Community Wealth Building
Published: 13 November 2024
Community Wealth Building is a systems approach to local economic transformation. We are looking at the potential of community wealth building strategies to operationalise the intended outcomes of the Thriving City Portrait.
Community Wealth Building and System Transformation
Community Wealth Building is a systems approach to local economic transformation. It is action-focused, place-based, and people-centred. Through deliberate actions to improve the five mutually reinforcing pillars underpinning the socioeconomic fabric of a place, this community-led approach has the potential to pre-distribute wealth, advancing environmental and social justice.
The recently published Scottish Community Wealth Building bill piqued our interest in the potential of community wealth building to support the aims of GALLANT. Case studies of successful implementation, in different local authorities across Scotland and other parts of the world, inspired our team to explore how this agenda could help to achieve the outcomes of the Thriving Glasgow Portrait using systems transformation.
In 2025 Laavanya Varadarajan, a third year Economics MA student with the Adam Smith Business School, undertook a summer internship with the GALLANT team to conduct a comprehensive literature review and systems mapping around community wealth building. This has given us an understanding of the existing use of community wealth building across key strategies in Glasgow. Additionally, it showcased the potential to augment the scope of policy actions in achieving a wider range of Thriving Glasgow Definitions by adopting an integrated whole-systems change in policymaking. Based on this work, we are developing actionable recommendations towards realising the wider potential benefits of community wealth building.
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector have been working on the role of community wealth building for a wellbeing economy in Glasgow. GALLANT co-hosted a screening with them of the film 'Purpose'. Blog post with further information is available at Building a wellbeing economy in Glasgow : the role of community wealth building
"Through the GALLANT partnership, the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council are exploring how a wellbeing economy in Glasgow could drive systemic change, improving health, reducing inequality, and delivering better environmental outcomes alongside economic performance.
This shift was brought to life through a screening of Purpose: A Wellbeing Economies Film. The film follows Katherine Trebek and Lorenzo Fioramonti as they challenge the idea that economies must prioritise endless growth. Instead, they examine how economic systems can better serve people and planet, asking a simple but powerful question: what would it look like if our economy worked for us, rather than the other way around?"
First published: 13 November 2024