Imagining a welfare state that supports secure livelihoods (2021)

Councillor Georgia Gould and Professor Henrietta L. Moore
March 2021

Facing the many challenges and uncertainties of the 21st century, like the COVID-19 crisis, will require more resilient communities with greater capacity and capability to develop support that is specific to their place. This means holding a focus on relationships and people within an approach that goes further than thinking about individual capabilities alone, and instead on lifting up whole communities. That means building up the social and service infrastructures within a community that, taken together, can build secure livelihoods.

This paper brings together the IGP’s foundational work on UBS, both theoretical and practical, and early practical experimentation by Camden Council, to make the case that a welfare state comprising a broadened set of universal services would help individuals to live secure and flourishing lives and also support stronger social connections and a sense of civic responsibility.

Read the paper