In low-income neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, many residents see criminal leaders known as dons as legitimate rulers. While outsiders use labels such as “drug kingpin” or “vicious predator” to describe these men, locally they do not only or primarily inspire fear, but also respect, trust, and even love. The most powerful ones are known as “heroes” or “legends” to the Jamaican poor. As important actors in the transnational drugs and arms trade, dons play a major role in perpetuating Jamaica’s high rates of violent crime. Indeed, their reputation for violence and business savvy contributes to the mystique that surrounds the person of many dons. Yet they are also key governance actors within marginalized urban areas: they provide impoverished residents with access to security, conflict resolution and various forms of welfare, in part through their longstanding connections to Jamaica’s two main political parties. This strategic engagement with electoral politics and, more broadly, with state-like practices and imaginaries also helps legitimize dons’ rule. How can we understand the political authority that these criminal leaders enjoy amongst the urban poor? Based on over a decade of ethnographic research in downtown Kingston, this book shows how dons’ power –that is, their ability to get others to obey them– comes to be seen as legitimate by low-income residents. Where media reports often suggest that donmanship involves a reign of terror, this book demonstrates that their rule relies more on consent and consensus, than on coercion. Their form of authority operates through a complex choreography with state institutions and ideals, that involves balancing an autocratic form of rule with an established democratic order. In addition, the book highlights the various aesthetic, affective and spatial practices that constitute claims to authority, analyzing how reggae music, mural art and street dances play an important role in legitimizing donmanship.

Earlier this year, OpenAI removed the clause prohibiting military applications of its technologies. This change signals a broader trend, whereby geopolitical actors use AI to pursue their agendas. My project investigates this trend, combining insights from social science research on AI and critical geopolitics. It focuses on three groups - consultants, academics and companies – with particular influence on geopolitical knowledge. Drawing on discourse analysis and ethnographic observations, it asks: how does AI feature in, and transform, geopolitical storylines? The research contributes to the emerging literature on AI geographies, and brings a much-needed critical perspective on societal debates about AI.