Introduction: (de)constructing trust in high-stakes intercultural mediation

This article serves both as a critical reflection of theoretical models of trust across varied settings and modalities of translation and as an editorial introduction to the special issue of <em>Translation Studies</em> on trust in intercultural mediation. It examines how trust is (de)constructed, contested, and instrumentalised amid shifting power relations, identity politics, and growing anxieties about automation. This article argues that trust works beyond an essentialist moral ideal and is better seen as a relational and strategic resource shaped by risk and uncertainty. It highlights how the contributions gathered in this special issue collectively advocate for a non-essentialist, empirical approach to <em>testing</em> trust in translations and translation agents. These examine how trust emerges and is at times de-constructed through interactional practices, technological interaction and shifting socio-political configurations, setting the stage for a broader rethinking of trust as a constitutive condition for intercultural communication.<br>