ISCHE 33 was convened in San Luis Potosi to re-examine a relationship--that between society, education and the state--that had been largely taken for granted in official histories of education of modern nations. This theme was inspired by the bicentenary celebrations of the relatively early nineteenth-century movements (from 1804 to 1824) that instated independent nations in most of Latin America. National educational systems, there and elsewhere, were created largely with the aspiration of building uniform, modern nations of equal, illustrated citizens, yet research has shown that they also organised diversity and reproduced inequalities, creating and separating categories of class, gender, religion, ethnicity, race, generation, status and ability. ISCHE 33 brought historical research to bear upon the very categories used to talk about education. In this article, the authors first present discussions on this theme that have emerged in the historiography of Mexico, the venue of the conference. They then examine alternative conceptual tools, with reference to the papers in this special issue, used to study the actual configurations that have joined or opposed actors identified with the "state" or "society". By historicising these concepts, rather than assuming them as constants, one may gain insight into the particular import and alignment of the social and political collectivities involved in education. (Contains 49 footnotes.)