Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent and Director of the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk network. He is a Founding Academician at ALSiSS, a Fellow of the RSA, recent President of the Sociology and Social Policy Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Co-director of the Risk Research Centre, Beijing Normal University and Chair of the Social Policy and Social Work Research Assessment Exercise Panel.