The Creative Citizens work programme formally ends in February 2015, but we still have a busy programme of publishing, talking and seeking ways to carry the work forward. In January, Principal Investigator Ian Hargreaves made a presentation to the Connected Communities Strategic Advisory Board, which generated a lively discussion about a number of issues: the nature of collaborative creativity; the role of leadership in co-creative projects; divergent futures on technology and much more. The can see the slides here.... They include some of the photos taken at the Creative Citizens Conference in September 2014.

1. Creative Citizens
in 2015
Connected Communities Strategic
Advisory Group.
Professor Ian Hargreaves
London: 8 January 2015

3. Research question:
How does creative citizenship generate value for
communities within a changing media landscape
and how can this pursuit of value be intensified,
propagated and sustained?

4. Funders: AHRC and EPSRC
Strategic partners: Ofcom, Nesta, The Glass-House
Community led Design, Talk About Local.
Community partners: eg South Blessed, Moseley
Community Development Trust, the Mill
Walthamstow, Kentish Town Neighborhood Forum,
Wards Corner Commuity Coalition, Goldsmiths
Community Centre, Tyburn Mail, Connect Cannock,
Centre for Community Journalism, Cardiff University.
Universities: Cardiff, Birmingham, Royal College of Art,
Open University, Birmingham City University, University
of the West of England, (+Curtin University, Australia.)

6. ocial LinksSocial Links hello@theindigobabies.com theindigobabies.com
opyright © Indigo Babies
Website Design
What about digital
technologies?
It depends which creative
citizen you ask

7. Creative citizens inspect each other

8. What did we learn in general?
1. Creative Citizenship works as an idea. Analogies: creative industries
(1980s) creative economy (2005ish). Links: DIY citizens etc.
2. The activities of Creative Citizens have considerable and
growing value – statisticians and politicians please note.
3. Creative Citizenship: attractive idea politically, but maybe best
supported through focus on specific areas of creative citizenship
eg local media v. grand concepts eg Big Society/Third Way.
4. Co-design and co-production lie at the heart of the practice of
Creative Citizenship, pointing to crucial issues of design, ethics
and political science. For Creative Citizens, bottom-up is tops.
5. Technology adds momentum and range to Creative Citizenship, but
deployment requires site and case specific attention to detail and
high-quality creative thinking/execution skills. Sustainability?

9. What did we learn about particular areas of
practice?
Community Journalism: our work confirms the current importance
and potential of ‘hyperlocal’ news media; identifying patterns of participation
from three groups: volunteers; paid community/charity workers and former or
part time professional journalists. We paint in greater detail than previous studies
a picture of the role/ethos of social media in community journalism and reveal
extent to which the new community journalism holds elites to account.
Co-creative interventions point towards useful innovations for practitioners
(eg the ‘printervention’ and real-time networking via Google Hangout)
Community-led design: our work advances the capability of asset
mapping as a tool and research method, using techniques such as data
visualisation/analytics to add impact. A range of co-created media interventions
underline the importance of creativity in designing these. Other hot topics: need
to spread further media literacy and the importance of balancing professional and
non-professional contributions. Pre-digital media continue to be of great
importance: Face2Face is even more important than Facebook. Achieving
fluidity between professional and non-professional community players is vital.

10. What did we learn about particular sectors?
Creative Networks: South Blessed, Bristol: detailed study of
network involving music, fashion poetry, skate boarding, street art,
Graffiti, film, comics and journalism. Offers rare insight into the strengths of
the relationships and creativity which make South Blessed so successful (0.5
million YouTube views and a high profile position in local journalism) whilst also
drawing attention to the economic precariousness of their activities. A co-
created media intervention to produce Indigo Babies, a short graphic novel,
intensified these insights and provided South Blessed with new routes forward.
Key insight: nurturing such networks requires close-up/hands-on co-creation.
Moseley Community Development Trust: this study shows how
a long established Birmingham CDT, its co-working space and role in the
creative history and ambitions of Moseley Village (suburb) provide a context for
differing forms of creative citizenship. Through interviews, observation and a
media intervention in digital story-telling, study highlights complexity and
tensions in seeking digital enhancement of creative entrepreneurial activities in
some situations, points to the need to address differing starting
points/experiences but also shows how change can be initiated through co-
creation.

11. The expected and the unexpected?
‘Learn to love the tensions; get their meaning’
e.g. -trans-disciplinarity
- uneven distribution of tech skills/appetites;
- project management (discipline v diversity)
- centre-periphery resource distribution
- ‘mixed methods’
- community partners: ethics and good practice
- value of ‘international mentor’
- role of the university
Connected Communities: a high-risk success.

12. Our impact?
 ‘We have selected partners who have a strong route to market in terms of
impact (Project bid document July 2011). Eg Stats taken up by Ofcom in its
annual communications market reports; co-produced ‘Creative Citizens Variety
Pack’ with Nesta; role at Talk About Local ‘unconferences’.
 Diverse and abundant media outputs: video, social media, web, ‘First Findings’
report, Cultural Science ‘special’, book. Indigo Babies and Moseley Stories
important place-specific interventions. Open access approach
 Book chapters cover: politics, theory, creative economy, co-design, asset-
mapping, technology, place, value. Engages international debate.
 Politics/policy/general election: Creative Citizens conference debate involving
four leading political think tanks plus many other appearances at political/policy
events, both ‘general’ and specific: eg Localism Bill/Act and follow-up.
 Substantial flow of domain-specific publication, notably in design/architecture;
journalism/media/community media; economic geography.
 Overlaps with research team members’ other interests: substantial routes to
impact (eg Hargreaves – IP/Creative Economy/cities many opportunities to
present in UK and internationally (North America, Europe, Asia).
 Sell-out conference, with outstanding international keynotes from Geoff Mulgan
(CEO Nesta); Paola Antonelli (New York MOMA); Jean Burgess (QUT)

13. Project legacy?
 Too early to say, but a range of bids active, under consideration or, in the
case of some domain-specific projects in design and journalism already funded.
 Bid for a purely engagement-focused Creative Citizen follow-on phase led by two Co-Is.
 Influence of Creative Citizens work on other types of bids and developments:
eg launch of Cardiff University Centre for Community Journalism (2013) and related
MOOC; launch of Cardiff University Creative Economy Project (2014). Links with
REACT and through REACT to UWE/Watershed, Bristol, Bath Exeter
– ‘DIY Citizenship’ conference. Development of Birmingham City University Research
Centre. Future bid collaborations between research team members.
 Contribution to Connected Communities interactions, showcases, ideas-sharing; links
with KF and GM.
 Influence on EU interactions/relationship with Lisbon Council (Brussels) and
pursuit of Horizon 2020 opportunities. Bids for doctoral/graduate student investment.

14. Research question:
Q. How does creative citizenship generate value for communities
within a changing media landscape and how can this pursuit of
value be intensified, propagated and sustained?
A. Value of many different kinds is abundantly generated.
Strategies for intensification, propagation and sustainability are
available to government at all levels; social enterprise and third
sector organisations and many public bodies, not least
universities, which themselves face the challenge of
becoming centres of creative (digital) citizenship.
Complexity - Civic complexity – Democratic civic complexity -
Creative Citizenship.