The topic of this paper is the "new sociology of education" (NSOE) and its origins in the early 1970's. One aim of this paper is to argue that the regressive return to a rigid and ahistorical academic curriculum is not the only alternative. A second theme is the suggestion that the NSOE took a highly unreflective view of the role of academic subjects in educational studies. The paper argues that academic work in education is inescapably involved in the wider movements and forces for social change and therefore there is no escape from a clearer and more explicit sense of its political purposes. Three aspects of the NSOE are discussed: (1) its relation to the questions of educational inequalities; (2) its prioritizing of curriculum as a topic for the NSOE; and (3) its emphasis on teachers and teacher educators as agents of progressive change. The focus of the NSOE on the school curriculum is also considered. The final section is a sketch of the implications of the arguments offered as they relate to the different circumstances found in the United Kingdom. Appended are 34 references. (SI)