This article scrutinises concepts of deregulation against the backdrop of the ‘New Capitalism’ as presented in the episode ‘Hamsterdam’ in the American TV series, The Wire: when the major in charge of the Western District of Baltimore secretly decides to pull the police force from the war on drugs in order to re-dedicate their energy to police work proper, he de facto legalises drugs in a specific quarter of his district. Read through theories of statehood and sovereignty, this episode sheds light on self-perception of gangs within an ailing communal system, and on the difficulties with which the protagonists of The Wire constantly grapple, shifting the focus from the seemingly self-sustaining microcosm of West Baltimore to the superstructure that presupposes and enables the mechanisms of Baltimore’s public sphere.
AgambenG (1998) Homo Sacer. Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
AndersonPA (2010) ‘The game is the game’: tautology and allegory in The Wire. Criticism52(3–4): 373–398.
3.
BriantAPollockG (2010) Where do bunnys come from? From Hamsterdam to Hubris. City Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action14(6): 709–729.
JamesonF (2010) Realism and utopia in The Wire. Criticism52(3–4): 359–372.
14.
JosephP (2013) Soldiers in Baltimore. The Wire and the new global wars. The New Centennial Review13(1): 209–240.
15.
KennedyLShapiroS (2012) Introduction: all the pieces matter. In: KennedyLShapiroS (eds) The Wire: Race, Class, and Genre. Ann Arbour, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1–14.
16.
KimY (2013) Rogue cops’ politics of equality in The Wire. Journal of American Studies47: 189–211.
17.
KinderM (2008/2009) Re-wiring Baltimore: The emotive power of systemics, seriality, and the city. Film Quarterly. 62(2): 50–57.
18.
Lévi-StraussC (1966) The Savage Mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
19.
LüdemannS (1999) Beobachtungsverhältnisse. Zur (Kunst-)Geschichte der Beobachtung zweiter Ordnung. In: KoschorkeAVismannC (eds) Widerstände der Systemtheorie: Kulturtheoretische Analysen zum Werk von Niklas Luhmann. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 63–76.
20.
LuhmannN (1989) Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik. Studien zur Wissenssoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp v. 3.
21.
Masta Ace (2001) Unfriendly Game (CD). New York: JCOR Records.
22.
Masta Ace (2004) H.O.O.D. (CD). New York: M3 Macmil Music.
23.
PinkerS (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. London: Penguin.
24.
PolanyiK (2001 [1944]) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
25.
SchmittC (1950) Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.
26.
ShklarJN (1990) Faces of Injustice. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
