To become ‘ndrangheta in Calabria: organisational narrative criminology and the constitution of mafia organisations

The ‘ndrangheta is a mafia group from Calabria, Southern Italy. Considerable efforts have been made to understand the structures and the organisation of this mafia, not only in the province of Reggio Calabria where it originated, but also in other Calabrian provinces and even outside the Calabrian region. Building on judicial data from a recent maxi-trial (Rinascita-Scott) against ‘ndrangheta clans in the province of Vibo Valentia, we build a theoretical approach based on narrative criminology applied to organisational studies of secretive organisations. We find a ‘script of narratives’ emerging from collaborators and affiliates’ stories – about socialisation, discretion, and accreditation - which reveals how recognition and constitution of ‘added’ ‘ndrangheta clans are thought to work. This script helps us understand the constitutive power of narratives in mafias and critically approach the study of such organisations.