The Usual Suspects:
    Pressures of Time and Money
    Mobility and Sprawl
    Technology and Mass Media (esp. TV)
 

No smoking gun or unicausal explanation
    each of these three categories of change contributes to decline
    or RATHER explains why younger generations are less civic than older ones
 
 

Pressures of Time and Money
    Putnam argues that we are actually less busy than we were a generation ago
    Robinson and Godbey show we have gained 6.2 hrs/wk in free time
    between 1965 and 1995 (190)
    4.5 hour gain for women; 7.9 hour gain for men

    Not uniform across all classes either:
        working class has less work and leisure class has less leisure (191)
 

Redistribution of leisure time

    From younger, more eduated women (who used to invest in community engagement)
    toward older, less educated men (forced early retirement due to economic restructuring)

Gain in leisure for women?
    What about the fact that more women work outside the home now?

    Women who work "because they have to" or "for job satisfaction"
    most in first category - see figures in chapter

    Women who work full time out of necessity attend .7 more club meetings     than the typical man

    BUT

    Women who are full-time homemakers attend 2.7 more club meetings than men
 
 

But:
    Housework less time consuming (or someone else is doing it for pay)
    Having fewer kids

Yet note that "free time" has come in forms not easily convertible to civic
    engagement

    Overall, married couples are working 14 more hrs/wk in 1998 than 1969 (191)

    Hard to coordinate schedules to meet
    Everyone is too tired to go to meetings
    Need to "veg out" or spend off time with family

Also note that employment INCREASES civic involvement for most
especially working women;

Workplace opportunities for civic activity

Joining a professional assciation; raising money for United Way

Are these activities similar to joining PTA? Do they have the same social capital generating capacity?

Think in terms of bridging and bonding social capital in particular
  

Financial Troubles
    note the terrrible impact the Great Depression had on civic life

    true that jobless are more passive and withdrawn;

    those concerned about finances less engaged in community activities (controlling for income and education)

    think about Nickeled and Dimed here

    how does working in the lower status jobs of the service economy likely to affect one's civic engagement?

  
    Still true that civic activity declining for all (affluent as well as struggling)
 

Mobility and Sprawl
    contrary to popular belief, Americans are less mobile than they were 50 years ago
 

    Connectedness varies by community type

    Especially important:  urbanization

    The more rural, rban, the more civic - why?

    The most "uncivic" spaces - suburbia

    Why?

Technology and Mass Media
Really Television - the main form of the "privatization of leisure time"

note that "TV rooms" are called "family rooms" (now media rooms)
husbands and wives spend more time watching tv together than talking

Average American watches nearly 4 hours/day

one hour of TV watching equals about 10% reduction in civic activity

NOTE, however, can't argue CAUSALITY

i.e. TV watching and lack in civic engagement are correlated;
    causal arrow could run either way;
    or relationship is spurious; something else is causing both

Putnam emphasizes once again differences among generations
    he tries to imply causality by showing that TV watching makes people
    feel worse, less connected, attention spans shrinking, malaise
 

Putnam's argument in brief:
     why are Americans less socially connected today?

    what are the main influences?

    how are these influences connected?  Which are causing which?
 

What are the implications of Putnam's findings on why civic engagement is declining?
 
    can the decline be arrested or are we in a civic "paradise lost"?

    how should we (re)design public life with these trends in mind?