Ep.55 Seth Kapan on Fragile Neighborhoods — Relationships and Place-Based Solutions to Social and Material Poverty

Feb 1, 2024

In this episode, Seth Kaplan discusses his book on fragile neighborhoods in the US, emphasizing the broken relationships contributing to social and material poverty. He explores the impact of poverty on lifespan and the decline of trust, social and political problems in recent generations. The podcast also delves into the consequences of family breakdown, the problem of individualism in democratic life, the decline of mutual aid societies, and the importance of intact families in reducing poverty rates.

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INSIGHT

Relationships Shape Society More Than Institutions

Relationships are upstream of institutions, politics, and economics in explaining societal health.
Kaplan traced this insight from fragile-state work to U.S. neighborhoods, arguing local interpersonal ties shape national outcomes like trust and deaths of despair.

INSIGHT

Life Expectancy Varies Dramatically By Neighborhood

Neighborhoods produce radically different life outcomes, with lifespan gaps up to 40 years between ZIP codes.
Kaplan uses this spatial variation to argue neighborhoods are the right unit to study social decline and intervention.

ANECDOTE

Neighbor Nurse Saved a Child Without Calling 911

Kaplan recounts his daughter falling and a neighbor taking the injured child to a known nearby nurse, showing implicit neighborhood care.
He emphasizes knowing dozens of local doctors and nurses by sight creates a practical social safety net.

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In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Seth Kaplan about his book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time. Seth has spent his career working in fragile states around the world — countries that are unstable and prone to violence, war, and political problems. About 10 years ago Seth was increasingly asked if the US was becoming fragile. As he turned his attention to studying the United States, he concluded was that while the US is not fragile as a country, there are many areas and neighborhoods throughout the country that are very fragile — where poverty rates are high, there is crime, and instability, and social capital, family stability, and economic and educational opportunities are low. Seth explains that depending on the neighborhood where you live in the United States it can mean a shorter lifespan of over 20 years. Kaplan speaks about two faces of poverty, material and social, and how they are both a problem of broken relationships. He argues:

“I think the real question you have to ask about the United States we have many things going very well in our country but something has gotten worse in the last couple of generations: the politics, the trust, the social breakdown, the deaths of despair, the health crisis the depression, and the rise of suicides. The big question that we have to ask ourselves is what has changed in our relationships that lead us to have so many social and political problems?”

Themes and Topics we discuss include:

Family Stability
Social Capital
Bonding vs. Bridging Social Capital
Relationships and Community
The role of religion and religious practice in communities
Associationalism vs. Individualism vs. Collectivism

Biography

Seth D. Kaplan is a leading expert on fragile states. He is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and consultant to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and OECD as well as developing country governments and NGOs.

Resources

Chris Arnade Podcast on his book Dignity

Communio — Communio is a nonprofit that trains and equips churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family.

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