Things fall apart

as Bob Putnam lays out in Bowling Alone, participation in parent-teacher organizations has dropped from more than 12 million in 1964 to about 7 million. Despite decades of increased urban migration bringing us more physically proximate to each other, we don’t know each other better — instead, our reported feelings of loneliness have shockingly doub... See more

the creeping professionalization of civic life has shifted the “everyday democracy” responsibilities of community membership and participation to the domain of nonprofit management.

“... careerism tends to undermine democracy by divorcing knowledge from practical experience, devaluing the kind of knowledge that is gained from that experience, and generating social conditions in which ordinary people are not expected to know anything at all. The reign of specialized expertise … is the antithesis of democracy.”

- Christopher Lasc... See more

In a recent report, “Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life,” we found that nearly a quarter of Americans without degrees report having no close friends, compared to 10 percent of Americans who completed college.

The changing dynamics of the American economy — from corporate consolidation to the decline of private unions — as well as dramatic changes in immigration policy, are noticeably missing from Putnam’s story.

thing we do most, which is shop and browse. These privatized solutions fit into that consumptive way of being more than what we don't practice — going to a new place, creating our own mechanisms for connection, encountering a lot of unknowns, and having to talk to people we don't already know. Those are not practices that we’re literally spending h... See more

five forms of oppression: 1) Exploitation; 2) Marginalization; 3) Powerlessness; 4) Cultural Dominance; 5) Violence.

The bulk of Bowling Alone traces the decline of American social capital through a web of contributing factors, looking for the largest culprits. Putnam identifies these as generational change, pressures of time and money, television, and sprawl. Each of these are key explanations, but they don’t capture the full complexity of this decline.

This orientation reinforces the idea that the city itself is something to be consumed, rather than co-created among its residents.