Mario Small

Mario Luis Small is the Quetelet Professor of Social Science in Columbia University's Department of Sociology, specializing in social networks, urban inequality, and qualitative methods. His research examines how institutional contexts shape social capital and inequality, notably through studies of childcare centers, racial disparities in financial access, and spatial segregation. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and has served as Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Key contributions include Unanticipated Gains (2009), analyzing how childcare centers foster networks among mothers, and Villa Victoria (2004), exploring Puerto Rican community resilience in Boston. Awards include the C. Wright Mills Award and Robert Park Best Book Award. Small collaborates across disciplines, integrating big data with ethnographic methods, and currently investigates racial inequality in urban infrastructure access.

His recent work on spatial-temporal ecology of racial inequality uses Google Maps and mobility data to demonstrate persistent racial disparities in resource access. He also leads initiatives on qualitative literacy and quantitative-qualitative methodological synthesis.