Framing Trust at the Street Level

This book explores trust and distrust processes at the micro-level between frontline public sector employees and young men with minority ethnic backgrounds. The book draws heavily on data gathered through nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in and around two residential housing estates (known as Paradise Way & Sunset Boulevard) in Denmark. This in-depth study contributes towards understanding the micro-processes at play in distrust and trust building processes between public sector employees and young men with minority ethnic backgrounds – an under-researched and often misunderstood area. The book views both distrust and trust as cultural frames or resources used by knowledgeable actors consciously as strategies of action(Swidler, 1986; Mizrachi et al. 2007) to respond to everyday situations along with organising individuals and relationships. The target group for the book are social and youth work students, practitioners, managers and scholars studying trust and distrust in diverse settings.