Villa Victoria:
The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio
By Mario Luis Small (Princeton University), University of Chicago Press, 2004
"If we could understand how residents maintained social capital here despite living in concentrated poverty, perhaps we could learn how to prevent the deterioration of social relations in other poor neighborhoods."

In this book, based on his doctoral research at Harvard, Mario Luis Small focuses on civic life at Villa Victoria, a predominantly Puerto Rican housing development in Boston's South End. Contrary to most stereotypes of public housing, Villa Victoria has had a rich tradition of civic participation, hundreds of cultural events, and, at least in some points during its history, little violence. Professor Small asks, "If we could understand how residents maintained social capital here despite living in concentrated poverty, perhaps we could learn how to prevent the deterioration of social relations in other poor neighborhoods." Using both archival materials and individual interviews, Small explores how the deterioration of social capital in poor communities depends on the ways neighborhood poverty manifests itself. He uses these findings to critique many prevailing assumptions about the linkages between poverty and social isolation.
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