Moving beyond the current fixation on "state construction," the interdisciplinary work gathered here explores regulatory authority in South Sudan's borderlands from both contemporary and historical perspectives. Taken together, these studies show how emerging governance practices challenge the bounded categorizations of "state" and "non-state."

Papers from a workshop held at Durham University in April 2011.

Secessionism perseveres as a complex political phenomenon in Africa, yet often a more in-depth analysis is overshadowed by the aspirational simplicity of pursuing a new state.