Jon Pierre is Professor in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and adjunct professor at University of Pittsburgh. He held a Chair in Politics at the University of Strathclyde between 1996 and 1999 and has held visiting scholarships or professorships in Hong Kong, Canberra, Montevideo and Nuffield College. In 2006, the Swedish Science Council awarded him a "long-term support for leading scholars". He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of twenty books including (ed) Debating Governance (Oxford University Press), Governance, Politics and the State (with B. Guy Peters, Palgrave, 2000), Handbook of Public Administration (Sage, 2003) and Handbook of Public Policy (Sage, 2006 (both co-edited with B. Guy Peters). He has published more than 70 chapters in edited volumes and 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, mainly in the field of public administration and urban politics. He is a former editor of Governance and serves on eight journal editorial boards. Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans is Professor of Political Science at the interdisciplinary Institute of Political Studies (IEP) of Toulouse (south-west of France, second French city as regards the academia and number of students). In Toulouse, he has several managerial and research responsibilities: he is director of the research centre of the Institute, the Laboratory of the Social Sciences of Polity (LaSSP), director of the Master "Consultancy-Expertise-Public Action", chairman of the permanent Academic Recruitment Board of the Institute, member of the Board of Governors, of the Scientific Council, of the Council of the Doctoral School, etc.