During the very last phase of our work on this book, we received the devastating news that our co-editor, Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra had died. We knew that she was severely ill but her sudden death was unexpected. We mourn her passing and miss her greatly.

Hanneke studied linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. After finishing her Ph.D. thesis in 1987 on the analysis of proposal-acceptance sequences, she was appointed to a position at the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics (UIL-OTS) and the Institute for Dutch Language and Culture at Utrecht University. She was a dynamic and wholehearted researcher fascinated by the structure and organization of ordinary conversation and conversation within an institutional context. Hanneke's contributions are numerous. She had a particular interest in the interaction between interviewer and interviewee in research interviews and is, of course, well known for this work. Hanneke liked to transgress conventional disciplinary and institutional borders, and she demonstrated, for example, the relevance of conversation analysis for critical reflection on traditional survey methodology. She played a crucial role in the design and editing of this book and was inspirational in pushing forward our scheme of encouraging researchers from many different perspectives to analyze the same data set. Her comments on all our work were marked by a delightful combination of professional rigor, straightforwardness and disarming humour.We only wish that she could have been here to share our pleasure in its publication.