Russell Dudley-Smith is lecturer at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. His general research interests are in theoretical sociology and qualitative research methodology. His sociological work has looked at educational settings: the ritualisation of schooling, the formation of elite identities, and the necessary role of negativity in pedagogy. He has a methodological research interest in the varied recontextualisations of philosophy in many branches of social research, including French traditions in the philosophy of science and philosophical pragmatism.

Natasha Whiteman is reader in Media and Communication at the University of Westminster, UK. Her research examines the ethical manoeuvring of media researchers and media consumers, with a particular focus on the study of illicit audience practices. Her methodological interests include the use of observational methods in online research and the formation of ethical subjectivity in qualitative research writing. She is the author of Undoing Ethics: Rethinking Practice in Online Research (2012).