Social Capital

Describe the two most important forms of social capital

1. Bonding: This form of social capital only benefits the internal of homogenous groups. It reinforces a single groups identity. 2. Bridging: This form of social capital has a more broader benefit for not just one group, but for other groups. It is outward looking and encompasses people across diverse social networks.

How do faith-based organizations serve civic life?

1. Directly, by providing social support to their members and social services to the wider community. 2. Indirectly, by nurturing civic skills, inculcating moral values, encouraging altruism, and fostering civic recruitment among church people.

Endemic

Regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.

Ecumenical

Representing a number of different Christian churches.

Diverge

Separate from another route; go in a different direction.

Assiduous

Showing great care and perseverance.

Complacent

Showing smug or uncritical satisfaction of oneself or oneself's achievements.

Popular interest in current events naturally tends to rise and fall with what?

What's in the news.

At the conclusion of the twentieth century, ordinary Americans felt a sense of ________________ and _______________ about the implications of large-scale change.

ambivalence/ malaise

Simultaneously shamed and inspired by the quickening struggle for civil rights launched by young African Americans in the South, white colleges in the North began to do what?

awaken from the silence of the fifties.

Bonding capital is good for getting __________ while bridging capital is good for getting ___________.

by/ahead

The World War II Generation was particularly _____________ minded. Why is this?

civic/Because people began to become more interested in politics. Participation in civic issues increased as people became more interested in expressing themselves and their political concerns. The interest in politics actually has never been higher. Americans also felt increased confidence in their neighbors in terms of trust.

Many people think that individual people as well as groups of people can be ___________________ until something jumps up and bits them.

complacent

Social connections are also important for the rules of _______________ that they sustain. Why?

conduct/Because networks involve mutual obligations; they are not interesting as mere "contacts." Networks of community foster sturdy norms of reciprocity: I'll do this for you now, in the expectation that you (or perhaps someone else) will return the favor.

Perhaps the younger generation today is no less engaged that their predecessors, but what?

engaged in new ways.

Most social change involves both _____________ and ______________ processes.

individual/generational

Many people have fretted about the threat of ______________ with the more free time people started to have.

leisure

When economic and political dealing is embedded in dense networks of social interaction, what is reduced? Why?

malfeasance/ Because of the responsibility from the norms of reciprocity that social capital ends up fostering.

America is one of the most religiously what? With the exception of what countries?

observant countries in the contemporary world/Ireland and Poland

Preceding generations are always scorned as being what?

on the wrong path

Liberation from what is a recurrent and honored them in the American culture. Our national myths often exaggerate the role of _______________ heroes and understate the importance of _________________ effort. This seems to strike a powerful chord in the American _____________.

ossified community bonds/individual/collective/psyche

Any social change is always produced by some combination of what two very different processes. Describe them.

1. Many individuals change their tastes and habits in a single direction simultaneously. This sort of social change can occur quickly and be reversed just as quickly. Sociologists sometimes call this type of change "intracohort" because the change is detectable within each age cohort. 2. If different generations have different tastes or habits, the social physiology of birth and death will eventually transform society, even if no individual ever changes. Much of the sexual mores over the last several decades has been of this sort. Relatively few adults changed their view of morality but in the aggregate, American attitudes toward premarital sex, for example, have been radically liberalized over the last several decades, because a generation with stricter beliefs was gradually replaced by a later generation with more relaxed norms. Sociologists call this type of change "intercohort," because change is detectable only across different age groups.

Malaise

A general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify.

What is the Protestant ethic?

A view that a person's duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift, such success being a sign that one is saved.

How was America in the 50's and 60's in general?

America was white, straight, Christian, comfortable, and male. Social reformers had their work cut out for them. However, engagement in community affairs and the sense of shared identity and reciprocity had never been greater in modern America. The signs of burgeoning civic vitality were also favorable among the younger baby boomer generation approaching college. Studies confirmed that education was by far the best predictor of engagement in civic life, and universities were in the midst of the most far-reaching expansion in American history. Education seemed to be the key to both greater tolerance and greater social involvement.

A society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society why?

Because if we don't have to balance every exchange instantly, we can get a lot more accomplished. Frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity. Civic engagement and social capital entail mutual obligation and responsibility for action. Social networks and norms of reciprocity can facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit.

Why wasn't the 50's and 60's a "golden age" for some?

Because many were marginalized because of their race or gender or social class or sexual orientation. Segregation, by race legally and by gender socially, was the norm, and intolerance, though declining, was still disturbingly high.

What cause the civic mindedness during and after World War II?

Because of assiduous civic gardeners and increasing affluence and education.

Burgeon

Begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish

Bridging is good for what?

Better for linkage to external assets and for information diffusion. Also generates broader identities and reciprocity.

Ossified

Cease developing; stagnant or rigid

Give an example of bridging social capital.

Civil rights movement, many youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations.

Summarize organizational membership in the past century.

For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century Americans' involvement in civic associations of all sorts rose steadily, except for the parenthesis of the Great Depression. In the last third of the century, by contrast, only mailing list membership has continued to expand, with the creation of an entirely new species of "tertiary" association whose members never actually meet. At the same time, active involvement in face-to-face organizations has plummeted, whether we consider organizational records, survey reports, time diaries, or consumer expenditures. We could surely find exceptions of specific organizations that sailed against the prevailing winds and tides, but the broad picture is one of declining membership in community organizations.

Give an example of bonding social capital.

Fraternal organizations, church-based women's reading groups, and fashionable country clubs.

Ambivelant

Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

Somehow in the last several decades of the twentieth century, what has began to fade?

Many community groups and organizations.

Discern

Perceive or recognize

Describe some the benefits we receive from having social capital.

Private return: 1. Better jobs or career advancement. Sometimes it's who you know, not what you know. 2. Finding a helping hand. 3. A shoulder to cry on. 4. Companionship. Collective return 1. Safer neighborhoods from the community keeping an eye on the area. 2. Many other benefits that affect the community as a whole.

What's the difference between specific reciprocity vs. generalized reciprocity?

Specific reciprocity as the name suggests means "I'll do this for you if you do that for me." Generalized means "I'll do this for you, in the confident expectation that someone else will do something for me down the road. Generalized reciprocity is when you rely on the kindness of strangers.

Altruism

The belief or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.

What is social capital?

The idea that social networks have value. It has value because it can increase productivity (both individual and collective). It is connections among individuals--social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.

What is reciprocity?

The practice of exchanging things with one another for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one country or organization to another.

Inculcate

To instill by persistent instruction

Casting a broad net

To think about a large number of people or things when choosing the person or thing that you want. You are being less discriminating in your initial selection. The wider net you toss, the more likely you will get the candidate or thing you want.

Bonding is good for what?

Undergirding specific reciprocity and mobilizing identity and solidarity among a group.

In recent years social scientists have framed concerns about the changing character of American society in terms of a concept called what?

social capital

The forms of our social capital--the ways in which we connect with friends and neighbors and strangers--are what?

varied.