How Rational and Affective Trust Facilitate Job Referrals in Urban Nicaragua’s Low-wage Economy

• In Event: 118 - Section on Economic Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Precarious Work and Social Stratification

Abstract

Low-wage workers rely heavily on job referrals from network members, and these network members use rational trust as a key criterion when deciding whether to share job leads. But findings from a growing number of network studies suggest that culture and affect play a key role in economic action. How do culture and affect shape job referrals? Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 105 low-wage workers and job-seekers in urban Nicaragua, I demonsrate that information-holders cite affective trust as a motivation for sharing job leads, while job-seekers rely of affective trust when approaching network members for job-finding assistance. I argue that the cultural concept of confianza, which encompasses both rational and affective trust, facilitates job referrals by allowing referral-givers to transpose trust in the social sphere to trust in the employment sphere. When confianza’s dual meanings are disarticulated, however, referrals fail and relationships are strained.

Author

• Lindsey M. Ibanez, The Ohio State University