I will describe a very large class of gauge theories that do not use any external structure such as e.g. a spacetime metric in their construction. When the gauge group is taken to be SL(2) these theories describe interacting gravitons, with GR being just a particular member of a whole family of gravity theories. Taking larger gauge groups one obtains gravity coupled to various matter systems. In particular, I will show how gravity together with Yang-Mills gauge fields arise from one and the same diffeomorphism invariant gauge theory Lagrangian. Finally, I will describe what is known about these theories quantum mechanically.
