Understanding and Enacting Social Change in Education: Working with Bourdieu
A BSA Bourdieu Study Group Event
11 June 2026 (09:30-18:30 CEST)
Istituto Comprensivo Benci-Borsi, Livorno, Italy
Keynotes
- Aina Tarabini (Department of Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona) - Rethinking the Politics of Care in Secondary Schooling: Transforming school logics and learning cultures under conditions of inequality
- Nicola Ingram (School of Education, University College Cork) - Undoing Traveller Exclusion: Combating entrenched racism against an indigenous minority ethnic group
- Carli Rowell (School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex) - Thinking with Bourdieu Within and Beyond the Higher Education Curriculum: The politics, possibilities and practices of centring working-class knowledges
About the Event
Across diverse national contexts, educational systems continue to reproduce deep and persistent forms of domination and inequalities along intersecting dimensions of social class, ethnicity, gender, and (dis)ability. Inequitable access to education, differentiated learning experiences, and stratified outcomes remain evident across all educational levels, from compulsory schooling to higher education and beyond.
In many instances, educational institutions remain sites where non-dominant epistemologies and forms of knowledge are misrecognized, reinforcing processes of symbolic violence and the marginalisation of alternative ways of knowing and relating to the world.
Over recent decades, educational research has devoted sustained attention to these processes, drawing fruitfully on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and core concepts to illuminate the mechanisms through which domination and inequalities are reproduced.
This seminar builds on this rich tradition while shifting the focus from the reproduction of inequality to the possibilities for change. In this light, we ask how Bourdieu’s work can be mobilised to understand and support processes of social change in and through education. The seminar will foreground the educational experiences and trajectories of students from traditionally underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds. It will also examine policies, practices, and pedagogical approaches that aim to enhance inclusion and actively challenge entrenched inequities.
By bringing together empirical research and critical reflection, the seminar seeks to explore the transformative potential of education, while also engaging with the tensions, limitations, and ongoing challenges involved in attempts to advance more equitable educational futures.
Unlike conventional academic venues, the conference will be hosted within a school – one marked by high levels of diversity and complexity in a medium-sized Italian city – not only as a symbolic choice, but as an invitation to bring Bourdieu’s theoretical toolkit back into conversation with the everyday realities of teachers and practitioners.
Registration
Registration for this event is open.
- BSA Member: £20
- BSA Concessionary Member: £15
- Non-member: £30
- Full-time Student Non-member: £25
Key Dates
- Abstract submission deadline: 2 March 2026. ** extended deadline **
- Decisions sent to applicants: 6 March 2026
- Registration opens: 9 March 2026
- Presenter booking deadline: 17 May 2026
- Registration closes: 31 May 2026