Trust functions as social capital enabling collective purposes.

Evidence

In many discussions, trust is treated as a good in itself, not merely as a matter of the assessment of the trustworthiness of others. By this is not meant that it is a morally good thing but, rather, that it is a good much the way goods we buy in the market are. In these discussions, trust seems almost palpable, something that we can create and destroy, use or not use, just as we create and destroy capital and other goods of various kinds. The first way trust is deemed to be a good is that it is a commodity. The second way is that, in a remarkably large and growing literature, trust is treated as a good that is a kind of social capital, capital that enables groups and whole societies to accomplish various purposes. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to Coleman’s social capital chapter — trust as a capital-like good — which the blindness collapse would destroy most visibly. — connects to: Dense civic networks enable trust, reciprocity and collective action. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 17; Social trust and civic engagement co-vary across societies as one underlying factor. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 59; Institutions for collective action emerge from community incentives, reciprocity, and trust that curb free-riding. — Laura Albareda and Alejo Jose G. Sison, Commons Organizing: Embedding Common…, 63 (+4 more)