Conflict and violence: reflections on anomy in the contemporary world

Abstract

Based on a critical analysis of the essay Law and Order (1985) by Ralf Dahrendorf about the erosion of law and order in contemporary society, this article reviews the arguments of the essay pointing out the changes involved in the modes of subjection of the individuals. What is in question in the present turn-of-the-century context of radical transformations is rather the way individuals govern themselves and each other (Foucault, 1984) than the liberation of each individual from social ties and controls – the problem of “ligatures”. In order to justify this hypothesis, the analytical reference is a specific case: the colonization of urban criminality by organized crime, specially by one of the most emblematic examples of violence production in contemporary world: drug-trafficking.