face to face - in the city

Sandy Maxey

Fascinating:

"....any group which raises the rate of face-to-face interactions within a city is actually doing something that carries economic value, as well as the purely social sort. Work done by local charities and churches, walking groups and even parent networks fall under this category. Such groups' regular face-to-face meetings, by fostering social ties, are providing a tangible benefit to their city."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/06/urbanisation

The city triumphs, again

www.economist.com

HUMANITY is crowding into ever smaller portions of the planet. In "Triumph of the City" Edward Glaeser notes how 243m Americans squish together into only 3% of the...

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Finally, Dr Pan's findings imply that any group which raises the rate of face-to-face interactions within a city is actually doing something that carries economic value, as well as the purely social sort. Work done by local charities and churches, walking groups and even parent networks fall under this category. Such groups' regular face-to-face meetings, by fostering social ties, are providing a tangible benefit to their city. Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, famously said "there is no such thing as society". There is. And it scales superlinearly.