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

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Davide Torsello

to recognize that the cooperative is necessary for their everyday life. This, however, does not prevent them, unequivocally, from running the cooperative down when they talk about it. What does this attitude conceal? Is it merely a sign of the uncertainty of the present, of profound discontent with the postsocialist change or simply a legacy of the socialist past?

Villagers maintain that the postsocialist transformation has meant that it is increasingly difficult to trust people. Even those who criticize what life was like under the former regime are often willing to admit that today it is harder to rely on people than it was before. As one informant observed:

After socialism people started turning against each other. They were afraid, I think, of what was going to change. But this doesn’t explain why they’ve become like wolves to each other. One reason can be that people are busier making money and trying to be successful now, whereas before nobody cared. I’m not saying things were better before, but people were more human and you can note this every day.

Do you know how many times things get stolen here in the village? Anything that isn't chained can be lost. This is new; it wasn’t like this in socialist times. Now do you wonder that nobody is ready to trust even their family members?

(Gábor, b. 1952)

The pessimism of these words seems to have confirmation in a finding of the survey which I undertook on a random sample of a hundred households. To the question: "Do you think that after 1989 it is possible to 1) trust people more; 2) trust people in the same way; 3) trust people less than before“, out of a total of 100 respondents only 2 chose the first option, 22 the second and 76 maintained that people are less trustworthy than before 1989.

One of the possible explanations for the open mistrust may be the villagers’ worsened economic conditions. Indeed, some of the villagers recognize that their economic situation has worsened after 1989, but many of them also say that things have improved and are optimistic about the future. Data gathered in the household survey reflect people’s views of their personal economic condition and the degree of satis-