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Culture and power are among the most passionately argued concepts and ideas amongst social scientists. The relation between culture and power manifests itself in the concept of symbolic power. The essays in this multifaceted book examine the past and present forms of symbolic power in different geographical and temporal contexts. The book is organized into four major parts. The first part, Symbolic (Mis)representations of Reality, focuses on the concept of symbolic power, classification as a strategy of symbolic manipulation, the authority of first person narration, advanced marginality, and the emergence of the "precariat" in metropolises. The second part, Transforming State, Education and Childhood, deals with the profound changes in the European welfare state and its relation to childhood, and educational systems. The third part, Cultures and Agency in Changing Contexts, sheds light on the position of young female immigrants in Israeli religious schools, the prevailing Chinese culture that prefers sons to daughters, the Finnish fashion industry in a global squeeze, and Australian sense of dwelling place and habitus. The final part, Emerging Identities of Intellectuals in Globalizing World, examines the nature and characteristics of intellectuals in India, the meeting of the Occident and the Orient in Tangier at the beginning of the 20th century, and the potential significance of the highly educated diaspora for socio-economic development. The writers are internationally renowned authors from three continents. Editors Ari Antikainen and Jarmo Houtsonen work at the Department of Sociology at the University of Joensuu in Finland. This book is dedicated to professor M'hammed Sabour.

Introduction to a sociology of education : old dilemmas in a new century? / Carlos Alberto Torres & Ari Antikainen -- Social theory and methodology -- Sociological theory of education in the dialectical perspective / Honario Martín Izquierdo and Almudena Moreno Mínguez -- Explorations in the systems-theoretical study of education / Raf Vanderstraeten -- Social capital in education : theoretical issues and empirical knowledge in attainment research / Anne Bert Dijkstra and Jules L. Peschar -- Critical ethnography and the sociology of education / Steve Jordan -- Sociocultural approaches to cognition : implications for the sociology of education / David MacLennan -- Decisive moments and key experiences : expanding paradigmatic boundaries in the study of school effects / Gad Yair -- Biography, life course, and the sociology of education / Ari Antikainen and Katja Komonen -- Leading the way : the development of analytical techniques in the sociology of education / Lawrence J. Saha & John P. Keeves -- Sociology of education in international contexts : regional focus -- Educational policies and new ways of governance in a transnationalization period / António Teodoro Constructing the sociology of education as a unique discipline : the cases of mainland China and Taiwan / Jason C. Chang and Zhang Renjie -- Education in transition society : growing inequality / David Konstantinovski -- Education, power, and the state : successes and failures of Latin American education in the twentieth century / Carlos Alberto Torres -- Institutionalised legitimate informational capital in the welfare state : has policy failed? / Martin D. Munk -- Critical issues in sociology of education -- Making sense of education reform : global and national influences / Geoff Whitty and Sally Power -- Civil society as equilibrium governance and choice in education : between private delivery and central regulation / AnneBert Dijkstra and Jaap Dronkers -- Women and education in Europe / Ingrid Jönsson -- The North and South contrasted : cultural similarities and differences in affective education / Yaacov J. Katz ... [et al.] -- Citizens in the text? : international presentations of citizenship in textbooks / Siikka Aapola, Tuula Gordon, and Elina Lahelma