Civic
Imaginary
Partnerships

Inspired by the concept of the civic imaginary, this four-year project brings together communities, policy makers, researchers and artists to ask what being civic means in the United Kingdom right now, and playfully considers how people collectively reimagine and reinvent their places.

What are Civic Imaginaries?

As a theory, the civic imaginary can help us think in new ways about how people take part in public life.
As a policy tool, it can help assess how places are changing or sustaining.
As a practice, it can support creative community development to imagine and explore different possible futures.

Civic imaginaries ‘come alive’ in groups
from Civic imagination: Making a difference in American political life by Baiocchi, G., Bennett, E. A., Cordner, A., Klein, P., & Savell, S. (Routledge, 2015)

To provoke neighbourhood-level conversations about community participation and the ‘civic’, and make qualitative, lived experiences of civic culture directly available to policymakers.

Civic imaginaries are the ways that people think, feel and dream about the futures of their places.

Place Studies

We are now conducting fieldwork in our place-study neighbourhoods, living and working alongside community-based organisations, residents and local decision makers. We are co-designing activities that can attend to a range of civic challenges and place typologies – and that will help us to collectively reflect on contemporary civic cultures. As the research progresses, we will document this work, including a gallery of creative artefacts produced with participants and artists.

Latest News

11 August 2026

Welcome to The ForEm!

Michael Howcroft

What makes Frome, Frome? Perhaps it is the independence. The markets. The community groups, noticeboards and conversations. The festivals, parades and carnival. The architecture. The people who organise things, campaign, make art. Or decide that if something needs doing, they might as well do it themselves. These are only some versions of Frome. On Saturday […]

28 July 2026

Funded PhD Opportunity: Exploring Civic Feelings and Emotional Governance in Place-Based Policy

Ellen Bishop

How do emotions shape the places we live in? What role do feelings play in policymaking, public participation, and civic life? As governments increasingly seek to understand and respond to citizens’ emotional experiences, a new avenue of research is emerging around the relationship between emotion, governance, and place. We are pleased to announce a fully funded […]

Outputs

This page brings together the growing range of outputs from our research. As the project develops, you will find creative works produced through our place studies, recordings of webinars and public events, reports from each case-study location, and academic publications exploring the project’s ideas, methods and findings.

Civic Imaginary Partnerships