Violencia cotidiana y estatalidad limitada. Estudio de caso extendido en un margen urbano de Culiacán, Sinaloa

This article examines how normative informality within a context of limited statehood shapes ontological security and subjectivity in an urban margin of Culiacan, Sinaloa. Drawing on an extended case study and thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork—including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and situational analysis—it analyzes everyday practices, personaltestimonies, and contextual data on crime incidence and institutional distrust. The findings indicate that, rather than a normative vacuum, a parallel order emerges that regulates public space, legitimizes forms of lateral justice, and normalizes everyday violence. The study’s principal limitation lies in its single-case scope, although its dynamics are comparable to those observed in other urban margins. Its contribution resides in empirically articulating the relationship between ontological security and limited statehood through ethnographic evidence. The article concludes that violence isnot exceptional but constitutive of a structuring informal social order that reconfigures the very meaning of legality.