Social scientists have coined the term "social capital" to describe the pattern and intensity of connections between people, together with the values arising from them. Their basic premise is that more interaction helps people build communities, make mutual commitments and thereby create a social fabric enabling more satisfying and effective living together.
As the interview in today's edition of this newspaper with the American author Robert Putnam makes clear, we have much to learn by applying such ideas to recent Irish experience. In their work on social capital Putnam and other researchers have been able to show how the various forms of civic engagement are interrelated. Thus in the United States and Italy, for example, membership of bowling leagues, choral societies, churches, trade unions and football teams is closely associated with voter turnout, newspaper readership and higher levels of social trust. It is possible to trace the decline in civic engagement directly and relate it to declining indices of health and social well-being. In short social participation is good for individuals - and for societies.
Putnam places great emphasis on the way television viewing has altered social engagement in the US and other developed countries and suggests we are being affected similarly in Ireland. The less time devoted to social interaction and the greater the levels of social isolation become, the more trust falls off and cynical fatalism develops. Statistics on the amount of time people spend watching television compared to more gregarious pastimes confirm such trends. They have attracted the attention of the Taoiseach's office and are informing policy formation and social research. Evidence from the recent Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll shows falling levels of trust in political institutions and media. So does research published earlier this year in the Guinness UDV Ireland Quality of Life Report by Amárach Consulting.
The policy consequences of such social trends have yet to be properly defined. It is not difficult to suggest that falling turnout in elections, disconnection from politics, anti-social behaviour and the difficulties facing all sorts of voluntary associations and clubs are related to falling levels of social capital. But Putnam and his supporters in Ireland are right to remain optimistic about tackling the problem.