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Acknowledgements

Writing this book has felt like trying to take one more big step in making sense of increasing people’s say and involvement in their lives and worlds. This has been my life’s work and during the course of it I have incurred many debts, gained many colleagues and friends, and learned much from others. It simply is true that I – like the rest of us working to increase people’s participation – would never have got to where I am without the help of very many others. As ever, there are many people I have to thank for whatever is good about this book. So I need to say a big general thank you. I also need to thank the team at Policy Press, particularly Ali Shaw for having faith in this book and bringing it to fruition, to everyone in Shaping Our Lives for all they have made possible, and to colleagues over many years at Brunel University London, the University of East Anglia and the University of Essex. Thank you all my friends and colleagues in the disabled people’s and survivors’ movements for all I have learned from you and working together, and not least my many Twitter friends who prove that social media can be a source of knowledge, strength, understanding, wisdom and support as well as cause for complaint. Thank you to all the students and colleagues I have worked with at universities who have shown real commitment to people’s participation. Thank you yet again to my partner Suzy Croft for all her help and support, even as she worked as a welfare rights worker to support disabled people victimised by ‘welfare reform’.

I also want to thank the reviewers of earlier versions of this book. Particularly I want to thank one of them, Lee Gregory. He went more than the extra mile. I was totally guided by him in undertaking the revisions I made to my first draft, not least after our daughter Ruth said she agreed with everything he said – and he also helped me with advice afterwards in preparing the revised draft, suggesting references and so on.

I additionally want to thank the community artist Brian Barnes for giving permission for his wonderful much loved Brixton mural, Nuclear Dawn, to feature in the book’s cover design.

Finally, I must return to Ruth. This time if there is one person who stands above all others in the debt I have to her, that is Ruth Beresford, our daughter. Like me, Ruth has a profound interest in involvement. It was she who first suggested to me the importance of exploring the relations of ideology with participation, the focus of so much of my work. More and more I realised how right she was to highlight this issue. It became increasingly apparent that, as far as enquiry and action were concerned, political ideology was a dead zone for involvement. This was too big a debt to ignore. I asked Ruth if she would like to co-author the book as I felt its whole inception was owed to her. But this was in the middle of her PhD and Ruth clearly has her own row to hoe. She helped me develop the idea, wrote helpful notes which guided my thoughts, read a first draft and expressed her preparedness to do more. But in the end decided she did not want to be a co-author. This is a brave and generous act. I think she did more than enough to qualify, but I also think she wants to be her own person and I have to respect that. So all I can do is offer a big thank you and make clear her significant contribution. Thanks Ruth and everyone. I hope I can be as helpful to you one day!