ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research under-pinning this book is a product of the five-year, £5m collaboration between the University of Manchester and  Harvard, headed by Professor Putnam,  known as Social Change: a Harvard-Manchester Initiative (SCHMi.) ‘Age of Obama’ is the first in a series of books examining different aspect of major contemporary social  changes, which will include U.S.-U.K. comparative studies of religion, inequality, and the social impact of changes to the way we work. SCHMi is based at the Institute for Social Change at the University of Manchester, directed by Professor Fieldhouse. www.manchester.ac.uk/socialchange/

The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous funding from the University of Manchester which supports SCHMi and made this book possible. We would especially like to thank the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Vice President of the University of Manchester, Professor Alistair Ulph, without whom the collaboration would not have been possible.  We would also like to thank Tom Sander, Louise Kennedy Converse, Tricia Dennett, Kyle Gibson and Jenny Birchall for their invaluable assistance in organising the SCHMi research program and summer school on Immigration.

About the Authors and contributors

Tom Clark writes editorials for The Guardian, one of the world’s
leading liberal newspapers. Previously, he worked as a special adviser to the British government and an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies where he specialised in poverty and welfare and published widely.

Robert D Putnam is Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard
University. He established a best-selling audience through his previous books, is active in the media, and engaged with politicians, including American presidents and British prime ministers. The Economist hailed his Making Democracy Work as "a great work of social science, worthy to rank alongside de Tocqueville, Pareto and Weber." Prospect magazine ranked him among the world’s top 100 intellectuals this year. And his outstanding contribution to scholarship in political science was recognized with the Skytte Prize in 2006.

Edward Fieldhouse is Professor of Social and Political Science at the University of Manchester where he is Director of the Institute for Social Change. Professor Fieldhouse has published on a wide range of issues including political engagement and participation, voter turnout, and voting behaviour, with a particular focus on the interaction between individuals and the local context. He is author of a recent book ‘"Neither Left nor Right? The Liberal Democrats and the Electorate" with Andrew Russell.

Mary C Waters is M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Her research interests have included immigration and inter-group relations. Professor Waters latest books are Inheriting the City: The Second Generation Comes of Age (Harvard University and Russell Sage Press, 2008) with Jennifer Holdaway, Philip Kasinitz, and John Mollenkopf; and The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965 (Harvard University Press, 2007) with Reed Ueda and Helen Marrow.

Ceri Peach is part-time professor in the Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester. Between 1992 and 2007 he was Professor of Social Geography at Oxford. He has held fellowships and visiting professorships at the Australian National University, Yale, Berkeley, UBC Harvard and Princeton. His major research interests is the segregation of ethnic and religious minorities. He has advised the British government on minority segregation, faith communities and Census questions. He was the American Association of Geographers Distinguished Ethnic Geographer of the year in 2008

David Cutts is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester. His research has focused on geographical and contextual effects in voting and attitudes, voter turnout, political engagement and participation, and social networks.

Dan Hopkins is a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in the Department of Government, Harvard University. He has undertaken research on ethnic and racial diversity, political behaviour, local and urban politics and attitudes on poverty

Robert Ford is a postdoctoral fellow in the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester. His research has concerned British attitudes towards immigrants and ethnic minorities.

Yaojun Li is Professor of Sociology at Institute for Social Change, Manchester University. His main interest is in social mobility, social capital and ethnic differences. He has published many papers in top sociology journals, book chapters and research reports for government agencies.