Robert David Putnam, American political scientist and professor at Harvard University at JFK School of Government, came to the conclusion that in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, a crucial tide turned in the United States. For most of the twentieth century, Americans had been increasingly involved in community and political life, but that trend reversed in disturbing ways. As Americans pulled apart, community vitality weakened causing political participation to drop as well. Putnam analyzes the causes and consequences of this change and suggests how to correct its treacherous impact. Putnam makes many propelling arguments on how communal participation like civic engagement effects political participation. Civic engagement referring to groups
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This data shows an aggregate decline in membership of traditional civic organizations, supporting his thesis that U.S. social capital has declined. He then asks the obvious question "Why is US social capital eroding?"(392). He believes the "movement of women into the workforce “ and other demographic changes have made little impact on the number of individuals engaging in civic associations. Instead, he looks to the technological "individualizing" of our leisure time via television, Internet, and eventually virtual reality helmets, as apposed to attending events and socializing publicly. Putnam suggests closer studies of which forms of associations can create the greatest social capital, how various aspects of technology, changes in social equality, and public policy affect social capital. He closes by emphasizing the importance of discovering how the United States could reverse the trend of social capital decay.
What interests me the most of bowling alone is the title itself, I wasn’t sure how bowling had anything to do with politics but as Putnam introduced the ideas of civic engagement and social capital and comparing it to political views it made perfect sense. When reading “Bowling Alone” he makes a point of how bowling leagues had decreased in numbers over the years and how bowling individually had
This data shows an aggregate decline in membership of traditional civic organizations, supporting his thesis that U.S. social capital has declined. He then asks the obvious question "Why is US social capital eroding?"(392). He believes the "movement of women into the workforce “ and other demographic changes have made little impact on the number of individuals engaging in civic associations. Instead, he looks to the technological "individualizing" of our leisure time via television, Internet, and eventually virtual reality helmets, as apposed to attending events and socializing publicly. Putnam suggests closer studies of which forms of associations can create the greatest social capital, how various aspects of technology, changes in social equality, and public policy affect social capital. He closes by emphasizing the importance of discovering how the United States could reverse the trend of social capital decay.
What interests me the most of bowling alone is the title itself, I wasn’t sure how bowling had anything to do with politics but as Putnam introduced the ideas of civic engagement and social capital and comparing it to political views it made perfect sense. When reading “Bowling Alone” he makes a point of how bowling leagues had decreased in numbers over the years and how bowling individually had