The Examined Path Through Social capital and its erosion

Social capital — the trust, networks, and norms of reciprocity that make collective life possible — has been eroding in many societies for decades, and the costs are borne most heavily by those with the least individual capital to fall back on. It is built slowly through repeated small acts of mutual investment and destroyed quickly by betrayal, mobility, and the privatization of public life. Rebuilding it requires deliberate attention to the local and the long-term.

The course sequence, in order.

Each step builds on the last.