Life Chances, Education and Social Movements

Abstract

‘Life Chances, Education and Social Movements’ explains the sociology of life chances, the opportunities and experiences of different generations in Australia, the United States and the UK, and how the differential distribution of life-enhancing opportunities affects our well-being. It is now four decades since the publication of Ralf Dahrendorf's ‘Life Chances: Approaches to Social and Political Theory’ (1979), a surprisingly neglected work that has much to offer by way of explaining some of the social and political challenges of the present era. Dahrendorf's life-chances theory is an expanded and innovative analysis of Max Weber's original notion of ‘Lebenschancen’ and is used to support the theoretical and empirical arguments in Lyle Munro's book. Dahrendorf defines life chances as a function of options (provisions and entitlements) and ligatures (networks that provide a sense of solidarity and belonging). For Dahrendorf, education is arguably the most important option individuals can utilise for improving their well-being and for overcoming social and economic disadvantages. While there are countless sociological accounts of inequality, Munro's study takes a different and novel approach based on Dahrendorf's model according to which education and social movements and their networks function to enhance the life chances of individuals and social groups respectively.Munro emphasises the necessity of formal education and its transformative power in the lives of individuals; he stresses the importance of an individual's life chances of achieving satisfactory levels of literacy, numeracy and oracy during a decade or more of formal schooling.