Livestreaming
Trade makes states: Governing the greater Somali economy
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Marketplaces, transport corridors, ports, traders, and tax officers, but also mobile money, social networks and trust, are the protagonists of a new book, 'Trade Makes States', that points to the circulation of goods as central to Somali societies, economies and politics.
Drawing on multi-site research from across East Africa's Somali-inhabited economic space–including parts of Kenya and Ethiopia–the contributors to this volume highlight the interconnection between trade and state-building after the Somali state collapse. It analyzes the "politics of circulation" involving competing and emerging public administrations, which seek to generate revenue and to control infrastructures along major trade corridors.
Connecting classic debates on state formation with recent scholarship on logistics and cross-border trading, Trade Makes States argues that the facilitation and capture of commodity flows have been instrumental in making and unmaking states across the Somali territories. Aspiring state-builders are thus confronted with the challenge of governing the flow of goods in order to rule over lands and peoples. The contributors to this volume draw attention to the ingenuities of transnational Somali markets, which often appear to be self-governed. Their dynamism and everyday administration by a host of actors provide insights into contemporary state formation on the margins of global supply-chain capitalism.
Programme
15.30-15.35 Introduction, Peer Schouten
15.35-15.50 Book presentation, Finn Stepputat
15.50-16.10 Comments by José-María Muñoz and Vanessa van den Boogaard
16.10-16.45 Q&A, Finn Stepputat, Ahmed Musa and Kirstine Stroh Varming (tbc)
16.45 Reception