Bowling Together
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009In 1995, political scientist Robert Putnum wrote an essay called, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. (It was expanded into the book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community in 2000.) The essay’s title, Bowling Alone, comes from Putnum’s research that says, “Between 1980 and 1993 the total number of bowlers in America increased by 10 percent, while league bowling decreased by 40 percent.” Basically, Putnum was saying, “that the vibrancy of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades.” He goes on to site a bunch of examples of social disengagement. (more…)
