Publications
This page will be updated with all publications related to the Security on the Move research project. These include research briefs, project reports, as well as information about peer-reviewed academic publications.
In 2024 we produced a film entitled ‘Making a living, making cities’, which we had made in collaboration with the photo-voice participants in the original research. We had re-connected with these residents of camps and resettlement areas in 2022 to get updates on their situations and get their permission to record further interviews with them for this film. Ethical approval was obtained from King’s College London (where the ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant that funded this film was awarded). In 2023 we showed the participants the film we had made, getting their input for further edits and their permission for us to release this. The film can be considered a companion piece to all of the writings shared below and features many of the people who have contributed to the research.
2025: Peter Chonka (with Gayatri Sahgal and Mahad Wasuge) publishes ‘Mobile money,(dis) empowerment and state reconstruction in Somalia’s conflicted digital economy’ in International Affairs 101, no. 1 (2025): 117-136. Open Access and free to download here.
2024: Jutta Bakonyi and Peter Chonka’s book – Precarious Urbanism: Displacement, Belonging and the Reconstruction of Somali Cities is published in paperback by Bristol University Press, available here. Listen here to a podcast recorded at the Rift Valley Institute-hosted book launch in Nairobi (March 2023).
Listen to our 2024 Global Policy Podcast ‘Displacement urbanisation and durable solutions: a researcher/practitioner dialogue’. In this podcast – the first in a new series for Global Policy – Tom Kirk hosts Jutta Bakonyi and Peter Chonka, authors of Precarious Urbanism: Displacement, belonging and the reconstruction of Somali cities (Bristol University Press, 2023), and Andrew Maina, a humanitarian practitioner from the Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat (ReDSS).
2023: Jutta Bakonyi publishes ‘Epilogue: Rhythms and space-time of violence in and of the city’ a book chapter in M. Albrecht, & A. Jenss (Eds.) volume, The spatiality and temporality of urban violence: Histories, rhythms and ruptures ( 268–283). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526165749.00021
2022: Jutta Bakonyi publishes ‘Modular Sovereignty and Infrastructural Power: The Elusive Materiality of International Statebuilding’, in Security Dialogue, 53(3), 256-278. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106211051943
Jutta Bakonyi publishes ‘War’s Everyday: Normalizing Violence and Legitimizing Power’ in Partecipazione e conflitto, 15(1), 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v15i1p121
Peter Chonka, Abdirahman Edle Ali and Kirsti Stuvøy’s article on ‘Eyes on the ground and eyes in the sky: Security narratives, participatory visual methods and knowledge production in ‘danger zones’ is published in Security Dialogue. Open access and free to download here.
Jutta Bakonyi’s article (with Mustafe Ibrahim Abdi, Nasir M. Ali and Ahmed Omer) on ‘Constant fear of eviction: how poor people experience life in Somaliland’s growing cities’ is published on The Conversation.
Jutta Bakonyi’s blog post on ‘“Embarrassment will emerge”: Sanitation at Somaliland’s urban margins’ published on InclusiveInfrastructure.org. Read it here.
2021: Jutta Bakonyi (with J Kappler, S Nag, E.-M, & Opfermann, L. S). publish ‘Precarity, Mobility and the City: Introduction to the Special Issue.’ in Global Policy, 12(S2), 5-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12946
Peter Chonka and Jutta Bakonyi’s article on ‘Precarious technoscapes: forced mobility and mobile connections at the urban margins’ is published in the Journal of the British Academy. Open Access, free to download here.
Kirsti Stuvøy, Jutta Bakonyi and Peter Chonka’s article ‘Precarious spaces and violent site effects: experiences from Hargeisa’s urban margins’ is published online in the journal Conflict, Security & Development. Open Access, free to download here.
Jutta Bakonyi and Peter Chonka’s article on ‘Precarious labour – Precarious lives: Photographic glimpses from displaced people in Somali cities’ is published in (English and French) in Afrique Contemporaine. Download here.
2020 Jutta Bakonyi’s article entitled ‘The Political Economy of Displacement: Rent Seeking, Dispossessions and Precarious Mobility in Somali Cities’ has been published online in Global Policy. The article is available for free (open access) download here.
Peter Chonka (with Yidnekachew Haile) draws on some of our Security on the Move findings (forthcoming) on displaced people’s uses of mobile phones in their literature review on ‘ICTs and Mobility in the Horn of Africa’ for the Research Evidence Facility (European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa). This open access and available to download here.
2019 The first peer-reviewed journal article from the project has been published in Political Geography. Entitled ‘War and city-making in Somalia: Property, power and disposable lives’, the article is open access and available to download for free here.
ESRC DFID Impact Initiative Brief: ‘Understanding Displacement and Urbanisation in Somali Cities’: Impact brief
Somali versions of the research briefs outlining key project findings in the four cities of Baidoa, Bosaaso, Hargeisa and Mogadishu:
Research brief papers outlining key project findings in the four cities of Baidoa, Bosaaso, Hargeisa and Mogadishu: