Citizens

Citizens is a bold, uplifting wake‑up call for anyone who feels that democracy, community, and everyday life have been reduced to clicking, buying, complaining — and waiting for "them" to fix it. If you're tired of politics-as-performance, brands-as-saviours, and institutions that treat people like customers or problems to manage, this book hands you a different lens: the Citizen inside every one of us.
Jon Alexander's core idea is brilliantly simple and deeply practical: to change the future, we must change the story. He reveals the hidden narratives shaping modern society — and why so many well‑meaning reforms fail because they keep the same assumptions in place.
The three stories:
• The Consumer Story: we're users, consumers, taxpayers, and voters-as-buyers. We demand, choose, and rate while organisations compete to "serve" us.
• The Subject Story: in fear and uncertainty, we trade agency for protection — hierarchy, obedience, surveillance, and strongman certainty.
• The Citizen Story: we are interdependent, creative, empathic people who can participate, collaborate, and co‑create solutions. Citizenship becomes a verb: engagement, responsibility, belonging, contribution.
With a foreword by Brian Eno and praise from leading voices in democracy, business, and social change, Citizens makes a persuasive case that the Citizen Story is already rising — often beneath the media radar. From citizens self‑organising in crisis to neighbourhood renewal, Alexander shows how citizen power and collective intelligence can outperform "top‑down" command or "market fixes" when challenges are complex: climate change, inequality, polarisation, loneliness, and loss of trust.
What you'll get from this book:
• A fresh, memorable framework for democratic renewal, civic participation, and citizen-led change (ideal for readers of politics, social science, and systems thinking)
• A clear diagnosis of why consumerism can't solve the problems it created — and why "change without consequences" is a dangerous fantasy
• Real-world stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary work —f rom Birmingham and Berlin to Kibera, London, and Grimsby—proving that citizenship is not rare; it's human
• Practical pathways to participatory democracy: citizens' assemblies, deliberative democracy, participatory budgeting, community organising, volunteering, crowdfunding, civic tech, and open innovation
• A sector-by-sector roadmap for transforming the institutions that shape our lives: Citizen NGOs, Citizen Business, and Citizen Government
• "Social acupuncture" tools for leaders, organisers, and teams: find the leverage points where energy for a new way is ready to flow, then unlock it
Citizens is designed to be used, not just admired. It's equally valuable for public servants, educators, nonprofit leaders, business leaders, community organisers, activists, and social entrepreneurs. It also includes questions for discussion and reflection — ideal for book clubs, classrooms, leadership teams, and civic groups.
If you want hope without hand‑waving — and a practical, inspiring guide to participation, collaboration, and rebuilding democracy from the ground up — Citizens will change how you see people, power, and possibility. It's a manifesto for democratic innovation and civic imagination: moving from passive consumption to active citizenship, from endless outrage to shared responsibility, and from isolated individuals to resilient communities. Step out of the Consumer mindset. Claim your role as a Citizen.