Life in the Ant Trails: Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

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Life in the Ant Trails : Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau. / Vigh, Henrik Erdman.

In: Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, Vol. 2019, No. 85, 2019, p. 15-25.

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Vigh, HE 2019, 'Life in the Ant Trails: Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau', Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, vol. 2019, no. 85, pp. 15-25. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2019.850102

APA

Vigh, H. E. (2019). Life in the Ant Trails: Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 2019(85), 15-25. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2019.850102

Vancouver

Vigh HE. Life in the Ant Trails: Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 2019;2019(85):15-25. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2019.850102

Author

Vigh, Henrik Erdman. / Life in the Ant Trails : Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau. In: Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 2019 ; Vol. 2019, No. 85. pp. 15-25.

Bibtex

@article{c8ff5c1ed30b4c609d431cf2ca09d7a3,
title = "Life in the Ant Trails: Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau",
abstract = "This article looks ethnographically at the cocaine trade in and through Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. It clarifies some of the less obvious aspects of illegal cross-border trade and ties the minor flow of drugs, often trafficked by the desperate and disenfranchised, to larger global dynamics. While international media and commentators alike frequently depict transnational organized crime as a pathogen attacking the healthy global order, a closer look at the Bissau cocaine trade clarifies that the trade is neither external nor parasitical but integral to it. The trade{\textquoteright}s grasp of Bissau is anchored in enduring critical circumstance, stretching from the social to the political, and displays several ironic feedback loops and interdependencies linking misfortune in time and space. The article thus shows how negative conditions may travel and circulate in a manner that ramifies vulnerability across economic and political borders.",
keywords = "Faculty of Social Sciences, caustic circuits, cocaine trade, interdependency, transnational organized crime",
author = "Vigh, {Henrik Erdman}",
year = "2019",
doi = "10.3167/fcl.2019.850102",
language = "English",
volume = "2019",
pages = "15--25",
journal = "Focaal",
issn = "0920-1297",
publisher = "Berghahn",
number = "85",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Life in the Ant Trails

T2 - Cocaine and caustic circuits in Bissau

AU - Vigh, Henrik Erdman

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - This article looks ethnographically at the cocaine trade in and through Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. It clarifies some of the less obvious aspects of illegal cross-border trade and ties the minor flow of drugs, often trafficked by the desperate and disenfranchised, to larger global dynamics. While international media and commentators alike frequently depict transnational organized crime as a pathogen attacking the healthy global order, a closer look at the Bissau cocaine trade clarifies that the trade is neither external nor parasitical but integral to it. The trade’s grasp of Bissau is anchored in enduring critical circumstance, stretching from the social to the political, and displays several ironic feedback loops and interdependencies linking misfortune in time and space. The article thus shows how negative conditions may travel and circulate in a manner that ramifies vulnerability across economic and political borders.

AB - This article looks ethnographically at the cocaine trade in and through Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. It clarifies some of the less obvious aspects of illegal cross-border trade and ties the minor flow of drugs, often trafficked by the desperate and disenfranchised, to larger global dynamics. While international media and commentators alike frequently depict transnational organized crime as a pathogen attacking the healthy global order, a closer look at the Bissau cocaine trade clarifies that the trade is neither external nor parasitical but integral to it. The trade’s grasp of Bissau is anchored in enduring critical circumstance, stretching from the social to the political, and displays several ironic feedback loops and interdependencies linking misfortune in time and space. The article thus shows how negative conditions may travel and circulate in a manner that ramifies vulnerability across economic and political borders.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - caustic circuits

KW - cocaine trade

KW - interdependency

KW - transnational organized crime

U2 - 10.3167/fcl.2019.850102

DO - 10.3167/fcl.2019.850102

M3 - Journal article

VL - 2019

SP - 15

EP - 25

JO - Focaal

JF - Focaal

SN - 0920-1297

IS - 85

ER -

ID: 227622304