Global mass protests, triggered by various socio-economic and political grievances, have characterized the past decade. However, one important aspect of mobilization has been largely neglected in protest and movement research: the role of trust. This aspect takes center stage in the special issue of the “International Journal of Comparative Sociology”, which will be published in Winter 2024/2025. All articles and the introduction by Nadine Sika, Federico Rossi, Irene Weipert-Fenner and Jonas Wolff are already available online.
When activists and groups take part in collective – potentially risky – actions for a common goal, they rely on the expectation that their comrades-in-arms and allies will not let them down. To date, however, little is known about the causes and dynamics of trust-building during mobilization processes. The same applies to the consequences of trust: to what extent do different types and intensities of trust in social movements help to explain the forms and outcomes of mobilization?
The special issue “Trust and Social Movements” of the “International Journal of Comparative Sociology” will address this promising research gap. It brings together previously largely separate research approaches to social movements and trust. As the editors Irene Weipert-Fenner, Federico Rossi, Nadine Sika and Jonas Wolff emphasize in their introduction, this systematic combination paves the way for a more differentiated understanding of the conditions under which mass protests emerge, their persistence and, in particular, their development into broader and sustainable social movements.
The special issue consists of two parts: The first part looks at the role of trust and the dynamics of trust-building within movements, focusing on both high-risk activism in particularly repressive contexts, such as Hong Kong, and networks of civil society organizations in democratic countries in Europe, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Trust, it can be shown, is not an external factor, but is formed, stabilized, weakened or even destroyed in the course of collective conflicts. Other contributions address, a.o., the challenge of how group identities and interests can be preserved within broad coalitions as well as the connection between specific types of trust and the sustainable existence of movements.
The second part of the special edition focuses on the state's reactions and the influence of interaction with the state on horizontal relationships of trust within movements. Case studies, such as those on Egypt and Belarus, once again illustrate the enormous geographical scope of the volume. They also demonstrate that authoritarian governments can successfully pursue confidence-damaging measures and thus undermine social mobilization and protest participation. Conversely, a look at activist strategies shows how theories of democratic innovation, dialog and trust-building benefit from new empirical findings: For example, Nicole Doerr, visiting fellow at PRIF, and Janus Hansen show how Danish and German climate activists on the path to a green transformation use their position inside and outside state institutions to build trust between political, governmental and civil society actors and bridge different ideologies and identities.
The special issue emerged as part of the research initiative “ConTrust: Trust in Conflict – Political Life under Conditions of Uncertainty” by Goethe University and PRIF, which is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. Individual articles from the “Trust and social movements” issue are available online, including the introduction by Irene Weipert-Fenner, Jonas Wolff et al. The print edition will follow in winter 2024/25.