SIMON DUNCAN is Reader in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Bradford. He has been appointed Hallsworth Fellow at the University of Manchester for 1998-99, is organiser of the ESRC seminar series on parenting, motherhood and paid work (with Rosalind Edwards), and is programme leader in the ESRC research unit of Care, Values and the Future of Social Policy. Major publications include Housing, States and Localities, The Local State and Uneven Development, Success and Failure in Housing Provision: European systems compared, The Diverse Worlds of European Patriarchy and Single Mothers in International Contexts. ROSALIND EDWARDS is Reader in Social Policy at South Bank University. She is currently researching parenting and step-parenting after divorce/separation, and children's understanding of parental involvement in education. Major publications include Mature Women Students: Separating or Connecting Family and Education, Mothers and Education: Inside Out? (with M. David, M. Hughes and J. Ribbens), Single Mothers in an International Context: Mothers or Workers? (co-edited with S. Duncan), and Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research: Public Knowledge and Private Lives (co-edited with J. Ribbens).