Community & Social Capital

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4 • 997 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Community & social capital. Laurie Taylor talks to Robert D Putnam, Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and co-author of a new study which revisits some of the themes of 'Bowling Alone' his 20 year old, groundbreaking book, which argued that Americans were losing their connections with one another. His latest research takes a look at trends over the last century which have brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. What lessons can be drawn from the past, especially at a time of increased economic inequality, political polarisation and loss of social capital and trust, all of which are playing out against the backdrop of a global pandemic? Is it, as he suggests, time for an 'upswing', more focused on our responsibilities to each other and one which, for the first time, must properly account for the way in which racism has shaped America?

They’re joined by Emily Falconer, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Westminster, who considers the extent to which Robert Putnam's arguments apply to the UK. She also discusses her own research, which focuses on collective singing as a manifestation of social capital and community, in action. Her study of an Online Zoom community choir - at a time when so many face-to-face activity have disappeared - suggests that virtual, group singing has afforded deep connections between people in a landscape in which the future of social gatherings remains uncertain.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Produced in partnership with The Open University

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:36.3	This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC, and for more details and much, much more about
0:42.2	thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK.
0:46.8	Hello in common I suspect with other university lecturers I've often found myself torn between concentrating upon key aspects of the curriculum
0:56.5	and selecting topics that might have well more instant student appeal. But there were occasions
1:02.4	when this disjunction broke down, when a new piece of
1:05.8	research had immediate theoretical and popular appeal, and such was very much the case in the
1:11.2	mid-1990s when an American social scientist
1:14.8	published a short paper that was subsequently hailed as the most discussed
1:19.4	social science article of the 20th century. Now that article which subsequently morphed into a book
1:26.1	bought the straightforward title Bowling Alone America's declining social capital and its
1:32.2	author was political scientist Robert Putnam and
1:34.9	what ensured that the theoretical significance and its appeal to students
1:39.6	was its central argument that American society was experiencing a breakdown in trust,
1:47.2	a dramatic decrease in the extent to which individuals had regular contact with others outside the family or the market.
	...

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