Research Methods: Analysis of the Bowling Alone Study

1. Research Methods: Analysis of the Bowling Alone Study Dr. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community, 2000 Creating Social Capital in Tampa Bay The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America

2. Bowling Alone Title of Study: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Investigator: Dr. Robert D. Putnam Research Question: Is social capital increasing or decreasing in the long term in America and depending on the direction, why? Hypotheses: A series of independent variables and their relationship to decline in social capital are examined Data and Methods: Examination of secondary data – longitudinal data – national data sets and state by state - sources included Roper Social and Political Trends archive, DDB Needham Lifestyle surveys, archival data from the Americans’ Use of Time project - multiple regression analysis applied to data sets to identify independent contributions of each independent variable and confirm causal relationships

3. Bowling Alone Long Term Trend of Decline in Social Capital in America? • Family dinners and family vacations or even just sitting and talking with your family are down by one third in last 25 years. • Having friends over to the house is down by 45 percent over last 25 years. • Participation in clubs and civic organizations has been cut by more than half over last 25 years. • Involvement in community life, such as public meetings is down by 35 percent over last 25 years. • Church attendance is down by roughly one third since 1960s. • Philanthropy as fraction of income is down by nearly one third since 1960s. • The number of socially isolated Americans have more than doubled over the 2 decades from 1984-2004 from 10% to a quarter of all Americans. • While 55 percent of American adults in 1960 believed others could be trusted most or all of the time, only 30 percent did in 1998, and the future looks bleaker because the decline was sharpest among our nation’s youth. Roughly three-quarters of Americans trusted government to do the right thing most or all the time in 1960, a figure that sounds quaint today when less than 25 percent trust the government.

4. Bowling Alone From nearly 500,00 interviews over the last quarter century show that we… • Sign fewer petitions • Belong to fewer organizations that meet • Know our neighbors less • Meet with friends less frequently • Socialize with our families less often Declining Social Capital: Trends over the last 25 years • 58% decline in club and civic organization participation • 33% decline in family dinners • 33% decline in church attendance • 45% decline in having Friends over • 35% decline in involvement in community life (public meetings)

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8. Bowling Alone “We are bowling alone. While a record number of Americans bowl today, bowling in organized leagues plunged 40 percent from 1980 to 1993. Lest you think this a trivial factoid, over 25% more Americans (91 million) bowled once or more in 1996 than voted in the 1998 congressional elections. Our point is not that bowling is critical to America’s future, but that in bowling leagues, fraternal organizations, choral societies and thousands of other places where Americans regularly meet, fellow citizens talk periodically about issues of civic importance and learn to trust others and work together. And alas, these civic watering holes are drying up.”

9. Bowling Alone • What does “social capital” mean? Social networks have value – that is the central premise of social capital. Social capital refers to the collective value of all “social networks” [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other [“norms of reciprocity”]. • How does social capital work? The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings, but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well.

10. Bowling Alone Social capital works through multiple channels: • Information flows (e.g. learning about jobs, learning about candidates running for office, exchanging ideas at college, etc.) depend on social capital. • Norms of reciprocity (mutual aid) rely on social networks. Bonding networks that connect folks who are similar sustain particularized (in-group) reciprocity. Bridging networks that connect individuals who are diverse sustain generalized reciprocity. • Collective action depends upon social networks although collective action also can foster new networks (the neighborhood which fights back against crime). • Broader identities and solidarity are encouraged by social networks that help translate an "I" mentality into a "we" mentality.

11. Bowling Alone What are some examples of social capital? • When a group of neighbors informally keep an eye on one another's homes, that's social capital in action. • When a tightly knit community of Hassidic Jews trade diamonds without having to test each gem for purity, that's social capital in action. • Barn-raising on the frontier was social capital in action, and so too are e-mail exchanges among members of a cancer support group. • Social capital can be found in friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs, civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers "where everybody knows your name" captures one important aspect of social capital. Social capital includes: • The proportion of people who believe that “most people can be trusted” • The number of civic, religious and political organizations in a society – and what proportion of people are actively involved in them • The frequency of informal socializing, including eating meals at each others’ houses, playing games, using public parks • These are specific measures for social capital.

12. Bowling Alone – Major Findings What caused this long term decline?This is far too complicated a question to consider briefly. After considering a whole host of reasons, it is most likely that the cause is probably: • 10% sprawl and the increased geographic complexity of our lives • 10% two-career families and the fact that men haven’t picked up the civic slack created when more women entered the paid work force • Some 25% television (which seems to cause viewers to increasingly be less civic and which has absorbed more than 100% of the increase in leisure time from the 1960s) • Up to 50% from generational trends - as those born after 1930 have increasingly been far less civic than those born before 1930. • 10-15% might be a combination of TV & generational replacement (think of this as within the combined 75% for TV & generational trends) • Other – 5% So of the list of suspects, what is the leading cause of this long term trend?

13. Bowling Alone Why is social capital important? • A growing body of hard-nosed literature over the last several years shows that social capital enables many important individual and social goods. • Communities with higher levels of social capital are likely to have higher educational achievement, better performing governmental institutions, faster economic growth, and less crime and violence. And the people living in these communities are likely to be happier, healthier, and to have a longer life expectancy. • In places with greater social connectedness, it is easier to mobilize people to tackle problems of public concern (a hazardous waste facility, a crime problem, building a community park, to name only a few examples), and easier to arrange things that benefit the group as a whole (a child-care cooperative among welfare mothers; a micro-lending group that enables poor people to start businesses; or farmers banding together to share expensive tools and machinery).

14. Bowling Alone Benefits of Social Capital • People with more dense friendship networks are healthier. • There is less crime in places where people know their neighbors. • School students perform better when parents are more involved in community affairs. • Government works better when more people get involved in civic life. • Enhanced economic achievement through increased trust • Joining and participating in one group cuts your odds of dying over the next year in half. Joining two groups cuts it by three quarters. • If you had to choose between 10% more cops on the beat or 10% more citizens knowing their neighbors' first names, the latter is a better crime prevention strategy. • If you had to choose between 10% more teachers or 10% more parents being involved in their kids' education, the latter is a better route to educational achievement.

15. Bowling Alone How can we build social capital? • We build social capital by creating new ties and strengthening old ones. These connections may increase individual well-being and opportunity by linking people more strongly to their local community and to larger societal resources. Or they may build community by strengthening bonds that link community members or by bridging divisions between them. The new ties may be formal, like a club, association, or civic institution, or informal, like a group of friends talking or colleagues collaborating. • There is no limit to the number of specific pathways to social capital creation. • How to build social capital in each community, family, block, or neighborhood is best left to community-based groups.

16. Bowling Alone American states ranked according to the Social Capital Index The Social Capital Index is composed of the following fourteen indicators: • Agree that "I spend a lot of time visiting friends" • Agree that "Most people can be trusted" • Agree that "Most people are honest" • Attendance at any public meeting on town or school affairs in last year (percent) • Number of civic and social organizations per 1000 population • Average number of club meetings attended in last year • Average number of group memberships • Average number of times volunteered in last year • Average number of times entertained at home in last year • Average number of times worked on community project in last year • Number of non-profit (501[c]3) organizations per 1000 population • Served as officer of some club or organization in last year (percent) • Served on committee of some local organization in last year (percent) • Turnout in presidential elections, 1988 and 1992

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21. Bowling Alone – State by State Rank/StateScore 1. North Dakota 1.71 2. South Dakota 1.69 3. Vermont 1.42 4. Minnesota 1.32 5. Montana 1.29 27. California -0.18 28. D.C. -0.18 29. Ohio -0.18 37. FL -.0.47 48. Miss. -1.17 49. Nevada -1.43

22. Bowling Alone – Potential Criticisms and Responses I’ve heard a lot of controversy over whether Putnam and the “Bowling Alone” thesis is right. Is our civic disengagement a point of agreement? • Much of the controversy surrounding “Bowling Alone” the article concerned the fact that the article focused significantly on group memberships and also focused on memberships in specific organizations (the Elks, bowling leagues, the PTAs). • Three key criticisms were: 1) that it didn’t include informal schmoozing; 2) didn’t include new more innovative organizations; and 3) didn’t look at the full range of political forms of participation. Professor Putnam knew at that time that these other forms of social capital were equally important, but couldn’t find reliable data source(s) that would tell us about these civic trends over the last 2-3 decades. Since then, he accessed data from the Roper Organization and learned about and got access to the DDB Needham Lifestyle database. Both of these massive data sets, asked of tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last 25 years, directly answer these earlier criticisms and show that these trends of civic disengagement extend both to organizations in general, to informal schmoozing, and to 12 forms of political participation. • No academic has called into question the reliability of these data. Since the publication of Bowling Alone (the book), there has been far greater acceptance of the fact that we are less civicly engaged than a generation ago, and most of the stalwart critics of this hypothesis have come over to the view that we have civicly disengaged over the last generation.

23. Bowling Alone Is volunteering increasing? • Yes volunteering has been increasing over the last quarter century. • Nevertheless, it is important to look at this increase by age group. More than all the increase is captured by those over age 60 whose volunteering has exploded over the last 25 years (from slightly over 6 times a year on average to well over 10). • The vast middle of the population (those 30-59 years of age) is actually slightly less likely to be volunteering now than back in 1975. • Finally there is evidence that young Americans are slightly more likely to be volunteering than a quarter century ago, even though roughly one-third of volunteering is required as a condition of graduation, and other young people volunteer to burnish their records for college admission. Nevertheless, this volunteering could have lifelong payoff since civic habits begin in youth. • With the exception of the volunteering uptick for Americans in college or younger, these patterns suggest that most of our volunteering spirit is being held up by the senior population (part of a long civic generation that has been especially civic all their lives, from when they were born in the 1920s and early 1930s all the way through a Great Depression, two World Wars, and up to the current day).

24. Bowling Alone What is the role of government in all this? Is government our curse or our salvation? • The field of social capital has attracted strange bedfellows: folks on the political right who believe that if we just got government off the backs of the average Joe, we could usher in a civic rebirth, and folks on the political left who believe that social capital building is a clarion call for a new activist role of government. • We think there is no simple one-to-one relationship between government and social capital. There are clear historical examples where government directly caused a decline in social capital: for example, the slum clearance programs in the late 1950s (from which we are still paying the price), or even the rise of government funding of kindergartens which caused an entire movement of supportive and involved mothers to disappear. Conversely there are examples that showcase how government has built more social capital or capitalized on what existed: for example, the development of the county extension service, the key role of postmasters general in curing polio through the March of Dimes, etc. In fact, Prof. Theda Skocpol has written that the postal service in general played a signal role in the nation's early social capital building. • It is hard to determine which way the causation runs; it probably runs in both directions. • “Probably what’s clear is that government could be aided by a more thoughtful screen on whether government programs are likely to augment or decrease the role of citizens.”

25. Bowling Alone How This Book Received Its Name • “Before October 29, 1997, John Lambert and Andy Boschma knew each other only through their local bowling league at the Ypsi-Arbor Lanes in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Lambert, a sixty-four-year-old retired employee of the University of Michigan hospital, had been on a kidney transplant waiting list for three years when Boschma, a thirty-three-year-old accountant, learned casually of Lambert's need and unexpectedly approached him to offer to donate one of his own kidneys. • Andy saw something in me that others didn't," said Lambert. "When we were in the hospital Andy said to me, 'John, I really like you and have a lot of respect for you. I wouldn't hesitate to do this all over again.' I got choked up." Boschma returned the feeling: "I obviously feel a kinship [with Lambert]. I cared about him before, but now I'm really rooting for him." This moving story speaks for itself, but the photograph that accompanied this report in the Ann Arbor News reveals that in addition to their differences in profession and generation, Boschma is white and Lambert is African American. That they bowled together made all the difference. In small ways like this -- and in larger ways, too -- we Americans need to reconnect with one another. That is the simple argument of this book.”

26. Bowling Alone Questions: • Research Question and Hypotheses? • Theory? • Literature Review? • Methods of Data Collection and Data Analysis? • Threats to Internal Validity – anything done or not done in the study which would compromise the ability to establish causality? • External validity – are the conclusions of this study generalizable to other people, places, & times? • What potential weaknesses and limitations to this study are noted by the researchers and how are they addressed? • Future research should focus on?