THE LATE-MODERN CITY AS A BAZAAR - DRUG MARKETS, ILLEGAL ENTERPRISE AND THE BARRICADES

The authors describe drug use and drug-related crime in the contempora ry city. In this description, they adopt a notion of the city as a mar ket-place, and more precisely as a 'bazaar', for its multiplicity, inc essant bargaining, trade and manoeuvre. In this 'bazaar' legality and illegality intermingle, and moral boundaries are constantly negotiated . They also examine the metaphor of the 'barricades', an important fea ture of the city in both literary and sociological accounts. Their vie w of the bazaar and the barricades is discussed in relation to some ke y features of the drugs economy. Finally, they demystify the image of the drugs economy as somehow being a unique challenge to urban life. T his demystification is in large part based on noting similarities betw een illegal economies and characteristics of official, legal economies .