Theorizing Social Class and Education presents a selection of writing on class analysis within sociology of education as it has evolved over the last decade both in the UK, and internationally. Moving from a narrow focus on class position and categorisation, to a much broader view on behaviours, attitudes, identities and practices, the contributors explore and theorize the ways in which particular individuals develop their perspectives and understandings of the social world, and the role education plays in shaping these.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

Diane Reay is Professor of Education at Cambridge University, UK. She is a sociologist working in the area of education but is also interested in broader issues of the relationship between the self and society, the affective and the material. Her priority has been to engage in research with a strong social justice agenda that addresses social inequalities of all kinds. Carol Vincent is a Professor in the Faculty of Policy and Society at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. She is a sociologist, with a particular research interests in the relationship between parents and educational institutions and how these relationships are mediated by social class and ethnicity.