A concept · The Fabric of Society · Society
Trust and Social Capital
The unspoken trust that lets a group cooperate at all.
In one town we lend the neighbour the drill and think nothing of it. In another we install a taller fence, get everything in writing and still expect to be let down. The people are not obviously different. Honest families who move from the first to the second start building fences too, not because they changed, but because the place did something to them. What is it that the place has, or lacks?
What Trust and Social Capital means
Trust and social capital is the web of relationships and shared expectations that lets a group cooperate at all: the unspoken confidence that the other person will do their part, so that we do not have to check. That is the definition. Owning it changes what we count as an asset. We start to see the invisible discount on every deal in a high-trust place, the handshake that saves a contract, the favour that saves a fee. We stop treating a cheat that did not cost us personally as none of our business, because it draws down a balance we all use. Before, a warm community was a nice thing to have. After, we can see it as infrastructure, cheap to spend and slow to rebuild.
Trust and Social Capital examples: where it shows up
- At work: the team that can say "leave it with me" and mean it moves twice as fast as the one that copies everyone in on everything.
- With money: a market where sellers expect to be paid needs fewer lawyers, and the price of everything in it is lower for that reason.
- In the news: every scandal that goes unpunished makes the next honest deal a little more expensive for everyone who was not involved.
Where it sits
Concept 1 of 5 in The Fabric of Society, a journey in the course How the World Works.
See where Trust and Social Capital sits on the sky →
Nearest on the sky
- Collective Action
- Common Ground
- Exit, Voice and Loyalty
- Fiat Money
- Money as a Ledger
- The Prisoner's Dilemma
A filled dot marks a star that is already open to walk.
Knowing it isn't owning it.
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