"Wow! This book is an ethnographic tour de force documenting the European social democratic dream's collision with the nightmare reality of the neoliberal 'global chase for profit'." - Professor Philippe Bourgois, author of Righteous Dopefiend and In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio "a detailed, enthralling and discomforting ethnographic investigation of the growing poverty and desperation found at the edges of Europe's glittering metropolises... what Briggs reveals will make you sad and angry, but the gritty reality of our most marginalised neighbourhoods must be researched in this way if the social sciences are to move forward" - Professor Simon Winlow, Teesside University, UK "An unflinching, yet ultimately compassionate rendering of human vulnerability" - Professor Rowland Atkinson, Sheffield University, UK "hard-hitting ethnography of the chaotic lives of socially-excluded cocaine and heroin consumers, and the limitations of drug policy" - Dr James Windle, University of East London, UK "Briggs trains his powerful searchlight on the devastating social consequences of unemployment, insecurity and pervasive drug markets" - Professor Steve Hall, Teesside University, UK "This is just the type of research and critique Spain so desperately needs." - Dr Jorge Ramiro Perez Suarez, University of Huddersfield and the European University of Madrid, Spain "a riveting and at times chilling reading...a must-read for scholars and students of anthropology, criminology and sociology as well as activists and policy makers." - Dr Tereza Kuldova, University of Oslo, Norway "This is what criminology should be about!" - Dr Leah Moyle, Griffith Criminology Institute, Australia "combines fantastic ethnography with new theoretical political economy, precisely the mixture we need to make sense of our nightmarish contemporary world...Riveting!" - Steve Redhead, Professor of Cultural Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia "Ethnographic work at its best, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in drugs, crime and harm." - Dr Alexandra Hall, Teesside University, UK "a thoroughly researched and exceptionally well written ethnography" - Professor Jeffrey Ian Ross, University of Baltimore, US "This is an exceptional study and a fascinating read... ethnography at its best" - Dr Steve Wakeman, Liverpool John Moores University, UK