The Dark Side of Projects: Uncovering Slavery, Corruption, Criminal Organizations, and Other Uncomfortable Topics

Unethical and illegal practices abound in our modern world. For example, slavery in several countries was abolished at the turn of the nineteen century, yet, at this very moment, approximately 40 million people worldwide are considered to be modern slaves (International Labour Organization [ILO] & Walk Free Foundation [WFF], 2017), more than three times the entire Atlantic slave trade. The extent of corruption is equally shocking and costs society US$3.6 trillion globally in the forms of bribes and stolen money (Johnson, 2018), roughly Germany’s GDP, the fourth highest in the world. The two examples are just the tip of the iceberg; the business world has dark stains, and projects are no exception. For instance, construction projects employ modern slaves (Amnesty International, 2021; Gulf News, 2019; Pattisson et al., 2021), are involved in corruption scandals (Lehtinen et al., 2022; Olken, 2007, 2009), and are sometimes used for money laundering (Locatelli et al., 2022). The dark side of projects, that is, “any illegal, or unethical phenomena associated with projects” (Locatelli et al., 2022), as those exemplified above, is real, relevant, and merits further investigation.