In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argued that urbanisation, especially suburbanisation, had been harmful to levels of civic engagement in the US. Sifting through recent data on volunteering and civic participation in US Cities, Andy Carr finds some anomalies that suggest density may indeed encourage greater civic engagement where educational and religious organisations are strong.
Jay Walljasper takes a tour from one side of a street to another, alarmed that society could allow such disparities that between struggling Detroit and its affluent suburb of Grosse Pointe.
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Certainly Putnam's findings should give urban planners and private developers pause--as we expand and grow our cities, are we inexorably diminishing good citizenship?
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
