La costruzione sociale della camorra. L’arena dei discorsi pubblici in un caso studio in Campania

In the field of mafia studies, the relationship between mafias and territo-rial contexts is closely related to the processes of genesis and reproduction of crimi-nal groups. It also generates social representations of the criminal phenomenon, which are determined by various actors. This paper aims to investigate the social construction of Camorra in a community where the criminal phenomenon is tradi-tionally rooted in. The long-term presence of Camorra in the community has been characterized by many episodes of violence which represent the main symbolic ele-ment on which the process of recognition of the camorra by the local community is developed. The analysis of the case study is therefore a useful starting point for the historical-sociological understanding of the processes of social construction of mafia phenomena.