Barbara Adam is a social theorist working at the University of Wales, Cardiff. She has published widely on the social analysis of time. She is the author of Time and Social Theory (Polity, 1990) and Timewatch (Polity, 1995), and editor of the Sage journal Time and Society.

Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at the University of Munich. He is the author of Risk Society (Sage, 1992), Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk (Polity, 1995), Ecological Enlightenment (Humanities Press, 1995), The Renaissance of Politics (Polity, 1996) and co-author of Reflexive Modernization (Polity, 1994) and The Normal Chaos of Love (Blackwell, 1995).

Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim is Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. She is the author of Techno-Health (Humanities Press International, 1995) and co-author of The Normal Chaos of Love (Blackwell, 1995).

Helmuth Berking is Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, Illinois. He is the author of Masse und Geist: Studien zur Soziologie in der Weimarer Republik (1984), and has written extensively on lifestyle, new social movements and politics in East and West Germany.

Marco Diani is Research Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Director of the Institut de Recherches sur le Moderne, at the Université de Savoie, Chambéry, France. His publications include The Immaterial Society (Prentice Hall, 1992), and the edited collections Restructuring Architectural Theory (Northwestern University Press, 1989) and L'Intelligenza dell'Automazione (Franco Angeli, 1991).

Klaus Eder is Professor of Sociology at the Humboldt University, Berlin, and at the European University Institute, Florence. His publications include Geschichte als Lernprozess (Suhrkamp, 1985), Der Vergesellschaftung der Natur (Suhrkamp, 1988) and The New Politics of Class (Sage, 1993).

Robin Grove-White is Director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University. He was Director of the Council for [Page ix]the Protection of Rural England from 1981 to 1987, has served as Specialist Adviser (Environment) to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities, and is still actively involved in environmental politics. He has written widely on the social and cultural aspects of environmental conflicts.

Maarten Hajer teaches sociology at the University of Munich, specialising in environment, risk and technology in the context of theories of modernisation. He is the author of The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernisation and the Policy Process (Clarendon Press, 1995).

Andrew Jamison is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Policy and Director of Studies at the Research Policy Institute, University of Lund. He is the co-author of The Making of the New Environmental Consciousness (Edinburgh University Press, 1990), and, with Ron Eyerman, of Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach (Polity, 1991).

Scott Lash is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University. He is the author of Sociology of Postmodernism (Routledge, 1990) and co-author of The End of Organized Capitalism (Polity, 1987), Economies of Signs and Space (Sage, 1993) and Reflexive Modernization (Polity, 1994).

John Maguire is Professor of Sociology at University College, Cork, and the author of Marx's Paris Writings (Gill and Macmillan, 1972) and Marx's Theory of Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1979). His current research interests are in emotional and cultural critiques of organisations and policymaking. He is the author, with Joe Noonan, of Maastricht and Neutrality: Ireland's Neutrality and the Future of Europe (People First / Meitheal, 1992).

Bronislaw Szerszynski is Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University. He has published a number of articles on ethics and environmentalism, and is currently engaged in a research project on sustainable development, cultural movements and identity.

Brian Wynne is Professor of Science Studies and Research Director at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University. He has published widely in the field of science studies, most notably in the areas of risk and public understanding. He is the author of Rationality and Ritual (British Society for the History of Science, 1982) and co-editor of Misunderstanding Science (Cambridge University Press, 1995).