How Do We Learn How to Behave?
How do we learn the unwritten rules of social life? This article explores socialisation, identity, family, education, peers, media and the ways society shapes how we behave.
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Tag: education
“I Heard It on the Grapevine”: How Parent and Student Networks Quietly Shape School and University Choices
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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Social Capital Explained: Comparing Bourdieu, Putnam, and Coleman on Networks, Trust, and Inequality
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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Understanding Bourdieu’s Forms of Capital: How Inequality Is Reproduced Through Culture, Networks, and Status
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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Talking to the Machine: AI, Language Codes, and the Reproduction of Inequality
This article explores how generative AI systems reinforce class-based linguistic hierarchies by privileging elaborated codes aligned with middle-class norms, drawing on Bernstein’s theory of language and sociological critiques of educational inequality.
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Assessment Integrity or Linguistic Exclusion? AI, Viva Exams, and Educational Justice
Viva-style exams are promoted as an AI-proof assessment solution, but do they reinforce class, linguistic, and neurodiversity exclusions? This sociological analysis unpacks how language, power, and educational justice intersect in the AI age.
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Critical Realism Explained: A Guide for Sociology Students
A beginner’s guide to critical realism in sociology. Learn about layered reality, structure and agency, emergence, and reflexivity, with real-world examples for first-year sociology students.
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Beyond the Echo Chamber: Rescuing Critical Thinking in the Digital Age
Explore how digital media, educational trends, and ideological conformity are eroding critical thinking. This article examines the sociological roots of this decline and argues for the urgent revival of independent thought as a civic responsibility.
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Meritocracy or Myth? The Truth About the ‘Self-Made’ Narrative
Is the self-made success story a reality or a myth? This article explores the sociological debate around meritocracy, examining both the arguments for and against the self-made narrative, and the structural barriers that shape social mobility.
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