Working with local communities to rethink prosperity

A new approach to measuring prosperity, led by ‘citizen social scientists’, is shaping new strategies to improve the lives of local people in five areas of east London.

For decades 'prosperity' has been linked to the idea of wealth. Government policy has focused on economic growth, measured by rising GDP, as the way to improve living standards and opportunities. Yet rising inequalities, in-work poverty and job insecurity challenge the idea that economic growth should be the measure of a good life.  

“Most indicators and metrics are decided by experts in government, universities or business, and assumed to be relevant to communities everywhere,’ says Dr Saffron Woodcraft, of the UCL Institute of Global Prosperity (IGP), which worked with local residents, community groups, local authorities and politicians to develop a new way of measuring prosperity. 

““The Prosperity Index is different. Based on extensive research carried out by the people who live and work in the neighbourhoods where experience is being measured, it reports on the factors that local people say support their prosperity and quality of life,” adds Dr Woodcraft. 

The IGP worked with local residents, community groups and councils to help decision-makers and communities to understand what prosperity means, how it should be measured, and to identify strategies for local action.  

The method was piloted in five east London neighbourhoods. The research team worked with ‘citizen social scientists’ – local people who helped to design, collect and interpret the research. Together they identified 15 headline indicators that the people living and working in those areas identified as important to their prosperity.  

These indicators ranged from new measures of secure livelihoods focused on good quality and secure jobs, public services and affordable housing, rather than simply income and employment; measures of involvement and influence in local decision-making; and people’s feelings of prosperity and of control over their own futures. 

The Prosperity Index methodology has since been used by teams in Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania, as well as in other areas of London, as part of a larger agenda for developing sustainable and meaningful ways for communities to lead efforts to improve the quality of life of people throughout the world.