Author Archives: Teo Ballvé

Traffick

Bhattacharyya, Gargi. 2005. Traffick: The Illicit Movement of People and Things. London: Pluto Books. Gargi Bhattacharyya argues that the wave of global politics marked by the creation of Bretton Woods financial institutions provided ripe conditions for the explosion of illicit … Continue reading

Posted in Drugs, Illegality, Law, Networks, Political Economy, The State | Comments Off on Traffick

The Global Criminal Economy

Castells, Manuel. 2000. “The Perverse Connection: The Global Criminal Economy.” In End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. III. Oxford: Blackwell. [Chapter 3] Manuel Castells sums up the scope, scale, and importance of the global criminal … Continue reading

Posted in Drugs, Elites, Illegality, Law, Networks, Political Economy, Scale, The State | 1 Comment

State Formation as Organized Crime

Tilly, Charles. 1985. “State Formation as Organized Crime.” In Evans, Peter, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol eds. Bringing the State Back In Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Charles Tilly draws an analogy between organized crime, with its practices of “protection,” and … Continue reading

Posted in Bandits, Illegality, Law, Pirates, Territory | 1 Comment

Violent Entrepreneurs

Volkov, Vadim. 2002. Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Vadim Volkov’s extremely impressive book details how an entire class of “violent entrepreneurs” became the handmaidens of the Soviet transition … Continue reading

Posted in Bandits, Critique, Dialectics, Elites, Everyday Life, Illegality, Law, Networks, Power, Sovereignty, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Violent Entrepreneurs

The Mafia of a Sicilian Village

Blok, Anton. 1974. The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860-1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs. Cambridge: Waveland Press. Anton Blok’s Mafia of a Sicilian Village is one of my favorite books. It shows how “the mafia” in Sicily emerged … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Elites, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Networks, Power, Scale, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press.  Barrington Moore’s classic study seeks to understand the role of landed upper classes and peasants in the makings … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Elites, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Post-Colonial, The State | Comments Off on Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Coffee and Power

Paige, Jeffery M. 1997. Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Jeffrey Paige’s book Coffee and Power is an exemplary piece of comparative research. In addressing three Central American countries tortured … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Elites, Historical-Geographies, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Coffee and Power

London’s Burning and that Little Four-Letter Word: Riot

This past week was record-setting in terms of site visits to Territorial Masquerades. The extraordinary numbers had everything to do with the street protests in London. Events apparently sent people in droves to the Internet searching for anything related to E.P. … Continue reading

Posted in City, Spatiality, Violence | 1 Comment

The Logic of Violence in Civil War

Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. In this massive study, Stathis Kalyvas argues that violence in civil war complies with a peculiar logic. It’s this logic that explains and fixes together … Continue reading

Posted in Carl Schmitt, Frontiers, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Michel Foucault, Sovereignty, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off on The Logic of Violence in Civil War

Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century

Wolf, Eric. 1969. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. Eric Wolf surveys the histories of six different cases of peasant involvement in rebellions and revolutions in the twentieth century. In the final chapter, he draws … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Frontiers, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Scale, Territory, The State, Violence | 1 Comment