Explore the role of social institutions—education, family, media, religion, and government—in shaping society. Understand how they influence power, identity, and daily life from a sociological perspective.
The National Student Survey is usually read as a scoreboard for teaching quality. This article argues that the NSS is better understood sociologically: not just as a measure of student experience, but as an instrument that shapes institutional behaviour.
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This article uses Johanna Noble’s recent column on Plan 2 student loans to ask who is really put off university by talk of a “graduate tax”. Drawing on research on first-in-family and working-class students, it shows how fear of debt, school guidance, and weak vocational routes combine to reproduce classed access to higher education.
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League tables and Ofsted reports matter, but school and university choices are often decided on the grapevine. This piece shows how parent networks, WhatsApp chats and “hot” knowledge quietly reproduce advantage—and why first-in-family and working-class students are left with thinner information.
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This article develops quiet neurodivergence as a way of naming how some neurodivergent people appear to cope in education, work and civic life while absorbing hidden costs in masking, energy use and burnout. Drawing on neurodiversity, spoon theory, stigma and camouflaging research, and critical disability studies, it argues that quiet neurodivergence is produced by neuronormative institutions and patterned by class, race, gender and access to diagnosis.
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Durkheim never saw a social media pile-on, but he worried about what holds societies together and how they draw moral boundaries. This article introduces his ideas on social facts, solidarity, crime and anomie, and uses them to analyse contemporary “culture wars” over statues, values and offence – and to show where his framework now needs updating.
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Watching Trading Places as a Christmas comfort film, it is hard not to see a ready-made sociological case study. The Dukes’ “experiment” looks like a simple nature-versus-nurture wager, but the life swap really turns on class, race and access to capital. This article uses Bourdieu’s framework to show how the film exposes—and then neatly smooths over—the myth of meritocracy.
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Marx wrote about factories and nineteenth-century class conflict, not delivery apps or algorithmic ratings. So how far can his ideas take us today? This article introduces Marx’s core concepts and tests them against platform capitalism and the gig economy, showing what still works, what does not, and where later theorists extend his framework.
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Discover how social capital works through the ideas of Bourdieu, Putnam, and Coleman. This guide explains how networks, trust, and power shape education, democracy, and social inequality in contemporary society.
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Bourdieu’s concept of capital—economic, cultural, social, and symbolic—reveals how privilege is passed on and class boundaries maintained. This article explains each type of capital, critiques the theory, and shows its relevance in today’s educational inequalities.
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Dutch philosopher Gert Biesta critiques how education has shifted from ethical formation to outcome-focused learning. His concept of subjectification offers a compelling vision for educators seeking a more human-centred, democratic practice.
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