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Mistrust

A Global Perspective

  • Seeks to understand the workings and consequence of mistrust as a social phenomenon
  • Examines how mistrust is applied to reduce social complexity and how radical mistrust manifests
  • Circulates around ethnographies in the Caucuses region, opening up a non-Eurocentric perspective from often-othered “experts” in mistrust

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
  2. Distrusting Mistrust

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 1-11
  3. Mistrusting the System

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 13-31
  4. Mistrust and Complexity

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 33-47
  5. Radical Forms of Mistrust

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 49-71
  6. Mistrusting the Obvious

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 73-85
  7. Crisis of Mistrust

    • Florian Mühlfried
    Pages 87-98
  8. Back Matter

    Pages 99-111

About this book

This book examines the social practice of mistrust through the lens of social anthropology. In focusing on the citizens of the Caucasus, a region located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Mühlfried counters the postcolonial discourse that routinely treats these individuals, known for their mistrust of the state, as “others.” Combining ethnographic observations presenting mistrust as an observable reality with socio-political issues from a non-Western region, Mühlfried opens up a non-Eurocentric perspective on an underexplored social practice and a major counterpoint to the well-examined social phenomenon of “trust.” This perspective allows for a more profound understanding of pressing issues such as populist movements and post-truth politics.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Social Anthropology Programme, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Florian Mühlfried

About the author

Florian Mühlfried is a writer and social anthropologist based in Vienna. His academic publications include the edited volumes Mistrust: Ethnographic Approximations (2018) and Sacred Places, Emerging Spaces: Religious Pluralism in the Post-Soviet Caucasus (coedited with Tsyplylma Darieva and Kevin Tuite) as well as the books Being a State and States of Being in Highland Georgia (2014) and Post-Soviet Feasting: The Georgian Banquet in Transition (2006, in German).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Mistrust

  • Book Subtitle: A Global Perspective

  • Authors: Florian Mühlfried

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11470-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-11469-5Published: 05 March 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-11470-1Published: 20 February 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VII, 111

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Social Anthropology, Ethnography, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture, Political Sociology

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access