Corruption Studies for the Twenty-First Century: Paradigm Shifts and Innovative Approaches

The key question currently driving innovations in corruption studies is anti-corruption reforms do not work. The explanatory factors for disappointing outcomes of anti-corruption interventions over the last -five years include those associated with: 1) understanding and of corrupt practices; 2) measurement and monitoring; and 3) design and implementation. special issue emerges from the international seminar series on in corruption studies in Europe and beyond held by the of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College , between October 2015 and March 2016. The purpose of the series, brought together researchers of the project ‘Anticorruption Policies : Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenges of ’ (ANTICORRP), was to highlight innovations in the field of studies regarding theory, methodology, analysis and policy. articles in this issue represent a sample of the wider academic debates focus on integrating expertise relating to Central and Eastern Europe — the domain of Slavonic and East European Review (SEER) — into comparative framework. The outcome reflects the openness of the to work across area and discipline and to ensure cross-fertilization area studies and the social sciences in general. Such network-based has been enabled by funding from the European Commission.1 ANTICORRP findings include a historical analysis of corrupt ,2 how they are reflected in the media,3 how they surface in ,4 how they relate both to good governance and to organized 5 and how they differ locally, regionally and globally.6 In this issue, we interpret ‘corruption studies’ narrowly, meaning academic , separate from government policy, media or activist discourses. , we focus on the challenges in corruption studies and the emergence cross-discipline and cross-area analyses in order to accommodate the and context-bound nature of corruption.