The Practice of Trust

Trust is an omnipresent topic. Whether speaking of political sullenness, the banking crisis or abuse scandals – trust is always presupposed as a central resource of social action that is difficult to create but that can easily be destroyed.

But what is trust? How is it generated, and how is it destroyed? Whom shall we trust, whom shall we distrust? In this profound study, Martin Hartmann attempts to define trust from both a conceptual and a historical perspective. He frequently illustrates his theoretical reflections with concrete examples taken from politics, economy and the sphere of the family. Trust, he shows us, does not diminish complexity as many might think, but is in itself a highly complex phenomenon that highlights how fragile and at the same time demanding processes of creating trust can be.