Ad van Iterson is Associate Professor of Organization Studies at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He graduated in sociology at the University of Amsterdam, after which he received his Ph.D. with a thesis on the early factory system. Currently, he mainly publishes on micro-sociological processes in organizations, such as gossip and cynicism, as manifestations of wider (de)civilizing trends: e.g. van Iterson et al. (eds.), The Civilized Organization: Norbert Elias and the Future of Organization Studies (2002). He also writes novels and columns.