Armed groups and the organization of work in the real estate market

Abstract

The article results from a broader investigation into the real estate market in slums. Here, I focus on characterizing the actions of armed groups and their mode of organization in this market. In the first section, I argue that the armed groups are not the only ones active in real estate promotion in the slums; on the contrary, there is a diversity of agents, and I ground the growth and profitability of this activity in the very dynamics of accumulation inherent in the capitalist society. In the second and third sections, I characterize the organizational structures of drug trafficking and the militia in the real estate market. In the conclusion section, I defend the hypothesis that these organizational structures, in fact, mirror the neoliberal organization of work and are justified by it.