Diversity Brings Out the Turtle in Us

"Diversity, at least in the short run," he writes, "seems to bring out the turtle in all of us."

With apologies to my fellow blogger and Daily Sound columnist, The Conservative Turtle, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam says in a new study that diversity in communities may not make us stronger. In a large study forwarded to me from a frequent reader, he found that the more diverse a community, the fewer people voted in elections or volunteered for charity.

Counter-intuitive to most of us, the article in the Boston Globe asks what happens when a liberal scholar uncovers an inconvenient truth? In a nutshell, the "diversity paradox" says we become more insulated and alone as our communities get more diverse. Putnam admits there are many more factors that could contribute to this but what does it say about the work many activists, non-profits and local governments have done over many years?