Call for papers:
*What are we talking about when we talk about the Mafia? Futures of a
contested term*
EASA Biannual Conference 2016: Anthropological legacies and human futures
20-23 July 2016, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
*Convenors*
Theodoros Rakopoulos (University of Bergen)
Naor Ben-Yehoyada (University of Cambridge)
*Short Abstract*
“What is the mafia” is a cognitive and political pursuit for experts, state
officials and the lay public. This panel explores ethnographies of the
constitution of the definition, drawing from the political and jural realm
and activist circles.
*Long Abstract*
While anti-Mafia investigations are as old as the Mafia itself, the debate
about what the Mafia is and how to fight it remains open. This is at once a
cognitive and a pragmatic debate, solidifying expert knowledge, implicitly
involving state officials, and indeed shaping how common people imagine the
social relations that they conceive as central to the operation of the Cosa
Nostra and other mafias. For instance, is corruption identified as economic
exchange or is it a moment in an ongoing, multifaceted relationship,
involving more reciprocity and redistribution than exchange? What
relational images do we invoke when we seek to explain to ourselves and to
others 'what the Mafia is'? What normativities do such definitions acquire
or inspire?
This panel will explore how this debate has shaped social, political,
legal, cultural and investigative perceptions and representations of the
"Mafia" and how it positions anti-Mafia investigators at the heart of the
struggle over the relationship between the state and society.
The papers in this panel follow investigators, experts, activists and
people sharing social milieux with Mafiosi, as they attempt to understand
the Mafia, and to convince their peers and the public that they know best
what the Mafia is. By examining how sociological imaginaries of corruption,
violence and social control, as well as the politics of definition and
evidence shape this struggle, we delve into the power dynamics that shape
the meaning and the reach of law, politics, and knowledge.
To propose a paper, please follow this link
http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4268
and submit through the online system on the website. Call closes 15
February 2016.
For further information or if you have any questions please do not hesitate
to email the two panel convenors:
Theo Rakopoulos (University of Bergen) [log in to unmask]
Naor Ben-Yehoyada (University of Cambridge) [log in to unmask]
Dr Theodoros Rakopoulos
Research Fellow, Egalitarianism Programme
Department of Social Anthropology
University of Bergen
https://web.academia.edu/TheodorosRakopoulos
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