This article considers the distinctive contribution that sociological perspectives have made to understanding reading as a profoundly social and cultural activity, differentiated by the specifics of time and place. Literacy researchers, using a social lens, have sought to explore, explain and redress inequalities in access to and uses of literacy in its different forms. This has often meant championing pedagogies premised on dialogue and connection. Yet this may conflict with an emphasis in current policy on children mastering a relatively narrow skills-based definition of literacy as they begin to learn to read. The article explores how the tension points in the literacy curriculum, intensified in test-based accountability systems, can be navigated in this light.