Robert Putnam is a political scientist and currently a professor at (and former Dean of) the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Putnam focuses on questions of social capital, civic engagement, and community in America. His work sparked a wave of what have been called “network capitalists” — those interested in understand the relationship between social networks, network structure, and beneficial outcomes.
He is a co-founder of the Saguaro Seminar, which he currently co-chairs with his regular collaborator, Lewis Feldstein (who is a MALD, by the way). The Saguaro Seminar is an effort to understand social capital and community engagement in order to create civic renewal.
Putnam has written fourteen books, including the widely cited Bowling Alone, and has conducted research on comparative political elites, Italian politics, and globalization. Putnam came to Harvard after teaching at the University of Michigan and serving on the staff of the National Security Council.
Putnam’s most recent book, American Grace, (with David Campbell) uses data from national surveys on religion and civic engagement to explore the role of religion in American public life. His current work, to be published in 2015, examines on the growing class gap among American youth and the implications it has for social mobility.
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