Opportunity structure refers to the notion that opportunity, the chance to gain certain rewards or goals, is shaped by the way the society or an institution is organized or structured. The opportunity structure for girls to succeed in mathematics is different because opportunity may be structured by the fact that all of the mathematics teachers are men, all teachers tend to discourage such an endeavor or suggest that girls are not good at this subject. There may be a sexist structure in the school which shapes opportunity. Attitudes that foster stereotypes of gender roles. Opportunity structure can also be a framework of rules people are encouraged to follow in order to achieve what their culture considers to be success.
Political Opportunity Structure - Tarrow. Key components of the political opportunity structure:
Political opportunity
structures can constrain or expand the field of collective action in four ways:
A. they expand the group’s own opportunities;
B. they expand opportunities for others;
C. create opportunities for opponents;
D. and create opportunities for elites.
Apart from a privileged minority of the population individuals are constrained in their choice of occupations by social variables that are outside their control e.g. gender, ethnicity and social class.
The opportunity structure model was first proposed by Roberts (1968, p176) as an alternative to theories of career development advanced by Ginzberg and Super. Roberts challenged the relevance of the concept of choice embedded in psychological theories, emphasising the structure of constraints: 'An adequate theory for understanding school-leavers' transition to employment in Britain needs to be based around the concept not of 'occupational choice', but of 'opportunity structure' (Roberts, 1977, p183).
Criminal Careers in Organized Crime and Social Opportunity Structure.
Edward R. Kleemans, Christianne J. de Poot.
The findings of quantitative research and qualitative research
into the criminal careers of about 1000 offenders who were involved in 80
extensively analysed cases of organized crime. Because social ties play an
important role in organized crime, the paper emphasizes that the social opportunity
structure, defined as social ties providing access to profitable criminal opportunities,
is extremely important for explaining involvement in organized crime. Social opportunity structure may also explain interesting
phenomena such as 'late starters', people without any appreciable criminal history, and
people in conventional jobs who switch careers.
Upward mobility in
organizations: the effects of hierarchy and opportunity
structure
JOSEF BRUDERL, PETER
PREISENDORFER and ROLF ZIEGLER.
This article investigates hierarchical promotion processes. Following the ‘structural
approach’ in social mobility research and aiming at
the organizational level, we attempt to make this approach more ‘concrete’ than
other studies in this tradition. That is, we analyse the effects of both organizational
opportunity structure and hierarchical levels on vertical
social mobility.
Between the State and the Market
Expanding the Concept of Political Opportunity Structure
Mattias Wahlstrom,
Abby Peterson, Department of Sociology, University of Goteborg, Sweden.
This article brings together two research traditions: social movement theory and theories of corporate social responsibility. The study is an attempt to widen the perspective on the relationship between a business/business sector and its external stakeholders in order to include social movements. We depart from a three-part model of political opportunity structures, including state, cultural and economic opportunity structures.
The animal rights movement has
had considerable success by engaging with a relatively open cultural opportunity
structure. However, since
the movement is faced with an economic opportunity structure that is not vulnerable to the
demands of stakeholders, and where there is great inconsistency between the interests of
the industry and the demands of the stakeholders, it is not surprising that the farmers
have been non-compliant.
Urban Field Education: An Opportunity Structure for Enhancing Students' Personal
and Social Efficacy - Judith Beinstein.
Undergraduates' transitions to adult working roles can befacilitated by off-campus field
education programs. An evaluation study of one such program, a work internship program in
Philadelphia, indicated that student participants had experienced significant positive
changes in feelings of per-sonal and social efficacy.
Urban Black Youths' Educational and Occupational Goals
The Impact of America's Opportunity Structure
Elaine M. Walker, Newark Board of Education, Marcia E. Sutherland, State
University of New York, Albany. An attitude formation model was developed to test the processes through which economically
disadvantaged Black students form their educational and occupational goals. The model
assumed that the development of aspirations among urban youths represents an interplay of
structural and subjective factors. Finings indicated that Black males
held more negative perceptions of the opportunity structure and had lower aspirations than
Black females. Indeed, Blacks males' perceptions of the opportunity structure carried the
same weight in influencing the type of educational plans that they established for
themselves as did how well they performed in school.
Globalization, Environmental Movements, and
International Political Opportunity Structures - Hein-Anton Van Der Heijden,
University of Amsterdam. Political opportunity structure refers to the specific features of a political system
that can explain the different action repertoires, organizational forms
and impacts of social movements, and social movement organizations in that specific
country. With the globalization of environmental problems and solution strategies,
important parts of the environmental movement have also become global. To what extent
could the concept of international political opportunity structure (IPOS) be useful for
analyzing transnational environmentalism in the 21st century?
Unequal Opportunity
Structure and Labour Market Segmentation -
Reinhard Kreckel.
Sociology of social stratification and labour market economics have developed in isolation
from one another. The starting point is a critique of the very notion of social
stratification.
A return to Max Weber's idea of 'class situation as market situation' and to his concept
of `social closure' is advocated. On this basis, a conception of structured social inequality in advanced capitalist societies is
developed which is open for conceptual innovations to be taken from labour market
economics.
On Social Structure and Science - by Robert King Merton. Opportunity Structure (1995) Emergence of the Concept of Opportunity Structure in the Columbia Micro-environment of the 1950s. Building on Robert King Merton's theory of delinquency, this term was developed by Richard A. Cloward and Lloyd B. Ohlin in Delinquency and Opportunity (1960), to further elucidate the pathways to success in American culture. When such pathways are blocked, other opportunity structures may be found, and these could lead to diverse patterns of deviance. In this characterization, a combination of anomie theory and cultural transmission theory, there were three major delinquent opportunity structures: criminal, retreatist, and conflict.
Unequal opportunity structure in Israel's
education system
The opportunity structure in Israel's education system is unequal. At the countrywide
level there is inequality of opportunity
between students in the Jewish sector and their Arab counterparts. This inequality is also
manifested at the local level; inequality of opportunities is the rule within the Arab
sector itself. Another
manifestation of unequal opportunity at the local level is the existence of two main
scholastic "majors" or specializations in Arab state schools: one that enrolls a
small number of students and leads to a good matriculation certificate. The opportunity
structure that the Arab student faces is also unequal.
The Opportunity Structure: Implications for
Career Counseling.
Miller, Vaughan Marshall, Journal of Employment Counseling.
Abstract: A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource.
Discusses traditional career counseling methods which are based on the assumption that
matching clients' interests, values, abilities, and aptitudes to a suitable occupation
will result in opportunities for self-actualization and personal expression. Contends that
vocational psychology has focused almost exclusively on individuals to the neglect of
social, economic, and political realities, as well as the opportunity structure.