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Title: Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam ISBN: 0-7432-0304-6 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 07 August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (57 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Directly applicable to the lives of Public Administrators.
Comment: The concept of "Social Capital," as it is discussed in Bowling Alone (Putnam 2001) is an attempt to quantify the loss of community connectedness that has been happening over the years. Putnam draws his title from the fact that in recent years people have become more likely to bowl alone than in more social leagues.
What is striking about the idea of Social Capital is its relevance. Public managers, especially those trying to garner public participation, will run headfirst into the phenomenon discussed in the book. According to Putnam's work on Social Capital, in the future, the Executive Director of a non-profit will have increasing difficulty soliciting volunteers to become involved in the non-profit's mission ((Putnam 1995). This is alarming because volunteers are a common resource such agencies turn to out of limited resources.
More than just being a warning of things to come, Social Capital gives public managers a framework from which to define the problem and seek strategies to deal with it. Knowing why people are less inclined to volunteer their time to a non-profit lets the Executive Director see the problem for what it is and start to think of creative, targeted strategies that account for social capital and help recruit new volunteers.
Furthermore, by taking into account Social Capital and seeking new ways to encourage civic participation, we do exactly what needs to be done in order to reinforce the very community we are trying to serve.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good Observations, Bad Conclusions
Comment: Putnam's research on the decline of social interaction is extensive, and the book is interesting to read. In Bowling Alone's first nine chapters are graphs showing the chrononical trends for every activity from card-playing to church-going. Putnam shows that Baby Boomers and Generation Xers are significantly less involved in civic activities than their parents and grandparents.
However, while Bowling Alone does a good job illustrating the loss of community involvement, the last fifteen chapters of the book, which discuss the causes of civic disengagement, and how it can be reversed, are seriously wrong. Just to start, Putnam overlooks many of the events of the last forty years. He pejoratively notes that Americans have become more individualist and distrustful of institutions, but he gives little notice to the Vietnam War, Watergate, the failed War on Poverty, and the inummerable political, corporate, and institutional scandals, which have led to this culture of skepticism.
Furthermore, the book ignores the role of centralized government and litigiousness in weakening communities. People are less likely to vote or get involved in political affairs because top-down bureaucratic mandates and endless lawsuits have undermined local democracy. Putnam laments the drop in the number of Americans who vote, attend town meetings, or write to their Congressman, but does not realize that much of this apathy is comes from the fact that many Americans perhaps rightly believe that these activities are a waste of time. Why should a person give up several hours of their time to go to a town meeting when any decision of significance made at the meeting may be overturned by a federal judge or blocked by a Washington bureaucrat?
The whole book is permeated with an irritating longing for Babbitt-like organizationalism. Many American do informally interact with their families, friends, and coworkers, but have absolutely no interest joining a fraternal organization, with its secret handshakes and exclusive membership. Likewise, many Americans do give their time time and money to causes (e.g. environmentalism) that they support, but are unwilling to make donations to large, poorly-run charities who have nebullous goals (e.g., United Way, Red Cross). Unfortunately, Putnam seems to overlook the decentralizing social trends of the last several decades.
The last two chapters of the book are the absolute worst. He expresses some concern that communitarians need to avoid the 'big-brotherism' of the early twentieth century Progressive movement, but then offers some of his own proposals (e.g., more urban planning, campaign finance reform) which themselves seem heavy-handed.
In spite of these criticism, I do recommend the book. Public apathy is a serious problem, and though I disagree with some of Putnam's conclusions, the book is informative and well-written.
Rating: 5
Summary: An important book worthy of your attention!!!!
Comment: Robert Putnam has written one of the most important books I have read in a long, long time. When was the last time you called a friend or associate and proposed going out to a ballgame or a show only to be rebuffed because there was a game on TV that night? And how many times has that sort of thing happened to you? "Bowling Alone" discusses the reasons why so many people have become isolated and out of touch with family and friends. The reasons are myriad. Obviously, the aforementioned "boob tube" is a major contributing factor. But as Putnam discusses there are so many more reasons. The go-go 24 hour a day economy has robbed us all of much of our leisure time. And even when we do manage to get some time off everyone else we know is probably working. In addition, our society's seemingly endless quest for "personal fulfillment" has made people withdraw into themselves. Given all of the choices we are now presented with in media and other activities, there are fewer and fewer common experiences we can share at the watercooler.
Putnam also laments the decline of the various fraternal organizations that sprang up in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Groups like the Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the VFW are all struggling to survive. No one joins groups like these anymore and that is really a shame. Our communities are the big losers because the services provided by these organizations have either disappeared or have had to be assumed by the government.
This is an extremely thought provoking book. Putnam certainly diagnoses the problems and offers up some solutions. But these problems are not easily solved. If the events of 9/11 did not wake us all up, then one has to wonder if anything will.
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Title: Better Together : Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein, Robert Putnam ISBN: 0743235460 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title:Are Your Employees Bowling Alone?: How to Build a Trusting Organization by Douglas Smith ASIN: B00005RHZT Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 24 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $4.00 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $4.00 |
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Title: The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life by Michael Schudson ISBN: 0674356403 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Making Democracy Work by Robert D. Putnam, Robert Leonardi, Raffaella Y. Nanetti ISBN: 0691037388 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 27 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society by Robert D. Putnam ISBN: 0195150899 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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