While organized crime is mainly studied in relation to expanding illicit economies and the movement of people, arms and drugs across internal and external borders – as well as to military and police responses to such movement – cities assume a crucial role in this context. As spaces that concentrate economic wealth and political power, cities are prone to struggles over the distribution of resources and often become arenas in which negotiations between the formal state and illicit actors, such as militia, mafia, drug trafficking and paramilitary groups, take place.
This evening, we will discuss how organized crime has affected urbanization by investigating the influential role of organized crime in urban planning and organization. In her keynote address, professor Diane Davis will historicize the illicit side of urbanization in Latin America and demonstrate how modernist planning efforts have been complicit in the production of urban illegality. Francesco Chiodelli will respond to the keynote, drawing on his research on informal urbanization, corruption and organized crime in Italy.
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