Everyday violence and limited statehood. An extended case study in an urban margin of Culiacan, Sinaloa

Abstract

This article examines how normative informality within a context of limited statehood shapes ontological security and subjectivity in an urban margin of Culiacan, Sinaloa. Drawing on an extended case study and thirteen months of  ethnographic fieldwork—including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and situational analysis—it analyzes everyday practices, personal
testimonies, and contextual  data on crime incidence and institutional distrust. The  findings indicate that, rather than a normative vacuum, a parallel order emerges that regulates public space,  legitimizes forms of lateral justice, and normalizes  everyday violence. The study’s principal limitation lies in its single-case scope, although its dynamics are comparable to those observed in other urban margins. Its contribution  resides in empirically articulating the relationship between ontological security and limited statehood through ethnographic evidence. The article concludes that violence is
not exceptional but constitutive of a structuring informal social order that reconfigures the very meaning of legality.