Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
66 Davide Torsello institutions. Trust creates relations of reciprocity and obligations in the trustee. On the other hand, mistrust imposes constant checks upon the second party which balance the pursuit of personal goals with emotionally and morally grounded patterns of social behaviour. The notion of “amoral familism" introduced by Banfield to describe a mountain community of southern Italy in the postwar period (Banfield 1958), and recently adopted by a number of scholars to describe the postsocialist realities, constitutes the theoretical framework of this chapter. In his famous account of the village of Montegrano, Banfield describes a reality dominated by "backwardness", economic stagnation, lack of political and civic action and deep mistrust. The author bases his argument on what he calls “amoral familism“, according to which individuals are unable to reach levels of collective action because they are concerned merely for their personal and family interests. In his words, Montegrano’s inhabitants act to “maximise the material, short-run advantage of the nuclear family, assuming that others will do the same“ (1958: 85). A number of factors underly Banfield’s amoral familistic ethos: 1) amoral familism makes it difficult to achieve collective action and organization; 2) social and economic conditions characterized by amoral familism will favour a “regime which will maintain order with a strong hand“; 3) there is no connection between abstract political principles and concrete behaviour in everyday life; 4) because leadership is refused and distrusted, no one will take the initiative to outline a course of action or persuade others to do so; 5) collective gains are desirable only if one is likely to share them; 6) whatever group is in power is self-serving and corrupt (1958: 85- 104). These points raise several questions about the validity of Banfield’s approach and its applicability to the postocialist context (Sztompka 1999; Misztal 2001). This chapter will provide possible answers to several questions: how can history account for the present attitudes of people towards trust? How does trust operate to achieve goals in the long
