Local Business Co-operation and the Dilemmas of Collective Action: Rural Micro-business Networks in the North of England

Case study research in two rural market towns in the north of England investigates the local connectivity of micro‐businesses and notions of co‐operative behaviour with a view to informing a debate on the extent to which external (state) agencies can support the formation of local business networks. The research finds that co‐operation is often associated with symbolic activities to express local identities with few cases of formal collective action. The case studies highlight an inherent danger of external state intervention in the facilitation of small business networks, in that, by disturbing established local norms and networks, such interventions may jeopardise the latent structures of social capital which they seek to exploit.