Contributors to Volume 6, Number 1

Alice Bloch
Dr Alice Bloch is Lecturer in the Department of Social Policy and Politics, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Sharon Boden
Sharon Boden is studying for her doctorate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Her research is funded by the ESRC and explores the emotional dimensions of consuming for a wedding, with particular focus upon the issues of Romanticism, fantasy and rationality.
Eric Laurier and Angus Whyte
Eric Laurier: Having been involved in a number of post-doctoral research projects Eric Laurier has a wide range of interests. Key amongst them are: mobility, technology, practical and visual knowledges, competence in interaction, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, social and cultural theory, medicine and health. Currently he is the Urban Studies Research Fellow at the Department of Geography, University of Glasgow. Previously he was carrying out ethnographic fieldwork in sites of informal interaction in an Edinburgh suburb as part of the Living Memory Project which is, in turn, part of the European Union 'i3' Programme.

From 1997 onwards he has been the principal researcher on an ESRC funded project: 'Meet You At Junction 17: a socio-technical and spatial study of the mobile office'. 'Meet You At Junction 17' crystalises a number of his enduring research themes, in particular those of mobility, technology and practical knowledge. Its approach to nomadic life in the West is a development of his doctoral work on city culture in which he looked at, amongst other things, car travel as a key mode of experiencing the city in the late twentieth century. His initial post-doctoral research was on maritime heritage and urban festivals, based on an empirical study of Bristol's 'International Festival of the Sea' and quincentennary celebration of John Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland, and its commemoration in the building of a full scale replica of John Cabot's boat 'The Matthew'. After this work he moved into health research, examining lay accounts of smoking and smoking cessation through biographical, narrative and conversational analyses.

Angus Whyte: Currently a research associate at the International Teledemocracy Centre, Angus Whyte is pursuing interests in reflective practice, ethnomethodologically-informed design, participatory design (with young people and old people), and social informatics developed in the Living Memory Project. His more specific interests include the sociology of relevance, categorisation, metaphor and design, and genres of public communication; themes which he has developed from his doctoral research 'Structuring Webs of Relevance' (unpublished PhD thesis, Dept of Information Science, University of Strathclyde, 1998). A case study of the application of hypertext technology to the publication of institutional texts across a geographically distributed organisation, this research used soft systems methodology, ethnographic interviews and repertory grid analysis to show how the relevance of these hypertexts was construed by employees of the organisation. Before and between research projects, he worked as a practising information scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, managed a worker's cooperative, worked as a systems analyst, and ran an independent record label.

Carol MacKeogh
I have recently completed my Ph.D. in Sociology at Trinity College Dublin, which entailed an ethnographic study of adolescents as a television audience. The research was partly funded by one of the national broadcasters, R.T.E., and is due to be published as a monograph this year. I am currently teaching cultural studies and research methods at TCD and UCD.
Derek McGhee
Derek McGhee is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton.
John Rex
John Rex, born 05.03.25, Port Elizabeth South Africa. Lecturer in Sociology Leeds University 1949-62,University of Birmingham 1962, Professor of Sociology University of Durham 1964-70, University of Warwick, 1970-79.DirectorSocial Science Research Council's Research Unit on Ethnic Relations 1979-84, Research Professor and Associate Director 1984-90. Visiting Professor in Universities pf Toronto, Capetown, New York. President, Research Committee on Ethnic and national Minorities, International Sociological Association 1974-82.. Member UNESCO International Experts Committee on the nature of race and racism, 1967.

Author of numerous books on sociological theory and on race and ethnic relations including : on sociological theory, Key Problems of Sociological Theory, Sociology and the Demystification of the Modern World, Social Conflict, and Approachesto Sociology ; on race and ethnic relations, Race Relations in Sociological Theory, Race Community and Conflict, Colonial Immigrants in a British City, Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic Minorities in the Modern Nation State. Joint Editor with M. Guibernau, The Ethnicity Reader. Full list of publications etc available on the Website of Uniuversity of Warwick/Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (<www.warwick.ac.uk/crer>)

Liza Schuster and John Solomos
Liza Schuster completed her PhD thesis on 'Asylum and the Politics of Refuge: A Comparison of British and German Asylum Policy and Practice' at the University of Southampton. Following two years at South Bank University working on a project with John Solomos, she is currently T. H. Marshall Research Fellow at the London School of Economics.

John Solomos is Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at South Bank University, London. Before that he was Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton, and he has previously worked at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick and Birkbeck College, University of London.

Rose Wiles and Sue Barnard
Rose Wiles BSc, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Southampton,
UK

Sue Barnard MCSP, MSc
Lecturer in Physiotherapy
School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Southampton,
UK

Address for correspondence:
Dr Rose Wiles
Health Research Unit
School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
Telephone: 023 80 595422
Fax: 023 80 595301
email: raw@soton.ac.uk

Copyright Sociological Research Online, 2001