The Urban Dimension of Authority and Trust

Authority and trust are key factors in the creation and social construction of urban spaces. Since the 1970s, as a consequence of economic restructuring, the city has become a global entrepreneurial project that highlights shifts in authority and trust within society. Instead of state-led urban and social development, the city is now a playing field for private investors and developers, while the state’s function is reserved to ensuring security and order and thus has an authoritarian function without reserves of trust. The result is a clear segmentation of the urban space into different sub-spaces, which are characterized by socio-economic inequalities and low levels of social cohesion and trust. While part of the constituency struggles for access to housing, transportation, education, and health care, others retreat to (partially) privatized spaces that promise them protection and privacy. These include, for example, shopping malls, gated communities, or business improvement districts. Or they seek out homogeneous living environments, like ethnic neighborhoods, “master-planned communities”, suburbs, creative neighborhoods - which give them a sense of belonging and thus compensate for the loss of trust in state institutions and civil society. 

At the same time and as a countermovement to the decline of state authority and social trust, civil society claims a “right to the city” and “urban citizenship” based on comprehensive concepts of inclusion and participation. These shifts in trust and authority give rise to new actors and power constellations that influence urban development outside of state institutions and are thus described as urban governance (as opposed to government). Empirical studies on the consequences of this new urban governance are diverse, but are urgently needed, not least for the analysis of shifting notions of trust and authority at the urban scale. These include negotiations over housing, smart city agendas, entrepreneurship, climate justice, and migration that increasingly shape urban life in the USA.