Social Capital in American Life

ISBN-13: 9783319911793 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 206 str.

Brian J. Jones

Opis

Embarking from a model of social capital hinging upon four social structures-work, family, social networks, and voluntary associations-Brian Jones empirically examines the widespread claims that American society is becoming less sociable, trusting, and cooperative.

Spis treści

Chapter 1. What Are They Thinking?

Chapter 2. The Model of Social Capital

Chapter 3. Work and Job Satisfaction

Chapter 4. Family and Family Satisfaction

Chapter 5. Voluntary Association and Trust

Chapter 6. Social Networks and Happiness

Chapter 7. Social Capital and Social Inequality

Chapter 8. Media Matters

Chapter 9. E Pluribus Duo

Chapter 10. Social Capital in American Life

O autorze

Brian J. Jones is Professor of Sociology at Villanova University, USA. He is the author of Social Capital in America (2011) and co-author of Sociology: Micro, Macro, and Mega Structures (1995) and Social Problems: Issues, Opinions, and Solutions (1988). 

Blurb

Is American society falling apart?

Put this provocative question to people you know and you will encounter a disturbing number of affirmative answers. But beyond such emotional foreboding, how would one factually answer the question?

In this book, Brian J. Jones poses the issue by first building a theoretically-based model of the guts of any living society—family, work, voluntary association and social networks. This model of social capital is then tested using some four decades of real-world data from the General Social Survey, the gold standard for modern survey research.

This process here yields real answers about life in America. People are reallocating their commitments to family and work, to friends and neighbors. These changes are tied to Americans’ deepest motivations such as trust and happiness. Also unearthed are deep signs of societal divisions along the fault lines of education, marriage and race.

Social Capital in American Life is a serious answer to a provocative—and very real—question.