British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 26, No. 3, July 2005, pp. 429–433 ISSN 0142-5692 (print)/ISSN 1465-3346 (online)/05/030429–05 © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd DOI: 10.1080/01425690500128940 EXTENDED REVIEW Cross-national contexts and social inequality in public schools, families and caring institutions Sharon Tettegah and Luis Mirón* University of Illinois, USA Taylor and Francis Ltd CBSE112877.sgm 10.1080/01425690500128940 British Journal of Sociology of Education 0142-5692 (print)/8765-3345 (online) Extended review 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd 26 3000000July 2005 LuisMiron Department of Educational Policy StudiesUniversity of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign, 366 Educational Building, 1310 South Sixth StChampaignIllinois 61820USAlfmiron@uiuc.edu Inequalities across societies: families, schools and persisting stratification D. Baker, B. Fuller, E. Hannum & R. Werum (Eds), 2004 Oxford, Elsevier. ISBN 0-7623-1061-8 Inequalities across societies: families, schools and persisting stratification offers to render theoretically and methodologically sophisticated sociological reports on unequal schooling and other social services across the globe. The co-editors (Baker, Fuller, Hannum and Werum)—all prominently trained sociologists and well-established researchers in the field of the sociology of education—have selected an impressive array of cross-national cases from national and local databases to study. Nowhere, or so it seems, however, is there any systematic attempt to situate these case studies within the broader conceptual framework of globalization. 1 This may be intentional. We do not know for sure. In any case, the contextual and empirical justification for presenting these studies of educational inequality ‘across societies’, presumably because of the complex processes of globalization, is an unfortunate oversight, whether intentional or unintentionally designed. Inequality across societies is the 14th volume of Research in sociology of education. The volume comprises an edited collection of 12 chapters, divided into two sections. The book begins with a basic introductory overview of the chapters, followed by four chapters in the first section concerning social stratification in Asian nations and an analytical commentary of the chapters on Asia as a whole. The second section, consisting of five chapters, focuses on inequality of schooling as an institution in non- * Corresponding author. Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, 366 Education Building, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Email: lfmiron@uiuc.edu