This research project, which is a Sub-Project of the CRC „Rural Future Africa”, examines the violent side of future-making in East and Southern Africa. It asks whether and how the social–ecological transformations which the overall CRC investigates, namely intensification of land use and conservation, change existing forms of organized violence or create new patterns of violence.

Both transformations will be studied under the conceptual lens of frontiers. In the first phase of the CRC, this sub-project studies northern Kenya, where the government’s ‘Vision 2030’ foresees large-scale investments (LAPSSET) and a social–ecological transformation in a region that has a long history of armed violence, attributed to diverse causes ranging from resource scarcity over warrior traditions to political contest.