Problematising policy: the development of (critical) policy sociology

This paper revisits and reassesses the influence of the context of production on the origin, development and use of the term ‘policy sociology’ in research in the sociology of education in the UK from the 1980s to the contemporary period. Starting with the first use of the term ‘policy sociology,’ and its definition as ‘rooted in social science tradition, historically informed and drawing on qualitative and illuminative techniques’, the paper considers the established knowledge production traditions in education policy studies that policy sociology was responding to in the 1970s and 1980s in the UK. It foregrounds the implication of a critical stance towards policy contained in that usage, as well as considering what was and is meant by the term critical in the now dominant usage (critical policy sociology), before considering how policy was and is defined, and the specific and particular contribution that sociological enquiry can make to the study of education policy.