Summary

In this workshop, Professor Naganawa explored the dynamics of trust building between state and society in late imperial Russia, with a specific focus on the Muslim community in the Caspian Sea port city of Astrakhan. Departing from a dichotomous understanding of the “building up” or “breaking down” of trust, he regarded both as part of continual process through which trust was negotiated; the difference between the two lies in that the former took place within the established institutional framework, whereas the latter entailed a search for a new framework to replace the existing one. His empirical analysis of various actions and activities undertaken by Astrakhan’s Muslim intellectuals showed that the authorities’ failure to gain trust was concomitant with the Muslim community’s strengthening intellectual and human ties beyond ethnic, religious, and geographical boundaries.

Putting Professor Naganawa’s findings into a comparative perspective, Professor Nakanishi emphasized that the observation in Astrakhan of the correlation between the development of vertical state–society relationships and that of horizontal networks provides an important insight with which to analyze trust building in other places and times more broadly. Further, Professor Nakanishi introduced an interesting episode from modern China where a Muslim community’s declaration of distrust against the authorities ushered in a new negotiation process that led to the reestablishment of trust.

(Madoka Morita)