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
72 Davide Torsello the former two institutions because the cooperative has ceased to be a village institution and the local officers are often criticized for their political choices. In contrast, the church and local cultural and social clubs (see below) enhance the collective life of the community and foster a stronger sense of identification. The remaining question is on what grounds is generalized mistrust in individuals and vis-à-vis particular institutions constructed. The following section considers interpersonal relations among family members. Between mistrust and expectations: patterns of kin interaction The survey results describe a situation in which generalized trust towards institutions (except the Catholic church) is comparatively low. In addition, there is a remarkably low level of trust in other villagers as a whole. The situation is inverted in the case of family members, close relatives and friends, the three categories with the highest trust scores. From these quantitative findings one could suggest that Banfield’s amoral familism informs village level social relations, though with a less “radical" character. The core of Banfield’s argument is that the origin of amoral familism lies in the social structure of Montegrano. Village families are mainly nuclear, and scattered in a semi-urban pattern of settlement typical for the southern Italian agro-town (see Blok 2001). This implies that neighbours are often non-relatives and thus the degree of door-to-door daily kin interaction is strongly influenced by the spatial distance of households. In Királyfa, neighbours are often relatives and this can be demonstrated by the small difference in trust level between these two groups (3.86 and 3.25, respectively). However, village families are nuclear too, and as in Banfield’s case, apart from the circle of family and friends, there are low levels of trust in the community as a whole and in institutions. Analysts of postsocialist societies tend to maintain that, as the quantitative findings presented suggest, there is a low
