Dick Pels Brunel University, UK

Dick Pels is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Human Sciences at Brunel University, West London, and a Senior Research Affiliate of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research. He is the author of Property and Power in Social Theory. A Study in Intellectual Rivalry(Routledge, 1998), The Intellectual as Stranger. Studies in Spokespersonship (Routledge, 2000) and Unhastening Science. Autonomy and Reflexivity in the Social Theory of Knowledge (forthcoming Liverpool University Press, 2002). He has edited books on Bourdieu, basic income, and political style, and has widely published in international journals on social and political theory, the sociology of knowledge and intellectuals, and intellectual history. His current research interests are in theories of performativity and performance, the social status of 'things', intellectuals and media, and the role of celebrity culture.