They might still see the same television show, for instance, but have some seeing it as broadcast, some later through a DVR or other recording means, some even later in re-run and on a different station in syndication, and today some using hand-held devices, computers, and even telephones to see the same program. These people are still sharing the basic experience of the cultural artifact, the television show, though they are doing so on their own schedule and using different media for the experience. Is Putnam concerned about the lack of a shared experience of the cultural artifact itself or of the television set as a technology? Clearly, he is concerned about the lack of a shared experience and not a shared technology, but the way he analyzes that part of the issue fails to recognize the realities of how people interact with culture itself and the fact that they share much of the same culture and cultural attitudes even if they do so on a different timetable.
Another view of the power of social capital is offered by Coleman (1987). The desire to understand political and social development has given way to different theories about such processes. Coleman considers the issue in terms of social norms and finds that norms are important in human behavior and that they are backed up by sanctions. He indicates the distinction between rational choice theory and functionalist theory, the latter supported by Talcott Parsons and others. Functionalist theory takes the normative structure as a starting point and then assumes that there will be conformity to the norms. Since conformity is not universal, though, Parsons had to develop a concept of deviance to account for the lack of complete conformity. Rational choice theory holds that norms constitute constraints within which choices are made. Coleman points out that social behavior is also a matter of exchange, and many social interactions can be conceptualized as an exchange between the parties to an interaction, with the interaction continuing if the exchange is profitable for both. Social norms can thus represent social capital:
Their presence results in higher levels of satisfaction -- though perhaps at the cost of reducing the satisfaction of some members whose actions are most constrained by the norms (Coleman, 1987, p. 153).
Coleman suggests a shift from primordial social organization toward purposively constructed organization. Most control is derived from social norms. Primordial social control depended on social capital that has been eroded with the change, eroded by the closure of social networks and by technological changes that have expanded social circles. In some areas, the old social organization is no longer valid and a new one has not yet developed to take its place.
Putnam's concern about the possible decay of social capital is understandable but does not appear to be as stark as the picture he paints. If anything, social capital today has bifurcated in political terms, leading to the political gridlock many see in the American system based on an electorate more divided than in the past. In a way, this new separation between right and left suggests that people still tend to join a community of shared interests and are affected by many of the same forces as in the past but that three is a growing divide on major issues. Such a divide cannot be explained in the way Putnam does, for his fragmented social order would lead to far more divisions than we see today. The decay in social capital he foresees would lead to a much more fragmented social and political order than simply the two major divisions we see now. There was a time in the 1980s when the possibility...
Moreover, it seems less than completely effective to urge people to make connections to each other because being self-centered really leads to a healthier community. Yes, keeping up our networks does help each one of us. But this does not seem to be the kind of inspirational call to a wider world that will transform the current problems in the nation. Relational, Not Instrumental Connections Lawler, Thye, & Yoon argue that it
Civic Engagement Comparing and Contrasting: Different Views of America's Social Forms of Engagement with One Another, with the World, and with its own History The rules of American social engagement come into play, not simply on a personal level, says Robert B, Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, William K. Tabb in his book Unequal Partners and Alan Dawley in his book Changing the World, but are codified and defined on multiple levels.
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A try to help my Little Brother find positive voluntary associations. I encourage him to volunteer at his local church, and to seek afterschool enrichment programs and tutoring. But this is not always easy. He often says that he feels that people do not care -- his teachers, his parents, and even his friends who try to uphold a 'straight and narrow' path. He also says that he wants to
Blood by Suzan-Lori Sparks expands on the main theme of society's unfair disregard for its people of low condition in general, for women, and for adulterers. Hester La Negrita, the protagonist, is an African-American woman who struggles to survive in poverty along with her five base-born children. The family's outcast status is portrayed as a direct inducer and accelerator of emotional suffering, poverty, lack of education, and sexual exploitation. (A)
Internet is a significantly essential research place for sociologists examining hypothesis of technology transmission, as well as, media effects. The reason for this critical importance is because it is a channel exclusively competent of putting together ways of communication and structures of substance. This paper tends to highlight and analyze various researches conducted on the Internet's implications in the realm of societal psychology, as well as, community capital. The word,
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