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This essay will use the theoretical lens of the production of space, provided by David Harvey, to analyse the Sack of Palermo, or the massive destruction of the Conca d'Oro, the fertile land surrounding Palermo, and its substitution with high rise buildings which occurred between 1950 and the 1980s, resulting in the destruction of a vast area of social space which had existed for centuries. Harvey argues that capitalism consists of a constant re-modeling of places in order to facilitate its practices of domination and profit. Organised crime has been the vehicle in this case: Indeed, the Mafia has produced a new urban space, not only by destroying the former agricultural and suburban context of Palermo, but also by their demolition of some important monuments in the cities, such as the liberty villas of early XX century. This process took place in two stages. The first one was the displacement, that is the eviction of the population of the city- relocatd into lower class districts where unemployment and social disruption provided a fertile ground to the Mafioso hegemony. The second stage was anonymization: The emptying of the city, the engulfing of the old borgate (hamlets) with blocks of flats, destroyed the social capital of family, professional and cultural network which was crucial for the city's local identity. The new Palermo suffered from the lack of a collective sense of belonging which impeded the development of a sense of civility and citizenship; and thus made way for fragmented, particular interests, making it easier to reinforce the domination of the mafia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a piece of research into extortion in the city of Palermo between 2004 and 2015. Highlighting the importance of the territorial context among the factors that explain the mafia phenomenon, the study draws on two different georeferencing databases: the first relating to the distribution of extortion across the Sicilian capital's various districts, and the second relating to the distribution of Palermo businesses that had joined the Addiopizzo anti-extortion movement. Although the empirical material is problematic, marked territorial variations emerge from a comparative analysis of the two databases, prompting a number of potential interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mussolini had declared that Fascism, through the anti-mafia campaign entrusted to Cesare Mori, prefect of Palermo, in the second half of the 1920s, had conclusively liberated Sicily from the mafia. However, from the early 1930s a new deterioration of public order on the island was evident, and the regime was forced to launch a second, and much less publicised, repression of this phenomenon. In the course of its careful investigations the body given responsibility for pursuing this repression, theIspettorato Generale di Pubblica Sicurezza per la Sicilia, compiled a series of reports, including theProcesso verbale di denunziarelating to the area around Palermo. With a level of detail never seen before, these reports described the structure, organisation and dynamics of mafia groups. This was possible because police officers had available members of the mafia groups themselves – genuinepentiti– who had decided to make disclosures to the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]