This book is one of the many products of a five-year collaborative research project, Imagine – Connecting communities through research. It was funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the Connected Communities programme (grant no ES/K002686/1) and had a focus on civic engagement (how people get involved in the lives of their communities). It involved research partnerships between people from communities of place, interest and identity largely based outside universities, and academics largely based within universities. In this book we explore and develop what we call a ‘community development approach’ to the co-production of research, drawing on our experiences with the Imagine project.

We are very grateful to the chapter authors for the work they put into their contributions to the book. Many of the chapters were written by teams of authors, requiring considerable energy and commitment to share perspectives, struggle with differences and develop common understandings. We would also like to thank the many people who were part of the Imagine project but who are not co-authors in this book. They contributed significantly to the practical work and thinking on which this books draws, and have been responsible for many other outputs including films, artworks, poems, booklets, articles and books (see www.imaginecommunity.org.uk).

We are particularly indebted to Angela Warren for keeping the Imagine project together over the last few years by looking after the finances and administration. Without her calm and efficient organising skills we would not have had the spaces for dialogue and collaborative thinking that have led to this book. We would also like to thank Sarah Hollely and Fern Merrill, who supported us through organising communications and events, and members of the Advisory Board for the project, who offered invaluable support and advice, including Keri Facer (sometime Chair), Sophie Duncan, Alison Gilchrist and Morag McDermott.