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Paper short abstract

This paper offers an analysis of how Congolese traders negotiate trust with peers, customers, and employees. It suggests that economic trust involves the negotiation of practical norms in the course of relationships underlain by different moral expectations.

Paper long abstract

Congolese traders in Katanga claim that they cannot trust their peers, customers, and employees. Existing literature about traders in Africa does not enhance our understanding, as it tends to consider trust as depending on the degree of social knowledge. In the Congo, social proximity does not exclude suspicion, nor does social distance necessarily prevent trust. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper aims at developing a more detailed framework. It studies how Congolese traders negotiate two key norms for the building of economic trust - property and reciprocity - with non-relatives, distant relatives, and close relatives.