About the book
Corruption, often described as all that is rotten in modern society, has become an increasingly dominant theme in contemporary political discourse, one that is related to specific practices, concepts and evaluations that vary across regions, cultures, spheres of action, and disciplines. This volume, through case studies, investigates corruption in the Global South (especially India and Brazil) and West (especially Switzerland) to gain a more nuanced view of the phenomenon. The essays in this volume are organised into two parts: the first part covers conceptual questions related to corruption discourses from different perspectives (such as economic ethics, social capital theory and literature); the second part details the complexity and diversity of corruption practices within countries and between countries and regions, providing different interpretative frameworks, which in turn flow into discourses on corruption. The overall perspective of mutual influence of concepts and practices adopted here and the empirical focus on the Global South add a significant measure to the mapping and understanding of the uses and abuses of ‘corruption’ in political, legal and economic discourses. The differentiated approach of this study complements existing literature and provides a more substantial account of the phenomenon. Essays discuss the uses of corruption indices globally, the way Systemic Corruption is conceptualised by social movements and courts, the concept of corruption as social capital and demonetisation, ethnographies that present the micro-practices of corruption, the role of law, courts and constitution in combating corruption – the Lava Jato complex in Brazil, for instance, and literary imaginations of the corruption complex.
This volume attempts to look at the respective situational, contextual conditions that make varying interpretations possible and the corresponding practices with which corruption discourses are intertwined.
Table of contents
- Introduction: Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Comparative Analysis of Corruption__
Kalpana Kannabiran, Bettina Hollstein, Florian Hoffmann
- Corruption Indices – Basis for Comparisons or Irreducible Bias?
Bettina Hollstein
- Systemic Governance Corruption: The Dialectics of Law and Nonviolent Social Movements in Contemporary India
Upendra Baxi
- Conceptualising Corruption, Conflict and Cities in Africa (and Beyond?)
Lucy Koechlin
- Demonetisation, Corruption and Black Money: The Unfolding Dangers of Opportunistic Politics in the Era of Post-Truth
Narasimha Reddy - Changing Discourse of Corruption and Cross Caste and Class Alliance Building: Insights from Andhra Pradesh
Sanam Roohi
- Petty Corruption in Women’s Activism in South India: Cipher for Critique or Skilled Practice?
Janna Vogl
- Does Better Information Lead to Lower Corruption?: Evidence from Uttar Pradesh, India
Sujoy Dutta
- Law and Political Crisis in Brazil: From “Mensalão” to “Lava-Jato”
Fernando Fontainha & Amanda Evelyn Cavalcanti de Lima
- Before the Law: (Anti-)Corruption and the Politics of Anti-Politics in Contemporary Brazil
Florian Hoffmann
- Insurgent Realisms and Ideas of Justice in India: Imagining the ‘Corruption Complex’ through Law and Literature
Kalpana Kannabiran
About the Editor and Contributors
Index
About the editors
Kalpana Kannabiran, Independent Sociologist and Lawyer, Hyderabad, India
Florian F. Hoffmann, Professor of Law – Department of Law, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
Bettina Hollstein, Managing Director, Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt
