Illicit economies and the carceral social zone

The author discusses the features of marginalised communities in European and Usa cities. Setting off with an analysis of Loic Wacquant's work on 'hyperghettoes', he delineates the illicit economies allowing such urban sites to survive and reproduce themselves. After noting that the conditions of such settings are not conducive to organised protest, he then defines the type of punishment to which their members are subjected. Rather than pure repression, the author sees some educational aspects in the disciplinary mechanism imposed on 'hyperghettoes'. Such aspects, he concludes, are meant to lower the expectation of those targeted and force them to adapt to marginalised and precarious social conditions