ABSTRACT
This child-focused chapter explores the complex relationship between cooperative and competitive relationships in early childhood, drawing on the study of a ball game introduced in two primary schools in Nanjing, China. The comparison illuminates how different mechanisms of cooperation – ones that have been labelled in the psychological literature as ‘mutualistic’ and ‘altruistic’ – work in this directed setting, in line with the differences in the models of cooperation children acquire in their respective learning environments. The chapter focuses on how the patterns of joint action, responsibility, authority and competition the children encounter in these learning environments shape their cooperative and non-cooperative relationships. Through a detailed ethnographic treatment of the different mechanisms of cooperation that unfolded during the ball game, the chapter looks instead at the social processes that lead to a particular type of cooperation. Punishment and partner choice are cooperative mechanisms that are aimed at ensuring that cooperation is beneficial.
