The introduction to this article will seek to present a distillation of Sally Lubeck's achievements in order to provide a benchmark of existing knowledge in the field of early childhood care and education from her perspective and an indication of its likely future. Her work, it is suggested, provides an exemplification of the new sociology of childhood that is theoretically grounded as well as morally and ethically committed. The contributions and challenges she made that are offered in this article focus on childhood in different cultures, the impact of globalization and the role of cross-national perspectives in the critical examination of our own national contexts. Poverty levels and the choice made by the US and UK to avoid redistribution of wealth are identified as a major source of disadvantage. The tension between decentralization, choice and lack of co-ordination on the one hand, and uniformity, centralization and social control on the other, is emphasized. It is in this context that policy-making in early childhood education is subjected to critical analysis. The possible contribution that the theories of Habermas can make to our understanding of progress and change was raised by Sally (Lubeck, 2001b) and expanded in this article as a means of response.
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