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Saffron Woodcraft

Saffron Woodcraft

Professor of Collaborative Social Science at UCL's Institute for Global Prosperity, she is an anthropologist and urbanist rethinking what prosperity means in the twenty-first century — and building the methods, metrics and community partnerships to measure it.

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Portrait of Saffron Woodcraft
Currently

Leading the Prosperity in east London 2021-2031 study — a decade-long look at who gains and how from regeneration.

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Research interests

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01

Prosperity beyond GDP

Developing conceptual frameworks, indices and metrics that go beyond GDP and standard wellbeing measures. This includes the Citizen Prosperity Index - built with local communities and citizen scientists to measure what people say matters and what makes a difference to their lives.

02

Livelihood insecurity

Mapping and measuring how households experience insecure work, income, housing, food and services, and how compound insecurities shape life chances. Recent work explores how insecurity impacts earnings, individual productivity and mental health.

03

Citizen social science

Co-designing research with community researchers so evidence is built from the lived experience of the people it describes.

04

Cities, regeneration & sustainable communities

Long-term mixed methods research on urban regeneration looking at the politics of the built environment, what counts as a sustainable community, and who benefits from urban regeneration.

05

Verticality & urban form

Theoretical work on verticality and urban form, and how architecture and urban planning are used to advance ideas about who the city is for.

Recent publications

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