Better together: restoring the American community

For his new book Robert Putnam visited a number of places across America where individuals and groups are engaged in unusual forms of social activism and civic renewal. These are people who are renewing their communities and investing in new forms of 'social capital.' Approximately a dozen such stories of civic innovation are told in this book. They range from a mentoring and reading programme in Philadelphia that brings together retirees and primary school children to a revitalised neighbourhood association and revitalised neighbourhoods in Boston to a successful community organising effort in the impoverished Rio Grande Valley. All across America and the UK such organizations are starting up and thriving,…