Difference and Sameness in Schools : Perspectives from the European Anthropology of Education

Presenting European Anthropology of Education through eleven studies of European schools, this volume explores the constructing and handling of difference and sameness in the central institutions of schools. Based on ethnographic studies of schools in Greece, England, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, it illustrates how anthropological studies of schools provide a window to larger society. It thus offers insights into cultural lessons taught to children through policies, institutional structures and everyday interactions, as well as into schools’ entanglement in state projects, cultural processes, societal histories and conflicts, and hence into contemporary Europe.

Laura Gilliam is an anthropologist and Associate Professor in Educational Anthropology, at School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. With Eva Gulløv, she is the author of Children of the Welfare State: Civilizing Practices in Schools, Childcare and Families, (Pluto Books, 2017).

Christa Markom is an anthropologist and senior lecturer in educational anthropology in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna.