We all like to think of Vermont as a community that works because of our small local towns and the small size of our state. But Vermont is also one of the least ethnically and racially diverse states in the nation. In fact, it may be the least diverse state in the nation. Put those two facts together and then read this Boston Globe story about the most recent research of political scientist Robert Putnam (author of Bowling Alone).
Putnam finds
that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
Applied to Vermont, that may mean that what many see as some of Vermont's virtues are a result of our lack of diversity.
But economists find that diversity has positive economic benefits:
If ethnic diversity, at least in the short run, is a liability for social connectedness, a parallel line of emerging research suggests it can be a big asset when it comes to driving productivity and innovation. In high-skill workplace settings, says Scott Page, the University of Michigan political scientist, the different ways of thinking among people from different cultures can be a boon.
Which turns into a real negative, economically, for a small, homogeneous state like Vermont. Read the whole article.
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