Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University and previously held academic positions in the UK and Canada. His areas of research specialism include youth culture, popular music scenes, history and heritage, local music industries, DIY culture and practice and qualitative research methods. He has written and edited numerous books including Popular Music and Youth Culture, Music, Style and Aging, British Progressive Pop 1970 – 1980 and Music Scenes (co-edited with Richard A. Peterson). He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and a former Chair of the UK and Ireland IASPM branch. In 1999 he co-founded the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group. He is also a member of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) and former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Sociology. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology, an Adjunct of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Porto, an International Research Fellow of the Finnish Youth Research Network, a founding member of the Consortium for Youth, Generations and Culture and a founding member of the Regional Music Research Group. He is also co-founder of KISMIF, a biennial conference focusing on DIY cultures and practice.