Project description
Tracking the origins of weak or failed states
Understanding the features of weak or failed states is a challenging issue. The Horn of Africa is widely known as a geographic region that is characterised by disintegrated systems of governance and weak legitimate authority. The EU-funded StateHorn project proposes a new method based on archaeology that will provide a new vision of how statehood has been conceived, studied and analysed in the Horn of Africa. The project will focus on the medieval period in northern Somalia and south-eastern Ethiopia. This is considered a period during which actual political, economic and demographic characteristics emerged. StateHorn envisages developing a theory able to analyse regions with weak or failed states.
Objective
The StateHorn Project presents a radically new, archaeology-based approach to one of the key issues in the contemporary world: the nature and characteristics of weak and failed states. Based in the Horn of Africa, an area widely known by recurrent problems of fragmented systems of governance and legitimate authority, the StateHorn project aims to build an alternative vision on the ways statehood has been conceptualized, studied and analyzed in the region. It will do it from a archaeological, deeper past perspective which will take as its focus the medieval period (1100—1600) in northern Somalia and south-eastern Ethiopia, a period which saw the emergence of the defining political, demographic and economic characteristics which have shaped the modern region until the present day. The project aims to understand the nature and conceptualization of the medieval states in this region, which were the roots of their legitimacy and power and how they related with their populations and other neighbouring states.
Organized around five Research Lines (Territory, Material Culture, Written and Oral Sources, Urbanization and Trade), the State Horn project will complement archaeological information with written historical sources, oral traditions, linguistics, literature and ethnography to present the most comprehensive study of statehood in the Horn of Africa during the medieval period. It will also move beyond an enclosed, isolated study of a specific historical period to develop a theory of statehood in the Horn of Africa which is at the same time coherent with the archaeological and historical sources and useful to analyze the current political situation in the region and any other places where weak or failed states are present.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.