Thriving Economies Amidst Armed Violence Conference

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While stability, predictability, and legal certainty are commonly seen as indispensable to economic development, agro-industrial, extractive, manufacturing, and service sectors nevertheless thrive in contexts of armed violence, attracting tens of billions of dollars in international investment every year.

From the petrochemical corridor of Altamira in Mexico to Karachi’s textile and pharmaceutical plants in Pakistan; from the extraction of raw materials essential to AI in eastern DRC to banana and palm-oil plantations in Colombia’s northern Magdalena region, many leading sectors of contemporary capitalism—often presented as flagships of the formal economy—are expanding in environments marked by the daily experience of uncertainty and the presence of armed groups.

This conference examines how economic accumulation unfolds within such environments. Moving beyond narrow distinctions between legal and illegal sectors, participants will explore:

• Protection and brokerage arrangements linking firms, armed actors, and local intermediaries
• The integration of violent contexts into global supply chains
• The uneven distribution of profits, risks, and environmental costs
• The lived experience of working and residing in zones of economic expansion and insecurity

Rather than focusing solely on drug trafficking, smuggling, or conflict minerals, this conference investigates the integration of legal and illegal activities within contexts of violence, an evolving reality that has profoundly affected many societies for decades.

Bringing together scholars from diverse regional and disciplinary traditions, the conference also launches a longer-term collaborative agenda between Columbia University’s Social Study of Disappearance Lab, CERI–Sciences Po, and LAP–EHESS.

Adam Baczko — CNRS Research Associate Professor, CERI–Sciences Po; CEMCA

Adèle Blazquez — CNRS Research Associate Professor in Anthropology, LAP–EHESS; CEMCA

Claudio Lomnitz — Professor and Chair, Anthropology, Columbia University

Naor Ben-Yehoyada — Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

Taras Fedirko — Assistant Professor of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow and Research Fellow at the IWM

Laurent Gayer — CNRS Senior Research Professor, CERI–Sciences Po

Jacobo Grajales — Professor of Political Science, CESSP–Pantheon Sorbonne University

Martin Lamotte — CNRS Research Associate Professor, Director, LAP–EHESS 

Natalia Mendoza — Anthropologist and Co-Director, ALTAR: Centro de Investigación

Fernando Montero — Associate Research Scientist, Columbia  University

Rosalind Morris — Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

Michel Naepels — CNRS Research Professor, CEMS–EHESS;

David Picherit — CNRS Research Associate Professor, LESC–CNRS

Gilles Dorronsoro — Professor of Political Science, CESSP–Pantheon Sorbonne University;

Senior Fellow, Institut Universitaire de France

Susana Narotzky — Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona

The project “Thriving Economies Amidst Armed Violence” is funded by Columbia Global at Columbia University. Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across Columbia University to advance knowledge and foster global engagement.

The conference is also funded by the  Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University.

Additional support is provided by the  Alliance Program (Sciences Po / Columbia University), INCITE at Columbia University, and the Center for International Studies (CERI) the Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos (CEMCA).

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This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.

Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.

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