| Robert Putnam |
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| 1941 births | |
| putnam, robert | |
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| political scientists | |
| community building | |
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| swarthmore college alumni | |
| putnam, r | |
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His most famous (and controversial) work, '' Bowling Alone '', argues that the United States has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life (social capital) since the 1960s , with serious negative consequences. Though he measured this decline in data of many varieties, his most striking point was that virtually every traditional civic, social, and fraternal organization -- typified by Bowling League s -- had undergone a massive decline in membership. BIOGRAPHY Putnam graduated from Swarthmore College in 1963 , won a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Oxford University , and went on to earn Master's and Doctorate degrees from Yale University , the latter in 1970. He taught at the University Of Michigan until going to Harvard in 1979, where he has held a variety of positions, including Dean of the Kennedy School, and is currently the Malkin Professor of Public Policy. His first work in the area of social capital was ''Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy '', a comparative study of regional governments in Italy which drew great scholarly attention for its argument that the success of democracies depends in large part on the horizontal bonds that make up social capital. In ''. The article was widely read and garnered much attention for Putnam, including an invitation to meet with then-President Bill Clinton . It was not without its critics, however, some of whom argued that Putnam was ignoring new organizations and forms of social capital; others argued that many of the included organizations were responsible for the supression of civil rights movements and the reinforcement of anti-egalitarian social norms. In 2000 , he published ''Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community'', a book-length expansion of the original argument, adding new evidence and answering many of his critics. Since then, he has focused on efforts to revive American social capital, notably through the Saguaro Seminar , a series of meetings among academics, civil society leaders, commentators, and politicians to discuss strategies to re-connect Americans with their communities. These resulted in the publication of ''Better Together,'' which focuses on a series of case studies of vibrant and new forms of social capital building in the United States PUBLISHED WORKS
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