Relational Sociology and Research on Schools, Colleges, and Universities

Relational sociology was conceived by theorists frustrated by what they viewed as an incomplete accounting of social reality. Torn between notions of structural rigidity, on the one hand, and rational choice individualism, on the other, relational sociologists have sought new units of analysis. Social reality, they have argued, is manufactured through relationships. People are who they are, and society is what it is, not because of some individual or collective ＂essence＂ but because of the networks that social beings build among one another.

Relational Sociology and Research on Schools, Colleges, and Universities demonstrates the value of introducing new relational methods and epistemologies in educational research. The contributors examine the roles and significance of ongoing transactions among connected social actors-students, peers, families, teachers-in a variety of institutional contexts. The book explores various uses and applications of relational sociology in education, while highlighting its promise to provide fresh insight into intractable problems of inequity in US schools.

William G. Tierney is University Professor, Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education, and Founding Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. His many books include Diversifying Digital Learning: Online Literacy and Educational Opportunity (coedited with Zoë B. Corwin and Amanda Ochsner); The Problem of College Readiness (coedited with Julia C. Duncheon), also published by SUNY Press; and Rethinking Education and Poverty.

Suneal Kolluri is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside. He received his PhD in Urban Education and Sociology from the University of Southern California.