Alan Morris is an urban sociologist based in the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. His PhD was a major qualitative study of inner city transition in Johannesburg during the final years of apartheid. The book based on his PhD, Bleakness and Light: Inner-City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, (1999, reprinted 2001) is viewed as one of the key South African texts in urban studies. In Australia his main research focus has been on the impact of housing tenure on older people who are dependent on the age pension for their income. His research interests include, housing, ageing, urban marginality and social policy. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa.