Abstract
This review study is devoted to the book by Thomas Popkewitz and his collaborators titled A Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge: Studies of Exclusions and Differences. Their work is framed in the context of the current development of the sociology of education in its epistemological "waves" and linked with the Czech context as well.
The interpretation of this book is based on the idea of the so-called third wave of the sociology of education, which explores the formation, legitimisation, and reproduction of knowledge in the field of education. A considerable number of contemporary scholars are trying to understand the conditions of contradictions in contemporary educational environments and to deal with the problematization of critical approaches.
They are connected to the sociological and philosophical development of pragmatist, postanalytical and poststructuralist approaches in opposition to Marxist, postmodernist and textualist approaches, although their research intention is still critical. This article shows how the historical method developed by Popkewtiz and his collaborators attempts to bridge the dichotomies of previous "waves".
In spite of some unclear places in the book, the sociology of education gets a chance not to lag behind contemporary sociology.