An Ethnographic Investigation of Contexts of Trust and Distrust

Wellesley College, Wellesley Hills MA

Investigators

Abstract

The research supported by this award examines how ordinary citizens, national governments, and international organizations make use of accusations of fraud. Ordinarily, the term fraud is applied to illegal behavior. Globally, however, fraud allegations seem increasingly to provide a more general language to express extreme dissatisfaction with both instiutions and individuals for actions that range from the merely misleading to the truly unlawful. This research investigates why the use of the language of fraud has expanded, the political and social effects this entails, and how people re-build trust in the wake of perceived betrayals. The research is important because trust is necessary for healthy economies and robust democratic political systems. Research findings will therefore be of interest to both policy makers and citizens who seek to promote civic participation and economic development. The research will be undertaken in the conjoined cities of La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia. This site was chosen due to Bolivia's long history of donor-sponsored (including American-backed) rule-of-law reforms and concurrent projects encouraging entrepreneurship and the financial inclusion of the poor. Indeed, Bolivian fraud accusations frequently sit at the intersection of these two objectives: urging people to embrace entrepreneurship to lift themselves from poverty and ongoing efforts to stem economic crimes. The project builds on the researcher's decade-long fieldwork in Bolivia, allowing for longitudinal analyses and comparative data collection and the efficient use of funding. The researcher will gather data through a combination of qualitative research methods, including ethnographic participant observation, interviews, and archival research. Interviews will be conducted with regulatory officials, jurists, foreign donors, and NGO representatives to investigate the priority given to economic crimes and specifically fraud as an object of intervention. Archival data will provide insights into shifting regulations, historic pyramid scheme cases, and patterns in criminal cases related to fraud. Ethnographic research will focus on pyramid schemes and quasi-legal multilevel marketing companies. Findings from this research will illuminate the history, uses, and effects of fraud accusations and contribute to social science theory of fraud as a changing global category. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.