About the Author

Luca Pattaroni graduated in sociology and now works at the Laboratoire de Sociologie Urbaine (EPFL) and is a member of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (GSPM/EHESS). He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University (New York) and guest lecturer at the Federal University of Fluminense (Brazil) in 2011. His research and publications focus on urban and cultural policy, housing, social movements, the development of new ways of life, as well as, more broadly, typical issues in contemporary cities. He specialises in mixed methods as well as political and sociological theory and attempts to provide a nuanced analysis of different ways of life co-existing in a pluralist context, while investigating the political and moral issues inherent to establishing a shared social life.

Jacques Kaufmann (1954) opened his current studio in France, just over the border from Geneva, in 1988. He has taught at the Ecole d'arts appliqués of Vevey since 1995 and was appointed head of the ceramics department in 1996. His work in China since 1999 has enabled him to contribute to exhibition exchanges between Europe and China. In 2008, Kaufmann joined a group at Hepia, the University for Engineering, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture in Geneva, to conduct research on 'green' walls on a city-wide scale. He is the current president of the International Academy of Ceramics.