’Intelligent Trust’, ethno-religious relations and the rise of the food bank

Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler discuss how individuals of different ethno-religious backgrounds in Europe can learn to trust each other, and how community-building initiatives in deprived areas can enhance the resilience of society. Our preliminary research suggests that community-level responses to austerity are making trust and trustworthiness an integral part of their operations and aims - Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler In December 2011, when economic turmoil was sweeping through Europe, the Woolf Institute and the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome organised a meeting between the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. Following the Papal Audience, Lord Sacks delivered a lecture and stated that, "when Europe recovers its soul, it will recover its wealth-creating energies. But first it must remember: humanity was not created to serve markets. Markets were created to serve humankind." He identified the breakdown of trust as a cause of the economic crisis and pointed out that that the key words in the financial markets are spiritual: "credit" (from "credo") and "confidence" (from "confidere"). In the months that followed the papal audience, Woolf Institute staff, led by Drs Shana Cohen and Ed Kessler, began to prepare a European-wide research project to address public and academic concerns related to trustworthiness; in particular, the aim was to explore the practical importance of trust and its placement within social relations, especially across ethno-religious differences.