The Saguaro Seminar's mission is both to improve social capital measurement and the availability of social capital data and to undertake analysis of building social capital in a changing environment: in increasingly diverse communities, with changing faith communities, in workplaces, and amidst greater social and civic inequality.

News

Huffington Post. "Celebrating a year of progress." (Chris Gabrieli & Luis Ubinas, 5/15/13)

Kristeligt Dagblad. "Den amerikanske drøm er i forfald." (Sidsel Nyholm, 5/15/13)

Washington Post. “How well do you know your neighbors?” (Peter Lovenheim, 5/10/13)

Huffington Post. "Face to faith: Three  crucial testimonies of friendship across religious divides." (Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, 5/6/13)

New York Times. "No Rich Child Left Behind." (Sean F. Reardon, 4/27/13)

See all our recent news articles

Research

We are currently exploring the impact of economic hard times on social capital and civic engagement, as well as some worrying new evidence of a growing "class gap" among American young people. Kids from upper-middle class backgrounds are increasingly well-nested in family, religious, and community networks, whereas kids from working class backgrounds are increasingly isolated from such connections. This phenomenon is a compound problem, as both changing family structure and income inequality have had a hand in the demise of equal opportunity and the American Dream.

Learn more about our opportunity gap research