Content
Scientific article
On the concept of basic trust
Hartmann, Martin
Abstract:
In sociology, psychology and also in philosophy trust is often taken to be basic or fundamental in the sense that only trust allows us to be and engage in the world, to develop a healthy ego-identity or to gain knowledge about other people’s opinions. Without basic trust in the world, in others or in other’s testimony, that is, we would not, as Luhmann says, get up in the morning, we would lack the self-confidence necessary to interact with others or would be unable to take their statements as trustworthy which seems to be a prerequisite for all learning processes. I question this model of basic trust not necessarily because I find it wrong but because I find it less informative than is often assumed. The fuzzy notion of trust gains in semantic richness and distinctivess, I assume, if we “de¬fundamentalize” it and accept it as always surrounded by alternative psychological and emotional attitudes. Trust is thus treated as an achievement never to be taken for granted though easily natu¬ralized. Following some conceptual clarifications I discuss phenomena such as violence and terror in order to clarify in what ways they destroy basic trust. This also opens the possibility to historicize trust and thus treat it less as an anthropological or psychological given.
Pages: 5-23
Scientific article
Gambling with the “Gift”? : on the relationship between security technologies, trust and distrust ; the case of fingerprinting
Kühne, Sylvia
Abstract:
Trust is seen as a vital constituent of individual and cooperative action, being a value of its own. But the rise of automated control technologies in recent years, for instance digital fingerprinting, is described to be a development yielding distrust and inhibiting the establishment of trust-based re¬lationships. This article critically pursues this thesis about the effects of new technologies of security and control for the “gift” of trust, by confronting the underlying general assumption with empirical data from a qualitative study on the social acceptance of fingerprinting in both governmental and commercial use. The article argues that, given the contextual circumstances in which the use of digi¬tal fingerprinting is embedded, on the one hand the use of fingerprinting does not necessarily lead to a culture of distrust and, on the other, that the relationship of trust, distrust and digital fingerprint¬ing is more nuanced than depicted in the theoretical apprehensions.
Pages: 24-45
Scientific article
From detection to surveillance: U.S. lie detection regimes from the cold war to the war on terror
Baesler, John Philipp
Abstract:
When the polygraph was developed in the early twentieth century, its creators promised a reliable se¬curity technology that would furnish mutual trust between individuals, in corporations, and between government and citizens. The history of the use of the lie detector, however, shows that it was not a reliable technology and often exacerbated distrust and conflicts due to the confrontational method¬ology and the unsubstantiated assumptions governing its use. This history shows that security con¬cerns – namely, the need to uphold a posture of deterrence – and bureaucratic prerogatives of the Central Intelligence Agency made the polygraph nevertheless useful. However, a regime of security did not lead to conditions of trust. This insight is crucial for an understanding of early twenty-first century truth technologies based on surveillance that appears less intrusive than lie detection via the polygraph. Security technologies such as brain scanning or biometrics rely on similarly flawed assumptions about human physiology and the possibility of its representation through technology as well as ideological assumptions about the proper social relationships between individuals and between government and citizens, none of which tend to favor mutual trust.
Pages: 46-66
Scientific article
Collateralized polities: the transformation of trust in sovereign debt in the wake of the Eurozone crisis
Langenohl, Andreas
Abstract:
Using the example of the current sovereign debt crisis in the European Monetary Union, the article raises two questions: how does sovereign debt contribute to the constitution of modern political sovereignty and the viability of the polity? And what are the recent changes in this mutual articula¬tion of political sovereignty and financial debt? In genealogical terms, it is argued that in modernity the sovereignty of polities has been hinged to the capacity to raise their budgets without an explicit collateral, that is, without having to clearly define what the values are that serve as a financial coun¬terweight to their debts. This constellation, which is characterized by an utterly unlikely and yet op¬erative effacement of state collateral, is termed ‘sovereign trust.’ The recent Eurozone crisis, in turn, displaces sovereign trust in the creditworthiness of some states as their collateral is being forced into constant interrogation, turning them into ‘collateralized polities’.
Pages: 67-90
Scientific article
Restoring trust and confidence at the institutional level by higher order control : the case of the formation of the European Banking Union
Fleck, Jan; Lüde, Rolf von
Pages: 91-108
Scientific article
Trust generating security generating trust : an ethical perspective on a secularized discourse
Ammicht Quinn, Regina
Abstract:
This text focuses on the moral character of trust. Trust is widely recognized as a morally charged concept: Values are inscribed in this concept, and its practices have moral consequences. Trust needs ethical reflection to explore what values are inscribed and if the consequences are desirable or welcome and if so for whom. The first step reflects trust’s religious biography, analyzing expressions of Gottvertrauen in early modern times und drawing the line to Erik Erikson, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Konrad Lorenz. The second step considers security’s underlying religious discourses, especially with the “Schutzmantelmadonnen” (Madonna with the cloak) which provide an elaborate security technology. The idea of multiple modernities and multiple secularities explains how present some of the late middle age ideas are within modern technologies. In a third step, an ethics of trust – how to do trust and security in a just way – is mapped out with its crucial “points to consider” a field where different rationalities are present. The Coda finally rescues the reputation of the “trust and security theater” – as an ethically relevant and needed act and action.
Pages: 109-125