Brokerage is an essential yet understudied function in social life. In one of the class
ics in the field of sociology, Georg
Simmel differentiated three types of the “third” which help to analyse brokerage: the disinterested mediator or
arbitrator,
tertius gaudens
and
divide et impera
. Studies that conceptualise traffickers and smugglers as b
rokers are
extremely rare. Scholars lack a typology which can serve as a basis for comparative research. To advance scholarship on
brokerage this article seeks to develop a conceptual
-
typological matrix by setting out to explore three questions: Why
does b
rokerage exist? What kind of social mechanism is brokerage? What are the implications of brokerage for social
inequalities and
equalities
? The analysis concludes with the consequences of different types of brokerage for the
(re)production of social inequalities.