Social Infrastructure Availability and Suicide Rates among Working-Age Adults in the United States.

Social infrastructure (SI) may buffer against suicide risk by improving social cohesion, social support, and information and resource sharing. This study uses an ecological approach to examine the relationship between county-level SI availability and suicide rates among working-age adults (ages 25-64) in the United States, a population for whom suicide rates are high, rising, and geographically unequal. Mortality data are from the National Vital Statistics System for 2016-2019. SI data are from the National Neighborhood Data Archive for 2013-2015 and capture the availability of typically free SI (e.g. libraries, community centers) and commercial SI (e.g. coffee shops, diners, entertainment venues). Results from negative binomial models show that suicide rates are significantly lower in counties with more SI availability, net of county demographic, socioeconomic, and health care factors. This relationship held for both typically free and commercial SI. Policymakers should consider strengthening existing and developing new social infrastructure, particularly in counties with less educated populations, as part of a broader strategy to reduce suicide rates in the United States.

Altered place engagement since COVID-19: A multi-method study of community participation and health among older americans.

Little is known about longer-term changes to community participation since the COVID-19 pandemic onset and potential implications for health and wellbeing in later life. This multi-method investigation analyzes national data from the COVID-19 Coping Study. Statistical analyses of survey data (n = 1,630; mean age 67.9 years; data collected April/May 2022) identified that adults residing in the US still tended to stay inside their homes more often since the pandemic onset. Overall, participants decreased their engagement with amenities such as eateries, gyms, and arts and cultural sites. Reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 57; mean age 70.7 years; data collected May-July 2021) identified altered community participation with perceived long-term impacts on physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing. The results provide novel insights about the critical nature of 'third places' to support later life, and policy implications to strengthen community environments. Investment in outdoor, well-ventilated, and distanced third places may support wellbeing.

Catalyzing sustainable development: Exploring the interplay between access to clean water, sanitation, renewable energy and electricity services in shaping China's energy, economic growth, and environmental landscape.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect the shift in global economic conversation toward inclusive growth. The growth can promote inclusivity and widespread sharing of its advancements by concentrating on four key dimensions. (a) Equality of opportunity, (b) sharing prosperity, (3) environmental sustainability/climate adaptation, and (4) macroeconomic stability. We used the Kao cointegration test to study how certain variables are connected over a long period. The relationship between CO2 and GDP per capita, renewable energy and tourism, improved water and sanitation, and access to power all have a positive feedback effect on each other. Based on FMOLS's findings, a 1 % increase in Inclusive growth leads to a 0.342 % (Model 1) and 0.258 % (Model 3) increase in CO2 emissions. An increase of 1 percent in energy consumption per person resulted in a rise of 1.343 % in CO2 emissions in Case 1, 0.524 % in Case 2, and 0.618 % in Case 3. Increasing the tourism sector's proportion of total exports by just one percent will reduce CO2 emissions by 0.221 % (case 1) and 0.234 % (case 3). Based on CCR findings, a 1 % improvement in inclusive growth leads to a 0.403.

Place type or place function: What matters for place attachment?

Place attachment at neighborhood places can facilitate social ties and community belonging, reduce social isolation and improve physical and mental health outcomes. Research highlights the benefits of place attachment at traditional third places such as cafes and parks but is yet to examine place attachment across a broader suite of highly frequented neighborhood places. Drawing on survey data from a sample of Australian residents (N = 892) with a median age of 55-64 years, this study examines the influence of place form and function on place attachment at everyday places. Findings reveal that places where individuals go to participate in specific and unique activities (e.g., exercise at a gym, prayer at a temple) alongside a defined group of other community members, such as places of worship or gyms, engender stronger place attachment than places of economic consumption, such as large shops and cafes. This is important in its capacity to inform neighborhood planning and policies to reduce risk of social isolation.

The Built Environment and Social and Emotional Support among Rural Older Adults: The Case for Social Infrastructure and Attention to Ethnoracial Differences.

Social and emotional support (SaES) is essential for older adult mental health and is shaped by individual-level factors and the built environment. However, much of the focus on the built environment, and specifically social infrastructure - the physical places that facilitate social interaction and social tie formation - relies heavily on urban settings or samples with limited diversity. Consequently, there is little understanding if social infrastructure matters for the SaES of older adults in rural America, and across race and ethnicity. Therefore, we use social cohesion as a conceptual lens and the community gerontology framework to determine if availability of social infrastructure is associated with SaES among older adults in rural America and if this relationship varies across race and ethnicity. Using data from 110,850 rural older adults from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System and data from the National Neighborhood Data Archive, we show that among rural ethnoracial minority older adults, higher densities of social infrastructure are associated with higher SaES. This is not true for rural non-Hispanic White older adults. Results highlight the importance of accounting for both social infrastructure as part of the built environment and heterogeneity across race and ethnicity in studies that examine older adult mental and emotional health.

A globally integrated structure of taxonomy to support biodiversity science and conservation.

All aspects of biodiversity research, from taxonomy to conservation, rely on data associated with species names. Effective integration of names across multiple fields is paramount and depends on the coordination and organization of taxonomic data. We assess current efforts and find that even key applications for well-studied taxa still lack commonality in taxonomic information required for integration. We identify essential taxonomic elements from our interoperability assessment to support improved access and integration of taxonomic data. A stronger focus on these elements has the potential to involve taxonomic communities in biodiversity science and overcome broken linkages currently limiting research capacity. We encourage a community effort to democratize taxonomic expertise and language in order to facilitate maximum interoperability and integration.

Social solidarity, social infrastructure, and community food access.

This study examines the case of community resource mobilization within the context of a farmers market incentive program in Washington D.C., USA to illustrate the ways in which providing opportunities for people impacted by food inequities to develop and lead programming can help to promote food access. Through an analysis of interviews with 36 participants in the Produce Plus program, some of whom also served as paid staff and volunteers with the program, this study examines the ways that group-level social interactions among program participants helped to ensure the program was accessible and accountable to the primarily Black communities that it serves. Specifically, we explore a particular set of social interactions, which we collectively term social solidarity, as a community-level form of social infrastructure that program volunteers and participants mobilized to support access to fresh, local food in their communities. We also examine the elements of the Produce Plus program that contributed to the flow of social solidarity within the program, providing insight into the ways in which the structure of food access programs can serve as a social conduit to facilitate or hinder the mobilization of community cultural resources like social solidarity.

Social Infrastructure and Street Networks as Critical Infrastructure for Aging Friendly Community Design: Mediating the Effect of Physical Activity.

Establishing an age-friendly environment at the community level is essential for promoting healthy aging. This study focused on the relationship between older adults and the community environment through their levels of satisfaction within it. We measured their physical activity (PA) in the community environment and three variables of community-level satisfaction: community environment (SCE), community social infrastructure (SSI), and community street networks (SSN). We analyzed 108 older adult participants in Suzhou using mediation analysis and multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between physical activity and the community environment. The results of the mediation effect model showed that SCE, SSI, and SSN all affected the physical functions of older adults via the total amount of physical activity (TPA); SSI and SSN affected older adults' physical functions by affecting the total duration of moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA) and vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA). In addition, SSI and SSN are related to the types of community facilities, street space quality, and accessibility. Our study provides valuable insights into optimizing aging-friendly neighborhoods through moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PAs at both the facility and street space levels.

Communities, Sport, Inclusion. Strategies for Parish Complexes Social Reactivation Through Sport Practice Promotion.

The following contribution presents some findings deriving from the research project "Sport is Society" by Politecnico di Milano. The research reflects on the built heritage and its ability to be accessible and usable for different users with different needs in its structures and offer of services, focusing on sports activities and spaces. The study refers to collective ecclesiastical structures in the contemporary city. The research in this area demonstrates the possible degrees of innovation regarding the increase in the inclusiveness of private facilities with a public vocation, where sport represents a driver of social inclusion for the community. The research proposes advice to guarantee inclusive sports facilities for the community, highlighting the strict relationship between the inclusive city and the ecclesiastical heritage, as an emerging issue to be investigated and solved. Starting from its relevance and the potential of the structures to become a truly "accessible patrimony", the tool suggests strategies for policymakers and ecclesiastical administrations to make them become "open services" - usable and accessible by all - for and inside the urban community.

Building community-centered social infrastructure: a feminist inquiry into China's COVID-19 experiences.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the essential role of care work in sustaining life, health, and maintaining the basics of everyday existence. It has also made visible the disproportionate burden of care work on women that existed before the outbreak, which has intensified rapidly and been gravely exposed during the pandemic. In this article, we take China as a case study to investigate the gendered impact of this pandemic and further problematize the landscape of care provision. With a feminist political economy perspective, we introduce China's provisioning of care prior to the outbreak and investigate how the care crisis has further deepened in the pandemic. Drawing on the most recent data available on China's experience, we explore the role and function of community-centered social infrastructure, an assemblage of state, family, and local resources, in effectively combating the virus and providing care. We further provide comparative international evidence to demonstrate the essential role of community care infrastructure in this pandemic. Building social infrastructure to deliver care at the community level presents important policy implication, especially for many developing countries. Therefore, a critical reflection and discussion on pandemics and women is not only more vital than ever, but also sheds light on the endeavour to develop long-term solutions for the care crisis that will almost certainly outlive the current pandemic.

Simulating employment and fiscal effects of public investment in high-quality universal childcare in the UK.

This paper simulates the likely fiscal and employment effects of a vast public annual investment programme of free universal high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in the UK. It examines the extent to which it would pay for itself fiscally for different scenarios of pay increases. Investing in high-quality universal ECEC benefits all children by improving their life chances, especially for those living in lower income families. It also generates larger employment effects than other more typical investment policies such as construction projects and fosters gender equality in employment: not only it provides many high-quality jobs for women, it also allows many mothers to improve their lifetime earnings prospects by freeing up their childcare constraints. This in turn has beneficial fiscal revenue effects for the government. Estimations of annual public expenditure for a system of highly qualified and well-paid childcare staff with low child-to-staff ratios are performed, with universal coverage for all pre-school children aged 6 months to 4.5 years. Labour demand and matching supply effects are also simulated using input-output methods, for different take-up rates of the programme. A microsimulation tool is used to calculate increases in household income and tax liabilities and decreases in social security benefits spending. This results in a net annual funding requirement of between 28 and 39% of the gross investment. Two funding methods are then explored: raising taxation in a progressive way and recouping the cost over time from persistent mothers' increased earnings. The former would entail a net additional contribution by the richest 20% of households of at most 0.4% of their income; the latter would require 21 to 31 years to offset the programme on average, which is within a typical working life-course following a first child's birth, of 35 years.

PrEP Care Continuum Engagement Among Persons Who Inject Drugs: Rural and Urban Differences in Stigma and Social Infrastructure.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a medication that prevents HIV acquisition, yet PrEP uptake has been low among people who inject drugs. Stigma has been identified as a fundamental driver of population health and may be a significant barrier to PrEP care engagement among PWID. However, there has been limited research on how stigma operates in rural and urban settings in relation to PrEP. Using in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 57) we explore PrEP continuum engagement among people actively injecting drugs in rural and urban settings. Urban participants had more awareness and knowledge. Willingness to use PrEP was similar in both settings. However, no participant was currently using PrEP. Stigmas against drug use, HIV, and sexualities were identified as barriers to PrEP uptake, particularly in the rural setting. Syringe service programs in the urban setting were highlighted as a welcoming space where PWID could socialize and therefore mitigate stigma and foster information sharing.

Child protection plans in the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: Maintained, adjusted, or suspended?

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 infection prevention measures have enhanced risks of abuse and neglect for children and youth. Simultaneously, they have affected the practice of child protection, especially impacting the social infrastructure on which child protection work tends to rely, as well as the ability of practitioners to meet with family members face-to-face and in their homes. OBJECTIVES: This article focuses on the ways in which infection prevention measures have shaped child protection plans in Germany, i.e. family support and counselling, which is accompanied by monitoring and scrutiny. METHODS: The article is based on a qualitative study, in which 40 semi-structured interviews were held with first-line management representatives of German Youth Welfare Agencies between July and October 2020. RESULTS: The study's results show that protection plans have either been maintained, modified or (temporarily) suspended. Several influencing factors were identified. First, the extent to which the social infrastructure relevant for child protection could be maintained, or emerging gaps be filled in a timely fashion by child and youth welfare organisations. Second, the degree of effectiveness of the working relationship between practitioners and parents under the new conditions, including practitioners' ability to resort to flexible, digital or hybrid communication methods with families proved important. Moreover, everyday practical help from Youth Welfare Agencies and family service providers could often change the parental perception of these professionals for the better, thereby strengthening the relationship between practitioners and parents. LIMITATIONS: A key limitation of the study comprises the fact that the study findings are limited to the earlier phase of the pandemic.

Development Dynamics of Health and Social Infrastructure for the Long-term Care - the Case of the Posavje Region.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The populations of rural areas across Europe, especially Slovenia, are ageing rapidly and the areas themselves are becoming depopulated. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to our understanding of the population dynamics and provide a method for forecasting housing and other long-term care needs. METHOD: The surveys questioned those responsible for long-term care, the caretakers in institutional care, and current and potential homecare users in rural areas of Slovenia. We wanted to discover what they considered as crucial in the process of long-term care deinstitutionalization. Our 2020-2050 projections are based on the surveys conducted across 38 municipalities in the Eastern Slovenian region and an in-depth empirical study in Posavje. The results are embedded in the demographic projections and the multistate transition model of the declining functional capacities to forecast the needed housing facilities and human resources. RESULTS: The results are the time series of required capacities. Around 60% of respondents in Slovenian rural areas believe that even a better organization of homecare would not allow them to stay at home until death due to inadequately built housing and the absence of a continuous presence of caregivers. These findings were included in the projections. Therefore, community care in the network of Smart Silver Villages was proposed. DISCUSSION: Investments are needed to renovate the housing stock of older adults and construct sheltered, assisted living housing and specialized households in the community. Moreover, proper education and training of human resources would increase the output. In addition, financial solutions are advised to develop Smart Silver Villages.

COVID-19, Inequality and Older People: Developing Community-Centred Interventions.

This paper considers the basis for a 'community-centred' response to COVID-19. It highlights the pressures on communities weakened by austerity, growing inequalities, and cuts to social infrastructure. This paper examines the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on low-income communities, whilst highlighting the extent to which they have been excluded from debates about policies to limit the spread of COVID-19. This paper examines four approaches to assist the inclusion of neighbourhoods in strategies to tackle the pandemic: promoting community participation; recruiting advocates for those who are isolated; creating a national initiative for supporting community-centred activity; and developing policies for the long-term. This paper concludes with questions which society and communities will need to address given the potential continuation of measures to promote physical distancing.

Offline World: the Internet as Social Infrastructure among the Unconnected in Quasi-Rural Illinois.

The United States continues to experience a persistent rural-urban digital divide. However, in this area of research, less attention has been paid to the divide in regions between these two demographic and geographic extremes. In this paper, we examine the perceived effects of internet inaccessibility in this in-between space, which we term "quasi-rural." Using quasi-rural Illinois as a case study, semi-structured interview data is used to highlight the experiences of those who are directly affected by the digital divide, as well as those who provide service alternatives and advocate for internet connectivity. With this data, we describe the personal experience of at-home internet inaccessibility. We then focus on how limited, or a lack of access shapes the perceptions of community connectedness and disadvantage among those affected by the divide. Our findings demonstrate the internet's function as social infrastructure; differences in access are then conceptualized as a form of socioeconomic inequality.

Invisible Autistic Infrastructure: Ethnographic Reflections on an Autistic Community.

In this article, I provide an ethnographic account of an autistic-run community for adults in a North American city. By spending time with each other in loosely structured social interactions, members of this group participate in the ongoing construction of a complex and necessary social infrastructure in the face of often inadequate social and material support from their personal networks, and the larger society in which they live. The work this community does remains largely invisible because it runs counter to dominant biomedical understandings of autism and exists outside of the autism treatment industry.

Closure of 'third places'? Exploring potential consequences for collective health and wellbeing.

In unassuming neighborhood locales, such as coffee shops, hair salons, and malls, people meet to socialize, express themselves, and support one another. These 'third places' enrich social interaction, sense of community, and belonging outside of the home and workplace. Yet third places are closing across the United States. Americans may be losing access to key services, goods, and amenities, in addition to community sites that help buffer against loneliness, stress, and alienation. The relevance of third places to health and quality life is under-researched. These sites may support wellbeing through mechanisms of stimulation, support, protection, and care. We call on researchers to investigate how third places contribute to wellbeing and consider the consequences that the disappearance of such places has for public health. Future research on third places may be mobilized to innovatively reduce health disparities and improve quality of life.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Green Infrastructure for Urban Watershed Management: An Ohio Case Study.

Many older Midwestern cities of the United States are challenged by costly aging water infrastructure while working to revitalize urban areas. These cities developed much of their water infrastructure before the Clean Water Act became law and have struggled to mitigate contaminant loading to surface waters. An increasingly common approach to resolving these challenges is the integration of green infrastructure with gray infrastructure improvements to manage point and non-point source pollution. Stakeholder engagement and collaboration during green infrastructure planning can help address impairments and promote community involvement through the revitalization process. Mill Creek watershed in Cincinnati, OH, USA has seen improvement in watershed integrity indicators after being impaired for many decades by flashy hydrology, combined sewer overflows, and water quality degradation. A workshop was conducted to examine how integrated green and gray infrastructure has contributed to improvements in Mill Creek over the past several decades. This effort sought to examine internal and external factors that influence a multi-stakeholder watershed approach to planning, implementing, and evaluating green infrastructure techniques. Community investment and physical infrastructure, access to datasets, and skills and knowledge exchange were essential in improving use attainment in the Mill Creek. Strategic placement of green infrastructure has the potential to maximize water quality benefits and ecosystem services. However, green infrastructure deployment has been more opportunistic due to the diversity of stakeholder and decision maker interests. Future work should consider collaborative approaches to address scaling challenges and workforce development to maximize green infrastructure benefits.