Gruntled Center (Beau Weston): Diversity is Bad in the Neighborhood, Good at Work
Robert Putnam, famous for Bowling Alone, has now published a study that shows that neighborhood diversity undermines social capital -- positive civic networks -- in a dozen ways. In a recent Scandinavian Political Studies journal, Putnam, very reluctantly, reports that people living in ethnically diverse communities tend to
"distrust their neighbors, regardless of the color of their skin, to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television."
At the same time, Michigan political scientist Scott Page reports in "The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies" that people from diverse cultures make good work teams because they approach the same problem in different ways. ...
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