I have been looking at bit at the work of Georg Simmel, a German sociologist I read in my student days. Guido Mollering provides a comprehensive article on his work on trust. Georg saw the development of trust as a mental process that has three components: expectation, interpretation, suspension. As Guido writes:
“Expectation is the state (outcome) at the end of the process. It is preceded by the combination of interpretation and suspension. The former concerns the experiencing of reality that provides ‘good reason’” … Suspension is “the mechanism of bracketing the unknowable, thus making interpretative knowledge momentarily certain. Suspension enables the leap of trust.”
Collaboration requires a bit of trust, as does participation in the blogosphere. We have an expectation of benefit from our efforts. This expectation takes many forms and it is best that the expectations of the participants align, but it is not necessary, or even desirable that they are identical, just complimentary. Then we interpret our communication through the lens of our expectations. The first two components are necessary, but not sufficient. Suspension enables us to bridge the gaps and, through it, achieve trust.
Comments