Policy Expo: Social Infrastructure and Local Development
Drawing on research funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, this policy impact book critically examines the growing international interest in the role of social infrastructure in underpinning local and regional development. Drawing largely on US evidence, Klinenberg defines social infrastructure as ‘the physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact’ (p5) and within which social capital develops. It represents a critical element of the built environment in healthy local communities and includes public libraries, schools, playgrounds, parks, sports facilities and pavements, community gardens, shared green spaces. The Biden Administration has prioritised investments in social infrastructure and there is an emerging grey literature, but the proposed policy impact book will be one of the first systematic academic treatments of the topic. It will review existing research, develop methods for the study of social infrastructure and apply these to a case study in northern England. It will then outline the policy implications of the findings.
The research was led by:
- John Tomaney, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, UK
- Dimitrios Panayotopoulos-Tsiros, UCL Bartlett School of Planning, UK (Early Career Representative)
- Lucy Natarajan, UCL Bartlett School of Planning, UK
- Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, UCL History, UK
- Myfanwy Taylor, UCL Bartlett School of Planning, UK (Early Career Representative)
- Maeve Blackman, Durham Miners’ Association, UK
Watch the recording of the webinar: Policy Expo – Social Infrastructure and Local Development
The research has been published in the Regional Studies Policy Impact Books Series.
In the Press:
The Guardian view on local nostalgia: a potential community asset | Editorial | The Guardian
Social Infrastructure and Left-behind Places: building policy from below |UCL Public Policy Blog| Sinéad Murphy & Ethne James-Souch.
Watch a recording of the book launch held at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL