The mafia power between hierarchy and social relations

The type of power that comes immediately to mind when studying the Mafia is the formal power, which derives from the hierarchical distribution of roles. Actually, leadership within the mafia organization can be understood in different ways and take on different meanings. In fact, there is another type of power, equally important, that derives from the position that a subject occupies within the criminal relational system, which allows some affiliates to gain a certain advantage over others, thanks to which they can influence or determine the condition of others. For these reasons it is proposed to investigate, through the methodological tools offered by Social Network Analysis, the manifestation of this second type of power within the clans of ‘Ndrangheta – thanks to a similar relational data processing, in fact, it is possible to understand which nodes acquire greater relevance in the network or in part of it and, therefore, acquire greater relational power. The analytical objective is to individuate any difference or overlap between the power deriving from hierarchical positions and the power deriving from relational positions of affiliates.