Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz continue in the tradition of Plato with their work on the role of education in a just society. Both argue that a just society depends on education enabling citizens to realise democratic or civic equality and that this equality depends on sufficiency in the distribution of educational goods. I agree that education…

Bourdieu's critical analysis of capital (BCAC) is a useful tool for unmasking how schools legitimate class structure and identifying the institutional, societal, and cultural forces that structure class reproduction and oppression. In this paper, we examine the ways educational researchers have constrained the critical application of Bourdieu's…

A national system of education in modern nation-states is usually geared towards nation-building and schools play a significant role in grooming children as future citizens. While the dominant and powerful usually emerge as the 'ideal citizen' in the national imagination, the marginalized are constructed as the 'other', vilified, and stigmatised.…

This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to locate the Newbolt Report, published in 1921, within a context of the weakening political authority of Britain's ruling class. One indication of this is the fact that in 1917 200,000 workers were involved in strikes in 48 British towns. The moral and cultural dimensions of the problems facing…

This analysis is a philosophical exploration of Marilyn Frye's metaphor of the cage and Patricia Hill Collins' theory of intersecting oppressions. It argues that social structures and forms of oppressive knowledge make up the individual wires on each person's cage and that these work to confine individuals, particularly those in the…

Chicago has long struggled with racial residential segregation, high rates of poverty, and deepening class stratification, and it can be a challenging place for adolescents to grow up. "Unequal City" examines the ways in which Chicago's most vulnerable residents navigate their neighborhoods, life opportunities, and encounters with the…

Because inequality is one of the central concerns of sociologists, it has been addressed, in various ways, by virtually all of the major traditions of sociological social psychology--social structure and personality, symbolic interactionism, and group processes. For those who work in the social structure and personality tradition, inequality…

Attempts to show conceptually that the continued poverty of the black community is a result of the persistence of an overall environment that keeps black people in subjugation, developing a framework identifying the quantitative and qualitative nature of the environment, and discussing various aspects of the economic conditions of black people.…

Two perspectives on the sociology of education were identified and related to general sociological perspectives. The theme of constraint and construction was considered in relation to the institution of education and its role in capitalist society. (JN)

The educational system serves to perpetuate the capitalist hegemony. Research on the role of education in maintaining a system of structured social inequality has tended to emphasize the structure of schooling rather than the content. (JN)

Discusses illiteracy in social structural terms, that is, as a predictable consequence of the routine workings of basic institutions in a class-based society. Shows how, in this context, illiteracy can be seen as a "rational" achievement. (CMG)

A simulation called "Star Power" provides an invaluable means to help students understand structural social inequality. This paper explains how Star Power achieves this goal and provides suggestions on how to inculcate the following points that are both central to sociology and difficult to adequately convey to students: 1) Students see how those…

Effects of the positioning of the child in the family and community were studied for 80 Portuguese students, ages 10 to 12 years, of differing race, social class, and gender. Positioning is considered to be a factor that reflects power and control relations in family hierarchical structures, and one that is particularly influenced by family…

This document is intended to promote understanding of democracy in Scotland as a social and cultural process that is sustained through learning as well as through political institutions and procedures. It consists of 47 short, easy-to-read papers that can be used in existing programs (for example, modern studies and social studies) or as…