IN-PERSON London. Section A
Abstract
Social infrastructure is not a new concept (Graham & Marvin 1995; 2001; Klinenberg 2002; 2018) and can be traced a long way back in sociology and political science to Oldenberg (1986) and Putnam (2000). It designates conditions that bring people together, encourage social connections and, most explicitly, ‘determine whether social capital develops’ (Klinenberg 2018:5). Recent empirical research shows that social infrastructure is a place of conflicting interests (Horton & Penny 2023) and can be a site of exclusion (Heynen, Kaika & Swyngedouw 2006). The term ‘social infrastructure’ proliferates public policy discourse in the UK (Mayor of London 2020; Bennett Institute for Public Policy 2021, British Academy 2023), and the Levelling up White Paper speaks explicitly of ‘social geography and infrastructure’ (DLHC 2022). Understanding that social infrastructures are normatively contested precipitates the need to ‘translate’ and operationalise research surrounding this complex phenomenon for the purposes of decision-making. Current work in this regard is nascent at best. This paper makes a methodological contribution to understanding social infrastructure as a normatively contested space. It takes an existing asset-based spatial approach to evidencing social value at the neighbourhood scale (Hatleskog & Samuel 2021) and develops it to show how the ‘irreducibly collective’ and ‘first-hand’ (Kaszynska 2015) aspects of cultural value should be considered, alongside social value, in collaborative mapping practices underpinning the approach. This will allow policy-makers to consider social infrastructures as normatively complex and can ensure that the decision-making tools at their disposal capitalise on long-standing research into social infrastructures and values.
Dr Patrycja Kaszynska is Senior Research Fellow at University of the Arts London. Her expertise is in valuing culture in decision-making. She has a track record of shaping UK’s ‘cultural value debate’ : first through the AHRC Cultural Value Project, then the AHRC Cultural Value Scoping Project and most recently as Principal Investigator for the AHRC and DCMS-funded Scoping Culture and Heritage Capital. Her research interests are at the cross section of critical theory, pragmatic philosophy and cultural studies with the key focus on the theory of value and valuation studies.
Dr Eli Hatleskog is a Research Fellow at University of Arts London. She has an interest in collaborative spatial practices and specialises in trans/interdisciplinary urban research. With the aim of demonstrating and evaluating the impact of good design, she developed research into how people experience social value in the built environment and co-developed guidance for British architects in the RIBA ‘Social Value Toolkit for Architecture’ (2020). Together with Professor Flora Samuel (University of Cambridge, UK) she edited ‘Social Value in Architecture’ (AD 2020) and won the 2020 RIBA President’s Medal for Research – Cities and Community for ‘Mapping Social Values’.
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Friday 28th June, 2024