persistent poverty, political participation and environmental exploitation in
Central Appalachia. His work on authenticity, subculture, and youth resis-
tance can be found inAuthenticity in Self, Culture and Society(Ashgate,
2009),The Art of Social Critique(Lexington Books, 2012), andSymbolic
Interaction(volume 36, 2013).
Thaddeus Mu ̈ller is a faculty member at the School of Law of the
Rotterdam Erasmus University (criminology) and an Associate Lecturer at
the School of Law of Lancaster University (criminology). His PhD disserta-
tion, ‘The warm city’ (2002), is based on a micro-sociological study of the
(positive) meanings of fleeting interactions among strangers in the public
realm. His main areas of interest are qualitative methods, safety in public
spaces of multicultural neighborhoods, violent encounters, rock-music, and
drugs, especially cannabis. He is also interested in academic fraud.
Roel Pietermanis associate professor of sociology of law at Erasmus School
of Law (Rotterdam, The Netherlands). His research interests focus on the
social construction of threats to the environment and to human health
and welfare. More specifically he is interested in the role of (scientific)
uncertainty in legal and regulatory processes for the analysis of which he
has suggested the ideal type of a ‘precautionary culture’. After first focusing
specifically on the regulation of uncertain environmental threats, his
research topic more recently includes the construction and regulation of
lifestyle risks.
Diana van Dijk (PhD) completed doctoral research on resilience of
child-headed households in South Africa in 2008. She is currently employed
for the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and works as an
independent policy researcher and teacher.
198 ABOUT THE AUTHORS