The revolving door of violence specialists: occupation beyond legality

Abstract: Most mainstream approaches concerning organized violence have fallen short in explaining why humans engage in these activities, mainly because they overlook that organized violence is an intensive form of work. These perspectives often exoticise individuals involved in violence for profit or political purposes. Violence is not a deviant feature of social life but an integral part of collective action. For this conference, we will explore how those participating in organised violence are specialists performing an occupation, regardless of its legality. Furthermore, we will understand some cases in which specialists working in legal violence (police, army) become workers for illicit and criminal activities.

Bio: Raul Zepeda Gil is a Mexican interdisciplinary sociologist and political scientist who focuses on the nexus between socioeconomic inequalities and conflicts. He is currently a Teaching Fellow, War Studies Department, King’s College London. His analytical lenses span international political economy, critical policy analysis, history of ideas, analytical Marxism, and stratification sociology.
Raul is currently researching several topics, mainly on youth recruitment by criminal organisations and labour market inequalities in the Latin American drug wars. He also focuses on climate change politics, teachers’ education policy, civil-military relations and austerity, inequalities and criminal violence, and international politics of the war on drugs. Moreover, Raul is commencing to craft a research agenda on the political theory of existential risk and human nature discourses due to the climate change crisis.
In his previous work, he has discussed criminal wars in Latin America, schooling and homicide, the political economy of drug wars, youth, economic policy, human rights, higher education funding, civil-military relations in United Nations peacekeeping operations, disaster management and climate change, peace-making with the Colombian drug cartels, and Mexican politics.
Raul holds a PhD in Sociology of War from the School of Security Studies in King’s College London (KCL), a master’s degree in political science from El Colegio de México and a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM).

Moderator: Christian Olsson, Université libre de Bruxelles (REPI)

Registration required by November 12 : https://forms.office.com/e/HZQUjAWe47?origin=lprLink

Thursday, November 13th, 2025, from 12:00 to 2:00 pm
REPI - Université libre de Bruxelles
Campus du Solbosch – REPI RT39 Spaak Room
39 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt
1050 Bruxelles

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