Stephen Ball directs the Centre for Public Policy Research at King's College, University of London, UK, where he is a Professor of Sociology.  He writes about education markets, the politics of educational reform and the relationship between class and education.   Drawing on sociological approaches to public policy, analyses of the micro-politics of schooling, post-structural and other critical theoretical traditions, he seeks to explain the causes, processes and effects of culturally conservative educational policies.  Two of Professor Ball's recent publications are  Markets, Choice and Equity in Education, (with Sharon Gewirtz and Richard Bowe), 1995; and Local Educational Governance, Accountability and Democracy (with Hilary Radnor and Carol Vincent), 1996.