Christian Our Kids the American Dream in Crisis Review
I n his book Happiness, former Oxford don Theodore Zeldin provided a vivid description of life in the modern academy: "To remain sane, scholars had to become willing prisoners in a tiny prison cell, because here at least they could lay down the law near some tiny fragment of truth, like the habits of the earwig or the foreign policy of medieval Zanzibar. a few ambitious ones might grow dissatisfied with existence master, or mistress, of just a pocket-sized domain, and they might build upwardly… g theories… applicative to other domains; and their imperialism kept the academic world simmering in permanent nervous disharmonize."
Bob Putnam has certainly been the source of much nervous conflict amongst his scholarly peers. Equally the encompass of his new book reminds us, he is writer of Bowling Alone, sensible marketing, given that it was a social-science smash hit in 2000. Describing his own "m theory" of a decline in "social capital" – the ties that bind communities together – Putnam escaped the narrow confines of his Harvard office to become a global public intellectual, presidential adviser and, for the New York Times, "poet laureate of civil society".
Bowling Solitary provoked deep academic contend and study, firmly placing the idea of social majuscule on the intellectual map. It influenced political discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US, it had a direct bear on on legislation, including the Serve America Act, equally well as on the compilation of official statistics, with a host of new surveys capturing various dimensions of social capital letter and civic date. This new data fuelled a fresh circular of inquiry, further enhancing Putnam'southward ideas.
In his new offering, Putnam tells a more nuanced simply more troubling story. Combining rich qualitative interviews and sharply presented data, he describes a divide in social capital, rather than a simple reject. The peak 3rd of US society – whether defined by education or income – are investing more in family unit life, community networks and civic activities than their parents, while the bottom tertiary are in retreat, as families fracture and both adults and children disengage from mainstream society.
This gap amounts, Putnam fears, to a "crisis" for the American dream of equal opportunity. Advantages pile upwards for the kids built-in to the right parents, all but guaranteeing their own success in life – in stark contrast to the fates of those struggling at the bottom. The difference betwixt "haves" and "take-nots" was once economic. Differences in social trust, family life, parenting and customs vitality were minimal. Now, though, the haves accept it all.
Putnam presents dozens of "scissors graphs" showing the top pulling away from the bottom in relation to school sports, obesity, maternal employment, unmarried parenthood, financial stress, college graduation, church building omnipresence, friendship networks, college graduation and – revealing a small obsession of Putnam'southward – family dinners. For him, their absenteeism represents much of what is going wrong in America. Andrew, a 2nd-twelvemonth higher student from an affluent white family in Curve, Oregon, says: "My dad and my mom take always made sure we swallow dinner together. I actually learned a lot from those conversations." Stephanie, a black single mother, says: "Nosotros're not a sit-down-and-eat family… We ain't got time for all that talking-about-our-day stuff." For Putnam, family dinners human activity as an "indicator of the subtle but powerful investments that parents brand in their kids (or fail to make)".
The concatenation of advantages and disadvantages is visible in economic sorting at the neighbourhood level, leading to social sorting in terms of schools, churches and community groups. Putnam writes: "Our kids are increasingly growing upward with kids similar them who have parents like us." This represents, he warns, "an incipient class apartheid".
The use of "real life" examples is a depressing cliche of social science books. Scholars fool themselves that boring data can be inconspicuous: "Meet Rita, who works in a diner, she is an example of…" Putnam avoids this trap. The interviews were conducted past his talented colleague Jennifer Silva, who has produced a fine book of her own, Coming Up Short, and provide valuable qualitative data on the state of the nation. A hitting example is the haphazard fashion in which less-advantaged Americans become parents. Darleen got pregnant 2 months into a relationship with Joe, her boss at Pizza Hut. "It didn't mean to happen," she reports. "Information technology just did. Information technology was planned and kind of not planned." David, an 18-yr-old in Port Clinton, Ohio (Putnam'due south home town), becomes a father. "Information technology wasn't planned," David says. "It only kind of happened." Putnam deftly weaves the stories into his analysis rather than just sticking them on height.
Our Kids provides a succinct, elegantly presented and country-of-the-art summary of social science in the areas of pedagogy, families, parenting and neighbourhoods. Hither'due south only one of Putnam's depressing facts: affluent kids with depression high-school test scores are as likely to get a college degree (30%) as high-scoring kids from poor families (29%).
Putnam is much less assured when it comes to solutions. In part, this is because he wants to persuade as many people across the political spectrum that there is a problem worth addressing. Most of his suggested policies are sensible, if unoriginal: home visiting, pre-kindergarten instruction, apprenticeships, closer schoolhouse-community links, better community colleges. But they are insipid in light of the scale of the problem he has identified – a structural shift towards a class-based society. He is like a doctor diagnosing cancer and prescribing aspirin.
In office, the gap between problem and solution results from Putnam's near silence on the economic dimensions of class stratification. He does point out that between 1983 and 2007 the richest tenth of parents increased spending on their children past 75%, compared with a drib of 22% at the bottom of the income scale. But he says almost nothing on the growing income inequality underlying such numbers. To be fair, there are shelves of new books on economic inequality and Putnam has a different fix of interests. But the result is inevitably lopsided.
For the virtually office, the book has a tone of business organisation combined with absurd, scholarly detachment. The one expanse where some real anger comes through is when Putnam describes the rising of "pay to play" after-schoolhouse activities, caused by greenbacks-strapped pedagogy districts imposing fees for clubs and sports. Waivers for poor kids are unused because of the stigma fastened. "Shut this book," he urges, "visit your school superintendent and detect out if your district has a pay-to-play policy."
Our Kids is a better, sharper and more accessible book than Bowling Alone, which made Putnam'due south name. Similar his publisher, I promise the fame generated by the latter draws attention to the former. Our Kids will inform discussion and provoke fence. It is sure you will find something in the book to fence nearly. Putnam would be pleased well-nigh that, specially if the argument takes place during family unit dinner.
Our Kids is published by Simon & Schuster, £18.99. To buy for £15.19, click here
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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/20/our-kids-american-dream-in-crisis-robert-putnam-observer-review
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