Community Economists
The dominant economic narratives in the UK build inequality and entrench crisis. We need to change that urgently. That’s why, with the help of the Friends Provident Foundation, we’ve launched this Community Economists project to start changing those narratives in a way that connects the mainstream of the economic justice movement with people living at the sharp end of inequality.
“I think we have changed the way people think and feel about the economy with this process”
Caroline Tosal-Suprun, Equality Trust Participation and Engagement Manager
What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?
The UK’s inequality is deeply entrenched in every part of life, affecting everything from life expectancy and health to trust and democracy. Our economic systems have encouraged it, leading to an economy that doesn’t work for the majority of the population but rewards a very small number of people with enormous profit. This is why UK billionaires have increased their wealth by over 1000% since 1990, but foodbank use has skyrocketed. Income from work no longer provides enough to live on: 15% of people living in poverty live in a family where all adults work, with at least one full-time.
The problems aren’t just economic: as well as the climate crisis, which is overwhelmingly driven by the globe’s super rich, the collapse of the developed world’s social contract has led to explosive growth in the far right.
Continuing on the path we’re on risks climate breakdown, undermining democracy, and impoverishing millions. But despite the clear crisis, the dominant economic narrative is that this failed economic system is inevitable, outside our control, and impossible to change. This is untrue.
What Are We Trying to Achieve?
We need to create a common vision for our future that is humane, equitable, and sustainable, with an economy that supports life and joy – and collectively work out how we get there – building a movement as we go.
With the Community Economists, we aim to:
- Build a new form of evidence base about inequality that focuses on peoples’ lived experience of it.
- Collaboratively create a vision for the best possible future for our economy, grounded in lived experiences alongside robust evidence.
- Use this approach to blend the margins and the mainstream, creating new evidence about the power of participation to create new ways of working.
- Embed collaborative systems change within our work and in the wider economic justice movement.
This project aims to achieve these ambitions by training Community Reporters, focusing on economic justice and collecting stories about the vision people have for the future of our economy. Together, we’ll then use these stories to create a learning programme about economics, communities, and what could replace our broken systems.
What is Community Reporting?
Community Reporting is a method developed by People’s Voice Media inspired by Pierre Lévy’s concept of collective intelligence: “Nobody knows everything, everyone knows something, and all knowledge resides in humanity.” Community Reporting trains members of a community in techniques that help them record the stories of those around them in their own words. These filmed or reported stories feature peoples lived experiences, how they feel about those experiences, and what they hope or fear from the future with minimal interpretation from outsiders.
These stories are analysed and used to form a database that can help policymakers understand a problem or desire in a way that’s deeper than statistics can convey. The goal is that this approach is participative and non-extractive.
2025 Timeline
- Q1 2025
Develop the training, recruit the Community Economists, and start building the project - Q2 2025
Train the Community Economists, begin collecting stories, and begin building the economic education programme together - Q3 2025
Curate the stories, begin the economic education programme, and hold power-mapping workshops to mobilise people - Q4 2025
Continue workshops, work together on ways to mobilise people, and co-create new materials for other groups to launch similar programmes