301271 Transnational Organized Crime: Security Label or Critical Analytical Category? (S) (SoSe 2024)

Experts, the media, popular culture, and specific experiences from the Global North have always dominated the debate on transnational organized crime. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first signs of organized crime in the USA were associated with criminal activities of foreign, ethnically homogeneous groups. This "alien conspiracy" theory evolved into the "mafia" and later into "illegal enterprises". These definitions focus on the supply side of illegal products and services. With the declaration of the "War on Drugs", the drug trafficking organizations of Colombia and later Mexico became synonymous with organized crime under the constructed term "cartel". Above all, the framework of international organizations combined the dynamics of globalization with international terrorism to create the concept of "transnational organized crime" (TOC). The securitization paradigm contributes to viewing TOC as a national security issue. Critical analysis of the diverse threats and diversified activities of TOC is increasingly narrowing down to definitions that correspond to such a paradigm. In this interdisciplinary social science seminar, we highlight contradictions of knowledge production and correlate the concept of TOC with related topics like migration, global justice, and decoloniality with a regional focus on the Americas.

Requirements for participation, required level

Willingness to read and debate English texts.

Bibliography

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