World, planet, territory: toward a geo-logic in the critical sociology of education

Abstract

Despite proliferating attention within the social sciences toward the sources and consequences of climate change and environmental crises, educational sociologists have been slow to confront ecological questions. This omission may seem surprising given the prominence of global perspectives within the field. However, we argue, such a focus is emblematic of the discipline’s sociocentrism and anthropocentrism. Against such a reified sense of the field’s conceptual and analytic purview, this paper reads ecology into educational sociology, with the aim of theorizing a ‘geo-logic’ basis for future scholarship. If critical sociology of education is to maintain its relevance in the Anthropocene, the discipline must attend to ecological problematics. Building on three recent contributions to socio-ecological thought, we explain the necessity of an ecological attunement in critical sociology of education. To serve this call, we offer a theoretical revision of key disciplinary commitments, clearing new pathways for educational sociologists to do this crucial work.

Keywords:

• anthropocene
• critical sociology of education
• ecology
• political economy of education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.