2020 marked the start of a global pandemic and the world’s first 24-hour virtual conference on global organized crime, #OC24. Since then, three editions of OC24 took place, bringing together scholars and practitioners from all over the world at a scale and in a way that a physical conference cannot.

With various innovative session formats, the three editions of #OC24 in 2020, 2021, and 2022 attracted more than 8,000 participants worldwide. At the OC24-2022 and over the course of 24 hours, 320+ leading organized crime scholars and practitioners from over 40 countries discussed and presented a diverse range of topics, including environmental crime, corruption, human trafficking, illicit trade and counterfeiting, drug trafficking, cybercrime, gender, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on organized crime worldwide. A supportive Secretariat team of more than 280 students, early-career academics, young professionals and researchers from leading organized crime universities and institutions worldwide also contributed to the three OC24 conferences’ success.

  • Please note that English is the official language of the 24-hour conference. If you or your panel’s speakers are presenting in any other language than English, please kindly arrange for your own interpreters for your presentation and/or panel yourself.
  • Please also inform us if you are planning on using interpreters for your session, as we will need to register them in our system accordingly to ensure the technical support is in place when needed.

Call for applications and how to apply:

Call-for-applications-OC24-2023-1Download

7 – 26 June 2021, Virtual event

Our Standing Group on Organised Crime (SGOC) is pleased to announce its first online Summer School on Transnational Organised Crime. Held in a new all-empowering and equal opportunity format, the remote programme offers a remarkable learning experience from the comfort of your own home. 

As with previous SGOC Schools, the programme is intended to enhance interactions between scholars and practitioners while providing a deeper understanding of the challenges posed by — and potential responses to — transnational organised crime.

In collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Summer School utilises the unique expertise of seasoned professionals to provide instruction on — and facilitate a deeper understanding of — the dynamics of transnational organised crime. More on the cirriculum.

The Summer School will give you the chance to:
  • Distinguish the ways in which criminal activities and structures transcend international borders;
  • Explain how the current nature of international borders both restrains and provides opportunities for crime;
  • Critically assess the validity and reliability of data on transnational crime;
  • Identify major elements of the legal and institutional framework for international cooperation against transnational organised crime and assess their impact on containment;
  • Examine how states utilise the international legal framework to prevent and combat organized crime;
  • Scrutinise private sector, public-private and civil society responses to transnational organised crime and identify best practices
  • Gain first-hand experience contributing to the SHERLOC Knowledge Management Portal, an initiative developed by the UNODC
  • Assist in the dissemination of information on the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three supplementing Protocols

There is a limit of 50 participants for this Summer School, so submit your application early! 

Organisers, faculty and speakers

Organisers
  • Director Yuliya Zabyelina
  • Assistant Director Nicole Kalczynski
  • Steering Committee Felia Allum and Maria Cristina Montefusco
Lecturers, speakers and seminar facilitators
  • Alberto Vannucci University of Pisa, Italy
  • Alex Reid Royal United Services Institute, UK
  • Anita Lavorgna University of Southampton, UK
  • Baris Cayli University of Derby, UK
  • Brendan Marsh Queen’s University Belfast, UK
  • Colin Craig UNODC
  • Daan van Uhm Utrecht University, Netherlands
  • Deborah Alimi University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, France
  • Dina Siegel Utrecht University, Netherlands
  • Diorella Islas The Government of Mexico, Mexico
  • Dmitry Orlov UNODC
  • Fabrizio Sarrica UNODC
  • Felia Allum University of Bath, UK
  • Flavia Romiti UNODC
  • Helena Ferrand Carapico Northumbria University, UK
  • Jay Albanese Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
  • Kimberley Thachuk The George Washington University, USA
  • Liz David Barett University of Sussex, UK
  • Marco Dugato University of Bologna and Transcrime, Italy
  • Maria Cristina Montefusco UNODC
  • Mark Williams Royal United Services Institute, UK
  • Morgane Nicot UNODC
  • Neil Walsh UNODC
  • Riikka Puttonen UNODC
  • Shahrzad Fouladvand University of Sussex, UK
  • Simon Harding University of West London, UK
  • Simonetta Grassi UNODC
  • Sine Plambech Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark
  • Siria Gastélum Félix Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
  • Stan Gilmour Thames Valley Police, UK
  • Tanya Wyatt Northumbria University, UK
  • Yuliya Zabyelina John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA

How to apply

Submit your application via this form by Saturday 1 May.

You’ll be notified about the outcome of your application by Sunday 9 May. If you are successful, you’ll receive a link to register.

Registration and fees

Registration fee: £250

The fee includes study materials and a certificate of completion.

Students from developing countries can apply for a full or partial waiver of the participation fee. A total of 4 full waivers and 5 partial waivers of £125 will be administered.

Successful applicants can register between Monday 10 May and Tuesday 25 May.

Controcorrente, a blog diary. 

Reflections and thoughts by academics and practitioners about Coronavirus, daily life and society. 

This is a spontaneous blog space that we have created to act as a historic diary to record and reflect the feelings, thoughts and concerns of academics-practitioners during this Covid-19 pandemic. 

The aim of this blog is for our SG and its networks to have a voice about how they see, feel and analyse the current situation. 

We welcome contributions from all over the world.

Please email them to Dr Baris Cayli Messina:
B.Cayli@derby.ac.uk 

Please note that as the blog has completed it’s mission, we do not accept articles for the blog anymore.

You can read the blog articles by clicking the titles:

1)Online learning experts: More than 15 minutes of fame? How the corona-pandemic elevates online learning experts from obscurity into the spotlight by Alexandra Mihai – 23 March 2020

2) Five Questions that could be Answered in Living though the COVID-19 Pandemic by Jay Albanese –  23 March 2020

3) “It was just a flu”, they said? by Deborah Alimi – 25 March 2020

4) Corona and Sweden by Carina Gunnarson – 30 March 2020

5) The Socio-Economic Impact of Covid-19 in India: a comparison with the Black Death by Prem Mahadevan – 30 March 2020

6) Organized Crime and Covid-19 by Martina Bedetti – 30 March 2020

7) “New” Criminal conduct and law enforcement challenges during COVID-19 in Peru by Fátima Rojas Boucher  – 30 March 2020

8) Wavering between optimism and pessimism: Covid–19, corruption and organised crime by Heather Marquette  – 31 March 2020

9) Coronavirus, recession, and drug markets in Ireland by James Windle – 5 April 2020

10) Between safety and surveillance by Simona  Guerra – 5 April 2020

11) Covid-19, Europol and humankind by Cyrille Fijnaut – 15 April 2020

12) Impacts of the Covid-19? by Sayaka Fukimi – 15 April 2020

13) The Great Pandemic by Fausto Carbajal Glass – 15 April 2020

14) Auto-etnography of everyday Covid-19 Edinburgh by Chris Holligan – 15 April 2020

15) Challenging isolation is a revolutionary act by Galadriel Ravelli – 15 April 2020

16) From the corona crisis towards a new Enlightenment by Guido Palazzo – 28 April 2020

17) An academic of the floating world (with apologies to Ishiguro) by Niall Hamilton-Smith – 28 April 2020

18) Living and Adopting to the Coronavirus by Stephen Musau – 28 April 2020

19) Between Covid-19 and Organised Crime: Some preliminary notes by Ludmila Quirós – 28 April 2020

20) Is the Covid-19 threat a chance for the UK Police service to resurrect its relationship with the General Public by Aubrey A Jones – 28 April 2020

21) How mafia-type groups respond to Italy’s Covid-19 economic emergency by Martina Bedetti – 5 May 2020

22) Misuse or missed use of data? Considerations for a Public Health Approach by Lewis Prescott-Mayling – 5 May 2020

23) Never waste a good crisis – 5 May 2020

24) A Criminologist’s musings on the pandemic and wildlife trade and trafficking by Tanya Wyatt – 10 May 2020

25) My online teaching during the pandemic of Covid-19 by Joselle Dagnes – 20 May 2020

26) Requiem for students by Georgio Agamben – 27 May 2020

27) Chance or hurdle? Covid-19 and yakuza’s adaptation skills by Martina Baradel – 27 May 2020

28) Pressing Questions of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Geopolitical Trends, the Future of Academia, and What’s for Dinner? by Ellen Gutterman – 10 June 2020

29) The COVID-19 pandemic and the epidemic of rights violations in Brazil – the alarming state of prisons by Sérgio Adorno and Camila Nunes Dias – 29 June 2020

 

As we all know, sometimes image speak louder than words. The images below belong to Martin Atanasov

This is a cliché but yet it is true that images resonate in our world and materialise our dissent. Martin Atanasov created powerful images in the third general conference of ECPR SGOC in Sofia that was held on 5-6 July 2019. His reflections next to the images illustrate the ideas of an artist on organised crime. But, perhaps more importantly, these images provide us an opportunity to rethink better on the detrimental effects of organised crime. The creative works of Martin Atansov are excellent examples of transdisciplinary boundaries in which we conceive better how arts shape ideas and how those ideas inspire us through the reflections of an artist.

 

 

 

 

ECPR SGOC 4th General ‘hybrid’ Conference 2022 Pi

Crossing territorial and disciplinary (b)orders:

empirical, analytical and policy perspectives on organised crime

ECPR SGOC 4th General ‘hybrid’ Conference 2022 Pisa (Italy) + online: 4-6 July 2022

The ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime (SGOC), in collaboration with the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Pisa invites you to its 4th General ‘hybrid’ Conference “Crossing territorial and disciplinary (b)orders: empirical, analytical and policy perspectives on organised crime”, which will take place on July 4-6, 2022.

The 2022 SGOC General Conference follows up from the previous editions held in Naples (2015), Bath (2017), and Sofia (2019). In light with the logistic, security and budget challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemics, the next edition will be held in a hybrid format – partly in presence in Pisa, and partly online.

Context

Emerging trends have delineated a new scenario, which raises unprecedented questions and challenges regarding organised crime. Shaking up reified conceptions, these changes invite to reconsider and update the empirical, analytical and policy frameworks through which organised crime is apprehended. Unheard articulations of in-security result from the overlapping, interlocked crises in the environmental, health, social and economic domains. The massive resort to emergency measures erodes rules-based decision-making and inhibits legal oversight. Authoritarian discourses and practices sediment across the world, paving the way to a global democratic backsliding. At the same time, reduced legal pathways to social and physical mobility boost rising inequalities, which put the social pact under strain within and across countries. Enhanced geostrategic competition underpins a global rush to natural resources, fuelling extractivism and extralegal economies. Unfulfilled demands for social protection bring to the fore non-state actors as alternative providers of identity, legitimacy and protection. Hybrid orders emerge, shielding rulers from accountability and enabling rent-seeking and patronage politics.

Manifestations of organised crime intersect social worlds at all latitudes. Yet, in spite of the proliferation of national and international legal tools aimed at identifying, tracking and tackling organised crime, its securitization has to do with a moving target, whose contours change constantly. The elusive status of the evidence on organised crime and its manifestations challenges the epistemological and methodological foundations of the scholarly attempts to shed light on this opaque phenomenon. Exactly how organised crime is a threat that may undermine societal institutions, economic prosperity, state order and global security, is a question that remains unsettled. Thus organised crime risks to remain an empty signifier lending itself to potentially dangerous manipulations. Juridical notions and criminological theories incorporate abstract categories that are often imported or stretched unscrupulously, clashing with vernacular understandings and practices. Forms of extra-legal governance may infiltrate and deepen the gulf between legality and legitimacy. Activities and identities defined as criminal are often not separate from, but deeply woven into the texture of ordinary social life, making the impact of criminal organisations on the production of dis-order highly contingent.

Conference participants and topics

The ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime’s General Conference therefore invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, civil society organisations and policy-makers from different backgrounds to share empirical insights, analytical framings and policy approaches contributing with fresh perspectives to the understanding of organised crime, with regard to the diversity of its contemporary manifestations. With a view to stimulating both scholarly debates and policy developments, the Conference offers a unique venue to collectively dissect, diagnose and discuss the characteristics, resources, strategies and modus operandi adopted by traditional and emerging criminal organisations operating both at local and global level, as well as the evolution of the responses at multiple levels and by different actors (international organisations, law enforcement, communities, social movements, etc.).

The conference encourages the presentation of cutting-edge research from academic researchers at all stages of their career, as well as from practitioners and policy makers. We welcome the submission of panels and papers addressing the following topics:

  • Gangs, organised crime and mafia
  • Encounters and clashes or criminal organisations across the world
  • Criminalisation of mobility and mobile crime
  • Social movements and (the fight against) organised crime
  • Organised crime and community relations: protection, power regulation, service provision
  • Extralegal governance and organised crime
  • Organised crime and dis/order in the global peripheries
  • Contentious politics and organised crime
  • Ethnographic approaches to organised crime
  • Gender perspectives on organised crime
  • Race perspectives on organised crime
  • Vulnerable groups and organised crime
  • Organised crime and authoritarian regimes
  • Organised crime and violent extremism
  • Organised crime in art, fiction, culture and public perceptions
  • Corruption, patronage and hybrid orders
  • Organised crime, prisons and detention societies
  • Organised crime and the internet: cybercrime and surveillance
  • Environmental crime
  • Organised crime and finance: threats (money laundering and tax havens) and responses(freezing, forfeiture and social reuse of criminal assets)
  • International and European cooperation in the fight against organised crime
  • Strategies of resilience to organised crime: from police to community-led responses

Submission procedures

Paper proposals should include:

Participants are invited to submit paper and/or panel proposals through the ECPR SGOC website. The Call for Proposals is open from 8 December 2021 to 28 February 2022. Notifications of acceptance will be out from 1 April 2022, and registration will be open starting from 15 April.

  • Author(s) and institutional affiliation
  • Title (max 50 words)
  • Abstract (max 250 words)
  • Keywords (max 5 words)Panel proposals should include:
  • Panel title (max 50 words)
  • Panel abstract (max 250 words)
  • Papers description, with all the characteristics above (3-4 papers per panel authorised)The conference will provide a hybrid format, with some panels taking place in person in Pisa, and some other panels taking place online. Please note that no mixed/blended panels will be allowed, and that all prospective participants will be asked to indicate, at the moment of subscription, whether they opt for the participation to the conference in person, or online.

Fees and practical information

ECPR

Academics – Practitioners € 175 Students –
PhDs € 100

Pisa live participation Non-ECPR

€ 200

€ 125

ECPR

€ 65

€ 45

Online participation Non-ECPR

€ 70

€ 50

With a view to maximising opportunities for participation, bursaries and grants could be provided to meet special needs. Also, the possibility of passive attendance (with no paper presentation) will be made available, at cheaper rates. Additional clarification will follow. For information, please contact the organisers at EcprSgocGeneralConference@gmail.com.

Prospective participants to the in-person event in Pisa can find additional information on Pisa, accommodation opportunities, and the organizing institutions here: https://www.santannapisa.it/en
https://www.sns.it/en

https://www.unipi.it/index.php/english https://www.turismo.pisa.it/en https://www.pisa-airport.com/en/ https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html https://www.aboutpisa.info/accommodation-in-pisa.html

The ECPR Standing groups on organised crime and (anti) corruption and integrity present a series of discussions hosted by a number of acadmic experts, each session will examine a different facet of corruption, to register go to www.ecpr.eu/events/169

Each roundtable will focus on a different topic.

The first event will take place on

Wednesday 19 May, 16:00 BST / 17:00 CEST

Analysing organised crime-corruption nexus: theoretical underpinnings and challenges

Speakers – Alberto Vannucci, University of Pisa,

Liz David Barrett, University of Sussex,

and Jay Albanese, Virginia Commonwealth University

Moderator – Alexandria Reid, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Technical assistant – Chiara Merlino

2020 was a year to forget for many, and as 2021 dawns and the world starts to gear up for something resembling normality the ECPR SGOC is busy planning a number of events that will bring together academics and practitioners over the coming year.

You can read about the events below, more details will be announced soon both here and on our twitter account @ECPR_SGOC

  1. A series of online roundtable on ‘organised crime and corruption’ jointly organised by ECPR SG on Organised and Crime and ECPR SG on (Anti-)Corruption and Integrity to be held on 19 May 2021, 23 June 2021 and 7 July 2021 on ECPR Virtual Platform.
  1. The 5th ECPR SGOC Summer School, 7 June – 23 June, this time all online, more information and application deadlines, details coming very soon.

3) Following on from the success of the inaugural Global OC conference in November, a second virtual 24hr conference on will take place on 1st December 2021. #OC242021

Call for Papers: Special Issue on John le Carré to be published in Intelligence and National Security 

This is a call for submissions for a special issue on John le Carré to be published in Intelligence and National Security and edited by Dr. Pauline Blistène and Dr. Damien Van Puyvelde. This special issue will investigate the historical, political, cultural and philosophical significance of le Carré’s work in relation to intelligence and its fictional representations as a set of activities, an organisation, a profession. We are particularly keen to build on recent efforts to broaden the scope of Intelligence Studies and encourage interdisciplinary work. Submissions can engage with any aspect of John le Carré’s life and work (novels and their adaptations), including: 

– Relationship between le Carré and the intelligence community: le Carré’s experience in intelligence, reception of his work by practitioners, impact of his oeuvre on intelligence concepts and practices and vice versa. 

– Fact, fiction and autofiction in le Carré’s work: realistic, imagined and autobiographical elements, blurring of the fact-fiction divide, self-storytelling (David Cornwell as John le Carré), categorization of his novels (‘spy fiction’, ‘Cold War thrillers’, etc.). 

– Themes, narratives and characters in le Carré’s work: human nature, deception, treason, conspiracy, secrecy, and free-will; Cold War and post-Cold War eras; allies and adversaries, agents and handlers, civil servants and privateers, bureaucrats and spymasters, men and women in intelligence. 

– Legacy: significance of le Carré’s oeuvre in or across a variety of disciplines including history, politics and international relations, philosophy, literature. We would welcome submissions that discuss the significance of le Carré’s oeuvre beyond the Western world and in the Global South. 

The special issue will also include an annex providing a complete list of le Carré’s novels and adaptations. 

Please submit a paragraph abstract (no more than 250 words) of your paper by Monday, 1 March 2021. The abstract is to be sent to Pauline-Elise.Blistene@univ-paris1.fr. The final deadline for complete papers is Friday, 17 December 2021. 

Papers should not exceed 8,000 words inclusive of figure captions and references. Further information for formatting your paper can be found in the journal guidelines here (https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=fint20). 

We are delighted to announce that Chris Allen joins SGOC as Media Editor. He will responsible for the management of SGOC’s twitter account, webpage, and communication.

You can find the short bio of Chris below:

Chris Allen is a researcher, lecturer and consultant specialising in transnational organised crime and how it is policed.

He is currently Honorary Research Fellow and Course Director for the PG Cert/MA Transnational Organised Crime at the University of Buckingham. The course, which he designed and delivers on a part time basis, focuses on how organised crime operates.

In parallel, he is a PhD Scholar at the Liverpool Centre of Advanced Policing Studies within Liverpool John Moores University, where he is in the final stages of completion. He is also experienced guest lecturer and has lectured both at LJMU and the University of Gloucestershire.

Furthermore, he is also creator of the U BATTLE toolkit, an investigative strategy development tool that began under City of London Police in 2018 and has since gained national and international recognition. It is now operated by Criminis Training and Consultancy Services, of which Chris is Director

Online Workshop on 28-29 January 2021

Qualitative Methods in the Study of Organized Crime: Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities

An online workshop organised by the University of Milan on ‘Qualitative Methods in the Study of Organized Crime:Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities’ to take place on 28-29 January 2021. The first session will be held in English and the second session will be held in Italian. Please find the attachment by clicking the workshop link below for more information and how to attend it.

Workshop_Unimi_28-29_1_21.