Unanticipated Gains - Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life - Grand Format

Why do some people enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks than others ? In Unanticipated Gains, Mario Luis Small argues that the practices and structure of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, childcare centers, and schools in which people happen to participate routinely matter more than deliberate "networking." Exploring the experiences of New York City mothers whose children were enrolled in childcare centers, Small examines why a great deal of these mothers dramatically expanded both the size and usefulness of their personal networks.
Relying on scores of in-depth interviews with mothers, quantitative data on both mothers and centers, and detailed case studies of other routine organizations, Small shows that how much people gain from their connections depends substantially on institutional conditions they often do not control, and through everyday processes they may not even be aware of. Emphasizing not the connections that people make, but the context in which they are made, Unanticipated Gains presents a major new perspective on social capital and on many of the mechanisms sustaining social inequality.