Urban Public Works, Drug Trafficking and Militias: What Are the Consequences of the Interactions Between Community Work and Illicit Markets?

Abstract

This paper explores some of the interactions between community workers, drug traffickers and militiamen in the city of Rio de Janeiro and in the Baixada Fluminense region. It is mainly intended to examine and compare the tensions created by the territorialization of social housing policies into drug gang-controlled favelas and militia-controlled areas. To conduct this examina-tion, I specifically sought to grasp how the interactions between public policy agents and illicit market actors can be framed (in the goffmanian sense) to avoid the use of force and how different interactional framings impact drug and illegal security markets. My fieldwork and interviews with community workers allowed me to identify two lines of argument successful in maintaining social interactions and pushing away the use of force: the good of the community and the good of the business. I argue that the negotiations between community workers, drug traffickers and militiamen eventually fuel illicit markets in unexpected manners.