This review essay brings Megan E. Tompkins-Stange's 2016 book "Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform, and the Politics of Influence" into conversation with contemporary scholarship on philanthropic engagement in education policy. Rino Wiseman Adhikary writes in this review "Policy Patrons" presents an in-depth…

Since the Human Genome Project mapped the gene sequence, new biological sciences have been generating a raft of new knowledges about the mechanisms and functions of the molecular body. One area of work that has particular potential to speak to sociology of education, is the emerging field of epigenetics. Epigenetics moves away from the mapped…

Suggests that this book is a major contribution to sociology and that its greatest (and most controversial) merit is its insistence that sociological macrovariables must be demonstrably related through individual action having purposive quality. Discusses modes of theory construction, rational choice theory, and reductionism. (SV)

Reviews "Meanings of Work: Considerations for the 21st Century" (Frederick C Gamst), "The Meaning of Work" (Richard L. Simpson, Ida Harper Simpson), and "Work, Self and Society: After Industrialism" (Catherine Casey). Concludes that research on the meaning of work should be less insular and take a broader, more…

Introduces this special issue on nonparametric item response theory and discusses its use in psychological and sociological research. Outlines each of the eight articles in the issue. (SLD)

Includes a review by Malcolm of the new Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education and proceedings of a symposium on the handbook from the Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (31st, London, England, July 2001). Addresses issues of knowledge production in the education of adults. (Contains 23…

Reviews Corsaro's work on the shift toward sociological approaches to research on children. Notes that the book fills a need for textbook on the sociology of childhood; documents the need for concern about children's well-being; presents a new analytical framework for the sociological study of children and of childhood; and challenges traditional…

Reviews Sara Delamont's "Knowledgeable Women: Structuralism and the Reproduction of Elites" (1989), a feminist examination of the education of elite women which provides many insights into how gender and class operate within the dominant classes. (DM)

Suggests that Corsaro's well-written book has a number of especially useful sections, specifically those on the history of childhood, social problems, and children's cultures. Notes that segments from Corsaro's and other researchers' work and numerous photographs and figures contribute to the book's accessibility. Problems noted include the…

This book is a significant contribution to the field of sociology of school knowledge. It looks at the historical development of the field and argues that, although this field has appealed only to a limited audience, it has the potential to reach a larger audience of scholars if an alternative research agenda could be created. (SLD)

Reviews "Writing the Rural," five "cultural geographies" by Paul Cloke, Marcus Doel, David Matless, Martin Phillips, and Nigel Thrift that focus on proliferating meanings of "rural" and on understanding the "rural" as something fashioned by both rural residents and various outside actors. Highlights the…

Discusses the sociology of education, including race relations and school segregation and desegregation, and critiques the report of D. J. Armor. The adverse effects of school segregation, and the beneficial effects, including economic consequences, of desegregation are outlined. (SLD)

Reviews a book that examines women's progress in education during the last 30 years. The book emphasizes the continuity of women's inferior status as students and academics despite advances since the second wave of feminism during the 1960s, describes teacher career structures in England and Wales, and examines women's conflicting role…

Reviews six works by Connie Miller, Comp., and Corinna Treitel (1991); Margrit Eichler (1987); Carol A. B. Warren (1988); Beth Hartung, Ed., and others (1988); Joyce McCarl Nielsen, Ed. (1990); and Liz Stanley, Ed. (1990). Works span diversity of current writing about feminist methodologies, offer guidelines for producing nonsexist or feminist…