The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

We investigate conditions sufficient for identification of average treatment effects using instrumental variables. First we show that the existence of valid instruments is not sufficient to identify any meaningful average treatment effect. We then establish that the combination of an instrument and a condition on the relation between the instrument and the participation status is sufficient for identification of a local average treatment effect for those who can be induced to change their participation status by changing the value of the instrument. Finally we derive the probability limit of the standard IV estimator under these conditions. It is seen to be a weighted average of local average treatment effects.

Evolution and Rationality Some Recent Game-Theoretic Results. Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects

By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

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Social capital: a theory of social structure and action

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that numerous studies have advanced social capital research over the past decade. Most studies have accepted the theoretical distinction between bonding and bridging social capital networks. Many, however, tend to agglomerate empirical research under the one catch‐all social capital concept, rather than classifying it according to the bonding/bridging distinction. Furthermore, most studies make little distinction on the basis of methodology, between qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigating social capital. These omissions need to be addressed.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews definitions and applications of bridging and bonding social capital, classifies empirical studies according to each network type, and produces a further breakdown according to methodological approach.Findings – The result is a four‐part “grid” of social capital research, encompassing bonding and bridging, and quantitative and qualitative aspects. This paper ...

https://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8443/ws/files/141830051/Exploring_the_Social_Capital_Grid_last_text_version_PURE.pdf

Exploring the social capital grid: Bonding, bridging, qualitative, quantitative

Shared care parenting arrangements since the 2006 family law reforms: Report for: Australian Government, Attorney-General's Department

This report documents one of three themed studies undertaken as part of the national evaluation of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy 2004-09. It explores how Communities for Children, Invest to Grow and Local Answers projects and activities have engaged clients who may be considered hard-to-reach. Using interviews with key informants in a sample of projects, the report explores the key research questions: • How, and how effectively, have services receiving Local Answers, Invest to Grow, and Communities for Children funding engaged hard-to-reach populations? • What challenges have they faced? • What would help improve reach and engagement?

/pdf/engaging-hard-to-reach-families-and-children-18w9xmq1yn.pdf

Engaging hard-to-reach families and children

Objective To determine the effect of large doses of vitamin C in the treatment of the common cold. Study design Double-blind, randomised clinical trial with four intervention arms: vitamin C at daily doses of 0.03g ("placebo"), 1 g, 3g, or 3g with additives ("Bio-C") taken at onset of a cold and for the following two days. Participants and setting 400 healthy volunteers were recruited from staff and students of the Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, between May 1998 and November 1999. The trial continued for 18 months. Interventions Participants were instructed to commence medication when they had experienced early symptoms of a cold for four hours, and to record daily their symptoms, severity, doctor visits and use of other medications. Main outcome measures Duration of symptoms and cold episodes; cumulative symptom severity scores after 7, 14 and 28 days; doctor visits; and whether participants guessed which medication they were taking. Results 149 participants returned records for 184 cold episodes. No significant differences were observed in any measure of cold duration or severity between the four medication groups. Although differences were not significant, the placebo group had the shortest duration of nasal, systemic and overall symptoms, and the lowest mean severity score at 14 days, and the second lowest at 7 and 28 days. Conclusions Doses of vitamin C in excess of 1 g daily taken shortly after onset of a cold did not reduce the duration or severity of cold symptoms in healthy adult volunteers when compared with a vitamin C dose less than the minimum recommended daily intake.

Mega-dose vitamin C in treatment of the common cold: a randomised controlled trial.

Contemporary governments employ a range of policy tools to ‘activate’ the unemployed to look for work. Framing unemployment as a consequence of personal shortcoming, these policies incentivise the ...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0950017019845775

Roger Patulny

Papers

Exploring the social capital grid: Bonding, bridging, qualitative, quantitative

Shared care parenting arrangements since the 2006 family law reforms: Report for: Australian Government, Attorney-General's Department

Engaging hard-to-reach families and children

Mega-dose vitamin C in treatment of the common cold: a randomised controlled trial.

Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed: