Polycephalous ‘ndrangheta: Crimes, behaviours and organisation of the Calabrian mafia in Australia

While attention to the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, in Australia, has significantly increased in the past two decades, historical records referring to this peculiar manifestation of organised crime in the country date back almost a century. This research is situated in between studies on mafia mobility and studies on the nature of mafia-type organised crime in Italy and in Australia. Relying on archival research, fieldwork and focus groups with law enforcement agencies across most Australian jurisdictions, this paper will essentially argue that there is in Australia an on-going criminal system that is made of ethnically hybrid criminal networks – predominantly made of, but not limited to, Calabrian ethnicity. Ethnic solidarity and traditional norms and values of the ‘ndrangheta, embedded in Calabrian migrant culture, provide the roof to these networks’ behaviours and organisation. This paper will discuss how the resilience of this mafia in Australia is linked to the capacity of ‘ndrangheta clans to maintain different heads – to be polycephalous – all differently and equally important: their organisational head is stable and culturally homogeneous, their (mafia-type) behaviours are constant, flexible and rooted in ethnic solidarity, and their activities are very dynamic, but hybrid in their ethnic composition

Playing Pac-Man in Portville: Policing the dilution and fragmentation of drug importations through major seaports

This article presents findings from a qualitative research project into organized crime, policing and security across five major seaports (‘Portvilles’): Genoa (Italy); Melbourne (Australia); Montreal (Canada); New York (USA); and Liverpool (UK). Through content analysis of confidential judicial files, the article will construct the offenders’ scenarios and options for importing drugs in Portville. Through also interviews with law enforcement agencies, police forces and security staff in these seaports, the article presents the policing and security struggles to disrupt importations. The main finding is that importation roles and security techniques change constantly and quickly, as in a game of Pac-Man. Security and policing in seaports lead to the dilution and fragmentation of drug importation, and only distribution tends to remain organized in Portville. In this chaotic environment, it is the rules of trade that affect the success of drug importations the most, rather than the failures of effective security and policing

Collaborative music interaction on tabletops: an HCI approach

With the advent of tabletop interaction, collaborative activities are better supported than they are on single-user PCs because there exists a physical shareable space, and interaction with digital data is more embodied and social. In sound and music computing, collaborative music making has traditionally been done using interconnected networks, but using separated computers. Musical tabletops introduce opportunities of playing in collaboration through sharing physically the same musical interface. However, few tabletop musical interfaces exploit this collaborative potential (e.g. the Reactable). We are interested in looking into how collaboration can be fully supported by means of musical tabletops for music performance in contrast with more traditional settings. We are also looking at whether collective musical engagement can be enhanced by providing more suitable interfaces to collaboration. In HCI and software development, we find an iterative process approach of design and evaluation—where evaluation allows us to identify key issues that can be addressed in the next design iteration of the system. Using a similar iterative approach, we plan to design and evaluate some tabletop musical interfaces. The aim is to understand what design choices can enhance and enrich collaboration and collective musical engagement on these systems. In this paper, we explain the evaluation methodologies we have undertaken in three preliminary pilot studies, and the lessons we have learned. Initial findings indicate that evaluating tabletop musical interfaces is a complex endeavour which requires an approach as close as possible to a real context, with an interdisciplinary approach provided by interaction analysis techniques

Multi-touch interaction principles for collaborative real-time music activities: towards a pattern language

In this paper we give an analysis of the literature on a set of problems that can arise when undertaking the interaction design of multi-touch applications for collaborative real-time music activities, which are designed for multitouch technologies (e.g. smartphones, tablets, interactive tabletops, among others). Each problem is described, and a candidate design pattern (CDP) is suggested in the form of a short sentence and a diagram—an approach inspired by Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. These solutions relate to the fundamental collaborative principles of democratic relationships, identities and collective interplay. We believe that this approach might disseminate forms of best design practice for collaborative music applications, in order to produce real-time musical systems which are collaborative and expressive

Parental separation and intergenerational support

Objective: We investigate support between parents and adult children across families exposed and not exposed to parental separation in Germany, by examining multiple types of support (i.e. emotional, material, and instrumental), both directions of provision (i.e. giving and receiving), and exchanges with mothers and fathers. Background: As parental separation may have implications for parent-child relationships and exchanges, with consequences for individuals' wellbeing, improving our understanding of the association between separation and support exchanges becomes paramount. Method: Using data from the German Family Panel (pairfam, 2009-2016, N=4,340 respondents and 13,481 observations), we estimate a range of support exchanges between parents and children simultaneously using generalized linear regression models with correlated random terms across equations. Additionally, we assess whether these associations vary by the timing at which parental separation occurred and social background. Results: Parental separation is negatively associated with support between parents and children, especially for fathers. However, no significant differences emerge between mothers who separated and mothers who did not in receiving material support from their children. The negative associations between parental separation and support between child and fathers are lower if parental separation occurs when the child is an adult. Further, when mothers are highly educated, separation has a less negative association with downward material support. Conclusion: Overall, lower intergenerational assistance among families experiencing separation suggests increasing disadvantage for those already disadvantaged

Esglésies d’urgència per a la perifèria de Barcelona

Aquest treball d’investigació s'emmarca dins del Màster de Projecte Integrat d'Arquitectura de l'Escola d'Arquitectura La Salle (URL) i és part d'una reflexió més extensa sobre la construcció de la perifèria barcelonina en els anys del desarrollismo franquista. El ràpid creixement dels suburbis va donar lloc a la creació d'una massa urbana descontrolada amb evidents deficiències en equipaments i urbanització. A través de dos exemples molt concrets, dues petites esglésies provisionals als barris del Verdum i la Trinitat Nova, ens apropem a una realitat social, arquitectònica i religiosa convulsa, en ple procés de canvi cap a una modernitat que, en els tres aspectes, marcarà profundament el paisatge humà d'aquests barris. La investigació neix amb dos objectius: posar en valor la modernitat d'una arquitectura construïda de manera precària i gairebé anònima, i conèixer la tradició constructiva que s'inicia en aquests anys i que constitueix la gran massa edificada de l'àrea metropolitana de Barcelona. D'aquesta manera podrem afrontar avui dia a la seva transformació i rehabilitació, tot conservant el seu esperit original. Les esglésies provisionals de Sant Sebastià i de Sant Josep Obrer van ser construïdes en els anys 1959 i 1960 respectivament per a resoldre la manca d'estructuració parroquial dels nous barris de la ciutat. El barracó de Sant Josep Obrer, d'aspecte extremadament pobre i humil, va ser construït pels propis veïns del barri seguint el projecte dels arquitectes Josep Maria Martorell i Oriol Bohigas, en aquell moment principals ideòlegs del Grup R i impulsors d'una renovada modernitat a Catalunya. Darrera de la seva aparent senzillesa, el projecte de Sant Josep Obrer amaga uns plantejaments radicalment moderns que un any abans els mateixos arquitectes havien assajat a l’església provisional de Sant Sebastià i que van causar una posterior reflexió sobre la relació entre modernitat i Església. En aquest sentit, Sant Sebastià va abordar amb originalitat la introducció de la prefabricació en una indústria de la construcció que poc a poc començava a despuntar després d'una dura postguerra i que serà la protagonista d'una manera de construir pròpia de la perifèria. El treball és una reflexió sobre els mecanismes de projecte i els processos d'anàlisi que podem utilitzar per arribar a comprendre'ls. En aquest sentit, a part d'una recerca històrica i contextual, s'ha realitzat un estudi analític de la documentació existent. Gràcies a això s'ha pogut comprovar per primera vegada com les dues esglésies, malgrat la seva gran diferència formal i estètica, comparteixen la mateixa idea de projecte, com si fossin dues variants d'un mateix model. Tot i l’aparent insignificança dels dos edificis, a través d’ells s’emmirallen bona part dels profunds canvis plàstics, socials i litúrgics que transformaran els edificis religiosos a mitjans del segle XX. Les condicions especials que van portar a la construcció d’aquestes dues esglésies han generat uns models fora d’allò comú en aquell moment i, per tant, fràgils i d’especial interès. En elles trobem solucions enginyoses i innovadores pròpies de les esglésies construïdes en els anys dels canvis conciliars, un ús extremadament funcional i auster de l’espai i una construcció precària però alhora imaginativa. També, les primeres temptatives de construcció de barracons prefabricats de qualitat per a solucionar ràpidament les mancances dels nous barris de la ciutat. El registre que s'ha realitzat amb els dos edificis ens permet documentar i desgranar amb precisió tots els aspectes de projectes que, d'altra manera, quedarien perduts amb el pas del temps i que actualment han desaparegut o es troben en un avançat estat de degradació. Aquest registre analític ens ha de servir també per a comunicar a la societat del s.XXI els valors d'un patrimoni arquitectònic modern molt proper però alhora desconegut i en molts casos, menyspreat.Peer Reviewe

Policing the port, watching the city. Manifestations of organised crime in the port of Genoa

This article will present the results of a qualitative research into organised crime in the port of Genoa, Italy’s largest port, by looking at the challenges of policing the port space. Through the case of Genoa, the paper reflects on how organised crime manifests across three trajectories in seaports: trafficking through the port, infiltration in the port economy and governance of the port management. This paper argues that the space and geography of the port-city relationship are key to understand how and to what extent different organised criminal groups act in and around the port and within global drives. An integrated approach between urban criminology and organised crime studies is needed to better map the very complex picture of organised criminality in the port within the city

Stumbling upon places and cultures: an involuntary ethnography in researching the Australian ‘ndrangheta

In the past decade, the attention to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, has been rekindled everywhere in the world. On the one hand, Italian attention to the phenomenon has increased; on the other hand, the mobility of the Calabrian clans has been the object of scrutiny in view of the clan’s wealth and ability to commit transnational criminal activities. This has also fed the presumption that (alleged) offenders of Calabrian origins around the world must belong to, and replicate the structure of, the ‘ndrangheta clans, also down under. This contribution will be a reflection on the difficulties and the complexities of a journey into researching the ‘ndrangheta in Australia from a criminological–anthropological perspective, in consideration of—but in contrast with—the mythical figures associated with the Calabrian mafia and its illicit global markets. Some of the difficulties, as well as some of the mistakes that I have made in this research, because of the involuntary (and disorganized) nature of the ethnography, directly question the narrative of the illegal global reach of this mafia and provide methodological reflections and lessons for criminological ethnographies