Colloquium Trust in Contemporary Society: Socialization, Social Capital and Democracy

This international colloquium seeks to contribute to the on-going debate about the relationship of social capital and democracy. It is held on occasion of the publication of the monograph Trust in Contemporary Society (Brill, 2019). It will address the following questions: What are bases of trust? What is the relationship between norms of reciprocity and trust? Which socio-political mentalities reflect pro- and antidemocratic tendencies? How is social capital transmitted and what role does it play in social reproduction?

It is organized by Markéta Sedláčková and Jiří Šafr from the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The event is supported by the project CSDA Research – Research programme of the Czech Social Science Data Archive and presented under the auspices of the Strategy AV21 of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Role of communication.

The event is held in English. No registration is needed.

14.00 Welcome and presentation of the book Trust in Contemporary Society (Brill, 2019) – Markéta Sedláčková (IS CAS)

14.15 – 15.15 Keynote lecture by professor Masamichi Sasaki (Chuo University, Tokyo)

Introduction: Current Status of Trust Research

Lecture: Cross-National studies of Trust among Seven Nations and Taiwan - focusing Trust and the norm of reciprocity and Bases of Trust (U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey)

15.15 – 15.30 Coffee break

15.30 – 15.45  Democracy, sociopolitical mentalities and trust – Martina Klicperová-Baker (Institute of Psychology of Academy of Sciences/ University of San Diego State University)

15.45 – 16.15 Social capital reproduction: networks, status and trust – Jiří Šafr, Markéta Sedláčková (IS CAS)

16.15 – 17.00 Plenary discussion

17.30 – 20.00 Dinner and networking

MASAMICHI SASAKI

Cross-National studies of Trust among Seven Nations and Taiwan - focusing Trust and the norm of reciprocity and Bases of Trust

(U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey)

Many now see trust levels as declining, thus calling for greater attention. As such, recently there has been considerable research on trust in several fields. Trust plays a critical role in interpersonal and group relationships. Our economic system is in many ways entirely dependent upon trust because if there were no trust there could be no economic transactions. At the broadest level, there are two schools of thought about trust. One says that trust is an individual thing, with personality and individual characteristics such as age, education and income. The other broad school of thought argues that trust is centered in social systems rather that at the individual level and so trust must be evaluated in that overall social system context. More specifically, a third approach to trust is the voluntary organizations theory, and it can be tested by using survey data to analyze the statistical association between levels of social trust and membership in voluntary associations. This approach brings into play social capital research. The fourth approach to trust is the Personal Social Network, which is somewhat related to the organizational participation approach. Jan Delhey and Kenneth Newton have added two more approaches to the origin of social trust: community theory and societal theory. For community theory, one might expect trust levels to correspond with such measures as city size, satisfaction with the community, and the sense that the community is a safe place to be at night.

Two trust research findings are presented for seven nations and Taiwan. The study addressed the reciprocity of trust through Question 1: “If most people are trusted by others, would they reciprocate with trust toward others?” Another analysis to explore possible bases of trust from a personality perspective was carried out using Question 2 (“What are the most important elements in establishing trusting interpersonal relationships?”). The study’s findings would suggest that trust is anything but a cross-nationally homogeneous phenomena; rather it is something that varies across nations, even in its most basic characteristics. The study concluded that, with respect to many of the controversial issues on social trust previously identified and discussed, there is considerable variation among societies and cultures in both individual and societal trust determinants, even among those with otherwise identical levels of trust.

Masamichi Sasaki (Ph.D., Princeton 1980), is a former Professor at Chuo University, Tokyo; Past President of International Institute of Sociology, 1997–2001; Founding Editor of Comparative Sociology (Brill). Recent publications include for example: “A Comparative Analysis of Trust among Megacities: The Case of Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo”, Development and Society, 2016; A Cross-national Study of Trust (ed.) 2014; (with J. Goldstone, E. Zimmermann and S. Sanderson) Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology (eds.), 2014; (with R. Marsh) Trust: Comparative Perspectives (ed.), 2012; New Frontiers in Comparative Sociology (ed.), 2008.

book Trust in Contemporary Society