Skrøbelige stater

A retrospective seminar with and for senior researcher Finn Stepputat

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

Occupying a square to prevent the Sharia-judge from amputating a teenager’s hand, spraying forbidden graffiti at public buildings, secretly listening to nonreligious music at home, or shouting anti-jihadist slogans with hundreds of others at a public protest: these are only a few examples of a much larger range of nonviolent resistance behavior displayed by civilians who have lived under the repressive rule of jihadists