ABSTRACT

In this last brief chapter I have three main concerns. First, I will consider what the discussion and analyses in the foregoing chapters have to contribute to our understanding of class and inequality in relation to what Tomlinson (2001) calls ‘education in a post welfare society’. Second, I will consider what the discussion and analyses in the foregoing chapters have to contribute to current debates about social class, class theory and in particular our understanding of the middle class in contemporary society. I think it is very evident from the material discussed in this monograph that class has not gone away. However, the task and the challenge are to understand the new forms that it takes.1 Third, I offer some comments about the relationship between the public morality of the state and the private principles of parents. Generally, in the course of this closing discussion I will revisit the themes of ambivalence, boundary, fear and uncertainty, individualism and reflexivity. Mrs Cornwell (above) provides the touchstone for the closing discussion.