Well-being, Trust and Society

Autori

  • Claudia Gina Hassan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2240-9599/12752

Parole chiave:

Trust, Mistrust, Well-being, Social Cohesion

Abstract

The concept of well-being is correlated with social indicators linked in turn with the classical notion of “the good life”. The paper, instead, emphasizes the importance of relational aspects. It develops a reflection on the dialectic of interpersonal and systemic trust and mistrust, and it analyzes different semantic nuances of the notion of trust. A society characterized by well-being evidences strong type agency, a society with low levels of well being evidences weak type agency. Trust is a social resource indispensable for sustaining agency, society’s self-transformation and well-being. While trust is traditionally thought to contribute to social cohesion, mistrusting the rulers can also be considered a positive countervailing force in contemporary democracies. At the same time, the distrust sedimented in time creates, on the one hand, a saving expectation and on the other, paternalisation as a search for a substitute trust.

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Pubblicato

2019-12-23

Fascicolo

Sezione

Focus - Assessing Well-Being: Aesthetic and Political Atmospheres