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GOVSEA – Governing Economic Hubs and Flows in Somali East Africa

Funded by the consultative research committee for development research (FFU) this research program aims at contributing to a better understanding of key economic and political processes that have shaped state formation in Somali East Africa, including Somaliland, Puntland, and parts of Ethiopia and Kenya with Somali speaking populations. Looking at how trade and transport is organized along three transnational corridors in the region, the project seeks to explain how the daily management of market centers, transport facilities and commodities contributes to state-building and -erosion in the area. The project runs from 2014-2019.

Photo by Finn Stepputat
Read more about the project

 
Research will focus on livestock and selected consumer goods, looking at

  1. how trade- and transport operators manage these goods,
  2. how operations effect the distribution of security, revenue and regulation, and
  3. how these processes produce different types of authority.

The program is carried out by a consortium, comprising Roskilde University, DIIS, Hargeisa University, University of Addis Ababa, and the University of Nairobi. The consortium aims at strengthening qualitative social science research capacities in Somali East Africa.

Contact: Finn Stepputat, or Program director Tobias Hagmann at Roskilde University

Research and activites

  • Trade makes states book cover
    Photo/illustration by Finn Stepputat (background picture)
    Livestreaming

    Trade makes states: Governing the greater Somali economy

    DIIS Auditorium
    The control of trade and transport is key to statemaking. A new book suggests that this, rather than the control of people and territory, can make or unmake state projects in areas like Somalia. This seminar introduces the ideas behind the book

Contact

Finn Stepputat
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Finn Stepputat

Peace and violence
Emeritus Researcher
+45 3269 8685
fst@diis.dk