Law, Business and Society 11th Edition by Tony McAdams

تمرين 58

In his now famous book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam meticulously documented the decline of what he labeled social capital, the community and commitment bonds that seem to emerge in a culture where people regularly interact with one another. Putnam's book explains that virtually every measure of social interaction, from voting to picnics to playing cards, to church attendance, to membership in social clubs fell significantly from roughly 1975 to 2000. The most vivid example was a decline of 40 percent in league bowling from 1980 to 2000 although the total number of bowlers increased by about 10 percent; thus the notion of "bowling alone." Even the tradition of inviting others to visit one's home as dinner guests fell by about 40 percent. Criticism of Putnam's thesis was abundant with many saying he focused too much on "older" activities such as social clubs and not enough on emerging interests such as Internet groups.
Putnam's more recent research has produced no convincing evidence of rising community engagement among adults, but he acknowledges they are reaching one another in different ways from the past, principally through social media. In contrast to Putnam's discouraging assessment, Americans say they trust their neighbors (76 percent) and talk with them frequently (44 percent); these self-reported measures of neighborliness have been rising recently.
An Opportunity Gap and Declining Community
Putnam has for the last few years been collecting data about the growing gap in opportunities among socioeconomic classes of American children. In decades past, parents with high school educations invested money and time in their children at much the same level as college-graduate parents, but today a large gap has grown in both resources, favoring, of course, the more affluent families. Specifically, the more comfortable class of children receive about one hour per day more time with their parents than do less advantaged children. A generation ago, Putnam says, participation in extracurricular activities varied little by social class, but today participation has risen sharply for affluent children while falling sharply among those less well-off. One of the results of this opportunity divide is that children of the well-off express increasing trust in those around them while that trust has "collapsed" among the less well-off children.
Likewise, young products of affluent America have steadily deepened their community engagement (going to church more, better connecting to their parents, volunteering) while the less affluent young whites have withdrawn or never undertaken that engagement. That disparity in involvement is not present among young blacks, but the overall engagement gap between whites and blacks is wide.
Is Putnam correct about (a) declining social capital in America and (b) a growing opportunity gap between affluent and less well-off children Explain.