Invitation to the Online IPW Lecture The Economic Sociology of Illicit Drug Markets
Lecturer: Kim Moeller (Malmö University)
Moderation: Meropi Tzanetakis (IPW | University of Vienna)
When: Friday, 6 November 2020, 15:00
Where: online - https://zoom.us/j/99101239196?pwd=eGoxZjJvVXBVSzlMS3k0b0FnMHRvdz09
Meeting ID: 991 0123 9196
Passcode: EC6eYd
Abstract:
lllicit drug distribution has been analyzed since at least the late 1960s but only little research has examined the “market” aspects, the exchange of drugs for money under competition. While economists have formally modelled drug markets as an abstract whole, criminologists have mainly researched individual street-level marketplaces. There is currently no criminological theory of illicit drug markets. This lecture examines drug markets through the perspectives of institutional- and network-oriented economic sociology. Some of the key questions concern how credits are possible without the market devolving into violence, and why is there so much variation in prices across countries and distribution layers. Economic sociology extends insights from behavioral economics with more emphasis on trust, social relations, embeddedness. This perspective can connect macro and micro levels of analysis and integrate the economic and criminological research in a coherent framework.
Kim Moeller is associate professor at the Department of Criminology, Malmö University, Sweden. His research interests concern illicit drug markets, including the higher-level distribution by organised crime groups, street-level markets, and national control policies. Recently his work has focused on online sales on cryptomarkets and social media, with a particular focus on fentanyl analogs. He has published in the journals Criminology, Journal of Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, and International Journal of Drug Policy.
An event within the IPW Lectures, an international lecture series of the Department for Political Science, University of Vienna, in cooperation with FWF - Der Wissenschaftsfonds.
