Richard Sennett's first book was The Uses of Disorder in 1970. His other books include The Fall of Public Man, Flesh and Stone and Respect, as well as the recent Homo Faber trilogy: The Craftsman; Together; Building and Dwelling. He currently serves as Senior Advisor to the United Nations on its Program on Climate Change and Cities. He is Senior Fellow at the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at MIT. Among other awards, he has received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize, an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University

Jonathan Cobb was a former associate of the Center for the Study of Public Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.