You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
It is often assumed that for middle class and academically able children, schooling is a straightforward process that leads to academic success, higher education and entry into middle class occupations. However this fascinating book shows these relationships to be complex and often uncertain. Based on the biographies of 350 young men and women who might have been considered 'destined for success' at the start of their secondary schooling, the book maps out the educational pathways they took. It analyses their subsequent achievements and entry into employment and compares them with their parents, with one another, and with their generation. Identifying patterns in the data, it also explores examples of extraordinary success and failure, and various forms of interrupted and disrupted careers. As well as documenting a compelling human story, the findings have important implications for current policy debates about academic selection, access to elite universities, and the limits of meritocracy.
Planning is currently a male profession, but an analysis of a century of town planning reveals this to be a new development; women have been central to the planning movement since it began. Women and Planning is the first comprehensive history and analysis of women and the planning movement, covering the philosophical, practical and policy dimensions of `planning for women'. Beyond the marginalization of women, modern, scientific planning hides a story of past links with eugenics, colonialism, artistic, utopian and religious movements and the occult. Central to the discussion is the questioning of how male planners have rewritten planning in their own image, projecting patriarchal assumptions in their creation of `urban realities'. Issues of class, sexuality, ethnicity and disability are raised by the fundamental question of `Who is being planned for?'
Drawing from forty years of experience, Julia Brannen offers an invaluable account of how research in family studies is conducted and ‘matters’ at particular times. An exceptional resource for family scholars and those interested in the methodology of social research.
A continuous expansion of higher education has made it possible not only for more students to get straight into university, but also for more students to obtain a university place at their second attempt immediately after their first attempt fails. However, the educational experiences of students who seek such a second chance have been under-examined. In filling this empirical gap, this book offers an application of Bourdieu’s analysis of class reproduction through education (together with his three concepts of habitus, cultural capital, and field, and the concept of emotional capital derived from an extension of his framework) to make sense of educational experiences of 64 community-colle...
In Knowledgeable Women, originally published in 1989, Sara Delamont traces the history of women's education and the elites it produces. She examines class and gender divisions in the structure and contest of education in Britain and the USA from 1850 to 1989. Her empirical focus is of course elites – especially elite women – but the justification for this is the belief that sociologists should study the powerful as well as the poor and powerless. Above all, Delamont argues the case for the relevance to sociology of a serious study of women, their schooling and professional training, and their struggle to enter the professions. She also encourages a broader focus to the sociology of educa...
A belief in individual self-determination powered the development of universal human rights and inspired social movements from anti-slavery to socialism and feminism. At the same time, every attempt to embed individualism in systems of education and employment has eventually led to increased social inequality. Across the globe individualism has been transformed from a revolutionary force into an explanation for increasingly unequal societies where dissent is largely silent. This book explores the possibility of rediscovering the original, transformative potential of individualism.
Children and parents have become a focus of debates on ‘new social risks’ in European welfare states. Policymaking elites have converged in defining such risks, and they have outlined new forms of parenting support to better safeguard children and activate their potential. Increasingly, parents are suspected of falling short of public expectations. Contributors to this special issue scrutinize this shift towards parenting as performance and analyse recent forms of parenting support.
This book gathers together the lessons learned from perhaps the largest scale social experiment ever undertaken in England - Sure Start. In addition to summarizing the findings of numerous innovative projects, contributors draw on their experiences of the successes and challenges to offer advice for those engaged in current and future practice.
Based on research from the Thomas Coram Research Unit, the contributors to this text look at the views and experiences of young people and provide an encouraging outlook of what those in care have the potential to achieve. Those factors that help to result in more successful outcomes are identified, and policy recommendations are made, for enabling young people in and leaving care to triumph when the odds are stacked against them. In Care and After adds a new dimension to the current literature on local authority care of young people and children. Those working within the fields of social care, health and education as well as students on social work courses will find this essential reading and a welcome addition.