In this episode, the speakers dive into the JIED special issue 'Illicities - City-Making and Organized Crime'.

Cities concentrate economic wealth and political power, leading to conflicts over social organization, political participation, and resource distribution. Scholars in the social sciences, particularly urban geography, have long examined the unequal modes and effects of value production and extraction in cities, emphasizing their connection to capitalist interests, neoliberal deregulation, and global investment flows. These studies have critiqued the exploitative nature of neoliberal urban development. However, cities also serve as arenas where collaborations between formal states and illicit actors occur, necessitating a closer examination of the deep intertwining of illicit activities and city-making in social and material terms.

As a whole, the Special Issue focuses on the contested efforts of competing governance actors to establish territorial control through violence in urban areas. By bringing the process of state-making to the city, the editors and authors see the concept of city-making as a way of claiming sovereignty that recognizes the political materiality of cities. In this context, criminal organizations and groups also seek to assert themselves or benefit from city-making processes, making infrastructural and other material aspects important indicators of power dynamics and contested vehicles for political authority.

Presenter(s):

Frank Müller, Urban Geographer at the University of Amsterdam, Global Fellow of the Marie Curie program of the ERC. Co-editor of the JIED Special Issue.

Julienne Weegels, Co-Founder of Research network 'Illicities' and co-editor of the JIED Special Issue. Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA), Amsterdam.

Guests:

Lirio Gutierrez Rivera, Associate Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Medellín.

Felipe Fernandez, Postdoctoral Researcher at the International Graduate School “Temporalities of Future” at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität, Berlin.

Carolina Grillo, Assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the Fluminense Federal University, associate researcher at the Nucleus for the Study of Citizenship, Conflict and Urban Violence.

Links:

Special Issue - Illicities - City-Making and Organized Crime

Lirio's paper - Agency in Contexts of Violence and Crime: Coping Strategies of Women Community Leaders vis-à-vis Criminal Groups in Medellín, Colombia.

Felipe's paper - Coping with Extortion: On Violence, Parasites, and Water Infrastructures in Buenaventura, Colombia.

Carolina's paper - The Expansion of Milícias in Rio de Janeiro. Political and Economic Advantages.

Julienne's paper - Illicit City-Making and Its Materialities. Introduction to the Special Issue.

Frank's paper - Housing Security: Placing Brazil’s Social Housing Program in a Violent Context.

Journal of Illicit Economies and Development