Michael Young is Director of the Institute of Community Studies, President of the Consumer's Association and of the National Extension College and Chairman of both the International Extension College and the Open College of the Arts. His publications include The Rise of the Meritocracy, Innovation and Research in Education, and The Metronomic Society: Natural Rhythms and Human Timetables.

Peter Willmott is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute. Chairman of the Institute of Community Studies and Visiting Professor of Social Policy and Administration at the London School of Economics.

The authors were founder memebers of the Institute of Community Studies and have also written jointly Family and Class in a London Suburb and The Symmetrical Family.