On kindness of strangers in tourism

Next year marks the twentieth anniversary of one of the most influential peer-reviewed articles in modern social science: Robert Putnam’s (1995) Bowling Alone. Putnam captured the world’s imagination by invoking the metaphor of a solitary bowler to represent a chronic drop in voluntary association memberships, including organized bowling leagues, a trend he characterized as having destructive implications for the social fabric of America. In alerting scholars and policymakers to changes in the terrain of community relations, Putnam called for greater attention to the intensifying corrosion of generalized trust and reciprocity, values he regarded as crucial to the facilitation of social cooperation. Putnam believed the dramatic decline in social and civic engagement meant relative strangers were less likely to interact, thereby failing to build meaningful relationships and generate the social capital necessary
for a well-functioning society. By social capital, Putnam (1993, p. 167) meant ‘‘features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions.’’ In many ways, Putnam simply refashioned an age-old idea in a new way: the decline of
social capital, he observed, marked a significant loss of community.