Trust in Social Capital: A Matter of Discipline

The impact of cultural factors on social capital, including norms of trustworthiness and beliefs like trust, has inCR1easingly been brought to the fore in social capital literature. Building on an early model of norm internalisation by Coleman (1987), this chapter intends to propose a fresh look at the trust/trustworthiness dimension of social capital under the paradigm of methodological individualism. Given that static preferences and conventional assumptions about rationality cannot account for the trustworthy behaviour of human individuals, it is argued that social capital research should adopt a psychologically-grounded perspective without which a theory of social capital would remain incomplete. In the light of these considerations, effective individualism – a modern form of discipline that fosters individual responsibility – is identified as an important source of trustworthiness. An interesting side effect of this hypothesis is that it allows for a conceptualisation of social capital perfectly in line with the general logic of capitalism, since competitive and cooperative types of behaviour can both be traced back to the very same cultural/ psychological preconditions.