Social and community infrastructure is essential for the functioning of society, including the economy. It includes all aspects of caring for individuals and contributing towards community life. Unlike other forms of infrastructure, it is the most varied in scale and type of provider. While universities and hospitals can be defined as major infrastructure on a national or subregional scale, they are funded by a range of sources including the state, research funds, donations, their own commercial operations and other charitable fundraising. At the other end of the scale, coffee shops that provide essential networking and community meetings spaces are frequently provided by sole business proprietors but are also operated by larger multinational companies and charities. Sports and leisure facilities may be owned by their members or the private sector, and funded by government, sports associations’ grants, fundraising or charitable donations. Many social and community facilities are run and managed by volunteers including personal support, sport and youth organisations.
Social and community infrastructure operates in an integrated way. Services funded by the state for health and education are supplemented by voluntary and community services and the location of this infrastructure within communities can do much to support social cohesion. This is a form of social capital that has been identified as being critical to societal well-being that is essential for social order and a growing economy (Putnam, 2001). Social and community infrastructure is associated with happiness and its contribution to GDP (Stiglitz et al, 2009; Layard, 2011) through quality of life bundles that can be measured and compared between states (OECD, 2013).
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