Coping with Extortion
On Violence, Parasites, and Water Infrastructures in Buenaventura, Colombia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5710919 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Felipe Fernández (0000-0002-1553-019X, Freie Universität Berlin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 296-309 |
| Publication date | 2022-12-21 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Illicit Economies and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2516-7227 • E-ISSN: 2516-7227 |
| Publisher | LSE Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.31389/jied.124 |
| OpenAlex | W4312344648 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
In this paper, I explore the coping mechanisms deployed by shopkeepers in the face of extortion in the port city of Buenaventura, in southwestern Colombia. Relying on six months of fieldwork experience in a hardware shop of Ciudad Blanca, an impoverished neighborhood, I examine the everyday violence and the responses of the population. Due to the deficient infrastructure in the city, people are forced to build small infrastructural arrangements, such as water storage systems, to access public services. Therefore, the circulation and availability of infrastructural devices such as pipes, hoses, and tanks are vital for the reproduction of life in the city. In this article, I argue that extortion (locally calledvacuna(‘vaccine’)) interferes in the circulation of these vital material commodities, making coping mechanisms crucial in the face of vulnerability and uncertainty. Recent scholarly literature has pointed to the influence of illegal economies in urban planning and organization. Going beyond that, I argue that organized crime interferes in the material practices of the urban poor, turning to the term ‘parasite’ posed by French philosopher Michel Serres to conceptualize this form of interference in the circulation of commodities
Business · Computer security · Criminology · Extortion · Political science · Population · Sociology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Psychology · Water Governance and Infrastructure
Disrupting the Rhythms of Violence
Buenaventura, Colombia
Invisible power and visible everyday resistance in the violent Colombian Pacific
Beyond displacement
El paro cívico de 2017 en Buenaventura, Colombia. Protesta social y transformación del poder político
Submergence
Pirate Towns
Un-civil society
Global flows and everyday violence in urban space
Another History of Violence
Beyond the Enclave of Urban Theory
In harm's way at the urban margins
Municipal disconnect
Walls and white elephants
Infrastructural violence
Cities of Uncertainty
Out of Order
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
States of Insecurity
Phatic labor, infrastructure, and the question of empowerment in Cairo
Enemies, Parasites, and Noise
Pressure
Culture of Terror-Space of Death. Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |