In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

acknowledgments This book has its origins in two distinct incidents. One is a lecture I attended given by Dr. Charles Pentland at Queen’s University on the structure of the United Nations trusteeship in Kosovo. His lecture prompted me to consider the phenomenon of trust and the institutional structures that can support trusting relations among citizens. Another is a conversation I had long ago with Angela Kaida in which we both learned that we shared a key experience as children of immigrants: a moment in which an adolescent friend pointed out something we had never before noticed, that our parents have “weird accents” in English. My intellectual preoccupations with both trust and the immigrant experience have, after many years, culminated in the arguments I make in this book. Theroadfromtheseincidentstothisbookisofcourselong,andIowethanks to many people for friendship and intellectual stimulation of all kinds. Although this book is a distant relative of the DPhil that preceded it, the original ideas were crafted under the careful supervision of David Miller at Nuffield College, Oxford University. Several of the individual chapters were sharpened (and one abandoned!) as a result of discussions with my thoughtful and engaged external readers, Anne Phillips and Mark Philp. Avigail Eisenberg and Mathew Festenstein attentively reviewed the original manuscript for Penn State Press and offered invaluable comments, for which I and the final manuscript are deeply appreciative. Zofia Stemplowska and Jacob J. Krich read the near-final version of the manuscript and offered careful and incisive suggestions that improved the book immensely. Jacob is married to me, and so may have been contractually obligated to carry out this task (I can’t say for sure because our marriage contract is in a language I do not speak or read), but no such contract obligated Zofia. I am beyond lucky to have benefited from her careful criticism (all trenchant ), her thoughtful suggestions (all but one taken), and her friendship (valued immensely). Avia Pasternak and Terry Macdonald, close friends with whom many of the ideas in this book have been discussed at great length and with extraordinary x || acknowledgments generosity of spirit, both stepped in at crisis moments. Avia read and immeasurably improved a chapter with her comments. Many of the ideas that form the foundation of the book were formulated over discussions with Terry in the years we were students, and flatmates, at Nuffield College. She also read the entire manuscript and offered encouragement at the precise moment that I needed someone to tell me to press on. Others have read or commented on individual chapters, and I hope the final product shows that I have listened to them carefully: Clare Chambers, Nicholas Cheeseman, Joshua Cherniss, Elizabeth Fraser, Michael Freeden, Andrew Hurrell, Jonathan Quong, Tiziana Torresi, and Mark Warren. I have presented my work at many conferences, too many to list here, but it is essential that I thank the participants of the Nuffield Political Theory Workshop conducted between 2001 and 2004, nearly all of whom engaged critically and seriously with my work. Discussions with several scholars have been instrumental in shaping how I think about trust: Barbara Arneil, who generously shared parts of an unpublished manuscript with me, as well as Keith Banting, Chris Bertram, Avigail Eisenberg, Richard Johnston, Will Kymlicka, Finn Spicer, and Natalia Letki. I owe special thanks to Stuart Soroka, with whom I co-organized a workshop at Nuffield titled “Conceptualizing Trust: Interdisciplinary Perspectives .” Stuart was instrumental in persuading me that a solely philosophical approach to the concept and phenomenon of trust would be inadequate, and his pressure to consider the concept more broadly is reflected in the first chapter in particular. I prepared the initial manuscript over four wonderful years I spent as a lecturer in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University , and I wish to thank several of my colleagues there for creating a collegial and supportive environment in which to work: Kate Anable, Anya Bernstein, Bo-Mi Choi, Noah Dauber, Michael Frazer, Glyn Morgan, Nicole Newendorp , Stefan-Bird Pollan, Thomas Ponniah, Verity Smith, and Scott Staring. I owe a special thanks to David Meskill, who guided me through the process of preparing and submitting a book proposal. I completed the manuscript as a member of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, and I wish to say publicly that it is a pleasure to be part of such a collegial and dynamic group of scholars and students. I owe a special thanks to my close...

Share