Jean Grugel is currently Professor of International Development at the University of Sheffield. Jean′s research interests include development, democratization and citizenship, civil society and advocacy politics, human rights, children and childhood, and regionalism. She has studied and written on democratization over a period of 25 years. She has published extensively on comparative democratization, with particular reference to transition politics, questions of citizenship and rights, political economy and globalization. Her work has been supported by five ESRC grants since 2004. Jean has acted as an advisor to the European Commission and UNICEF on children′s rights and to the European Commission on aid and policy towards Latin America. She was a trustee of NGO, Childhope until 2009 and remains committed to supporting civil society initiatives in development.