''Better Together: Restoring the American Community'' is a book and website published in 2003 as an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar conducted at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The initiative is aimed at facilitating rapid and extensive

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...

, particularly within the United States and uses a book with the same title by Robert Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein as its primary reference text.

Saguaro Seminar

The Saguaro Seminar is a long-term research project aimed at significantly increasing Americans' connectedness to one another and to community institutions. Professor Putnam, also the author of ''

Bowling Alone ''Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community'' is a 2000 nonfiction book by Robert D. Putnam. It was developed from his 1995 essay entitled "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital". Putnam surveys the decline of soc ...

'', leads the effort joined by Feldstein, other scholars, civic leaders, business people and politicians. The project's agenda includes building a knowledge base for understanding what creates and sustains civic trust, community participation and the bonds between people and their institutions. The seminar focuses on building

social capital Social capital is a concept used in sociology and economics to define networks of relationships which are productive towards advancing the goals of individuals and groups. It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interper ...

by conducting surveys and presenting initiatives for public engagement through the book and website. The seminar's report, titled ''Better Together'' and issued in December 2000, called for a "nationwide campaign to redirect a downward spiral of civic apathy." The report warned that "

" in the US was dwindling to a critically low level and something needed to be done quickly to avoid civic catastrophe. The report further outlined a "framework for sustained, broad-based social change to restore America’s civic virtue" which culminated in both the book ''Better Together'' () and the website BetterTogether.org.

References

External links

Official website
- an ongoing initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at Harvard University. 2003 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Civil society Community-building organizations English-language non-fiction books {{Polisci-book-stub