This book explores the stark stratification and struggles over classifications in US academia from a relational perspective, looking beyond material differences and tracing its roots to symbolic power relations. Based on a mixed methods study drawing on both interview and quantitative data, it offers an account of the workings of academia, shedding light on the structures that permit elite departments to define categories and impose legitimate scientific definitions, to which the non-elite must adhere. With a focus on two scientific disciplines, the author shows how the translation of objective structures into mental structures establishes a relationship of power with regard to the definition of scientific categories, thus determining access to resources and opportunities to participate and move within the academic field. A study of the unequal intrusion of economic logics into the academic domain, this volume will appeal to scholars, policy makers and institutional leaders with interests in higher education, inequality within science, academic careers, power relationships and competition in the academy.

This groundbreaking collection of classic and cutting edge sociological research gives special attention to the social construction of race and ethnicity in the United States. It offers an in-depth and eye-opening analysis of (a) the power of racial classification to shape our understanding of race and race relations, (b) the way in which the system came into being and remains, and (c) the real consequences this system has on life chances. The readings deal with five major themes: the personal experience of classification schemes; classifying people by race; ethnic classification; the persistence, functions, and consequences of social classification; and a new paradigm: transcending categories. For individuals who want to gain a fuller understanding of the impact the ideas of race has on a society that is consumed by it.

This anthology examines the social construction of race, class, gender, and sexuality and the institutional bases for these relations. While other texts discuss various forms of stratification and the impact of these on members of marginalized groups, Ore provides a thorough discussion of how such systems of stratification are formed and perpetuated and how forms of stratification are interconnected. The anthology supplies sufficient pedagogical tools to aid the student in understanding how the material relates to her/his own life and how her/his own attitudes, actions, and perspectives may serve to perpetuate a stratified system.

This anthology examines the social construction of race, class, gender, and sexuality and the institutional bases for these relations. While other texts discuss various forms of stratification and the impact of these on members of marginalized groups, Ore provides a thorough discussion of how such systems of stratification are formed and perpetuated and how forms of stratification are interconnected. The anthology supplies sufficient pedagogical tools to aid the student in understanding how the material relates to her/his own life and how her/his own attitudes, actions, and perspectives may serve to perpetuate a stratified system.

This text explores the possibilities for the reconstruction of urban schooling. The author urges a rethinking of the concept of urban education and a theory of the relationships between urban processes and urban schooling.

The Changing Curriculum provides a valuable introduction to the curriculum theories of Ivor F. Goodson. As Kincheloe states, «this paradigm of curriculum study grasps the multi-dimensionality of the relationship between past and present curricular practice. In this context, Goodson recognizes the ties between history, education and politics.» The Changing Curriculum reviews the historical and social emergence of curriculum as a concept and curriculum theory as a practice. The early chapters seek to situate work on curriculum in its full social and ideological context. Later chapters provide examples of this kind of curriculum theory in looking at studies of school subjects and the relationship definitions of curriculum to forms of education, notably the study of American private schools.

Wasburn compares U.S. commercial news reports on a wide variety of events with those produced by the news media of several other nations. The events include the Falklands War, the Iran-Iraq War, the Tiananmen Square Uprising, several political assassinations, major trade disputes between the U.S. and Japan, the Intifada, U.S. presidential nominating conventions and a presidential inauguration. Different patterns of coverage—amount of attention given an event, language used to describe an event, selection of particular occurrences to characterize an event, and descriptions of U.S. and international public opinion of the event—are shown to reflect different political, economic, and strategic interests of nations, historical contexts in which news was constructed, national differences in values that influence the production of news, and differences in historically specific relations between news media and the governments of their countries. Attention is given to contrasts between the national image of the United States constructed by U.S. commercial news media and the images of the United States produced by various foreign news media. This book will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and researchers involved with political communication, journalism, political science, and political sociology.