The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Ithaca Initiative at the UD Biden School is thrilled to welcome Robert D. Putnam, SNF Ithaca Visiting Fellow, social scientist, and Harvard Kennedy School professor emeritus, to campus for this special seminar event. 

Feb. 26, 2025

4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Trabant University Center Multipurpose Rooms

The central premise of social capital is that social networks have value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all “social networks” [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other [“norms of reciprocity”]. The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings, but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital can be found in friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs, civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers, “where everybody knows your name,” captures one important aspect of social capital.

Robert D. Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association, in 2006 he received the Skytte Prize, the world's highest accolade for a political scientist. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Bob the National Humanities Medal, the nation’s highest honor for contributions to the humanities. He has written fifteen books, translated into twenty languages, including Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Italy and Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, both among the most cited (and bestselling) social science works in nearly a century.

The seminar will be followed by a moderated conversation with Timothy J. Shaffer, SNF Chair of Civil Discourse and Director of the SNF Ithaca Initiative.

For planning purposes, please complete the registration form. 

Please direct any questions to Tracey Bauernschmidt: tbauerns@udel.edu.