This issue of Soundings focuses on the ways we live our lives. Contributors try to find alternative ways of grappling with some of the anxieties and problems of twenty-first century life in the post-industrial part of the world - questions which are often neglected by the mainstream and traditional left. Fiona Williams writes on the concept of care; Hetan Shah outlines a well-being approach to politics; Andrea Westall explores alternative resources for economics; Molly Scott Cato argues for more control over our working lives; Farhad Dalal looks at the dynamics of group racialisation processes; Tom Shakespeare discusses the politics of disability; and Nira Yuval-Davis looks at problems in contemporary theories of cosmopolitanism. Elsewhere in the issue, Ken Worpole describes ways in which architecture can contribute to more humane cities; Stephan Harrison writes on climate change in Kazakhstan; John Gittings provides analysis of changes currently underway in China; and Michael Rustin looks at what lies ahead for New Labour in its third term.