The Palermo crucible -- The genesis of the mafia -- The mafia and the cold war -- The cultural production of violence -- Seeking causes, casting blame -- Mysteries and poisons -- The antimafia movement -- Backlash and renewal -- Civil society groundwork -- Recuperating the built environment -- "Cultural re-education" -- Reversible destiny
Summary
Reversible Destiny traces the history of the Sicilian mafia to its nineteenth-century roots and examines its late twentieth-century involvement in urban real estate and construction as well as drugs. Based on research in the regional capital of Palermo, this book suggests lessons regarding secretive organized crime: its capacity to reproduce a subculture of violence through time, its acquisition of a dense connective web of political and financial protectors during the Cold War era, and the sad reality that repressing it easily risks harming vulnerable people and communities