Gary Bridge is Professor of Urban Studies at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. He is the author of Reason in the City of Difference: Pragmatism, Communicative Action and Contemporary Urbanism (2005) and co-editor of Gentrification in a Global Context (with Rowland Atkinson, 2005), and A Companion to the City (with Sophie Watson, 2000).

Sophie Watson is Professor of Sociology at the Open University. She is the author of, among other publications, City Publics: The (Dis)enchantments of Urban Encounters (2006), co-author of Markets as Sites for Social Interaction: Spaces of Diversity (with David Studdert, 2006), and Surface City: Sydney at the Millennium (with Peter Murphy, 1997), and co-editor (with Katherine Gibson) of Postmodern Cities and Spaces (1995) and Metropolis Now (1994).