Better Together: Restoring the American CommunityIn his acclaimed bestselling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam described a thirty-year decline in America's social institutions. The book ended with the hope that new forms of social connection might be invented in order to revive our communities. In Better Together, Putnam and longtime civic activist Lewis Feldstein describe some of the diverse locations and most compelling ways in which civic renewal is taking place today. In response to civic crises and local problems, they say, hardworking, committed people are reweaving the social fabric all across America, often in innovative ways that may turn out to be appropriate for the twenty-first century. Better Together is a book of stories about people who are building communities to solve specific problems. The examples Putnam and Feldstein describe span the country from big cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago to the Los Angeles suburbs, small Mississippi and Wisconsin towns, and quiet rural areas. The projects range from the strictly local to that of the men and women of UPS, who cover the nation. Bowling Alone looked at America from a broad and general perspective. Better Together takes us into Catherine Flannery's Roxbury, Massachusetts, living room, a UPS loading dock in Greensboro, North Carolina, a Philadelphia classroom, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, naval shipyard, and a Bay Area Web site. We meet activists driven by their visions, each of whom has chosen to succeed by building community: Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley who want paved roads, running water, and decent schools; Harvard University clerical workers searching for respect and improved working conditions; Waupun, Wisconsin, schoolchildren organizing to improve safety at a local railroad crossing; and merchants in Tupelo, Mississippi, joining with farmers to improve their economic status. As the stories in Better Together demonstrate, bringing people together by building on personal relationships remains one of the most effective strategies to enhance America's social health. |
Contents
1 | |
CHAPTER 2 | 34 |
CHAPTER 3 | 55 |
CHAPTER 4 | 75 |
CHAPTER 5 | 98 |
CHAPTER 6 | 119 |
CHAPTER 7 | 142 |
CHAPTER 8 | 166 |
Bringing Old Heads to the Schools | 186 |
CHAPTER 10 | 206 |
CHAPTER 11 | 225 |
CHAPTER 12 | 241 |
Making Social Capital Work | 269 |
Other editions - View all
Better Together: Restoring the American Community Robert D. Putnam,Lewis Feldstein,Donald J. Cohen Limited preview - 2004 |
Better Together: Restoring the American Community Robert D. Putnam,Lewis M. Feldstein No preview available - 2003 |
Better Together: Restoring the American Community Robert D. Putnam,Lewis Feldstein No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
action active adults American arts asked beginning believes bridge bring building called Center chapter church citizens civic commitment connection continue conversation craigslist create dance describes discussion Dudley early effect efforts employees engagement Experience Experience Corps fact formed Foundation give going groups hand Harvard hundred idea important improve interest Interfaith involved issues kids kind later leaders less live look managers meeting moving neighborhood networks organization Park participation percent political Portland problems reading relationships residents Saddleback says sense shared shipyard social capital stories Street success suggests talk tell things thousand tion town trust Tupelo turn understand union urban Valley volunteers workers