Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein Flashcards
they all involve creating social capital: developing networks of relationships that weave individuals into groups and communities. 135
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capital refers to social networks, norms of reciprocity, mutual assistance, and trustworthiness. 143
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
crime rate in a neighborhood is lowered when neighbors know one another well, 146
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capital can be put to morally repugnant purposes as well as admirable ones, 149
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Bonding social capital is a kind of sociological Super Glue, whereas bridging social capital provides a sociological WD-40. 153
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
If you get sick, the people who bring you chicken soup are likely to represent your bonding social capital. On the other hand, a society that has only bonding social capital will look like Belfast or Bosnia—segregated into mutually hostile camps. So a pluralist democracy requires lots of bridging social capital, not just the bonding variety. 154
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
bridging social capital is harder to create than bonding social capital—after 157
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Community building sometimes has a warm and fuzzy feeling, a kind of “kumbaya” cuddliness about it. 160
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Even as the value of social capital has been more and more widely acknowledged, evidence has mounted of a diminution of social capital in the United States. 173
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the last third of the century witnessed a startling and dismaying reversal of that trend. Beginning, roughly speaking, in the late 1960s, 176
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
We do not yet see evidence of a general resurgence of social connection or involvement in the public life of the community. 184
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
who has seen her neighborhood unravel and then knit itself together; 190
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social-capital development. 203
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Better Together aims instead to illustrate some of the ways in which Americans in many diverse corners of our society are making progress on the perennial challenge of re-creating new forms of community, 207
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The U.S. Army uses the term “ground truth” to describe the real experience of soldiers in the field—the moment-by-moment truth of being in combat, 214
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
One lesson is that creating robust social capital takes time and effort. 255
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
it develops through extensive and time-consuming face-to-face conversation between two individuals or among small groups of people. 256
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
we see no way that social capital can be created instantaneously or en masse. 259
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capital is necessarily a local phenomenon because it is defined by connections among people who know one another. 260
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capitalists. 266
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capital is usually developed in pursuit of a particular goal or set of goals and not for its own sake. 272
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
For many parents, it was their first real connection with the school, the first time anyone had bothered to ask their opinions. For the teachers, it was a first glimpse of their students’ lives outside school. 292
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“We make private pain public.” The house meeting was part of the process, a step toward making the pain public in a local group to build the energy and commitment needed to bring that pain—and the actions needed to relieve it—to a wider public stage where officials would have to recognize it and respond. 320
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Organizing is all about building relationships. It’s not about meetings. These are not counseling sessions. They are not an interview. It’s a conversation. You’re building a relationship here. 325
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
And the only way to do this is to leave yourself open to be changed by the conversation.”4 Unlike activist organizations that develop a public agenda first and then try to attract people who support it, 327
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Alinsky believed that reform could best be achieved when the citizens of poor and neglected communities organized and exerted power on their own behalf. He saw doing for others as less effective and as a kind of welfare colonialism. 337
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
we are social beings, defined by our relationships with other people—with “family and kin, but also with less familiar people with whom we engage in the day-to-day business of living our lives in a complicated society.” 362
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
How do I get them to follow my agenda?” That’s not organizing. What I mean by organizing is getting you to recognize what’s in your best interest. 372
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Relationship-building is a way of looking at the world, not just a strategy. 401
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the core of its school-improvement efforts has been building relationships: between the school and the community; between students and teachers. Relationships are not just the engine of reform, they are one of the goals of reform. 403
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the IAF organizations see schools, and learning, as embedded in the community, not as isolated institutions that can be fixed by applying the latest philosophy of teaching.13 407
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“No permanent allies, no permanent enemies” is a core principle. 421
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Abstract ideas do not connect people, and social action, when it is not rooted in the heart of people’s life experience, withers in the face of opposition and disappointment. 456
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
To be effective, these conversations have to be face-to-face, so people can read each other’s emotions, can express sympathy and work through disagreement together. 462
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the problem with a cell phone is that it makes you think you’ve had a conversation.”) 465
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
When he went to the local Catholic school to enroll my sister, they told him there was no room, not even a desk for her to sit at. He said, ‘If I build a desk, will you take her?’ They agreed. He built a desk big enough for two students, and they admitted her and another girl.” 468
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Stories build relationships; they knit communities together. 480
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Leaders and organizers are constantly seeking out new leaders that have some energy, the ability to reflect, a sense of humor, some anger and the ability to develop a following. 484
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
When Moses is overwhelmed by the task of leading the Israelites in the desert, Jethro warns him that he will wear himself out and advises him to delegate authority to capable men who will share the burden and resolve disputes in groups of 507
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
When someone gives marching orders and others march, you are unlikely to find living relationships and real community. 512
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“one-sided relationship” is an oxymoron. 514
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“I don’t move as fast as some people, but I outstay them, I wear them out.” 521
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
his most important work is “finding new leaders that find new leaders.” 525
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Gathering people—and especially finding and developing the leaders who can gather people—is the foundation of IAF work. 547
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“There are two sources of power, organized money and organized people. We don’t have organized money, but we have the people.” 604
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The Heartbeat of the Community 637
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Harold Washington Library Center, opened in 1991, is one of the largest public library buildings in the world. 650
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Now people say, ‘I’ll meet you at the library,’ “Ayres says. “It’s a safe place. It reminds me of the old neighborhood grocery store, where the grocer knew everyone and everyone saw their neighbors.” 692
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
neighborhood library as the “heartbeat” of the community. 697
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
I really enjoy coming to a place where such a diverse group interacts positively.” 721
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“One Book, One Chicago” program designed to encourage city residents to read the same book at the same time, 738
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
improvements that help bring members of a community together sometimes also disrupt or sever old ties. 769
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
institutions increasingly assume that “everybody” uses computers. 843
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the library is a gathering place, too, like an old town square or the corner grocer Anne Ayres remembers. 881
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg describes what he calls the “third place,” a place that is neither work nor home where people can spend time together.4 885
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A good third place makes few demands on the people who gather there, beyond requiring them to abide by some basic local rules 888
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A third place is a neutral ground where people from different walks of life in the community can meet and get to know one another, having in common perhaps only their desire to frequent this particular place. 889
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
disappearance of many third places in America. 891
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“making private pain public.”) 926
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
describes Chicago as “New York without the attitude” 929
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“hiking the horizontal,” turning that rigid scale on its side so that nothing is categorically above anything else, 1041
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
one key to bridging communities and cultures: finding common ground, a meeting place, while recognizing and respecting differences. 1099
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
People working together over time is what built connections and understanding. 1124
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
To make a ribbon that would stretch from bank to bank, from New Hampshire to Maine, project leaders invited people to write stories of the town and the shipyard on lengths of fabric. 1173
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the willingness to trust in an unknown outcome is “an incredible life skill,” 1230
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Decades of “white flight” to the suburbs had reduced the white population (including whites of Hispanic origin) from 95 percent in 1950 to 16 percent in 1980.4 Banks, planners, and government officials saw neighborhoods with increasing nonwhite populations as being in decline almost by definition. 1291
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
banged on doors and introduced themselves to their neighbors. At countless community meetings, at the multicultural festival, through hard side-by-side labor, they helped people in this place connect and reconnect. 1348
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the so-called neighborhood initiative would be under the control of outside agencies, not the neighborhood, 1380
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Defensive stubbornness seems a more likely reaction to hostile public criticism—certainly a more common one. 1385
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
if you live in a neighborhood where people care about each other, you can recover from anything,” 1444
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
credits that increased sense of safety to a renewed sense of community. 1450
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the term urban village had acquired currency from a classic study by sociologist Herbert Gans that described the tragic demise of a once vibrant Boston neighborhood gentrified out of existence in the heyday of government-sponsored “urban renewal” of the 1950s.)15 1478
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
people are in relationship with one another and everyone has a role in the community, 1483
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“When I first moved to this neighborhood,” Henriquez says, “everybody was a stranger. Nobody said good morning to each other.” 1489
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Barros counts the fact of returning young adults as an important sign of successful community development. “They come back because of good relationships and opportunities,” 1517
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
resident Deborah Wilson, who says, “I’d like to thank DSNI for bringing out the activist in me. I didn’t know I had it in me.” 1544
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
getting people together to tell their own stories in their own words seemed to create the mutual understanding and sympathy that made collective action possible. 1561
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
development without displacement 1587
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“If that happens twice, people feel they’re not welcome and pull out.” 1595
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Barros says, “The success of this neighborhood has got to be about the relationships we build, because there are going to be conflicts.” 1599
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
His great skill, according to Grisham, was in bringing people together and introducing them to ideas that he borrowed elsewhere. He was mainly a catalyst; he unlocked other people’s power. “He used the networks around him,” 1743
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“It began with an individual,” he says, referring of course to McLean. “It always begins with an individual, but there is no way of predicting who that person will be.” 1787
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
He talks to them about the importance of achieving a critical mass of people committed to the same vision of community development, how not much seems to happen until that critical mass is reached but how, when it is, change can come quickly. 1795
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“There’s a myth that the tornado of ’36 brought Tupelo together and started the turnaround. It didn’t happen that way. That kind of crisis can pull people together for a short time, but they don’t sustain the connection.” 1802
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“It doesn’t stay in business to make money,” Gray says. “It makes money to stay in business.” 1853
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Newspapers help give a community its self-definition,” 1854
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“‘There’s an expectation that if you’re enjoying the benefits of being in Tupelo, you’re expected to reinvest in the community,’ 1883
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
If community means mutual influence and mutual dependence, 1921
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Saddleback Church From Crowd to Congregation 1936
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
during the last third of the twentieth century involvement in many religious communities across the country slumped, just as more secular forms of community involvement did. 1949
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
between 1960 and 2000 church membership, church attendance, and involvement in church-related groups such as Sunday schools, “church socials,” and the like declined by perhaps one third nationwide. Among the so-called mainline churches (Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and the like) the falloff has been even greater.1 1951
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A sign by the road that curves up from the entrance reads: “First-Time Visitors Use Right Lane for Preferred Parking.” 1969
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Our Purposes: Magnification, Membership, Maturity, Ministry, Mission.” 1975
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Greeters meet churchgoers at every turn—on the steps, the walkway, at the door to the sanctuary—smiling and shaking hands. 1984
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Welcome to Saddleback. Sit back, relax, and enjoy being here.” 1989
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Everything happens exactly on cue, in a perfectly timed and seamless performance. 2008
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and Brentwood Baptist in Houston, Texas, have built facilities that are in effect church-centered malls or small towns, with health clubs and athletic facilities, McDonald’s franchises, banks, and other amenities designed to attract people and encourage them to eat, play, and work as well as worship there.2 2019
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Jesus drew large crowds by speaking directly to people’s concerns in language they understood, not by insisting on traditional forms of Jewish worship, 2037
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“There is no such thing as religious music,” he says, “only religious lyrics.” 2040
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
his purpose, like David’s, is to reach the people of his generation in their own terms 2042
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the medium is not the message, the message is the message, and it should be communicated in whatever forms touch people most effectively. 2044
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
how to turn the “crowd” into a “congregation,” to use Saddleback terms for distinguishing between the visitors, the consumers of comfort and entertainment, and the committed members of the church community. The answer is small groups. 2052
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The idea of being part of a “community” of forty-five thousand calls into question what “community” means. 2064
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In any large organization, people’s sense of loyalty, connection, and identification comes from being part of a smaller team or group who spend enough time together to know and be known to one another. 2066
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Joining a small group is the first, essential step in being part of a megachurch rather than just attending it. 2067
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Lyle Schaller notes, “Most very large congregations affirm the fact that they are a congregation of congregations, 2068
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Atlantic Monthly, Charles Trueheart cites Jim Mellado of Willow Creek on the importance of lay-led “cells” of up to ten people, the small-group cell being “the basic unit of church life.” 2070
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Warren writes, “People are not looking for a friendly church as much as they are looking for friends.” 2072
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“The average church member knows 67 people in the congregation, whether the church has 200 or 2,000 attending. A member does not have to know everyone in the church in order to feel like it’s their church, but he or she does have to know some people.”8 2074
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the words “Saddleback Church” in small print. Those signs give church members a reason to say hello to their neighbors: “Oh, you go to Saddleback, too?” 2082
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Sharon Carton. “Some people are at that stage where they just need somebody to ask them.” 2086
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Warren cites a biblical foundation for small-group membership. He mentions that the New Testament uses the phrase “one another” more than fifty times, an indication of the importance of human relationships to Christianity. 2087
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the Gospel spread primarily through relationships. 2090
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
membership at Saddleback passes through an obligatory small-group membership class (“Class 101”), 2095
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the church has small groups and small-group ministries for every conceivable need and talent: 2096
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
At Saddleback, says Tim Holcomb, “You are expected to be in community; you can’t live on your own. The purpose of your life is to be in community, to love and to give. When you see community work, it makes you want to be a part of it.” 2108
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Saddleback periodically holds small-group connection sessions, promising, “If you are tired of being a nameless face in the crowd, join us … for one hour and we will help you find a small-group family.” 2111
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
He believes that the biggest factor in keeping a group together is affinity: people whose concerns, ages, and backgrounds are similar tend to connect and stay together. Eastman says the groups offer “short-term fellowship that can lead to lifetime relationships. 2118
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
It has helped immensely to have people we can have that sense of community with.” 2126
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“God will always sacrifice short-term comfort for long-term gain,” 2132
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Lyle Schaller writes that “the number-one point of commonality [among very large churches] is absolute clarity about the belief system. 2134
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The structures of small-group education and spiritual development at Saddleback are designed to help people move from “the crowd” of weekend attenders to “the congregation” of those who are actual members of the church to “the committed,” who are committed to spiritual maturity, to “the core” of those active in lay ministry. It is a progression, as church staff also say, from “attendees to army.” 2149
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
People come to Saddleback not despite their isolation and materialism but because of them; they are looking for the community and sense of purpose that their materially successful lives lack. 2164
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
living a life of “significance instead of success.” 2167
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
All staff are encouraged to contribute at least ten percent of their time to helping other churches.” 2176
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“If you don’t like fellowship on earth, you’re not going to like heaven.” 2188
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Only one in four American Protestant churches reports an average worship attendance of more than 140.11 2202
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
All Saints, too, has bucked the trend of shrinkage or stagnation in church membership. 2204
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
one of the pillars of community building is being heard and telling our stories,” 2215
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
junior warden Catherine Keig says, “I don’t describe community as sameness; I describe it as difference.” 2223
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Affinity is a more powerful glue than diversity. 2236
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
worth noting that “communion” and “community” are essentially the same word, having to do with sharing, with joint participation. 2271
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Lyle Schaller explains: Most of us need a point of dependable stability and continuity in our lives. 2285
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
There, as at Saddleback, a combination of shared values, shared worship, and small-group connections creates and maintains a church community. 2295
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
certainty has a wider appeal than ambiguity, 2296
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Do Something League, a national organization established to encourage community activism and develop leadership skills among young people. 2309
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the first principle of Do Something is youth leadership: letting the young members choose 2311
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In the presidential election of 1972, 42 percent of young people aged 18 to 24 voted, but by 2000 this figure had dropped to 28 percent, the steepest decline of any age cohort. 2339
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
civic activism early in life is one of the strongest predictors of later adult involvement. 2343
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
scrap the local-chapter model in favor of a school-based one. 2378
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
it could tap into existing social groups and existing relationships of trust and cooperation in schools, rather than having to recruit youngsters one by one. 2379
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Do Something would benefit by entering communities through the established institutions of local schools. 2381
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
taken note of the connections they are making with adults in the community and the ways in which these relationships lead to positive outcomes. 2518
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
annual “Kindness and Justice Challenge” in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr., 2556
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
For two weeks, students around the country fill out forms describing every act of kindness they carry out—washing 2557
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Texas Industrial Areas Foundation’s Iron Rule: “Never do anything for anybody that they can do for themselves.” 2586
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the strength of the organization comes from a combination of clarity about its essential principles and behaviors with a willingness to change in light of experience 2631
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
redefining education as more active and participatory. This new initiative reflects the same basic beliefs: that the only way to learn participation is to participate; the only way to become a leader is to lead. 2643
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
make personal stories and trusting relationships the foundation of collective action and let their agendas arise from thousands of conversations. 2678
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
organizing against an “enemy”—a 2681
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
This style of organizing was slow, because listening to everyone takes time and building trust and relationships takes time. 2685
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Union membership in America had peaked in 1954, when nearly one third of all nonfarm workers (32.5 percent) had belonged to a union; by 1998 that figure had nose-dived to 14.1 percent. By the 1990s this dramatic decline was mirrored in virtually all industrialized countries. 2700
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
That “social thing” is the social-capital heart of this story. 2715
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
McKenzie expresses: that transmitted information does not ease isolation or connect people in genuine relationships. 2792
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Eighty percent of the students are eligible for free lunches, the standard measure of poverty levels in schools. 2990
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
It is far more compelling to many seniors . . . if they see a chance to do work not as a single volunteer in a school, but as part of a team with a mission. 3023
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the design of Experience Corps incorporates elements of social-capital building to magnify the impact of the individual volunteers. 3025
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The nationwide Experience Corps network is overseen by Civic Ventures, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to transforming the aging of America into a source of individual and social renewal.”2 3026
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“community of practice,” a term that refers to informal groups of people who share knowledge and support one another in their common work. “These are relationships with a purpose,” 3048
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
he visited a nearby “old people’s home” whose residents, also starved for human contact, 3066
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the Foster Grandparents program involves more than twenty-five thousand older Americans relating one-on-one to a hundred thousand children a year. It is, according to Freedman, “a hidden triumph of social policy.” 3074
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
John Gardner, former secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founder of Common Cause, deliver a talk entitled “Reinventing Community.” 3084
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
1988, “The Experience Corps,” that expressed the same idea in a few succinct pages. Gardner’s brief essay argued for an institution that would draw on the “talent, experience, and commitment” of older Americans, providing a mechanism for them to give back to society while enjoying an opportunity for learning and satisfaction for themselves.5 3087
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
making this a social-capital story of relationship and engagement, not simply a story about a volunteer program. Commitment is one of the principles—the 3093
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
called for a critical mass of participants in each school because he saw the difference 3100
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The program needs to have a presence, and when we have a team of volunteers we create a critical mass of time, 3105
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
having groups of that size has created a supportive community of peers for the volunteers themselves—an experience very different from the isolation volunteers in schools sometimes experience. 3107
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
lasting commitment and a sense of genuine participation and connection often depend on having opportunities to develop new skills and take leadership roles. Simply being a “foot soldier” or doing the same thing over and over does not build social capital as readily. 3110
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the “old heads” that Elijah Anderson describes in Streetwise—responsible, experienced older adults who befriended and encouraged youths, surrogate parents who passed on their values and understanding but who lost their authority as neighborhoods declined.7 3137
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Freedman says, “The porch has moved inside the school.” 3139
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Robert Tietze says, “It isn’t just tutoring, it’s community; it’s about working with children to establish relationships that have a social, emotional, and educational impact.” 3145
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The relationships also give the children a positive example of what seniors can be like in a culture that sometimes portrays old people as foolish, helpless, or selfish. 3151
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
reviving the traditional role of elders passing on a community’s history to the youngest generation, bringing their shared heritage to life. 3159
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Building that connection to the past 3160
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Social connectedness is the heart of Experience Corps, and the connections radiate in so many directions.” 3178
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
To signal and reinforce the legitimacy of the volunteer group as a real, functioning part of the school, the Experience Corps insists that volunteers have mailboxes in the school office alongside the teachers’ boxes. 3190
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
If a school is unwilling or unable to work with us to establish these elements, it may be a sign that the relationship is not going to work, and we will choose not to establish a program at that particular site.” 3193
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
If support is lacking or halfhearted, the relationship will probably fail. 3196
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
supporting a sense of community at the school. 3208
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
being there and connecting person to person created understanding and support. 3238
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“giving something back,” in the words so many of the volunteers use when asked why they give three days a week to the program. 3270
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In Bowling Alone, Putnam marshals evidence that the postwar baby boom generation does not share that ethic of service to anything like the same degree. 3272
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
fundamental UPS value that, for many years, no one who left the company for any reason would ever be hired back. 3291
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
America’s social-capital deficit 3325
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The issue of social capital and work has two facets: Work can affect social capital outside the workplace (as, for example, in corporate-sponsored volunteering or workplace flexibility that enables employees to reconcile their professional obligations with their family and community obligations). Work can affect social capital inside the workplace (as, for example, in the ways office architecture or supervisory practices affect relations among coworkers). 3328
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
UPS is, in fact, an even more interesting story because of the role of social capital within the workplace itself. 3333
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
UPS does not represent “boutique capitalism,” 3335
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
UPS has pursued a more social capital–intensive strategy than many comparable firms. UPS management has followed this strategy not out of altruism, but because of a hard-nosed business calculation that it is a good way to make a profit, 3336
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Tales of cooperation are part of the company’s folklore. 3364
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
best advice he got from veterans when he started was “Don’t quit at the end of the day, wait until the next morning.” 3368
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The very difficulty of the work draws people together. Being able to “hack it,” showing the strength and persistence the work demands day after day, defines what it means to be “a real UPSer.” 3372
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
There are other sources of unity, some of them visible and symbolic. Like any uniform, the brown uniform worn by every driver represents membership in a collective enterprise, commonality over individuality. The shared, explicit standards and practices that define many jobs at UPS also contribute to unity. 3376
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Ernie Cortés says, “The answer is relationships.” 3384
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
it does not see electronic (or even phone) communication as a substitute for face-to-face contact. 3397
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
having clear norms and goals frees up people at all levels to make decisions consistent with accomplishing their tasks. 3417
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
UPS is no democracy, but trusting the people who do the work to make the decisions necessary to get it done has been part of the company’s culture for a long time. 3419
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Leadership development—providing opportunities for people to advance within the company—is a key goal. 3424
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
organizations that practice “rank and yank”) firing the lowest-rated 10 percent of workers every year, using fear to keep employees up to snuff. 3435
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
UPS has what labor economists term a strong “internal labor market.” That is, jobs (including the top jobs) are filled mostly from within. 3443
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“occupational community,” that is, relatively dense and cooperative connections among the employees. 3448
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Historically, there has been more union democracy and less corruption in UPS locals than in other parts of the Teamsters. I attribute these virtues to the existence of the occupational community.”6 3451
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
employee-led committees 3480
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
embody two basic convictions: that the people who understand the work best are the ones who do it, and that people usually respond best to help and advice from their peers. 3505
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
It’s a home away from home for a lot of them.” 3520
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Retention rates among part-time workers have improved, too, from turnover of almost 50 percent in 2001 to less than 30 percent through June of 2002, though it is hard to judge how much that improvement is due to the employee-retention committees’ work. 3548
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The experience of UPS reminds us of the important values of an “occupational community” as well as the challenges of fostering it in an increasingly competitive global economy. 3581
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
they are stories of social connection formed in familiar ways: people who live or work in close proximity to one another meeting and talking, discovering common interests and mutual concerns. 3587
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Net-based community.) Proponents of these communities have argued that ties of mutual interest mean more than the accident of physical proximity. 3598
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Internet-based connections can be broadly divided into those that link you to people you already know and may have met face-to-face (such as e-mail) and those that link you to people whom you don’t know and who may even be anonymous (such as chat rooms). 3600
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
e-ties to people whom you also know offline constitute a kind of alloy that combines the advantages of both computer-based and face-to-face connections. 3607
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Like the telephone, these forms of electronic communication can strengthen, broaden, and deepen existing personal ties. 3610
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
One woman told me that she reads our lists just for the personal stories. It’s a window into what’s going on around her, and it provides a sense of connection and intimacy with others. That’s the common theme: What’s going on around us? 3679
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Newmark believes that the physical proximity of the people who visit craigslist, the fact that they all know and experience the same metropolitan area, is crucial to the sense of community it generates. 3681
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the localness of the craigslist sites is what keeps them alive and growing and what makes it possible for people to feel a community connection online. 3683
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The idea that people might be around is more important than actual face-to-face contact. 3691
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Written messages lack the physical expressions and gestures that are such an important part of face-to-face conversation, clarifying and deepening the meanings of the words while adding their own unspoken meaning and providing an instantaneous response to what is being said. 3716
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In face-to-face conversation, we also get signals we use to judge our contributions: 3719
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Lacking all of the elements of conversation except the words, the exchanges of messages in the craigslist discussion forums are more fragile than “real” conversations. 3723
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“when you overlay an electronic community directly on top of a physical community, that creates a very powerful social pressure to be civil. If you’re going to yell at somebody on the ’net, or flame them out, you may run into them at the grocery store, and they may turn out to be your neighbor.”5 3737
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
building trust and goodwill is not easy in the largely anonymous, easy-in, easy-out, surf-by world of pure cyberspace. 3740
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“the culture of trust we’ve built is a really big deal. We have to re-earn that every day.”6 3743
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
However much craigslist may be a community itself, it unquestionably functions as a tool to create community by bringing people together, 3753
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Created in 1985, the WELL was exhibit A in Howard Rheingold’s argument in The Virtual Community that electronic meeting places can be genuine communities.7 3757
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The idea of paying to meet people is unsettling. 3780
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
communities generally define themselves by both what they are and what they are not, by the norms that represent common community behavior, 3786
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
William A. Galston, in “(How) Does the Internet Affect Community? 3800
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Internet groups rely to an unusual degree on norms that evolve through iteration over time and are enforced through moral suasion and group disapproval of conspicuous violators . . . the medium is capable of promoting a kind of socialization and moral learning through mutual adjustment.”10 3801
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
People started telling me that they felt connected in some kind of community sense. I used to be doctrinaire about definitions and I didn’t feel it was a community site, but I eventually said, if people feel connected, it must be a community. 3825
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In the “all power to the people” era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, such experiments in neighborhood decentralization were not uncommon in urban America. 3835
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
in America in the 1970s and 1980s, as Putnam reported in Bowling Alone, public meetings emptied, local organizations atrophied, and “good-government” groups expired. In Portland, by contrast, in these same years civic activism boomed. 3842
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Portland in the early 1970s was essentially identical to that in comparable cities, but twenty years later, Portlanders of all walks of life were three or four times more likely to be involved in civic life as their counterparts elsewhere in America. 3858
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, tells the story of citizen activists in Manhattan who headed off plans to extend Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park. 3886
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
people here “trust government because they are government. 3900
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Two things stand out about the Portland experience: first, the skill, persistence, and reach of Portland’s activist community, and second, the evolving capacity of public officials and government to respond and adapt. 3947
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
because the city was fairly homogeneous racially and economically, it was easier for many residents to think of themselves as members of one community and to avoid divisions along lines of race, income, and inner-city-versus-suburbs that have hindered efforts to unify other cities. 3976
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
you find in Portland “a remarkable number of people who think it’s possible to do things.” 4002
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
(During Goldschmidt’s term as mayor, the city established a blanket insurance policy to cover block parties throughout the city so that neighborhood groups would not need to apply for permits or worry about liability.) 4026
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
density of neighborhoods close to downtown encourages connections among neighbors, saying, “If you live close to people, you have to know them.” 4028
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
identifies communication as an essential contributor both to a sense of community and to community involvement. 4033
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Communication defines community,” 4034
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
how many people were watching TV, distracted by stories and events that had little to do with their own lives or their own community. 4039
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A critical mass of citizens is involved, so involvement becomes the norm here, just as disengagement has become the norm elsewhere. Referring to The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell’s book 4046
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
people being successful at it, you have visible proof that it can be done.” 4050
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
community commitment.” 4095
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
listening to people’s stories was essential. 4103
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the government learned (or learned again) that genuinely responding to citizens’ demands that they be included in the process was the key. 4119
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
More grassroots activism has (often through conflict) led to more responsive public institutions, and more responsive institutions have in turn evoked more activism. 4153
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
political scientist Jeffrey Berry and his colleagues found in their 1993 study of Portland and three other cities, “increased participation and stronger neighborhood associations tend to reduce the gap between citizens and their government, not increase it.”25 4156
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
For people who are less outgoing, community seems closed or actually is closed. 4180
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A small plaque inside City Hall answers the question of how you get to City Hall: “By raising your hand.” 4200
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“they’re not really residents; they don’t pay taxes; they’re not committed to the neighborhood.” 4223
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the values of privatism.”27 4248
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
no one sets out to “build social capital.” 4255
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The more neighbors who know one another by name, the fewer crimes a neighborhood as a whole will suffer. 4261
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Society as a whole benefits enormously from the social ties forged by those who choose connective strategies in pursuit of their particular goals.1 4263
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
our hope is that these stories will offer encouragement and insights for anyone contemplating a “social-capital strategy” for his or her substantive problem, be it cleaning up a polluted river, improving the lot of undocumented immigrants, or attacking public corruption. 4284
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social-capital building is demonstrably hampered by urban sprawl and by the increasingly complex schedules of two-career families.2 4296
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
neither public policies on transportation and housing nor private firms’ policies on release time for community service appear anywhere in our stories. 4299
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Education itself is often the most powerful predictor of high levels of social capital. Educated people and educated communities have skills and resources that enable them to form and exploit social networks more readily, whereas less educated communities have to struggle harder to do so. 4300
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
almost invisible in the background—government policies were crucial to the substantive results achieved in many cases. 4316
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
misguided public policies can also weaken or destroy social capital. 4322
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
it helps to be blessed with “true believers” in positions of power: individuals committed to grassroots participation who will follow the social-capital route through all its apparent meanderings. 4336
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
interpersonal connections and civic engagement among ordinary citizens were essential to making participatory democracy work. 4338
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
We have discovered no simple rules for social-capital building. 4351
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
smaller is better for social-capital creation. 4358
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Researchers have repeatedly found that social capital is higher in smaller settings—smaller schools, smaller towns, smaller countries, and so on.4 4359
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
One-on-one, face-to-face communication is more effective at building relationships and creating empathy and understanding than remote, impersonal communication. 4360
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
the more extensive interchange that is possible in smaller groups makes it possible to discover unexpected mutuality even in the face of difference. Small size also makes individual responsibility for maintaining the group intensely clear, 4363
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Smaller groups also offer easier footholds for initial steps. 4366
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
participants sit and talk in groups of six to ten are the fundamental building blocks 4367
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Gladys McKenzie says, “We don’t want to be pen pals. We want to connect with a face.” “They knew my shoe size,” Joyce Guarnieri jokes. 4372
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
it seems that the relative absence of face-to-face contact associated with the craigslist Web site limits the amount of real and sustainable social capital it can create. 4378
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
learning about other people’s lives through the site gives users a “sense of community,” but can this “sense” spill over into material support or helpful interventions in the same way that lunchtime parking lot conversations between UPS workers do? The evidence is debatable. 4379
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The need for redundancy of contact to foster virtuous circles of mutual responsibility means that not only size but density matters. 4381
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In sum, smaller is better for forging and sustaining connections. On the other hand, bigger is better for critical mass, power, and diversity. 4386
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
community building benefits from a sense on the part of participants that they are a part of something important and growing. 4387
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
federation: nesting small groups within larger groups.5 Small groups within larger organizations can foster the personal relationships that would not be so easily formed within the larger organization alone. 4396
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
This “nested,” federal strategy is especially effective when (as in Saddleback and All Saints) members can participate in more than one small group, thus weaving personal ties among the small groups and reinforcing a sense of identity with the larger whole. 4403
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
create a cellular structure with smaller groups linked to form a larger, more encompassing one. 4408
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Organizational choices that facilitate “mixing” and “bridging” among small groups can harness the benefits of both intimacy and breadth. 4409
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“bonding social capital” (ties that link individuals or groups with much in common) and “bridging social capital” (ties that link individuals or groups across a greater social distance). 4414
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Social-capital strategists need to pay special attention to the tougher task of fostering social ties that reach across social divisions. 4418
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Bridging is not about “Kumbaya” cuddling. It is about coming together to argue, as much as to share. 4420
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
confirm that homogeneity makes connective strategies easier. 4424
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
bridging ties are harder to build than bonding ones. 4430
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
(if your curb is my curb, your eyesore is my eyesore), might seem to have made collaboration an obvious choice there. 4436
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Shared space may be a necessary condition for bridging, but it is not sufficient, as any observer of dining halls in formally integrated U.S. high schools and colleges knows. 4442
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Birds of a feather flock together, folk wisdom tells us, but you don’t need to be an ornithologist to know there’s more to birds than feathers. 4458
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“diversity” is sometimes a code word referring to racial identity and nothing else. 4459
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
there are therefore multiple potential dimensions of similarity. Groups that bond along some axes can bridge along others. 4461
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Crafting cross-cutting identities is a powerful way to enable connection across perceived diversity. That is, bridging may depend on finding, emphasizing, or creating a new dimension of similarity within which bonding can occur. One often underestimated technique for creating new identities and bridging social distance, as well as for helping to create social capital in other ways, is telling stories. 4465
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Using Stories to Build Connections 4468
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Organizing is about transforming private aches and pains into a shared vision of collective action. 4469
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“interest articulation” and “interest aggregation” (to use jargon from political science) emerged from carefully nurtured conversations among ordinary folks. 4471
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Civic idealism can be an asset in community building, but creating social capital means recognizing people’s interests and needs (including their need for fun and fellowship), not just their ideals. 4475
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Social capital is not just about broccoli, but about chocolates, too. 4476
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Community builders need to start with what the participants really care about, not some external agenda. 4478
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Stories help people to construct and reconstruct their interests. 4480
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Personal narratives are a uniquely powerful medium for expressing needs and building bonds. People like to tell their own stories; most like to listen to others’ as well. 4483
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Telling and listening to stories creates empathy and helps people find the things they have in common, which then eases the formation of enduring groups and networks. 4486
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
three different sorts of narratives play roles in building and sustaining connection: “I” stories, “we” stories, and “they” stories. 4488
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Eliciting personal narratives can be an “easy-on ramp” for recruiting or integrating new members into an organization. By revealing vulnerabilities and creating empathy, “I” stories build trust. 4489
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Finding commonalities among “I” stories is a powerful technique. Reframing individual trajectories as a collective tale can create the crosscutting identities that turn bridging distance into bonding ties. We tell our own stories, and through our stories we redefine who “we” are. 4495
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
At both Saddleback and All Saints, members of small groups are encouraged to share their “spiritual autobiographies” as a key tool for transcending differences. 4497
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
If “I” stories are essential to building new connections, “we” stories are equally valuable in sustaining those connections. Recounting how “we” overcame past obstacles and achieved unexpected successes reinforces shared identity and frames strategic choices for the future. 4501
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Sometimes it is argued that collective identity necessarily implies exclusion, that every “we” requires a “they.” 4505
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Having an enemy can help to create social capital. 4507
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In Bowling Alone, Putnam reported that World War II played an important role in creating the “long civic generation.” 4509
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, trust among Americans of all races and ethnicities shot upward.12 4510
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Community organizers from Saul Alinsky on the left to Ralph Reed on the right have recognized the usefulness of identifying an enemy. As Reed once noted, “It’s no accident that it’s called ‘Mothers Against Drunk Driving,’ not ‘Mothers for Sober Driving.’” 4511
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Social capitalists cannot shun conflict. 4516
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
given the role that “enemies” play in many theoretical accounts of community building, we were surprised to notice that in many of our cases—the Shipyard Project, Do Something, Experience Corps, the Chicago libraries, craigslist, Tupelo—it is virtually impossible to discern any enemy at all against whom the organizers sought to rally support. 4522
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
in many of our stories, participants have forged strong bonds of connection without demonizing anyone. 4526
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Real social change takes time—lots of it. 4527
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Max Weber, the distinguished social theorist. 4529
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Social and political change, he explained, requires “a strong and slow boring of hard boards.” 4531
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Successful community builders in our cases, too, recognize that crafting lasting relationships and mutual trust takes time. 4532
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Paula Rais observed, “You need time to meet, to get to know one another and trust each other, to let common issues bubble to the surface.” 4534
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Building social capital is neither all-or-nothing nor once-and-for-all. It is incremental and cumulative. 4536
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Rick Warren has built the Saddleback congregation one family at a time, working each newcomer through a gradual process of affiliation, moving steadily from casual visitor to Crowd (regular attenders) to Congregation (baptized members), to Committed (tithing activists), and finally to Core (those dedicated to ministering to others). 4537
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The path to success through connective strategies can be long. This means it is all the more important to take aim at concrete, discrete, and feasible targets along the way. In the cases above we saw small victories—the 4541
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Each small victory must be seen as a bite-size version of the larger vision. 4544
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social scientists and historians recently have called our attention to “path dependence,” that is, where you can go and how to get there depend on which path brought you here. 4545
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Because building social capital and trust is cumulative, social life is replete with vicious circles. Weak social capital fosters the symptoms of social disintegration, such as crime and poverty, and those symptoms in turn further undermine social connections. 4547
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
social capital where it is most needed leads naturally to the strategy, visible in many of our cases, of “recycling” whatever shards of social connectivity are available, that is, reusing existing social networks by directing them to new purposes. 4553
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“All organizing is reorganizing.” 4556
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
ideological commitment and objective self-interest are less powerful predictors of who gets involved than are preexisting friendship networks.14 4563
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“Find existing networks that can be recycled” is thus one important lesson for social capitalists. 4564
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Movements that rely on that approach, however, need a complementary strategy for encouraging “walk-ins” and for reaching out to the socially disconnected. 4565
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
The path-dependent character of social-capital building means that in many ways success breeds success. 4569
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Trust is a sociological breeder reactor. 4572
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
“development without displacement.” 4576
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Tupelo, as we have seen, now grapples with the challenges posed not by poverty but by economic development. When people are no longer poor, the idea of shared fate (and shared solutions) is less persuasive. Mutual dependency is less visible and less urgent. 4577
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
A special challenge for social movements is how to sustain momentum through the inevitable periods of leadership transition. This is, of course, a classic organizational dilemma, what Max Weber termed the “routinization of charisma.” One key is to develop grassroots leaders with autonomy—not just a single general and a mass of foot soldiers. 4580
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Part of the challenge comes from organizational fatigue and entropy—the difficulty of maintaining momentum once the excitement of early achievements is past. Part of the challenge comes from expansion and turnover, as people originally fired up by a unique vision are succeeded by people who have joined an ongoing enterprise. 4592
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Creating Common Spaces: Urban Planning, Local Media, and Technology 4602
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
one key to creating social capital is to build in redundancy of contact. 4603
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Common spaces for commonplace encounters are prerequisites for common conversations and common debate. Furthermore, networks that intersect and circles that overlap reinforce a sense of reciprocal obligation and extend the boundaries of empathy. 4604
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Sociologists refer to this aspect of social networks as “multistrandedness”: how many different layers of connection do they unite? When you frequently encounter the same person at the market and the ball field and a political rally, your ties with her are multistranded. 4606
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
they allow participants to recognize affiliations they share with folks they see every day, opening the door to the conversations that can turn shared interests or common membership into personal connection. 4610
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Urban planning, architecture, and technology can each foster redundancy and multistrandedness by creating opportunities for encounters that knit together existing ties. 4611
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
leaders recognized the importance of shared space for building community. 4615
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
(designed to foster common conversations and repeated encounters). 4620
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Saving “inefficient” local post offices would have made more sense if their contribution to community building had been part of the cost-benefit equation. 4623
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
they provide a common space for common arguments. 4627
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
new communications technologies to be most important as support and stimulus for long-standing forms of community, rather than as instigators of radically new “virtual communities” 4630
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Craigslist, too, is both a crossroads and a clearinghouse for a physical community: the greater Bay Area. 4634
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Computer-based technology matters not because it can create some new and separate form of virtual community, but because it can broaden and deepen and strengthen our physical communities. 4643
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Like plazas and parks, local newspapers, and neighborhood libraries, Internet technology could create social spaces within which we see how our numerous networks of interest and interaction overlap and intersect. 4646
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
Over the past generation, America’s communities have undergone profound social and cultural changes, which meant that as the new millennium dawned, we were no longer building the dense webs of encounter and participation so vital to the health of ourselves, our families, and our polities. 4651
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
suburban sprawl that bifurcates our communities of residence from our communities of work.15 4654
Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein
