Community perceptions of social infrastructure

‘Social infrastructure’ is a phrase often used by policymakers and academics to refer to those spaces – both physical and digital – that people use to come together. In its 2021 report, Backing our Neighbourhoods, Power to Change, the independent trust that strengthens communities through community business, made the case for a more coherent strategy for developing social infrastructure at the neighbourhood level, and followed this up in 2022 by commissioning the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and the Institute for Community Studies to explore community definitions and understandings of social infrastructure in England. This report explores community-led definitions of social infrastructure gathered through a process of peer research and collaborative workshops.