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

Managing instability 65

2. Managing instability: Trust, social relations and the strategic use of ideas and practices in a southern Slovakian village

Davide Torsello

The main argument of this paper is that in their decisions people attempt to control the uncertainty of the present time by creating and managing instability. Instability means that they manipulate ideas and acts in a way that to an external observer demonstrate high degrees of inconsistency and ambivalence. What is said is often not replicated or even contradicted in practice and what is done does not always correspond to moral or ethic principles referred to by actors as underpinning social action. The ambiguity inherent in social practices relates to the strategic use that villagers make of trust and mistrust in their interaction with individuals and with

Introduction