The Role of Boundary Spanning in Building Trust: A Place‐Based Study on Engaging Hardly Reached Groups in Community Healthcare Settings

Bianchi, Lara; Kelemen, Mihaela; Shivji, Alysha Kate; Tallant, Jonathan; Timmons, Stephen

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of boundary spanning activities on building trust as a means of tackling health inequalities in hardly reached communities. Lack of trust has been identified as a barrier to engagement with healthcare services, resulting in poorer health outcomes. Engaging with hardly reached communities is challenging due to the social and symbolic boundaries prevalent in community healthcare settings. Drawing on empirical data from a recent year-long collaborative research project with communities from seven economically deprived areas in the City of Nottingham, we identify two boundary spanning activities that facilitate the development of trust: communication across boundaries and intergroup relationship building. By cross fertilizing sociological accounts on trust with insights derived from philosophy, the study finds that for hardly reached communities, trusting relevant individuals is more potent and widespread than the trust they have in healthcare institutions. By developing individual trust, hardly reached communities are more likely to consequently perceive the existence of institutional goodwill and competence. This counter-intuitive finding invites us to regard trust as context specific and relational rather than as a binary choice between trusting individuals or institutions and to situate cross boundary activities focused on trust development within the power asymmetries in which they unfold.

Citation

Bianchi, L., Kelemen, M., Shivji, A. K., Tallant, J., & Timmons, S. (2025). The Role of Boundary Spanning in Building Trust: A Place‐Based Study on Engaging Hardly Reached Groups in Community Healthcare Settings. Sociology of Health and Illness, 47(1), Article e13870. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13870

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 13, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025-01
• Deposit Date: Nov 21, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2025
• Journal: Sociology of Health & Illness
• Print ISSN: 0141-9889
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9566
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: e13870
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13870
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/42215460
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.13870