By Robert Putnam
Like Sapolsky’s books, I read Putnam’s work backwards. I read the recent, more complete representations of their ideas in Determined and The Upswing before back tracking to Behave and Bowling Alone. Bowling Alone was entirely about social capital and civic participation without tying more measures of societal wellness into it like The Upswing. Incredibly, it was out before social media and smart phones, common scapegoats for the polarization in our society. It was not a short, light read. It was thorough. Like Sapolsky’s work, I leave with both an overall theme of where the evidence points, but also the recognition that “it’s complicated.” It’s easy to see where particular threads could be latched onto and presented as the whole picture. Since I listened to the audiobook, it was unfortunately difficult to highlight quotes that I wanted to hang onto. I am planning to buy a hardcopy of the book to revisit those. Somewhere in the middle, Putnam said that the most common answer for why someone participated in volunteer work was “someone asked me to.” Relatedly, the most common answer for why people never donated blood was “nobody asked me.” Overall, I feel very compelled to engage with groups in an effort to increase social capital. I have all of the demographic traits of those who tend to participate the most, and benefit the most. I don’t know how to ensure that my contributions lead to a more equitable outcome rather than a bonus for the privileged and further separation from the less advantaged. I appreciated the notes which ended the book that express a need for social innovation. It’s not about rewinding back to an earlier time. That’s not possible. Technology will keep moving forward and impacting society. Culture is different than it was. Although it seems clear that we would benefit from a move towards more community, that doesn’t mean trying to replicate the 1950s. It means finding new community solutions for our current context.