Why Muabet?

Muabet is a word of Turkish origins, still used in Macedonian, Albanian and Greek, and understood in other Slavic languages in the Balkans. It means conversation, but in a particular sense that North Americans cannot always easily grasp. Muabet is relaxed conversation, a dialogue which may not have a clear goal, but which creates or affirms social ties between those who engage in it. As such, it depends upon and can further build trust and mutual confidence--an activity where abstract and externally-identified societal resources like social capital and civil society take concrete form.