New Working Paper provides insight into the state formation in Puntland

New paper highlights how new taxes and attempts to manage urban space contribute to the constitution of state authority.

In a new working paper, ‘The experiential limits of the state: territory and taxation in Garoowe, Puntland', Roskilde University anthropologist Kirstine Strøh Varming provides the reader with unique insights into everyday state formation in northeastern Somalia.

Based on extensive fieldwork in Puntland’s capital Garoowe this paper highlights how new taxes and attempts to manage urban space contribute to the constitution of state authority.

Garoowe Municipality’s efforts to collect a parking tax and to regulate the city’s multiple gas stations trigger both acceptance and rejection of state interventions in the context of a growing Puntland national identity. Both the potentials and limits of state authority become visible in this case study.

This Working Paper is part of the GOVSEA PAPER SERIES (Governing Economic Hubs and Flows in Somali East Africa) edited by Tobias Hagmann and Finn Stepputat.