Research in sociology on social trust is historically recent, reflecting changing conditions underlying self-appraisal in late modernity. Acknowledgement of these changing conditions, and especially their institutional background, contributes to a reconceptualization of the notion of trust and the role of inter-personal trust in social relationships. Under conditions of late modernity, described in the article as ‘precarious institutional maturity’, trust operates primarily as a term in a vocabulary of motive or as a value or appraisal regarding self and other, rather than directly facilitating social relationships. The supposed significance of trust, it is shown, tends to be exaggerated in the literature. The importance of the widely neglected institutional context is indicated in part through consideration of the case of guanxi (Chinese connections) in which high levels of social solidarity exist in the absence of trust.

中文翻译：

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信任：行动条件或评估条件

关于社会信任的社会学研究在历史上是最近的，反映了现代晚期自我评价的潜在条件不断变化。承认这些不断变化的条件，尤其是它们的制度背景，有助于重新认识信任的概念和人际信任在社会关系中的作用。在文章中描述为“不稳定的制度成熟度”的晚期现代性条件下，信任主要作为动机词汇中的一个术语或作为对自我和他人的价值或评价来运作，而不是直接促进社会关系。它表明，信任的假定重要性在文献中往往被夸大了。