The Body in the Emergence of Trust. Issue 2 (14th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brown, M. Anne
• Is Part Of: Ethnopolitics. Volume 19:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 209
• Page End: 227
• Publication Date: 2020-03-14
• Subjects: Ethnic relations -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; Minorities -- Periodicals; Geopolitics -- Periodicals; International relations and culture -- Periodicals; Ethnicity -- Periodicals; Autonomy and independence movements -- Periodicals; 320.1205
• DOI: 10.1080/17449057.2019.1653018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-9057

Abstract

Abstract: This discussion considers the significance of physical contact—in the sense of bodily and spatial presence or interaction—in the emergence of trust in the context of a legacy of violence. As an element of reconciliation (and like reconciliation), trust is understood as a continuum, rather than a completed state. Without proposing that physical contact is always essential for trust, or that relational trust removes the need for political settlements, the paper argues there is a visceral, face-to-face dimension to building trust that is often overlooked by more political accounts of reconciliation. Overlooking dimensions that involve feeling and body in the emergence of trust is likely to compromise the potential for effective reconciliation, particularly in contexts involving significant intercommunal violence. The argument is informed by case studies, illustrations and observation. It seeks to contribute to thinking about trust, particularly in contexts of reconciliation, through focussing on a significant, and arguably fundamental, dimension of it.