers in Accra. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2022). Life in the urban enclave: Aspirations, detachment, and differentiated outcomes of living in a private city. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2011). Local entrepreneurship in the context of the emerging oil and gas industry in Takoradi, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Louis-Emmanuel Pille-Schneider; Ragnhild Overå; Frode Sundnes (2022). In the same storm but not in the same boat. Fisheries management, scalar politics, and blue (in)justice within and beyond the Joal-Fadiouth marine protected areas, Senegal. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2011). Modernization narratives and the sustainability of small-scale fisheries in Ghana and Zambia. (ekstern lenke)

Vitenskapelig litteraturgjennomgang

• Austin Dziwornu Ablo; Ragnhild Overå (2015). Networks, trust and capital mobilisation: Challenges of embedded local entrepreneurial strategies in Ghana's oil and gas industry. (ekstern lenke)
• Astrid Elise Hasselberg; Inger Aakre; Joeri Scholtens et al. (2020). Fish for food and nutrition security in Ghana: Challenges and opportunities. (ekstern lenke)
• Molly B. Ahern; Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted; Marian Kjellevold et al. (2021). Locally-procured fish is essential in school feeding programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. (ekstern lenke)

Doktorgradsavhandling

• Festus Boamah; Ragnhild Overå (2015). Biofuels and land politics: Connecting the disconnects in the debate about livelihood impacts ofjatropha biofuel land deals in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Austin Dziwornu Ablo; Ragnhild Overå (2016). From local content to local participation? Exploring entrepreneurship in Ghana’s oil and gas industry. (ekstern lenke)

Vitenskapelig artikkel

• Grete Rusten; Ragnhild Overå (2014). Local and global geographies of innovation: Structures, processes, and geographical contexts from a firm perspective. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2007). When men do women's work: structural adjustment, unemployment and changing gender relations in the informal economy of Accra, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2006). Networks, Distance and Trust: Telecommunications Development and Changing Trading Practices in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Moses Adjei; Ragnhild Overå (2019). Opposing discourses on the offshore coexistence of the petroleum industry and small-scale fisheries in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Yaw Opoku Agyei-Mensah; Theophilus Annan; Ragnhild Overå et al. (2023). The processing, preparation, and cooking practices of small fish among poor Ghanaian households: An exploratory qualitative study. (ekstern lenke)
• Ernestina Ohenewaah Denchie; Austin Dziwornu Ablo; Ragnhild Overå (2020). Land governance and access dynamics in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Edwige Enam Yawa Yekple; Ragnhild Overå; Knut Bjarne Hidle (2024). Living together but gates apart: aspirations and place caring practices among residents living outside a gated community in Peri-urban Accra.. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2017). Local navigations in a global industry: the gendered nature of entrepreneurship in Ghana’s oil and gas service sector. (ekstern lenke)
• Mailys Louise Marie Rouille; Ragnhild Overå; Amy Atter (2024). When borders close: Social networks, resilience and food security among informal cross-border fish traders on the Ghana-Togo border. (ekstern lenke)
• Amy Atter; Hayford Ofori; Paa T. Akonor et al. (2024). Enriched local convenience foods with two different small pelagic fish species increases the nutritional value without compromising taste. (ekstern lenke)
• Bryan Maddox; Ragnhild Overå (2009). New Technologies, New Demands and New Literacies: The Changing Literacy Practices of Fishing Communities in Bangladesh and Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Rosina Badwi; Austin Dziwornu Ablo; Ragnhild Overå (2018). The importance and limitations of social networks and social identities for labour market integration: The case of Ghanaian immigrants in Bergen. (ekstern lenke)
• Kelvin Awoonor Williams; Ragnhild Overå (2022). Contextualities of gender in Eritrean immigrant households: Exploring empowerment through integration in Norwegian society. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2011). Modernisation narratives and small-scale fisheries in Ghana and Zambia. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå; Amy Atter; Samuel Amponsah et al. (2022). Market women’s skills, constraints, and agency in supplying affordable, safe, and high-quality fish in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Edwige Enam Yawa Yekple; Ragnhild Overå; Austin Dziwornu Ablo (2024). Dynamics of land access in Ghana’s real estate sector. (ekstern lenke)
• Hanne Svarstad; Tor A Benjaminsen; Ragnhild Overå (2018). Power theories in political ecology. (ekstern lenke)
• Festus Boamah; Ragnhild Overå (2016). Rethinking Livelihood Impacts of Biofuel Land Deals in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Paa T. Akonor; Amy Atter; Margaret Owusu et al. (2021). Anchovy powder enrichment in brown rice-based instant cereal: a process optimization study using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). (ekstern lenke)

Lederartikkel

• Tor A Benjaminsen; Ragnhild Overå (2011). Introduction to special issue : environmental governance in the South - discourses/science/policies. (ekstern lenke)

Vitenskapelig bokkapittel

• Ragnhild Overå (2008). Mobile Traders and Mobile Phones in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2005). When Sisters Become Competitors: Coastal Women's Innovative Utilization of Trawler By-Catch in Ghana. (ekstern lenke)

Forskningsrapport

• Ragnhild Overå (1995). Interpretation of other life worlds: An essay on the construction of gendered world versions. Paper in scientific theory for the Dr.polit. degree, The Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen. (ekstern lenke)
• Ragnhild Overå (2005). 'Money has no name': unemployment, informalisation and gender in Accra, Ghana. (ekstern lenke)

Se en full oversikt over publikasjoner i Cristin