Cultural economic geography and a relational and microspace approach to trusts, rationalities, networks, and change in collaborative workplaces

Abstract

This paper develops a relational, microspace framework to explain how social interaction (in and outside of workplaces) affects decision making, behavior, and performance in collaborative work. The transfer of critical intangible resources such as trust, across persons outside conventional loci of power in overlapping social networks, entails an evolution of different types of trust. Bridging networks informally on a bottom‐up basis depends on complementary social relations and the transformation of trusts based on different rationalities formed in different places and social networks. Understanding collaboration can help as much in constructing positive change as in thwarting destructive, discriminatory work practices.