独自打保龄球 英文读书笔记

1、Bowling aloneRobert D. Putnam 2000.Chapter 3 Civic ParticipationPutnam在Bowing Alone这本书中，力图从民情出发来考察和评价美国民主制度的 运转。他认为民主质量的好坏或民主制度的绩效，可以从公民社会的状况得到解释。如果一 个社会的民主运转出现了问题，从根本上说，那一定是公民社会发生了变化一一如社区生活 走向了衰落。Putnam在对美国公民参与热情降低，投票率下降的研究当中，敏锐的感到， 当初托克维尔描述的美国社区生活正在逐渐衰落一一那种喜好结社喜欢过有组织的公民生 活/关注公共话题，热心公益事业的美国人不见了，今天的

2、美国人似乎不愿意把闲暇时间用 在于邻居一起喝咖啡聊天，一起走进俱乐部去从事集体行动，而是宁愿一个人在家看电视或 者独自去打保龄球。在他看来，独自去打保龄球意味着美国社会资本的流失，造成这种现象 的原因可能是复杂而不易确定的，但后果却是明确的，那就是公民参与的衰落Bowling Alone全书分为五个部分，第一部分讲美国公民参与的状况和社会资本之 间的关系，在“思考美国社会变化”的主题之下，指出20世纪后半期是美国公民参与和社会 资本逐步衰减的时期。所谓“社会资本”，是指社会上个人之间的相互联系社会关系网络 和有其产生的互惠互利和互相信赖的规范。他认为，作为社会关系的社会资本与公民美德， 互惠信

3、任，社会合作，集体归属感和集体行动有着密切联系：社会关系对个人和群体的生产 力也会产生影响；社会资本的性质决定了社会信任的范围，社会合作的质量，公民参与的可 能性，进而影响民主制度的绩效。社会资本具有不同的类型：连接性社会资本，粘合性社会 资本，兼容性社会资本，排他性社会资本。第二部分是讲公民参与和社会资本的变化趋势。Putnam讨论了美国社会网络和联系在 20世纪晚期出现的衰减，描绘了美国人政治参与，公民参与，宗教参与，工作联系，社会 联系，志愿活动和慈善活动，社会信任出现的变化趋势。同时也考察了“小团体活动，社会 运动与网络”这样的新兴的社会组织形式。他认为“在20世纪的前三分之二，一股强

4、大的力 量促使美国人更加深入的参与到社区活动里，不过就在几十年前，一股静悄悄的潮流毫无预 警的逆转了这个浪头。在没有收到任何统治的情况下，我们在这个世纪的后三分之一渐渐疏 离了亲友和社区生活。”第三部分是在对第二部分所揭示的社会资本衰减趋势的可能解释。 第四部分是公民参与和社会资本衰减会导致怎样的后果。第五部分是Putnam针对公民参与 和社会资本衰减这一问题提出的政策建议。我选取了第二部分中的“公民参与”进行阅读。Americans of all ages,all stations in life,and all types of disposition are forever formin

5、g associationsNothing, in my view, is deserves more attention than the intellectual and moralassociations in America.TocquevilleThe significant feature of Americans7 is that they are more likely to be involved in voluntary associations than are citizens of most other nations; and they have great cre

6、ativity in establishing organizationsthey create amounts of organizations from nation to local,from serious tointeresting,and so on. As Tocqueville said,the organizations have infiltrated the Americans7 life every aspect.Generally speaking,this same array of organizational affiliations has character

7、ized Americans since at least 1905s.One . In the first glanceOfficial membership in formal organizations is only one facet of social capital,but it is usually regarded as a useful barometer of community involvement. So what can we learn from organizational records and social surveys about Americans7

8、 participation in the organized life of their communities?美国人自发的社团总共有三种：一是基于社区的社团，而是基于教会的社团，三是基于 职业的社团。在第三章的“公民参与”一节，主要讲的是在“基于社区的社团”中，美国人的社 团参与有何变化。Because of the impressive increase in the sheer number of voluntary associations, even taking account of the increase in population during this period,

9、the number of national organizations per capital has increased by nearly two-thirds over the last three decades,excited by this fact, some observers speak that perhaps too hastily of a participation revolution in American politics and society. And more groups speaking on behalf of ever more categori

10、es of citizens.Two . In fact19601990Organizations that dont involve their members directly in community-based activity:over the quarter century the number of voluntary associations roughly tripled, but the averagemembership seems to be roughly one-tenth as largemore groups, but most of them muchsmal

11、ler.the organizational eruption between the 1960s and the 1990s represented a proliferation of letterheads, not a boom of grassroots participation.And revealing is the increasing geographic concentration of national headquarters.Formembership organizations with local chapters and substantial grassro

12、ots activity.they are headquartered near important concentrations of their members:For the nations largest organizations,they are headquartered near Washingtonthe political concentration.The proliferating new organizations are professionally staffed advocacy organizations,not member-centered,locally

13、 based associations.The newer groups focus on expressing policy views in the national political debate, not on providing regular connection among individual members at the grass roots.The newer groups mostly belong to the mailing list organizations,which means moving a pen,not making a meeting.And t

14、hese new mass-membership organizations are plainly of growing political importance while they demands little of its members7 energies and contributes little to their social capital.For example,the AARP.The national administrators of such organizations are among the most feared lobbyists in Washingto

15、n, in large part because of their massive mailing list.Ironically, group involvement with government has exploded at the same time that citizen involvement with both government and groups has diminished.The vigor of the new organizations,though they are large, proliferating,and powerful（会员 数量等）,is a

16、n unreliable guide to the vitality of social connectedness and civic engagement inAmerican communities.Several illustrations may clarify:Encyclopedia of associationsExplosive growth of organizations claiming to speak on behalf of veterans coincided with declining involvement by veterans.Environment

17、organizationsEnvironment Defense Fund(EDF)mail-order membershipTrends in numbers of voluntary associations nationwide are not a reliable guide to trends in social capital,especially for associations that lack a structure of local chapters in which members can actually participate.对于全国范围的自愿社团来说，其会员数量

18、的趋势并不是反映社会资本发展趋势的一个 可靠指标，尤其是那些缺乏地方分部体制以至于会员并不能真正参与的组织。So what evidence can we learn from organizations that do involve their members directly in community-based activity?Organizations that do involve their members directly in community-based activity:For most of the twenties century growing numbers

19、of Americans were involved in such chapter-based associations.1930s, this period of history underlines the effects of acute economic distress on civic engagement.1940s, after the World War II,the massive outpouring of patriotism and collective solidarity were redirected into community life.the two d

20、ecades following 1945 witnessed one of the most vital periods of community involvement in American history.By the late 1950s, the burst of community involvement began to tail off,even though absolute membership continued to rise for a while.By the late 1960s and 1970s, membership growth began to fal

21、l further behind population growth.On average,across all these organizations, membership rates peaked in the early 1960s,and began the period of sustained decline by 1969. But these average conceal some important differences among the experience of the various organizations,such as the effects of th

22、e Great Depression varied from organization to organization. These organizational peculiarities remind us that behind each of these membership declines are scores of individual tales of leadership success and failure, organizational tenacity and strategic blunders, and the vicissitudes of social lif

23、e and politics.For example,the Parent-Teacher Association(PTA)Membership declined from 1960s to 1990s in families with children under eighteen. But some part of the decline in rates of membership in PTA is an optical illusion. Parental involvement in local school service organizations(not all of whi

24、ch are affiliated with the national Parent-Teacher Associations) did not fall as rapidly as membership in PTA-affiliated groups.The drop of the membership in PTA may not have marked the withdrawal of southern parents from the organizational life of local schools.The common feature across the very di

25、verse organizationsrapid growth to the 1960s,abruptly halted, followed by rapid declineis a significant piece in the mosaic of evidence onchanging civic involvement in American communities.In two important respects, however, membership figures for individual organizations are an uncertain guide to t

26、rends in Americans7 involvement in voluntary associations.会员数并不能作为美国人自愿参加社团趋势的一个准确指标。理由有以下两点：First , the popularity of specific groups may wax and wane quite independently of the general level of community engagement.Second,formal “card-carryingmembership may not accurately reflect actual involvemen

27、t in community activities. What really matters from the point of view of social capital and civic engagement is not merely nominal membership, but active and involved membership.一些人引用50年代初到70年代初所进行的全国性调查数据，发现这一时期全国所有组 织的会员都稳定增长，但是一些学者却质疑:调查中措辞运用的改变可能影响调查结论。 即：Subtle shifts in the lens of our social

28、time-lapse camera may have sufficiently blurred the successive images that we cannot be sure about the trends during the 1950s and 1960s.在Michigan-NIMH的研究中，他们也发现“美国成年人融入社会趋于下降”。One of the Michigan-NIMH study7s central findings was a “reduced integration of American adults into the social structure.”

29、 No matter with friends and relatives,organizational memberships ,or church attendance,they all declined. The best available survey evidence is consistent with the organizational record that membership in voluntary associations among ordinary Americans declined modestly between the mid-1950s and the

30、 mid-1970s.For the years after the mid-1970s, the survey evidence becomes substantially richer:The General Social Survey(GSS),the Roper Social and Political Trends archive, and the DDB Needham Life Style archive.Organizational RecordThe GSS provides the most comprehensive measure of trends in Americ

31、ans7 formal membership in many different types of groups. According the data, the net decline in formal organizational membership is modest at best.However, this ambiguous conclusion is drastically altered when we examine evidence on more active forms of participation than mere card-carrying members

32、hip. Because of the active members in most voluntary associations are cajoled into playing some leadership role in the organization.,we can use the active members7 participation to evaluate the civic participation. From the Figure 10,we get that active involvement in community organizations in this

33、country fell by 45 percent. By this measure,at least,nearly half of Americas civic infrastructure was obliterated in barely a decade.Survey ReportsIn DDB Needham Life Style surveys, they questioned the mass that “How many times in the last year did you attend a club meeting? ”,and gained that the fi

34、gure of civic engagement has dwindled over the years. “By comparison with other countries, we may still seem a nation of joiners, but by comparison with our own recent past,we are not 一at least if joining means more than nominal affiliation.”These two different survey archives suggest that active in

35、volvement in local clubs and organizations of all sorts fell by more than half in the last several decades of the twenties century. And this estimate is same as the survey of “time diaries”.Time DiariesThe “time diaries” show clearly that the time we devote to community organizations has fallen stea

36、dily over this period. From 1965 to 1995,the average Americans investment in organizations has fell from 3.7 hours per month to 2.3 hours. Further analysis of the time diary evidence suggests that virtually all of this decline is attributable to generational replacement:members of any given generati

37、on are investing as much time in organizational activity as they ever were,but each successive generation is investing less. If we take into account the rapid growth in educational levels over this period, all these slumps in associational involvement are even more dramatic. However, the gross decli

38、ne in community involvement has been masked to some degree by the fact that more and more Americans have the skills and social resources that traditionally encouraged participation in community affairs.Consumer ExpendituresAnother hard” indicator of the priority Americans attribute to organizational involvement is the fraction of our leisure dollar that we spend on dues.在此所讨论的社区衰退的问题，源自四种完全不同的证据一一不同的抽样技术，不同的 调查组织，不同的问题，但是每一个都是建立在许多独立调查对成千上万受访者的访谈之上 的，并覆盖所有类型的社团组织。它们都显示在20世纪过去的几十年里，地方社团的积极 参与下滑超过一半Three .