Stephen J Ball (born London, 21st January 1950) is the Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2006; and is also Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Society for Educational Studies; he has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Turku (Finland) and Leicester. He was co-founder and is Managing Editor of the Journal of Education Policy.
His main areas of interest are in sociologically informed education policy analysis and the relationships between education, education policy and social class. He has written 20 books and had published over 140 journal articles. Recent books: How Schools do Policy (2012), Global Education Inc. (2012), Networks, New Governance and Education (with Carolina Junemann)(2012), and Foucault, Power and Education (2013).