Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American CommunityOnce we bowled in leagues, usually after work -- but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone, which The Economist hailed as "a prodigious achievement." Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures -- whether they be PTA, church, or political parties -- have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe. Like defining works from the past, such as The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam's Bowling Alone has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do. |
From inside the book
Results 6-10 of 87
Page 62
... percent of Americans spent some time in a community organization. By 1995 that figure had fallen to 3 percent of all Americans. Those numbers suggest that nearly half of all Americans in the 1960s invested some time each week in clubs ...
... percent of Americans spent some time in a community organization. By 1995 that figure had fallen to 3 percent of all Americans. Those numbers suggest that nearly half of all Americans in the 1960s invested some time each week in clubs ...
Page 67
... percent of church members give to charity, as compared with 55–60 percent of nonmembers, and 50–60 percent of church members volunteer, while only 30–35 percent of nonmembers do. In part, of course, this is because churches themselves ...
... percent of church members give to charity, as compared with 55–60 percent of nonmembers, and 50–60 percent of church members volunteer, while only 30–35 percent of nonmembers do. In part, of course, this is because churches themselves ...
Page 68
... percent of all churchgoers support housing programs like Habitat for Humanity. Partners for Sacred Places found that the overwhelming majority (93 percent) of older urban congregations provide community services, such as food pantries ...
... percent of all churchgoers support housing programs like Habitat for Humanity. Partners for Sacred Places found that the overwhelming majority (93 percent) of older urban congregations provide community services, such as food pantries ...
Page 70
... percent in church membership between the 1960s and the 1990s. The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as having “no religion” has risen steadily and sharply from 2 percent in 1967 to 11 percent by the 1990s.24Just as in the ...
... percent in church membership between the 1960s and the 1990s. The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as having “no religion” has risen steadily and sharply from 2 percent in 1967 to 11 percent by the 1990s.24Just as in the ...
Page 72
... percent less likely to claim church membership, while our actual attendance and involvement in religious activities has fallen by roughly 25 to 50 percent. Virtually all the postwar boom in religious participation—and perhaps more—has ...
... percent less likely to claim church membership, while our actual attendance and involvement in religious activities has fallen by roughly 25 to 50 percent. Virtually all the postwar boom in religious participation—and perhaps more—has ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
29 | |
48 | |
65 | |
Connections in the Workplace | 80 |
Informal Social Connections | 93 |
Altruism Volunteering and Philanthropy | 116 |
Education and Childrens Welfare | 296 |
Safe and Productive Neighborhoods | 307 |
Economic Prosperity | 319 |
Health and Happiness | 326 |
Democracy | 336 |
The Dark Side of Social Capital | 350 |
What Is to Be Done? | 365 |
Toward an Agenda for Social Capitalists | 402 |
Reciprocity Honesty and Trust | 134 |
Against the Tide? Small Groups Social Movements and the Net | 148 |
Why? | 183 |
Mobility and Sprawl | 204 |
Technology and Mass Media | 216 |
From Generation to Generation | 247 |
What Killed Civic Engagement? Summing Up | 277 |
So What? with the assistance of Kristin A Goss | 285 |
Has the Internet Reversed the Decline | 415 |
Measuring Social Change | 447 |
Sources for Figures and Tables | 457 |
The Rise and Fall of Civic and | 469 |
notes | 477 |
the story behind this book | 545 |
index | 555 |
Common terms and phrases
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