How does Bourdieu apply in online markets for drugs?
Associate Professor Jakob Demant from the Department of Sociologi has in collaboration with S.A. Bakken and A. Oksanen published an article in the highly esteemed journal Theoretical Criminology under the title:
'Capital in illegal online drug markets: How digital capital changes the cultural environment of drug dealing'
The article looks into how digital societies demand technological competence, including for actors in illegal activity. Inspired by Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and related to criminological concepts, such as street capital, this study analyses digital capital as a wider concept relating to digital drug markets that capture both technological and cultural competences.
In the article, this is pursued empirically via interview data (N = 107) on social media and darknet drug markets. The overall need for digital competence erodes the earlier divide in drug markets based on either subculture or networks. The need to be familiar with mainstream technological tools and behaviours connects digital drug markets to more general cultural competencies.
Consequently, illegal activities become connected with mainstream cultural capital because both fields value the same competencies.
Read the full article (open access): Bakken, S. A., Oksanen, A., & Demant, J. (2022). Capital in illegal online drug markets: How digital capital changes the cultural environment of drug dealing.