ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book talks about the socio-economic and spatial impacts of regional planning policy on the living standards and well-being of communities within a political-administrative and planning region in Ghana. The regional problem is the identification and assessment of the nature and behaviour of disparities in socio-economic well-being and spatial development, over time and under various planning and development policies within the Central Region; also reflective of the situation in other regions of Ghana. Thus strategic regional change is perceived and assessed in two ways. The first relates to one-off and sector-based disparities in terms of a multiple set of socio-economic and spatial indicators between the districts within the Central Region. The second is at the level of well-being between more specific and local communities in relation to an agro-industrial initiative, the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation project-complex, in the Twifo sub-region in the Region.
