0521857198 cambridge university press diverse communities the problem with social capital oct 2006

This page intentionally left blank Diverse Communities Diverse Communities is a critique of Robert Putnam’s social capital thesis, re-examined from the perspective of women and cultural minorities in America over the last century Barbara Arneil argues that the idyllic communities of the past were less positive than Putnam envisages and that the current ‘collapse’ in participation is better understood as change rather than decline Arneil suggests that the changes in American civil society in the last half-century are the result not so much of generational change or television as of the unleasing of powerful economic, social and cultural forces that, despite leading to division and distrust within American society, also contributed to greater justice for women and cultural minorities She concludes by proposing that the lessons learned from this fuller history of American civil society provide the normative foundation to enumerate the principles of justice by which diverse communities might be governed in the twenty-first century            is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia She won the Harrison Prize for the best article published in Political Studies in 1996 and is the author of Feminism and Politics (1999) and John Locke and America: A Defense of English Colonialism (1996) Diverse Communities The problem with social capital Barbara Arneil University of British Columbia, Vancouver cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521857192 © Barbara Arneil 2006 This publication is in copyright Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published in print format 2006 isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-511-24536-7 eBook (EBL) 0-511-24536-X eBook (EBL) isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-521-85719-2 hardback 0-521-85719-8 hardback isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-521-67390-7paperback 0-521-67390-9 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate This book is dedicated to Doug and Katie Anne, with whom I share my life, and to the memory of my cousin and friend, Alastair Boyd of Dumbarton, Scotland, who left us all far too soon Contents List of abbreviations Acknowledgements page viii xi Social capital, justice and diversity: an introduction The Progressive Era: past paradise? 15 The present malaise in civic participation: empirical and normative dimensions 41 The causes of ‘decline’ in social capital theory 92 Civic trust and shared norms 124 Beyond Bowling Alone: social capital in twenty-first-century America 163 Justice in diverse communities: lessons for the future 200 References Index 241 257 vii Abbreviations AAU AAUW AAWB ABA ABA ABPHEGIA ABWA ACLU ADA BPW CBC CWA ESPN GFWC GSS KKK LLDEF LWV NAFE NCAA NCC NCCPT NES NFSHSA OES PAL PCO PPS PTA PTO RSPT viii American Athletic Union American Association of University Women American Association of Workers for the Blind American Bar Association American Breeders Association – now AGA American Blind People’s Higher Education and General Improvement Association American Business Women’s Association American Civil Liberties Union Americans with Disabilities Act Business and Professional Women Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Committee on Women’s Athletics Entertainment and Sports Programming Network General Federation of Women’s Clubs General Social Survey Ku Klux Klan Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund League of Women Voters National Association for Female Executives National Collegiate Athletic Association National Council for Churches National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers National Election Survey National Federation of State High School Associations Order of the Eastern Star Police Athletics League Privy Council Office Parents for Public Schools Parent–Teachers Association Parent–Teacher Organization Roper Social and Political Trends ... English Colonialism (1996) Diverse Communities The problem with social capital Barbara Arneil University of British Columbia, Vancouver cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne,... thesis and either the historic civic culture tradition of American letters or the contemporary communitarian and third way theories is the centrality of the term capital in their theories The. .. focus, within Western political theory, away from either the state or citizen to the civic space in between In this regard, the social capital thesis parallels two influential schools of thought within