Theorizing trust as practice: A decolonial study of everyday interethnic relations in Indonesia

One of the important topics in decolonization is indigenization. In this article, we seek to contribute to the body of knowledge by developing situated psychological knowledge, theory and practice of trust that is aligned with local, cultural and Indigenous worldviews. Moving beyond Euro‐American models that frame trust as an individual disposition or rational calculation, we conceptualize trust as a relational, embodied and historically situated practice, grounded in Asian moral and cultural worlds. Based on our immersive ethnographic fieldwork and visual narrative methods involving 35 participants across four pasar (traditional markets) in Indonesia, the analysis reveals how trust is enacted through culturally meaningful routines, such as extending informal credit, navigating stereotypes, managing debt and preserving relational dignity during bargaining. These practices draw on intergenerational memory, moral obligation and spatial familiarity, while also navigating the enduring effects of colonial histories and ethnic stratification. By theorizing trust as relational interconnections of humans, materials, emotions and cultural expectations, we offer an epistemic innovation by exploring Indonesian marketplace life as a site for analysis. The findings contribute to efforts to decolonize theory in social psychology by articulating a practice‐based understanding of trust that foregrounds interdependence, moral economy and the micropolitics of coexistence in plural Asian contexts.