Religious, Work, and Informal Participation

Since last writing, I've covered a few different aspects of life that can contribute to the amount of social capital for Americans. I wasn't surprised that faith communities are very important for getting people together, socializing, and forming bonds. What I didn't realize is that folks who are active in religious communities are also much more likely to be involved in other, non-religious, aspects of life like voting and participating in politics. This isn't terribly surprising either but I guess I never thought about a connection. As seems to be the trend with everything in this book though, no statistics are ever that simple!

Faith communities may be great places for growing social capital but this isn't as common as it used to be. Participation in religious worship is lower today than in past decades. I was struck by a similarity between how people connect with a religion and how they connect with organizations. As I wrote about in my last entry, many members of organizations are connected to that organization simply by writing a membership check and not actually participating. Similarly, many people these days consider themselves members of a religion not through participation in the faith community but in name only. This is important when thinking about impact on social capital since being a member without participation doesn't build social capital.

Workplace social capital follows a similar trend to both organizational and religious trends. Fewer people are participating in unions as members. What really struck me about our changing work lives though is a thought from this book that we're not forming social bonds at our workplaces in part because we're forced to think more of ourselves as individuals these days instead of thinking of ourselves as a part of a work community. People change jobs a lot, worry about getting let go, and feel that they have to compete with their coworkers to get promoted or even keep their job at all. This creates stress, anxiety, and makes it difficult to form real friendships as work.

I loved the section on informal participation when it defined a schmoozer. I've heard this word my whole life as someone who kind of "kisses up" to others. I had no idea it is a Yiddish word and has an opposite: macher. Also, "kissing up" isn't really accurate. A schmoozer is someone who basically likes to socialize for the fun of it. In contrast, machers socialize as part of formal organizations with a purpose like improving aspects of the community.

The informal participation section was not full of too many surprises but was a bit depressing to read. Time spent with family is dwindling including family meals, watching tv together, simply talking, and attending religious services as a family. Many people don't form strong friendships with their neighbors anymore and try to make neighborhoods safer by buying guns and locks rather than looking out for each other through neighborhood watch programs.

This is where the important bowling example from the book's title comes in. The idea isn't that people are literally bowing by themselves. As the book states, it's not like bowling alleys are full of solitary bowlers. But, we're not bowling as part of formal bowling leagues anymore. An occasional trip to the alley with friends is still popular but we don't regularly meet with the same group of bowlers like we would have as part of a bowling league, sharing the camaraderie of team play. I guess the good news is that people are still bowling though.

I'm interested to read the next section on volunteering since I spend considerable amounts of time doing volunteer activities. In fact, I'd say that nearly all of my social relationships are through volunteer meetings and activism. This isn't always the kind of socializing I'd like but, more on that in the next post...