Laboratory: Art, Culture and Organized Crime

The focus of this course is to analyze the relationship between art, culture and organized crime from three different perspectives. The first is how criminal organizations are narrated in books, films, music, TV series, photography and commercials. Then the course offers an analysis of narrative and stylistic choices and how these have changed since the '80s and also their influence on criminal sense-making. The second perspective the course is going to analyze is the mafias' self-narration through folklore and stereotypes in music and social networks in order to obtain social consensus. Lastly, the course discusses how art and culture could become an important instrument in fighting against organized crime; analyzing in particular innovative techniques such as participative theatre.

- Knowledge of the principal definitions of "organized crime";
- Ability to analyze constitutive elements of criminal sense-making;
- Critical analysis of audio-video material;
- Ability to identify symbolic and strategic importance of storytelling and its instruments;
- Knowledge of cultural instruments in the fight against organized crime