The Journal of Architecture

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Mapping social values

Eli Hatleskog & Flora Samuel

To cite this article: Eli Hatleskog & Flora Samuel (2021) Mapping social values, The Journal of
Architecture, 26:1, 56-58, DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2021.1883892

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Published online: 19 Feb 2021.

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 56
Eli Hatleskog
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Bristol
UK
eli.hatleskog@bristol.ac.uk
ORCID 0000-0002-9265-9464
Flora Samuel
School of Architecture
University of Reading
UK
f.b.samuel@reading.ac.uk
ORCID 0000-0001-9243-3118
RIBA President’s Awards for Research,
2020: winner, Cities and Community
theme. This is a summary of the
winning submission.
Mapping social values
Eli Hatleskog and Flora Samuel
Mapping social values
The Mapping Eco-Social Assets (MESA) project developed methods to colla-
boratively map and analyse social value across a neighbourhood in Reading,
UK. The research explored how practitioners working in the urban environment
can, through the co-design of maps with communities, capture and share attri-
butes of a place which typically remain undervalued or hidden. Whilst it is gen-
erally understood that broader involvement in planning and design processes
can benefit society, specific approaches and methods often remain vague
and do not link with the needs of local authorities. MESA’s project maps
evolved in iterative steps as a result of collaborative activities, which explored
how co-produced research activities could support discussions about social
value and better decision-making processes. The project took influence from
the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture, a bottom-up initiative by architectural
practices in London, published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
in 2020, with the aim of demonstrating the social value of design.
Built environment researchers have long had an interest in trying to pin down
what it is that people want from their buildings and places, a pursuit that really
took off with the growth of evidence-based design in the 1960s.1 However,
‘social value’ itself is a fairly recent and ill-defined term. It is often used to
explore how limited resources can be put to best use, by examining the collec-
tive benefit, beyond cost savings, that allocation of public money can have. In
the UK, the Public Services (Social Value) Act 20122 requires local governments
take economic, environmental, and social benefits into consideration when
buying services. Investment decisions requiring government funding have to
work within the guidance of the HM Treasury Green Book3 and its updates,
bringing it in line with the Social Value Act, now require recognition of econ-
omic, environmental, and social values in building procurement and other pro-
jects using government money.
In the UK, government organisations are supposed to make planning and
spending decisions with regard to environmental, social, and economic
values, the triple bottom line of sustainability. However, due to a lack of con-
sensus on ways of measuring social and environmental value, decision-
making typically focuses on economic value4 with serious impacts on well-
being.5 Without sufficient methods to discuss and promote alternate forms
of value in the built environment, the current market-driven approach, which
many agree is not fit for purpose,6 will simply continue.
The Social Value Toolkit for Architecture (SVT) was developed as a provoca-
tion to architects to think about how they can demonstrate the social value
impact of their designs on people and communities. Underlying the SVT was
a pragmatism about the need to demonstrate value quantitatively in a
culture of key performance targets and metrics.7 The SVT identified existing
# 2021 RIBA Enterprises 1360-2365 https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2021.1883892
 57 The Journal
of Architecture
Volume 26
Number 1

financial proxies that can be used to monetise the social value of good design Figure 1.
from the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust’s (HACT) Social Value Bank.8 Composite social value map
highlighting locations described
These proxies relate to ‘ideal’ situations such as ‘I talk to neighbours regularly’
during community workshops as
valued at up to £4511 per person per year and ‘I am able to take frequent mild being of greatest local value and
exercise’ valued at up to £3537 per person per year. MESA sought to unpack potential
how these normative ideals resonated with the lived experiences of residents
and stakeholders of a neighbourhood in east Reading and through on-site
workshops explored where they believed social values were located.
Over the summer of 2019, mapping workshops were staged at seven differ-
ent locations around the forty-hectare case-study site. These events saw the
production of fourteen community maps as well as lists of aspirational
measures of improvement and headlines. Workshop data recorded input
from around 200 participants and provided rich base material for the develop-
ment of composite social value maps, which visualised interconnected and
overlapping social values in context. The research revealed locations, such as
a recently closed swimming pool, which participants felt had great potential
for enhancing social value locally, as well as a broader critique of the social
value proxies, which were perceived as being ableist, in favour of people
without speech, hearing, or mobility issues (Fig. 1).
Since social values resist metrics, they are typically difficult to capture and
communicate to decision-makers. MESA explored how softer forms of data
58 Mapping social values
Eli Hatleskog and Flora Samuel

can be represented and how architectural practice research can translate local
situated knowledges and values into a format which is accessible. By linking
community mapping to monetary proxies relating to wellbeing, the research
appealed to the local authority who saw potential in how the maps might
help them make more informed decisions that could contribute to cost
reductions. The research revealed some of the challenges of linking neighbour-
hood perspectives with local government’s processes. Values across the public
sphere are often contested, something which was apparent through the
research. The project also modelled a potential role for architecture and plan-
ning professionals in supporting consultation for local development plans and
developed a set of methods that can be replicated at different scales and
locations.

Funding

This work was supported by the Newton Fund [grant number 332241573].

Notes and references

1. Flora Samuel, Why Architects Matter: Evidencing and Communicating the Value of Archi-
tects (London: Routledge, 2018).
2. Cabinet Office, Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012) <https://www.gov.uk/government/
publications/social-value-act-information-and-resources/social-value-act-information-and-
resources> [accessed 27 January 2021].
3. HM Treasury, The Green Book (2018) <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/
uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685903/The_Green_Book.pdf> [accessed 27
January 2021].
4. Bilge Serin and others, Design Value at Neighbourhood Scale (Glasgow: CACHE, 2018).
5. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce
Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-Being (London: Penguin, 2018).
6. Matthew Carmona and others, A Housing Design Audit for England (2020) <https://indd.
adobe.com/view/23366ae1-8f97-455d-896a-1a9934689cd8> [accessed 27 January 2021]
7. Trowers & Hamlins, Highly Valued, Hard to Value: Towards an Integrated Measurement of
Real Estate Development (Oxford: Oxford Brookes University, 2017).
8. HACT, Social Value Bank (2019) <https://www.hact.org.uk/social-value-bank> [accessed 27
January 2021].