Val Gillies is Professor of Social Policy/Criminology at the University of Westminster. She researches in the area of family, social class, marginalised children and young people, and historical comparative analysis. Rosalind Edwards is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton, where she is also Social Sciences Director of Research and a Co-Director of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. Nicola Horsley is a research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her research analyses discourses of citizenship, educational and family practices, and the privileging of scientific and technical knowledge in policy making.