POWER SALLY

University of Cardiff

Social inclusion, social justice and the sociology of education

This paper explores the paradoxes and problematics of current attempts to comprehend and address social exclusion in post-welfare state education. It charts the move from a political arithmetic of educational inequalities to more complex understandings of the cultural dynamics of social exclusion. It shows how these changes are present in both policy provisions and the sociology of education and how they have left us with a series of dilemmas which cannot easily be resolved. The paper exposes some of the tensions and contradictions and argues that unless sociologists confront these issues they may become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.