Citation
Mr. President, I have the honor of presenting Dr. Robert D. Putnam, the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, renowned scholar, political scientist, and prolific author who throughout his long and distinguished career has awakened us to the troubling reality of an America whose citizens have grown disengaged from one another, and who offers us a prescription for regaining the kind of civic and social structures that once unified and strengthened us.
Dr. Putnam, in your seminal work, “Bowling Alone,” you diagnosed the incremental decline of “social capital” — those human networks that help shape and sustain us, and empower us not only to function individually, but to aspire and thrive collectively. In this, and in many of your 15 books, including your most recent work, “The Upswing,” you challenge us to reweave our frayed social fabric by reimagining and restoring our spirit of community. You note that while the forces of polarization, self-interest, isolation, and inequality continue to chisel away at our better selves, we can be inspired to change, and you identify where some of those valuable efforts already have been undertaken. Yours is a message of both urgency and optimism.
You have served with tremendous impact as the dean of the Kennedy School, director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and co-founder of the Saguaro Seminar, which brought together leading thinkers and practitioners from across the world. As a political scientist, you pioneered the Two-Level Game Theory, an influential model for analyzing how global powers negotiate with one another on some of the most substantial issues of our time. Your work in this arena and in the area of civic renewal has earned you audiences with presidents and prime ministers in the United States and Great Britain.
Dr. Putnam, through your prodigious research and writings, you have given us unparalleled insight into the American soul. Deftly and thoughtfully, you have turned the words “bowling alone” into shorthand for a malaise of which we must always remain vigilant, and a call for community that we would do well to heed.
Mr. President, on behalf of the trustees, faculty, students, and staff at Clark University, it gives me great pleasure to request that the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, be conferred upon Dr. Robert D. Putnam.