Professor Dr. Saffron Woodcraft

Biography

Saffron Woodcraft is a Professorial Research Fellow and the Director of the Social Policy Institute at the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity. She leads work focused on understanding the lived experiences of communities, shared prosperity, and inequality in urban neighborhoods undergoing rapid change. Her research examines the social and political implications of reimagining prosperity in local communities and addresses the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in developing new evidence for policy directions. Saffron collaborates with citizen scientists, community organizations, government policymakers, and business decision-makers to integrate local understandings of prosperity into planning and decision-making processes. Her work critically analyzes relationships between communities and the quality of life, community well-being, urban transformation, and the practices of public policy-making. Saffron has also participated in various policy advisory groups for both central and local governments in the UK and is a member of the GLA's Wellbeing Sustainability Measure Advisory Group. She coordinates a transdisciplinary research innovation partnership between the UK and Tanzania focusing on local pathways to prosperity from 2021 to 2031.

Research Interests

Experience