How anthropologist Anna Tsing, deploy mushrooms as a metaphor for how life may regrow in capitalist ruins. Is this the approach we need to investigate the entanglement of illicit drug economies in conflict-affected borderlands, asks Eric Gutierrez?
Taking a political slogan seriously – reflections on a Policy Lab
Can a Policy Lab help us to further the debate on what constitutes good public policy decision-making?
Criminal entrepreneurs as pioneers, intermediaries, and arbitrageurs in borderland economies
This paper assesses the life stories of drug lords, the Castaño brothers of Colombia and Roberto Suárez Gomez of Bolivia.
Illegality, violence and fragility: do they breed each other?
This common assumption doesn’t always hold true. Eric Gutierrez looks to the real problems: inequality, marginalisation and exclusion.
The paradox of illicit economies: survival, resilience, and the limits of development and drug policy orthodoxy
This paper maps out an approach to examine the resilience that has emerged amidst violence and uncertainty in illicit-crop-producing territories.
A curious case of unusual economic transformation
Explaining and challenging dominant narratives around illicit crops and development, using the curious case of Myanmar.