Library/Politics & Society/Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Cover of Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Robert D. Putnam

Putnam argues that civic participation and social trust declined in America, weakening the informal networks that make institutions and communities work.

What stuck

  • Social trust has infrastructure, even when that infrastructure is informal.
  • Communities weaken when participation declines, and institutions notice later than people do.