Master’s Programme ‘Globalization, Environment and Social Change’ and 'Theory and Method'.
Supervision of Master’s students

My research focuses on urban governance and service delivery in African cities, with particular attention to how local historical and political contexts intersect with global processes to shape governance institutions and practices. My empirical work has primarily examined municipal solid waste management and the informal economy. I am especially interested in the survival strategies of marginalized groups and the power dynamics within the complex networks of public, private, and informal actors involved in urban governance.

Current Project

Project leader

Project title: Towards an Inclusive Circular Economy: the contributions of informal workers in urban Africa.

The project seeks to advance scientific understanding of the interaction between emerging circular economy (CE) policies and informal recycling work in African cities. The interconnectedness of policies, material flows, and social practices, with attention to gender, class, and other social differentiations will be examined through a comparative qualitative analysis across Lagos, Accra, and Maputo, focusing on key sectors such as plastics, textiles, and electronics. Research Questions: How are local policies in specific cities (Lagos, Accra, Maputo) changing in relation to global discourses of CE promotion? Through what pre-existing improvised practices do informal workers keep waste or discarded products in circulation? How does the encounter between the new policies and pre-existing informal practices play out in the different cities and sectors? How do informal waste workers perceive, experience and respond to new CE policies?

Selected Publications

Adama, O. & Lindell, I. (2025). Geographies and entanglements of governance: making marketplaces governable during pandemic times in Lagos, Nigeria. International Development Planning Review, 48 (1-2) https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2025.8

Adama, O. (2023). Garbage Politics: The Global Infrastructure Turn, Local Politics and Public-Private Partnership in Lagos. Africa Review, 15, 170-195.

Ferreira, C. S. S; Adama-Ajonye, O.; et al. (2023). Groundwater Quality in Lagos Metropolis, Geography and Sustainability, 4, 379 - 390

Adama, O. (2020). Abuja is not for the Poor: Street Vending and the Politics of Public Space. Geoforum, 109, 14-23.

Adama, O. (2020). Slum upgrading in the era of World-Class city construction: the case of Lagos, Nigeria. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 12 (2): 219-235

Adama, O. (2018). Urban imaginaries: funding mega infrastructure projects in Lagos, Nigeria. GeoJournal 83 (2): 257 – 274

Adama, O. (2017). Urban imaginaries: funding mega infrastructure projects in Lagos, Nigeria. GeoJournal. DO1. 10.1007/s10708-016-8

Adama, O. (2016). Cities, municipal solid waste management, and climate change: perspectives from the South. Geography Compass, 10 (12)D01: 10.1111/geco3.12299

Adama, O & Nzeadibe, C (Eds.) (2016) Dealing with Waste: Resource Recovery and Entrepreneurship in Informal Solid Waste Management in African cities. New Jersey: Africa World/Red Sea Press 

Nzeadibe, C & Adama, O. (2015). Ingrained inequalities? Deconstructing gendered spaces in the informal waste economy of Nigeria. Urban Forum 12 (2), 113 - 130

Adama, O. (2014). Marginalisation and integration within the urban informal economy: the case of child waste pickers in Kaduna, Nigeria. International Development Planning Review, 36 (2), 155-180

Adama, O. (2012). Urban Livelihoods and Social Networks: emerging relations in informal sector recycling in Kaduna, Nigeria, Urban Forum, 23 (4), 449-466