A description of the work (Abstract): «Exploring a potential vision of the common good for London’s economic centres, this dissertation asks why and how economic democracy should be enacted at the scale of the high street. While COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities along many lines, evolving values around community, wellbeing and public space also pose an opportunity for re-imagining fairer economic trajectories through a focus on place. Often magnifying wider economic issues, the long-run decline of British high streets has been well documented. While commonly focusing on curation and design as a way to ‘activate’ these once public spaces, their complexity has given way to an equally diverse discourse lacking a consistent framework for guiding planning, interventions and policy. While current high street rhetoric offers a growing focus on social value and ‘community-led development’, economic power and equity implications are frequently overlooked. This thesis suggests, given the accessible and inclusive nature of high streets, the potential for situating a framework of economic development that considers a more radical restructuring of social and economic power. Placing the principles of economic democracy within an everyday site helps to foreground people and place. Through repurposing urban space for inclusive, collective and participatory workspaces, services or social centres, high streets can play a role in reformulating value concepts. Developing an analytical framework that considers rights, ownership and deliberation, through iterative empirical analysis, this thesis will address practices that could re-frame high streets to better serve their communities. SHORT: study asking why and how should a framework of economic democracy be used to re-shape london’s high streets, for the redistribution of economic power and the promotion of the common good.

Social segregation between the rich and poor is an issue that London and other big cities struggle to fight. This issue is universal that it may exist between different neighbourhoods or in the same housing block. Bias and distrust between the poor and rich caused by lack of social contacts may adversely affect cohesion and stable social relations.  An inclusive high street that accommodates both poor and wealth community groups and their needs encourages interaction between people from different social backgrounds. This research examined three high streets in rich and poor neighbourhoods to explore how they support local residents’ economic and social daily activities. Street observation, surveying people and designer interviews were applied to understand factors that shape an inclusive high street from different aspects. Various store types with a wide range of price choice and well-managed public space play a critical role in promoting social inclusion of poor and wealthy community groups. Street physical characteristics (e.g. sidewalk width, availability of seating) have universal positive impact on enhancing sociability and inclusivity of each social groups. These findings could be reference for urban designers when planning for mixed-income communities.