Abstract

The recent use, in mafia literature, of analytical models inspired by rational choice theory has been accompanied generally by a radical critique of "culturalist" analytical approaches, especially the interpretation of mafia as subculture proposed by Henner Hess in 1970. The essay acknowledges the limits of this interpretation, which derives from functionalist culture theory, and - employing a symbolic-interactionist approach - offers conceptual tools for re-conceptualising the mafia as a subculture. The article also endorses a revival, upon new bases, of cultural analyses of the mafia.