Solidarity In Low-Trust Environments: Identifying Barriers to Building Bonds with Legs

This panel examines how solidarity is formed, sustained, or blocked in contexts where trust is fragile, uneven, or eroding. Since the start of this century, solidarity movements around the world have met with mixed results. Some countries have experienced considerable success in organizing labor unions as well as political movements (e.g. Sri Lanka 2022) while others continue to struggle even when labor laws are clear (e.g. South Korea 2019). What role does societal trust play in creating solidarity movements that can last? Is it possible to generate broad support for the creation of unions and support for labor in societies where social trust is not always high?

In many contemporary societies, fragmented social relations and institutional skepticism weaken the very conditions that make collective life possible. Rather than treating solidarity as an outcome, we approach it as an ongoing social process shaped through everyday interactions, organizational settings, and broader structures of inequality and governance. Drawing on sociological perspectives on trust, social capital, and cohesion, we are interested in papers that examine how solidarity is negotiated under pressure and uncertainty.

We are looking for papers on solidarity movements, organizing, or attempts at solidarity within contexts of low trust. We would be especially interested in comparative analyses that examine how solidarity movements fare across environments with varying levels of trust, and identification of key factors that may improve chances of success or create conditions where failure is more likely. Innovative methodological approaches are welcome.