Social Spaces Hold Society Together
President Donald J. Trump’s ambitious infrastructure plan revolves around the idea of building new bridges, highways, railways and waterways all across the United States.
As a South Floridian, I can understand and appreciate the importance of any infrastructure plan that relieves the stress and congestion of traffic in Miami. However, when analyzing the panorama of American life, it’s noticeable that we’re backtracking on a couple of areas of civic life.
Considering the direction in which our society is moving, it’s not shocking that the American citizenry and government is fixated on economic growth, but social infrastructure is just as important, and if anything, just as dire. These physical spaces create bonds that are beyond economic.
Social infrastructure offers foundational services that improve and support the quality of life of a nation, region, city or neighborhood. Social infrastructure also molds the way people come into a space, fostering good ways of interacting with one another.
In an era of polarization and divisiveness, social spaces can help mend the glue that holds society together. Within social spaces, people come together for the same reasons. They allow people to get past their personal and political differences, expanding their sense of understanding for one another.
Within safe spaces, we come across challenges that allow us to reflect on how we interact with one another, as well as teach us how we should interact with one another.
For example, libraries serve as important community hubs. In libraries, people are welcome regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. Libraries offer safe spaces for anybody to find educational resources and professional development.
Libraries play an important role in society, enabling people of any socioeconomic background to find the answers and education they might not find elsewhere. Libraries offer programs that allow access and assistance for computer and internet training, job applications, resume writing, and filling out government forms like tax and health insurance paperwork. They promote literacy and advocate for the right to read and readers’ privacy. With the amount of resources libraries offer, they’re an ideal place for people to come together, interact, create and collaborate.
Libraries are a quintessential example of a social space that can help a community move forward, creating opportunities, as well as fostering understanding for all.
Social infrastructure also includes parks. City parks can greatly increase a sense of community within the neighborhoods they are placed in as well as give rise to social connections. They also offer spaces for social gatherings. Since parks are urban green spaces, they don’t just provide spaces for playing and encourage health. They also supply preservation of the community’s ecosystem and help control the climate. This is caused by the amount of heat being absorbed in certain urban areas, which can cause health issues, like asthma, in low-income communities. Research shows that air pollution can be filtered through the vegetation offered in these areas.
The core of social infrastructure is creating a safe space that nurtures and encourages residents to become active in their community so they can gather insight into how their communities can work for and with them. While economic growth is important, our social infrastructure is of equal importance.
