Nina Bandelj is both assistant professor of sociology and faculty associate at the Center for the Study of Democracy at University of California, Irvine. Her research interests are in comparative economic sociology, political economy, sociology of culture and change in Central and Eastern Europe. Her recent articles were published in Social Forces, Current Sociology and Sociological Forum. Address: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. [email: nbandelj@uci.edu]

Helmuth Berking is professor of sociology at the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. His research interests are in the fields of cultural globalization, political sociology and urban sociology. His recent publications include Sociology of Giving (Sage, 1999) and Städte im Globalisierungsdiskurs (Königshausen and Neumann, 2002). Address: Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Soziologie, Fachbereich 2, Residenzschloss, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany. [email: hbe295@t-online.de]

Lauren Langman is professor of sociology at Loyola University, Chicago. His interests include alienation studies, Marxist sociology and cultural sociology. Recent publications include: ‘Suppose They Gave a Culture War and No-one Came: Zippergate and the Carnivalization of Political Culture’, American Behavioral Scientist (December 2002); ‘The Body and the Mediation of Hegemony: From Subject to Citizen to Audience’, in Richard Brown (ed.) Body, Self and Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2002); ‘From the Poetics of Pleasure to the Poetics of Protest’, in Paul Kennedy (ed.) Identity in the Global Age (Macmillan and Palmore, 2001); with Douglas Morris and Jackie Zalewski, ‘Globalization, Domination and Cyberactivism’, in Wilma A. Dunaway (ed.) The 21st Century World-System: Systemic Crises and Antisystemic Resistance (Greenwood Press, 2002). Address: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60614, USA. [email: llangma@luc.edu]

George Morgan teaches sociology and cultural studies in the School of Humanities at the University of Western Sydney. His book on black/white reconciliation in Australia will be published in 2003. Address: Humanities/Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia. [email: george.morgan@uws.edu.au]

Christine Müller studied sociology, social anthropology and the history of arts at the University of Basle (Switzerland). She received her PhD from the Sociology of Development Research Centre, University of Bielefeld, and is currently a research assistant in the project ‘Globalization of Knowledge – Development Experts in World Society’ at the Institute of Global Society Studies associated with the University of Bielefeld. Her main research interests are methodology, knowledge, gender, development politics and epistemic cultures. Recent articles are published in Markus Kaiser (ed.) Weltwissen, Entwicklungsexperten in der Weltgesellschaft (Verlag, 2002). Address: Graf-von-Stauffenbergstr. 7a, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany. [email: christine.mueller@uni-bielefeld.de]

Eric Popkin is assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology at Colorado College. He has published a number of articles on various facets of Central American immigration in Los Angeles and transnational migration. Address: Department of Sociology, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA. [email: epopkin@ColoradoCollege.edu]

Shalini Randeria is professor of sociology and anthropology at the Central European University, Budapest and a member of the working group on ‘Civil Society’ at WZB, Berlin. Professor Randeria's interests include globalization, law and public policy, development studies and postcolonial theory. Recent publications include chapters in Yehuda Elkana et al. (eds) Unraveling Ties: From Social Cohesion to Cartographies of Connectedness (St Martin's Press, 2002) and in Sebastian Conrad (ed.) Jenseits des Eurozentrismus: postkoloniale Perspektiv in den Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften (Campus Verlag, 2002). Address: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Central European University, Nador Utc. 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary. [email: 100703.1663@compuserve.com]

Ulrich Schiefer is a sociologist and professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciěncias do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), Lisbon and researcher at the Centro de Estudos Africanos, Lisbon and the Institute Sociology, University of Münster (Germany). He has conducted field research in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Portugal. His published books include Guinea-Bissau zwischen Weltwirtschaft und Subsistenz. Transatlantische Strukturen an der oberen Guinea Küste (ISSA, 1986) and Von allen guten Geistern verlassen? Dissipative Ökonomie: Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und der Zusammenbruch afrikanischer Gesellschaften. Eine Fall-Studie zu Guinea-Bissau (IAK, 2002). Address: ISCTE, Avenida das Forças Armadas 100, P 1649 026 Lisbon, Portugal. [email: schiefer@iscte.pt]

Johanna Schmidt is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her thesis, which will be completed mid-2003, is an investigation of the impact of westernization and migration [Page vii]on Samoan fa'afafine. Her teaching interests include globalization and popular culture. Address: PO Box 1869, Shortland St, Auckland, New Zealand. [email: schmidtjo@hotmail.com]

Ulrike Schuerkens has doctorates in sociology and in social anthropology and ethnology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She received the diploma ‘Habilitation à diriger des recherches’ from the University Paris V – René Descartes. Currently, she teaches at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She was a lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin (Germany). She has published extensively on development, social change, migration, multiculturalism, and colonialism. Her latest books are Changement social sous régime colonial: Du Togo allemand aux Togo et Ghana indépendants (L'Harmattan, 2001); Transformationsprozesse in der Elfenbeinküste und in Ghana (Lit, 2001). Address: 10, Jonquoy, F-75014 Paris, France. [email: ulrike.schuerkens@caramail.com]

Willfried Spohn is adjunct professor at the Free University of Berlin, has been visiting professor at several American universities and is currently research director of an EU-funded Western/Eastern European comparative project on European and national identities (EURONAT) at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder, Germany. He has published widely in the area of historical and comparative sociology. His major publications include: Can Europe Work? Germany and the Reconstruction of Post-communist Societies (ed. with S. Hanson, 1995); Europeanization, National Identities and Migration: Changes in Boundary Constructions between Western and Eastern Europe (ed. with A. Triandafyllidou, 2002); Modernization, Religion and Collective Identities: Germany between Western and Eastern Europe (forthcoming). Address: Konradin Str. 5, 12105 Berlin, Germany. [email: Willfried.Spohn@IUE.it]

Marina Padrão Temudo is an agronomist at the ISA, Lisbon and senior researcher at the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (IICT)/Centro de Estudos de Produção e Tecnologia Agrícolas (CEPTA), Lisbon. Her ethno-agronomie field research has been conducted mainly in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe. Her article ‘A escolha do sabor, o saber da escolha: selecção varietal e segurança alimentar na Guiné-Bissau’ was published in Revista de Ciěncias Agrárias (Lisbon) 4: 69–95 (1996). Address: CEPTA, IICT, Tapada da Ajuda, Edifício das Agro-industrias e Agronomia Tropical, Apdo 3014, P 1300-901 Lisbon, Portugal. [email: Marina_Temudo@hotmail.com]