Critique of everyday narco-capitalism

Ghiabi, Maziyar

Abstract

Capitalism is not only an economic mode of production; it is also a form of life. This also applies to a historical type of capitalism, which is the capitalism founded on (illicit) drugs – in other words: narco-capitalism. The article discusses how capitalism alters life at the nexus of drug production, trade and consumption through a study of drug heartlands in Colombia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. What forms of life emerge under narco-capitalism? And how do people seek change and express agency in the exploitative conditions governed by narco-capital? To do so, the article proceeds through the following sections: first, it elucidates its definition of the ‘everyday’ as a conceptual and methodological scheme to understand capitalist forms of life. Then it uses material collected from people’s everyday encounter with narco-capitalism in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Colombia to discuss mystification, predation and alienation. The article explores how capitalism produces forms of life that make use of drugs and narco-capital to dispossess and alienate collectivities. Finally, the article argues that to move beyond this alienating condition, drug wars and/or development are not a solution, because drugs are not the problem. Instead, it is people’s organisation and world-building in dialectical mode to capitalist forms of life that can transform everyday life beyond predation and alienation.

Citation

Ghiabi, M. (2022). Critique of everyday narco-capitalism. Third World Quarterly, 43(11), 2557-2576. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2022.2053776

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 4, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 4, 2022
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Apr 18, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 18, 2022
• Journal: Third World Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0143-6597
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-2241
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 2557-2576
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2022.2053776
• Keywords: Everyday life, lifeworld, capitalism, Global South, drugs, social theory
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2022.2053776