Bowling Alone America's Declining Social Capital Summary

Social capital has been one of the most active areas of research and debate in the social sciences over the last decade. Among many social scientists, Robert D. Putnam is one of the strong advocates of social capital paradigm. In his widely cited 1995 essay “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital”, Putnam defines social capital as “features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitates coordination and cooperation for mutual benefits” (Putnam, 1995). He argues that community life is easier when there is substantial amount of social capital for many reasons such as better schools, faster economic development, lower crime and more effective government (Putnam, 1995). In addition to Putnam, Tocqueville also discusses the notion of voluntary association and its connection to democracy in “Democracy in America” (1835-1840). Tocqueville

Indeed, Putnam’s view ignores the dark side of social capital. He simply equates having social capital as a fundamental requirement of having a blessed life with social connectedness. However, the same type of characteristics that defines social capital can also lead to the creation of other groups and situations that ultimately do not result in the best outcomes. Instead social capital could have negative consequences when it comes to integrating group members for the better of society as a whole. The features Putnam assigns to social capital such as networks, norms, and social trust can be assigned to hate groups or racial supremacy groups. One can consider gang members for another example. It is clear that they were people working together for collective benefits but the consequences of their cooperation were certainly not for the better of society. The positive effects of social capital in this case were only beneficial to members of particular subgroup group and did not affect everyone