In his 'Towards the Critique of Violence', Walter Benjamin introduces the concept of 'educative violence' as a contemporary manifestation of 'divine violence'. In this paper, we aim to interpret 'educative violence' by examining other instances where the young Benjamin addresses pedagogical issues. By connecting the concept of divine violence to…

This article aims to contribute to the theorization of power in workplace learning. We examined the ways in which civilian investigators participate in criminal investigation practice, and how these modes related to the social ordering in the police organization. Civilians, mostly women and well educated, are being hired in large numbers to help…

This paper examines Jean Floud's assessment of the work of Karl Mannheim, against the background of the development of British sociology of education in the 1940s and 50s. She compared his approach with that of Durkheim, concluding that both adopted a focus on social statics rather than dynamics, this reflecting their conservative political…

Categorization is the foundation of many cognitive functions. Importantly, the categories we use to structure the world are informed by the language we speak. For example, whether we perceive dark blue, light blue, and green to be shades of one, two, or three different colors depends on whether we speak Berinmo, English, or Russian, respectively.…

This article suggests three orientations within sociology toward issues of morality and character development. The first stems from Durkheim, one where sociological tools diagnose the operation of any society and its constituent parts, including typifications of the individual. This tradition holds that sociologists can help diagnose…

Thanks to the latest developments in network-oriented sampling, it is now possible to measure "transnational social fields," or emergent social structures that connect places or regions in different countries. These structures are instrumental in explaining sociocultural phenomena like the emergence of ethnic or demographic enclaves,…

There is general agreement among sociologists that teaching social structure is a core component of a sociological curriculum. Despite this agreement, there are few guides for instructors on how to teach this key concept. Using the sociological literacy framework, this research examines the most popular undergraduate Introduction to Sociology…

Reform is often associated with anticipated changes aimed at altering and improving social structures. Revealing the outcomes of reform initiatives, as well as identifying key facilitators and circumstances that contributed to their success or failure, can provide a deeper understanding of this distinct social phenomenon. Social transformations…

In contemporary societies, schools play an important role in reproducing the social system. Those who want to maintain the status quo find social reproduction desirable, while more radical scholars are critical regarding the social inequality and injustice perpetuated through this reproduction process. Traditionally, schools and families have…

Students with disabilities are choosing to engage in remote schooling. Families of children with disabilities may never set foot in a physical school building. Yet, it is important for families to feel connected to their child's education and the school community. This column discusses strategies based in culturally relevant pedagogy to engage…

It is generally accepted that Canadian universities are less stratified than their southern neighbours, a hypothesis popularized in the mid-2000s and verified by subsequent comparative empirical research. Through this piece, we revisit the Canadian "flatness" hypothesis, embracing a more sociological definition of status hierarchies and…

In certain domains, people represent some of an individual's properties (e.g., a tiger's ferocity), but not others (e.g., a tiger's being in the zoo), as stemming from the assumed "essence" of the individual's category. How do children identify which properties of an individual are essentialized and which are not? Here, we examine…

Schools' overt or explicit practices are a dominant lens through which education researchers and policymakers attempt to understand how schools are racially inequitable. Yet, Lewis and Diamond argue that contemporary racial inequalities are largely sustained through implicit factors, like institutional practices and structural inequalities. Ray's…

This paper advocates for the integration of the 'sociological imagination', as proposed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, into pedagogical practices to foster inclusive and democratic classrooms. Departing from narrow evidence-based approaches, it explores how the sociological imagination connects personal experiences with broader societal…

When 'decoloniality' and 'decolonizing' have become words frequently used in conferences and journal publications in our field of Applied Linguistics/Language and Education, as well as on many academics' lips, we start to worry about how they too can be easily co-opted as buzz words emptied of their critical meaning and actional potential and…