We’re saying that we trust them but really we don’t

Citizen jurors’ discursive framing of trust in international trade policy

Bibliographic Data

ID6084709
AuthorsJustyna A Robinson (0000-0001-9392-5720), Leslie Ann Winters (0000-0003-2064-3786), Rhys J Sandow (0000-0001-6199-609X), R Young (0000-0001-6743-7256), Sandra Young (0000-0002-2734-9849), Caitlin Hogan (0000-0003-1266-3306)
Year2025
Publication date2025-09-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language and Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1569-2159 • E-ISSN: 1569-9862
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/jlp.24178.rob
OpenAlexW4414614056
LanguageEN
References cited15

One key consequence of the UK leaving the EU (Brexit) is that it now has full responsibility for making its own international trade policy. In this context, NatCen and the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy initiated Citizens’ Juries on the topic of trade policy. From the transcripts of these juries, we created a corpus of 317,974 words. Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, we focus on the concept of trust in trade policy. We find that trust conferred on actors in trade policy is limited. The greatest degree of trust is conferred on experts, on account of their epistemically-elevated position. The government is broadly not trusted. Jurors wished to be consulted about trade policy decisions and be assured that they are based on sound advice, but few wished to have a role in actually making them. Our findings highlight a deficit of trust among the jurors that could be remedied by greater perceived honesty and transparency from the government

Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies

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