Segregation and Mistrust
Diversity, Isolation, and Social Cohesion

By examining social networks in North America, Europe and Australia, this book argues segregation, not diversity reduces trust between people.

Eric M. Uslaner (Author)

9780521193153, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 September 2012

284 pages, 44 b/w illus. 9 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'Segregation and Mistrust is an unusually important book for both social science and social policy. Uslaner emphasizes the critical role of group segregation. And he emphatically answers the widely publicized claim that diversity inevitably leads to mistrust and prejudice. With data from five nations, Uslaner emphasizes the critical role of segregation.' Thomas Pettigrew, University of California, Santa Cruz

Generalized trust – faith in people you do not know who are likely to be different from you – is a value that leads to many positive outcomes for a society. Yet some scholars now argue that trust is lower when we are surrounded by people who are different from us. Eric M. Uslaner challenges this view and argues that residential segregation, rather than diversity, leads to lower levels of trust. Integrated and diverse neighborhoods will lead to higher levels of trust, but only if people also have diverse social networks. Professor Uslaner examines the theoretical and measurement differences between segregation and diversity and summarizes results on how integrated neighborhoods with diverse social networks increase trust in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia. He also shows how different immigration and integration policies toward minorities shape both social ties and trust.

Preface
1. Trust, diversity, and segregation
2. Contact, diversity, and segregation
3. Building trust in a segregated society: the United States
4. Canada: trust, integration, and the search for identity
5. The United Kingdom: sleepwalking or wide awake?
6. Sweden and Australia: newer immigrants, trust, and multiculturalism
7. Altruism and segregation
8. Where you sit depends on where you stand
9. The farmer's daughter and intergroup contact.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology & anthropology [JH]