CONCEPTUALIZING THE VULNERABILITY OF TRUST IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AND INFORMATIZATION

The article presents a conceptual analysis of the transformations of trust in the context of globalization and informatization, pointing out the pressing problem of formulating new contemporary ethical principles in the context of trust vulnerability risk profiles in modern society. Trust is proposed to be conceptualized as a risk-generating benefit-oriented act which is based on the fact that the intentions of the Other (both personified and impersonal) are non-transparent and that the Other has initial freedom and no control over his actions, and which expresses the acceptance of one’s own vulnerability as a ‘notwithstanding’ action strategy, thus reducing uncertainty and social complexity. The reasons behind the problematization of trust in the contemporary conditions have been analyzed, and the value-related grounds for the crisis of trust have been studied in the context of analyzing modern transformational changes, pointing out that the instability of social order and the uncertainty and risk in the formation of trust-based relations have pressing significance. The specifics of how trust functions in the interrelationship of globalization and glocalization processes have been analyzed. It is noted that glocalization can be construed as a way to restore the local climate of trust, which increases the significance of the cultural context of normativeness in the environment of trust. Glocalization is proposed to be addressed both in the aspect of local advantages, including those arising from the preservation of axiological and normative basis for the ethos of support and sanctioned reliability, and as local vulnerability. The crisis of trust is viewed as a crisis of trust resources contained in the socio-cultural field of normatively established mutual interests, addressing such issues as identity, the dichotomy between the global and local, the rational and irrational, and increasing manipulation capacities of information society. Particular focus is made on analyzing specific features of the transformation of social reality in the context of new capacities the Big Data technologies have and new threats they pose, viewing them from the ontological, epistemological and ethical perspectives. It is shown that, in the conditions of the increasing dexterity of modern information society, a reasonable ratio of trust and distrust is required as a ratio between interdependent strategies of social and individual self-realization.

trust, vulnerability, culture of trust, risk, globalization, glocalization, information society, manipulation, Big Data

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