Alan Walker is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, Director of the GBP3.5 million ESRC Growing Older Programme, and Director of the UK National Collaboration on Ageing research. He is also Research Director for the Social Sciences Division in Sheffield University, and has published three previous books with Open University Press: Changing Services for Older People (1996), Ageing Europe (1996) and The Politics of Old Age in Europe (1999). Lars Andersson, Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm Sweden Beitske Bouwman, Department of Social Cultural Studies, section Social Gerontology, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Kees Knipscheer, Department of Social Cultural Studies, section Social Gerontology, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Giovanni Lamura, INRCA, Department of Gerontological Research, Ancona, Italy http://www.inrca.it/CES/CVenglish.pdf Annemarie Peters, Department of Social Cultural Studies, section Social Gerontology, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Francesca Polverini, INRCA, Department of Gerontological Research, Ancona, Italy Monika Reichert, Institute for Gerontology at the University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany - htm>http://www.fb12.uni-dortmund.de/stat/soziologie/Soziologie.htm Carol Walker, Department of Policy Studies, University of Lincolnshire and Humberside Manuela Weidekamp-Maicher, Institute for Gerontology at the University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany - http://www.uni-dortmund.de/FFG