The Proximity Effect

The Proximity Effect:

Neighborhoods, Race, and Alternative Financial Insitutions

Mario Small, Chair and Quetelet Professor of Social Science, Department of Sociology, Columbia University

Mario Small has made numerous contributions to research on urban neighborhoods and personal networks using qualitative and mixed methods. His work has historically revealed that poor neighborhoods in major American cities are not always representative of ghettos everywhere. How people conceive of their neighborhoods combined with the work of local organizations shape the levels of social capital that influence economic mobility.

In this talk, Dr. Small will examine the tension between the need for credit in black neighborhoods and the struggle of navigating predatory lending practices. Alternative financial institutions such as payday lenders (PDLs) are much more likely to be located in majority-black neighborhoods, leading African Americans to experience uncommonly high exposure rates. Dr. Small asks whether living closely to PDLs improves attitudes toward them, what he calls the "proximity effect", and examines the question based on survey, experimental, and qualitative data.

-- The Norman Glickman Annual Lecture in Urban Studies is supported by a gift from the program's founder, Prof. Norman Glickman, his wife Elyse Pivnick, and URBS alum William Witte.