by Terry L. Besser
Assistant Professor and Extension Sociologist
Iowa State University
Social infrastructure is not a social disease. Nonetheless, communities can suffer malaise, shock and even death if they have a weak social infrastructure. Infrastructure means the basic underlying framework of something. Usually the term refers to physical infrastructure, like bridges, buildings, sewage systems, and so on. These are the building blocks of the community physical environment. In the same way , elements in the social infrastructure are the critical, underlying framework of a community's social environment.
Social infrastructure consists of three components. The first component is the social institutions in a community such as local government, social servce organizations and voluntary organizations (churches, civic, recreational and political associations, etc.). The second component involves the human resources, including organizational skills, technical expertise, educational levels, and the social, ethnic, racial and cultural qualities of the town's citizens.
The last component is the characteristics of the social networks in the community. Think of a community social netowrk as a grid of electric power lines. Carried on the power lines are discussions and interactions between people. In a community with constricted, cliquey social networks, most people interact only within their regular group. In this case, the electric lines of the social network connect the people in the clique to each other, but just to one or two--or maybe no--lines connect the clique to others in the town.
On the other end of the social netowrk scale would be a community where the citizens frequently interact with and discuss community problems with a wide range of other people. The electric lines of these social networks criss cross the town connecting almost everyone to everyone else. Also a town with an extensive social network will have many lines connecting town citizens to people outside the community.
So, do you have a social infrastructure? Yes, all communities have one. Some are extensive, developed and strong, while others are weak and undernourished. The next logical question is "Why should you care about your town's social infrastructure?"
Imagine a community where, for whatever reason, the social infrastructure is stunted and undeveloped. Let's call this place Lowtown. In Lowtown only a few people get involved in the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, the Knights of Columbus or volunteer to help with community events, civic fundraising, etc. Descendants of the city founders have always served as public officials and heads of local voluntary organizations.
These "leaders" are reluctant to invite in and train new leaders, especially people who were not born in the area, women or non-professional working class members. They try to guard information and conduct public affairs in private. Controversy is avoided and disagreement is strongly discouraged. People keep to themselves, interacting mainly with family members and old school chums.
Imagine again that Lowtown is faced with some severe problem, a major employer moves away, 50 percent of the downtown stores close, the grade school is more than 100 years old and voters refuse to approve a bond issue to build a new school, or the periphery water mains in the town freeze every winter and there is no money to repair them. Lowtown citizens have limited orgainzational skills, little contact with or knowledge of outside resources, no experience working together to solve problems, and little knowledge of or access to their own internal resources (such as the technical skills of individual citizens, understanding of public monies and services, etc.). The chances are slim that Lowtown will be able to pull together to solve its problem.
Notice that the problems I choose are all physical infrastructure problems and also notice that the solutions to the problems require a strong social infrastructure. Research supports the significance of social infrastructure to communities. For example, a study of 103 towns with successful problem solving stragegies, conducted by Cornelia and Jan Flora from Iowa State University, shows that social infrastructure is an important factor in explaining whether a community is vital or stagnant.
Now that you know what social infrastructure is, and why it's important, you're probably asking yourself how your town can get one. As I indicated previously, all communities already have a social infrastructure. However, some have not been attended to and so are stunted and shriveled. In another article I will present suggestions about how communities can grow stronger social infrastructures.
Contacts:
Terry L. Besser, ISU
Extension Sociology, (515) 294-6508
Del Marks, ISU Extension
Communication Systems, (515) 294-9807
