This publication reviews cross-disciplinary literature on education with the aim of informing the reader of the relation between educational governance and social inclusion/exclusion in policy and research. Various conceptual issues raised in the literature are examined first. Then, two problematics are considered to emphasize how the methods, concepts, and "theories" of social science can produce new ways of thinking, organizing action, and producing results. The section on the equity problematic explores questions of representation and access of individuals and groups to educational and social practices. The section on the problematic of knowledge focuses on the systems of reason whereby identities assigned to actors are "fabricated" in order to organize and divide. It is the authors' hopes to make visible the relation between epistemological assumptions and "real world" practices of research, policy, and schooling. Appendices contain a search of the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) database for the Education Governance and Social Integration and Exclusion in Europe project, lists from the ERIC alphabetical descriptor display, and short descriptions of findings by ERIC. (Contains 186 references.) (RT)