International Symposium “Infrastructure for Everyday Life, Social Well-being and New Metrics for Public Decision-Making”

The International Symposium “Infrastructure for Everyday Life, Social Well-being and New Metrics for Public Decision-Making” brought together researchers, policy experts and practitioners to discuss how infrastructure can be redefined, measured and governed as a foundation of everyday well-being, gender equality and social sustainability. Organised by the University of Murcia within the framework of the international EuWIGeN network, the symposium created a space for dialogue between academic research and public policy, with particular attention to the Well-being and Infrastructure from a Gender Perspective Index (WIGI).

The central premise of the symposium was that infrastructure should not be understood only as roads, energy systems, transport corridors or large-scale economic assets. Rather, it should also include the everyday systems that enable people to live with dignity: healthcare, education, care services, public transport, lighting, green spaces, digital infrastructure, cultural spaces and community facilities. These infrastructures shape access to employment, education, health, safety, care, leisure, social relationships and participation. They therefore have direct consequences for subjective well-being, social cohesion and gender equality.

A key contribution of the symposium was the presentation and discussion of new metrics that can support more inclusive public decision-making. The WIGI approach was presented as an innovative tool for measuring how infrastructure affects well-being through the strengthening of capabilities. The discussions challenged the assumption that infrastructure is gender-neutral, showing instead that women and men often use, need and benefit from infrastructure differently because of unequal care responsibilities, mobility patterns, safety concerns, income inequalities and access to time.

As our populations age, as young people emigrate, and as families become smaller, the old assumption that care will simply be provided inside the family is no longer sustainable. And we have to be honest: in practice, this unpaid care is mostly carried by women. This affects women’s employment, income, pensions and risk of poverty later in life. But it also affects public finances. When women leave the labour market because of care responsibilities, the state loses tax revenues and social-insurance contributions. When older people do not receive adequate home-based or community care, the costs often appear later through hospitals, institutions and crisis interventions.