Phil Brown was brought up in a small town near Oxford, England. He left school with little to show for twelve years of education before starting working life as a craft apprentice at the British Leyland car factory in Cowley, Oxford. The boredom of factory life drove him to take-up evening classes where he was first introduced to Sociology. This sparked a passion for the social sciences that remains as strong to this day but with a growing sense of urgency as we seem unprepared for the economic and social world Western countries have now entered. This concern is captured in many of his publications but especially The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Incomes. Before becoming a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, he worked at the University of Cambridge and University of Kent at Canterbury. He has also been a Visiting Professor at UBC in Vancouver and Science Po in Paris. He is currently conducting further research on globalisation and the future of work in seven countries including China, India and the United States.