Klinenberg takes us around the globe--from a floating school in Bangladesh to an arts incubator in Chicago, from a soccer pitch in Queens to an evangelical church in Houston--to show how social infrastructure is helping to solve some of our most pressing challenges: isolation, crime, education, addiction, political polarization, and even climate change. Libraries are not the kinds of institutions that most social scientists, policymakers, and community leaders usually bring up when they discuss social capital and how to build it. But they offer something for everyone, regardless of whether they’re a citizen, a permanent resident, or even a convicted felon – and all of it for free. An eminent sociologist and bestselling author offers an inspiring blueprint for rebuilding our fractured society An engaging, readable argument for why we should build more “social infrastructure” like libraries, community gardens, parks, sports facilities, etc – but with a curiously meandering structure that flits between ideas and subjects. This is a book with which few Observer readers will disagree. It champions “social infrastructure”, meaning libraries, urban farms, playgrounds, sports grounds and all the other shared spaces that allow people to make connections, form networks and find ways to know and help one another. It doesn’t like Trump, racial segregation or climate change denial. Its theme is important and timely, but it leaves you wanting more.

In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, churches, and parks where crucial connections are formed. Interweaving his own research with examples from around the globe, Klinenberg shows how “social infrastructure” is helping to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges. Richly reported and ultimately uplifting, Palaces for the People offers a blueprint for bridging our seemingly unbridgeable divides. Klinenberg describes the impacts that the tech giants in California have on surrounding areas, writing, “There is another community that has suffered devastating losses since Facebook and other big tech companies began setting up shop in the Bay Area: poor, working-class, and middle-class residents of the region, who have been steadily priced and crowded out” (213). What responsibility do large companies have as they expand into preexisting neighborhoods and communities? How and for what should they be held accountable? Contrasting the philanthropy of today’s business owners with that of the tycoons of the past, Klinenberg explains,“Entrepreneurs have amassed vast fortunes in the new information economy, and yet no one has come close to doing what Carnegie did between 1883 and 1929, when he funded construction of 2,811 lending libraries, 1,679 of which are in the United States” (218). Is it the responsibility of wealthy individuals to contribute to social infrastructure? Why or why not? Does the fact that the entire tech industry “depends on a technology developed by the government—the Internet—and a publicly funded communications infrastructure” (219) play a role in their degree of accountability to the public?Eric Klineberg is a Professor of Sociology at NYU and an author of several books. Palaces for People is how Andrew Carnegie described free public libraries when he generously donated funds to build over 2800 libraries across the nation. The accessible physical space of the library is not the only factor that makes it work well as social infrastructure. The institution's extensive programming, organized by a professional staff that upholds a principled commitment to openness and inclusivity, fosters social cohesion among clients who might otherwise keep to themselves.” Eric Klinenberg offers a new perspective on what people and places have to do with each other.... In case after case, we learn how socially-minded design matters.... Anyone interested in cities will find this book an engaging survey that trains you to view any shared physical system as, among other things, a kind of social network.”— The New York Times Book Review

Living in a place like East New York requires developing coping strategies, and for many residents, the more vulnerable older and younger ones in particular, the key is to find safe havens. As on every other Thursday morning this spring, today nine middle-aged and elderly residents who might otherwise stay home alone will gather in the basement of the neighborhood’s most heavily used public amenity, the New Lots branch library. Eric Klinenberg's latest book is an excellent examination of how our political perspectives, resilience to crises, and overall quality of life are affected by social infrastructure--the physical spaces and material elements that help us connect with each other. It was a bit painful to read during a time in which our biological need for distancing has necessarily been prioritized over our social need to gather, but in this way it is also particularly timely. Over the past fifty years, American society has seen the gradual abandonment of common spaces like parks, public pools, and community centers and with it a corresponding rise in social fragmentation and instability. Klinenberg argues that a wide range of issues, including the opioid epidemic, generational inner-city poverty, institutionalized racial inequality, and environmental injustice due to climate change can all be linked to the degradation of social infrastructure.There’s a term you don’t hear these days, one you used to hear all the time when the Carnegie branches opened: Palaces for the People. The library really is a palace. It bestows nobility on people who can’t otherwise afford a shred of it. People need to have nobility and dignity in their lives. And, you know, they need other people to recognize it in them too.” At a time when polarization is weakening our democracy, Eric Klinenberg takes us on a tour of the physical spaces that bind us together and form the basis of civic life. We care about each other because we bump up against one another in a community garden or on the playground or at the library. These are not virtual experiences; they’re real ones, and they’re essential to our future. This wonderful book shows us how democracies thrive.” —Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of How Democracies Die Eric Klinenberg believes that social life can be designed well, just as good buildings are.His book is full of hope, which is all the more striking because Klinenberg is a realist.He is a major social thinker, and this is a beautifully written, major book.” —Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR •“Engaging.”—Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review(Editors’ Choice)