ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the different assumptions that underpin the socio-developmental approach and compares it with the cognitive developmental approach. The socio-developmental approach also encourages to adopt a child-centred view of economic activity. While cognitive developmental studies have given an insight into children's understanding of the formal institutions in their economic world, the socio-developmental approach places that world in its historical and cultural context. The child becomes cast as an economic problem solver and economic development becomes defined in broader terms, as the functions of economic activity are emphasised along with their form. While it is clear that the cognitive developmentalist and the socio-developmental approaches make wholly different assumptions about the nature of the "economic" and its meaning in the lives of children, the focus of, and the data originating from those studies inspired by the two approaches are complementary.
