The present paper deals with the territorial movements of the mafia groups. Dopo aver postulato che il concetto di mafia fa riferimento a una forma di criminalità organizzata con caratteristiche sui generis, il paper presenta: i) un repertorio dei meccanismi sottesi ai processi espansivi delle mafie in territori estranei a quelli della loro origine; ii) una tassonomia delle forme che assume la presenza mafiosa nei territori non tradizionali. By a case study approach, il quadro concettuale delineato viene applicato alla presenza della mafia in Germania, ricostruita mediante il ricorso a fonti di tipo documenatle. Pur trattandosi di un'indagine di tipo esplorativo, emergono alcune chiare acquisizioni: i) il maggiore coinvolgimento della 'ndrangheta rispetto alle altre mafie italiane tradizionali (Cosa Nostra e Camorra); ii) il fatto che anche nelle espansioni di "successo" la mafia non riproduce il radicamento tipico dei territori originari, incentrando la sua presenza intorno prevalentemente all'infiltrazione dell'economia e alla conduzione di attività nei mercati illegali.
The paper aims to analyze the mechanisms whereby immigrant entrepreneurship emerges and develops. In this connection, we argue that studies of immigrant entrepreneurship can benefit from deeper dialog with economic sociology. With the idea of mixed embeddedness as our starting point, we advocate an analytical framework of the generative mechanisms of immigrant entrepreneurship that traces the interconnections between the approaches of New Economic Sociology, Political Economy and Neo-Institutionalism from the perspective of mechanismbased explanation. This framework is then applied to a qualitative case study conducted on two micro immigrant-entrepreneur groups: the Italian ice cream parlor owners and pizzeria owners in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, selected inasmuch as they represent polar forms of immigrant entrepreneurship. In this perspective, empirical findings show detailed differences between the two groups. For pizzeria owners, entrepreneurial transition is the result of a short-term project, the actors are part of small networks, do business in predominantly local markets, and are mainly shaped by mimetic isomorphism. By contrast, the ice cream parlor owners script more consistent entrepreneurial paths, belong to more highly articulated networks, show specific aspects of economic transnationalism, and structure themselves by a predominately normative process.
This paper, which is the introduction to this special issue on ‘Spaces of Organised Crime’, aims to analyse the nexus between organised crime groups and territories. Such groups are able to exploit resources that circulate within territorial contexts in which they are embedded. They also operate concretely as entities that can take part to the transformation of spaces into places. Accordingly, we will lay out an analytical model about the processes through which organised crime groups contribute to create and shape territories. We show how these processes link with the main types of organised crime groups on a differentiated basis. In the last section of this introduction, we present the papers included in the special issue and the logic connecting them to one another.
Nuanced explanations of the factors underpinning the mafia’s movements across territories have recently been proposed. However, more light must be shed on the mechanisms through which mafiosi try to infiltrate the legal economy in non-traditional territories. Accordingly, this study aims to micro-found interactions and exchanges that mainly involve mafiosi, politicians and economic actors in expansion areas. Focusing on the local level, we will show how the misuse of several administrative tools generates a profitable opportunity structure for mafiosi. To this end, we present an in-depth comparative case study of three events involving the construction industry that took place in Northern Italy. The main findings show that: (i) mafiosi are skilled at smoothing social relations, enlarging and consolidating opaque networks predating their arrival; (ii) they give rise to different types of mutual exchanges and network structures.
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