Trusting public? Preliminary thoughts on urban seclusion, trust and public space

Trust in people whom we know or work with in organizational contexts has been widely discussed, and scholars have also talked a lot about trust in our governments and other institutions, although not all of them agree that one should call this trust. This presentation takes these thoughts to the street: can we think of urban public space as relational settings of trust, distrust and mistrust, the triology of Sztompka (1999), and what could we say about how urban fragmentation and seclusion affects the processes that may - or may not - bring trust and distrust about? Talja Blokland will reflect on this question which is part of the book Urban Trust that she is currently writing.