Drugs, Violence, Fear, and Death: The Necro- and Narco-Geographies of Contemporary Urban Space

Abstract

This study considers the ways that narcotics, violence, and death affect contemporary urban space. Though geographers have long investigated patterns of drug use and death in cities, few have analyzed how drugs and homicide-with the capabilities to alter both bodies and space—produce change and profoundly influence urban sociospatial contexts. By unpacking multiple narratives of daily violence and drug use from the favela community of Pirambu in Fortaleza, Brazil, the need is shown for nuanced spatial analytics that treat the relationships between narcotics, homicide, and fear, and account for their roles in shaping everyday urban landscapes. Important for understanding the interconnected spatial relationships between past and present (and future) events, necro- and narco-geographies also shed light on the ways that people encounter and experience space in a growing number of urban contexts worldwide.

Keywords:

• death
• drugs
• homicide
• fear
• favela
• Brazil