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All Outputs (41)

Port Infrastructures and the Making of Historical Time in the Horn of Africa: Narratives of Urban Modernity in Djibouti and Somaliland (2025)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J., & Darwich, M. (2025). Port Infrastructures and the Making of Historical Time in the Horn of Africa: Narratives of Urban Modernity in Djibouti and Somaliland. Cities, 159, Article 105781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2025.105781

As infrastructures mushroom across Africa, this article investigates narratives accompanying infrastructural investments in East African cities, Djibouti-city (Djibouti) and Berbera (Somaliland). While cities in the Global North move towards a post-i... Read More about Port Infrastructures and the Making of Historical Time in the Horn of Africa: Narratives of Urban Modernity in Djibouti and Somaliland.

Infrastructures and International Relations: A Critical Reflection on Materials and Mobilities (2024)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J., & Darwich, M. (2024). Infrastructures and International Relations: A Critical Reflection on Materials and Mobilities. International Studies Review, 26(4), Article viae046. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viae046

In a world of accelerated movements, this article examines how infrastructures matter in international relations. We first show that the International Relations (IR) discipline has relegated infrastructures to the background of their studies and trea... Read More about Infrastructures and International Relations: A Critical Reflection on Materials and Mobilities.

Capitalism and Infrastructural Ordering: (Re)Crafting of Statehood and Territorial Power (2024)
Book Chapter
Bakonyi, J., & Darwich, M. (in press). Capitalism and Infrastructural Ordering: (Re)Crafting of Statehood and Territorial Power. In H.-J. Bieling, T. Diez, R. Flemmer, & A. Futterer (Eds.), Transnational Infrastructures and the Transformation of Global Orders. Cham: Springer Nature

This chapter examines how capitalism is enabled by and anchored in the development and expansion of infrastructures. We show that infrastructures are more than just materials that enable movement. They facilitate the expansion of capitalist relations... Read More about Capitalism and Infrastructural Ordering: (Re)Crafting of Statehood and Territorial Power.

Performing the Protection of Civilians Mandate: Experiences of African Military Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Federal Republic of Somalia (2023)
Preprint / Working Paper
Bakonyi, J., Flaspöler, A., Lugano, G., & Thill, M. (2023). Performing the Protection of Civilians Mandate: Experiences of African Military Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Federal Republic of Somalia

The Protection of Civilians (PoC) became a central norm in international peacekeeping and often rationalizes the use of force in peace interventions. The successes, failures and ambiguities of the PoC mandate implementation were critically explored i... Read More about Performing the Protection of Civilians Mandate: Experiences of African Military Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Epilogue: Rhythms and space-time of violence in and of the city (2023)
Book Chapter
Bakonyi, J. (2023). Epilogue: Rhythms and space-time of violence in and of the city. In M. Albrecht, & A. Jenss (Eds.), The spatiality and temporality of urban violence: Histories, rhythms and ruptures ( 268–283). Manchester: Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526165749.00021

The epilogue interrogates the book chapters’ understanding of violence and the city. Both violence and the city seem to resist attempts towards conceptualisation. The authors’ thick empirical descriptions, however, allow to carve out temporal and spa... Read More about Epilogue: Rhythms and space-time of violence in and of the city.

Precarious Urbanism: Displacement, Belonging and the Reconstruction of Somali Cities (2023)
Book
Bakonyi, J., & Chonka, P. (2023). Precarious Urbanism: Displacement, Belonging and the Reconstruction of Somali Cities. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529215229.001.0001

This book explores relationships between war, displacement, and city-making. Focusing on people seeking refuge in Somali cities after being forced to migrate by violence, environmental shocks or economic pressures, it highlights how in-migrants are a... Read More about Precarious Urbanism: Displacement, Belonging and the Reconstruction of Somali Cities.

War's Everyday: Normalizing Violence and Legitimizing Power (2022)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J. (2022). War's Everyday: Normalizing Violence and Legitimizing Power. Partecipazione e conflitto, 15(1), 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v15i1p121

The article studies the everyday of violent conflicts and wars. It uses Somalia as a case study to explore how ordinary people experience and legitimize actors of violence. Building on biographic interviews, I show how violence became a normalized as... Read More about War's Everyday: Normalizing Violence and Legitimizing Power.

Precarious technoscapes: forced mobility and mobile connections at the urban margins (2021)
Journal Article
Chonka, P., & Bakonyi, J. (2021). Precarious technoscapes: forced mobility and mobile connections at the urban margins. Journal of the British Academy, 9(s11), 67-91. https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/009s11.067

Displaced people settling at the margins of Somali cities live in conditions of extreme precarity. They are also active users of information and communications technology (ICTs), employing mobile phones to maintain social networks, obtain information... Read More about Precarious technoscapes: forced mobility and mobile connections at the urban margins.

Modular Sovereignty and Infrastructural Power: The Elusive Materiality of International Statebuilding (2021)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J. (2022). Modular Sovereignty and Infrastructural Power: The Elusive Materiality of International Statebuilding. Security Dialogue, 53(3), 256-278. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106211051943

This article uses the example of the Mogadishu International Airport zone and takes a spatio-temporal lens to explore how (sovereign) power unfolds in international interventions that aim at building a sovereign state. I show that the Mogadishu Inter... Read More about Modular Sovereignty and Infrastructural Power: The Elusive Materiality of International Statebuilding.

Precarious spaces and violent site effects: experiences from Hargeisa’s urban margins (2021)
Journal Article
Stuvøy, K., Bakonyi, J., & Chonka, P. (2021). Precarious spaces and violent site effects: experiences from Hargeisa’s urban margins. Conflict, Security and Development, 21(2), 153-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2021.1920230

This paper addresses precarity from a spatial perspective. It draws attention to how power becomes inscribed in urban space and shapes particular spatial arrangements connected with socio-economic vulnerabilities. This is empirically illustrated with... Read More about Precarious spaces and violent site effects: experiences from Hargeisa’s urban margins.

Precarity, Mobility and the City: Introduction to the Special Issue (2021)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J., Kappler, S., Nag, E.-M., & Opfermann, L. S. (2021). Precarity, Mobility and the City: Introduction to the Special Issue. Global Policy, 12(S2), 5-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12946

Drawing on empirically rich and theoretically grounded case studies, the articles in this issue explore ways in which global governmental processes affect mobility and, similarly, how seemingly local movements impact upon global processes.

The Political Economy of Displacement: Rent Seeking, Dispossession and Precarious Mobility in Somali Cities (2020)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J. (2021). The Political Economy of Displacement: Rent Seeking, Dispossession and Precarious Mobility in Somali Cities. Global Policy, 12(S2), 10-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12849

Displacement is urbanizing. Urban violence increasingly contributes to displacement while a growing number of displaced people across the globe seeks refuge in cities. This article builds on original research in four Somali cities to explore the link... Read More about The Political Economy of Displacement: Rent Seeking, Dispossession and Precarious Mobility in Somali Cities.

War and City-Making in Somalia: Property, Power and Disposable Lives (2019)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J., Chonka, P., & Stuvoy, K. (2019). War and City-Making in Somalia: Property, Power and Disposable Lives. Political Geography, 73, 82-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2019.05.009

Rapid urbanisation in Somalia, as in many other war-torn countries, is driven by in-migration of displaced people who are often amassed in camps. Although such camps become institutionalised sites of exclusion where ‘bare life’ is generated and dispo... Read More about War and City-Making in Somalia: Property, Power and Disposable Lives.

Failing States and Statebuilding (2019)
Book Chapter
Bakonyi, J. (2019). Failing States and Statebuilding. In K. Larres, & R. Wittlinger (Eds.), Understanding global politics : actors and themes in international affairs. Routledge

Governing Endemic Crisis. Violence and Legitimacy in the Lives of Somalis (2018)
Book Chapter
Bakonyi, J. (2018). Governing Endemic Crisis. Violence and Legitimacy in the Lives of Somalis. In M. Keating, & M. Waldman (Eds.), War and peace in Somalia : national grievances, local conflict and Al-Shabaab (49-60). Hurst. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190947910.001.0001

This chapter builds on interviews with Somali migrants in Kenya. It explores how Somali citizens evaluate attempts to establish political authority in Somalia, and what aspects of these attempts they consider as legitimate. Against the context of ‘en... Read More about Governing Endemic Crisis. Violence and Legitimacy in the Lives of Somalis.

Seeing like Bureaucracies: Rearranging Knowledge and Ignorance in Somalia (2018)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J. (2018). Seeing like Bureaucracies: Rearranging Knowledge and Ignorance in Somalia. International Political Sociology, 12(3), 256-273. https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/oly010

Development promotes bureaucratization, and bureaucracies are based on knowledge and produce knowledge. Failures of development are therefore regularly attributed to a lack of knowledge. The article argues that the quest for knowledge is embedded in... Read More about Seeing like Bureaucracies: Rearranging Knowledge and Ignorance in Somalia.

Der Alltag des Krieges. Herrschaftserfahrungen in Somalia / The war everyday : experiencing authority in Somalia (2018)
Journal Article
Bakonyi, J. (2018). Der Alltag des Krieges. Herrschaftserfahrungen in Somalia / The war everyday : experiencing authority in Somalia. Mittelweg 36, 27(2), 32-57

(…) Die Untersuchung nichtstaatlicher Gewaltakteure und deren Versuche, Kontrolle über Territorien und Menschen zu erlangen und dauerhaft zu sichern, erfolgte im Kontext der in den 1990er-Jahren einsetzenden Diskussion über scheiternde oder gefährdet... Read More about Der Alltag des Krieges. Herrschaftserfahrungen in Somalia / The war everyday : experiencing authority in Somalia.

An Evaluation of Hogaan iyo Nabad: A Community Driven Governance Programme in Somalia/Somaliland (2015)
Report
Bakonyi, J., Cohen, G., & Bedard, P. (2015). An Evaluation of Hogaan iyo Nabad: A Community Driven Governance Programme in Somalia/Somaliland. [No known commissioning body]

The report presents the results of an evaluation of Hogaan iyo Nabad, a Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) programme in Somaliland and Somalia.The programme was funded by DFID and implemented by CARE, DRC and IRC, and aimed at strengthening local... Read More about An Evaluation of Hogaan iyo Nabad: A Community Driven Governance Programme in Somalia/Somaliland.