Digital place making - strengthening social fabric connecting people, places and spaces

Abstract

Using ‘digital place making’ as the conceptual framework, I propose that digital space can strengthen social connections as a digital social infrastructure. With a conceptual discussion on space, place and people interacting within them as well as a review of existing evidence, I offer three policy insights on digital place making as below: First, digital place as a social infrastructure can act as a bridge between different physical spaces improving inclusivity and strengthening the social fabric tying together diverse groups within communities. For example, community apps such as NextDoor help to facilitate interactions in physical spaces. Policies on digital social infrastructure building should focus on its constructive role in creating bridges between physical spaces instead of substituting digital for physical space. Secondly, for digital infrastructure to be a social infrastructure to strengthen social cohesion, it should bridge people within the spaces. The increasing salience of digitalisation has created problems of exclusivity. Rural communities or older people, for example, may be less likely to find digital social infrastructure accessible. Policymakers should tackle the ‘digital divide’ that makes some community members less able to access digital tools and services to utilise digital social infrastructure to strengthen communities and places. Lastly, policymaking on digital social infrastructure needs to consider how to bridge different levels of resources for a shared goal and learning. National level of policy strategy can focus on combining evidence and good practice at local level with provision of appropriate resources such as guidance, toolkit and platforms for knowledge sharing.