Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital ...

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Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital”. • “ Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition…are forever forming ...
Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” • “Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition…are forever forming associations. They are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different types—religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute” (Quoting Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, 1830s) • “Historical evidence [from Putnam’s research on social capital in renaissance Italy] suggested that networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity, far from being an epiphenomenon of socioeconomic modernization, where a precondition for it.” • Social capital “refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.” o Fosters sturdy norms of generalized reciprocity o Encourages the emergence of social trust o Facilitates coordination and communication o Amplifies reputations o Allows dilemmas of collective action to be resolved • So what happened to social capital in the US? Steady declines have registered in all of the following groups: election turnout, town hall meeting attendance, political rallies, serving on a committee, churchrelated groups, sports groups, professional societies, literary societies, labor unions, fraternal groups, veterans’ groups, and service clubs.” And, finally, “more Americans are bowling today than ever before, but bowling in organized leagues has plummeted in the last decade or so.” Why is this happening, and what does it mean? (What are the lessons for policymakers?) 1. The movement of women into the labor force 2. Mobility: the “re-potting” hypothesis 3. Other demographic transformations (fewer marriages, more divorce, lower real wages, etc…) 4. The technological transformation of leisure

Seyla Benhabib, “The Claims of Culture” Benhabib, the question of cosmopolitanism and Kantian 'perpetual peace' • Bhikhu Parekh's list of “twelve practices that most frequently lead to clashes of intercultural evaluation: female circumcision; polygamy; … methods of animal slaughter; arranged marriages; [intra-family] marriages; scarring children's [body parts]; Muslim withdrawal of girls from coeducational practices such as sports...; Muslim insistence that girls wear the hijab...; Sikh insistence on wearing or taking off traditional turbans; Gypsy and Amish refusal to send their children to public schools...; Hindu requests to be allowed to cremate their deceased; the subordinate status of women...” • The core challenge of reconciling liberalism, multiculturalism (and/or pluralism) and the distinction between the public sphere and the private sphere. Where does the one end and the other begin? Two case studies 1. Indian law, Muslim law, and the case of Shah Bano Begun (238) 2. L'affaire foulard: France and the 20-year long debate of the wearing of the veil in public • “women from different countries signal to one another their ethnic and national origins through their clothing...seem from the outside, however, this complex semiotic of dress codes is reduced...” • What is Benhabib saying about Fatima, Leila, and Samira's actions in the 1989 case? (240) • Under the 'Bayrou' guidelines, the minister [of education] declared that students had the right to wear discrete religious symbols, but that the veil was not among them”