Politics Of Trust Research Articles

Trusting technology to wage war: the politics of trust and ethics in the development of robotics, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence

ABSTRACT Robotics, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence (RAS-AI) are at the technological edge of militaries trying to achieve ‘ethical’ war. RAS-AI have been cast as essential technologies for defence forces to develop in order to sustain military advantage. Central to the success of this endeavour is trust: the technologies must be trusted for defence personnel to be willing to use them, for defence to be trusted by the public, and for allies and partners to have confidence in each other’s developments. Yet, trust is not merely a technocratic term. Its dominant role in the successful adoption of RAS-AI gives it power. This paper argues that the language of trust is being used to facilitate the development and adoption of military RAS-AI, often in concert with the language of ethics. Building on Maja Zehfuss’ concept of the politics of ethics, this paper contends that when it comes to RAS-AI there is also a politics of trust. Analysing British, American, and Australian military documents demonstrates that this politics manifests in side-lining political questions about how RAS-AI will be used – against whom and for what purposes – through focusing instead on the need to develop ethical and trustworthy RAS-AI to wage virtuous war.

The Grammar of Trust and Distrust under State Socialism after Stalin. Introduction

The Grammar of Trust and Distrust under State Socialism after Stalin. Introduction The introduction to the special issue defines trust/distrust from an interdisciplinary perspective, treating these emotions as analytical categories and outlining their potential for historical analysis. Inspired by the emotional and sensory turns, the guest editor examines the shift from Stalinist violence towards a politics of trust and empathy. This new politics saw these feelings as powerful emotional forces and moral resources that not only made it possible to renegotiate a social contract between the state, society and the individual, but also enabled the stabilisation of the Eastern bloc as a whole in the post-Stalin era. Differentiating between regimes and communities of trust/distrust, the author sheds light on the grammar of trust and distrust under state socialism, which impacted the shared sense of stability and inner hybridity of the socialist personality. By connecting trust and distrust with the key analytical categories of gender and generation, morality and power, consumption and materiality, and self and subjectivity, this special issue is a contribution to a history of trust and distrust that provides further reflection on the unceasing debate about what socialism was and what the lived experience of socialism continues to be in post-communist space.

When family and research clash: The role of autobiographical emotion in the production of stories of the Italian civil war, 1943–1945

This paper engages the emotional side of Second World War storytelling practices and research. Specifically, it explores how a politics of trust and togetherness animates communities of remembrance concerning the anti-Fascist Resistance experience in northern Italy. I reflect on my encounter with memories of wartime violence through the lens of autobiographical emotion. In a region torn asunder by conflicting stories of loss and violence during the anti-Nazi resistance and civil war, I possess a dual identity of researcher and Partisan's grandchild. This carries a powerful emotional bond of ethical obligations that cannot be ignored in the research process. Drawing on affect theory, I contextualize my oral history fieldwork experience in relation to that emotional bond.

Mexico, China, and the Politics of Trust

Described by political scientists as a necessary condition for efficiency, productivity, and prosperity, trust has become a precept of good governance with global reach. The concept is often marshaled to support a conservative political agenda of state retrenchment and market deregulation. Proponents of this agenda argue that the natural inclination of private actors to trust and cooperate with each other is undermined by government monitoring and compliance regulations. The evidence from Mexico points to an alternative conclusion: when carefully targeted, state support to private actors has strengthened rather than impeded trusting relationships between suppliers, customers, and investors. Commercial competition with China raises an urgent challenge for Mexico’s government: to broaden the scope of its assistance beyond a narrow set of elite firms to small and medium-sized enterprises, including those of the resident Chinese community.Considerado por politólogos como condición necesaria para la eficiencia, productividad y prosperidad, la confianza ha llegado a ser un precepto de buena gobernanza con alcance global. Se utiliza el concepto a menudo para respaldar una agenda política conservadora de recortes del estado y desregulación del mercado. Los defensores de tal agenda sostienen que la inclinación natural de actores privados de confiar y cooperar entre sí es socavada por la fiscalización gubernamental y las regulaciones de cumplimiento. La evidencia desde México apunta a una conclusión alternativa: seleccionado cuidadosamente, el apoyo estatal a actores privados ha fortalecido en vez de impedir las relaciones de confianza entre proveedores, clientes, e inversores. La competencia comercial con la China presenta un desafío urgente para el gobierno de México: de ampliar el alcance de su ayuda más allá de un conjunto reducido de compañías élites hacia pequeñas y medianas empresas, inclu-yendo las de la comunidad residente china.

When a gamekeeper turns poacher: torture, diplomatic assurances and the politics of trust

Diplomatic assurances are promises which purport to manage the tension between the need for national security and the human rights obligations not to send individuals to countries where they would be at risk of torture. This article looks at how and why diplomatic assurances have become a part of policy efforts to make counterterrorism human rights compliant and as part of a wider strategy for drawing a line under the damaging legacy of the ‘war on terror’. This positive gloss on the use of diplomatic assurances is, however, in contrast to the worries motivating human rights advocates which centre on the implications for the global anti-torture regime. Behind the doubts surrounding diplomatic assurances is a wider concern, centred on whether the past architects of the war on terror can be trusted to progressively develop the rules and norms governing this domain.

Enlightened Governance

Maureen O’Hara Where to start to pay tribute to a friend, colleague, and mentor for so many years? The last time I saw John was in the hospital 2 days before he died. My husband Bob and I had just returned from a 5 month stay in France, and I had noticed that the torrent of John’s ALL CAPS e-mails had stopped some weeks before. I hoped and assumed that meant he had decided truly to step back from his breakneck schedule and focus on building new leadership for the Politics of Trust. Seeing him in the hospital told a different story. He was obviously gravely ill. Body failing but spirit intact, he greeted our unannounced visit with a wry smile, a small wave, and an ironic “great timing.” We all knew the visit was the last we would have together. He told us about a new project at de Anza Community College and with neither sentiment nor self-pity acknowledged that he was “checking out.” We felt blessed to have one more chance to express our love, share sweet recollections, and together renew our commitment to the cause of human flourishing.

Managing distrust in the wider Black Sea region

The wider Black Sea region – understood in a broad sense and including Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey – is a region torn by instability and distrust. This special issue is based on the belief that trust is a key element in establishing long-term security and effective cooperation between and inside states. Even in the absence of direct military conflict in the wider Black Sea region, the threats to regional stability are serious: weak and poor states with disputed uncontrolled zones are fertile seeding grounds for organized crime, human trafficking and irregular migration. Human security remains weak and distrust of corrupt authorities is widespread in many places in the region. Many of these challenges are transnational in character. The solution of these threats and as well as regional economic development needs a cooperative and regional approach from the states and other actors in the region. This issue explores the current politics of trust and distrust in the wider Black Sea region on multiple levels and their implications to security and stability in the region. This introductory article contemplates various dimensions of trust and distrust. It also discusses the approaches and findings of existing research on trust in international relations, international security and transition studies.

Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner, ed. 2008. Human genetic biobanks in Asia: Politics of trust and scientific advancement

Biobanking has been broadly discussed in bioethics in the past few years, especially in Europe. There is still more to say on the topic, especially on how social factors affect policy-making in different countries. This edited volume includes ten papers examining genetic bio banking and its regulation in several Asian countries, including Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India and Indonesia. The authors examine how cultural, socio-political and economic factors influence regulations that govern human genetic biobanks, and the ethical sensitivities surrounding biobanks in these countries. An interesting approach of the book is how it focuses on discourses of trust in national and international perspectives. Issues of genetic piracy, public goods, concepts of genetic theft and exploitation, and genetic wealth and trust are raised. This volume contains case studies of biobanking practices in societies with different needs and welfare levels, and provides insights into government strategies towards genetic resources by examining bioethics in the selected countries. The reflections are useful also for scholars in many other countries, as the related ethical principles and social interpretation of them cross many false borders that comparative bioethics has often simplified. The first paper is a general overview: “Introduction: Human Genetic Biobanking in Asia: Issues of Trust, Wealth and Ambition”, by the book’s editor, Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner. Sleeboom-Faulkner has researched the issues for a decade in the region, and presents in the overview a number of critical issues from the perspective of an anthropologist. Part one of the book is “Biobanking in Welfare Societies”, and includes the papers “Public Trust, Commercialisation, and Benefit Sharing: Towards a Trustworthy Biobank in Taiwan”, by Hung-En Liu and Terence Hua Tai; “Biobanks in Japan: Ethics, Guidelines and Practice”, by Gerard Porter; “Trust and the Creation of Biobanks: Biobanking in Japan and the UK” by Tohru Masui; “Should We Invest in Biobanking in Hong Kong? Using Biobanking for Dyslexic Studies in Hong Kong as an Example” by Mary Miu Yee Waye and Connie Ho. These chapters also examine how the public can be convinced (or not) of the promise of the human research Bioethical Inquiry (2010) 7:259–260 DOI 10.1007/s11673-010-9234-6

National identity, political trust and the public realm

The representative institutions of democratic government require the public sphere; but this in turn rests on the fellow‐feeling of citizens. In this article, I explore some recent ways of fleshing out Mill’s thought that patriotic fellow‐feeling is instrumental for a form of trust that the public sphere requires. Deliberation, argument and negotiation in the public sphere require a willingness to discuss, alter one’s position, compromise with others, and do so in good faith and in the belief that other participants are broadly also taking part in the same fashion. Since politics is a realm in which interests and identities clash, we have at least a prima facie reason to worry that others may in fact not be trustworthy in the desired way. Some potential for distrust is inherent in political deliberation, since it presupposes that there is some important conflict or disagreement that needs to be overcome through discussion: in other words, that I cannot simply rely on others to further my interests for the right reasons, or at all. While trust seems inherently problematic, political dialogue in the public sphere seems to require it from those who take part. I look at four accounts of the basis of democratic trust, viz. the communitarian, the ‘societal culture’ account, the public culture account, and what is known as the ‘constitutional patriotism’ account. In outline, my argument is that all four accounts fail to explain the basis of trust in the democratic sphere. I conclude that sharing a national identity still leaves the politics of trust to be negotiated by the participants concerned.

Fear and Trust: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the War on Terror

This paper examines the July 2005 shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube Station. It argues that the action of the police officers who shot and killed Menezes was conditioned by same logic that informs the prosecution of the war on terror. This logic bares comparison to the humanist conviction that states possess a right of response where they perceive themselves to have a `fear' of impending injury or assault. This paper explores the historical lineage of this trope in the writings of Alberico Gentili, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and, humanist thought more generally. The aim is to explore the politics of fear at work in Britain in the political climate defined by the war on terror, with a view to ascertaining how deep it runs and whether a politics of trust might offer a possible remedy to it.

Prevention or therapy and the politics of trust: inspiring a new human agenda

This paper gives a brief overview of the developmental origins of human alienation, depression, violence and drug abuse. It provides a foundation for understanding how the politics of culture structure the human condition. The most critical early life experiences are formed in the mother-infant/child relationship. This affects all future relationships and the development of culture. The role of body pleasure in affectional bonding in the mother-infant/child relationship and in the human sexual relationship will be shown to be an important factor in the formation of non-violence in the individual and in human cultures. It will be shown that basic trust must occur before a politics of trust can be formed to effect changes at the individual and cultural levels and to transform violent individuals and cultures into peaceful individuals and cultures. The limitations of psychotherapy (which involves neocortical brain process) in effecting changes in the damaged emotional social sexual brain (which involves the subcortical brain) will be illustrated. Cultural conditions for the development of the neurointegrative brain, which mediates healthy behaviors, versus the development of the neurodissociative brain, which mediates dysfunctional behaviors, will be given. As culture shapes the developing brain, so the brain shapes culture. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Creating a new politics of trust

Creating a new politics of trust

The Politics of Trust

The Politics of Trust

Sleaze, Ethics and Codes: the Politics of Trust

Sleaze, Ethics and Codes: the Politics of Trust

The Politics of Trust and Participation: A Case Study in Developing First Nations and University Capacity to Build Health Information Systems in a First Nations Context

Recent success of First Nations involvement in health information management is establishing the social and cultural structures necessary to build trust and participation, produce counter knowledges that decolonize the health of First Nations Peoples, develop new forms of health information systems directed at First Nations wellness, and create new institutional research partnerships that could further enhance health information development and educational opportunities. This success is illustrated through a number of initiatives jointly developed and managed by Manitoba First Nations Centre for Aboriginal Health Research and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Health Information and Research Committee. Alternative discourses are possible. Resistance in the form of counter discourses can produce new knowledge, speak new truths and constitute new powers such as First Nations ownership, control, access and possession of health information. In this new environment, non-Aboriginal researchers and governments will have to recognize that any work involving Aboriginal Peoples will occur in the context of resistance to colonization. However, that such resistance creates the possibilities for collaboration. For collaboration to be possible and successful, however, researchers will have to reflect on the positions represented by others, attempt to understand these positions within the context they occur, recognize that trust and participation is conditional, and accept that any sharing and production of health information will occur at the boundaries between systems of knowledge.

Towards a politics of trust.

This paper draws upon sociological theory to demonstrate that the manufacture and deployment of trust is an integral part of the function of complex systems such as health care. The discussion begins by identifying the error within the nursing literature which arises from a rather technical conceptualization of trust. This tends to limit the dimensions to trust which is established, and fails to recognize that trust may be subject to competition and conflict. The paper continues by drawing upon the work of two theorists, Niklas Luhmann and Susan P. Shapiro, to demonstrate how trust functions within systems such as health care and the mechanisms through which it is controlled. The title of this paper, 'Towards a politics of trust', identifies that this is merely the first stage in the analysis. Further stages are necessary which analyse the ways in which power is exercised in the conflict for control within discrete elements of the system.

Towards a politics of trust

This paper draws upon sociological theory to demonstrate that the manufacture and deployment of trust is an integral part of the function of complex systems such as health care. The discussion begins by identifying the error within the nursing literature which arises from a rather technical conceptualization of trust. This tends to limit the dimensions to trust which is established, and fails to recognize that trust may be subject to competition and conflict. The paper continues by drawing upon the work of two theorists, Niklas Luhmann and Susan P. Shapiro, to demonstrate how trust functions within systems such as health care and the mechanisms through which it is controlled. The title of this paper, ‘Towards a politics of trust’, identifies that this is merely the first stage in the analysis. Further stages are necessary which analyse the ways in which power is exercised in the conflict for control within discrete elements of the system.