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2733d15
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We all know that the way to get something done is to give it to a busy person.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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3051734
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Social capital may turn out to be a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, effective computer-mediated communication.
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computers
internet
technology
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Robert D. Putnam |
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21093a1
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Poor kids, through no fault of their own, are less prepared by their families, their schools, and their communities to develop their God-given talents as fully as rich kids. For economic productivity and growth, our country needs as much talent as we can find, and we certainly can't afford to waste it. The opportunity gap imposes on all of us both real costs and what economists term "opportunity costs."
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social-mobility
society
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Robert D. Putnam |
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de0c466
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Social dislocation can easily breed a reactionary form of nostalgia.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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e0fd17a
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Financial capital - the wherewithal for mass marketing - has steadily replaced social capital - that is, grassroots citizen networks - as the coin of the realm.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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16bcd8a
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Parental wealth is especially important for social mobility, because it can provide informal insurance that allows kids to take more risks in search of more reward.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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b699ee4
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Upper-class parents enable their kids to form weak ties by exposing them more often to organized activities, professionals, and other adults. Working-class children, on the other hand, are more likely to interact regularly only with kin and neighborhood children, which limits their formation of valuable weak ties.
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society
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Robert D. Putnam |
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3ebe0cf
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Busy people tend to forgo the one activity - TV watching _ that is most lethal to community involvement
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Robert D. Putnam |
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6f6acab
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People divorced from community, occupation, and association are first and foremost among the supporters of extremism.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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4bf9bf7
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TV-based politics is to political action as watching ER is to saving someone in distress.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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c902999
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If we think of politics as an industry, we might delight in its new "labour-saving efficiency", but if we think of politics as democratic deliberation, to leave people out is to miss the whole point of the exercise."
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Robert D. Putnam |
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ba422b5
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Schools themselves aren't creating the opportunity gap: the gap is already large by the time children enter kindergarten and does not grow as children progress through school. The gaps in cognitive achievement by level of maternal education that we observe at age 18-powerful predictors of who goes to college and who does not - are mostly present at age 6when children enter school. Schooling plays only a minor role in alleviating or creating..
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opportunity
gaps
schooling
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Robert D. Putnam |
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84be10b
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Many people have a stereotype of what it means to be poor. And it may be somebody they see on the street corner with a sign: "Will work for food." And what they don't think about is that person who's struggling every day. Could be the person who waited on us, took our bank deposit, works in retail, but who is barely above the poverty line."
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Robert D. Putnam |
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4045f78
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Contemporary discussion of inequality in America often conflates two related but distinct issues: * Equality of income and wealth. The distribution of income and wealth among adults in today's America--framed by the Occupy movement as the 1 percent versus the 99 percent--has generated much partisan debate during the past several years. Historically, however, most Americans have not been greatly worried about that sort of inequality: we tend..
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Robert D. Putnam |
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e64492a
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The Progressives] outlook was activist and optimistic, not fatalist and despondent. The distinctive characteristic of the Progressives was their conviction that social evils would not remedy themselves and that it was foolhardy to wait passively for time's cure. As Herbert Croly put it, they did not believe that the future would take care of itself. Neither should we.
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Robert D. Putnam |
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b41abef
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1. Institutions shape politics. The rules and standard operating procedures that make up institutions leave their imprint on political outcomes by structuring political behavior. Outcomes are not simply reducible to the billiard-ball interaction of individuals nor to the intersection of broad social forces. Institutions influence outcomes because they shape actors' identities, power, and strategies. 2. Institutions are shaped by history. Wh..
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Robert D. Putnam |
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100e34c
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More plausible suspects in our mystery are the things that students collectively bring with them to school, ranging from(on the positive side of the ledger) academic encouragement at home and private funding for "extras" to (on the negative side) crime, drugs, and disorder. Whom you go to school with matters a lot."
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Robert D. Putnam |
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c966068
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Stressful conditions from outside school are much more likely to intrude into the classroom in high poverty schools. Every one of ten stressors is two to three times more common in high poverty schools-- Student hunger, unstable housing, lack of medical and dental care, caring for family members, immigration issues, community violence and safety issues.
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poverty
classroom
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Robert D. Putnam |
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3e349ee
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Slavery was, in fact, a social system designed to destroy social capital among slaves and between slaves and freemen.
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social-capital
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Robert D. Putnam |
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c015d94
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Without succumbing to political nightmares, we might ponder whether the bleak, socially estranged future facing poor kids in America today could have unanticipated political consequences tomorrow. So quite apart from the danger that the opportunity gap poses to American prosperity, it also undermines our democracy and perhaps even our political stability.
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prescient
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Robert D. Putnam |
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2270e80
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In the quarter century between 1979 and 2005, average after-tax income (adjusted for inflation) grew by $900 a year for the bottom fifth of American households, by $8,700 a year for the middle fifth, and by $745,000 a year for the top 1 percent of households.
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society
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Robert D. Putnam |