Class Conflict as Catalyst of Trust: A New Research Agenda for International Political Sociology

Abstract While it is widely believed that the ongoing transformation of the global economy and the accompanying fragmentation of capitalist production is undermining solidarity, cohesion and trust among workers, this article presents a contrasting perspective: my main argument is that conflicts between capital and labor are complex processes that can serve as catalysts for fostering both solidaristic trust among workers as well as antagonistic trust between capital and labor representatives. While these varieties of trust are in a certain political tension with each other, they both point to the fact that conflicts play a crucial role in politicizing workers and revitalizing their collective power at local, regional, national, transnational, and global levels of the production process. What is at stake in these conflicts is not only collective bargaining, but also how the “political” of labor is constituted under conditions of the global capitalist production, namely via the (re)construction of political consciousness and common identities among workers in daily practices. I develop this argument theoretically by drawing on organizational, industrial, and conflict sociology as well as social movement studies and underpin it empirically with reference to three qualitative and ethnographic research projects on trust and capital–labor conflicts at national and transnational levels. As I show, trust and (class) conflict are not mutually exclusive, but can reinforce each other dialectically, true to the motto: In conflict, we trust!