Current project

A socio-technical framework for online drug markets (SOTEC)

This ongoing project, led by Principal Investigator Meropi Tzanetakis and funded by the FWF Austrian Science Fund, examines the rapid digital transformation of illicit drug markets, which are global yet largely invisible, with an estimated annual turnover of half a trillion USD. Traditional approaches have struggled to keep pace with these evolving markets, which increasingly rely on digital platforms and emerging technologies, including AI, to connect buyers and sellers.

Drawing on economic sociology, digital criminology and science and technology studies, the project develops a novel conceptual framework, named socio-technical embeddedness, to understand how digital platforms reshape market organisation, supply chains, and gender relations within illicit drug markets. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research investigates the socio-technical dynamics of these markets. This design allows for a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how technological, social, and economic factors intersect in these ecosystems.

By combining theoretical innovation with empirical investigation, the project aims to advance knowledge about the changing nature of illegal online markets and the complex interactions between technology and social practices, providing insights that are relevant for both research and policy.

Completed projects

Dealing with uncertainty on anonymous online drug markets (DYNAMICS)

Meropi Tzanetakis was principal investigator of the Erwin Schrödinger project ‘Dealing with uncertainty on anonymous online drug markets’. This project aimed at developing an economic sociology approach to understanding how social interactions enable market exchange on anonymous drug markets.

Meropi conducted multi-sited digital ethnographic research on socially and culturally embedded practices of cryptomarket users. In recent years, new technological developments on the Internet allow users to proceed with illicit drug transactions with almost completely anonymous identities and locations.

These innovative technologies include anonymising software for communication purposes and virtual currencies such as Bitcoin for payments.

At the same time, supply and demand serve to self-regulate and develop a significant and growing drug market that systematically bypasses drug policy. The project was funded by the FWF Austrian Science Fund.

Virtual Drug Markets – Relations between conventional and online drug dealing (VIDRO)

Meropi Tzanetakis was leading the subproject VIDRO, which was part of the collaborative research project DROK (Organisierte Kriminalität zwischen virtuellem und realem Drogenhandel). The research project (2014-2016) involved a total of nine partners from academia, the industry and public sector in Austria and Germany.

Online drug marketplaces as well as research on darknet markets are relatively new phenomena. Understanding how this new way of vending drugs impacts upon sellers and customers is critical if we are to better understand the current context of drug market dynamics.

The aim of the project was empirically investigate the degree to which a shift from traditional to online drug trafficking has occurred and to what extent the actors and structures operating on darknet drug-markets are the same as offline ones.

VIDRO employed a combination of classical qualitative research methods and innovative approaches and methods like web scraping and anonymous online interviews. The project received funding by the Austrian Security Research Programme KIRAS of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology.