Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture

This revised edition of Reproduction, one of social science's most frequently cited texts incorporates a re-issue of the original text with a new introduction by Pierre Bourdieu. A key work in the development of a social scientific analysis of culture, Reproduction connects cultural phenomena firmly to the structural characteristics of a society, and shows how the culture produced by this structure in turn helps to maintain it. The way in which the ruling ideas of a social system are related to structures of class, production and power, and how these are legitimated and perpetuated, is fundamental to the sociological project. In Reproduction Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron develop an analysis of education in its broadest sense, encompassing more than the process of formal education. They show how education carries an essentially arbitrary cultural scheme which is actually, though not in appearance, based on power. More widely, the reproduction of culture through education is shown to play a key part in the reproduction of the whole social system. The analysis is carried through not only in theoretical terms but through the development of empirically testable propositions within the wider framework of the historical transformation of the educational system. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture was nominated a 'citation classic' by the Institute for Scientific Information Social Science Citation Index in 1988. It is essential reading for students of sociology, education, social theory and cultural studies.