Season 3: Reading with Eric & Sara Joy

Episode 6 - Palaces for the people

Are there physical conditions that determine whether we develop social connections? Why should we invest in this type of "social infrastructure"? In Episode 6 of Season 3, Sara Joy digs into these questions with Eric as he leads listeners through the book Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg.

Klinenberg is a sociologist at NYU who coined the term "social infrastructure" to capture the idea that shared physical places shape the way people act and the relationships people develop. He has studied how the presence of social infrastructure or the lack thereof can have direct implications on the well-being and resiliency of our local communities. Klinenberg contends that libraries, in particular, have played a valuable social infrastructure role in our local neighborhoods. He argues that we would be wise to invest in these places of social infrastructure, such as libraries, parks, schools, and churches because they are accessible to everyone and provide tangible resources to the community while encouraging the formation of social bonds. Investing in places like these presents an effective place-based solution for the crime, disconnection, and polarization we are experiencing in our current cultural climate. 

South Pasadena’s Carnegie Library (CA)