A new report out from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) discusses the benefits of using a social network approach to community regeneration (via @barrywellman)

From the authors:

Traditional approaches to community regeneration which define communities in solely geographic terms have severe limitations. They often failed to deliver on key social capital improvements such as improving trust between residents or fostering a greater sense of belonging.
In this report we argue for a new approach to community regeneration, based on an understanding of the importance of social networks, such an approach has the potential to bring about significant improvements in efforts to combat isolation and to support the development of resilient and empowered communities

Following on their work on the spread of health patterns (obesity and smoking) through social networks, Christakis and Fowler have published a new piece using social network analysis to track the spread of flu. By tracking flu among those nominated as friends (who have been shown to be more central than random individuals), public health systems may be better able to respond to outbreaks quickly. See the article here.