Bowling Alone America's Declining Social Capital Summary

Ghettoside is a true story of murder in America and shows statistics that will amaze and bewilder its readers. The book was written by Jill Leovy and is written to show people how many murders happen in Los Angeles that don’t get reported to the community or the nation. Leovy gives shocking statements like, “In 2007 for every one white woman murdered in Los Angeles, one hundred black men are murdered in the same place”. Not only is this statistic shocking, it makes you wonder how this is possible.

Everyone wants to be a part of the streets but not everyone has the heart, dedication, or strength to live the lifestyle. There is a law of ethics when running around in the streets. There are rules that one always has to follow in order to survive. There is no love when dealing with those that follow the code, ones heart has to be made coal because anything can happen and anything goes. Out there in the streets you are a family that continuously looks out for each other and let nothing separate the bond that you have on the streets. In this paper I will discuss what the code of the street is and what is consist of, also residential segregation and how it hold those in the streets back from achieving success.

The origin of a words definition can often be traced back years, decades or even centuries, thus allowing enough time for manipulation of its meaning to occur to where eventually the word becomes a commonly used, often randomly with little regard to its primary meaning. Such is the word “ghetto”. This word can be traced back into sixteenth century and here the twenty-first century, this original word has become part of our culture, but its current definition is far from original.

Culture in urban communities, also referred to as inner-cities, are growing increasingly violent. In the article, The Code of the Streets by Elijah Anderson, he begins to take an in-depth look at the root of the evil. He deduces that economic factors, parenting and the troublesome environments largely influence the violent norms within this culture.

The article “The Ghetto Made Me Do It” comprises of context and analysis of the criminal case of Lisa Morgan. Lisa Morgan, a progenitor of the harsh ghetto is being convicted with six armed robberies and a murder, but this article questions if this happened because of her personal responsibility, or society’s responsibility, or lack thereof, to effectively handle young, black, and poor children. One particular attorney, Robin Shellow, goes into detail about exactly what Lisa had to go through. Her Mom shot her dad, her uncle was murdered, her sister’s boyfriend was shot and paralyzed from the neck down, she was raped at aged 12 (1). These are all things that Morgan had to face growing up. The author then introduces the idea of the “ghetto defense” The “ghetto defense” basically states that (in regards to Morgan’s case) “… violence is a norm, an occurrence so routine that Morgan’s 17 years of exposure to it have rendered her not responsible for her actions” (1).

Robert D. Putnam, a political scientist and professor, contends in his essay titled “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital” that there has been a decline in the social capital over the last several decades. He names that are different factors to explain this, including changes in the workforce, mobility, demographics, and technology. However, mostly it is a change in the

The conversations and interactions people have with each other is a key necessity in becoming an active member in any society. The bonds and relationships that people make is what forms a community. In Robert D. Putnam’s (2000), Bowling Alone, there are three forms of capital; physical which as physical objects, human so properties of an individual like education, and social which are the connections between individuals. Social capital is what makes us branch out into the world and interact with the ones around us, this is both good for ourselves and for the community. Social capital in America has dramatically decreased throughout each generation of population. With the expansion of technology and social reform, the youngest generation has become the most antisocial generation. This antisocial movement has become noticeable in many of groups interactions that use to have high amounts of interaction like political involvement, civic participation, religious participation, and workplace connections.

In the book, Night, the two reasons why Jewish people would not accept their fate because they were surrounded by loved ones and their community. Self-consciously denying they're fate, in the ghetto everything was the same as before, children playing, running, neighbors having joy, and fun.

Social network and social connectedness are important to the health of not only individual human beings but also the community and even the entire society. However, the connection among people had been declining for years. As Robert Putnam analyzes in his “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” America’s national election turnout declines, possibly implying the decline in civic engagement and even the democracy. He stresses the importance of the traditional, face-to-face interactions among people as the fundamental means to build up social connectedness. Besides the reasons he gives in his article, I think the decline in social networking also ties to the city constructions (idea inspired by the video “The Social Life of Small

Is there social capital present from an urban life? In some instances, it is present and absent in others, so what is the so-called "big picture" regarding whether or not it is present or absent overall? For evidence of the increasing presence of social capital, I will use as evidence my own personal experiences and observations. From my experience, city life can only alienate you if you let it. Putnam may be quick to blame electronic media for giving us excuses to decline social capital, or he

The developer of the “code of the streets” was Elijah Anderson (Siegal & Welsh, 2015). The two cultural forces addressed in this theory are decent values and street values (Siegal & Welsh, 2015).The people who are classified as middle class are taught decent values. These values lean towards the values that most individuals follow, which involve working hard to attain a decent lifestyle (Siegal & Welsh, 2015). The second cultural force addressed in this theory is street values. This force differs from decent values because it consist of individuals who live in the inner city which are mainly the lower class (Siegal & Welsh, 2015).

Robert D. Putnam, professor of Public Policy at Harvard University wrote one of his famous essays, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital (1995)”, criticizing the deterioration of social engagement in America during the mid to late twentieth century. In the first paragraph of “Bowling Alone” Putnam states “There is striking evidence, however, that the vibrancy of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades” describing his central idea. Putnam’s essay informs the reader with strong statistical evidence that there is degrading social capital, explains what potentially caused the loss of activity and provides a proposed solution to prevent the further collapse to America’s social capital. Putnam includes many statistics from the

We just arrived in the ghetto a couple weeks ago. Things here have been very intense. People are starving everywhere, and there are dead bodies in the streets. We hadn't eaten in days, and me and the Milgroms were starting to deteriorate very quickly.

Transformation of industrial areas into the site of social actions, a sort of social explosion replaced the loss of community in the modern sense of the word and confirmed the ongoing emergence of social hollow that not only needs to be heard, but wish to rebuild the lost part of the city, reinvent services, create new public venues, and dialogue with the entire

King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley, had a song in 1969 that took a drastic turn in theme from many of his other tunes relating to love, dancing and rock n roll. This song tells a tragic story which has very realistic connotations to the social problems of crime and poverty that were not only applicable to 1960s society but to our 21st century society. In this paper I will examine that song, titled “In the Ghetto”, highlight how the themes of the song relate to social disorganization, and further examine how the main character’s neighborhood takes the characteristics of a socially disorganized ecological environment perfectly.