ABSTRACT

Robert Putnam discovered evidence of a negative correlation between racial and ethnic diversity and social capital formation. Social capital refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. The parent-teacher association (PTA) has been an especially important form of civic engagement in twentieth-century America because parental involvement in the educational process represents a particularly productive form of social capital. More Americans are bowling today than ever before, but bowling in organized leagues has plummeted in the last decade or so. Bowling teams illustrate yet another vanishing form of social capital. America still ranks relatively high by cross-national standards on both the dimensions of social capital. American social capital in the form of civic associations has significantly eroded over the last generation. They are more trusting and more engaged than people in most other countries of the world.