A Matter of Trust

The Kultursymposium returned to Weimar under the title »A Matter of Trust«! From 10th to 12th of May, the Goethe-Institut brought together exciting personalities from across the globe to exchange ideas about the multifaceted topic of trust in debates, presentations, workshops and artistic works over the course of three days.

Trust plays a central role in many areas of life, both as an individual emotional category and as a fundamental social resource: as trust in our fellow humans, in private and business relationships, trust in political systems, media and science, in legal systems and international agreements, as trust in cultural codes, new technology and currencies – and last but not least, as trust in ourselves.

In a world in which past conflicts are re-emerging with unanticipated vehemence and contradictory information shapes our everyday media, trust is of elementary importance. Trust enables decision-making and taking action in complex situations, in which not all details can be researched and not every risk precisely assessed. At the Kultursymposium Weimar the role and effects of trust on our social interactions were discussed from a global perspective in order to negotiate joint paths to make trust possible in a fragile world.