{"product_id":"living-with-distrust-author-radu-umbres-9780190869908","title":"Living with Distrust: Morality and Cooperation in a Romanian Village","description":"People in the Romanian village of Sateni distrust each other so much, that they would rather take a building apart than share it. Satenis think of life as struggle for scarce resources--a struggle that can lead to deception, exploitation, or predation. Cooperation with unrelated or unfamiliar partners fails while distrust permeates everyday life and cultural representations. Yet, each person engages in profound relationships with a particular set of people, expressed in cooperative actions.\u003cem\u003e Living in Distrust \u003c\/em\u003emakes sense of this worldview-one divided between strong moral relationships and deep suspicion towards the rest of the village society-through an ethnography of distrust. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on two years of fieldwork, Radu Umbres offers an interdisciplinary interpretation of social interactions in a low trust society. This cognitive ethnography argues that the costs of misplaced trust made Sateni restrict their cooperative behavior to a safe set of social relationships: family, kinship, and friendship ties. Umbres explains how mutual trust appears by social agreement around culturally-codified institutions and persists only by fair cooperative interactions. Despite scarce representations or investments in the common good, the village society reproduces its low-level equilibrium of cooperation in relative stability. In an exploration of the structural influences on community morality and a defense of distrust, the book also demonstrates how investing trust in family first is an optimal strategy against ecological or political risks. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy highlighting a system of dual morality sharply distinct from the Western-liberal ethos, \u003cem\u003eLiving with Distrust\u003c\/em\u003e addresses perennial moral dilemmas and essential questions of secrecy and honesty, distrust and reputation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Radu Umbres\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0190869909\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190869908\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/06\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.14lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.34h x 6.42w x 0.82d","brand":"Radu Umbres","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44079999877375,"sku":"9780190869908","price":110.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_08fa0e46-584f-427d-ad21-d6e8eebcc9e2.jpg?v=1685484368","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/living-with-distrust-author-radu-umbres-9780190869908","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}