This paper attempts to address challenges identified by Michael Young and those arising from his writings on 'powerful knowledge' to gain a deeper insight into the relationship between everyday horizontal knowledge and disciplinary vertical knowledge as well as how we can approach it in a way that benefits pedagogy. The attempt includes the move back to the social realist theory of knowledge propounded by Durkheim and Bernstein. It elucidates how their perspectives encapsulate a model of recontextualisation that relates the specialised scientific knowledge of school and students' prior knowledge into an 'organic unity'. The paper proceeds first by examining Bernstein's claim that both vertical and horizontal knowledge are socially real, and develops this in the light of the work of Lévy-Bruhl, who shares Bernstein's inheritance of Durkheim. A particular highlight lies in the convergence between Lévy-Bruhl and Durkheim, advocating 'imitation' of concepts as a pivotal tool for fostering access to powerful knowledge.