Author’s acknowledgements
Countless people have supported me in writing this book. Sometimes, they did this by not realising it; other times, I reached out to people asking for a conversation, a coffee and, on occasion, a beer. Other times, I was seeking a specific piece of information, fact check or a request to critically review some text. In the Preface, I explain how three people – Ed Byrne, Louise Gough and Ross Pow – have been instrumental in shaping a number of ideas I put forward in the book. I also acknowledge my attempts to adopt some new power values in writing the book – in building, as I wrote, a network or social movement of people, who I could bounce ideas off, stimulate my thinking and help me illustrate my ideas by example. I began by formalising this as an international sounding board but, as I progressed through the book, that started to be more amorphous, with the network growing in unpredictable directions. In a small way, I hope this network will be the beginning of a social movement around the New Power University. Below, I try to name all of those I have interacted with on this journey – in doing so, I should stress that the ideas I present are mine and, in acknowledging their contribution, I am not implying in any way that they support the case I make, but hope that they do! Needless to say, any mistakes are mine and mine alone.
I would like to begin by thanking those people who reviewed, on behalf of my publisher Pearson, the proposal for this book. Their engaged and critical comments helped me resolve a number of early tensions: Sarah Beart; Charles Clarke; Glyn Davis; Verity Firth; Phil Harvey; Nick Hillman; Tom Kennie; and Debbie McVitty.
As noted, at the outset, I established an international sounding board. The board contributed in two ways. First, I would post draft text for them to review as I was writing. Second, I would ask individuals for specific examples or to fact check something I had written: Hamad Al Ibrahim; James Asfa; Anne-Marie Canning; Derek Douglas; Shaun Ewen; Diana Iancu; Andrew Macleod; ’Funmi Olonisakin; Amar Parikh; Benedict Wilkinson; and Cynthia María Villarreal Muraira.
The third group of people are those that I reached out to as I went along – often through a contact of a contact. They often helped me develop some specific idea through examples and their lived experiences: Jamie Agombar; Liz Allen; Carlos Andradas Heranz; Holly Andrew; Jen Angel; Ant Bagshaw; Hajera Begum; Deborah Bull; Richard Burridge; Angel Calderon; Pedro Chacón Fuertes; Tina Crawford; Veronica Daly; Bobby Duffy; Margaret Gardner; James Green; David Guest; Mitra Gusheh ; Josephine Hansom; Kirstie Hewlett; Susannah Hume; Benjamin Hunt; Kiven James Kewir; Daniel Jones; Shitij Kapur; Danielle Kemmer; Anna Laverty; Mark Lester; Tania Lima; Jessica Marcos; Sonja Marjanovic; Nicole Mennell; Molly Morgan Jones; Ed Newell; Kialee Nyiayaana; Emma Palmer; Vanessa Patel; Sara Pedersen; Tamson Pietsch; Alexandra Pollitt; Ben Quash; John Ralston Saul; Julian Skyrme; Emily Spencer; Klaudia Stanoch; Martin Stewart-Weeks; Alitse Stovicek; Lucy Strang; Kat Thorne; Robyn Kingler-Vidra; Alan Wager; Mary Walsh; Jessica Weereratne; and Tom Woolf.
The last group are those who reviewed the final draft, including a fabulous team at Pearson who supported me brilliantly throughout: Felicity Baines; Ed Byrne; Melanie Carter; Glyn Davis; Liz Elliott; Laurie Forcier; Andrew Jaspan; ’Funmi Olonisakin; Sarah Owens; Joanna Pyke; Richard Stagg; Marc Stears; Andy Ware; and Chris White.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my amazing partner, Lucila Sanz, and our two inspiring kids, Almarina Grant Sanz and Noah Grant Sanz. Without their support this book would never have come about.
By my counting, that is nearly a hundred people. Thank you to each and every one of you.