This trust cannot be achieved when members of an organization never meet on another. Putnam's compelling argues that over the past thirty years we have become ever more alienated from one another and from our social and political institutions. This disengagement, Putnam warns, poses a critical threat to our personal health, local communities, and national well-being. Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, suburban sprawl, computers, women's roles and especially television have contributed to this decline. Electronic entertainment has dramatically privatized our leisure time.
Age also contributes to the decline.
Baby boomers and Generation X-ers are much less engaged in most forms of community life than those born in the first third of the twentieth century. Putman has become the most important of several scholars who have given the idea of social capital or what others call civil society a dramatic resurgence in the American public discourse. It began when after the fall of the Soviet Union when we learned of the brave Eastern European rebels who used the enclaves of civil society to nurture their successful rebellion against communism. Suddenly, the ordinary world of civic participation, family dinners, PTA meetings soccer leagues and even schmoozing has taken on social weight. From across the political spectrum conferences and seminars attended by politicians, foundation executives and pace-setting opinion makers have drawn connections between these mundane activities and the breakdown in community.