Reviews

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg

gantoniazzi22's review against another edition

inspiring relaxing fast-paced

3.5

jader30's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

This book is a good introduction to the importance of infrastructure that serves to unite communities and the great holistic health benefits this provides people. It gets a bit slow and repetitive through the middle. There's really only one point that's presented in the introduction, with the remainder supplying numerous examples of communities that have suffered and benefited from the types of infrastructure he talks about (mostly libraries). I didn't need to be convinced! I was just hoping for a bit more depth on the subject.

tatertottori's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

moseslh's review against another edition

4.0

This is going to be one of those books that really changes the way I think about society. Klinenberg, a sociologist at NYU, advocates that we focus our attention on what he calls social infrastructure, the places and organizations that shape and structure the ways we interact with one another, such as libraries, parks, schools, community gardens, and coffee shops. He makes a compelling case that high-quality social infrastructure has a huge impact on social capital, which in turn leads to enormous improvements in public health, education, social and economic equity, and more (see Robert Putnam's [b:Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community|478|Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community|Robert D. Putnam|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424632781s/478.jpg|4743] for more on social capital). I love Klinenberg's emphasis on keeping social infrastructure in mind when designing structures that serve a different primary purpose, such as building flood protection infrastructure that also functions as a park, or designing safer public housing units by using principles of social infrastructure to foster tighter communities within them.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in policy, architecture, or urban design.

megelsewhere's review against another edition

4.0

I appreciated all the examples of social infrastructure and case studies the author made connections to. This is a matter of wishing that it was a different book, which is not helpful, and yes I'll look for further books on the subject to fill that want, so-since I was already on board the thesis, I had hoped more of the book would be spent on discussing connections/differences between types of social infrastructure (parks vs playgrounds vs libraries vs markets vs gardens vs schools- they all build different types of connections and require different types of investments/underlying infrastructure, and a more systematic breakdown would have been interesting. Creation of space for small groups to come together, vs creation of small groups themselves?). There were a bunch of chicken and egg issues presented in examples, and I was hoping for more depth on those as well- like the changing nature of childhood play and supervision and how it breaks old social ties to not have kids running around on the streets and forms new ones- there's a lot more to unpack there. I would also be very interested for more depth on successfully integrating social infrastructure with 'hard' infrastructure, which is mentioned in a few case studies- what could make existing or planned infrastructure more social and what makes it too exclusive (like the High Line)? And finally, I always love more discussion of the privatization of public space.

Definitely worth a read if you're curious on the subject, want examples, and if you need more background on what social infrastructure could be. There's a lot to chew on in here, and it has places to start looking for more information.

Edit- Also, interesting link to Becoming by Michelle Obama- he mentions Barack Obama and his work building places, but then he also discusses a program that University of Chicago developed to link the campus to the surrounding community but didn't mention Michelle Obama helped develop that overall program back in the mid 2000s! Reading about the program from the two perspectives (his description is of the program after she was there) was interesting.

maggie6832's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.75

Definitely one of my favorite non fiction books! I really enjoyed his discussion of social infrastructure, especially libraries, as well as how they can be used to help prepare and deal with weather disaster and climate change. 

mountaindrew28's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

autumnleeves's review against another edition

3.0

Reading a book about the importance of social infrastructure, that both valiantly and frustratingly puts libraries on a pedestal, especially one written before the pandemic is ... a trip.

While imperfect and only skimming the surface of how race and class play into these problems, it is still full of some thoughtful and important information. I can't help but wonder how many of the ideas and projects mentioned are faring now. How much has been derailed, paused or abandoned?

Reading about the importance of libraries to that social infrastructure was on one hand a much-needed jolt of energy when I'm so burned out in this work I don't know why I'm in it. But on the other hand, it deifies libraries in a way that feeds our profession's problematic vocational awe, and the assumption that we can fill all the gaps left by a lack of social services. I'm sure there are libraries out there doing these amazing things for their community, but it hurts to know my library system will probably never be one of them.

carissapffffft's review against another edition

hopeful informative medium-paced

4.5

ckzinger's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

3.75