Mafia Practices and Italian Entrepreneurial Activities in the Belgian Food Sector. Research Objectives

This research aims to study the social and economic processes which encourage the spread of mafia practices among some Italian entrepreneurs in the Belgian food sector. My working hypothesis is that mafia practices are violent and predatory strategies to monopolize the economic market, which rely on the use of heterogeneous and cross-class social networks. In this view, these activities of old and new Italian entrepreneurs in Belgium are not the result of the exportation of mafia methods through migratory or cultural ties, but rather the outcome of a complex economic system of production in which certain Italian entrepreneurs have established profitable enterprises in the legal market using violent modalities of accumulation and specific strategies of relation. This research is developed through an ethnographic approach grounded on biographical collection and on participant observation, which is carried out through direct involvement in commercial activities in the sectors of interest.