Mike Featherstone is Professor of Communications and Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. CONTRIBUTORS OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA : Zygmunt Bauman University of Leeds Henning Bech University of Copenhagen Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim Universtiy of Erlangen Mary Evans University of Kent at Canterbury David Frisby University of Glasgow Mike Hepworth University of Aberdeen Eva Illouz Tel-Aviv University Maria Esther Maciel Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Michael Richardson SOAS, University of London Laura Rival University of Kent at Canterbury Andrew Travers Somerset Jeffrey Weeks South Bank University Sasha Weitman Tel-Aviv University Sam Whimster London Guildhall University Elizabeth Wilson University of North London Cas Wouters University of Utrecht Professor Scott Lash is the Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, as well as a a project leader in the Goldsmiths Media Research Programme. He is a leading name within sociology and cultural studies, has written numerous books and articles over the last twenty years, and is currently the managing editor for the journal Theory, Culture and Society. Roland Robertson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. His books include International Systems and the Modernization of Societies (with J P Nettl, 1968) The Sociological Interpretation of Religion (1970) Meaning and Change: Explorations in the Cultural Sociology of Modern Societies (1978), Religion and Global Order (co-edited with William R Garrett, 1991) and Talcott Parsons: Theorist of Modernity (co-edited with Bryan S Turner