The Americas continue to experience high levels of violence attributed to drug trafficking and the soaring demand for other illegalized drugs. From June of this year through October 2028, a new research group at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) will examine how such violence shapes the daily lives of those affected while simultaneously reinforcing power structures.
The research group titled “Dimensions of Regulation: Conceptualizing the Popular in the Drugs/Violence Nexus” will examine how the demarcation between legality and illegality, security narratives, ideals of masculinity, and surveillance infrastructures shape the economy, politics, and social relations, far beyond border controls and drug enforcement.
© Marga van den Meydenberg
“Our central hypothesis is that regulation—rather than legality or illegality—offers a more productive framework for understanding the connections between psychoactive substance markets, violence, and state power,“ explains political scientist Dr. Philipp Wolfesberger from Bielefeld University. He convenes the group together Dr. Estefanía Ciro Rodriguez, director of the independent research center AlaOrillaDelRío in Columbia, sociologist Dr. Alke Jenss (Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute in Freiburg) and Oswaldo Zavala, Professor of contemporary Latin American literature and culture at the City University of New York.
For their long-term project, they invited not only researchers but also members of civil society organizations to the ZiF. „Together we aim to develop new conceptual and methodological tools to understand and transform the violent legacies of prohibitionist policies,“ says Wolfesberger.
