Trust, as Simmel noted, is a hypothesis regarding future behavior that is certain enough to serve as a basis for practical conduct. To trust another person (or collectivity or institution) is intermediate between knowledge and ignorance. Simmel was one of many social scientists (e.g., Tonnies, Durkheim, Parsons) who have contended that trust is one of the most important integrative forces within society. Modernization and its attendant social isolation, in the face of massive global changes, underscore the need to reexamine trust in all its multivariate and multidisciplinary character. This...

Trust in Contemporary Society, by well-known trust researchers, deals with conceptual, theoretical and social interaction analyses, historical data on societies, national surveys or cross-national comparative studies, and methodological issues related to trust. The authors are from a variety of disciplines: psychology, sociology, political science, organizational studies, history, and philosophy, and from Britain, the United States, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, and Japan. They bring their vast knowledge from different historical and cultural backgrounds to...

Trust in Contemporary Society, by well-known trust researchers, deals with conceptual, theoretical and social interaction analyses, historical data on societies, national surveys or cross-national comparative studies, and methodological issues related to trust. The authors are from a variety of disciplines: psychology, sociology, political science, organizational studies, history, and philosophy, and from Britain, the United States, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, and Japan. They bring their vast knowledge from different historical and cultural backgrounds to...