Zygmunt Bauman is a world-renowned sociologist, known for his recent groundbreaking work in social theory. His book Modernity and the Holocaust won the distinguished Amalfi prize for the best sociology book of 1989. He is also the author of Postmodern Ethics (Blackwell, 1993), Life in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality (Blackwell, 1995), Liquid Modernity (Polity, 2000) and Individualized Society (Polity, 2000).

Tim May is Professor of Sociology at the University of Salford. He is the author of Social Research: Issues, Methods, and Process (third edition, 2001); Situating Social Theory (1996) and editor of Qualitative Research in Action (2002); co-author, with Malcolm Williams, of Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Research (1996), with whom he also co-edited Knowing the Social World (1998).