A sourcebook of Stephen Ball's key writings. Drawing on over twenty years' work, Professor Ball has selected his seminal work - from education policy and sociology to his work on education and social class - and provides a specially written Introduction.

Part 1: Perspectives on Policy Research 1. Policy Sociology and Critical Social Research: A Personal Review of Recent Education Policy and Policy Research 2. Discipline and Chaos: The New Right and Discourses of Derision 3. What is Policy? Texts, Trajectories and Toolboxes 4. Educational Studies, Policy Entrepreneurship and Social Theory 5. Big Policies/Small World: An Introduction to International Perspectives on Education Policy Part 2: Policy Technologies and Policy Analysis 6. Ethics, Self Interest and the Market Form in Education 7. Good School/Bad School: Paradox and Fabrication 8. Educational Reform, Market Concepts and Ethical Re-tooling 9. Standards in Education: Privatisation, Profit and Values 10. The Teacher’s Soul and the Terrors of Performativity Part 3: Social Class and Education Policy 11. Circuits of Schooling: A Sociological Exploration of Parental Choice of School in Social Class Contexts 12. Space, Work and the 'New Urban Economies' 13. Social Justice in the Head: Are we all Libertarians Now 14. 'Ethnic Choosing': Minority Ethnic Students and Higher Education Choice 15. 'I Heard it on the Grapevine': 'Hot' Knowledge and School Choice 16. The Risks of Social Reproduction: The middle Class and Education Markets