Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the transformation of Somali society into transnational networks through the agency of two actors; these actors and networks reflect both a history of crisis as well as a continued engagement with crisis as they pursue their developmental goals and livelihood strategies.

Paper long abstract:

Much of Somali society in the Horn of Africa is incorporated into near continual processes of 'crisis'; subject to political volatility, conflict as well as natural disasters. One of the outcomes of this context has been and remains very high levels of displacement, mobility as well as the evolution of a highly significant regional and global diaspora population/s. This paper takes up the case of two individual actors who are embedded within that history and landscape. From their physical location in an urban U.K. context, these individuals are explored for their agency in relation to multiple settings; the UK, Ethiopia and Somalia. Their 'simultaneous incorporation' into social and political processes located both in a destination country and transnationally is the 'every day normal' of Somali society and is part of a reformulation of society and politics beyond the borders of the nation state. The paper explores the multiple identities, technologies, organisations and networks through which agency is expressed; these include clan and national identities, 'community' organisations, a mosque and a website, each with different local and transnational meaning. The notions of social fields and social remittances are drawn upon in order to help define and locate these processes, which are also analysed as expressions of livelihood.

Paper Download (651 KB)