Free Essay On Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital And Still Bowling Alone? The Post-9/11 Split

Social capital alludes to quality and aggregate of social associations among the members of a society, it is the measure of social and civic engagement and social trust that encourages coordination and participation for common good of the people. The theory of social capital argues that association of members of a society with one another on different levels and in different spheres increases social trust level of a society and this social trust gives rise to the norm of reciprocity where people from different walks of life come together, form social networks and act for the mutual benefit and development.  In any case, systems of civic engagement foster solid standards of mutual correspondence and support the rise of social trust. Such systems encourage coordination and participation and along these lines promotes group activities. Social capital manifests itself usually in the form of civic activities in the society, for example in the form of high voter turnout, membership in choral societies and football or other sports clubs, newspaper subscription etc.
In addition, as the world is becoming a global village and the technology has shrunk the distances the concepts of multiculturalism and global citizenship are much more relevant. In this new era of the global community, the notion of social capital has attained a lot of significances. Social capital is manifesting itself in the forms of many support groups in this multicultural society and the number of support groups has significantly increased with the increase in cultural infusion. This cultural infusion is developing new kinds of bonds of trust among people of different races and origins. The concept of “citizen of the world” is meaningless without the trust of people around different part of the world and hence, the social capital in global society requires much more tolerance for the views of others. But, once nurtured the social capital can go a long way in turning the members of a society into true global citizens and this phenomenon can be observed in most of the multicultural societies that are enriched in social capital.
            Furthermore, in the context of academic and professional pursuits, social connection and civic-engagement has always been very influential. Civic engagements are of vital importance with regards to job placement, academic competence and for many other economic outcomes. Social networking in the new era of technology has largely become digitalized and this easy access has added into the increase social engagement between professional and academics and this consequently has developed a new layer of social trust and has also positively influence the performance of people in academic and professional spheres. Researchers have discovered that a new form of social engagement is establishing among workers and small entrepreneurs and this is generating highly efficient, highly flexible social interactions influencing competitive economy and industrial environment in a positive way.   

Works Cited

Putnam, Robert D. "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital." Journal of Democracy (1995): 65-78. Print.
Sander, Thomas H and Robert D Putnam. "Still Bowling Alone?: The Post-9/11 Split." Journal of Democracy 21.1 (2009): 9-16. Print.