If you and I are part of a fairly rich web of interactions in a relatively small, close-knit community, we might imagine that we would therefore grow up to be relatively trustworthy. Although the data do not yield definitive conclusions, some studies suggest that small, close communities are governed more by norms than by trust relationships (Amato 1993; Fischer 1982; see also Cook and Hardin 2000). In urban contexts, people find their ways into multiple networks for varied purposes, such as work, recreation, close friendship, and so forth. In one of these networks, they are likely to develop ongoing relationships that enable them to develop trust in one another with respect to the particular issues around which that network has formed. If I violate your trust with respect to the issues at stake in our network, your sanction is simply to withdraw from further interactions with me, and if my reputation gets around, I might even be dropped from the entire network. I would then have to find other people with whom to deal on the relevant issues.

XREF: Connects to sociology of embeddedness and network theory traditions, and to ideas about reputation as social currency within closed groups.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 820