Social and cultural infrastructure plays a critical, yet often unnoticed, role in the lives of communities. From libraries and parks to markets and cultural festivals, these infrastructures provide, among other things, opportunities for interaction, participation, and the formation of local pride and identity. Yet without appropriate tools to understand and evaluate these assets, their significance risks being neglected in decision-making. 

This report brings together the results of an investigation into how best to measure social and cultural infrastructure. It outlines how an approach based on the characteristics of infrastructure more generally can be used to identify social and cultural infrastructure. It then explores the challenge of measuring social and cultural infrastructure. Finally, the report develops a framework for measuring the critical, yet often overlooked, assets, facilities and spaces that make up shared social and cultural infrastructure.

The report provides an indication of some of the framework’s practical applications, beginning with its use at the national level and then examining its relevance for regional and local governments, funders, institutions, community organisations and the private sector. The framework sets out the steps required to ensure that the process is transparent and takes into account evidence and insights from a wide range of different voices.

Two broad themes emerge out of the research:

1. Assets classed as social and cultural infrastructure demonstrate the same core characteristics as other types of infrastructure, while also making particular contributions to the social and cultural lives of communities.
2. Measurement should be seen as a process that at each stage considers how choices and decisions about what is measured, and how, reflects the needs of all involved.