Abstract

In our increasingly complex world, unequal and opaque forms taken by the sovereign exercise of power make it difficult to grasp global logics of violence in the reproduction of capital in the 21st century. In this article, we highlight a violence-economy-infrastructure-nexus as a perspective in order to approach such a field of research. By analyzing infrastructure projects under construction, i.e. Tren Maya in Mexico and Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka, we trace their background conditions and investigate their effects at multiple scales. A not yet researched joint study of two national contexts that are so-called ex-colonies with different histories, yet both still strikingly characterized by patterns of extreme violence, allows us to analyze how these spaces are currently transforming under global postcolonial conditions - through and beyond infrastructure. We will show that racialisation and racialised killings and displacement as well as commodification of people, land and nature go hand in hand with such projects which create new zones and corridors for the expansion of capital. Herefore, a consolidation of marxist and critical postcolonial thought enables us to demonstrate the economic potential of violence.

Key Points