• @ SAGUARO SEMINAR
  • Who We Are
    • Robert D. Putnam
    • Thomas H. Sander
    • Louise Kennedy Converse
    • Annamaria Preisz
  • Executive Summary
  • Seminar Background
  • The Participants
  • The Meetings
    • Government
    • Politics
    • Faith
    • Workplace
    • The Arts
    • Technology
    • Youth
    • General Introduction
    • Saguaro Participants
  • Why the Saguaro
  • Contact Us
  • Media Requests
  • Speaking Requests
  • Site Map
  • Home Page
• ABOUT SOCIAL CAPITAL (SK)
  • What is SK
  • FAQs
  • Factoids
  • What You Can Do
  • Glossary
  • SK Bibliography
  • Blog
  • SK in Organizations
  • What you can do?
  • Teaching Social Capital
  • Katrina and 9-11
• RESEARCH
  • Saguaro Research
  • Workplace and Social Capital
  • Diversity, Equality and Social Capital
  • Religion and Public Life
  • Growing Civic Class Gap
  • Civics Education
  • Civic Ed. Organizations
  • SK Related Research
  • Other interesting research
  • University of Manchester Summer Workshop
• MEASUREMENT/TOOLS
  • SK Measurement/Tools
  • SK 2000 Benchmark Survey
  • SK 2006 Community Survey
  • SK Impact Statement
  • SK Evaluation Guide
• BOOKS
  • BOWLING ALONE
    • The Book
    • Bibliography
    • Progressives
    • Order the Book
    • Media Requests
  • BETTER TOGETHER
    • The Book
    • Order the book
    • Stories
    • The Report
    • Order a report
  • AMERICAN GRACE
• PRESS/NEWS
  • Saguaro in the News
  • Social Capital in the News
  • Media Requests
  • Press Releases
• BLOG
  • Social Capital Blog
  • Subscribe to the Blog
  • Take our SK Survey

Seminar Format:

The Saguaro Seminar evolved from an executive session model developed at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. This model has proven effective in developing actionable strategies for and solutions to multi-faceted problems facing the United States. Two hallmarks of this approach are: the self-conscious dialogue between "thinkers" (those who spend more of their time thinking conceptually about the issues) and "doers" (those who spend the bulk of their time confronting the issue directly); and the growth in the group's understanding of the issue over time.

For the Saguaro Seminar, participants helped organize the work of the seminar by meeting for seven two to three-day sessions from 1996-2000. And the Saguaro group was responsible, with help from the Saguaro staff, for developing recommendations for strategies that would help foster the growth of social capital and civic connectedness in America.

Saguaro Participants Contact Us
Sign up for mailing list

Saguaro Meetings

Meeting I – General Introduction/history
(Cambridge, MA, April 17-19, 1997)
Background meeting focusing on social capital and lessons from the Progressive Era that could apply to the current crisis. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting II – Youth and civic engagement (Boston, MA, September 8-10, 1997) Our second meeting focused on adolescent youth and civic engagement. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting III – Government and social capital (Indianapolis, IN, December 7-9, 1997) Hosted by Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith (a Saguaro participant) this meeting focused on the inter-relation between government and community engagement: both how government can affirmatively boost civic engagement and how to minimize any harm that government does to civic engagement. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting IV – Politics and social capital (Los Angeles, CA, February 13-14, 1998) The fourth meeting addressed the relationship between and issues surrounding politics and civic engagement. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting V – Faith and social capital (Washington, DC, June 12-13, 1998) At this meeting we examined faith-based efforts which weave a stronger community fabric. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting VI – Work and social capital (Tarrytown, NY, October 16-17, 1998) Our sixth meeting focused on work and civic engagement. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting VII – The arts and social capital (Santa Fe, NM, June 11-13, 1999) The seventh meeting focused on the arts and civic engagement. [List of related readings and links]

Meeting VIII – Technology and social capital (Cambridge, MA, March 31-April, 2000) Information on this meeting will be posted soon. [List of related readings and links]