More than a decade ago, I began to explore changes in Americans’ civic engagement and social connectedness (for which I borrowed the term “social capital”) and the impact of those changes on our communities and our democracy. My initial findings, suggesting a remarkable decline in social capital nationwide, appeared in a 1995 article called “Bowling […]
Robert Putnam
Posted inHousing and Transportation
The Strange Disappearance of Civic America
A year ago the author set off a national debate with his article, “Bowling Alone,” which reported a pervasive decline in voluntary association and mutual trust among Americans. Now he sifts through the plausible explanations.
Posted inHousing and Transportation
The Strange Disappearance of Civic America
A more extended version of this article, complete with references, appears in the Winter 1995 issue of PS, a publication of the American Political Science Association. This work, originally delivered as the inaugural Ithiel de Sola Pool Lecture, builds on Putnam’s earlier articles, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy (January 1995) and […]
Posted inHousing and Transportation
The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life
If we want prosperity, we might begin by working to restore the fabric of community.