printMethodology of the Comparative Sociology of Trust (Case Study of Russia and China)
Jin Junkai
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associated Prof., Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China jjk@sxu.edu.cn
Veselov Yu.V.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Head of the Economic Sociology Department, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. y.veselov@spbu.ru
Skvortsov N.G.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. n.skvortsov@spbu.ru
Jin Junkai, Veselov Yu.V., Skvortsov N.G. Methodology of the Comparative Sociology of Trust (Case Study of Russia and China). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2024. No 4. P. 3-13
The article deals with the methodological issues of the comparative sociology of trust. In order to compare the level of trust in different countries a set of indicators is proposed (generalized trust; particularized trust; trust radius; institutional trust). The problems of measuring generalized and institutional trust in China and Russia are revealed. Based on World Values Survey data, a comparative analysis of trust levels in the Russian Federation and China is carried out. The authors also present data from their own empirical study of trust (telephone survey of the population in St. Petersburg and Leningradskaya Oblast; Internet study of trust, in-depth interviews of both residents of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China). To explain the processes of transformation of trust in the Russian Federation and China, a modernization approach is used and the role of a culture of trust is revealed. China has a high level of both generalized and institutionalized trust based on its own specific culture of trust. But the radius of trust is narrow and indicators of out-group trust are extremely low. In Russia, the level of generalized trust is low, but the level of institutional trust is average, radius of trust is wider and the level of out-group trust is higher. Particularized trust is approximately the same in China and Russia; at least, we have not identified any special “familistic culture of trust”.
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