Studied Trust: Building New Forms of Cooperation in a Volatile Economy

Abstract

The understandings of individuality and sociability characteristic of modern liberal and sociological social theory are fatalistic about the potential for the creation of trust in economic relations. These understandings are reconsidered in light of the recent evolution of state-level industrial policy in the United States, focusing on the experience of the state of Pennsylvania where the state's efforts have shown early success in breaking down barriers of mistrust that block economic adjustment in the state's traditional manufacturing industries. Arguing that the sort of cooperation-in-the-making that characterizes the Pennsylvania case is ill-captured by mainstream theory, the paper proffers a notion of studied or vigilant trust based on the core conclusions of 20th century analytic philosophy as a way of squaring theory and stylized facts. Government-instigated discussion among key economic actors has the potential to spur reformulations of collective identities and common histories, resulting in the creation of new avenues of potentially trusting economic relations.