More on Social Capital

I'm providing another excerpt from the bettertogther.org site, because I think the ideas expressed by the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America are important to helping places like Teaneck thrive. Here's an excerpt from site's FAQ page which defines social capital and provides a summary of evidence of it's decline in recent years.

What does “social capital” mean?
Social networks have value – that is the central premise of social capital. Social capital refers to the collective value of all “social networks” [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other [“norms of reciprocity”].

How does social capital work?
The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings, but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and – at least sometimes – for bystanders as well. Social capital works through multiple channels:

a) information flows (e.g. about jobs, AIDS, college, etc.) depend on social capital.

b) norms of reciprocity (mutual aid) are dependent on social networks.· Bonding networks sustain particularized (in-group) reciprocity.· Bridging networks sustain generalized reciprocity.

c) Collective action depends upon social networks (e.g., the role that the black church played in the civic rights movement) although collective action can also foster new networks.

d) Broader identities and solidarity are encouraged by social networks that help translate an “I” focus into a “we”.

What are some examples of social capital?
When a group of neighbors informally keep an eye on one another's homes, that's social capital in action. When a tightly knit community of Hassidic Jews trade diamonds without having to test each gem for purity, that's social capital in action. Barn-raising on the frontier was social capital in action, and so too are e-mail exchanges among members of a cancer support group. Social capital can be found in friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs, civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers*"where everybody knows your name"* captures one important aspect of social capital.

What has been happening to Social Capital in America in last 2-3 decades?We have found a disconcerting, precipitous decline in social interactions over the last three decades across all forms of social capital--formal and informal, high-minded and leisure, public and private. [A much more thorough exploration of this subject appeared in Robert D. Putnam’s book Bowling Alone, Simon & Schuster (2000). ] We start at the civic epicenter: We are bowling alone. While a record number of Americans bowl today, bowling in organized leagues plunged 40 percent from 1980 to 1993. Lest you think this a trivial factoid, over 25% more Americans (91 million) bowled once or more in 1996 than voted in the 1998 congressional elections.

Our point is not that bowling is critical to America’s future, but that in bowling leagues, fraternal organizations, choral societies and thousands of other places where Americans regularly meet, fellow citizens talk periodically about issues of civic importance and learn to trust others and work together. And alas, these civic watering holes are drying up. Civic do-gooding organizations also have met hard times. The League of Women Voters has lost 42 percent of its members since 1969. In the domain of schools, PTAs nationwide plummeted from a membership high in the early 1960s of almost 50 members per 100 families with school-age children to less than 20 members per 100 in 1997. (This decline can only partly be explained by the movement of parents from the PTA into Parent Teacher Organizations.)

A composite graph of the market share of 30 mainstream civic organizations (i.e., the percentage of Jewish women in Hadassah, the percentage of blacks in the NAACP, the percentage of Catholic men in the Knights of Columbus, the percentage of youth in 4-H, etc.) shows that composite membership market share has dropped from its peak in the early 1960s to levels not seen since just after the Great Depression. And alas, it’s not just these particular organizations. In 1975-76 the average American attended some club meeting once a month. By last year, that figure had dropped 58 percent to only five meetings annually. Almost two-thirds of Americans attended at least one club meeting in 1975-76, but only 38 percent did in 1997-98.

Informal associating also has declined. In 1975, the average American invited friends over more than 14 times yearly. By 1998 that had dropped 60 percent to only eight times a year. Perhaps most alarmingly, the family meal--a ritual practiced for millennia--may within our lifetimes enter the nation’s endangered practices list. The fraction of married Americans who definitely say "our whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined a third, from about 50 percent to 34 percent in just the last two decades, and this decline ignores the rapidly dwindling fraction of intact married couples over this period.

One often hears that we are giving more than ever, even in real dollars, but this is not the relevant statistic. Although philanthropy has doubled since 1960 in real dollars, real spending on cut-flowers has tripled and real spending on all forms of entertainment has nearly quadrupled. We are simply far better off now than then. What is more relevant is how big a share of our income we give to philanthropy; that is, after all, what tithing is all about. And while the share of our national income we gave to philanthropy roughly doubled from 1929 through 1964 (rising almost continuously year to year), it has since dropped by over a third to approximately our 1940 level.

Generalized trust also has evaporated. While 55 percent of American adults in 1960 believed others could be trusted most or all of the time, only 30 percent did in 1998, and the future looks bleaker because the decline was sharpest among our nation’s youth. Roughly three-quarters of Americans trusted government to do the right thing most or all the time in 1960, a figure that sounds quaint today when less than 25 percent trust the government. This disappearance of trust has huge ramifications for our ability to cooperate and work with strangers: a citizen at a town meeting or a new neighbor, businessperson, classmate or teacher.