Assignment: Paper

Preamble:

Robert D. Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapase and Revival of American Community, addresses the issue of the changing character of American society in terms of the relationship between civic engagement, social capital and community. Putnam concludes that “if the primary effect of computer-mediated communication is to reinforce rather than replace face-to-face relationships … then the Internet is unlikely in itself to reverse the deterioration of our social capital.”

Task:

In the context of Putnam's statement, your task is to choose an online or "virtual" community and discuss his assessment of the computer-mediated communication's in terms of it contributing to social capital through civic, political, or religious participation. In doing so, you need to answer the following question:

1. What role (positive or negative) do the aspects of Putnam's framework for establising social capital - reciprocity, trustworthiness, honesty, atruism etc. - play in establishing, nurturing, or sustaining civic participation or engagement within your chosen online community?

You are required to produce an academic quality paper (5-8 pages) that provides a critical understanding of the key civil society concepts and terms explored in the question above and that constitute the focus of this LBAR181 course.

Ch. 11 Pressures of Time and Money

Possible Reasons for Decline in Civic Engagement

I. Time

A. people “feel busier” than they did a generation ago
1. increasing amounts of people report feeling rushed, working hard all the time, and staying late at work
2. However, Americans still work for the same average number of hours a week

B. Free-Time
1. time spent on non-work related tasks (housework, childcare) has been reduced
a. some say this means more free-time
2. some polls show that amount of free time has stayed constant at 19-20 hours per week
a. but, individual records and time diaries who that American have twice that amount
3. Distribution of free-time
a. lots of short moments in between a hectic schedule
b. older people forced to retire earlier – more free time
c. less-educated have gained free time, whereas college-educated have lost free-time
~main force in community engagement, middle-class, has lost free-time
d. because our schedules are more complicated, our free-time does not always correspond with others
~makes it difficult to participate in community
4. However, even though the middle class has less free-time, studies show that they are more active than other groups with more free-time

C. So, we can conclude that the lack of time does not explain civic disengagement


II. Money

A. Economic hard times cause lack of civic engagement
1. They cause our incomes to decrease, our debts to increase, and our jobs to become more demanding
a. this causes stress and financial worries to increase
2. Those with financial worry are less likely to be civically engaged
a. Studies show that all leisure activities except for TV-watching has declined for those who are worried about finances

B. Counter-arguments to this theory:
1. civic engagement began to decline before the economic problems of the 1970's and continued falling even during the economic booms of the mid-80s and late 90s
2. civic engagement has fallen in all income levels

C. Based on statistical analysis, although financial problems play a small role in the problem, they do not account for the dramatic decrease in civic engagement


III. Women Working

A. More women spend more time at work
1. less time spent on housework, childcare, and involvement with the community
2. women who work spend less time in community and more time for individual personal enjoyment
3. working outside the home gives more opportunity but less time for civic engagement

B. Full-time, Part-time, and homemakers
1. women who are employed full-time spend much less time involved in clubs
a. those who choose to work full-time are more involved in community affairs are move involved in the community than those who are forced to work out of necessity
2. greatest civic engagement is among women who choose to work part-time(even more than full-time homemakers)

C. Putnam believes that women working is not the main reason behind the decline in civic engagement, either

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. What possible reasons could account for the fact that Americans belive their amount of free time has stayed constant at 19-20 hours per week for several decades, yet time diaries show that it has doubled?
2. Do you find that from your experience, whenever financial worry is high, civic engagement is lower?
3. Why would women who choose to work part-time spend the most time in civic affairs (even more so than full-time homemakers)?

Starbucks In Our Communities

Hi all,

Here is some homework that will help us to understand civic participation by organizations in relation to community building and social responsibility.

Go to a Starbucks and find one of their "Starbucks in our Communities" brochure that they have in their stores or better still go to starbucks website at http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp (given that we are focusing on online communities). Read about the compay's social responsibility and then discuss how this strategy builds social capital, trust, reciprocity, honesty etc.

Register your responses as a comment to this post. We will use this then as an example to focus on civic participation next week, as well as religious participation.

See ya'll next week.

Ian

Political Participation: Chapter 2

America offers many ways to get involved in politics, however, most Americans do not make an effort to become a part of the “political community”

OUTLETS OF POLITICAL EXPRESSION
Contacting local and national offices.
Working for political parties
Discussing politics with friends and neighbors
Attending public meetings.
Joining election campaigns
Petitions
Talking on radio
Voting

VOTING
Of all the democratic countries, fewer Americans go to the polls than most other democracies.

The number of Americans going to the polls has declined by a quarter in the past 36 years.

Non voting is the most visible symptom of a broader disengagement from community life.

Reasons people do not vote:
Growing distrust of government
Declining party mobilization
Fraying social bonds
Political dealignment
Generational change (gradual replacement of voters who came of age before or during the New Deal and WWI by later generation.

Types of Social and Generational Change:
Intracohort- many people change their tastes and habits in one direction simultaneously. For example in the 1990’s everyone bought more S.U.V.’s because this change was seen in all age cohorts, it is intracohort.
Intercohort- This type of change is much slower. Different generations do not change their beliefs, so older ones have to die out before the norm of the belief is changed. Sexual morality is a good example of intercohort change, older generations are more modest in their sexual expression, but now that they are older and dying out sex is becoming more socially acceptable (as seen on TV., in magazines, etc.).

IGNORANCE
Americans are now less likely to know the dynamics of politics which makes them less likely to participate.
Fewer Americans follow public affairs

$Money$
Parties have become better financed over the years despite the fact that fewer Americans participate in political activities.
Financial capital has replaced social capital- People donate more money instead of donating time. Participation in politics is increasingly based on the checkbook.


PARTICIPATION
Frequency of every form of community involvement measure in the Roper Poles declined significantly.
“cooperative” forms of behavior (ex. Committees) have declined more rapidly than “expressive” forms of behavior. This is an indicator of a more individualistic.
Cooperation is falling more rapidly than self-expression, so people are more likely to identify problems, but less likely to get together to fix them.

Civic Participation: Chapter 3

Americans are more likely to be involved in voluntary associations than citizens of most other nations. The only nations with more participation in voluntary organizations are some of the small nations in northern Europe.

Three Categories of American Voluntary Associations
v Community Based
v Church Based
v Work Based
Community Based
v Between 1968-1997 the number of nonprofit organizations in the US increased from 10,299 to 22,901
v However, though there is more than double the number of different organizations, average membership per organizations has decreased from 10,000 to 1,000
v Traditionally organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Knights of Columbus, Lions Club, etc… were headquartered in areas of high group participation
New Type of Organization
v The AARP, one of the fastest growing and largest organizations in the nation, is located in the center of Washington DC
v It is a professionally staffed advocacy center and is not member-centered
v It depends on financial support from its members and represents them in a political sense; however, it does not give the members a community to join and interact in
v For these types of group the only act of membership is writing a check for the dues, they have no interaction with other members even though they share the same interests
Organizations with Community Based Activity
v Participation in these groups from 1900-2000
§ Steady growth from 1900-1930
§ 1930-1940 participation plummets during Great Depression
§ Post WWII to 1957 period of greatest growth
§ 1957-mid 1960’s plateau
§ Mid 1960’s to present steady decline
Active Participation
v Active Participation(serving as an officer or committee member) has also showed steady declines
§ Between 1973 and 1994 the percentage of people who took a leadership role decreased by more than 50%
· In 1973, 16% of all organization members had served an active role
· By 1994, that percentage had decreased to 8%
Hours of Participation per Month
v Between 1965 and 1995, once each decade a sample of Americans was asked to complete “time diaries” recording how they spent every minute of a certain day. From these diaries data has been constructed about how much time was spent in community organization involvement.
v In 1965, the average American spent 3.7 hours per month on organizational life (excluding religious organizations), by 1995 that number was down to 2.3 hours
v In 1965, on an average day 7% of Americans spent some time in a community organization, by 1995 only 3% did
Leisure Money Spent on Organizations
v In 1929, 6 cents out of every dollar of consumer spending for leisure and recreation was for club and fraternal dues.
v By 1997, it had decreased to 3 cents per dollar

Thus whether you are considering organization membership, active involvement, time diaries, or percentage of leisure money spent, all the data supports the fact that community organization participation has fallen greatly over the past three decades. If the current rate of decline in community organizations continues in America, clubs would be extinct within less than twenty years.

Discussion Points
v What could be done to revive participation in community based organizations?
v How are these new organizations such as AARP harming the traditional community based organizations?
v Most college students are involved in some of these types of organizations, what could be done to keep these students in groups after they graduate?

Welcome LBAR181ers,

This weblog will become our online forum for discussion of readings and issues relating to civil society in the United States.

You are required to log your reading summary (300-400 words) the Friday before your scheduled seminar. In doing so, you will need to post a series of questions to generate discussion on your reading as well as associated articles drawn from news sites (or elsewhere) that highlight, illustrate, or complement your focus.

It is each person's responsibility to engagement in this online civil society forum.

Ian