Robert Putnam is a Harvard sociologist and author of Bowling Alone. Bowling Alone popularized the concept of social capital and charted the decline of social capital in the US over the past 50 years. Putnam has just completed some new research that shows that social capital indicators are significantly lower in more diverse communities. Social capital indicators are things like community involvement, trust in one’s neighbors and voting. Putnam himself was dismayed with the results and has been hesitant to release the findings for fear they will be used to bolster right wing, xenophobic arguments.

It seems important for all of us who value diversity to wrestle with what this means to our organizing efforts. It does seem to me that it requires more energy to cross various lines of difference, and it ought to be okay to acknowledge that. We can also work to highlight the benefits of making that effort, and the importance of bridging across differences in order to solve complex problems. Indeed, Putnam notes that while diversity seems to have fairly devastating short- and mid-term effects on social capital, it can still have positive long-term effects. Further, one of the main business arguments for the importance of diversity is that while challenging, it fosters creativity and innovation not present in more homogenous environments.

A good article summarizing the research and the issues is The Downside of Diversity, written by Michael Jonas in the Boston Globe.