Social Infrastructure Case Study 2022

Running head: SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Name of the Student
Author note

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i. Composition and Future Trends
Wiley Park is a suburb in the region of Sydney, NSW, and it is located about 14
kilometers from the capital city of NSW, which is Sydney. The region happens to be the
federal electorate of Watson. The region comprised of not less than 9,500 people in
population, which composed of 52.1% males and 47.9% females, as per the 2011 census
(Wiley-park.localstats.com.au 2019). This is indicative of the fact that the region has a near
gender ratio stability, with the males being slightly higher in number. The median age of the
population of the region is 30 years, which is indicative of the fact that the population in the
region is relatively young. 34.2% of the population of the region were born in Australia, with
a significant number of residents belonging from Bangladesh, Lebanon, Vietnam, Pakistan
and China, contributing 10%, 7.7%, 4.1%, 4%, and 3.6% respectively to the population in the
region. Out of this population, 21.9% of the population residing in the region speak Arabic.
The other top spoken languages in the region include English and Bengali (Wiley-
park.localstats.com.au 2019).
A majority of 44% of the population in the region have their religious roots in Islam,
with only 14.9% being Catholics. As per the marriage status in the region, 56.7% of the
people in the region are married, which signifies a high proportion. 29.4% of the people in
the region have never married and 7.1% of the population are divorced. There are
approximately 232 widowed people living in the region (Wiley-park.localstats.com.au 2019).
The region however, has an unemployment rate of 11.4%, with 52.5% of the population who
are above the age of 15 working full time, and 29.5% working on a part time basis (Wiley-
park.localstats.com.au 2019). As per the major occupations in the region are concerned, there
are 15.9% laborers in the region, followed by 14.5% professionals, 13.4% Technicians and
trade workers, 12.4% Machinery operators & drivers, 11.8% Clerical & administrative

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workers, 11.5% Sales workers, 11.3% Community & personal service workers, 6.2%
Managers, 2.9% Occupation inadequately described/ Not stated (Wiley-
park.localstats.com.au 2019).
Retail trade forms the major industry in the region, employing 12.5% of the total
workforce in the region, followed by 11.2% in manufacturing, 10.7% in health care services,
10.5% in food and accommodation services, 10.4% in transport, and 5.5% in construction.
Other employments are in the industries that include construction, science, public
administration and wholesale trade (Wiley-park.localstats.com.au 2019).
A majority of 48.2% of the homes in the region are rented, while 21% are fully
owned. The remaining homes in the region are in the process of being bought by home loan
mortgage. Average individual income in the region is $370/week, while the same for
household income is $876 per week, which is indicative of the fact that the region does have
financial stability. Rent for housing in the region is $295 per week on an average, while the
median mortgage repayment is nearly $1600 every month (Wiley-park.localstats.com.au
2019). Overall, it could be said that the data that is exhibited about the region is indicative of
the fact that the social and financial stability in the region is proper.
In terms of future trends in the region, the suburb has already delivered a significantly
strong performance in terms of appreciation of property values, than the other Australian
suburbs. Profits in home prices is hence expected to go above 0.2% on an average per annum,
due to the increasing property value (Park 2019). It is expected that properties in the region
would be would be in the market before a sale, which as of now, lasts for only 0.0 days.
Demographically, population in the region is also expected to increase, owing to a high
proportion of married people in the region and most of the population belonging in their
fertility stages. This is indicative of the fact that the population is going to get younger in the

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future, with the average age of the population going below 30 years (Park 2019). Due to
appreciation in property values, it is expected that investors would be highly keen on
investing in the region on properties, as it would earn them a rental income of $500, owing to
current median home prices. It is for this reason why overall, the future trends in the region
looks stable and striving towards social and economic development (Park 2019).
ii. Literature review
Social infrastructure is the concept that deals with founding structures and facilities
that help a community to support the basic living of a community residing in a nation or a
particular region within it (Bielaczyc 2006). It is aimed to improve the quality of life of the
residents in a region or a nation, besides the basic amenities that are already existent in the
society. Social infrastructure is aimed at nurturing a community to develop itself, by
extending support to it in the form of education and transportation, including all of the other
facilities that make life easier for the people residing in the region (Bielaczyc 2006). These
include healthcare, community support, public spaces, sports, information, public safety, arts
and culture. All of these facilities are required by a community to be able to properly thrive in
an environment, where they would not have to struggle for the fulfilment of their goals, and
would instead be assisted in the process of fulfilling their personal and social goals in a given
society. The concept of social infrastructure is simple, which is only made vast by the
services and facilities that compose the concept (Bielaczyc 2006).
To be precise, there are two broad categories of infrastructure that compose social
infrastructure. The first is hard infrastructure, in which infrastructure is provided in tangible
forms that could are aimed at making the daily lives of the people in a community in a given
region better (Nijkamp 2016). These include roads, police stations, educational facilities, fire
emergency facilities and more. Soft infrastructure on the other hand is aimed at making sure

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that they provide additional and leisure support to the existing hard infrastructure in a given
society, and comes in intangible forms, such as recreational activities, cultural development
programs and more (Nijkamp 2016).
In public sector planning, the concept of social infrastructure has comes in four steps.
The first step is profiling. It is in this step that the major thing that has to be done is to come
up with the identification of the characteristics of the people who reside within an area where
the social infrastructure would be taking place (Malekpour, Brown and de Haan 2015). These
characteristics can include average age group, occupation and even gender ratio of the
population. The idea is to completely understand who resides within the area. Based on this
data, there has to be a gap assessment (Malekpour, Brown and de Haan 2015). Planners have
to identify the future gaps that exist in the social infrastructure provision within a region, and
also assess the needs and wants of the people, primarily based on the characteristics that are
known about them (Malekpour, Brown and de Haan 2015). For example, if the average age
group of the population is relatively low, and analysis finds that the current number of
educational institutions is not enough to cater to the educational needs of the area, focus is
primarily given on building schools, colleges and parks, making teenagers the target for the
social infrastructure. This is the solution stage, in which it is identified how to fill existing
and future gaps and how to effectively cater to the characteristics of the population
(Malekpour, Brown and de Haan 2015).
Last but not the least, as per Albrechts (2015), the most effective solutions in terms of
social infrastructure comes about when the average age or occupation is properly identified.
This is immensely helpful in identifying the target group for a particular public sector
strategic planning. in turn, when the target group for a plan is identified, it automatically
gives a general overview of the things that need to be done and the social infrastructure that
needs to be established in the society for the purpose of making sure that the needs and wants

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of the majority of the population is met. Resources for the infrastructure is ideally allocated in
proportion with the population characteristics (Albrechts 2015).
iii. Adequacy and limitations
Recent studies in the area suggests that the major thing that has to be noted is the fact
that social infrastructure can help in diminishing income inequality. This is field that has not
been studied before and thereby provides a whole new dimension to the adequacy of the
concept. Study suggests that social infrastructure makes for the platform for economically
disadvantaged people to be a part in the core societal activities, and also to use equal facilities
to fulfil personal and economic goals (Sampson 2017). It is for this reason why the main
thing that has to be considered in this regard is the fact that governments that invest in social
infrastructure efficiently and adequately, are more likely to have a better social stability in the
society as a result of the better income equality within the society (Sampson 2017). Apart
from this, social infrastructure provides for direct investment, due to the fact that it makes for
the platform for the increase in private assets (Sampson 2017). Social infrastructure is not
fully adequate without economic infrastructure however. For a society to succeed in a holistic
manner, both of the infrastructures have to be implemented together and in unison for the
purpose. Overall, the adequacy of the concept is high but depends on the quality of the
infrastructure that is provided in the community (Sampson 2017).
There are certain limitations of the concept of social infrastructure. Firstly, the main
thing that has to be noted is the fact that the concept of social infrastructure does not take the
need for democracy into account (Cowell and Devine-Wright 2018). Social infrastructure is a
concept of government and planning, and it is important to figure out that only a democratic
government can usually use the concept effectively. This is because of the fact that the main
thing that has to be noted in this regard is the fact that the people residing in a region may

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have various needs and wants and it is not possible for the government to know each and
every one of those individual needs and wants (Cowell and Devine-Wright 2018). As a result,
the main thing that is done is to make sure that the main target group for a particular plan is
identified and catered accordingly. This leaves with the interests of a lot of people
unaddressed. Unless a government is totally democratic, these wants and needs of the people
who have been unaddressed would remain to be unaddressed (Cowell and Devine-Wright
2018). Another limitation is based on costs. It is often impossible to figure out how much cost
effective a particular investment on a social infrastructure would be. This is because of the
fact that the main thing that has to be noted in this regard is people may not know how to
effectively use it to their benefit, or the plan might not prove to be productive at all (Cowell
and Devine-Wright 2018).

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Albrechts, L., 2015. Ingredients for a more radical strategic spatial planning. Environment
and Planning B: Planning and Design, 42(3), pp.510-525.
Bielaczyc, K., 2006. Designing social infrastructure: Critical issues in creating learning
environments with technology. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(3), pp.301-329.
Cowell, R. and Devine-Wright, P., 2018. A ‘delivery-democracy dilemma’? Mapping and
explaining policy change for public engagement with energy infrastructure. Journal of
environmental policy & planning, 20(4), pp.499-517.
Malekpour, S., Brown, R.R. and de Haan, F.J., 2015. Strategic planning of urban
infrastructure for environmental sustainability: Understanding the past to intervene for the
future. Cities, 46, pp.67-75.
Nijkamp, P., 2016. Infrastructure and regional development: A multidimensional policy
analysis. Empirical Economics, 11(1), pp.1-21.
Park, W. (2019). WILEY PARK NSW, AU SUBURB PROFILE - FREE REPORT. [online]
Smartpropertyinvestment.com.au. Available at:
https://www.smartpropertyinvestment.com.au/data/nsw/2195/wiley-park [Accessed 13 Sep.
2019].
References
Sampson, R.J., 2017. Urban sustainability in an age of enduring inequalities: Advancing
theory and ecometrics for the 21st-century city. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 114(34), pp.8957-8962.
Wiley-park.localstats.com.au. (2019). Wiley Park Demographics (NSW) Local Stats. [online]
Available at: http://wiley-park.localstats.com.au/demographics/nsw/sydney/canterbury-
bankstown/wiley-park [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].

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