All Intensive Purposes

Sir,

Your report on Robert Putnam's research ("Harvard study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity", October 9), by focusing almost exclusively on the challenge posed by ethnic diversity, painted a distorted picture of his research, as reflected in his recent inaugural lecture at the University of Manchester. Prof Putnam spoke here on the topic "E Pluribus Unum: Immigration, diversity, and community", based on his September 30 2006 Skytte Prize lecture (soon to be published in Scandinavian Political Studies). The talk made three points: the first was that immigration and increasing ethnic diversity are both inevitable and beneficial in all modern societies. Immigrants comprise a vastly disproportionate share of America's Nobel Laureates, for example.

The second was that, in the short term, ethnic diversity challenges community cohesion.

The third was that, in the longer term, successful immigrant societies renew their cohesion by deconstructing lines of ethnic difference and constructing a new, more capacious sense of "we". Among the techniques for achieving this objective, Putnam said, are national symbolism, education, and popular culture. A generation ago, he reminded us, Americans spoke of "Jewish humour", but nowadays people think of Woody Allen as an American comedian, not a Jewish comedian. As the very title of the Putnam lecture indicated, he focused on creating "one out of many".

The FT article focused only on the second point.

Alistair Ulph,

Vice-President and Dean of
the Faculty of Humanities,
University of Manchester,
Manchester M13 9PL

// posted by t.s. @ 6:49 PM