How Opportunity Structures Affect Your Life

How Opportunity Structures Affect Your Life The term opportunity structure refers to the fact that the opportunities available to people in any given society or institution are shaped by the social organization and structure of that entity. Typically within a society or institution, there are certain opportunity structures that are considered traditional and legitimate, like achieving economic success by pursuing education in order to get a good job, or dedicating oneself to a form of art, craft, or performance in order to make a living in that field. These opportunity structures, and untraditional and illegitimate ones too,  provide sets of rules that one is supposed to follow in order to achieve cultural expectations of success. When traditional and legitimate opportunity structures fail to allow for success, people may pursue success via untraditional and illegitimate ones. Overview Opportunity structure is a term and theoretical concept developed by American sociologists Richard A. Cloward and Lloyd B. Ohlin, and presented in their book  Delinquency and Opportunity, published in 1960. Their work was inspired by and built upon sociologist Robert Mertons theory of deviance, and in particular, his structural strain theory. With this theory Merton suggested that a person experiences strain when the conditions of society do not allow one to attain the goals that the society socializes us to desire and work toward. For example, the goal of economic success is a common one in U.S. society, and the cultural expectation is that one would work hard to pursue education, and then work hard in a job or career in order to attain this. However, with an underfunded public education system, high cost of higher education and burdens of student loans, and an economy dominated by service sector jobs, U.S. society today fails to provide the majority of the population with adequat e, legitimate means to attain this kind of success. Cloward and Ohlin build on this theory with the concept of opportunity structures by pointing out there are a variety of pathways to success available in society. Some are traditional and legitimate, like education and career, but when those fail, a person is likely to pursue pathways provided by other kinds of opportunity structures. The conditions described above, of inadequate education and job availability, are elements that can serve to block a particular opportunity structure for certain segments of the population, like kids to attend underfunded and segregated public schools in poor districts, or young adults who have to work to support their families and thus do not have the time or money to attend college. Other social phenomena, like racism, classism, and sexism, among others, can block a structure for certain individuals, while still enabling others to find success through it. For example, white students might thrive in a particular classroom while black students do not, because teachers tend to underestimate the intelligence of black kids, and to punish them more harshly, both of which hinder their ability to succeed in the classroom. Relevance in Society Cloward and Ohlin use this theory to explain deviance by suggesting that when traditional and legitimate opportunity structures are blocked, people sometimes pursue success through others that are  considered nontraditional and illegitimate, like getting involved in a network of petty or major criminals in order to make money, or by pursuing grey and black market occupations like sex worker or drug dealer, among others.

Interesting Facts About US Housing

Interesting Facts About US Housing About 7.2 million homeowners took out home equity lines of credit in 2003, up 12 percent from 2001 when 6.4 million such credit lines were established. Thats just one of the interesting facts and statistics reported in the latest edition of the American Housing Survey (AHS) [pdf], sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Now entering its fourth decade of publication, the AHS provides information on a variety of topics, including home ownership, characteristics of homes and their owners, housing costs, vacation homes, gated communities and people’s views of their neighborhoods. Some more highlights from the latest AHS: About 3.8 million homeowners had lump-sum home equity mortgages, down nearly 20 percent from 2001, when there were 4.7 million such loans.Homeowners occupied more than 72 million homes. Overall, the nation had about 106 million occupied housing units.Renters occupied 33.6 million housing units.The nation’s median mortgage interest rate was 6.7 percent, down from 7.5 percent in 2001.The median value of owner-occupied homes was $140,000.Between 2001 and 2003, the number of owner-occupied units with four or more bedrooms increased by about 1 million to 18.7 million.There were 3 million owner-occupied homes in planned gated communities.The vacancy rate for rental housing units was 9.6 percent, up from 7.8 percent in 2001.On a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being the best, 3-in-4 homeowners rated their neighborhood an 8 or higher.