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CoMo Give Give & United Way Screening of the Film “Join or Die”
June 28 @ 10:15 am - 1:00 pm
Give 5 Documentary
Join Now or Die: Robert Putnam film on social isolation and loneliness
Ragtag Cinema (10 Hitt St, Columbia, MO 65201)
REGISTER HERE
The film centers on America’s civic unraveling through the journey of scientist Robert Putnam, whose research on the decline in American community lights a path out of our democracy’s present crisis. Learn why you should join a group and why the fate of America may depend on it! There will also be a social with Give 5 graduates following the screening.
About Dr. Putnam: Robert D. Putnam is an American political scientist and educator best known for his study of social capital. In his most influential books—Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993), coauthored with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Nanetti, and Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000)—Putnam argued that strong and prosperous societies rest upon community relationships and mutual trust, what he called “social capital.”
Putnam’s research also led him to a distressing observation: the United States had experienced a significant decline in the level of civic engagement since the 1960s. A consequence of that decline, he suggested, is the widespread mistrust of their democratic institutions by the American people. Putnam did not regard this problem as limited to the political sphere. The inability of Americans to connect with friends, families, and extended communities, he suggested, also has an impact on their health, productivity, public safety, and a number of other social goods.
“Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.”
—Robert Putnam