Currencies of Trust: Past, Present, and Future of Trust

We live in an age in which trust is in short supply. In survey findings published in August 2023, the Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung und statistische Analysen reported that “just 27% of people in Germany have the sense that the nation-state is able to fulfill its responsibilities.” In the January 10, 2024 edition of The Atlantic, Jedediah Britto-Purdy describes the lack of trust in the U.S. with Americans neither trusting government, nor each other. However, he cautions us against misinterpreting this pervasive mistrust which “can feel natural, but it isn’t.” 

Is this lack of trust new? How did this happen? Who is responsible? What is to be done? 

We are in an age in which the idea of “trust” seems to be losing its meaning, losing its efficacy, making us fear the future. But this is not the first time, nor will it be the last. And requires us to examine how “trust” itself is generated and maintained: trust in government, in society, in institutions, and even among neighbors. 
The 2024 Berlin Program Workshop addresses the idea of “mistrust” and its positive corollary, “trust,” from contemporary, historical, and future-oriented vantage points. 

Workshop

The 2024 Berlin Program Summer Workshop seeks to address trust and its corollaries from contemporary, historical, and future-oriented vantage points and a variety of disciplines and media forms.The Workshop welcomes proposals that offer case studies, cautionary tales, engaging examples, and provocative pairings from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives that illuminate a potentially perilous path, a path that seeks to, once again, “trust” trust.

Further information on application and participation (Link)