Imandeep Kaur

Throughout the last decade, Immy has focused on convening and building community, the role of people and communities in radical systemic change, and how we together create more democratic, distributed, open source social and civic infrastructure. Through this work she has discovered much about economic justice and broader injustices, the pivotal role of land and social/civic infrastructure in neighbourhoods, and the value extracted from communities through our broken investment models and understanding of value and relationship with the planet we call home. It’s an ongoing journey of discovery, emergence and learning together.

Immy is a Co - Founder and Director of CIVIC SQUARE. CIVIC SQUARE is demonstrating neighbourhood-scale civic infrastructure for social and ecological transition, together with many people and partners in Ladywood, Birmingham UK.

Principally, we are working to share practically and openly how the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets can be designed, owned and governed by the people who live there now in systemic, tangible and participatory ways. This is through organising around three interconnected neighbourhood system demonstrators: Neighbourhood Doughnut (a 21st century compass for ecologically safe and socially just neighbourhoods), Neighbourhood Transitions (street-based systemic demonstration of carbon, energy and ecological built environment transitions) and the Public Square (co-building and democratising access to the regenerative physical infrastructure, spaces, tools and resources for transition, (held in the common for the neighbourhood).

She is also an active member of Project 00.. Immy is part of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab Advisory Team, a Birmingham Hippodrome Trustee, on the Common Wealth Advisory Board. Immy was a founding director of Impact Hub Birmingham, which was open between 2015 - 2019. Impact Hub Birmingham was on a mission to help build a fairer more equal and just city, through people place and open movements. Immy also co - led and ran TEDxBRUM between 2012 and 2017.

Immy’s work has been recognised, in 2018, Impact Hub Birmingham was named a NESTA New Radical. For her services to the city of Birmingham, Aston University’s School of Life & Heath Sciences granted Immy an Honorary Doctorate in 2019. And in 2020, Immy was awarded a prestigious Ashoka Fellowship.