Social Trust

Pre nego što čitaocima predstavimo sadržaj ovog priručnika, najpre želimo da iskoristiti priliku da se u ime organizacije MONITOR još jednom zahvalimo Međunarodnom republikanskom institutu što je svojim finansijskim sredstvima podržao realizaciju projekta „Mirno rešavanje konflikata i izgradnja poverenja u multikulturalnim sredinama“. Publikacija je nastala kao rezultat jedan od rezltata navedenog projekta, koji je udruženje građana MONITOR iz Novog Pazara uz finansijsku podršku Međunarodnog republikanskog instituta, realizovalo od jula do septembra meseca 2020. godine na prostoru južne i jugoistične Srbije, jugozapadne Srbije i severne Srbije. Navedeni projekat imao je za cilj jacanje kapaciteta mladih i unapređenje dijaloga i aktivnosti za povec anje otpornosti zajednice na nasilni ekstremizam i radikalizam stvaranjem mreže trenera u oblasti konstruktivnog i inovativnog rešavanja sukoba, sa posebnim fokusom na izgradnji poverenja kod mladih u multietničkim sredinama. Shodno navedenom cilju projekta, najpre je 60 odabranih mladih ljudi (po 20 iz svakog regiona) pohađalo jednodnevni online trening za trenere, koji su realizovani uz učešće lokalnih eksperata (predavača) koji su upoznati sa lokalnim međuetničkim, međureligijskim i međurasnim sukobima, odnosno uzrocima međusobnog nepoverenja između različitih društvenih grupa. U sklopu projekta polaznici ovih treninga su relaizovali ukupno 60 vršnjačkih radionica, koje je pohađalo preko 450 mladih ljudi. Pored toga u sklopu projekta sprovedeno je istraživanje o stanju poverenja kao društvene vrednosti i kao mehanizma za postizanje procesa pomirenja i stvaranja boljih odnosa između pojedinaca i različitih etničkih, verskih i rasnih grupa i zajednica koje žive na teritoriji Republike Srbije u kome je učestvovalo preko 300 mladih osoba. S tim u vezi, publikacija sadrži teme koje su polaznicima ovog programa prezentovane od strane predavača na treningu za trenere, kao i određene rezultate istraživanja sprovedenog u sklopu projekta. Štampanjem ove publikacije, želeli smo pre svega da stvorimo štivo koje će mlade ljude upoznati za značajem poverenja za izgradnju odnosa unutar multikulturalnih zajednica, kao i sa metodama mirnog i inovativnog rešavanja konflikata. Shodno navedenom, nadamo se da će ova publikacija doći u ruke velikog broja mladih ljudi i da će im pomoći da steknu predstavu o značaju poverenja kao socijalne vrednosti kao i značaju praktikovanja veština mirnog i konstruktivnog rešavanja konflikata. Zahvalnost dugujemo i projektnom timu MONITORA, lokalnim koordinatorima kao, predavačima koji su bili angažovani na projektu, kao i polaznicima programa koji su pomogli u ostvarenju ciljeva ove intervencije.

How do scammers invoke trust within the Nigerian email scam and how do recipients interpret such trust-laden offers? Rather than view the email content as static, this article suggests that the emails strategically appeal to trust as a means to enhance susceptibility. Content analysis of over a half-million scam emails reveals that references to trust language are most common in larger award claims and those claiming to be from Africa. However, experimental evidence suggests that trust language within scam letters has minimal influence on respondents' perceptions of the letter. This analysis expands our understanding of the psychology behind the scam letter format and suggests means to further combat email fraud.

Public crisis communication aims to fill and solve very practical crisis management related tasks and issues, but also to uphold core democratic ideas and values. 2 The topic of this chapter, ethical crisis communication, centers on how information and communication are used to facilitate good crisis management and to support democratic functions and ideas under difficult circumstances. The actors considered are public managers, political and administrative, as they set out to manage and communicate about crises that affect the public and public governing institutions.

Many think that politics is essentially an arena of strategic confrontation where parties struggle to defeat their opponents. Partisans of all stripes divide people into the good and the bad—religious or rational, capitalist or worker, patriot or traitor, 1% or 99%, hateful or tolerant—and see politics as the means to victory. My book claims that this understanding of politics is mistaken. I develop an account of social order where moral and political disagreement can proceed while preserving moral peace, where people can see those they disagree with not as targets to be defeated, but as potential friends and neighbors who can cooperate to advance the diverse and divergent ends of each. In particular, I argue that liberal political institutions can create and preserve a moral peace between persons because they can be publicly justified – or justified from multiple reasonable points of view. In this way, public reason liberalism, the version of liberal political theory that weds liberal political institutions to a required of public justification, can show that politics in a liberal society needn’t be mere institutionalized aggression by competing groups.

This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors.

Sirazhudinova S. V., Saidov, A. A., M. A. Aligadzhieva. Expectations of Dagestan: social and political transformation and elite. Edited by A-N.Z. Dibirov and S. V. Sirazhudinova. Moscow. Publishing house "Pero", 2014 – 196 p.

Монография представляет собой одну из первых попыток исследования ожиданий жителей Дагестана в контексте социальных и политических процессов на Северном Кавказе. В монографии на основе результатов социологического исследования, проведенного Центром исследования глобальных вопросов современности и региональных проблем «Кавказ. Мир. Развитие» проанализированы особенности социальных и политических ожиданий граждан, специфика региона, вопросы функционирования власти и политических элит, процессы политических трансформаций, а так же основные современные проблемы Северного Кавказа. Научное издание предназначено для политологов, регионоведов, социологов, студентов, аспирантов, преподавателей, а так же для государственных служащих и представителей общественных и политических организаций, и всех тех, кто интересуется вопросом развития современного социально-политического процесса на Северном Кавказе.
ISBN 978-5-00086-299-5

Incertitude, impuissance, impression de perdre pied face à un monde dont la complexité échappe, face à un monde angoissant ; défiance à l'égard des institutions, des mondes politique, médiatique, scientifique ; frustrations, vécus et/ou sentiments d'injustice, montée des inégalités sociales... À quoi les théories de la conspiration viennent-elles donner réponse ? De quoi sont-elles le symptôme ? Comment y faire face ? L'ultra-droite se cache en arrière-plan des manifestations anti-masques.

Kayhan Delibaş'ın Risk Toplumu adlı çalışmasının temel amacı, risk toplumu, belirsizlikler ve güven erozyonu kavramları çerçevesinde risk toplumunun ülkemizdeki temel dinamiklerini anlamak; korku ve kaygıları sosyolojik bir perspektiften hareketle açıklamaktır.
Risk kavramı 1990'lı yılların başlarından bu yana hem toplumsal, kültürel, siyasal ve ekonomik hem de bireysel yaşamların merkezi temalarından biri haline gelmiş bulunuyor. Riskler göz önüne alındığında içinde yaşadığımız çağı kaygı ve korkuların yaygınlaştığı bir çağ olarak adlandırmak yanlış olmayacaktır. Riskler genellikle kaygı, korku ve hatta kaotik durumlar olarak kendini göstermektedir. Tükettiğimiz gıdalardan içeceklere, ilaçlardan çocuk oyuncaklarına, cep telefonlarından bilgisayarlara kadar pek çok şeyden korku duymaktayız. Neden acaba bugün geçmişe kıyasla çok daha sıklıkla kaygı ve korkuya kapılıyoruz? Neden bilim ve teknolojiyle olan her türlü gelişmeyi öncelikli olarak risk ve korku üzerinden değerlendiriyoruz? Neden her an yeni birtakım riskler ve korkular gündeme gelmekte ve bunlar toplumsal kaygı ve korkulara sebep olabilmektedir? Kayhan Delibaş'ın Risk Toplumu adlı çalışmasının temel amacı, risk toplumu, belirsizlikler ve güven erozyonu kavramları çerçevesinde risk toplumunun ülkemizdeki temel dinamiklerini anlamak; korku ve kaygıları sosyolojik bir perspektiften hareketle açıklamaktır.

The aims of this study are to identify factors that affect internet-payment system adoption by the Malaysian public, and to understand the effect of these factors on their behavior toward using the system. A self-administered questionnaire was utilised and responses from 308 individual users were collected and analysed using structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. Findings showed that perceived usefulness, ease of use and social influance have an effect on the behavioral intention of users, which in turn, has an influence on the actual use of the system by the users. Moreover, it was also found that perceived risk has a mediating effect on the relationship between trust and behavioral intention to usage. Findings from this study contribute to the literature of user acceptance of Information systems and can assist service providers, such as Malaysian commercial banks and government agencies, in improving their online payment systems that are offered to the general public.

Despite the extensive use of social cohesion, however, little attention has been paid to its use and conditions in developing and transitional societies. The case of Mongolia appears particularly interesting. With its ‘most remarkable political transformations [...] in light of most social-science theories’ (Fish 1998, 127), rapid economic growth ‘faster than any other in the next decade’ (The Economist 2012) and over deteriorating social conditions and modernisation process far from being complete (Oleinik 2012, 3), Mongolia serves as a natural laboratory for social scientists.

This dissertation argues that the application of social cohesion conceptual framework can be useful in understanding Mongolia’s social problems such as widening inequalities, exclusion and marginalization, public dissatisfaction from more holistic approach.

In order to contribute to fill the gap this dissertation aims to define appropriate social cohesion framework and indicators that are appropriate for comparative and specialized study of Mongolian social cohesion. In this respect, the study sets the following objectives:
1. To  compare modern theories and conceptual frameworks of social cohesion and to identify key elements of social cohesion
2. To identify the most appropriate definition and conceptual framework to explain of social cohesion in Mongolia
3. Using the identified conceptual framework, to determine key indicators of social cohesion that are relevant to Mongolian society.

The police can be seen as a governmental institution or as an organizational body, where especially the work – effectiveness, or fairness in encounters – is valued. Through the combination of these approaches and the inclusion of social trust and criminal victimization, Silvia Staubli offers an understanding beyond existing literature on institutional trust and procedural fairness. Moreover, due to analyses for Eastern and Western Europe, she addresses experts from sociology, political science, criminology, and social anthropology equally. Beyond, the study offers an insight to the public on how public opinions towards institutions are shaped. Silvia Staubli (PhD) teaches at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Fribourg. Her research covers the fields of institutions of social control, victimology, and research methods, amongst others.

I trust interni autodestinati possono costituire
una misura di protezione, in sé efficace e adeguata,
delle persone prive in tutto o in parte di
autonomia: una misura negoziale complementare
o alternativa alle misure legali. Un recente
decreto offre interessanti spunti di approfondimento
dell’argomento. L’Autore, nello scandagliare
la previsione della sorveglianza e dell’intervento
del giudice italiano, toglie il velo dal
dogma della tipicità dei provvedimenti di c.d.
volontaria giurisdizione. E, nelle conclusioni,
apre una finestra sui trust gratuiti: accanto ai
trust donandi o solvendi causa c’è spazio per i
trust a causa familiare.

The history of Turkish modernization has been inextricably linked with the question of secularism. From the advent of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Islam was held responsible for the underdevelopment and eventual demise of the Ottoman Empire. Based on the laïcité of the Second French Republic, the secularization programme of modern Turkey's founder, Kemal Atatürk, entailed the full subjugation of Islam to the State, its eradication from the public sphere and its limitation into a very narrowly defined private sphere.
The transition of Turkey to multiparty politics in 1946 was linked with a rising role of Islam in the public sphere. Islam became a crucial element in the political vocabulary of peripheral political forces which challenged the supremacy of the secularist, Kemalist bureaucratic elite. While a number of military coups aimed – among other things – to control religion, Turkish political Islam showed remarkable resilience and adaptability.
Most recently, the transformation of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) into the strongest proponent of Turkey's European Union (EU) integration brought Turkey closer than ever to EU membership, challenged the monopoly which the Kemalist elite enjoyed as the representative of Western political values and suggested a novel liberal version of secularism. Yet Turkey has been embroiled since 2007 in successive political crises which had secularism as their focal point. This article argues that the transformation of Turkish political Islam has produced an alternative, liberal version of secularism; yet, it has not resolved deep social divisions. Building a liberal consensus between religious conservatives and secularists is imperative for the resolution of deep social divisions in Turkey. The European Union as a guarantor and initiator of reform could play a major role in building trust between the secularist and the religious conservative segments of society.

G.K. Chesterton famously claimed that ‘art, like morality, consists in drawing the line someplace’. So too does much of radiological protection. At every turn, those responding to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster can be found drawing lines, which determine: where people can live, what they can eat, and who receives additional protections (Potassium Iodide pills, for example). The essential questions of radiological protection pertain to how these lines are drawn. Questions regarding who has the authority to draw these lines, where, and on what basis are well recognised by scholars in this field. But those who advise on such issues in Japan today face an additional complication, in that the disaster has dramatically damaged the public’s confidence in experts. My interest lies in how actors interpret and narrate this political situation, and how expert bodies adapt to these conditions by improvising new performances of their credibility.

This thesis examines how claims to expert authority are made in conditions of low public trust; focusing on the debates surrounding civilian radiation exposure in Japan. In so doing, it contributes to the disciplines of Political Geography, Medical Anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS), as well as scholarship on nuclear politics and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, specifically. As the most severe radiological event since Chernobyl, this disaster has been selected for study on the basis of both its historic quality and its effect on the public perception of experts. Over four substantive chapters, this thesis uses the idiom of ‘improvisation’ to evoke the ‘performed resourcefulness’ of its actors; moving from an examination of actors’ competing efforts to ‘set the scene’ through their narrations of their disaster, to an ethnographic focus on how the prosaic performance of expert authority is adapted to reflect and influence these broader narratives.

This thesis is organised thematically. Chapter Two outlines the methodological approach of the text, which draws on interviews, textual analysis, and participant observation, conducted over 11 months of residential fieldwork. Chapter Three examines the spatial metaphors actors use to frame the nuclear disaster, thereby framing the experience of radiation exposure. Chapter Four builds on the preceding chapter, exploring how the role of experts has been narrated in relation to the disaster’s imagined geographies. In particular, I examine how the common notion of Japan’s public debate as a battle against the irrational fear of radiation – to be fought by experts, who are to teach the public to “fear correctly” (tadashiku kowagaru) – is imbricated in the imagination of Fukushima as a national crisis. Moving from the macrosocial to the microsocial, Chapters Five and Six provide ethnographic accounts of expert workshops staged in Fukushima by two authoritative bodies: the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Both, I contend, are not only understudied organisations, but provide case studies in improvisation: the constitution of their workshop spaces being altered to reflect the organiser’s understandings of the disaster and the broader political situation.

This paper makes the case that a deficit or absence of trust in media sources to report on newsworthy items facilitates acceptance of fake news. The paper begins by identifying the sort of fake news that is of interest for the purposes of this paper. Next, epistemic coverage is explained; in particular, how an individual's expectations about their epistemic environment can lead them to accepting or rejecting claims. I explain that when an individual believes that mainstream media report on what is newsworthy, then an individual will have grounds to dismiss a newsworthy claim that has not been reported upon, such as a claim made by fake news. As part of this explanation, I discuss trust, which has both a believed competence requirement and a believed goodwill requirement. Finally, I discuss the implications of my argument for regulating mainstream media.

Several philosophical works, including a recent essay by Laurence Thomas in this journal, have emphasized the social importance of trust.' Thomas rightly sees basic trust, which he defines as a sense that others, even those who are total strangers, have no intention to harm us, as a necessary condition of a viable social life. This basic trust is, he suggests, threatened by increasing scarcity, competitiveness and anonymity. In response to this problem, Thomas seeks a moral and political philosophy based on a vision of the good society and grounded in a conception of human nature. The present paper explores problems of distrust from a somewhat more practical perspective. Given the existence of distrust-which is in many cases warranted-and given that trust is essential for communication and effective cooperative action, how can we move from warranted distrust to well-founded trust? In this essay I describe this problem and several solutions which have been proposed by philosophers and others. I offer a brief conceptual account of trust and distrust, point to some valid grounds for distrust, and then explore five different approaches to the practical problem of distrust.

Despite of persistent efforts from the part of organizations aiming to solve or to alleviate the
world’s most challenging issues, there are limitations of the current problem-solving system based
on hierarchical bureaucratic models. These are mainly related to the powerlessness of the profes-
sional sector when, alone, facing global issues of ever increasing complexity and uncertainty. The
current context often called “the network age” has in turn, supported and enhanced systems
which serve as means for coping with these complex and uncertain scenarios, such as the concept
of distributed cognition that leads (in its positive aspects) to collaborative, participatory and peer-
to-peer common oriented processes, including the emergence of decentralized systems as well as
the gradual empowerment of the civil society (overlapping with the latter); forming altogether,
the background of latent paradigm shifts. 
Concurrently there is the political discourse (driven by the UN) on Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and of a Data Revolution, where the claim is that the latter is indispensable for
achieving the former. The Data Revolution’s main purpose is to fill data gaps in order to leave no
one behind and its realization is also crucial for unlocking other latent paradigm shifts. This thesis
introduces the core concepts of such a paradigm shifts whilst focusing on two collaborative ap-
proaches for data collection and analysis: crowdsourcing and citizen science; most specifically on
their role and challenges in the context of the current data revolution. Crowdsourcing and citizen
science (also citizen journalism and other participatory monitoring activities) are not just part of the
context of latent paradigm shifts, but do play a major role for the realization of a data revolution,
once professionals and machines do not currently suffice to fill those data gaps. This hinders proper
accounting, planning and distribution of resources and hence spoils efforts to tackle the critical
issues involved in the SDGs. 
Unfortunately there is wide reluctance from the part of the institutions (UN, INGOs and
governments) in adopting these approaches as valid data/information sources. The main goal of
this MA thesis is to identify the reason behind this reluctance, shedding light on deadlocks ham-
pering the consolidation of a data revolution. In order to do so, the problematic was approached
from multiple perspectives, characterizing a truly interdisciplinary inquiry, which, based on the
approach of the “informed grounded theory”, presents the main challenges of crowdsourcing
and citizen science in multiple levels and from multiple perspectives. 
From a pragmatic perspective, issues related with data quality as well as the issue of little un-
derstanding  have  been  the  most  cited.  Withal  the  fact  that  both  issues  are  not  exclusive  to
crowdsourcing or citizen science has shown to be crucial for the present inquiry, although widely
neglected  in  the  literature.  Thus  for  this  and  other  important  reasons  to  be  further  discussed
throughout chapters 3 and 4, an alternative to the “quality-centred” approach towards crowdsourc-
ing and citizen science is appropriate, nevertheless the quality issue should not be disregarded, as it
is reasonable, but eventually addressed in a different manner as part of the problematic, but not as
“the problematic” itself. 
In addition, prejudice from the part of professionals has been cited by some expert inter-
viewees as the “real” reason behind the reluctance vis-à-vis crowdsourcing and citizen science as
valid data/information sources. Analysis has shown that prejudice is omnipresent with regards to new technologies or any novel approach. For there is no time to wait for wider acceptance, given
the urgency of matters, and as prejudice shows to result from ignorance linked to the clash of
paradigms, this thesis also focuses on the question of what lays behind prejudice. In order to
answer this question, other crucial parts of the problematic encompassing constrained profes-
sional autonomy, risk and blame aversion are discussed throughout the thesis, forming altogether
a hypothesis advocating that the resistance from the part of institutions towards crowdsourcing
and citizen science is not just rooted on prejudice, but also on lack of trust in society; being both
resultants of excess of accountability which has been ultimately delineated by public discourse.
After a rough analysis, the latter has shown to be in unbalance, overemphasizing the need for
accountability and consequently (based on the premise of a necessary balance between trust and
control/accountability), inadvertently, undermining trust.
Paradoxically the overdose of accountability in public discourse reflects an attempt to restore
trust in society. This paradox can be found also within the discourse on the data revolution, hinder-
ing this and other latent paradigm shifts of thriving, as for them all mutual trust is a requisite. If
there is no trust from the part of organizations towards the public, there will be no room (ac-
ceptance) for approaches relying on citizen-generated data, leaving data gaps and many people and
countries behind. The outcomes of this analysis are useful for those stakeholders contributing to
the discourses on the fundamental role of a data revolution, as they should reframe the latter giving
more weight to “top-down” trust, if we are to see the realization of such a shift.

No importa sobre qué pueda hablarse en la conversación. Siempre apostillan a cualquier observación, comentario u opinión el latiguillo: “Pues yo creo…”, “pues yo pienso…” o el más imperativo, “pues yo haría…” Pues yo, pues yo… Son los ‘poyoyos’ que reafirman su existencia importándoles poco el intercambio de ideas o pensamientos con otros humanos. Se trata de personas autorreferenciales que se consideran el alfa y omega de su paso por el mundo. Viven por y para ellos mismos, comunicándose con la ‘vida de los otros’ por razones prácticas y de conveniencia. Su ejemplo de egocentrismo alcanza proporciones pandémicas auspiciado ahora por el triunfante capitalismo neoliberal.

This paper develops and defends a new account of therapeutic trust, its nature and its constitutive norms. Central to the view advanced is a distinction between two kinds of therapeutic trust-default therapeutic trust and overriding therapeutic trust-each which derives from a distinct kind of trusting competence. The new view is shown to have advantages over extant accounts of therapeutic trust, and its relation to standard (non-therapeutic) trust, as defended

This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy.

Статья посвящена малоизученной теме – деловой культуре Русской православной церкви. Анализируя её главным образом на примере внекультовых церковно-мирянских организаций, автор рассматривает категории деловой этики современного православия, принципы выстраивания отношений священнослужителей друг с другом и мирянами, особенности менеджмента церковных организаций. В ходе анализа автор предлагает понятие 'православно-ориентированного труда', показывая, что его основания, мотивация, принципы организации, критерии подбора сотрудников существенно отличаются от соответствующих параметров светского делового пространства. В своем исследовании автор особым образом останавливается на вопросах доверия, самоорганизации, институционально-обусловленных поведенческих принципах и особенностях коммуникативной культуры церковной социо-среды.

"Computational trust modeling is a research field with a fast growing development since the last decade, mainly in the scientific area of distributed artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems, and its potential applicability spreads from social networks to distributed resource sharing and electronic markets. The earliest approaches to computational trust addressed the development of algorithms to aggregate the evidence on any given agent under
evaluation into an estimated score of this agent’s trustworthiness. More recently, the research on computational trust has shifted to the inclusion of third-party information about the trustee under evaluation, including opinions and reputation. However, one important aspect of computational trust has being neglected all these years by the majority of the scholars on computational trust, with a few relevant exceptions: trust is a social construct with a cognitive and an emotional account, and it strongly depends on the relationship existing between the agent that trusts and the one that is trusted.
In this thesis, we address the topic of social trust and its consideration for application in computational trust. We first present a thorough multidisciplinary view of trust, and derive important propositions that will guide our work throughout the thesis. Based on these propositions, we present the SOLUM model, our proposal to computational trust comprised of two distinct parts. The first part is a general framework of computational trust that is based on two fundamental characteristics of trust: trust is more than trustworthiness and other important antecedents to trust, such as the truster’s disposition and emotional state, must be considered when estimation the truster’s trust; and trustworthiness is a multi-dimensional construct that includes the ability, integrity, and benevolence dimensions. This framework can be instantiated and applied to a wide range of trust-based problems and applications, and is seen here as the first main contribution of this thesis. The second part of the SOLUM model includes a set of distinct computational components that (partially) instantiate the framework, namely: Sinalpha, Contextual Fitness, Social Tuner, and Integrity Tuner. We propose the use of specific techniques to extract information about the individual dimensions of the agents’ trustworthiness from the set of structured evidence available on these agents, which may be scarce. This constitutes an innovative view over computational trust, and is the second main contribution of this thesis.
We evaluated our approach through experimental simulation. The results of our experiments allowed us to conclude that it is possible to improve in a relevant way the reliability of the trustworthiness estimations – for the same set of evidence – using the proposed techniques. Consequently, our approach contributes for more informative and secure decisions, in all domains where computer-based trust decisions are needed."

The main sources of this article are letters from ‘ordinary people’ to Soviet leaders. Counterbalancing current theories about trust and distrust, it analyses correspondence between people and state to explore for the first time the phenomenon of ‘forced trust’ as a central feature of Communist modernity. Forced trust represents a paradox that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet state: an illiberal system was promoting a liberal subject who was forced to trust in the state and the party but, at the same time, experienced his/her limited autonomy by generating personal meanings, interests and needs as a part of life under the dictatorship.

Trust is a complex phenomenon that pervades human relations. It is essential for the success of business-to-consumer electronic commerce, where many of the tools that can be used in its absence (contracts, advance payments, insurance, etc.) may not be available. However, research as to how consumer trust can be built in an online environment is limited and varies considerably in terms of the dimensions of the problem that are examined. Consequently, much of our understanding of the antecedents of trust in online shopping context remains fragmented. This study uses a previously validated measurement instrument to investigate, in an Irish context, the existence and importance of specific perceptions and factors that are thought to predict the generation of consumer trust in Internet shopping. The research results provide evidence that Irish consumers' perception of vendor trustworthiness is the result of specific factors that it is possible for vendors to manage. A modified model that addresses the key dimensions of consumer trust in Internet shopping in Ireland is proposed.

Il presente elaborato ha come oggetto l’analisi politica della Costa d’Avorio dalla sua indipendenza alla crisi post-elettorale del 2011. Ciò a cui tende però questa analisi va al di là della contingenza storica ivoriana: essa vuole dimostrare che una analisi politica in generale dovrebbe tener presente anche delle componenti informali delle vicende messe sotto la lente di ingrandimento. Queste componenti sono contestualizzate teoricamente nella critica al modello di transizione democratica della c.d. terza ondata.

This study ascertains that organizational-knowledge sharing is facilitated by social network, social trust and shared-goal in a culture of trust, cooperation and participation. Trust advancement and civil participation networks facilitate relationship and reinforce existing information about trust of people. Individuals move closer to each other in social ceremonies by doing the same behaviors. This concordance leads to trust and confidence and high social participation in limited, medium and wide ranges. There is a close relationship between in group trust and participation and formation of voluntary and civil associations. Employing Descriptive Research design, including survey, in-depth study, correlation and comparison, data was gathered on the prevalence of organizational-knowledge sharing. It was found out that social network, social trust and shared-goals are independent of age and educational attainment; however, social trust was found dependent with the respondents’ work-department. Moreover, social network social trust and shared-goals were found highly significantly related to their attitude towards knowledge-sharing, subjective norms on knowledge-sharing, and intentions to share knowledge.

This chapter offers an internal critique of liberal nationalism as a normative political theory. It argues that, even in its most inclusive form, liberal nationalism cannot accommodate individuals belonging to more than one nation. Drawing on the philosophical literature on social trust, the chapter reconstructs the case for national identity as the basis for trust in a wide scale, anonymous society. Liberal nationalists appeal to cultural conceptions of national identity to avoid the exclusionary implications of the civic and ethnic conceptions, but this move comes at a cost for the political equality of multinational individuals. Using cultural markers as evidence for trustworthiness, trust in multinational individuals remains conditional and uncertain, rendering their status as citizens unequal. With its implicit assumption that each individual belongs to only one nation, this chapter argues that liberal nationalism is ill-equipped for the social and political reality of multinational belongings.

Through a synthesis of fledgling theories of post-truth (author, 2006, 2014, 2016, 2017) developing around Donald Trump and Brexit and theories of emotions in populism, I analyze the right-wing French movement La Manif Pour Tous, and their ongoing issue campaign against what they call “gender theory in the schools.” After I identify their populist qualities, I analyze five prominent post-truth qualities in the movement: 1) organization and public presentation; 2) “active distrust” qualities; 3) emotional/affective qualities; 4) “rumor bombs” about gender theory; and 5) conjunctural specificity within gender, sexuality and other backlashes. Considering the conjunctural convergence of social trust and truth deficits, I propose that the post-truth and “rumor-bombing” aspects simultaneous with their populist nature are better understood as a kind of emotional or “emo-truth” common to both performance of authenticity in Reality TV shows and right-wing populist movements today. Finally, I propose cases like this point to a mainstreaming of post-truth populism, across Western liberal democracies and beyond.