Though Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone isn't mentioned until p. 188 in Connected:  The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks, I read Connected as an important follow-up to Bowling Alone.  Putnam's work describes the importance of social capital, and the precipitous decline of that social capital was a primary reason I started Social Capital Inc. in 2002.  While Putnam’s work tells us that social capital matters, Connected provides more insight into why our social networks are so important.

 

When out promoting SCI’s mission, I’m often sharing social capital "factoids”, and find that these nuggets have a certain "gee whiz" quality to them.  read more »