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Convenor:
Felia Allum, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages,
University of Bath, UK. Co-convenor: Fabio Armao, Dipartimento di Studi Politici, Università di Torino, email: fabio.armao@unito.it If you are interested in joining please email Panagiotis Kostakos (ecpr.sgoc@gmail.com) or Fabio Armao (fabio.armao@unito.it). Subscribe to our email list for even more information. The group has an email list that reaches all members, to subscribe to this list please send an email to Panagiotis Kostakos (ecpr.sgoc@gmail.com) who will add you to the list.
General Theme Organised crime, or more accurately transnational organised crime, is a dangerous phenomenon developing in today's world: Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Newspapers announce daily their latest scams, their relaundering strategies and their different impact on the world. The existence, presence and persistence of these groups have already had an impact on Europe in terms of the drugs trade and now with their control of human trafficking networks, they are creating a problem, for all EU members in particular. They pose a serious problem for all countries. Their presence is also having a disruptive effect on the functioning of democratic countries: not only do they attack some of the basic participative principles of democracy (equality of citizens, transparent decision-making processes, freedom of expression and free elections) but they also distort the free market economy and civil society at large. Moreover, as organised crime starts to impinge on different aspects of the economy, civil society and politics, the so-called 'grey areas', such as political corruption and white collar crime tend to extend. This produces a paradoxical situation whereby organised crime groups, which are fundamentally authoritarian and antidemocratic, flourish and prosper in democracies. It is this situation, however difficult it maybe to research, which political scientists are starting to study: the challenge they pose to democracy, in particular at the level of citizenship (the transparency of democratic processes), national and international institutions (EU and UN in particular). The nature of organised crime means that research is and should be multidisciplinary but by setting up an ECPR standing group, we hope that political scientists will act as a catalyst for new research and international contacts in this field. Aims of Standing Group We believe that due to important developments in the area of organised crime (EU integration, fall of Berlin Wall and Balkan conflict for example) and an abundance of new material, there is a clear need for setting up an ECPR standing group dedicated to the study of organised crime which could act as the central focus for European, American and other researchers, as well as provide an umbrella for common activities and projects across disciplines. It
is hoped that the standing group would help to facilitate the development
of theoretical approaches as well as in-depth studies of empirical
examples, to network members, to create fruitful exchanges between
disciplines with a regular flow of information on projects, etc.
This ECPR standing group would also allow reseachers to meet on
a regular basis and promote an active publication agenda.
The executive was expanded and new members were recruited. This is now the list of the complete executive (2007-2012): The convenors remain the same. Francesca Longo <lonfran@unict.it> University of Catania, Italy Jana Arsovska <Jana.Arsovska@law.kuleuven.be> Email Directory: Felia Allum (Bath University, UK) |
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