Questions for Exercise 5: What Is to Be Done?

A. Reading

1. According to Putnam, what happened to "bridging" and "bonding" social capital during the Progressive Era in the United States?

2. What is the Saguaro Seminar and what are its main objectives?

3. According to Putnam, what are some ways we can reengage youth?

B. Investigating Beyond Bowling Alone: Reading

4. Read and write a review of Better Together. Compare and contrast its methods and findings to Bowling Alone.

C. Investigating Beyond Bowling Alone: Survey Research

5. How is social capital conceptualized and measured in this survey compared to Bowling Alone?

D. Investigating Beyond Bowling Alone: Public Policy Research

6. In the article "Women's Status and Social Capital Across the States, " there are numerous indexes measuring the components of women's status. Identify one index and explain the tendency of its relationship with the social capital index.

E. Investigating Beyond Bowling Alone: Social Capital in the News

7. In the Washington Post article, "Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Finds: Many Americans Have Less of a Safety Net of Close Friends and Confidants," what is the critique of the sociologist Barry Wellman, and given his critique, what do you think he might say about the Bowling Alone thesis?