Background: This article is concerned with professional learning within multi-agency settings. Since the publication of the government document "Every child matters" in 2003, professionals involved in working with children and young people have been moving into newly organized services that are required to deliver improved services for…

The place of economics in the curriculum in England and Wales provides a lens through which we may view the ways in which the curriculum as a whole is fought over and remains shifting terrain. Conceived of as social movements, school subject communities are made up of competing factions giving rise to contest and conflict both within themselves…

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning…

Sociological research investigating boys' masculinity performances has commonly recognised the importance of peer group cultures in identity construction. Whilst such work has undoubtedly offered important and useful frameworks for interpreting and understanding boys' behaviour in schools, the article argues that social psychological theories of…

Tests the common assumption that educational reformers and reform debates are bounded by the logic of folk norms by investigating the efforts to reform the General Certificate of Education examinations in English secondary schools between 1966 and 1976. Maintains that established folk norms did influence the substance of reform efforts.…

This article uses social movement theory to analyse campaigns against a new type of government-sponsored school--the Academy--in four areas of England. It seeks to identify the social composition of anti-Academy campaigns, to track their encounters with proponents of the new schools and to describe the characteristic forms of their campaigning…

Heavily influenced by Putnam's particular variant of social capital theory, the New Labour government in the UK has introduced several initiatives designed to raise educational achievement by building the social capital of families identified as socially excluded. One such initiative was the Education Action Zones (EAZ) policy. Whilst this policy…

This paper concerns higher and further education institutions' policies as they relate to the interactions of their staff and students with the sex industry. In Scotland and England, consenting adults may legally buy and sell sex and commercial sexual entertainment, such as erotic dance and phone sex, provided that they do not do so in a public…

Despite rapid growth in UK postgraduate education and a current focus on issues of access to higher education, consideration of possible social class differentials at the postgraduate level is missing from the sociological literature. Using Higher Education Statistics Agency data, this paper presents a preliminary investigation of the relationship…

A model of the impact of urban networks on monetary circulation is developed. The author argues that considering the effects of urbanization and occupational specialization on the velocity of money provides a fuller understanding of English inflation from 1500-1650 than traditional explanations focusing on population growth or changes in the money…

Profiles the work of Dr. Caleb Williams Saleeby, a late 19th-century propagandist for eugenics. Eugenics is a science that deals with the transmission of hereditary racial traits, coupled with a desire to use this for the elimination of social ills. Discusses Saleeby's work with the Eugenics Education Society. (MJP)

In this paper, we argue against the over-simplistic accusation that the media "dumb down" the study of history. Instead, we critically examine the contemporary presentation of history on British television within a framework of analysis of commodification and consumption. We argue that central to the debate is the idea that whilst…

These 11 essays explore the promise and limitations of current models of lifelong learning. "The Sociology of Lifelong Learning" discusses the relevance of various movements to understanding learning in modern society. "Knowledge, Power, and Ignorance" suggests that a new kind of society--the expert society--is emerging.…

Reviews the career and contributions of George Combe, an Edinburgh lawyer who proselytized for the cause of using phrenology in education. Although dismissed today as pseudoscience, phrenology (attributing various character traits to specific locations in the brain) was taken seriously as a science during the early 19th century. (MJP)

Examines the work and philosophy of Harry Lowerison, a turn-of-the-century London teacher and socialist. Specifically, recounts his development of the Ruskin School Home, an experimental and communal school for boys and girls. Discusses the school's policies, curriculum, admission requirements, and educational philosophy. Reprints handbills and…