Chapter 6 : Groups, Networks, and Organizations

In Chapter 6 you have learned a great deal about the different ways in which people are organized into social groups. Ever since (and probably before) the publication of Émile Durkheim's classic Division of Labor in Society sociologists have been acutely aware of the need for people to maintain ties to a variety of different groups; this is especially important as societies become more complex, as involvement in groups are important in overcoming the anomie attendant upon living in modern urban-industrial societies. People need to be connected to a number of different groups, whether they are associated with their work (and their co-workers), the pursuit of their religious interests, their political beliefs, or whatever associational and fraternal interests they may have. Without such ties, people are left alone to confront the anonymous and impersonal world that characterizes many of our modern urban communities . In these contexts, they are more vulnerable to personal problems such as drug abuse, mental health problems, and suicide.

Part I:

The Putnam article that ushered in this debate, "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America" originally published by American Prospect (Winter 1996, No. 24, pp. 34-48), is available online at the American Prospect website . As you read the article you will see that he used various findings from national survey data to support his claims that Americans are losing their connections to civic society. Following the publication of this article, American Prospect invited others to respond to his claims ("Controversy: Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files," American Prospect , March-April 1996, No. 25, pp. 17-28). After examining much of the same evidence, they are not so sure that Americans' associational ties are beginning to unravel. These essays by Michael Schudson , Theda Skocpol , and Rick Valelly are also available online at the American Prospect website; to access them just click on the author's name above.

Writing Assignment 1:

For the first part of this assignment examine these various articles and decide for yourself which side has offered the most convincing proof on the controversy. As you evaluate each side, keep in mind what you have learned in this chapter about the nature of group life and how that reflects on the arguments made by both Putnam and his critics

Part II:

In the second part of the assignment you will examine for yourself some of the evidence related to this question by analyzing data from the General Social Survey (GSS) - link to GSS description .

1. Begin by visiting Survey Documentation and Analysis ( SDA ) at the University of California, Berkeley. SDA is a set of programs for the documentation and Web-based analysis of survey data.
2. Click on "SDA Archive" on the upper left corner of the page.
3. Under the subtitle of "National Omnibus Surveys," click on "GSS Cumulative Datafile 1972-2002 - Full Analysis."
4. On the next screen, select "Frequencies or crosstabulation (with charts)" by clicking it with your mouse. Now click the "Start" button.
5. On the next screen, you will see:
   REQUIRED Variable names to specify 
   Row: _________________
   
   For your first cross-tabulation analysis task you will insert the following five variable titles into the Row variable box: MEMUNION, MEMPROF, MEMFRAT, MEMPOLIT, MEMCHURH. (Each variable applies to a different type of organizational participation: membership in a labor union, professional association, fraternal group, political club, or church group.)
6. In the Column variable box, insert the variable YEAR; because these questions were asked in 15 different years, you will need to collapse all the various survey years with the following recode command following the variable name YEAR (r: 1974-1977;1978-1983;1984-1987;1988-1990;1991-1994). By typing in this command you will reduce the original survey period into five easier-to-interpret collapsed categories.
7. Before submitting this job for analysis, make sure to check "Column" under the Percentaging option and "Question Text" . Then submit this job and carefully examine your results. You can fill in the empty cells in Table 1 with information on the percentage of respondents who indicated that they were members of these different voluntary organizations.

Now let's look at another - the overall number of voluntary associational memberships that respondents reported. In the GSS this variable is labeled MEMNUM.

1. Repeat the previous steps, but this time insert MEMNUM (r:0;1;2;3-16) into the row box.

2. Once again you will be using the variable YEAR with the same recode as above -- .YEAR (r: 1974-1977;1978-1983;1984-1987;1988-1990;1991-1994)

3. Before submitting the job, be sure to check the appropriate boxes for Percentaging and Other Options. This analysis will tell you whether there has been any change in the number of people reporting no voluntary associational membership ranging up to those reporting three or more memberships. You can fill in the cells in Table 2 once you have looked through your results.

Writing Assignment 2:

Carefully review all the tables you have run through this analysis. What do the results suggest about changes in the level of participation in various social groups? Which side of the debate--Putnam or his critics-is most supported by the data?

Part III:

The late Everett Carll Ladd, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut and director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, challenged Putnam's claims about civic disengagement. Through an analysis of a wide range of national surveys and opinion polls, he demonstrated that Americans today are still involved in their communities, but that involvement has taken new forms. In particular, Ladd argued that while membership in traditional voluntary organizations may have declined, membership in new types of voluntary organizations, as well as charitable giving and volunteering, have increased.

For this last part of the assignment, we are going to examine some of the findings on volunteer activities among Americans, taken from a supplement to the Current Population Survey. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Supplementary questions can be added to the CPS interview in a particular month to gather in-depth information on specific aspects of the labor force or other topics. The data we will be looking at come from a supplement to the September 2004 CPS. A detailed description of the findings of this CPS supplement is available at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website .

In 2004, approximately 29 percent of the U.S. population reported doing some kind of volunteer work. Table 3 provides some of the findings on the social characteristics of volunteers in this CPS sample.

The survey also found that the most common reason for not volunteering was lack of time, followed by health and medical problems. Lack of time was the most common reason given by people of all ages except those aged 65 and older; among this group, it was health and medical problems that prevented them from volunteering.

Writing Assignment 3:

Based on information provided in Table 3, what type of person is most likely to volunteer? Which of the findings confirmed your own impressions about volunteering? Which of them were contrary to your expectations? Develop an explanation for the particular patterns indicated by the data. In order words, how could you explain differences by age, race and ethnicity, education and employment status?

Part IV:

Writing Assignment 4/Essay:

How does all this information fit within your own experiences? How engaged are you and your friends in civic life? What form does that engagement take? Do you find yourself agreeing more with Putnam's argument about the decline in civic engagement or Ladd's argument about the continuing health of civic life? Write a final essay in which you summarize the findings of the surveys and consider whether or not there is cause for alarm.