Professor Edward Webster is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Sociology of Work Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His current research interests include: the Evolving Labour Relations System in South Africa, Labour Market Segmentation and the impact of Deep Level Gold Mining on the occupational culture of miners. He is a founder of the South African Labour Bulletin, was a member of the review committee on Labour Market Commission, 1996, and is currently secretary of the Research Committee on Labour Movements for the International Sociological Association. He was awarded a Fulbright Senior African Researcher Award in 1995 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Professor Webster is the author of various chapters in books, journal articles and research reports. A list of published books includes the following:

• Trade Unions and Democratisation in South Africa 1985-1996, Macmillan, London, 1999 (co-author with G Adler).
• Cast in A Racial Mould - Labour Process and Trade Unionism in the Foundries, Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1985, pp350.
• Essays in Southern African Labour History, Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1978, pp248 (editor).
• Change, Reform and Economic Growth in South Africa, Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1978, pp244 (co-editor with L Schlemmer).