pp. 71-103

This article gives a microsociological approach to interindividual cooperation in industrial partnerships. Based on empirical material from the European car sector, it shows that the cooperation between moral persons becomes lesser between the physical persons representing them. Local cooperation, founded on social exchange, is apparent in different ways, one of which is trust, whose characteristics ressemble a moral contract. Paradoxically, much opportunistic behaviours interfere with cooperational relations without, however, weakening the trust. Moreover, it is this clever mix of limited trust and moderate opportunism which enables cooperation to reach its highest productivity by satisfying individual and collective interests simultaneously.