Lack of Trust, Surfeit of Trust: Some Causes of the Innovation Crisis in German Industry

Abstract

Abstract Arguments which build on the notion of trust—or on parallel categories like ‘networks of civic engagement’, ‘co-operation culture’, ‘social capital’ —came into fashion some years ago. Often they associate good performance in the production of highly valued social goods with organizations that are blessed with a broad stock of trust. ‘Innovation’ is an example of a set of activities which trust organizations are said to perform well. Neotocquevillian currents in American social science exhibit this type of thinking as well as approaches to economic development which, more or less explicitly, rely on Alfred Marshall’s idea of ‘industrial districts’. It is my opinion that these arguments exaggerate the benevolent effects of trust too far and that the analysis of trust which they bring to the fore is sometimes rather misleading.