Joy Repair Index
The City Model
Measuring whether progress returns value to the people who create it
The Joy Repair Index extends the Marketplace into place. It measures how value moves through cities by tracking recognition, return, and extraction over time. Each city becomes a living signal, revealing whether change is aligned with the people and communities generating value.
What We Measure
The Index evaluates alignment across three movements of value. Recognition reflects whether contribution is seen and named. Return reflects whether value flows back through ownership, stability, and protection. Extraction reflects where value is taken without attribution or redistribution.
Together, these measures form a daily signal of whether systems are moving toward repair or reinforcing distortion.
The Joy Repair Condition
dA/dt ≥ I
Alignment must increase at a rate that meets or exceeds system resistance. When change moves slower than resistance, systems stabilize existing conditions even as activity increases.
The City Model
Each city receives a daily Joy Repair score based on public narratives, institutional signals, and community-level reporting. These scores are tracked over time and compared across cities to reveal patterns of alignment, extraction, and repair.
The model makes visible where value is created, where it is recognized, and whether it is returned.
What's Coming
Future releases will connect the Joy Repair Index with measures of digital advancement to examine whether technological progress aligns with human value systems or accelerates extraction.
This comparison will surface the gap between innovation and lived experience across cities.
Coming Soon
A first set of cities will be released soon, alongside daily signals and comparative trends.
This is the beginning of a living index.
We don't just measure progress.
We measure whether progress remembers who created the value.