If the goal of a cultural program is to connect people — not just entertain them — it helps to be precise about what kind of connection you are trying to build.
The sociologist Robert Putnam gave us the most usable vocabulary for this in Bowling Alone (2000). He splits social capital into two kinds. Bonding capital forms among people who are alike — same background, same age, same church. Bridging capital forms among people who are different. Both are valuable, but they do different work. Bonding gets you through a hard week; bridging gets a divided community to function. Putnam's argument is that a healthy society needs both, and that bridging is the harder and scarcer of the two.
Putnam documented a long decline in American civic participation across nearly every measure — clubs, unions, informal socializing, trust. And he named arts and culture directly in his prescription for reversing it: make cultural life more participatory and inclusive rather than passive and isolating. The fix he pointed to was not more consumption of art but more people making it together.
This is where cultural programming can be designed with intent. A film festival that draws one narrow audience builds bonding capital. A festival that deliberately mixes audiences — across neighborhoods, generations, and backgrounds — is doing the harder bridging work. Neither is wrong; they are different tools. The mistake is running a bridging program and measuring it like a bonding one, or the reverse.
Concretely, bridging shows up in choices: who is on the panel, who is in the room, whether a shared task gives strangers a reason to talk. Making something together does bridging work that conversation alone struggles to — a shared project gives people a reason to cross a difference that small talk never provides.
The design question worth asking of any program is simple: is this bringing similar people closer, or is it putting different people in contact? Both are worth funding. Knowing which one you are building keeps you from being disappointed that a bonding event did not bridge, or that a bridging event felt less cozy than a room full of people who already agreed.
Sources
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. · Overview: Beyond Intractability summary. · NEA, The Arts and Civic Engagement.