We’ve stopped trusting institutions and started trusting strangers

Something profound is changing our concept of trust, says Rachel Botsman. While we used to place our trust in institutions like governments and banks, today we increasingly rely on others, often strangers, on platforms like Airbnb and Uber and through technologies like the blockchain. This new era of trust could bring with it a more transparent, inclusive and accountable society — if we get it right. Who do you trust?

Rachel Botsman is an author and a visiting academic at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. Her work focuses on how technology is enabling trust in ways that are changing the way we live, work, bank and consume. She defined the theory of “collaborative consumption” in her first book, What’s Mine Is Yours, which she co-authored with Roo Rogers. The concept was subsequently named by TIME as one of the “10 Ideas that Will Change the World” and by Thinkers50 as the 2015 Breakthrough Idea.

Named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, Botsman examines the growth and challenges of start-ups such as Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Uber. She is regular writer and commentator in leading international publications including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, WIRED and more. She is currently writing a new book that explores why the real disruption happening isn’t technology; it’s a profound shift in trust.

What others say

“Without buying into the shallow potential of the latest fad, be that Twitter or Facebook, Botsman takes a more intelligent long view of how technology will change the terms on which people live and work.” — Monocle