THE SAGUARO SEMINAR: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN AMERICA

is an ongoing initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust and community engagement and on developing strategies and efforts to increase this engagement. A signature effort was the multi-year dialogue (1995-2000) on how we can increasingly build bonds of civic trust among Americans and their communities.

THE MISSION OF THE SAGUARO SEMINAR
From 1995-2000, the Saguaro Seminar strove to develop a handful of far-reaching, actionable ideas to significantly increase Americans' connectedness to one another and to community instruction.

Since 2000, the 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.

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WE'VE ADDED A SOCIAL CAPITAL BLOG

These are the periodic musings, generally social capital-related but not always, of Thomas Sander, Executive Director of the Saguaro Seminar. We will also provide Saguaro programmatic updates and reports of other interesting data, research, or developments.

AMERICAN GRACE: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
by David Campbell and Robert D. Putnam, will be published in October 2010.

American Grace is a major achievement, a fascinating look at religion in today’s America. Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades, the nation’s religious landscape has been reshaped.

Saguaro Seminar's Robert Putnam issues first paper discussing impact of diversity and immigration on social cohesion and civic engagement.

The central premise of social capital is that social networks have value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all "social networks" (who people know) and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other ("norms of reciprocity").

Robert Putnam Washington Post Op Ed with former Governor Jeb Bush -
A better welcome for our nation's immigrants.

July 3, 2010
On our national birthday, and amid an angry debate about immigration, Americans should reflect on the lessons of our shared immigrant past. We must recall that the challenges facing our nation today were felt as far back as the Founders' time. Immigrant assimilation has always been slow and contentious, with progress measured not in years but in decades. Yet there are steps communities and government should take to form a more cohesive, successful union.

www.AMERICANGRACE.org LAUNCHED

New website and blog launched for the upcoming publiclication for American Grace.

The unemployment rate has topped 10% for the first time in a quarter-century. More than one in six adults are unemployed or underemployed, the most since the Great Depression. By any measure this is troubling, but the long-term effects of unemployment are more devastating than most Americans grasp. Economists warn that high unemployment may persist for years.

President Nicholas Sarkozy of FRANCE convened a blue-chip Commission in 2008-2009 composed of 25 scholars (largely economists, with 5 Nobel Laureates, including its chair, Joseph Stiglitz, and including Robert Putnam) to advise the French government on how to effectively measure French well-being and whether GDP measurement was enough.

Preview some findings on religion and public life at Pew Forum

(about influence of Saguaro Seminar on President Obama) (6/12/09)