Changing Opportunity Structures Research Articles

News snacking and political learning: changing opportunity structures of digital platform news use and political knowledge

ABSTRACT The increasing prevalence of news snacking – that is, the brief, intermittent attendance to news in mainly digital and mobile media contexts – has been discussed as a problematic behavior potentially leading to a less informed public. Empirical research, however, that investigates the relationship between news snacking and political knowledge is sparse. Against the background of changed opportunity structures in increasingly digital and mobile media environments, this study investigates how news snacking relates to the breadth and depth of political knowledge in society. Based on an online survey of the German population (N = 558), we examine how snacking news affects political event and background knowledge gains using different digital news platforms. Results show that users who exhibit high levels of news snacking learn substantially less from news use across different types of digital platforms.

Governing Agricultural Biotechnologies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany: A Trans-decadal Study of Regulatory Cultures

Comparative studies of agricultural biotechnology regulation have highlighted differences in the roles that science and politics play in decision-making. Drawing on documentary and interview evidence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, we consider how the “regulatory cultures” that guided national responses to earlier generations of agricultural biotechnology have developed, alongside the emergence of genome editing in food crops. We find that aspects of the “product-based” regulatory approach have largely been maintained in US biosafety frameworks and that the British and German approaches have at different stages combined “process-based” and “programmatic” elements that address the scientific and sociopolitical novelty of genome editing to varying degrees. We seek to explain these patterns of stability and change by exploring how changing opportunity structures in each jurisdiction have enabled or constrained public reasoning around emerging agricultural biotechnologies. By showing how opportunity structures and regulatory cultures interact over the long-term, we provide insights that help us to interpret current and evolving dynamics in the governance of genome editing and the longer-term development of agricultural biotechnology.

From Dissensus to Consensus: State Rescaling and Modalities of Power under the Belt and Road Initiative in Western China

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, a new city-regionalism has replaced the independent county system in western China to form a new accumulation regime. Drawing on empirical materials related to the annexation of Guanghan to Deyang, this study delves into three research questions: (1) how a new accumulation regime is enabled by a new state spatial selectivity in western China; (2) how the changing opportunity structure as a result of the upscaling of state power from county to city induced opposition from the local society; and (3) how the local state tactically dissolved the dissents to facilitate the state rescaling process. Methodologically, we present a multiscalar and interscalar analytical framework that links scholarly inquiries at multiple scales. Theoretically, through bringing together the territory–place–scale–network approach and the poststructural theory of state power, we reconceptualize state rescaling as a multidimensional process of (re)organizing and manipulating sociospatial relations to enable crisis management and as a power-laden process that relies on state power exercised to construct compliance or consensus and address dissensus. Empirically, this study substantiates the explanatory power of rescaling theories in both temporal and spatial dimensions by presenting a vivid vignette of crisis-driven state rescaling in western China. It also adds to the proliferating debates on the Belt and Road Initiative through offering a new perspective and updated evidence on the reorientation of China’s interior political, economic, and social systems via a rescaling fix.

Delinquency in Emerging Adulthood: Insights into Trajectories of Young Adults in a German Sample and Implications for Measuring Continuity of Offending

The majority of studies within the framework of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology focus on adolescence. There are even fewer studies that deal with heterotypic measures of delinquency. This study fills a gap in the literature by targeting exclusively the period of emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 28) and scrutinizing different trajectories and patterns of offending (offending portfolios) thereof. We discuss the topic of continuity of offending with changing opportunity structures for an adult population via contrast of one set of delinquent behaviors reflecting opportunity structures in adolescence (youth set) and one where adult-appropriate criminal activities were added (total set). We applied latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to both sets in a sample of 1810 German men and women aged 18 to 28 years. During emerging adulthood, average crime versatility and incidences increase slightly with items of the total set, while it decreases with only the youth set. LCGA on the total set reveals five meaningful trajectories with declining but also increasing slopes. Among these is one trajectory of innocuous adolescents, who start an offending career with mainly adult crimes during emerging adulthood. Of the sample, 45.25% reported at least one offense during that period. Traffic offenses and fraud are the most prevalent types of offending. While the sample’s majority is considered non-offenders, emerging adults do not entirely cease to commit offenses. Instead, they shift their preference towards age-appropriate and covert ways to act anti-socially. Trajectory groups reflect proclivities towards either youth, adult, or a mix of both types of crime.

Political professionalization and transformations of political career patterns in multi-level states: The case of Switzerland

ABSTRACT This article aims to question how the process of political professionalization in multi-level states could change political careers patterns. We show that the changing opportunity structure produced by the growing political professionalization, the revalorization of executive cantonal and urban positions and the formal and/or de facto interdiction of multiple office holdings profoundly affect political career patterns. Our analysis is based on the Swiss case and calls into question the unidirectional pattern traditionally attributed to Switzerland. At a more general and theoretical level, our contribution also shows how the growing professionalization of political mandates affects political career patterns in federal states as in unitary states with decentralized political institutions. Our analysis is based on two comprehensive and original dataset on political careers of Federal MPs, and on members of the executive offices for the 26 cantons and the four largest cities from four benchmark dates (1957, 1980, 2000, and 2015).

Incumbent resistance and the solar transition: Changing opportunity structures and framing strategies

Sustainability transitions often involve policy conflicts, especially when incumbents perceive threats to their business models, and conflicts involve framing of competing positions in the public sphere. Using the case of the growth of distributed solar energy in the U.S. electricity sector, this study shows how the concepts of industry and political opportunity structures can help to explain variation in discursive strategy. First, when incumbents perceive the growth of the challenger as a threat, the industry opportunity structure closes, the volume of framing activity in the public sphere increases as contention grows, and the differentiation in framing (the ratio of pro- to anti-transition frames) between incumbents and challengers increases. Second, with respect to the political opportunity structure, the selection of frame types (environmental versus economic-consumer) varies in relationship to control of the government by conservative or progressive parties. Theoretical implications for transitions studies are discussed.

Who Goes to College, Military, Prison, or Long-Term Unemployment? Racialized School-to-Labor Market Transitions Among American Men

This paper analyzes the selection processes behind post-schooling transitions into college enrollment, military service, long-term unemployment, and incarceration relative to civilian employment, examining to what extent these processes are racialized. Rather than analyzing a complete set of alternatives, previous research typically focuses on a limited set of these alternatives at a time, and rarely accounts for incarceration or long-term unemployment. Using individual-level panel data on the first post-high school transition from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort, results show that white men experience positive transitions (college enrollment and military service) at higher rates and for longer periods than black men, who experience negative transitions (long-term unemployment and incarceration) at higher rates for longer periods than whites. Competing risk Cox regression analyses reveal that blacks’ transitions are polarized, showing that blacks in the upper distributions of standardized test scores and socioeconomic status are more likely to pursue a college education relative to their white counterparts, whereas blacks in the bottom of the standardized test score and socioeconomic status distribution are more likely to experience negative transitions than whites. Unlike prior research finding that military service provided “bridging careers” for racial minorities, black men are no longer more likely to join the military than whites. Instead, blacks now face a much higher risk of incarceration. Implications for intra-generational mobility and changing opportunity structures for racial minorities are discussed.

The NEET concept in comparative youth research: the Nordic countries and South Africa

ABSTRACTThe NEET concept has become widely used internationally since its emergence in the UK almost two decades ago. This article reviews the adoption of the concept in two extreme contexts in terms of NEET rates, youth opportunities and youth welfare: the Nordic countries and South Africa. The article discusses the situations of NEET young people in the two contexts, and how the concept is used in the wealthy and relatively homogenous Nordic welfare states and in relatively poorer and racially divided South Africa. While the concept has been problematised in different ways in Nordic youth research, it has been more readily accepted by South African researchers. We argue that, in both contexts, the NEET concept can be taken as an invitation to look beyond individual life situations and biographies, and to focus on how structural forces such as the political economy shape young people’s lives. The NEET concept provides a way of discussing changing opportunity structures and how global social forces such as globalisation and neoliberalisation shape young people’s lives in different contexts. The NEET concept is useful in comparative youth research.

Entrepreneurial response to changing opportunity structures

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse how the introduction of a liberalised regime for labour immigration in Sweden affected the self-selection of new immigrant entrepreneurs and to what extent the changes in entrepreneurial income among new immigrants was due to self-selection or to a changing business environment.Design/methodology/approachBased on rich microdata from Swedish administrative registers, this paper investigates how incomes changed during the years before and after the migration policy reform. By decomposing the income differential of new immigrant entrepreneurs arriving before and after the reform, this study estimates the contribution of a changed composition of migrants to the changing entrepreneurial income.FindingsEntrepreneurial income among self-employed new immigrants improved after the reform, narrowing the immigrant–native income gap, while among employees, the income gap remained during the whole period of the study. Out of the total 10.9 per cent increase in log income, the authors find that 2.7 per cent was due to selectivity, i.e., changing characteristics of new immigrant entrepreneurs. The remaining 8.2 per cent was due to increased returns to characteristics, i.e., the characteristics of new immigrant entrepreneurs were better rewarded in the markets in the latter period. Hence, increases in entrepreneurial income among new immigrants were due both to self-selection and changes in the business environment.Practical implicationsThe authors find that the migration policy reform had the effect of attracting successful immigrant entrepreneurs. Hence, the findings have implications for migration policy as well as for growth and employment policy.Originality/valueThis paper reveals a positive trend regarding income from the entrepreneurship of new immigrants after the liberalisation of labour immigration policy in Sweden. Theoretically and methodologically, the authors combine self-selection theory and the mixed-embeddedness perspective in a novel way, using rich data and a quantitative approach.

The Kerner Commission and the Irony of Antiracist Politics

The Kerner Commission and the Irony of Antiracist Politics

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES IN THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE: AGE-RELATED CHANGES AND COHORT DIFFERENCES

Participation in educational activities (e.g. go to lectures, take classes) decreases with age. Previous research shows educational activities are associated with better health and well-being throughout the lifespan, therefore, it is important to understand how age affects educational participation. However, it remains an open question, if changes in educational behavior reflect age or cohort differences or primarily indicate changes in opportunity structures, e.g. transition into retirement. Using data of two national representative surveys of Germany, this study aims at disentangling cohort differences and age-related changes in educational activities. Participation in educational activities will be analyzed using cohort-sequential data of the German Ageing Survey (N = 20.113, 40–85 years old, samples assessed in 1996, 2002, 2008, 2014) and longitudinal data of the National Educational Panel Study (N = 13.115, 40–70 years old, annually assessed since 2009). Analyses of the cohort-sequential data show age differences in educational activities consistent with previous findings: Participation in educational activities in adulthood is more common than in old age. However, individuals around the retirement age (58–69 years) increased their participation over time. Preliminarily analyses indicate that generations approaching old age now are more active then generations before them. Those results will be complemented by examining age-related changes using longitudinal data. Findings will be discussed with regard to implications of age-related changes and cohort differences in educational activities as well as to what extent changing opportunity structures, e.g. being employed vs. being retired, account for differences in educational activities in the second half of life.

Critical Trust in European Institutions

This article looks at Estonia and Latvia to investigate how minority activists understand and respond to changing opportunity structures at the European level after their countries joined the European Union and conditionalities pressures faded. Using a combined quantitative–qualitative approach, we show that minority activists have no illusions about the EU’s capacity (and willingness) to intervene in their favor, but at the same time they are not likely to abandon the European arena. Rather, they display what we call “critical trust” towards the EU – a change in the quality of trust rather than only in its quantity.

Post-Islamism and fields of contention after the Arab Spring: feminism, Salafism and the revolutionary youth

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, conflicts in Egypt and Tunisia over the authority to rule and the role of religion in society raised questions about these societies’ capacity for reconciling differences. In retrospect, the conflicts also raise questions about the theoretical tools used to analyse regional developments. In particular, the ‘post-Islamism’ thesis has significantly changed the debates on ‘Islam and democracy’ by bringing to light the changing opportunity structures, and changed goals, of Islamist movements. However, this paper argues that the theory underestimates differences within post-Islamist societies. Drawing on field theory, the paper shows how the actual content of post-Islamism is contingent on political struggle. It focuses on three fields whose political roles have been underestimated or misrepresented by post-Islamist theorists: Islamic feminism, Salafist-jihadism and the revolutionary youth. Their respective forms of capital – sources of legitimacy and social recognition – give important clues for understanding the stakes of the conflicts after the Arab Spring.

Impact of area regeneration policies: performing integral interventions, changing opportunity structures and reducing health inequalities

BackgroundUrban regeneration policies are area-based interventions addressing multidimensional problems. In this study, we analyse the impact of urban regeneration processes on the evolution of inequalities in mortality from certain causes....

Articulations of capital: global production networks and regional transformations

This book constitutes a step away from generalized abstractions about globalization, and theoretical elaboration of the dynamics of world systems, and toward concrete analysis of the relationship between territorial processes of work, production and strategies for capturing value, and the larger, global processes of capital accumulation and governance of global production networks and global value chains. It is a welcome addition to the literature on global capitalism, and with its analytical complexity does considerably more than most works to live up to its promises. The authors are unafraid of theory, and with their encyclopedic knowledge of the interaction between financial networks, buyers, manufacturers and sub-contractors, they follow the diverse phases of development in Eastern Europe since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. At its core this is a study of the articulations (to use the word used in the title), dialectic, dialogue, tension, however one prefers to conceive of this interaction, between the global economy operationalized as finance, global retail and manufacturing buyers, private production and value chain governance, and territorial economies. The global economy thus can be seen in various forms: as the relationship between two or more geographic regions interacting under capitalist conditions—the authors utilize the concept of a spatial fix to discuss how Western European business maintained profits under conditions of global competition by sub-contracting manufacturing of garments, for example, to Eastern European firms; as the relationship between large-scale international retailers and buyers and local manufacturers; as global class relations mediated by national government and law, as well as by regional capitalists and firms; as the relationship of national governments and their development strategies with global finance and competition; and as dynamic and systemic competitive pressures resulting in changed practices and strategies by firms in different regions of the world under varying conditions, to name a few. This book manages through a sophisticated and self-confident use of theory to shed light on outcomes in Eastern Europe under rapidly changing opportunity structures in the global economy over the past 25 years.

Shifting Modus Operandi of Jihadist Foreign Fighters From the Netherlands Between 2000 and 2013: A Crime Script Analysis

This article describes the development of foreign fighters’ preparatory modes of operation between 2000 and 2013, based on an analysis of 17 closed police investigations and 21 semi-structured interviews with police investigators, public prosecutors, and lawyers. Through the use of grounded theory methods and a crime script analysis, we find that the phenomenon is not as new as is often portrayed. It changes over time as changing opportunity structures have an impact on the activities foreign fighters undertake during the preparation phase. We demonstrate how geopolitical changes, social opportunity structures, and technological developments affect the modus operandi over time. One of the implications of our findings is that the dynamic nature of the foreign fighting phenomenon requires flexible and tailored prevention measures.

CONSTRAINTS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THE DECISION TO PURSUE BUSINESS OWNERSHIP

AbstractThe choice between working as an employee and owning a business is shaped by constraints and opportunities. Among African Americans, understanding why the entrepreneurial path is chosen requires evaluating not only the relative importance of constraints pushing workers toward self-employment versus opportunities pulling entrants into firm ownership, but, more fundamentally, the changing opportunity structures shaping occupational choices. This study focuses on the 1960s and 1970s period when specific constraints historically limiting entrepreneurial alternatives began to change dramatically. Findings indicate that expanding opportunities sharply altered the industry composition of the Black business community.Because economists view the decision to enter into business ownership as an exercise in freedom of choice made on the basis of one’s preferences, they tend not to appreciate that these decisions are made in specific socio-economic contexts and that changes in context matter. Facing altered opportunity structures, prospective Black entrepreneurs have often chosen to abandon fields offering low remuneration—particularly personal services—entering instead into higher yielding fields where creation of viable firms requires investment of capital by owners possessing appropriate expertise. This transformation has remolded the stagnant business community of the mid-1960s into a profoundly different, more dynamic one.

The importance of the grandparent role—A class specific phenomenon? Evidence from Germany

Abstract In the light of changing opportunity structures for the experience of grandparenthood, we address older parents’ attitudes towards the grandparent role. Our focus is on the interrelationship between the importance of the grandparent role and social class. The likelihood of the transition to grandparenthood and the opportunities to enact the grandparent role clearly differ according to an individual's social class position. We therefore ask whether the importance attached to grandparenthood varies for individuals from different social classes as well. Furthermore, we test for other correlates of the subjective importance of grandparenthood, such as the quality of family relations, marital status, and value orientations towards life in general. The analyses are based on data of the German Ageing Survey, a nationally representative study of individuals aged 40 years and older. Data collected in 2008 provide information on the subjective importance of (prospective) grandparenthood as reported by grandparents and non-grandparents. According to our data, the subjective importance of experienced as well as prospective grandparenthood does not vary by social class. Instead, we find relationship quality with grandchildren to be most influential and positively related to the perceived importance of the grandparent role. The same holds true for non-grandparents and their relationships with children. Conservative value orientations promote the importance of a future transition to grandparenthood only. In light of the findings, and given the changing opportunities to experience the grandparent role, grandparenthood might evolve into an unequally distributed social resource for later life.

Are there hopeless neighborhoods? An exploration of environmental associations between individual-level feelings of hopelessness and neighborhood characteristics

Feelings of hopelessness are prospectively associated with increased risk of death, progression of atherosclerosis and other health outcomes. Places as well as people may promote a sense of hopelessness. We used the Chicago Community Adult Health Study to investigate whether feelings of hopelessness cluster at the neighborhood level. Random-intercept logistic models were used to examine associations of hopelessness with neighborhood conditions (physical disorder and decay, perceived violence and disorder, social cohesion) and census-based measures of neighborhood socioeconomic conditions (poverty, unemployment, % high school dropouts) from 1980–2000. Of the 3074 participants, 459 were categorized as experiencing hopelessness. Greater physical disorder and perceived disorder and a higher unemployment rate were associated with increased odds of hopelessness. Individuals' reports of hopelessness reflect physical, socioeconomic, and opportunity characteristics of their neighborhoods above and beyond their individual characteristics. Changing opportunity structures in a neighborhood may play a key role in reducing individuals' feelings of hopelessness.

Changing times, changing perspectives: Reconciling ‘transition’ and ‘cultural’ perspectives on youth and young adulthood

This article explores the changing relationship between the ‘transitions’ and ‘cultural’ perspectives in youth studies. Changes in the relationship between the two approaches are currently being driven by shifting theoretical paradigms that place a greater weight on reflexive life management, thereby making it more difficult to maintain a theoretical distinction between structural and cultural analysis. Indeed, we argue that relationships between the two approaches are showing signs of convergence, partly as a consequence of the emergence of new ways of managing life contexts which frequently involve the blending of contexts, the search for new meanings and a changing sense of self in time. We trace the trends in the relationship between the ‘transitions’ and ‘cultural’ perspectives against the backdrop of changing opportunity structures. Focusing on contemporary contexts, we explore some of the ways in which recent socio-economic changes challenge traditional ways of interpreting subjectivities. We conclude by exploring the ways in which the sociology of youth can move forward using a social generation approach.