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

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

. 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, activists ...

, 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 national best seller '' Bowling Alone'', 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 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 " social capital" 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.

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 books {{Polisci-book-stub