Bowling Alone By Robert D. Putnam Analysis

“Bowling Alone” Reaction Paper

In the article “Bowling Alone” Robert D. Putnam he believes that civic engagement has decreased in the United States. The article provides evidence of the decreased civic engagement and theories on why. When reading the article, there are a few key items that standout for me. Putnam makes a connection between civic engagement, the quality of life and improved outcomes for crime, poverty and unemployment1. Making this connection provides the reader with an understanding of the importance of civic engagement and why we should care that it is declining. For me civic engagement is something that I do for myself and I understand it makes an impact but, how large of an impact was not clear to me prior to the article.

I do believe that these theories have an impact on the amount of free time that a person has available to commit to civic engagement however; I do not believe that these are all encompassing. It is very difficult to understand human behavior and make correlations. As we see in the article by C. S. Fischer “Bowling Along: What’s the Score” there are times with Putnam is selective in his resources to support his claim. It is difficult to review big data sources and not have a bias in selecting data elements and including both supporting and nonsporting evidence3. I am a visual data person so, for me the vast array of examples and data sources was difficult and did not allow me the opportunity to see the data. Limiting the focus of the article would have been helpful in focusing a novice readers’