s62.
Sceptics on the role of television in reducing social capital include John Field (2003), Social Capital, and (quoted by Field) Peter Hall, “Social Capital in Britain”, British Journal of Political Science, 29, 3, 1999, pp 368–385. Putnam’s findings on social capital itself are borne out by studies in other OECD countries; the central conclusions as to the deep and long-term decline in social capital are dismayingly consistent. References to findings in such other countries can be found in Stefano Bartolini, Ennio Bilancini and Maurizio Pugno, “Did the Decline in Social Capital Depress Americans’ Happiness?”, Notebooks of the Department of Economic Politics, University of Siena, 2008, available at www.econ-pol.unisi.it/quaderni/540.pdf .