About the Everyday Economy
There is growing recognition of the need to review and revise how we approach the economy. This is seen in current inquiries into socio-economic inequalities in the UK and debates about ‘levelling-up’ across the country.
With the Everyday Economy, the aim is to refocus on how economic activities connect to people's experiences. Through this, a new understanding of the economy emerges, one that accounts for social values, local socio-economic factors, as well as the reproduction of communities; and one that recognises the strengths and vulnerability of places.
Thinking about the Everyday Economy means thinking about how value can be sustained in places and paying close attention to the lived realities of people's everyday experiences of the economy. It is about pushing the debate beyond seeing places in difficulty as outliers or ‘left-behind’ and instead see them through the lived experiences of those who live there.
Our work on Everyday Economy aims therefore to encourage reflection regarding the less-known dimensions of economic activity by taking the economy as a situated object of inquiry. In other words, understanding what constitutes an improvement of ordinary life through local knowledge active deliberation and the agency of stakeholders and local citizens organisations.
By recognising people as active agents in the processes of economic development we have the opportunity to change how we engage with the economy and eventually set the scene for local and community-centred decision-making.
Who we are
Researchers
Lucy is a Lecturer in Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, and co-editor of the Built Environment journal. She is a participatory planning researcher with a background in public policy and international planning research. Her research focuses on the relationship between citizens and the state, and how this affects evidence and planning decisions.
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Max is Associate Professor in Applied Urban Sciences at CASA, University College London, and an Associate in the Urban Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance. He is an economic geographer with a background in public policy. His research focuses on urban economic development, in particular innovation systems and clusters; the economics of immigration and diversity; and public policy for cities.
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Dimitrios is a Research Associate and Teaching Assistant at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London with a background in architecture and urban planning. His research is situated in the field of Urban Studies and focuses on the patterns of urban transformation, the perception of marginalised and liminal urban spaces, and the relevance of urban manufacturing in contemporary urban settings.
Maeve is currently leading a research and engagement programme supporting community development in County Durham's former mining communities. Her PhD investigated the impact of public art on community wellbeing. She has a background in social research as well as extensive experience of working with community groups and stakeholder organisations to develop their capacity in scoping and delivering community-based projects and evaluations.
John’s research has been principally concerned with the development of cities and regions as socioeconomic, political and cultural phenomena and the role of public policy in the management of these. This work has focused especially on questions of the governance of local and regional economies, including questions of spatial planning.
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Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite is a historian of twentieth-century Britain. Her PhD examined political and popular ideas about class in England between c. 1969 and 2000. Other historical subjects she has an interest in include gender, sexuality, prostitution and homelessness.
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Saffron's research focuses on anthropological approaches to understanding lived experiences of prosperity and inequality in urban neighbourhoods. Her work examines how 'communities of place' are imagined and actioned in urban policy and place-making practice, and how relationships between urban social life, urban form and prosperity are theorised. Saffron's research questions the social and political implications of reimagining prosperity as situated and diverse, and the theoretical and methodological challenges this presents to developing new forms of evidence and policy directions.
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Dr Stefania Fiorentino is a Lecturer in Planning and Urban Regeneration at the University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy. She also holds an honorary affiliation to the Bartlett School of Planning (UCL). Her research focuses on ways to reconcile urban planning and local economic development for innovative and more resilient regeneration strategies. She is involved in international consultancy work and sits in several advisory boards, looking at more inclusive public policy and cities.
Hyunji's research focuses on community participation, inclusion/exclusion of minority groups in the decision-making processes of urban policies. She is currently working on the data gap and visibility of minority groups in urban data. She has senior experience in urban data analytics and management focusing on environmental sustainability, decarbonisation, and social inclusion, funded by the H2020 EU programme.
Dr Myfanwy Taylor is an expert on urban economies and politics with a particular focus on collaborative action research. Her interests include markets, industry, affordable workspace, community planning, local economic development, industrial strategy and urban movements. Myfanwy was the main researcher on the Markets4People project at University of Leeds from 2018 to 2021, and is now pursuing Leverhulme-funded research on local industrial strategies at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning.
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