Acknowledgements

The time to write this book was provided by Cardiff University in the form of a research leave fellowship. Later chapters report on research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. All of the colleagues who worked with me on these projects helped me to develop my thinking, but I am particularly indebted to Amanda Robinson and Theo Nichols. Indeed, it was from a conversation with Theo that the first idea for the book emerged. Current colleagues at Cardiff who have obliged me to think about the ideas in the book include Finn Bowring and Deborah Foster. I also owe a debt to all of my students at Cardiff (past and present) for letting me try out some of these ideas on them, and to Claire Crawford, Natasha Fevre and Adam Wood who have helped me to think about the similarities and differences between the USA and the UK.