Mafia Politics

Marco Santoro is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bologna.

• 1. Mafia, Politics, and Social Theory: An Introduction2. The ‘Mafia’ in ‘Mafia Studies’: (Re)constructing a Sociological Object3. What is Right with the Economic Theory of the Mafia?4. The Public Life of Mafiosi 5. The Mafioso’s Gift or, Making Sense of an “Offer You Cannot Refuse”6. Blood, Bund, and (Personal) Bonds: The Mafia as an Institutional Type7. Mafia as an Elementary Form of Politics

“Absorbing and important [Santoro] builds a convincing and subtly argued case for why we need to treat the Mafia as a type of politics. […An] essential contribution.” David Nelken, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia“Santoro takes us closer to the human side of mafiosi than anyone. As he convincingly argues, Mafia style and ceremonial go back to an ancient Mediterranean form of politics, antedating the state and continuing alongside it.” Randall Collins, author of Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory“This book is valuable and important: it combines political science, history, sociology and Maussian anthropological observations to develop a novel theory of Mafia as an elementary form of politics. The result is a provocative text for those interested in the many dimensions of organized crime beyond criminal and economic analysis and, crucially, the global North.”Lucia Michelutti, University College London