Inequality and culture

My research on this topic has tried to move discourse beyond the unproductive structure vs. culture debate in urban poverty, wherein scholarship either ignores the role of culture in social inequality or comes close to "blaming the victims" for their problems. A study of community participation in a Latino housing project showed that whether people became involved depended, in part, on the cultural frames through which they perceived their neighborhood, a factor irreducible to the neighborhood's poverty level or other structural conditions. A study with Michele Lamont evaluates six conceptions of culture and their potential application in studies of inequality and poverty. A new study of tie formation, Unanticipated Gains, examines how in everday organizational settings, such as churches, barbershops, and childcare centers, formal and informal norms can shape how trustworthy, useful, or dependable people's networks are.

• Forthcoming. Small, Mario Luis. "Introduction: Reconsidering Culture and Poverty." In David Harding, Michele Lamont, and Mario L. Small, eds. Exploring Culture and Poverty. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.
• Forthcoming. David Harding, Michele Lamont, and Mario L. Small. Exploring Culture and Poverty. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.
• 2009. Small, Mario Luis. "Chapter 1: Social Capital and Organizational Embeddedness" and "Chapter 5: Trust and Obligations: Whether Mothers' Support Networks Were Larger Than Their Friendship Networks," in Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everday Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
• 2008. Lamont, Michele and Mario Luis Small. "How Culture Matters: Enriching our Understanding of Poverty." Pp. 76-102 in David Harris and Ann Lin (eds), The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist. New York: Russell Sage.
• 2004. Small, Mario Luis. "Chapter 4: The Rise and Decline of Local Participation, Part 2: Cohorts and Collective Narratives" and "Chapter 7: A Labyrinth of Loyalties," in Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• 2002. Small, Mario Luis. "Culture, Cohorts, and Social Organization Theory: Understanding Local Participation in a Latino Housing Project." American Journal of Sociology. 108(1):1-54.
• 2001. Small, Mario Luis and Katherine Newman. "Urban Poverty after The Truly Disadvantaged: The Rediscovery of the Family, the Neighborhood, and Culture." Annual Review of Sociology. 27:23-45.