Villa Victoria : the transformation of social capital in a Boston barrio / Mario Luis Small.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Small, Mario Luis.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social capital (Sociology)--Massachusetts--Boston.

Social capital (Sociology).

Social participation--Massachusetts--Boston.

Social participation.

Social ecology--Massachusetts--Boston.

Social ecology.

Poor--Social networks--Massachusetts--Boston.

Poor.

Puerto Ricans--Massachusetts--Boston--Social conditions.

Puerto Ricans.

South End (Boston, Mass.)--Social conditions.

South End (Boston, Mass.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University Of Chicago Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For decades now, scholars and politicians alike have argued that the concentration of poverty in city housing projects would produce distrust, alienation, apathy, and social isolation-the disappearance of what sociologists call social capital. But relatively few have examined precisely how such poverty affects social capital or have considered for what reasons living in a poor neighborhood results in such undesirable effects. This book examines a neglected Puerto Rican enclave in Boston to consider the pros and cons of social scientific thinking about the true nature of ghettos in America. Mario Luis Small dismantles the theory that poor urban neighborhoods are inevitably deprived of social capital. He shows that the conditions specified in this theory are vaguely defined and variable among poor communities. According to Small, structural conditions such as unemployment or a failed system of familial relations must be acknowledged as affecting the urban poor, but individual motivations and the importance of timing must be considered as well. Brimming with fresh theoretical insights, Villa Victoria is an elegant work of sociology that will be essential to students of urban poverty.

Contents:

How does neighborhood poverty affect social capital?

Villa Victoria and Boston's South End

The rise and decline of local participation, part 1 : social organization theory

The rise and decline of local participation, part 2 : cohorts and collective narratives

The ecology of group differentiation

Social capital and the spatialization of resources

A labyrinth of loyalties

Social capital in poor neighborhoods.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-215) and index.

ISBN:

9786612538001

9781282538009

1282538004

9780226762937

0226762939

OCLC:

593284133