There are several explanations for this book, but only one for its title. Before we get to that, let me sketch out the circumstances that have led to this point.

Connected Communities

The book itself would not exist but for the Creative Citizen research project, which took place in various locations across the United Kingdom between 2011 and 2014. The Creative Citizen Unbound represents the research team's overarching reflection upon this ambitious and experimental collaboration between scholars of numerous disciplines, backgrounds and ages from half a dozen very different British universities, working within the framework of the UK Research Councils’ Connected Communities programme. That wave of community-focused research activities, involving over 300 projects, emerged in 2010 in the wake of the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government led by Prime Minister David Cameron. The Connected Communities programme's stated intention was to motivate understanding of the nature and potential of communities, in terms of ‘their changing place in our lives, their role in encouraging health, economic prosperity and creativity, their history and their future’.

Our own polydisciplinary research team (economics, journalism, business, cultural studies, design, architecture and community media) was formed at a Connected Communities ‘sandpit’ event held at Birmingham University in late 2010. In this period, the word ‘sand’ was popular across the public and private sectors among event organisers who wished to indicate their commitment to the value of playfulness in bringing new ideas to bear upon serious concerns. Our sandpit gathered UK academics and community-based practitioners to generate ideas, partnerships and potential bids for Connected Communities funding. From this process, the Creative Citizens pitch emerged, with a research theme labelled and carefully punctuated: Media, Community and the Creative Citizen By the time we reached this stage, we had also recruited an overseas academic partner in the person of John Hartley, Professor of Cultural Science at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. Hartley brought welcome international experience, a high profile and feisty career in cultural studies and a strong personal link with myself, based upon our previous collaborations at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, which Hartley founded.