ABSTRACT
Trust has recently been characterized as ‘diffi cult to defi ne and so to investigate’ (Goudge and Gilson 2005, 1439), and indeed, as one of the ‘most diffi cult concepts to handle in empirical research’ (Brownlie and Howson 2005, 234). Researchers grappling with the concept are concerned to clarify certain qualities of people we trust, our motivations for doing so, and the processes by which trust is built and negotiated-whom do we trust, why and how? In our own analysis of trusting relations among users of electronic support groups (ESGs), we aim to contribute to this literature from particular (vulnerable) perspectives: those of individuals who share real-world experiences of extreme social and spatial exclusion as a result of debilitating emotional and affective disorders. By exploring circulations of trust in the virtual world, we attend further to questions of location, using sociogeographical insights to interrogate the potential signifi cance of where trustful relations might take place.
