Despite the universally recognized importance of fostering trust and avoiding distrust in governance relationships, there remains considerable debate on core questions like the relation between (dis)trust and the evaluations of the characteristics that make a governance agent appear (un)worthy of trust. In particular, it remains unclear whether levels of (dis)trust simply follow levels of (dis)trustworthiness—such that building trust is primarily a question of increasing evidence of trustworthiness and avoiding evidence of distrustworthiness, or if their dynamics are more complicated. The current paper adds novel theory for thinking about the management of trust and distrust in the governance context through the application of principles borrowed from resilience theory. Specifically, we argue that trust and distrust exist as distinct, self-reinforcing (i.e., stable) states separated by a threshold. We then theorize as to the nature of the self-reinforcing processes and use qualitative data collected from and inductively coded in collaboration with Flint residents as part of a participatory process to look for evidence of our argument in a well-documented governance failure. We conclude by explaining how this novel perspective allows for clearer insight into the experience of this and other communities and speculate as to how it may help to better position governance actors to respond to future crises.

The post Conceptualizing trust and distrust as alternative stable states: lessons from the Flint Water Crisis first appeared on Ecology & Society.

尽管人们普遍认识到在治理关系中培养信任和避免不信任的重要性，但对于核心问题（例如信任（不）信任与使治理主体显得值得（不）值得信任的特征评估之间的关系）仍然存在相当多的争论。特别是，目前尚不清楚（不）信任的水平是否简单地遵循（不）可信的水平，因此建立信任主要是一个增加可信证据和避免不可信证据的问题，或者它们的动态是否更加复杂。本文通过应用借鉴自复原力理论的原则，添加了新的理论来思考治理背景下的信任和不信任管理。具体来说，我们认为信任和不信任是截然不同的，由阈值分隔的自我强化（即稳定）状态。然后，我们对自我强化过程的本质进行理论分析，并使用从弗林特居民那里收集并与弗林特居民合作归纳编码的定性数据，作为参与过程的一部分，在有据可查的治理失败中寻找我们论点的证据。最后，我们解释了这种新颖的视角如何能够更清晰地洞察这个社区和其他社区的经验，并推测它如何有助于更好地定位治理参与者以应对未来的危机。然后，我们对自我强化过程的本质进行理论分析，并使用从弗林特居民那里收集并与弗林特居民合作归纳编码的定性数据，作为参与过程的一部分，在有据可查的治理失败中寻找我们论点的证据。最后，我们解释了这种新颖的视角如何能够更清晰地洞察这个社区和其他社区的经验，并推测它如何有助于更好地定位治理参与者以应对未来的危机。然后，我们对自我强化过程的本质进行理论分析，并使用从弗林特居民那里收集并与弗林特居民合作归纳编码的定性数据，作为参与过程的一部分，在有据可查的治理失败中寻找我们论点的证据。最后，我们解释了这种新颖的视角如何能够更清晰地洞察这个社区和其他社区的经验，并推测它如何有助于更好地定位治理参与者以应对未来的危机。

将信任和不信任概念化为替代稳定状态：弗林特水危机的教训首先发表在《生态与社会》上。