Table of Contents
1 Cover
6 Quote
8 1 Mafia, Politics and Social Theory: An Introduction The Argument The Setting (The Case Study) Where Is the ‘Politics’ in Mafia Politics? Contesting Eurocentric Social Theory A Final Note on Sources and Method Notes
9 2 The ‘Mafia’ in ‘Mafia Studies’: (Re)constructing a Sociological Object An Archaeology of ‘Mafia Studies’, 1860–1900 Towards a Comparative Approach: Hobsbawm’s Pioneering Contribution and the Neglect of American Research on Organized Crime The Modern Wisdom (or Mafia Studies since 1970) Global Mafia (or a Globalization of Mafia Studies) Notes
10 3 What is Right with the Economic Theory of the Mafia? The Rationalist School and Its Foils The Economic Theory of the Mafia From the Economic Theory of the Mafia to Protection Theory Some Problems with the Theory Towards a Political Theory of the Mafia Notes
11 4 The Public Life of Mafiosi The Publicness of the Mafia The Public Lives of Mafiosi Protection as a Field (A First Instalment) The Public Secrecy of the Mafia Notes
12 5 The Mafioso’s Gift, or: Making Sense of an ‘Offer You Cannot Refuse’ Of Gifts and Commodities (and Goods as Well) The Gift and the Mafia The Gift of the Godfather: Giving Evidence to the Argument ‘An offer you cannot refuse’ ‘I am someone who has always cried over the pain of others’ Of hospitality and conviviality Politics of the Mafia Gift Notes
13 6 Blood, Bund and (Personal) Bonds: The Mafia as an Institutional Type Of Brotherhoods and Institutions The mafia and the ‘fraternization contract’ The organization model From brotherhood to Bund Rituals of blood Culture, Writing and Communication Mafia as mode of personal communication Hermeneutics of mafia communication From writing to structure Violence, Communication and Pathos Notes
14 7 Mafia as an Elementary Form of Politics Refining the Model: The Political Nature of Mafia Obligation Testing the Model: Questions of Method Testing the Model: Six Tracks for Future Research Was there already ‘mafia’ in ancient Mediterranean civilizations? Secret societies, triads, and the mafia in China Sicily as the future of Russia, again Yakuza, the Japanese mafia Is India the future of Sicily?