The Structure of Social Trust in Postindustrial Cities of Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT

English translation © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2017 “Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia.” “Struktura sotsial’nogo doveriia v postindustrial’nykh gorodakh Tsentral’noi i Vostochnoi Evropy,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2017, no. 12, pp. 79–88.

Pavel Iuzefovich Starosta is a doctor of sociological sciences, a professor, and vice-provost of University of Łódź. Kamil Vladimirovich Brzeziński is a candidate of sociological sciences and an assistant professor at University of Łódź. Viacheslav Pavlovich Stolbov is a candidate of economic sciences and a professor at Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology.

Translated by Lucy Gunderson.Translation reprinted from Sociological Research, vol. 58, nos. 1-2. DOI: 10.1080/10610154.2019.1688999.

Social trust as an academic problem has attracted the attention of contemporary scholars from various fields of the social sciences. A new direction in research on social trust is defining its structure and relationships between individuals and between individuals and social groups, as well as the attitude of individuals and social groups to institutional organizations. Sociological studies in cities in a number of Central and Eastern European countries have demonstrated the complex consequences of modernization in the lives of urban communities, including lower economic potential, an increase in unemployment, tension in people’s lives, intensifying criminal elements, growing internal and external migration, and so forth. All of this has influenced trust between citizens, between citizens and groups, and in relation to social institutions. Our task was to assess the scale of trust and its forms in different groups and to track the relationship between forms and levels of trust. We show that urban communities display a trust deficit, particularly with respect to social institutions. Finally, within the structure of trust we identified horizontal, vertical, and generalized forms of trust and, on their basis of their interconnection, five dominant models of social trust.

KEYWORDS:

• horizontal, vertical, generalized forms of trust
• institutional structures
• social trust and its structure
• the postindustrial city

This article is the republished version of:

The Structure of Social Trust in Postindustrial Cities of Central and Eastern Europe

Notes

English translation © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2017 “Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia.” “Struktura sotsial’nogo doveriia v postindustrial’nykh gorodakh Tsentral’noi i Vostochnoi Evropy,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2017, no. 12, pp. 79–88.

Pavel Iuzefovich Starosta is a doctor of sociological sciences, a professor, and vice-provost of University of Łódź. Kamil Vladimirovich Brzeziński is a candidate of sociological sciences and an assistant professor at University of Łódź. Viacheslav Pavlovich Stolbov is a candidate of economic sciences and a professor at Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology.

Translated by Lucy Gunderson.Translation reprinted from Sociological Research, vol. 58, nos. 1-2. DOI: 10.1080/10610154.2019.1688999.