This edited volume explores how Stephen Ball's work has shaped the field of the sociology of education worldwide.

Maria Tamboukou is Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of East London, UK, and holds a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2022-2025).

Part I: Theoretical and epistemological diffractions 1. Doing Sociology of Education differently: An essay about a study on the educational trajectories of youths from the villas of Buenos Aires 2. Character as calculable: The performative and biopolitical management of the child's soul 3. Knowledge exchange in the social sciences: Knowledge ecosystems, networks, and the social enterprising of research Part II: Thinking and acting in the margins 4. Choice, Pathways and Transitions 20 years on 5. Trapped in educational marginalisation: 'I just drifted away' 6. Borderlands and radical hope: Beyond academic philanthropy Part III: Educational policies 7. Education policy; from social and consensual to self-interested and individual 8. Policy and the ethics of doing disability: Working within and beyond an inclusive norm in the English higher education 9. The Bologna Process: A policy discourse evolution Part IV: Reflections 10. Passion and education: A reflection on working with Stephen J. Ball 11. The exclusionary every day: A journey in London schools, struggling to include all children in their primary school education