Public discussions of trust often frame it as a social good that can simply exist, increase, or deplete. But as institutions built to protect public health, education, and dignity rupture — and networks and social relationships fray — it is clear that trust is complicated, and that it is deeply relational. Meanwhile, the stakes of the relationship between trust and technology whittle to a sharper point with every passing day.

The essays in this anthology collectively reframe the question of trust and technology away from whether a particular technology is trustworthy and toward how trust reframes institutions, bodies, and knowledge. We offer four interconnected definitions of trust, tools for meeting this moment, and ways of finding agency and meaning within it. 

This anthology grew out of a March 2024 workshop that explored themes of information, institutions, embodiment, and relationality. Participants developed their discussions into short collaborative papers, which form the basis for this collection. We present case studies as “conceptual knots” for the reader to use when thinking about issues of technology and trust from particular, grounded perspectives. We also include key terms and definitions that emerged from each theme’s discussion.