documentary history
February 22, 2024
kate moses
“This is Bob. Bob’s a big fan of the club,” a narrator says at the beginning of the trailer for the upcoming documentary. join or die. “And this is a movie about why you should join and how Bob discovers that the fate of America depends on it.”
Bob, also known as Robert D. Putnam, is a highly regarded political scientist who has had a profound impact on our understanding of how society and government work. Putnam, a professor at Harvard University and the author of 15 books, uses large amounts of data to analyze a range of economic, social, political, and cultural trends, and uses social capital, or social capital, to We propose the concept of a network within society that enables society to function as a society.
25 years ago, Putman wrote a visionary book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Society, This is a powerful insight into how Americans are becoming disconnected from their families, friends, neighbors, and democratic structures. He holds a mirror up to our own social behavior. join or die Since then, we argue that its importance has further increased.
Directed and produced by Rebecca Davies and Pete Davies. join or die Through Putnam’s work and interviews with numerous influential figures, including Hillary Clinton, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and scholar Eddie Glaude Jr., the film tells the story of “a half-century of American civic disintegration. ” is drawn. The film explores provocative questions such as “What makes a democracy work?” Why is American democracy in crisis? ” Then, a call to action: “What can you do about it?”
The project explores the shocking statistics Putnam has collected over the course of his career about the alarming decline in collective participation, such as the 50 percent drop in club meeting attendance by Americans in the previous year from the 1970s to the 1990s. This is to check. Or that from the 1970s to his 1990s, the number of Americans who held leadership roles in society decreased by 50%. Any local organization.
“Places with better government are places with a long history of social networks and social capital,” Putnam says. He added in another clip: “The organization, the connections with other people, only This is the way to make a big difference. ”
Check out the trailer on the movie’s website. (via Swissmiss)