Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, the authors examine trust from the perspective of citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic in Burkina Faso.

Paper long abstract:

Global health and anthropology both emphasize the importance of trust in times of infectious disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, however, often conceptualise it differently. In this presentation, the authors examine trust from the perspective of citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic in Burkina Faso. Here, trust and mistrust are closely related to precarity, contingency and power and following Michael Bürge’s (2019) conceptualisation of trust, the authors propose that a more fitting term to describe people’s experiences with the state might be to “miss trust”. To miss trust signifies a missing and a longing for the state and for state institutions to tend to (material) needs. Such longings underline hope, rather than certainty, which might spur some people to action and taking matters into their own hands. Such actions could, in turn, be at odds with the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the government. Lastly, the authors discuss how an approach of missing trust sheds light on the situated concerns of people, their actions and narratives in attempts to overcome challenges and vulnerability imposed by others.