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Abstract
This dissertation aims to understand how Black Chicagoans work with institutions and neighbors they distrust to pursue common policy goals – in this case, to remedy state and community violence. I introduce the theory of distrustful cooperation. Using three Chicago neighborhoods as cased studies: Greater Englewood, Bronzeville, and Calumet Heights, I argue that class and distrust of police, local politicians, nonprofits, and neighbors determine what coalitions are built among distrusted institutions and individuals, whether community violence or state violence is prioritized, and who is blamed for the violence. I conducted in-person and virtual interviews, focus groups, and community observations in each neighborhood. I have four findings. First, high-status participants who reported distrusting their impoverished neighbors are less likely to see state violence as a problem in their neighborhoods. Second, participants that think distrusted institutions have a role in ending community violence or state violence are motivated to work with distrusted institutions. Third, participants that predominately worked with distrusted institutions prioritized finding solutions to community violence over state violence. Fourth, those that prioritized ending state violence were more likely to be isolated from broader community initiatives.
