What changes when communities define prosperity?

For decades 'prosperity' has been linked to the idea of economic growth and measured by rising GDP. The pages below tell a different story about what prosperity means. They describe the research carried out by citizen social scientists in 2015 and 2017, asking people from five east London neighbourhoods what it means to live a prosperous life.

This in-depth qualitative research identifies the determinants of prosperity and is what underpins the Citizen Prosperity Index.

These pages have been designed to make the research findings easily accessible and to show how citizen-led research can have a significant impact on the way policymakers think about action on prosperity. We hope these stories will be valuable to individuals, communities, organisations and policymakers - both in east London, where the research has taken place, and in other areas where people are interested in understanding what prosperity means in local terms.

Acknowledgements

This research draws on significant contributions from a group of citizen social scientists who have worked on designing, collecting, interpreting and presenting this work. We would like to thank and acknowledge their participation:

Sue Ansarie, Peter Bailey, Rhajesh Bhattacherjee, Miriam Chapman, Farhana Ibrahim, Montana Joseph, Akbar Khan, Leila Lawal, Nathalie Limon, Tony McKenzie, Jonathan Murray, Kyronne Parkes, Carrie Svinning, Ivy Tanzila, Ines Tercio, Fatima Uddin, Angela Williams, Nileema Yesmin, Nesrin Yurtoglu.

What is prosperity?

Hackney Wick, Hackney

East Village, Olympic Park, Newham

Coventry Cross, Tower Hamlets

Canning Town, Newham

Heath, Dagenham