Introduction. Intricate webs - nature, social relations, and human needs in the writings of Ted Benton

This book had its beginnings in a one-day conference the editors organised in the summer of 2006 to mark the retirement of Ted Benton after 36 years in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. We were conscious both that Ted was not fully retiring, as he was to be re-employed on a partial contract, but also that his intellectual project was very much on going. It was decided that the conference should consequentlybe at one and the same time a taking stock of the past achievements of a remarkable and distinctive thinker, and a meditation on his current intellectual trajectory and potential directions for the future.