Presenters: Dr Ian Stafford and Professor Alistair Cole (Cardiff University)
Chair: Professor Paul Chaney
The perceived decline in trust in democracy and government has become a cliché of our times. Furthermore, transparency has frequently been identified as a potential remedy to this phenomena. However, both the concepts of ‘trust’ and ‘transparency’ have been the subject of intense debate. Rather than focus on the conceptual dimension, this presentation, which is part of the WISERD Civil Society Seminar Series, critically examines the approaches adopted within existing research on civil society and other sectors – to measuring trust and transparency and the extent to which a mixed methods approach can offer an effective approach to exploring the interplay between trust and transparency
The perceived decline in trust in democracy and government has become, as O’Neill (2002, p.8) notes, ‘a cliché of our times.’ Furthermore, transparency – defined by Grimmelikhuijsen & Welch (2012, P.563) as ‘the availability of information about an organisation or actor that allows external actors to monitor the internal workings of performance of that organisation’ – has frequently been identified as a potential remedy to this phenomena. However, both the concepts of ‘trust’ and ‘transparency’ have been the subject of intense debate. Rather than focus on the conceptual dimension, this presentation critically examines the approaches adopted within existing research on civil society and other sectors – to measuring trust and transparency and the extent to which a mixed methods approach can offer an effective approach to exploring the interplay between trust and transparency.
This seminar relates to Work Package 2.4 of WISERD’s Civil Society ESRC grant.