Tangled Webs of Trust: A Study of Public Trust in Risk Regulation

Abstract

This article provides an empirically grounded understanding of public trust in the context of risk regulation, specifically through a case study of shale gas exploration and fracking. It offers insight into the factors underpinning public trust and explores the empirical reality of the socially embedded and relational nature of trust. The article engages with the often-neglected dynamics of trust and how relationships between different levels of trust (eg institutional, interpersonal, wider system) operate. It shows how trust, far from complying with many existing linear conceptualisations, is complex and messy, involving a web of ongoing and interactive relationships within and between these levels. By mapping empirical data against our theoretical understandings, this article offers an alternative insight into the trust relationship, better positioning us to understand trust as an ongoing process, rather than an end product.