LCT is growing. There are scholars using LCT in (at least) Australia, South Africa, France, the UK, Ireland, Spain, the USA, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Norway, Denmark, Malaysia and elsewhere.
*Join the LCT email forum to make contact with scholars near you and overseas*
Alongside many individuals using LCT, there are currently 5 main clusters of scholars engaged in LCT-influenced research, in Sydney, at two South Africa centres, in France, and in Ireland. See the 'Networks' page for more details of meetings, seminars and conferences in each locale.
Sydney Network
Scholars and students from across New South Wales, from both LCT and SFL, meet regularly during semester time in Sydney at the fortnightly Roundtable. For more information contact Sue Hood ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Jo Lander ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Karl Maton ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
South African Network
Vibrant groups of scholars in South Africa (at Cape Town and in Grahamstown) hold regular seminars and conferences. Contact: Suellen Shay, University of Cape Town ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Jo-Anne Vorster, Rhodes University ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
French Network
A growing group of young scholars, centred on the University of Provence, are using LCT to address innovative topics. Contact: Philippe Vitale ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
Irish Network
A group of scholars centred at University College Dublin are using LCT to address issues concerning nursing education, including Martin McNamara ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Gerard Fealy and Ruth Geraghty.
Science Network
A group of younger scholars using LCT to explore science and mathematics education. Contact: Christine Lindstrom: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
CONFERENCES
29 Feb 2012: Illuminating Knowledge: Exploring the nature of knowledge in the natural sciences, 1st Annual Legitimation Code Theory Science and Mathematics Symposium, University of Sydney.
- featuring Karl Maton, Christine Lindstrom, Helen Georgiou, Yaegan Doran and maybe more.
3 March 2012: Disciplinarity in Schools: Building knowledge through writing, University of Sydney.
- symposium on the interdisciplinary DISKS project on cumulative learning in schools (see Schooling page), featuring Peter Freebody, Karl Maton, J.R. Matruglio, Erika Matruglio, Lucy Macnaught and a number of teachers
Traditionally an intense and highly productive conference, the Bernstein Symposium is not divided into parallel streams, enabling a high level of interaction, discussion and debate. It is held every two years, and book collections have drawn from selected papers from each conference: 2000 Lisbon, Portugal; 2002 Cape Town, South Africa; 2004 Cambridge, UK; 2006 Rutgers, USA; 2008 Cardiff, UK; 2010 Brisbane, Australia.
- Ivinson, G., Davies, B. & Fitz, J. (eds.) (2010) Knowledge and Identity: Concepts and applications in Bernstein’s sociology. London, Routledge
- Singh, P., Sadovnik, A. & Semel, S. (Eds.) (2010) Toolkits, Translation Devices, Conceptual Tyrannies: Essays on Basil Bernstein's sociology of knowledge. New York, Peter Lang.
- Moore, R., Arnot, M., Beck, J. & Daniels, H. (Eds.) (2006) Knowledge, Power and Educational Reform: Applying the sociology of Basil Bernstein. London, Routledge.
- Muller, J., Davies, B., & Morais, A. (Eds.) (2004) Reading Bernstein, Researching Bernstein. London, Routledge.
- Morais, A., Neves, I., Davies, B. & Daniels, H. (Eds.) (2001) Towards a Sociology of Pedagogy: The contribution of Basil Bernstein to research. New York, Peter Lang.
The 7th Symposium is co-chaired by Philippe Vitale (University of Provence) and Karl Maton (University of Sydney). The link above is to the conference website.
University of Sydney, Dec 2008: Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Language: An international symposium
A three-day interdisciplinary conference, bringing together Bernsteinian sociology, LCT and systemic functional linguistics. The symposium built on and extended the highly successful Reclaiming Knowledge symposium held at the University of Sydney in December 2004 that gave rise to Language, Knowledge and Pedagogy (Christie & Martin, eds 2007, Continuum Press). Fran Christie and Karl Maton have co-edited a book inspired by the Disciplinarity conference for Continuum Press, entitled Disciplinarity: Functional linguistic and sociological perspectives (2011).
University of Cambridge, July 2008: Social Realism in Education International Colloquium.
An event organised by Karl Maton and Rob Moore, bringing together younger scholars from the UK, South Africa, Australia and beyond, and from social realist approaches and critical realism.
EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUPS
For anyone interested in LCT and related theories, there are several email listservs to join:
Legitimation Code Theory
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LCTheory/
This is a friendly, informal email group for those interested in LCT to share ideas, raise questions, share draft papers, and keep informed of developments in each others' work.
Basil Bernstein
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/B_Bernstein/
Systemic functional linguistics
http://listserv.uts.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sys-func
For SFL seminars in Sydney: http://www.interstrataltension.org/