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GOVERNMENT 2310/DPI 360 SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS Spring 2016 Professor Robert D. Putnam Wednesdays, 4:15-6:00 pm Classroom: Taubman 301, Harvard Kennedy School
In recent years an exciting, diverse, and rapidly growing body of research has suggested that the norms and networks of civil society have powerful practical effects in many disparate political and economic arenas. This research frontier centers on concepts such as “social capital” and “civil society.” That topic now is being extended to issues of inequality and social mobility. This seminar will explore this sprawling research frontier, focusing on contemporary America. Although many issues, concepts, and methods discussed in this seminar have important analogues in other settings, from Tanzania to New Zealand, the literature and substantive focus of this seminar is entirely US-based.
This seminar is for graduate students in government, public policy, the social sciences, and professional schools. It stands at the borderline between academic research and contemporary policy concerns. Some students in academic departments may find it too applied, while some students in professional schools may find it too theoretical. Thus, the seminar may be considered a case study in the intriguing challenges of applying social scientific concepts and methods to controversial public problems.
To accommodate as many of you as possible while keeping costs to a minimum, we have sought to locate as many of the readings as possible through Harvard’s e-resources. Required books are available for purchase at the Coop or on reserve at the HKS and Lamont libraries.
Requirements
(1) This seminar is centered on class discussion of the required readings, not lectures by the instructor. Everyone is expected to read and reflect on all required readings prior to class. As an empirical matter, completing the lion’s share of all assigned reading in a timely fashion is a necessary prerequisite for satisfactory completion of the course. Class participation will constitute a part of the grade, but asymmetrically, in the sense that volunteered contributions to class discussion can only help, not hurt ones grade. All students are expected to contribute to the discussion, and therefore "cold calls" may sometimes be employed. The seminar has no final examination, but the weekly reading and writing load is heavy. For non-HKS students: Go to http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/registrar/cross-registration to receive HKS login credentials to access the course materials.
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(2) You may choose to either:
a. Prepare ten (10) short response papers (750-1000 words) OR b. Prepare five (5) short response papers (750-1000 words) and a final research paper (c. 5000 words)
Short response papers critically review the required readings for a given week. Suggested themes are given for each week, but other themes are acceptable. You may choose which of the 13 weeks to write the papers (but at least two (2) short response papers must be completed within the first six weeks of the course). You may also write papers for more than the required number of weeks and drop the least successful from your record. Timely completion of the reading and full class participation is expected even during the weeks in which you do not submit a paper. All papers must be e-mailed to [email protected] no later than 9 am on Tuesday preceding the seminar. Be sure that the file name includes your name and the week’s topic (e.g., smith_internet.doc). To allow anonymous grading, please put your name on a separate page at the back of the file, not on the front page.
The purpose of the final research paper is to enable each student to apply the social capital approach to some theoretical or practical problem of special concern to him or her. Topics for the longer paper will be discussed in class, but past topics have included Wal-Mart and social capital, social capital and the Irish Church, a business plan for a charter school that will emphasize social capital, and a field study of social capital creation in Meetup.com. For those exercising Option B, an initial 1-2 page prospectus for this paper is due by e-mail no later than 4 pm on March 2nd. Every participant exercising this option should meet with the instructor to discuss his or her research prospectus during the following two weeks. The final research paper should be submitted by e-mail no later than 10 am on May 10th.
Note: A frequent and occasionally fatal error in completing the requirements for this seminar is failure to allow sufficient time for the actual research for the final research paper. Do not choose Option B unless you are certain that you will be able meet the deadline for the initial prospectus and that you will have adequate time to do the field research.
Please confirm with the instructor which paper option you have chosen by email ([email protected]) no later than the start of class on February 3rd
Evaluation . For those exercising Option A, the 10 short papers will constitute 90 percent of the final evaluation, and class participation 10 percent. Page 3
. For those exercising Option B, the short papers will count for 50 percent of the final evaluation, the final research paper will count for 40 percent, and class participation 10 percent.
Office Hours. Professor Putnam is available to meet with participants outside of class by appointment. His office is at HKS in Taubman 370; his office telephone is 617-495-1148; his home telephone is 617-876-9653. His office hours (by appointment only) are Tuesday 4 pm – 6 pm. Please email [email protected] for information and for all appointments.
Limited enrollment. Enrollment in this seminar will be capped at 20 to enable all students to participate actively in all classes. If the slots (c. 14) reserved for HKS students are over-subscribed, they will be allocated by lottery, following standard HKS policy. For the remaining slots, priority will be given to maximizing the diversity of the background of students. All seminar participants must meet all requirements—that is, no pure “auditors” will be admitted.
Academic Integrity Policy Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc), you must also acknowledge this assistance.
Please check the course page for updates and announcements at http://isites.harvard.edu/k104721
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CLASS SCHEDULE AND SYLLABUS January 27th: INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND EQUALITY (WEEK 1)
February 3rd: INEQUALITY: TWO AMERICAS? (WEEK 2)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, Chapter 1. “State of the Union: The Poverty and Inequality Report, 2014,” Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University (2014), pp.30-35, 53-59. http://web.stanford.edu/group/scspi/sotu/SOTU_2014_CPI.pdf Leslie McCall and Christine Percheski, “Income Inequality: New Trends and Research Directions,” Annual Review of Sociology 36 (2010): 329-347. http://www.annualreviews.org.ezp- prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102541 Jacob Hacker, “The Privatization of Risk and the Growing Economic Insecurity of Americans,” The Privatization of Risk Web Forum, Social Science Research Council (2006). http://privatizationofrisk.ssrc.org/Hacker/ Kendra Bischoff and Sean F. Reardon, “Residential Segregation by Income, 1970- 2009,” Diversity and Disparities: America Enters a New Century, John Logan (ed.) (Russell Sage, 2014) http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report10162013.pdf
Possible paper topic: What’s happened to American class structure in the last half century? February 10th: INEQUALITY AND FAMILIES (WEEK 3)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapters 3 + 4. Andrew Cherlin, The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (2009), pp. 159-180. Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson, Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City (2013), pp. 202-220. Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, 2nd ed. (2011), chapters 1 (first part) & 13, pp. 1-8 & 263-311. National Council on the Developing Child (working papers) 1. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2004). “Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships,” Working Paper No. 1. 2. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2005/2014). “Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain,” Working Paper No. 3, updated edition.http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_wo rking_papers/
Possible paper topic: Which do you find a more persuasive account of the changing American family—culture and values or structure and economics, red or blue? Why? February 17th: INEQUALITY AND SCHOOLS (WEEK 4) Page 5
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapter 5. Sean F. Reardon, “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations,” in Whither Opportunity? Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, eds. (2011), pp.91-115. Christopher Ruhm and Jane Waldfogel, “Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Care and Education,” IZA Discussion Paper No. 6149 (November 2011). http://ftp.iza.org/dp6149.pdf Susan Bailey, and Martha Dynarski, “Inequality in Postsecondary Education,” in Whither Opportunity? Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, eds. (2011), pp. 117-132. A.S. Bryk, P.B. Sebring, E. Allensworth, S. Luppescu and J.Q. Easton, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (2010), pp. 1-11; 168-187. Mark R. Warren, “Communities and Schools: A New View of Urban Education Reform,” Harvard Educational Review 75 (2) (2005). http://www.presidentsleadershipclass.org/images/uploads/ca_files/Communit ies_and_Schools.pdf Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, “How Public Schools Can Fight Back Against Inequality,” Atlantic, February 11, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/how-public-schools- can-fight-back-against-inequality/283669/ Scott Jaschik, “Study says many highly talented low-income students never apply to top colleges,” Inside Higher Ed, December 11, 2012. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/12/11/study-says-many-highly- talented-low-income-students-never-apply-top-colleges
Possible Paper topic: Can educational institutions do much to narrow the opportunity gap? How, or why not? February 24th: INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 5)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapter 6.
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapters 1-9.
Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert, “The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty,” in Social Capital and Poor Communities, Susan Saegert, J. Phillip Thompson, and Mark R. Warren, eds. (2002), pp. 1-28. Lyda Judson Hanifan, “Chapter VI: Social Capital: Its Development and Use,” in The Community Center (1920), pp. 78-90.
Possible Paper topic: Is it true that it takes a village to raise a child, and that all our villages are deteriorating? If so, what can be done for poor kids?
NB: TERM PAPER PROSPECTUSES ARE DUE March 2 nd Page 6
March 2nd: COMMUNITY IN AMERICAN HISTORY: PROGRESSIVE ERA (WEEK 6)
William J. Rorabaugh, Donald T. Critchlow, and Paula Baker, America’s Promise: A Concise History of the United States, vol. II. (2004), pp. 342-421, 464-488.
Possible paper topics: Does the Progressive Era constitute an attractive and appropriate inspiration for our own times or not? Was it about social capital or social control? March 9th: DOMAINS OF THE PROBLEM: RACE, CLASS AND THE CITIES (WEEK 7)
Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert, “The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty,” in Social Capital and Poor Communities (2002), pp. 1-28.
Elijah Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (1999), pp. 15-34. Thomas Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (1996), pp. 209-229. Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (2006), pp. 1-8, 14-23, 62-87. Robert J. Sampson, “Crime and Public Safety: Insights from Community-Level Perspectives on Social Capital,” in Social Capital and Poor Communities, Susan Saegert, J. Phillip Thompson, and Mark R. Warren, eds., (2001), pp. 89-114.
Possible paper topic: What is the “social capital” diagnosis of America’s urban problems? How persuasive is it? March 16th: NO CLASS
March 23rd: DOMAINS OF THE PROBLEM: SPACE, SPRAWL, ‘THE THIRD PLACE’, AND ‘THE NEW URBANISM’ (WEEK 8)
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapter 12. Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie, Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl (1997), chapter 2 (pp. 36-74). Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), chapters 3 and 6 (pp. 55-73, 112-140). Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, (1985), chapters 13-15 (pp. 231-282). M. P. Baumgartner, The Moral Order of a Suburb (1988), chapter 4 (pp. 72-100). Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place (1989), chapters 1-2 (pp. 3-42).
Possible paper topics: Have we made our places, or have our places made us? How? What can we do about it?
March 30th: RELIGION AS SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 9)
Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (2010), chapters 1, 3, 4, 13, 14, & 15. Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007), chapter 2 (pp. 15-36). Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy (2001), Introduction and chapter 9 (pp. 3-14, 241-264). Jenny Berrien, Omar McRoberts, and Christopher Winship, “Religion and the Boston Miracle: the Effect of Black Ministry on Youth Violence,” in Who Will Provide? The Changing Role of Religion in American Social Welfare, Mary Jo Bane, Brent Coffin, and Ronald Thiemann, eds. (2000), pp. 266-285. Page 8
Possible paper topic: What are the strengths and weaknesses of religiously based social capital?
April 6th: THE WORKPLACE: PART OF THE PROBLEM OR PART OF THE SOLUTION? (WEEK 10)
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapters 5 and 11. Alan Wolfe, “Developing Civil Society: Can the Workplace Replace Bowling?” The Responsive Community (Spring 1998): 41-47. http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcq/issues/8-2.pdf
Possible paper topic: Is the workplace part of the problem or part of the solution? April 13th: DIVERSITY, IMMIGRATION, AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 11)
Mary C. Waters and Tomas R. Jimenez, "Assessing Immigrant Assimilation: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges," Annual Review of Sociology 31 (2005): 105-125. http://ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=aph&AN=17647375&site=ehost-live&scope=site Robert D. Putnam, “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the 21st Century: The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture” Scandinavian Political Studies 30 (June 2007): 137-174. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467- 9477.2007.00176.x/pdf Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook, “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks,” in Annual Review of Sociology, 27 (2001): 415- 444.http://ezp1.harvard.edu/login? url=http://search.epnet.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=aph&an=5163030&loginpage=Login.asp&scope=site Gary Gerstle and J. H. Mollenkopf, “Introduction: The Political Incorporation of Immigrants, Then and Now,” in E Pluribus Unum?: Contemporary and Historical Page 9
Perspectives on Immigrant Political Incorporation Gary Gerstle and J. H. Mollenkopf, eds. (2001), pp. 1-30. Alex Kotlowitz, “Our Town,” New York Times, August 5, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05Immigration-t.html John Horton, The Politics of Diversity: Immigration, Resistance, and Change in Monterey Park, California (1995), pp. 10-24 and pp. 35-58. Warren St. John, Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference (2009), chapters 5 (53-62), 7, 8, 9 (71- 98), 14 (143-148), 19, 20, 21 (172-200). View “Farmingville,” a film by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini (2004).
Possible paper topics: How do immigration and ethnic diversity affect social capital? How are bridging and bonding social capital related? If there is a policy problem here, what can we do about it? April 20th: INTERNET AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 12)
Claude S. Fischer, “Technology and Community: Historical Complexities,” Sociological Inquiry 67 (1) (Winter 1997): 113-118. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1475- 682X.1997.tb00433.x/pdf. Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, Networked: The New Social Operating System (2012), pp. 3-20. Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions Goulet, Eun Ja Her and Lee Rainie, Social Isolation and New Technology (Pew Research Internet Project, November 4, 2009), “Overview.” http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/11/04/social-isolation-and- new-technology/ Andrea Miconi, “Review of Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, Networked: The New Social Operating System,” International Journal of Communication 7 (2013), Book Review: 954-959. ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/2114/895 Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, and Henry E. Brady, “Weapon of the Strong? Participatory Inequality and the Internet,” Perspectives on Politics 8 (2) (2010): 487-509. http://journals.cambridge.org.ezp- prod1.hul.harvard.edu/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7804317 Sherry Turkle, “Connected But Alone,” Ted Talk (February 2012). http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html Kevin Lewis, Kurt Gray, and Jens Meierhenrich, “The Structure of Online Activism,” Sociological Science (February 18, 2014): 1-9. http://www.sociologicalscience.com/download/volume%201/february_/The %20Structure%20of%20Online%20Activism.pdf Keith Hampton, Lee Rainie, Weixu Lu, Maria Dwyer, Inyoung Shin and Kristen Purcell, “Social Media and the Spiral of Silence,” Pew Internet Research website. http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/08/26/social-media-and-the- spiral-of-silence/ Page 10
Danah Boyd, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (2014), pp 153- 175.
Possible paper topic: Can the Internet reverse the decline of social capital? If so, how? If not, why not? April 27th: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (WEEK 13)
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapters 21-22. Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), chapters 21-22 (pp. 250-283). Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (1995), chapters 11 & 17 (pp. 304-333 & 509-533). Jeffrey M. Berry, Kent E. Portney, and Ken Thomson, The Rebirth of Urban Democracy (1993), chapters 1, 3, 4, (pp. 1-17; 46-98). Diana Mutz, Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy (2006), chapter 5 (pp.125-151). Mark Button and Kevin Mattson, "Deliberative Democracy in Practice," Polity 31(4) (1999): 609-637. http://www.jstor.org.ezp- prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/3235238 Peter L. Berger and Richard John Neuhaus, To Empower People: The Role of Mediating Structures in Public Policy (1977), pp. 1-45. Meira Levinson, “The Civic Achievement Gap,” Circle Working Paper 51 (January 2007). http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP51Levinson.pdf Morris Fiorina, “Extreme Voices: A Dark Side of Civic Engagement,” in Civic Engagement in American Democracy, Theda Skocpol and Morris P. Fiorina, eds. (1999), pp. 395-425.
Possible paper topics: Is restoring social capital necessary, sufficient, or irrelevant for making American democracy work better? If it is necessary or sufficient, how do we do it?