Elmond Bandauko, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Urban Geography Urban Informality and Everyday Urbanism Place Attachment and Residential Satisfaction Urban Transformation Geographies of Marginalization

---

About

Dr. Bandauko is an Assistant Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. Before joining the University of Alberta, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Just and Equitable Cities at the Mui Ho Center for Cities, Cornell University, USA. Dr. Bandauko earned his PhD in Geography and Environment from the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Western Ontario where he received the Governor General’s Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance and research contributions during his doctoral studies. Dr. Bandauko is an interdisciplinary human geographer and critical urban scholar whose research revolves around four themes: (i) urban informality and everyday urbanism in Global South Cities, (ii) urban inclusion/exclusion and geographies of marginalization, (iii) urban transformation and (iv) built environment and quality of life (including issues such as sense of place, sense of community etc.). Dr. Bandauko has made significant research contributions to urban geography and planning. His work is published in leading journals in the field of urban geography such as Urban Geography, Political Geography, Urban Affairs Review, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Geoforum, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Cities, Housing Studies, Urban Research and Practice, Land use Policy, Journal of Urban Affairs, Gender, Place and Culture among others. Dr. Bandauko's research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) Foundation. Dr. Bandauko is also a Research Affiliate with the Informal Sustainability Lab, University of Michigan, USA. 

At the international level, Elmond has contributed to the UN-Habitat World Cities Reports (WCR), including chapters on urban poverty and inequality and resilient urban economies for the 2022 version. For the 2024 WRC, Dr. Bandauko contributed a chapter on climate action and vulnerable urban populations. He is passionate about interdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented research that supports the building of just, inclusive, and equitable cities. He is currently working on a chapter on adequate and affordable housing for the 2026 UN Habitat World Cities Report. 

---

Research

My research agenda focuses on four thematic areas. First, urban informality and everyday urbanism in Global South Cities. Under this theme, I work with two groups of urban populations namely street traders and slum dwellers/informal settlement residents. With street traders, I am interested in examining how they exprience, negotiate and resist exclusionary urban governance as they defend their right to the city. Specifically, I examine the strategies they deploy in their everyday resistance and negotiation with the state. I am also interested in broader questions of collective mobilization and organizing within the informal sector, especially with respect to how street traders' associations negotiate Political Opportunity Structures (POS) in highly contested cities. Within slums and informal settlements, I investigate how marginalized urban residents negotiate infrastructure violence through different forms of self-provisioning. For instance, together with colleagues from the Department of Geography and Environment at Western University, we are conducting research on (i) the political economy of community innovation in Kumasi's informal settlements, with a particular focus on flood adaptation strategies and (ii) the political ecology of sanitation infrastructure in Accra's informal settlements.  I seek to understand the constraints and generative possibilities of such grassroots based innovations. Working together with Dr. Brandon Marc Finn from the University of Michigan, we are developing two critical concepts: (i) Supported Self Provisioning (SSP) and (ii) Informal Infrastructuring (II) to respond to increased calls for new epistemologies of the urban. The overall goal is to identify pathways through which infrastructure improvisation in slums/informal settlements can be supported so that we can build inclusive and resilient cities. Second, I study place attachment and residential satisfaction, where I explore the different factors that influence how people living in slums and informal settlements relate to their neighbourhoods. I am inspired by the lasting desire to challenge conventional narratives that often frame these settlements as spaces of hopelessness and endemic suffering. My research on this theme demonstrates that slums and informal settlements are heterogenous neighborhoods that require grounded research to demystify generalizations. Third, I am interested in the drivers and implications of urban transformation in Global South Cities, including the emergence of new cities. For example, some of my work interrogates why governments, especially in Africa are interested in building New Capital Cities (NCCs) when they are struggling to plan, manage and govern existing urban areas. Fourth, I analyze how slum/informal settlement residents conceptualize resilience and sustainability and how that informs their individual and collective responses to climate induced stresses. Geographically, my research focuses on Harare (Zimbabwe) and Accra (Ghana) and I am planning to extend it to other African cities as a way of contributing to comparative urban studies.   

---

Teaching

• Cities and Urbanism (HGEO 240): Introduction to urban geography and planning emphasizing interactions between the built environment and processes of social and economic change. Topics include urban form, housing, cities and climate change and diversity in North American cities. 

I am pleased to share my latest paper published in Urban Geography: This Is My Home, and I Am Not Ashamed to Live Here’: A comparative study of Sense of Belonging in Harare and Accra’s Informal Settlements.  https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2025.2514053

Elmond Bandauko, Reforce Okwei, Godwin Arku

Urban Geography. 2025 June; 10.1080/02723638.2025.2514053

---

Elmond Bandauko, Akosua Boahemaa Asare, Godwin Arku

Journal of Urban Affairs. 2025 April; 10.1080/07352166.2023.2232061

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku

Political Geography. 2025 April; 10.1016/j.polgeo.2025.103292

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 2025 March; 10.1177/02637758251322343

---

Elmond Bandauko, Akosua Boahemaa Asare, Desmond Adjaison, Godwin Arku

Urban Affairs Review. 2025 March; 10.1177/10780874251327088

---

Romeo Dipura, Elmond Bandauko, Robert Nutifafa Arku

Habitat International. 2024 December; 10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103228

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 2024 November; 10.1177/23996544241298414

---

Elmond Bandauko, Bipasha Baruah, Godwin Arku

Gender, Place & Culture. 2024 November; 10.1080/0966369X.2023.2294258

---

Elmond Bandauko, Ashish Makanadar

Geoforum. 2024 October; 156 10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104143

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku

Cities . 2024 October; 155 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105488

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku, Abraham R. Matamanda, Akosua Boahemaa Asare, Thelma Akyea

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines. 2024 September; 10.1080/00083968.2024.2374957

---

Elmond Bandauko, Robert Nutifafa Arku

Urban Research & Practice. 2024 August; 10.1080/17535069.2023.2272911

---

Elmond Bandauko, Philip Baiden, Godwin Arku, Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Senanu Kwasi Kutor, Thelma Akyea

Journal of Urban Affairs. 2024 May; 10.1080/07352166.2024.2341901

---

Brandon Marc Finn, Elmond Bandauko

Habitat International . 2024 April; 148 10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103087

---

Elmond Bandauko, Senanu Kwasi Kutor, Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Philip Baiden, Godwin Arku

Housing Studies. 2023 November; 10.1080/02673037.2022.2077920

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku

International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 2023 October; 10.1177/16094069231154437

---

Elmond Bandauko, Robert Nutifafa Arku

Journal of Urban Affairs. 2023 March; 10.1080/07352166.2022.2150197

---

Thomas Karakadzai, Elmond Bandauko, Joel Chaeruka, Godwin Arku

Land Use Policy. 2023 March; 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106543

---

Elmond Bandauko, Robert Nutifafa Arku

International Planning Studies. 2023 January; 10.1080/13563475.2022.2137112

---

Robert Nutifafa Arku, Adrian Buttazzoni, Kwadwo Agyapon-Ntra, Elmond Bandauko

Cities. 2022 July; 130 10.1016/j.cities.2022.103857

---

Elmond Bandauko, Senanu Kwasi Kutor, Robert Nitufafa Arku

African Geographical Review. 2022 May; 42 (5):574-593 10.1080/19376812.2022.2077781

---

Elmond Bandauko, Senanu Kwasi Kutor, Godwin Arku

The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien. 2022 January; 66 (3):524-541 10.1111/cag.12743

---

Elmond Bandauko, Senanu Kwasi Kutor, Eunice Anna-Aggrey and Godwin Arku

International Development Planning Review. 2021 October; 44 (2):217–239 10.3828/idpr.2021.9

---

Elmond Bandauko, Godwin Arku, Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment. 2021 April; 37 10.1007/s10901-021-09840-1

---

Elmond Bandauko, Eunice Annan-Aggrey, Godwin Arku

Urban Research & Practice. 2021 January; 14 (1):94-104 10.1080/17535069.2020.1803641

---

View additional publications

• Google Scholar Profile