Introduction

This introductory chapter starts from a key observation: sociological research on class inequality has often neglected its origins in early childhood, while sociologists of childhood are not always very attuned to the realities of early class inequality. After discussing sociology’s more general neglect of the process of socialization and its more recent revival within the literature, the chapter turns to recent advances in child and developmental psychology and their relevance for a revised sociological understanding of early social cognition. It also argues that the methodological individualism that continues to pervade psychological models of child development only highlights the need for a developmental sociology that takes seriously the formative role of class, gender and racial inequality in shaping early childhood. Drawing on some of the important work that has already been undertaken in this direction, this chapter advocates for a more ambitious research agenda that expands this work in several directions. First, it highlights the need for studies that focus on the complex ways in which class inequality articulates with other principles of social division, most notably those rooted in gender and race. Second, it calls for an expansion of the traditional toolkit of sociologists of childhood beyond observational or interview-based methods. Third, it advocates for research that transcends the particularities of the North American experience and studies the ways in which class inequality shapes early childhood in a variety of different national contexts. The chapter concludes with a brief outline of the book’s chapters and the ways in which they aim to put this research agenda into practice.