[Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of giving

[Andy Blunden]

Yes, indeed I am interested, Mike.
Critiquing the concept of "social capital" and developing an 
alternative concept of "social solidarity" and searching for 
a suitable unit of analysis was how I got started down the 
track I have been on ever since then, about 2003. What is 
the difference between community as in all people living in 
such and such town, and "real" community? Robert Putnam had 
assembled evidence that almost any collective activity 
fosters what he called "social capital." The problem was 
that he couldn't distinguish between the mafia taking root 
in a community and a community taking control of crime on 
its streets, etc. His classic "example" activity was the 
formation of choir groups, proven promoters of collective 
"wealth".

Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
On 19/10/2015 2:07 PM, mike cole wrote:
> I found a segment of the American weekly TV program, 60 minutes, more than
> usually interesting this evening, and one segment in particular
> seemed to have a lot of relevance to many different interests of people on
> xmca. The topic was the the activities of the "Make a Wish Foundation."
>
> Of the very many issues that the program discusses, one which I found
> particularly interesting was the ability of the organized practice of
> communities
> raising money to give seriously ill children "a last wish" is one that has
> particular relevance to questions about the mechanisms of social
> solidarity. In small towns in northern Arkansas, a relatively poor and out
> of the part of the US, people raise amazing amounts of money to provide
> special experience for kids who are dying of some disease that has not
> known current cure. What particularly caught my attention especially is the
> powerful effect that participation in the money raising and the ingenious
> social organization of the activities, has on community members across
> several generations, from peers to grandparents. In one sense, it seems
> that everything is so focuses on the individual kid that it is "just a
> manifestation of late capitalist individualism." If effects on the kids is
> interesting, but it is the reflected effect on the community pretty
> generally, and the emergence of strong personal bonds in particular that
> caught me most.
>
> Andy might find this interesting as an example of a project.
>
> mike
>
>   http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/topics/60-minutes/     click on make a wish
>