Larissa Adler-Lomnitz

Scholar of social networks beginning with classic study of how poor families in Mexico City mobilized social sites to survive under marginal economic conditions. Demonstrated how they used traditional mechanisms of fictive kinship to expand their networks to gain access to more resources and diversify risks. Based on social network research in Mexico and Chile, she developed a theory of informal network exchange that formed the basis of network theory in migration studies and contributed to the emergence of social capital theory.