The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

We document five stylized facts of economic growth. (1) The "residual" rather than factor accumulation accounts for most of the income and growth differences across nations. (2) Income diverges over the long run. (3) Factor accumulation is persistent while growth is not persistent and the growth path of countries exhibits remarkable variation across countries. (4) Economic activity is highly concentrated, with all factors of production flowing to the richest areas. (5) National policies closely associated with long-run economic growth rates. We argue that these facts do not support models with diminishing returns, constant returns to scale, some fixed factor of production, and that highlight the role of factor accumulation. Empirical work, however, does not yet decisively distinguish among the different theoretical conceptions of "total factor productivity growth." Economists should devote more effort towards modeling and quantifying total factor productivity.

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It's Not Factor Accumulation : Stylized Facts and Growth Models

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

Church-based health promotion (CBHP) interventions can reach broad populations and have great potential for reducing health disparities. From a socioecological perspective, churches and other religious organizations can influence members' behaviors at multiple levels of change. Formative research is essential to determine appropriate strategies and messages for diverse groups and denominations. A collaborative partnership approach utilizing principles of community-based participatory research, and involving churches in program design and delivery, is essential for recruitment, participation, and sustainability. For African Americans, health interventions that incorporate spiritual and cultural contextualization have been effective. Evidence indicates that CBHP programs have produced significant impacts on a variety of health behaviors. Key elements of CBHP are described with illustrations from the authors' research projects.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.021406.144016

Church-Based Health Promotion Interventions: Evidence and Lessons Learned

Online games have exploded in popularity, but for many researchers access to players has been difficult. The study reported here is the first to collect a combination of survey and behavioral data with the cooperation of a major virtual world operator. In the current study, 7,000 players of the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) EverQuest 2 were surveyed about their offline characteristics, their motivations and their physical and mental health. These self-report data were then combined with data on participants’ actual in-game play behaviors, as collected by the game operator. Most of the results defy common stereotypes in surprising and interesting ways and have implications for communication theory and for future investigations of games.

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Who plays, how much, and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile

Highlights  College-age Americans are divided among not two but three distinct worldviews: Religious, Secular, and Spiritual. o Each of the three worldviews is attached to a distinct outlook on theological, philosophical, scientific, public-policy, and political issues.  Gender gaps are noticeable within the Secular (with more males) and Spiritual (with more females) groups, while the Religious group attracts males and females more evenly.  Each of the group has a distinct religious identification make-up: o The Religious group is overwhelmingly Christian of various denominations. o The Secular group overwhelmingly distance themselves from religion; 70% profess no religion (Nones) and 11% refuse to answer. o The Spiritual group is varied in its religious make-up: one-third are Nones and 17% identify with Eastern religions, Judaism, and New Religious Movements.  Many college-age students seem to have a worldview different from the one in which they were raised: o The Religious group attended religious services regularly (91% monthly or more often) in childhood. o The Secular group is almost evenly divided; 49% were raised in actively religious homes, and 51% attended infrequently in their early years. o The Spiritual group seems to lie midway between the Secular and Religious populations; two-thirds were raised in religious homes.  Patterns of belief in God are remarkably different in the three worldviews: o The Religious group mirrors the general American adult population with 70% firm believers and only 2% saying they don't believe in God or don't know where there is a God and don't believe there is any way to find out. o At the other spectrum are Secular students, of whom 77% either don't believe in God or don't know if there is a God. 2 o Spiritual students exhibit an array of preferences: 27% believe in a higher power (but not in a personal God); 24% are firm believers; 21% believe in God (while having doubts); 12% don't know if God exists and only 5% don't believe in God.  Opinions on scientific and philosophical issues differ widely. When asked separately, " Do you believe in miracles? " and " Do you believe in reason/rationalism? " o A strong majority of Religious students believes in miracles and a smaller majority believes in reason and rationalism. o The Secular are as committed to reason (83%) as the Religious are to belief in miracles (84%). Only 13% of Seculars believe in miracles. o The …

American Religious Identification Survey

One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society

The present study examines perceived discrimination faced by religious ‘nones’. After distinguishing between atheists, agnostics, and ‘nones’ who are deists or theists, we use nationally representative data from the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) to study the contexts in which these various types of religious ‘nones’ have reported experiencing discrimination. The strongest predictor of such discrimination was not theological atheism or agnosticism but self-identifying as an atheist or agnostic when asked what one's religion is. Context-specific predictors of discrimination are age, region of the country, rural versus urban location, parents’ religious identifications, educational attainment, ethnicity and race. Results are consistent with the view that people who hold more pronounced views are more likely to report discrimination.

On the Receiving End: Discrimination toward the Non-Religious in the United States

Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar with Ryan Cragun and Juhem Navarro-Rivera The 1990s was the decade when the "secular boom" occurred -"secular boom" occurred --- each year 1.3 each year 1.3 million more adult Americans joined the ranks of the Nones. Since 2001 the annual increase has halved to 660,000 a year. (Fig.3.1) (Fig.3.1) Whereas Nones are presently 15% of the total adult U.S. population, 22% of total adult U.S. population, 22% of Americans aged 18-Americans aged 18 ---29 years self29 years self29 years self----identify as identify as Nones. (Fig.1.2) Nones. (Fig.1.2) In terms of Belonging (self-In terms of Belonging (self---identification) 1 identification) 1 in 6 Americans is presently of No Religion, while in terms of Belief and Behavior the ratio is higher around 1 in 4. (Fig. 1.17) ratio is higher around 1 in 4. (Fig. 1.17) Regarding belief in the divine, most Nones are neither atheists nor theists but rather agnostics and deists (59%) and perhaps best described as skeptics. (Fig.1.17) best described as skeptics. (Fig.1.17) The most significant difference between the religious and non-religious and non ---religious populations is a religious populations is a gender gap. (Fig. 1.17) gender gap. (Fig. 1.17)

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American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population

/pdf/american-religious-identification-survey-aris-2008-43cr6vqdyq.pdf

Barry A. Kosmin

Papers

American Religious Identification Survey

One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society

On the Receiving End: Discrimination toward the Non-Religious in the United States

American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population

American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008)