Place of birth: Edinburgh, Scotland

Parentage: son of Scott Forrest and Violet Forrest

Family: married Jacqueline Perry; two children, Robert and Hannah

Education: MSocSc, Social Sciences, University of Birmingham 1974; PhD, Urban Studies, University of Bristol 1988

Career: Ray Forrest is Professor of Urban Studies and Associate Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and the University of Glasgow. From 2000 to 2005 he was Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Neighbourhood Research and from 2000 to 2004 Head of the School for Policy Studies. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include changing sociology of the contemporary city, housing and urban change in East Asia, housing, the macro-economy and globalization, and housing policy and social inequalities, while his teaching interests include housing and social policy, contemporary urban society, European social policy, and globalization. Ray Forrest is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Network of Housing Researchers. He is currently leading an ESRC-funded project, Housing Assets and Intergenerational Dynamics in East Asian Societies and is involved in collaborative projects with colleagues at the City University of Hong Kong (socio-spatial transformations and housing reforms in Hanoi and Guangzhou) and the University of Kobe, Japan (globalization and housing market governance). He is Joint Managing Editor of the journal Housing Studies (see url below) and co-editor of Asian Public Policy.

Publications include: Urban Political Economy and Social Theory (co-author) 1982, Selling the Welfare State: The Privatisation of Public Housing (co-author) 1988, Home Ownership: Fragmentation and Differentiation (co-author) 1990, Home Owners in Negative Equity (co-author) 1994, Housing and Family Wealth: Cross-national Perspectives (co-editor) 1995, People and Places (co-author) 1995, Joined-Up Places? Social Cohesion and Neighbourhood Change (co-author) 1999, Housing and Social Change: East West Perspectives (co-editor) 2003; numerous articles in academic and professional journals

Contact details: Address: Centre for Urban Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TZ, England; Tel: +44 (0)117 954-5580; Fax: +44 (0)117 954-6756; Email: r.forrest@bristol.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/cus/default.shtml ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02673037.asp/ .