The fall in the crime rate has coincided with a fall in the number of young men between the ages of 15 and 21, the peak age for criminal activity in any society, including America.

ECONOMIST: Defeating the bad guys

The effort by Phil Gomes and the group he has started on Facebook, is a critical advocacy activity that the Public Relations Society of America wholeheartedly supports.

FORBES: Wikipedia & the PR Pro: Friend or Foe?

In the end, work is something so fundamental to life and living that for a society to not have it and to not have such activity fostered raises questions on the humanity of any given society.

FORBES: Ongoing Developments in the Unemployment Conundrum

Councils such as Tory-controlled Hammersmith and Fulham in London that are selling off buildings used by charities stand accused of undermining the voluntary activity the Big Society is supposed to encourage.

ECONOMIST: The Big Society

And they fear it could harm civil society itself (the network of local institutions where most voluntary activity takes place) by making the government the main link between individuals and the society they offer to help.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

But the challenge for us as a society will be even greater: keeping our minds sharp through the right kinds of activity and stimulation.

FORBES: Computers: The New Consumers?

The freedom to engage in economic activity is constitutive of a civil society and fundamental to our liberty.

FORBES: To Live In Liberty

The case first came to light when city and federal agencies were investigating reports of illegal prescription-drug activity at the clinic, the Women's Medical Society.

WSJ: Philadelphia Abortion Doctor Gosnell Convicted of Murder

Dr Heather Shore, a social history expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, describes the period of the 1830s and 1840s as one in which a great deal of "big society"-type activity was undertaken.

BBC: News Magazine