The lesser of two evils: Approaching trust with Bourdieu’s habitus

ABSTRACT

In this paper I borrow from sociological scholars and theories in order to approach trust(ing) with Bourdieu's habitus. I demonstrate the use of a conceptual framework comprised of three sociological theories in the context of a subset of women in urbanising Türkiye who belong to, what I call, a gecekondu habitus. Throughout this paper I discuss the necessity of viewing interpersonal trust in the context of lived experiences, which enables us to see the nuanced ways trust might express itself in unexpected ways. Specifically, I suggest that utilising Bourdieu's habitus is one way to centre and situate context in trust research. By using Bourdieu's habitus along with theories of social reproduction and social capital I position my study on interpersonal trust in context, elucidate the gecekondu habitus, and with empirical examples illuminate nuances of trust and vulnerability noting its embeddedness in social networks. Ultimately in this paper I show how layering sociological theories as lenses highlights a nuanced view of trusting for women that expresses itself in two ways: (1) trust as choosing between vulnerabilities in difficult choices; and (2) the process of trusting (in assessing trustworthiness) functioning similarly to social capital a la Bourdieu and Coleman.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpersonal trust
• social reproduction
• social capital
• gecekondu habitus
• Turkey/Türkiye
• conceptual framework

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Paul Hoard, Christina Hamer, Tahire Erman, Aylin Topal, Meral Uğur Çınar, Petra Cafnik Uludağ, Julinda Hoxha and Bonnie Erdem for their helpful comments and encouragement through various iterations of this paper and study. I am also deeply indebted to the women who graciously shared their stories with me. Additionally, I am grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers whose comments, critiques and suggestions were tremendously helpful in developing this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. As such, informed consent was obtained from all participants in this study; their names have been changed in order to protect their identities.

Notes

1 This paper is part of Jermaine Ma's doctoral research conducted at Bilkent University in Ankara, Türkiye. She currently holds an Adjunct Faculty position at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology in Seattle, WA.

2 Not all villagers responded the same way to urban living. Suzuki (1964) points to how villagers from two different areas of Türkiye (Ortaköy – in eastern Anatolia, and Denizköy – on the Asian side of the Marmara near Istanbul) responded differently to their moves to Istanbul in the 1950s and 1960s.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jermaine S. Ma

Jermaine S. Ma, PhD (Political Science, Bilkent University) is an Adjunct Professor at The Seattle School of Psychology & Theology in Seattle, WA. Her research interests include interpersonal trust, cross-cultural research, and she is currently researching her family's immigration story and the impacts of intergenerational trauma.