Educational standards have figured prominently in debates over educational policy all over the world. Two abiding themes emerge from these contributions to the debate. The first is that the very notion of a standard has to be viewed in its historical and social context. Different countries have widely varying views of what constitutes a standard and how necessary such a concept is for the adequate functioning of their educational systems. And, secondly, it is difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at an objective definition of educational standards. Policies based upon comparisons of...

These essays not only describe the major changes in British society in recent years, but seek to understand and explain what is happening. They consider the wide variety of mechanisms that underlie these changes, in particular processes of social interaction. The ill-understood nature of these mechanisms may be a major reason why so much social reform has proved ineffective. By highlighting the complexities of the causal mechanisms, sociological research can make a major contribution to policy and public debate. While these papers do not claim that sociology will provide all the answers, they...

This major new work from the well-known team of Heath, Jowell and Curtice explores the rise of New Labour from the ruins of old Labour's four successive defeats at the hands of the Conservatives. Based on the authoritative British Election Surveys, the book examines key questions about contemporary British elections and the social and political factors that decide their outcomes.

When this volume was first published in 1976, exchange theory had recently come into the fore in sociology as an attempt to develop systematic theories of social behaviour comparable to those which economics had developed. In doing so it borrowed from many different intellectual traditions including economics and anthropology, behavioural sociology and on the traditional concerns of sociologists and social psychologists. Dr Heath provides a systematic exposition of the principle components of exchange theory, and goes on to give a critique of these theories, paying particular attention to the...

An analysis of the enduring social costs of the post-2008 economic crisis
2008 was a watershed year for global finance. The banking system was eventually pulled back from the brink, but the world was saddled with the worst slump since the 1930s Depression, and millions were left unemployed. While numerous books have addressed the financial crisis, very little has been written about its social consequences.
Journalist Tom Clark draws on the research of a transatlantic team led by Professors Anthony Heath and Robert D. Putnam to determine the great recession's toll on...