Seite - (000045) - in Knowledge and Networks

35 social knowledges through meaningful interaction (Ettlinger, 2009 ) . I pursue new types of knowledge networks as a possible context for social change in association with the emergence of open innovation. The recognition of social knowledges in typologies of knowledge suggests important implications for adapting theory of knowledge generation regarding competitiveness to the domain of social relations while recognizing the benefi ts for economic performance. In light of the relative absence of attention to problems of knowledge generation in the realm in social theory, I turn now to literature on economic networks for clues regarding knowledge generation and sharing, with the aim of using these insights toward social knowl- edges in the context of economic dynamics. Adapting Theories of (Economic) Knowledge Networks to Social Relations: Generating and Sharing Knowledges, and the Nagging Problem of Trust and Familiarity Research in economic geography and sociology and allied fi elds in business and management has grappled with the “soft” issue of trust as a linchpin in the genera- tion of knowledges for innovative activity among fi rms. Despite an absence of inter- est in the content of social knowledges and their usefulness for social issues, this literature nonetheless is germane because it clarifi es the complexity of establishing trust and mutual respect, irrespective of the agenda. Economic geographers in particular have engaged the spatiality of trust. The idea emanating from economic sociology that economic action is socially embedded (Granovetter, 1985 ) became axiomatic in economic geography, which initially meshed social with local embeddedness (Hess, 2004 ). However, the idea that feel- ings of trust associated with knowledge generation and exchange necessarily require the familiarity of physical, face-to-face interaction (e.g., Gertler, 2003 ; Morgan, 2004 ; Scott & Storper, 2003 ) eventually became upended in topological renditions of networks conceptualized in non-Euclidean space (e.g., Adams, 1998 ; Allen, 2009 ; Amin & Cohendet, 2004 ). 12 Unbounding learning regions opened analysis to networks and collaboration spread across space (Amin, 2004 ; Goodwin, 2013 ) and 12 The sense of space from a Euclidean and topographic perspective represents the relation between two points in space as a straight line; space is understood as a container, constituted by locations that can be mapped as Cartesian coordinates. A non-Euclidean and topological sense of space recognizes that in practice the relation between two points in space may be non-linear due to physi- cal, social, cultural, political, and economic barriers; space is folded. The non-Euclidean, topologi- cal perspective recognizes that relations between people across space may be stronger than relations between people at the same location, countering longstanding assumptions about the positive correlation between physical and social distance. Doreen Massey’s ( 1993 , 2005 ) “progres- sive sense of place” understands places as points of articulation between processes in local con- texts and the wide-ranging experiences of people in places who have traversed many contexts; accordingly, places are characterized by diverse and not necessarily harmonious realities and iden- tities. See also John Allen’s ( 2003 , 2009 ) scholarship on topologies of power. 2 Reversing the Instrumentality of the Social for the Economic