Clive Seale is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University. For the past ten years he was Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His research focuses on topics in medical sociology, including work on the experience of dying and the popular media representation of illness, health and health care. He is author or editor of numerous books, including Researching Society and Culture (SAGE), The Quality of Qualitative Research (SAGE) and Media and Health (SAGE).

Giampietro Gobo is Professor of Methodology of Social Research at the University of Milan. His research has been focused on qualitative methods and the improvement of survey data collection. His main research topic is on computer-supported cooperative work in call centres. Founder and former chair of the Research Network on Qualitative Methods (European Sociological Association), he is author of two handbooks on survey data collection and on the ethnographic method, and several articles, including `Class as metaphor¿ in Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

Jaber F Gubrium is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. His research focuses on the narrative organization of personal identity, family, the life course, aging, and adaptations to illness. He is the editor of The Journal of Aging Studies and the author or editor of more than 20 books and co-editor of The Handbook of Interview Research (SAGE).

David Silverman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of two bestselling textbooks: Doing Qualitative Research (SAGE) and Interpreting Qualitative Data (SAGE). His research has focused on medical settings. His main interests are in ethnography and conversation analysis.