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

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, particularly within the United States and uses a book with the same title by

Robert Putnam Robert David Putnam (born 1941) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Putnam develo ...

and

Lewis M. Feldstein Lewis M. Feldstein is the Co-Chair of The Saguaro Seminar along with Robert D. Putnam and was President of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation until June 2010. He collaborates with Putnum and many others on publications and projects such as the ...

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 ''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 soci ...

'', 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 "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships ...

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.

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