The 31th conference of Disruption Network Lab Organised Crime: A Global Business investigates global systems of organised crime and corruption, and the connections between crime, politics and business.

The annual costs of international corruption amount to a shocking $3.6 trillion. Taking form as bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, just to name a few of them, corruption grows out of poverty, wealth assymetries, human rights violations, international organised crime, fragile economic growth, and low income per capita. It is boosted by the cumulative and incremental flow of international commerce, privatization measures (for example in the transitioning from socialist to capitalist economies), and the growing institutional influence on the markets – factors that boost opportunism and tempt civil servants to act in self-interest. Corruption causes poverty, obstructs development, and drives away investment, while boosting real estate speculation, drug trafficking and money laundering, from the local to the global level. Investigating corruption goes well beyond economic calculations, and requires analysing connections between institutions, banks, multinational corporations.

Corruption is not an issue circumscribed to a specific form of government, but it involves a global network of countries as well as different structures of economies and parliamentary systems. Global corruption is a distinct and convoluted phenomenon that intervenes and prominently influences both politics and the private sector, making it more difficult for the system to legislate effectively and to efficiently combat it. To study corruption in a comprehensive way, we need to critically analyse, identify and explore the dynamics and relationships between organised crime, institutions and the private sector.

To effectively inform the public and enhance literacy, we need the perspectives of knowledgeable journalists, researchers and activists from regions where corruption is considered particularly visible and detrimental to democratic development. These perspectives are also needed to counter stereotypes and to promote a critical, balanced understanding on the mechanisms of globalised politics, trade and crime.

Disruption Network Lab wants to empower their local and global audience to mobilise and participate in their local communities and networks, to spread knowledge in their respective countries and take part in a globalised critical exchange.

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