Abstract
What follows here as an exercise in reflexivity is primarily a contemplation of the researcher’s constitution and construction of the subject of the research, and the dilemma of the independent identity of the latter. Does the subject of any research exist in an autonomous way, ‘out there’, ‘in the real world’, or is it the product of a particular ‘external’ narrative, the researcher’s story telling? This question can be located in the field of scientific and academic discourse as ‘the fundamental problem of anthropology, that of the relations between the ethnographer and authochthonic subject’. As an aspect of researcher reflexivity the discussion here connects with that twentieth into twenty-first-century element of self-reflection in social science concerning the role of social inquiry and its methods in the ‘enactment’ of social reality and the social world. Summarising their argument that social scientific research methods are ‘performative’, Law and Urry state:
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Notes
- 1.
The question as summarised by Mieke Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (3rd ed, University of Toronto Press, 2009) at p. 185. Bal draws at this point on the argument of Clifford Geertz, ‘“From the Native’s Point of View”: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding’, in Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (Basic Books, 2000), at p. 55.
- 2.
For a valuable critical review of this role of social scientific research, see: John Law and Jon Urry, ‘Enacting the Social’, Department of Sociology and Centre for Social Sciences, Lancaster University, On-Line Papers, 2003.
- 3.
Ibid., at p. 2. See also Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose, ‘Do the Social Sciences Create Phenomena? The Example of Public Opinion Research’, (1999) 50 British Journal of Sociology 367, and their argument that ‘social sciences have played a very significant role in making up our world, and the kinds of persons, phenomena and entities which inhabit it’, at p. 368.
- 4.
Law and Urry, note 2 above, at pp. 9–10.
- 5.
Bal, note 1 above, at p. 186.
- 6.
Geertz, note 1 above, at p. 55.
- 7.
Here is a first point of reflexivity: how do researchers talk and write about their own activity in a professional context—in the first or the third person? This is sometimes seen as mainly a matter of style, or cultural and professional preference. For instance, it might be observed that American researchers, editors and publishers seem happier with the use of the (subjective ?) first person narration, compared to a British preference for (more objective, detached and rigorous ?) third person accounts. In an English-speaking context, most universities urge their students to write in the third person, although increasingly note that this trend may be changing as exercises in self-reflection are now more favoured. On further consideration, it is more than just a matter of style, but does indeed relate to the researcher/writer’s own sense of role, intention, and indeed degree of self-awareness.
- 8.
This is not to mention a further objection to the ‘Harvard’ method—that it is uninformative and even lazy while giving an impression of full and deep research—it simply does not make clear the precise connection between the source and the statement in the text.
- 9.
Harding and Edwards, Leverhulme funded project, Explaining and Understanding Business Cartel Collusion, 2012–14.
- 10.
See in particular, the research project website (http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/law-criminology/research/research-clusters/global-commerce/cartel-collusion), and the cautionary note struck in ‘Cartel Stories’; see also some of the discussion in Christopher Harding and Jennifer Edwards, Cartel Criminality: The Mythology and Pathology of Business Collusion (Ashgate 2015).
- 11.
A biographical note. Julian was successively an official with the European Commission, undertaking a leading role in the investigation of suspected illegal business cartels, and then a lawyer advising companies on their legal position in relation to cartel activity. Our research collaboration started in the later 1990s when we sought to combine insider (official and lawyer) and outside (academic researcher) perspectives in a research and writing synergy.
- 12.
See: Christopher Harding and Julian Joshua, Regulating Cartels in Europe: A study of Legal Control of Corporate Delinquency (Oxford University Press, 2003), the first edition, and the same authors, Regulating Cartels in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2010), the second edition.
- 13.
In 2012, the main research activity was funded for the period 2012–14.
- 14.
See note 10 above.
- 15.
Indeed, we went on to use the example of the Soda Ash Cartel extensively in our research and book. We considered that there was rich material there—a longstanding cartel arrangement and a saga of legal proceedings enduring for over twenty years. It became a favourite story for us. I say ‘well-known case’, although that really means well-known to cartel cognoscenti.
- 16.
Christopher Harding, 2001. ‘Page One Thousand’ was the code name for the cartel plan, as revived in 1945 and then used as the basis for cartel activity involving the companies Solvay and ICI until the 1980s.
- 17.
Arved Deringer, The Competition Law of the European Economic Community (Commerce Clearing House, 1968). This was one of the earliest English language publications on the subject. By the way, reader, why I have slipped into the third person at this point?
- 18.
It literally may happen in that way, the moment of revelation, the flashing light bulb thought balloon above the thinker’s head, as then retold in popular anecdotes, such as Einstein’s moment of realisation as he travelled in a streetcar past the large clock in the centre of Bern.
- 19.
Cartel Criminality, note 10 above.
- 20.
By using the word ‘episode’ I am of course selecting some arbitrary limits to the subject matter of this discussion, so side-stepping the question, when does particular research begin and end?
- 21.
For a summary description and analysis of this distinctive Germanic contribution, see: David J Gerber, Law and Competition in Twentieth Century Europe: Protecting Prometheus (Oxford University Press, 1998), although Gerber identifies a set of ideas articulated in Fin-de-Siècle Austria ‘as the original core of the European competition law tradition’ (at p. 43).
- 22.
At the time sometimes referred to as ‘muckraking’ literature. A notable example would be the work of Ida Minerva Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company (McClure, Phillips & Co, 1904). But this body of critical commentary also comprised a rich source of political cartoons published in magazines and newspapers.
- 23.
Being both reflexive and self-serving, takes as an example the bibliography in the second edition of Harding and Joshua, note 12 above, at p. 392 et seq,
- 24.
For an example of an academic study which considered contesting ‘defence bar’ and ‘enforcement oriented’ interpretations of the course of cartel regulation, see: Christopher Harding and Alun Gibbs, ‘Why go to court in Europe ? An analysis of cartel appeals 1995–2004’, 30 (2005) European Law Review 345.
- 25.
The term drama is deliberate and closely descriptive; if we are honest about this kind of discussion, it is a narrative as a drama that we are interested in probing.
- 26.
And indeed willingly forthcoming to researchers and to the public, save a certain amount of redaction when some claims of confidentiality, secrecy and anonymity are respected on legal grounds.
- 27.
Unusually in case law, the European Court Reports provide an authoritative report of every case taken through to a judgment or ruling by any of the EU Courts (and so now run to thousands of pages). Underlying this judicial documentation, the Commission, in its competition enforcement role, provides detailed formal decisions in its cartel cases (published in the Official Journal of the European Union), and also shorter press releases.
- 28.
The term ‘full’ is used advisedly here. To talk of a full story suggest an agreed starting and finishing point in the narrative and an agreed amount of detail. This is an inherent problem in any narrative. For instance, we had decided in our research accounts to provide some ‘pre-history’ of actual cartel operations, to provide a fuller account and understanding of the origins and business culture of the cartel in question.
- 29.
An interesting point in itself, reflecting a highly developed European culture of legal entitlement and rights assertion. For further discussion, see Harding and Gibbs, note 27 above, especially at pp. 349–53. Those authors describe the EU appeals process as ‘a major legal industry’.
- 30.
For some critical account of the development and operation of this aspect of American criminal justice, see, for instance: Angela J Davis, Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor (Oxford University Press, 2007); Mary E Vogel, Coercion to Compromise: Plea Bargaining, the Courts and the Making of Political Authority (Oxford University Press, 2007).
- 31.
I am using this term ‘outlaw’ now carefully and deliberately, in order to avoid more obviously value-laden terms such as ‘offender’, law-breaker’ and in particular ‘criminal’, and stress that in using ‘outlaw’ I am being descriptive and not pejorative. In my use of the term, an ‘outlaw’ is literally somebody who, for whatever reason, finds him or herself outside lawful activity and in breach, or allegedly in breach of rules.
- 32.
In the context of cartel proceedings, the resort to leniency programmes to gain evidence, and the resulting interest in anonymity for the leniency applicant/informer will resort in the redaction of some evidence relating to a significant member of the joint illegal enterprise.
- 33.
At the recent (June 2015) Galvanised Steel Tanks Cartel case before Southwark Crown Court, it was decided in the end not to call the two defendants to give evidence before the Court, for good tactical reasons, but thereby denying to the jury the chance to hear directly from these major protagonists their own account of what happened.
- 34.
It is also interesting to speculate on the impact of such legal strategy and procedure on the defendant’s own internal recollection of events: whether the effect of such legal process may be to suppress memory or alter the personal interpretation of the actor’s own history—an area for further investigation and research.
- 35.
Michael O’Kane, ‘Does prison work for cartelists?—The view from behind bars’, 56 (2011) The Antitrust Bulletin 483. Michael O’Kane is Head of the Business Crime Practice at Peters & Peters, London, and a good example of a practitioner who is also a writer and commentator in this field.
- 36.
For example: Eric Larson, ‘Ex-BA Executive Shares Prison Tales to Sway Violators’, Bloomberg, 22 October, 2010, commenting on ex-businessman Keith Packer’s new career advising businesses as a cartel pundit; ‘Interview: Mark Whitacre – Lysine Cartel Whistleblower on Price Fixing and Rebuilding his Life After Prison’, FeedInfo News Service, 13 January 2009, dealing with the afterlife of Lysine cartelist Mark Whitacre – both containing revealing quotations.
- 37.
But see our discussion of the value of anecdote in the research project web page ‘Anecdote, Vignette and Quantification: A Biographical Dilemma’, note 10 above.
- 38.
Kurt Eichenwald, The Informant: A True Story (Portobello Books, 2009). This detailed journalistic account provided the basis for a feature film, directed by Steven Soderbergh and released in 2009 (sometimes described as a ‘biography-comedy-film). It is possible then to compare three tellings of the Lysine Cartel story, through legal documentation, the book and the film.
- 39.
Christopher Mason, The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby’s – Christie’s Auction House Scandal (Putnam Publishing, 2004).
- 40.
Alfred Taubmann, Threshold Resistance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailer Pioneer (Harper Business, 2007).
- 41.
Taubmann’s subsequent autobiography, which is arrogantly unrepentant and boastful, provides revealing evidence of the personal impact of sanctions such as imprisonment, at least in that particular business and cultural milieu.
- 42.
Note 25 above.
- 43.
George W Stocking and Myron W Watkins, Cartels in Action: Case Studies in International Business Diplomacy (The Twentieth Century World Fund, 1946).
- 44.
Birgit Karlson, ‘Cartels in the Swedish forest industry in the interwar period’, Chap. 13 in Sven-Olof Olsson (ed), Managing Crises and Deglobalisation (Routledge, 2010).
- 45.
Research Project web site, note 10 above, ‘Anecdote, Vignette and Quantification: A Biographical Dilemma’.
- 46.
John McVicar, McVicar by Himself (Artnik, 3rd revised ed, 2000). McVicar, a convicted and imprisoned bank robber, subsequently studied for a degree in Sociology while in prison, and later became an articulate commentator on crime and criminal justice and also the subject of a feature film, directed by Tom Clegg and released in 1980, so adding to the tellings of that story.
- 47.
It is interesting to reflect on occasional but substantial encounters between researcher and criminal, or ex-criminal. See, for instance, Sally Vincent, ‘How We Met: Laurie Taylor and John McVicar’, The Independent, 22 August 1993.
- 48.
Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (University of Queensland Press, 2000).
- 49.
Or through music? For instance, there is the song ‘Outlaw Pete’ by Bruce Springsteen (from the album Working on a Dream (2009) and described by Springsteen as a story which ‘flows from many sources’ and as the narrative ‘of a man trying to outlive and outlast his sins’. It is an interesting example of an ‘artistic’ attempt to penetrate the outlaw domain, now also supplemented by a short book co-authored by Springsteen and artist-cartoonist Frank Caruzo, Outlaw Pete (Simon & Schuster, 2014). Fictional and musical investigations of the outlaw domain would certainly qualify as ‘troubadour’ accounts, the Springsteen example classically so. In discussing fictional and artistic attempts to enter the criminal domain and criminal mind, Lisa Rodensky’s study of the handling of criminal responsibility in nineteenth century novels is of considerable interest: The Crime in Mind: Criminal Responsibility and the Victorian Novel (Oxford University Press, 2003).
- 50.
Indeed, we can also point to some earlier smaller attempts to engage with the insider view and mind set, for instance in the first part of the ‘Page One Thousand’ poem, above.
- 51.
See in particular: Laurie Taylor, In the Underworld (Basil Blackwell, 1984).
- 52.
See O’Kane, ‘Does prison work for cartelists?’, note 34 above.
- 53.
For a useful critical overview of the ethnomethodological approach in criminology, see: Katherine S Williams, Textbook on Criminology (Oxford University Press, 7th ed, 2012), at pp. 428 et seq. In particular, Williams notes that one of the reasons why some criminologists do not favour an ethnomethodological approach is that ‘the reflexive need to question their own research is both awkward and time-consuming’ (at p. 432).
- 54.
Taylor, In the Underworld, note 52 above, at p. 11. See also: Peter Bramham, review of In the Underworld, 36 (1985) British Journal of Sociology 636, at p. 638
- 55.
For a caricature image with some basis in real world sensibility, think of an intellectual university-based, Guardian-reading researcher listening to a recording of an actual cartel meeting, at which the ‘blokish’ talk is as much about football as fixing prices. My thanks to Andreas Stephan of the Law School at the University of East Anglia for helping to craft this example.
- 56.
We sometimes did discuss in a strategic way the advantages and disadvantages of either Jennifer or myself, or the two of us together, taking part in meetings and interviews with certain people.
- 57.
For an interesting study and attempt at ethnographic penetration of a particular professional tribe—British policy-making civil servants—see: Alex Stevens, ‘Telling Policy Stories: an ethnographic study of the use of evidence in policy-making in the UK’, 40 (2011) Journal of Social Policy 237. The author explains in his conclusion (at p. 250): ‘I have tried to shape a coherent narrative out of the messy business of policy-making. I have, however, tried to show my own methods and uncertainties so that readers can judge whether my narrative fits the reality of this process, or just the tropes and assumptions of academic discourse on policy-making.’
- 58.
Williams, Textbook on Criminology, note 54 above, at p. 433.
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Harding, C. (2017). Cartel Biographies: The Researcher as Storyteller and the Preservation of the Research Wilderness on the Inside of the Subject. In: Armstrong, S., Blaustein, J., Henry, A. (eds) Reflexivity and Criminal Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54642-5_12
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