VEUS RAVAL 

VEUS RAVAL is a five-year ethnographic project examining the narcotics market in El Raval, Barcelona. With Rafael Clua-Garcia, we examine the relationship between the narcotics market and health, law enforcement, urban, and social policies. Specifically, we analyse the narcopisos phenomenon, namely the illegitimate occupation of public or private properties by criminal organisations to sell drugs to clients using them on-site. We problematise narcopisos as a dynamic and open-ended illegal organisational response to drug law enforcement, pressure from local communities, key limitations of harm reduction policies, and structural vulnerability.

Our book —Narcopisos. Drugs, Crime, and Urban Marginalisation in Barcelona (forthcoming in 2027 at Edicions Bellaterra) is the culmination of three years of ethnographic fieldwork on the social process of contemporary drug trafficking in its relationship with health, law enforcement, urban, and social policies. We critically investigate the relationship between organised crime and public policies in the urban space, offering an insider look into the working lives of the drug dealers, people who use drugs, police officers, harm reduction workers, and residents.

Recent publications include: 

"Under Threats" (Qualitative Research)

"The legal embeddness of criminal organisations (The Academy of Management Discoveries)

"Drugs, Urban Marginalisation, and Law Enforcement in Barcelona (Sociology)

"Frightening yet fulfilling: Vulnerability, Precarity, and the Labour of Harm Reduction (Work, Employment, and Society)

Violence in harm reduction: Exploring the social, political, and emotional conditions of harm reduction work (Medical Anthropology Quarterly).