Summary Of Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital

The book Soul of a Citizen by Paul Loeb makes a compelling case for civic engagement. The book emphasizes the need for people to get involved in civic life and it gives examples of people who made a huge impact just by deciding to do. These people saw something that was not right and they went out of their way to help. However, it was not size but they made up their mind that this was what they were going to do and went about doing it. They did not know that by doing that they were going to make a huge impact but they ended up making a huge impact and creating change. Just as these people did, I believe that everyone can engage in civic change and make a different. In this paper, I am going to discuss ways an average citizen can engage in civic life, ways that social worker can encourage others to get involved in civic life and why is it important for social workers to serve in this role.

Social class is a topic of discussion that is generally avoided, especially in America. In a country where all of one's dreams can allegedly come true; the notion of class highlights the jarring inequalities and social divisions between one American and another. In recent years, recognizing one's privilege is beginning to become a cultural value. However, it has always been something that people were aware of, as seen in the eye-opening documentary, People Like Us: Social Class is America (2001). The documentary strives to accurately portray how the contrasted people of America live, interact, and see themselves and others. Of the ideas the doc showcases the most important are, the higher classes influence over the poor, and the poor's poor self-image, as these ideas strike the core of why one should be conscientious of their class.

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

This factor is often overlooked as a reason impacting voter turnout but it is important nonetheless. The term “social capital” has been subject to various definitions over time. Basically, what this term refers to is the variety of social ties between individuals, and the differing connections that arise between individuals as a result of participating in various activities and organizations. "It should be noted that membership in civic organizations has steadily declined since the late 1950s. This decline in social capital means that people participate in group activities less, trust others less, and are generally more cynical, just to name a few of the symptoms.

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

Verba and his co-authors examine the import of participation, both voting and non-voting, in our American society. According to their argument, the typical citizen activist “tend[s] to be drawn disproportionately from more advantaged groups–to be well-educated and well-heeled and to be White and male” (Verba et al., 1995: 231). Indeed, Verba et al. explore participation along both gender and racial lines and concludes that both women and minorities are comparatively less active than men, especially white men, who stand peerless both in terms of affiliation with a political organization, contributing to a campaign, contacting their Representatives, and more direct forms of participation like voting.

The voter turnout rates can lead to a multitude of things like education and more accurate votes to the simple feel of completing a civic duty. The endgame of voter turnouts is the education of voters involved (Document F) as well as the accuracy of the vote being unquestionable (Document E). This increased voter turnout can lead to the connection of people through gathering, regardless of age (Document B). “...Civic virtue; it’s sentimentality,”(Document G). The previous quote shows that civic virtue can go a long way from not only yourself emotionally, but others too. Higher voter turnout rates cannot only improve a multitude of things in our country, but also can give our nation a legitimate name.

An inequality in society, economy, wealth distribution, and political corruption and the influence in cooperation of government led to

Robert Putnam's basic thesis is that there is a decline in civic engagement in urban cities. He goes on to explore different probable factors that are causing the decline in civic engagement. First off, he dichotomizes civic engagement into two categories: machers and schmoozers. Machers and schmoozers are people who engage in formal kinds of civic engagement (following politics) and informal kinds of civic engagement (hanging out with friends) respectively.

Social Capital is defined as the networks of relationships among people, enabling that society to function effectively. James Coleman’s “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital” examines the many benefits of social capital in a society. However, most forms of social capital are public goods and do not primarily profit the person who has to bring it about. Therefore, it’s not in his interest to bring it leading to a shortage. Coleman wants to apply economics’s principle of rational action to the social perspective to increase people’s willingness to socialize. On the other hand, Alejandro Portes’s “The Two Meanings of Social Capital” challenges Coleman’s concept by arguing that people shouldn’t

American civic participation has changed in the 20th century. The first way civic participation has changed is social liberation. Since the 1960s or so, exclusions on the basis of race and gender have been breached. In the past, women and ethnic minorities were not allowed to join organizations as members, so they joined partner organizations. However, some organizations were unable to cope with change after the Civil Rights Movement happened and ideals changed and lost membership. Another change is the decline in American patriotism. Skocpol writes, “Patriotism, brotherhood, and sacrifice were values celebrated by all fraternal groups, and military service was touted as the surest

In “Bowling Alone”, Robert Putnam speaks primarily of America’s declining activity in civil society and social meetings. His arguments are backed with facts in statistics- he often lists membership levels in different organizations, and how they’ve declined in a number of years by (typically) a drastic percentage. One example in the civic society portion that stood out to me was actually quite short and minor. Putnam wrote that "the portion of who reply that they “trust the government in Washington” only “some of the time” or “almost never” has risen steadily from 30 percent in 1966 to 75 percent in 1992.”(Putnam, Robert D. “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy, Jan. 1995, pp. 65–78.) This was a distinct moment in the article for me because in our society today, I feel as though this percentage has probably increased in our country, especially amongst the younger generation who has

We still see glimpses of social capital at work. When we have mass shooting (and it happens a lot) American’s

Putnam defined social capital as the features of social organizations such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate the coordination as well as cooperation for mutual benefit. He emphasizes the many dimensions of the concept of social capital, and the importance of “horizontal” ties, which are networks of individual citizens and groups that enhance community productivity and cohesion bringing about positive social capital, rather than vertical ones of self-serving groups and hierarchical systems.(Putnam 9) However, Putnam has found that over time the social capital is declining in the United States, making America far less ‘connected’, which he presents in “Bowling Alone”, in that people spend drastically less time meeting with others and socializing with

In ‘Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital’, Putnam discusses the link between democracy and civil society, emphasizes social connectedness and civic engagement. and over all the decline of civic engagement in America, during years following WWII. He argues that when social capital is high, such results are produced: “better schools, faster economic development, lower crime rate, and more effective government”(2) and a stronger democracy. Using data from a variety of sources, Putnam finds that the norms, social trust and networks of social connections that exist between people, which cooperate for common benefits, or ‘social capital’ as he says, have declined in areas such as participating in local/state/national elections, organizational membership, church-related groups, union membership, participation in PTA, the membership in volunteering for civil and Fraternity organizations, and so on. A decline during the last half of the twentieth century has also occurred in the connections with friends, family, and