Gerard Delanty is Professor of Sociology at the University of Liverpool. He was Visiting Professor at York University, Toronto in 1998, and in 2000 Visiting Professor at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, and he has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Italy. He is the Chief Editor of the European Journal of Social Theory and author of many articles on social theory, the philosophy of the social sciences and the historical and political sociology of European societies. He has written the following books: Inventing Europe: Idea, Identity, Reality (1995), Social Science: Beyond Constructivism and Realism (1997), Social Theory in a Changing World (1999), Modernity and Postmodernity: Knowledge, Power, the Self (2000). He is also publishing a book on the university and the knowledge society with Open University Press.