Chris Phillipson is Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. He has led a number of research programmes concerned with family and community life in old age, problems of poverty and social exclusion, social theory and ageing, and issues relating to urbanisation and migration. His theoretical work has focused on developing a critical gerontology which explores and challenges some of the dominant social and cultural assumptions made about ageing and ageing societies. He has a particular interest in questions relating to the relationship between urban development and population ageing. He has published numerous books and research papers on various topics relating to the development of ageing populations. Chris is the deputy-director of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), and has served as member of the Advisory Committee of the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme and was a member of the Advisory Board of the Norwegian Lifecourse, Ageing and Generations Panel Study. He is a Fellow of the British Gerontological Society and the Gerontological Society of America. In 2011, Dr. Phillipson received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Society of Gerontology to acknowledge his contributions to the study of ageing.