GOVERNMENT 94QA COMMUNITY IN AMERICA Fall 2016 Professor Robert D. Putnam Thursdays, 2:00-4:00 pm CGIS Knafel, K401 on September 1st All subsequent meetings at 997 Memorial Drive Faculty Assistant: Lisa MacPhee, office: HKS Littauer 207A 617-495-5994; [email protected]
Summary of Requirements
(1) All students are expected to complete all assigned readings and to contribute constructively to seminar discussions. The seminar has no final examination, but the weekly reading and writing load is heavy.
(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 uploaded under assignments on Canvas no later than 9 am on Thursdays 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 they might focus on some aspect of the history of a specific group or social practice that has embodied or affected community or inequality in America—e.g., veterans' organizations in your hometown, Portuguese clubs in Cambridge, playgrounds and play dates, the NAACP, fundamentalist churches, coffee bars, Harvard houses, political parties, or meetup.org. Good papers will combine library and field research and will explore the causes and/or consequences of the ups and downs of particular institutions or practices. For those exercising Option B, an initial 1-2 page prospectus for this paper is due via Canvas no later than 2pm on October 6th. 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 email to [email protected]. Date TBA.
Please confirm with the instructor which paper option you have chosen by email ([email protected]) no later than the start of class on September 8th.
(3) Evaluation: . For those exercising Option A, the 10 short papers will constitute 90 percent of the final evaluation, and class participation 10 percent. . 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.
(4) Readings: Everyone has a different preference regarding readings. 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. These readings are noted below where a URL has been included (many of these links require that you be logged into the Harvard library system). Required books are available for purchase at the Coop or on reserve at Lamont. All remaining readings will either be handed out in class or available to view on Canvas.
(5) 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 Fridays, 9am-12pm. Please email [email protected] for information and for all appointments.
(6) Research Aides: The library has officially assigned Kathleen Sheehan as the liaison to the Government department. She works out of both Widener and Lamont, and is available to meet with students for research consultations and general reference services. Her email is [email protected]; office number is 617-384-8089.
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 https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/16554
CLASS SCHEDULE AND SYLLABUS
September 1st: INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND EQUALITY (WEEK 1)
September 8th: INEQUALITY: TWO AMERICAS? (WEEK 2)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, Chapter 1. Chad Stone, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and Brandon DeBot, A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, D.C., 2015). pp. 1, 7-19. http://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/11-28-11pov_0.pdf Just for fun: http://flowingdata.com/2016/06/28/distributions-of-annual-income/ 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?
September 15th: INEQUALITY AND FAMILIES (WEEK 3)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapters 2 + 3. W. Bradford Wilcox, The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America (National Marriage Project, University of Virginia, 2010), http://stateofourunions.org/2010/SOOU2010.pdf, pp. 27-53. 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. 202-228. Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, 2nd ed. (2011), pp. 1-8 & 263-303. National Scientific 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?
September 22nd: INEQUALITY AND SCHOOLS (WEEK 4)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapter 4. 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 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?
September 29th: INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 5)
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapters 5 + 6. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), pp. 1-166. 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 October 6th October 6th: COMMUNITY IN AMERICAN HISTORY: PROGRESSIVE ERA (WEEK 6)
Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America (2005), chapter 1 (pp. 3-39). Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the “Gilded Age” 1865-1905 (2015), chapter 10 (pp. 193-210). Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapter 23. Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America: 1820-1920 (1978), chapters 10-12 (pp. 143-187). Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-1914 (1967), pp. 18-39, 61-91. Clarence Hooker, “Ford’s Sociology Department and the Americanization Campaign,” Journal of American Culture 20 (1) (Spring 1997): 47–51. Marvin Lazerson, “Urban Reform and the Schools: Kindergartens in Massachusetts, 1870-1915,” History of Education Quarterly (Summer 1971): 115-142. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/367590.pdf Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910 to 1940. NBER Working Paper No. 6439, (1998), pp. 1-8. http://www.nber.org/papers/w6439
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?
October 13th: 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.
Possible paper topic: What is the “social capital” diagnosis of America’s urban problems? How persuasive is it?
October 20th: 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), pp. 72-76; 91-100. 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?
October 27th: 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, & 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), chapter 9 (pp. 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.
Possible paper topic: What are the strengths and weaknesses of religiously- based social capital?
November 3rd: THE WORKPLACE: PART OF THE PROBLEM OR PART OF THE SOLUTION? (WEEK 10) Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), chapters 5 and 11. Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst (2008), “A Summary of Trends in U.S. Time Use: 1965– 2005.” http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/erik.hurst/research/leisure_summary_robinson_v1.pdf Kristin Goss and Tom Sander, “Work and Social Capital: An Overview,” (Saguaro Seminar, October 1998).
Possible paper topic: Is the workplace part of the problem or part of the solution? November 10th: 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?dire ct=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/l ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=5163030&loginpage=Login.asp&scop e=site Gary Gerstle and J. H. Mollenkopf, “Introduction: The Political Incorporation of Immigrants, Then and Now,” in E Pluribus Unum?: Contemporary and Historical 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 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?
November 17th: 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 Scott Wallsten, “What Are We Not Doing When We're Online?,” Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy, Avi Goldfarb, Shane M. Greenstein, and Catherine E. Tucker, eds. (University of Chicago Press, 2015) 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/ 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?
November 24rd: No Class
December 1st: 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?