No Police, No Courts and Yet Utopia: Conflict Resolution and Trust Restoration using Trusting as Governance Model

Since at least the global economic crisis of 2008, if not before, institutional failures have been compounded by violations of trust by major businesses and institutions such as Wall Street, and national and international organizations have struggled to recover from the resulting broad losses of trust. Our case study on Auroville examines the unique structure of this community which organizes itself on principles of democratic decision-making, common ownership of land and business, and an overall goal of working for the common good. In particular, Auroville has created processes of trust creation, maintenance, and repair that serve its diverse members, who come from across the globe, well. These processes lead to many suggestions in relation to how other organizations might address the creation of trust and, especially, repair trust after violations.