Us versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods

Crime and gentrification are hot button issues that easily polarize racially diverse neighborhoods. How do residents, activists, and politicians navigate the thorny politics of race as they fight crime or resist gentrification? And do conflicts over competing visions of neighborhood change necessarily divide activists into racially homogeneous camps, or can they produce more complex alliances and divisions? In Us versus Them, Jan Doering answers these questions through an in-depth study of two Chicago neighborhoods. Drawing on three and a half years of ethnographic fieldwork, Doering examines how activists and community leaders clashed and collaborated as they launched new initiatives, built coalitions, appeased critics, and discredited opponents. At the heart of these political maneuvers, he uncovers a ceaseless battle over racial meanings that unfolded as residents strove to make local initiatives and urban change appear racially benign or malignant. A thoughtful and clear-eyed contribution to the field, Us versus Them reveals the deep impact that competing racial meanings have on the fabric of community and the direction of neighborhood change.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Chapter 1: The Battle over Race, Crime, and Gentrification Chapter 2: A Brief History of Living Together Chapter 3: Racial Displacement in Action? Safety Activism and Its Racial Entanglements Chapter 4: "You've got reason to be afraid": Crime and Race in Electoral Campaigning Chapter 5: Resisting Gentrification and Criminalization Chapter 6: "White Vigilantes?" Two Case Studies of Positive Loitering Chapter 7: Racial Identities and Political Standpoints: Expected and Unexpected Alignments Chapter 8: Crime and Gentrification Beyond Black and White Chapter 9: Conclusion Appendix: About the Fieldwork Notes References Index

About the Author :
Jan Doering is Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill University.

Review :
"Altogether, Us versus Them offers a timely, readable, and thoughtful addition to urban sociology and the sociology of race." -- Jackelyn Hwang, American Journal of Sociology "The work is particularly compelling as a very readable contemporary update" -- M. E. Pfeifer, State University of New York Polytechnic Insitute, CHOICE "Building on both new and enduring questions about place and culture, Us versus Them explores how neighborhood context shapes residents' approaches to racialized policing and community safety initiatives. Relying on detailed ethnographic evidence and engaging with timely questions related to gentrification, concentrated poverty, and micro-segregation, the author provides a vivid portrait of residents' racialized boundary-making projects in two Chicago neighborhoods. Doering's detailed attention to the work of small groups in neighborhood safety initiatives provides a rich account that generates an important set of questions for students and scholars of policing, neighborhood effects, and diversity and integration to pursue." -- Japonica Brown-Saracino, Boston University "In Us vs Them, Jan Doering takes the reader inside street-level contestation over race, crime, and gentrification in Chicago neighborhoods. Built on rich ethnographic and interview data, the end result is a deeply researched book that provides theoretical and empirical insight into how local politics shape the way residents talk about and understand neighborhood crime. Doering convincingly shows that the racial meanings attached to crime are partly a function of the political environment in which that meaning-making occurs. This engrossing read makes an original contribution to scholarship on race and politics and should be read by anyone interested in the politics of gentrification." -- Corey D. Fields, Georgetown University "This important book puts some of the most divisive issues of our day - crime, gentrification, political polarization, and racial identity - under the microscope. It unpacks divisions within already racially integrated Chicago neighborhoods over strategies to address significant crime problems. Ensuing chapters document how well-meaning prevention efforts splintered communities and racial tensions spilled over into electoral politics, creating a minefield for politicians trying to build majority coalitions. Some succeeded, and the study illuminates how good leadership can lower the temperature around debates involving race and class, and find paths toward community solidarity around common problems." -- Wesley Skogan, Northwestern University