Exercise 5: What Is to Be Done?
Now it is time to wrap up your investigation and to consider future investigation of social capital. In the final section of Bowling Alone, “What Is to Be Done?” Putnam places the decline of social capital in historical context and presents a challenge to Americans to restore community and social capital in America. On page 403, Putnam writes that this is both a “collective and individual initiative” and avoids “proclaiming any panacea.” However, what Putnam has done is to initiate a “concerted nationwide conversation modeled on the intensive interchange among scholars and practitioners in the Progressive Era” called the “Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America.” The ongoing results of the “Saguaro Seminar” are available on a continuously updated website.
A. Wrap Up Your Investigation: Reading
- Read Bowling Alone, Chapters 23-24
- Answer Questions 1-3
Investigating Beyond Bowling Alone
B. Reading
- As part of Putnam’s initiative with the “Saguaro Seminar,” he coauthored the following book: Putnam, Robert D., Lewis Feldstein, and Donald J. Cohen. 2003. Better Together: Restoring the American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Read this book.
- Answer Question 4
C. Survey Research
D. Public Policy Research
- In 2002 with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Robert D. Putnam and Amy Ciazza wrote “Women’s Status and Social Capital Across the States. ” Read this article.
- Answer Question 6
E. Social Capital in the News
- Read the following June 2006 article in The Washington Post, “Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Finds: Many Americans Have Less of a Safety Net of Close Friends and Confidants.”
- Answer Question 7
Questions
- According to Putnam, what happened to “bridging” and “bonding” social capital during the Progressive Era in the United States?
- What is the Saguaro Seminar and what are its main objectives?
- According to Putnam, what are some ways we can reengage youth?
- Read and write a review of Better Together. Compare and contrast its methods and findings to Bowling Alone.
- How is social capital conceptualized and measured in this survey compared to Bowling Alone?
- 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.
- 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?