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Logistics and Power in Illegitimate Markets

29 October 2025, 5:00 pm–7:00 pm

cropped section of Logistics and Power book cover

UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies is delighted to welcome Susan Zieger to give this seminar. With respondent Professor Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Institute of Advanced Studies

Location

IAS Common Ground
G11, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Telling supply chain stories about illegal drugs and counterfeit goods, I explain how the enhanced logistics of e-commerce has expanded and diversified organized crime, incorporating it within the so-called legitimate economy. As the freest mode of trade, illegal logistics reveal the social and cultural consequences of two centuries of laissez-faire economics and fifty years of neoliberal trade policies.

Followed by a drinks reception. All welcome but please register to attend: https://ccs-logistics-power.eventbrite.co.uk

The UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies is a world-leading centre for critical interdisciplinary research into the past, present, and future of capitalism. It brings together UCL faculty and students studying how markets, finance and economic institutions shape our everyday life, structure societies’ capacity to change, and are contested and remade across time and space.
 

Access from Gower St closed until January 2026

Access to the South Wing is not currently permissible via Gower St. Please enter the UCL campus via the entrances on Gordon Square or Torrington Place. See a map and more detailed directions.

About the Speakers

Susan Zieger

Professor of English at University of California in Riverside

Susan Zieger writes about the modern history and literature of consumerism. Her first two books explored addiction and media immersion in the nineteenth century.

More about Susan Zieger

Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

Professor of Economy and Society at Social Research Institute

Dr Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou is a sociologist and a writer. He is the Director of the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies, Director of the BSc Sociology programme, and Head of the Sociology & Social Theory Research Group. Aris’s research broadly explores the rise of new social and political imaginaries in 20th and 21st century capitalism. It combines economic and political sociology with social theory to trace the impact of financial markets on everyday life and the collective movements emerging in response to financialisation. 

More about Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou