Members of this research cluster examine economic activities from sociological, criminological, and anthropological perspectives. We study how economic behaviour and its meaning is shaped by cultural institutions, technological developments, social networks, and existing or emerging power structures.

We view an economy as a system that allocates and circulates resources to sustain organizational life—whether in global finance, criminal syndicates, local theatre companies, online influencers’ networks, or street vending of banned goods. Rather than treating markets as self-regulating domains governed solely by supply and demand, we see them as culturally and morally contested arenas. Economic organizations are not purely rational actors driven by profit maximization, but entities embedded in social, cultural, and political networks. Likewise, we regard money not as a neutral medium of exchange but as a socially constructed, contentious, and regulated institution. We see consumption not merely as steps that logically follow or respond to utility calculations, but acts that demarcate status, define social relationships, and challenge—or reproduce—mores and norms.