Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is a 2000 nonfiction book by Robert D. Putnam, a political science professor at Harvard University. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community was developed from his 1995 essay entitled “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital”. Putnam surveys the decline of social capital in the United States since 1950. He has described the reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and enrich the fabric of their social lives. He argues that this undermines the active civic engagement that a democracy requires from its citizens. Have you noted a decline in social capital in the United States?
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Summary
Robert Putnam wrote about ways in which Americans disengaged from community involvement, including decreased voter turnout, attendance at public meetings, service on committees, and work with political parties over the last fifty years in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Putnam also cited Americans’ growing distrust of their government, which has continued in the past twenty-five years. Decreasing civic engagement has big implications for the stability of democratic societies.
Putnam accepted the possibility that this lack of trust could be attributed to “the litany of political tragedies and scandals since the 1960s,” but believed that this explanation was limited when viewed alongside other “trends in civic engagement of a wider sort.” This is where he got the image of bowling alone. Bowling is a 1950 sort of sport. It used to be a popular group activity, but it is not anymore, and bowling alleys across the United States are going out of business.
Putnam noted the aggregate loss in membership and number of volunteers in many existing civic organizations such as religious groups (Knights of Columbus, B’nai Brith, etc.), labor unions, parent–teacher associations, Federation of Women’s Clubs, League of Women Voters, military veterans’ organizations, volunteers with Boy Scouts and the Red Cross, and fraternal organizations (Lions Clubs, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, United States Junior Chamber, Freemasonry, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.).
Putnam used bowling as an example to illustrate this; although the number of people who bowled had increased in the last 20 years, the number of people who bowled in leagues had decreased. If people bowled alone, they did not participate in the social interaction and civic discussions that might occur in a league environment.
An 1892 portrayal of a bowling establishment in the Spalding Athletic Library reflects the sport’s social aspect. Putnam cites data from the General Social Survey that showed an aggregate decline in membership of traditional civic organizations, supporting his thesis that U.S. social capital had declined. He noted that some organizations had grown, such as the American Association of Retired Persons, the Sierra Club, and a plethora of mass-member activist groups.
But he said that these groups did not tend to foster face-to-face interaction, and were the type where “the only act of membership consists in writing a check for dues or perhaps occasionally reading a newsletter.” Thus, the increase in membership in the American Association of Retired Persons is not all that meaningful.
Putnam also distinguished in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community two different types of social capital: a “bonding” type (which occurs within a demographic group) and a “bridging” type (which unites people from different groups). This is an important distinction that has led to further study.
Conclusion
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is one of the most seminal books in American history. Putnam highlighted an important trend in the society of the United States and noted that there are big implications for a democratic society. It is for this reason that Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is recommended and should apply to anyone interested in the health of democratic societies.
