Margins and Metropoles: Illicit Economies and the Making of Uneven Development

Illicit economies are not confined to the margins of global development. This research examines how frontier and borderland regions are connected to rapidly developing metropolitan hubs through extraction, labour, trade, infrastructure and illicit supply chains. Introducing the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’, it shows how violence, poverty and environmental degradation can be produced by the unequal integration of these regions into wider political economies. The paper also challenges the separation of licit and illicit activity, demonstrating how informal and illegal economies can intersect with formal markets and metropolitan development. It argues for policy responses that address the broader systems that enable these connections, rather than focusing solely on borderlands.

Professor Jonathan Goodhand (SOAS University of London)

Dr Patrick Meehan (University of Manchester)

Xu Peng (Manchester / SOAS CIVAD )

August 2026