Governing Marketplaces

Abstract Based on studies of a handful of Somali-dominated markets in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Somaliland, this chapter scrutinizes how hybrid governance arrangements have evolved since 1991, how ethnic and social difference characterize these markets, and how the materiality of goods influences the intensity of regulation by public authorities. It also shows how “stateness” is being projected in marketplaces somewhat independently of the actual presence of state institutions. Trade operators that animate these marketplaces partake in politics of circulation by taking their business to specific markets, but also through the various market organisations that shape the daily dynamics of these marketplaces.