Trade makes states: Governing the greater Somali economy

Tuesday 16 May 2023, 15.30-16.45
DIIS ∙ Danish Institute for International Studies
Auditorium
Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, 2100 Copenhagen

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.

SPEAKERS
Finn Stepputat is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). He works on state formation, sovereignty, logistics, and armed conflict, and is co-editor and co-author of ‘Trade makes states’, ‘States of imagination’ and other volumes.

José-María Muñoz is a Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at the University of Edinburgh and works on the governance of trade, business and transport in West Africa. He’s the author of ‘Doing Business in Cameroon: An Anatomy of Economic Governance’, and contributed to ‘Transport corridors in Africa’.

Vanessa van den Boogaard is a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Tax and Development at the University of Sussex, and a Senior Research Associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (University of Toronto). She has published extensivly on the politics of (informal) taxation, tax reform, state, and armed groups in Sierra Leone and Somalia.

Ahmed Musa is a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo and RAKO in Hargeisa, working on aid, humanitarianism and informal economic governance in Somali areas. Among other publications, Dr. Musa has co-authored a chapter on taxation for Trade Makes States.

Kirstine Stroh Varming, PhD, independent researcher, has published on taxation, statemaking, street venders and citizenship in Puntland and Kenya. Dr. Varming has co-authored two chapters for Trade Makes States.

Peer Schouten is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), where he works on the political economy of armed conflict and the politics of logistics and infrastructure in DR Congo, CAR, South Sudan and Somalia. He recently published the book ‘Roadblock Politics’.

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

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The seminar will be held in English. Physical participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use our registration form https://www.diis.dk/en/node/26355/

Livestream does not require registration. The video livestream will appear on this page just before the seminar starts.