The paper analyses social networks from a point of view that highlights reciprocity relations. Applying a case study in Veranópolis municipality, Rio Grande do Sul, the paper find out to understand the importance of reciprocity relations in the constitution of labour networks engaged to trading, micro fusion industries, shoes and sporting goods industries. The analysis aims to demonstrate that even though the existence of a common social origin, labour networks show different characteristics that refer to labour forms, modes of operation and competition regulation between the entrepreneurships. In this study, the set of network relations is responsible for providing dynamism to the labour market as well as for the differentiation of the local economy, articulating actors who constitute social ties and exercise relevant effects to territorial development as a whole.
social networks; reciprocity; territory