"Would you offer me a coffee?": A qualitative research on 'street collusion' in Palermo

Abstract

This study is a pilotstudy on collusion in the lands of mafia. The study was carried out in Palermo and focuses on illegal parking attendants, figures now entangled in the geo-political landscape of the city whose traces can be found in the streets, in the media events as well as in the judicial reporting of the Sicilian capital. The research questions are: who are these social subjects? What are the reasons for their hypertrophic presence in the city?
Data were collected through 21 ad hoc interviews; the results show how the problem is complex and, as stated by the mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando, "concerns both valets and those who park”, in a dense web of conscious and unconscious collusion between "demand" and "supply" of an abusive, unlawful and irregular service, which produces a phenomenon of "lawlessness hidden in the sunlight" linked to the "mafia feeling".