Putnam traces 'social capital'

Civic participation in America has declined in recent years as factors including increased commuting time and a rise in television viewing cause people to neglect social interactions, Harvard professor and bestselling author Robert Putnam told a crowd of more than 100 in Dodds Auditorium yesterday.

Befitting someone who studies bowling league participation and dinner party attendance, Putnam was congenial and never stuffy as he paced around the front of the room and walked up and down aisles, his booming voice freeing him from needing a microphone.

After a brief introduction by Wilson School professor and civil society scholar Stan Katz, Putnam — the author of "Making Democracy Work" and the bestselling "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" — defined social capital, his topic of study. Social capital, he said, includes social networks, trust and the norms of reciprocity among people. These factors, he added, facilitate interpersonal interactions and bring about greater cohesion and cooperation within society.

Putnam cited several benefits of social interactions, including better chances for people to hear about work opportunities. "For most Americans," he said, "the dollar value of their address book is greater than the dollar value of their degrees."

Crime rates also tend to be lower, he said, in communities where social capital is high. "The best predictor of a low crime rate in a neighborhood," he said, "is how many of the neighbors know each other's first names."

But Putnam said social capital in America has declined since the 1960s. "By many, many different measures, ever since I started to vote, America has been going to hell in a handbasket," he said.

Putnam also cited data on membership in civic organizations and frequency of social gatherings to make his case. "About half of all the civic activity has evaporated in the past 30 years," he said, noting that participation in public meetings has fallen from 23 percent of adults in 1973 to 12 percent in 1994.

Trust has also declined among Americans, he said. In 1960, about 55 percent of adults said in a survey that "most people can be trusted." In 2000, only 33 percent agreed with the statement.

Putnam presented new research suggesting an increase in civic participation since Sept. 11, 2001, among people ages 18 to 24 but said this rise has been concentrated within a select sector of the population. "This recent upsurge of youthful ideals and connection is palpable and real," he said, "but it is concentrated only among kids from upper-middle class backgrounds."

He added that increases in ethnic diversity –– like those occurring in the United States as a result of immigration –– have made society less cohesive. "Groups trust their neighbors less in a more diverse setting," he said, "and bridging and bonding social capital goes down."

To remedy this problem, Putnam said, Americans must minimize their focus on ethnicity as a basis of social identity.

Putnam's lecture kept the room in rapt attention even as it went over time by nearly half an hour. "I think the fact that he could keep a room full of people engaged for that long without anyone trickling out shows how good of a speaker he is," Rob Bernstein '08 said.