Word: putnam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Perhaps the ultimate in isolating technologies is television, especially when linked to a VCR and a coaxial cable. Harvard professor Robert Putnam, in a recent and much noted essay titled "Bowling Alone," takes the demise of bowling leagues as a metaphor for the larger trend of asocial entertainment. "Electronic technology enables individual tastes to be satisfied more fully," he concedes, but at the cost of the social gratification "associated with more primitive forms of entertainment." When you're watching TV 28 hours a week--as the average American does--that's a lot of bonding you're not out doing...
Various intellectual currents reflect this shortage of civility in modern civilization. The "communitarian" movement, lately championed by Democratic and Republican leaders alike, aims to restore a sense of social kinship, and thus of moral responsibility. And various scholars and politicians (including Putnam) are now bemoaning the shrinkage of civil society, that realm of community groups, from the Boy Scouts to the Rotary Club, that once not only kept America shipshape but met deep social needs...
...result of Graham's protest, the University and the Riverside Planning Group agreed that Harvard would not extend its land holdings past Putnam Avenue, effectively protecting much of the Riverside neighborhood...
...course, the name of former professor JosephS. Nye, now an Assistant Secretary of Defense, isalways in the rumor mill, although many said thisweek they doubt that he would accept the postafter being passed over several years ago whenCarnesale was chosen to replace Dillon Professorof International Affairs Robert D. Putnam...
Crime, Culture and Public Policies.Wendy Kaminer. Radcliffe Public Policy InstituteSeminar. Putnam House, 12 p.m. Call 496-3478 formore information...