Every day millions of citizens do something creative, from knitting and genealogy to photography and choirs. These creative citizens, some organised in groups and networks, some not, are the bedrock of the creative economy. The Creative Citizens project is a multi-institution large research project funded by the RCUK Connected Communities scheme. The research was organised in three complementary strands: hyperlocal publishing, community-led design and creative networks.
The ‘Creative Networks’ work package was led by the DCRC’s Professor Jonathan Dovey and involves research partners South Blessed and Moseley Exchange. This research explored the value-creation that arises between relatively formal communities of this kind and the growing highly informal networks of individual creative citizens, many built around online communications platforms.