Social atrophy, social infrastructure, and the commons
Date
2025-01-21
Authors
Stein Lubrano, Sarah
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Abstract
In this short talk, Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano will describe the important problem of social atrophy, a diminishing of social ability and judgement that occurs when people are socially isolated. Cognitive and neuroscientific research demonstrates that social atrophy weakens people's ability to engage in social life and makes them more withdrawn and even paranoid, creating a spiraling negative effect on both individuals and societies.
Dr. Stein Lubrano will then argue that these key features mean that social atrophy is a better way of framing and understanding the problem of social isolation in the 21st century compared to the more popular description, a "loneliness epidemic." And understanding this problem well matters greatly, as social isolation is currently at a 50-year high in many Western countries.
Dr. Stein Lubrano will then describe a crucial measure to counteract this problem: the creation of social infrastructure. Social infrastructure provides the means for people to regularly and easily gather and can counteract the trend towards social atrophy. Furthermore, Dr. Stein Lubrano will hypothesise that social infrastructure and the "social capital" it generates are best understood as commons, that is, as types of wealth that either only can or only should be owned collectively, and which therefore may need different legal frameworks than most private property.
Finally, Dr. Stein Lubrano will consider the political significance of social infrastructure, the inability of online spaces to provide some of its crucial functions, and whether this social and legal problem might be tied to related questions about the right for people to not only gather together to speak about political issues but also act together, drawing on the work of legal theorist Stanley Ingber.
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Keywords
social atrophy, social infrastructure, the commons, legal design