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Today there is much talk of a `crisis of trust`, a crisis which is almost certainly genuine but usually misunderstood. Trust: A History offers a new perspective on the ways in which trust and distrust have functioned in past societies, providing an empirical and historical basis against which the present crisis can be examined and suggesting ways in which the concept of trust can be used as a tool to understand our own and other societies. Geoffrey Hosking argues that social trust is mediated through symbolic systems, such as religion and money and the institutions associated with them, such as churches and banks. Historically these institutions have nourished trust but the resulting trust networks have tended to create quite tough boundaries around themselves, across which distrust is projected against outsiders. Hosking also shows how nation-states have been particularly good at absorbing symbolic systems and generating trust among large numbers of people, while also erecting distinct boundaries around themselves, despite an increasingly global economy. He asserts that in the modern world it has become common to entrust major resources to institutions we know little about and suggests that we need to learn from historical experience and temper this with more traditional forms of trust or become an ever more distrustful society, with potentially very destabilising consequences.
Key Features:
The first book to offer an historical perspective on how to understand and potentially solve the current `crisis of trust`
Offers a serious discussion of the nature of trust and how it manifests itself in social behavior
Provides ample historical material from a variety of sources to illustrate trust and distrust in social behavior
Outlines the main symbolic systems which have mediated trust in society
Table of Contents
Introduction
A society of maximum distrust the Soviet Union in the 1930s
Why and how to study trust
Religion
Commercial trust and money
Nations and symbols of trust
Religion and commercial strust in the modern world
Why trust the nation-state?
ConclusionsISBN - 9780198712381
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Pages : 224
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