Discussion

Overall, trust and sense of ownership are both formed through a combination of personal experiences with social interactions between residents and neighbors, authority figures, and others, as well as passed down narratives about significant historical interactions between more broadly defined groups of people (such as racial/ethnic groups or community areas). On one hand, this places some burden on the city to solve issues in the quality-of-life factors that deter residents from taking part in the process of participation and the lack within the opportunities currently available for residents to contribute to community development initiatives. On the other hand, it suggests that there is also a burden upon communities to address misconceptions and the mindset of remaining in the hurt of history that delay participation and social efficacy. Updating our understanding of how these concepts work within the city regarding urban planning could help, and my findings affirm, refine, and engage with the literature on these subjects in many interesting ways.

My findings that hardship varies with trust supports Putnam’s (2000) assertion that trust is higher in more privileged communities and demonstrates that the patterns persist today. My use of the Brookings Hardship Index for my study also confirms Putnam’s finding that this difference in trust among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations is not a matter of perception but differences in their lived experiences—further built upon by interviewees explanations that drew on negative historical experiences (rather than personal perceptions related to subjective experiences like racism or sexism). Chicago’s strong correlation between race and hardship further enhances this difference beyond mere socioeconomic differences. While Jane Jacobs (1961) explains that there can be issues when there are multiple street neighborhoods competing for power within the district, I found that reported levels of trust in the city and community belonging were not impacted by how many ward divisions a community area had.

When it comes to forming trust, Rousseau’s conceptualization still offers a useful lens through which to see the stories told in this thesis. Calculus-based trust, based on “credible information regarding the intentions or competence of another,’ and relational trust, from “repeated interactions over time,” in which, “reliability and dependability…give rise to positive expectations” come together to form institution-based trust. In resident testimonies, calculus trust was impeded based on a lack of transparency and relational trust based on repetitions of poor experiences. The problem of “rigidity in response” was also reflected in resident experiences, where the government either moved too slowly or operated in a way that seemed unfair (in the examples related to vacant lots).

Planners’ reluctance to categorize their role as one of ownership resonates with their tendency to categorize their work as mediation and administration, as well as their tendency to not be asked about their role and the values that underpin it (Fox-Rogers and Murphy 2016). Meanwhile, residents’ sense of ownership expressed in this study clarifies the definition offered by Lachapelle (2008) and affirms his assertion that a degree of control is necessary for residents to develop any sense of ownership. The persistence of communal ownership within smaller neighborhood units within the city counters the ideas of Durkheim and Tonnies (1972) that communal ownership wouldn’t persist in urban environments. Socially constructed signs of disorder, such as graffiti, further affirm these differences in people’s perceptions of property types in the city (Sampson 2012). 

Renters’ lack of involvement coming back to lack of financial ties and lowered integration with the rest of the community (McCabe 2013) was also reflected in my study, however my interviews reflect that it has less to do with the lowered financial investment and more to do with the lowered temporal investment.

These findings combined with the existing literature about urban sociology help us to better understand the way residents form their sense of ownership and trust, which can be foundational to so many relationships within the city. In terms of concrete steps that can be taken to improve some of the relationships at play in urban planning, I have a few policy suggestions outlined in the section below.