Department seminar: Florian Muehlfried

Seminar paper

Appeals for trust have accompanied every major crisis of late. During the global financial crisis, it was the shaken trust in banks that allegedly had to be restored. In the wake of the NSA crisis, it was deemed necessary to counteract the loss of trust in the state. And as a result of the emissions scandal, sometimes referred to as "diesel gate", companies such as Volkswagen launched expensive campaigns in order to regain the trust of their customers.

By contrast, one hears little about mistrust and, if so, not much good. Whereas trust is regarded the glue that holds modern society together, a prerequisite for democracy and the market economy, mistrust is conjured up as a spectre and publicly presented as irrational and dangerous. Evidence hereof are supporters of populist movements as well as Trump voters, whose agenda is based on a fundamental mistrust towards both the media and the political establishment. Mistrust is blamed for undermining the authority of the factual and for heralding the dawn of a "post-truth era." It is also located in the Global South, where its omnipresence is said to hinder the forging of a democratic state and the development of civil society.

This presentation, however, will highlight the constructive potential of mistrust. The case material mostly stems from the Caucasus, a region located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and, until 25 years ago, part of the Soviet Union. Like all former citizens of the former Soviet Union, those living in the Caucasus fall under the general suspicion of being inferior citizens due to their routine mistrust towards the state. Here lies another concern of my presentation. Instead of declaring these “others” to be notoriously deficient and thus continuing postcolonial discourses, they are consulted as experts, in this case: as experts of mistrust.

I will focus on practices of hostility as ways of engagement with strangers. Mistrust, in many cases, is part of this engagement, but not showed openly. As a consequence, rituals of hospitably are often characterised by a double game: whereas any trace of mistrust is banned from the surface, it is activated on a clandestine level. This double game causes confusion in regard to the personality of those involved. Other examples of the double game of mistrust are the double talk of diplomats and the listening with the second ear of social workers.

About the lecturer

Dr. Florian Muehlfried is an Assistant Professor at the Caucasus Studies Programme at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany.

Light refreshments will be served in the Corner Room after the seminar. All interested are welcome!