Scams and Sweeteners

by Masahiro Ogino

In Scams and Sweeteners, author Masahiro Ogino presents his sociological reflections on fraudulent acts, which are preformed in the space that is not governed by social norms. In this ambitious study, he attempts to develop a theory of what he calls a "society of zero sociability" on the basis of Japanese, French, German, Swiss, Italian, and American cases. He argues that "there is no clear delineation between friendship and respect, and gift-giving and scams, in degree-zero society. There is no differentiation between a premeditated scam and the intention to give a gift, and one could easily become the other, so that a situation may seem like a scam but could easily seem like an example of gift giving. There is a need for sociological theory focusing on (this) primordial world."