The aim of this text is to analyse the conditions for a good society and, from extensive international research, to show how citizens can be put at the centre of the political process. This has enormous importance for future policy which the authors explore. With considerable support from the Commonwealth Foundation, the book sets out to change the current political consensus and demonstrate the route forward to sustainable development.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. In our society, a wealthy minority flourish, while around one-fifth experience chronic poverty and many people on middle incomes fear for their futures. Social policy has failed to find answers to these problems and there is now a demand for a new narrative to enable us to escape from the crisis in our society. With the aim of ending poverty, this book argues that we need to start with the society we want, rather than framing poverty as a problem to be solved. It calls for a bold forward-looking social policy that addresses continuing austerity, under-resourced organisations and a lack of social solidarity. Based on a research programme carried out by the Webb Memorial Trust involving leading organisations, academics, community activists, children, and surveys of more than 12,000 people living in poverty, a key theme is power which shows that the way forward is to increase people's sense of agency in building the society that they want.