Studying Smuggling

This paper introduces the panel on the basis of the recently published Routledge Handbook of Smuggling. It examines the particular features of smuggling as an area of study, discussing its conceptualisation and diversity, amidst recent trends and scholarship. The paper highlights smuggling as an economic activity that is politically defined and socially embedded. As a consequence, its conceptualisation as a field of study requires reference to the wider context and systems of power and profit in which it operates. Diverging disciplinary, methodological, and ideological perspectives on this have given rise to a wide variety of scholarship on smuggling that is often disjointed and siloed. This paper provides an introduction both as a thematic overview over key discussions and as a reflection of the challenges and opportunities in making these literatures speak to each other more effectively.