Addiction, Modernity, and the City

This work explores the multiple intersections between addiction and each socio-spatial permutation of what Derrida called "narcotic modernity." It identifies connections between trends in urban planning over the course of the last century and the state of intoxication inherent to individuals’ experiential engagement with the capitalist cityscape during each era of narco-modernity, and analyzes changing patterns in the production, consumption of, and response to illicit drugs, identifying and illustrating critical shifts in the nature of urban space, illicit consumption, and narcotic modernity throughout the twentieth century.