Trust, Institutions and Governance
These are a series of seminars for post-doctoral fellows, PhD students and the Mediated Trust research team on the theme of “Trust, Institutions and Governance”. The aims of the seminars are:
To ground the concept of trust in institutions and organisations, as an intermediate (meso) point between interpersonal and societal trust.
To consider leading theories of trust, truth and communication, and consensus, critical and conflict models of social order, and how they shape understandings of trust.
To discuss institutionalism as a set of theories and methods that can inform the study of trust by grounding it in the historical development of social institutions.
To consider the concept of governance as a way of understanding contemporary forms of politics, power and regulation.
What does trust mean in the age of AI?
Professor Terry Flew explores the evolving concept of trust in the context of media, technology, and artificial intelligence. He highlights how AI challenges traditional notions of human-machine interaction, raising concerns about authenticity and reliability.
My Summer reading – Simon Schama, Citizens
My summer reading for 2025 was Simon Schama’s very influential 1989 book Citizens, a Chronicle of the French Revolution. Not surprisingly, I was led to this book by listening to The Rest is History podcast, which brings out the full array of colourful characters associated with this eventful period of history.