Edward T. Walker is Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. His research investigates the mobilization and outcomes of popular participation both by social movement organizations and by business firms and trade associations; his focus in recent work is on contention surrounding hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. He is author of Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which won the 2015 Charles Tilly Award from the American Sociological Association. He is also co-editor of Democratizing Inequalities: Dilemmas of the New Public Participation (NYU Press, 2015). His research has appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, and other journals, and has been covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, and other outlets.