Luxury and Corruption
Challenging the Anti-Corruption Consensus
By Tereza Østbø Kuldova, Jardar Østbø and Thomas Raymen
Published
Jan 30, 2024Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529236330Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Jan 30, 2024Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529212419Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Jan 30, 2024Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529212433Imprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Jan 30, 2024Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529212433Imprint
Bristol University Press
Luxury and Corruption
The world has been bombarded in recent years with images of the luxurious lives and wealth of corrupt oligarchs and kleptocrats, amassed at the expense of ordinary people. Such images exploit our feelings of injustice, are taken as indicative of moral decay, and inspire a desire to purge our economies of dirty money, objects, and people.
But why do anti-corruption efforts routinely fail? What kind of world are they creating? Looking at luxury art, antiquities, superyachts, and populist politics, this book explores the connection between luxury and corruption, and offers an alternative to the received wisdom of how we tackle corruption.
“Transformative. The most important book on corruption to have emerged in decades.” Simon Winlow, Northumbria University
" Examines the practices of anti-corruption in fine detail and hitherto unplumbed depth. For these authors, the murky and, at times, insidious anti-corruption apparatus operates at a far deeper and more complex ideologically reproductive level. Cutting-edge research, sophisticated analysis, and essential reading." Professor Emeritus Steve Hall, Northumbria University
“Interrogating the trinity of high-end luxury, the anti-corruption and compliance industries, and (the lack of) ethics, Luxury and Corruption reveals core contradictions and dynamics that drive contemporary capitalism. A fascinating read.” Janine Wedel, George Mason University
Tereza Østbø Kuldova is Research Professor at the Work Research Institute, Oslo Metropolitan University. She is a social anthropologist and the author of six books and numerous articles. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology and of the Algorithmic Governance Research Network. She currently leads the LUXCORE project: Luxury, Corruption and Global Ethics: Towards a Critical Cultural Theory of the Moral Economy of Fraud, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Jardar Østbø is Professor and Head of Programme for Russian Security and Defence Policy at the Institute for Defence Studies, Norwegian Defence University College. He is the author of The New Third Rome. Readings of a Russian Nationalist Myth (2016) and his articles have appeared in numerous journals. He is the leader of the international project RUSECOPOL (2019-2023) and a core researcher of the LUXCORE project.
Thomas Raymen is Associate Professor of Criminology at Northumbria University. He is a co-founder of the Deviant Leisure Research Network, and the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Contemporary Crime, Harm, and Ethics. He has written or edited numerous books chapters and journal articles. Raymen is a core researcher of the LUXCORE project.
Preface: Luxury, Corruption, and the Assumption of Harmlessness
Chapter 1: Luxury, Anti-Corruption, and the Fantasy of Wholeness
Chapter 2: Russian Kleptocrat Luxury, Naval’nyi’s Exposés, and the Global Anti-Policy Syndrome
Chapter 3: Compliance, Defiance, and the Fight against Crime through the Markets in Art, Antiquities and Luxury
Chapter 4: Luxury, Encasement, and the Emptiness of Anti-Corruption’s Ethics
Epilogue: Luxury, Corruption, and the Death Drive
