Co-designing food as a Universal Basic Service
Public services are in crisis across the world. At the Institute for Global Prosperity we are reimagining social protection for the 21st century and demonstrating how innovative processes can put communities and countries on pathways to prosperity.
We are driving change through Universal Basic Services, a transformative framework for meeting basic needs, providing essential services and supporting people through the coming transformations in the economy. This starts with reimagining how communities can flourish.
Researchers at the Institute for Global Prosperity are reimagining food infrastructures through co-design, citizen science and radical collaboration. In the context of the broader cost-of-living crisis, inflation and welfare reforms, food insecurity is escalating. What if food in cities were affordable, shared, and available in public kitchens?
The IGP is holding public discussions across the UK that redefine access to food and other core social infrastructures as a right. Moving beyond minimalist safety nets to envision universal provisioning systems that support dignity, wellbeing and ecological security.
Research in the IGP has worked with communities, artists, and policymakers to rethink how we cook, share, and organise around food and to explore how people with poor access to food from east London jointly envision what destigmatised spaces for communal eating could look like. Our work demonstrates how food justice can shape cities from the ground up.
Learn more about our Flourish Forums
Research and Projects
Another Provision
Connecting Communities
Another Provision
© Johann Arens
The collaborative practice of researcher Dr. Hanna Baumann (IGP) and artist Johann Arens applying strategies of public art to highlight the need for increased food justice and reimagining public food services.
Flourish Forums
Connecting Communities
Another Provision
IGP is holding Flourish Forums across the UK in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh to explore the cascading benefits of joined up services and how we can improve the resilience and lives of communities and residents.
Connecting Communities
Connecting Communities
Connecting Communities
We supported the rollout of digital UBS with research evaluations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in partnership with Poplar HARCA, East End Community Foundation, Tower Hamlets Council and Community Fibre.
Municipal Kitchens
Workshops with Community Meals
Connecting Communities
A exhibition in Berlin held from 29th June to 18 August 2024 and co-curated by Dr Hanna Baumann exploring food insecurity and proposals for new forms of community-based eating.
Camden Pilots
Workshops with Community Meals
Workshops with Community Meals
In partnership with Camden Council we've brought together a deep understanding of the people and place of Camden to test what it could look like to bring the values and principles of UBS to life at a local level. Following micro pilots, we are launching a new pilot this Autumn exploring intersections between services
Workshops with Community Meals
Workshops with Community Meals
Workshops with Community Meals
We hosted workshops in different communities discussing a range of topics such as historical and contemporary models that use food to build community and foster wellbeing rather than merely to make a profit, imagining what a different, more just, sustainable and healthy food future might look like, and rethinking food provision and food systems.