Exploring the moral economies of ‘caviar hysteria’ in Europe

Hannah Dickinson has authored a chapter in the Routledge International Handbook of Criminology and Affect. She argues that illegal caviar trade in Europe is justified through moral economies shaped by cultural, economic, and emotional factors which influence how individuals and communities perceive and rationalise illegality.

Abstract

This chapter explores the moral economies of ‘caviar hysteria’ in Europe. A moral economy refers to the social and moral motivations underpinning the economic behaviours of individuals and communities. Illicit market activities can become socially acceptable via the construction of moral economies. Within Europe various supply-chain actors have created powerful moral economies to justify illegal caviar trade. This chapter describes how individuals rationalise illegal caviar trade according to culture and heritage, economic factors and as a form of social protest. What unites these diverse moral economies of illegal caviar trade are their affective registers: they are founded upon embodied emotional experiences and intangible socio-cultural relationships with caviar. Drawing upon primary data collected in six European countries, this chapter argues that European moral economies of illicit caviar trade are characterised by three key affective registers: desire, disconnection and desperation. By highlighting how affective atmospheres shape perceptions of criminality amongst wildlife trafficking perpetrators, the chapter brings a novel emotional and embodied perspective to green criminological analyses of illegal wildlife trade. Ultimately, analysing affective moral economies prompts consideration of how to better govern illegal caviar trade in Europe.

You can read the whole chapter here