Opportunity Structures Research Articles

Shaping the Opportunity Structure of Deviance: A Commentary on Rintamäki, Parker, and Spicer’s “Institutional Parasites”

Shaping the Opportunity Structure of Deviance: A Commentary on Rintamäki, Parker, and Spicer’s “Institutional Parasites”

Navigating the Secular Landscape: Religious Discourse on Transgender Rights in the United Kingdom

Transgender people face high rates of discrimination and health problems yet supportive policy measures are often opposed, especially by religious organisations adhering to cis-normative theologies. Scholars exploring the links between religion and transgender issues have examined a number of themes, but the way religious actors discursively frame transgender issues remains under-researched. This article contributes to work in this area by using the concept of political opportunity structures to examine the discourse of religious groups on the 2022 Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The study shows that arguments were typically framed in secular terms, drawing on the epistemic authority of science and a language of individual rights. Supporting groups used arguments designed to highlight the difficulties that transgender people face. Oppositional groups used themes based on biological essentialism, concern for the well-being of trans people, the risks to cisgendered women and warnings about the negative impact on society and religious freedoms.

Look at this! Radical right-wing populist information sharing practices on Twitter in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil

Politicians communicate on social media not only by direct utterances, but also by where they choose to direct followers’ attention using strategic interaction, audiovisual content and outlinks, i.e. their information sharing practices. Political communication research has focused on the former, but the latter is a relevant way to foster advantageous informational environments and interact with media systems. This is especially important for radical right-wing populists, due to their reliance on social media and adjacency to disinformation. Portugal, Spain, and Brazil provide important research cases due to media system characteristics and the different positions within the political system of the relevant leaders, which generates different opportunity structures. This article approaches relevant radical right-wing populist leaders’ information sharing practices by analysing the non-textual content of tweets ( n = 6087), emphasizing how they reflect relations with local media systems.

More Than Body Parts: A New Ethos of Anatomy Education

Abstract A new ethos of anatomy education goes beyond the learning of body parts in the traditional curriculum. In the traditional curriculum, the focus of only providing information on the structure of the human body left certain learning opportunities overlooked, marginalized, or dismissed as irrelevant; thus, opportunities to foster and shape professional attributes in health care learners were lost. Furthermore, changes in curricula structures and reductions in anatomy teaching hours have necessitated a transformation in how anatomy education is perceived and delivered. This article presents an examination of a contemporary ethos of anatomy education that draws together concepts from teaching theory, educational trends, and emerging research to maximize the anatomy learning experience with body donors. Social constructivism, the spiral curriculum, and the hidden curriculum can be leveraged to facilitate a unique educational experience. Furthermore, contemporary perspectives on the ethics and history of anatomy that support contextual learning indicate how these subjects are well suited to authenticate and consolidate learning, while supporting the relational and humanistic delivery of health care education. When anatomy education is conceptualized as a first clinical experience in a health care curriculum, it provides the opportunity to develop and enhance professional identity formation at a foundational stage. By embracing and incorporating a wider range of considerations into educational practice, a new ethos for anatomy education fosters history-informed professional identity formation that offers transformative learning opportunities for an ethical practice in the art of healing.

To Praise or Pressure? Patterns of Social Media Advocacy in Times of COVID-19

This article explores how interest groups harness social media as a tool for either praising or pressuring their government. On one hand, social media provides an ideal platform for exerting external pressure on the government, enabling outreach to a wide range of citizens, journalists, and supporters. On the other hand, it offers interest groups the opportunity to support their allies and applaud government policies, fostering reciprocal trust and strengthening mutually beneficial long-term relationships with policymakers. The article argues that the positioning of interest groups on social media is driven by the political and policy opportunity structures in which they operate. Empirically, the article relies on an analysis of 3,897 hand-coded X-posts from prominent hospitality associations in nine Western democracies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings demonstrate that interest groups tend to employ pressure tactics when real-world conditions are advantageous to their cause, while turning to praise when favorable government policies are adopted.

High-ranking officials of the plenipotentiary representative offices of the President of the Russian Federation in the federal districts: recruitment channels and careers

The article covers the analysis of the main recruitment channels for high-ranking officials of the plenipotentiary representative offices of the President of the Russian Federation in the federal districts. As the empirical basis of the study serves the biographical database, that includes information on 154 presidential bureaucrats as of April 2023. Recruitment of people from various socio-professional groups to the apparatus of the plenipotentiary representative offices reveals a number of trends caused by interacting push (specific features of the candidate's position and associated resources and interests) and pull (place in the power system and functional specialisation of the plenipotentiary representative offices, specifics of leadership positions in them, as elements of the opportunity structure, as well as personal connections) factors. One of the most important trends is militarisation: most officials of the plenipotentiary representative offices have work experience in law enforcement agencies and even spent there most of their previous careers. Recruiting security officials who are, in terms of career, “ideal-typical” federal officials and professionally socialised within the framework of rigid, centralised hierarchies probably strengthens the autonomy of the plenipotentiary representations from actors and interests external to federal power, including regional administrations, that these bodies are called upon to control. The logic of autonomisation is also in line with the fact that one of the main suppliers (especially direct) of key officials of the plenipotentiary representations is the Presidential Administration, first of all, the apparatus of the representations themselves. However, a significant minority of presidential officials have experience working in regional administrations (especially among deputies and assistants to plenipotentiaries), as well as in business, both public and private (especially among plenipotentiaries and their deputies). At the same time positions in these structures rarely serve as a direct springboard to a key position in the plenipotentiary representations. Finally, the role of legislative bodies as a channel for recruiting presidential officials is insignificant. In general, the author's findings are consistent with the results of previous studies, indicating the relative stability of recruitment trends.

Social Movements and National Security in Nigeria: A Study of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)

Nigeria has been engulfed in crises of national question regarding its corporate existence as a sovereign state entity by the emergence and agitators of groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The ability of the separatist movement to mobilise actions has increased the volatility of insecurity in Nigeria’s South East/South-South zones. The study aims to examine the nexus between IPOB threat and national security so as to identify the factors behind IPOB movement. Based on the descriptive study design, the study adopted the opportunity structure perspective as its theoretical framework. The literature is descriptive in nature and adopted secondary method of data collection. The data was collected from secondary sources such as internal publications, newspaper reports, journal articles, official reports documentations and documentaries, and textbooks and commentaries. The findings of the study revealed that although the IPOB movement is fueled by a feeling of victimisation and marginalisation among the Igbos, the movement constitutes a threat to national security. In conclusion, the study recommends the need to engage the genuine IPOB agitators in meaningful dialogue and also fish out the criminal elements whose activities threaten national security.

The Importance of Graduates' Perceived Network Quality in Their Transition to Work: A Longitudinal Approach

ABSTRACTTo navigate the labour market graduates turn to their social network for valuable resources. However, existing disparities in accessing and exerting network resources may result in more precarious transition outcomes for first‐generation graduates. To gain deeper insight into how social networks facilitate the transition process, this study focuses on the network actors and resources that are perceived as valuable by graduates. Over a 4‐month period commencing at graduation, 22 graduates, encompassing both first‐generation and continuing‐generation students, were bi‐weekly tasked with mapping their social networks. Results show that graduates rely strongly on close contacts, making graduates dependent on the experience of their parents with a certain field of work, which often results in an implicit advantage for continuing‐generation graduates. Moreover, higher education institutions fail to use their power to embed valuable institutional resources or network actors into graduates' networks after graduation, which creates limited opportunity structures, in particular, for first‐generation graduates.

Environmental Activism in Ukraine: Everyday Concerns as Reasons for Civic Mobilization1

ABSTRACT Based on the results of a representative survey and 30 semi-structured interviews with environmental CSO leaders, we argue that citizens in Ukraine are more likely to participate in public mobilization efforts when they relate to unmet day-to-day problems such as environmental protection. Despite the relatively weak professionalization of many environmental organizations and weak citizen involvement, environmental activism has been strengthened in recent decades by growing awareness of its importance and potential to bring desirable changes, especially locally. This problem-based research asks how civic potential to address everyday problems by citizens themselves and the evolving political opportunity structure including the new civil society development strategy and decentralization reform impact environmental activism and the condition of civil society in Ukraine. Our findings demonstrate that environmental and animal protection have a particularly strong impact on civic activism, which has several important public and social functions from service providing and raising awareness to advocacy. Yet this activism to be sustained requires supportive and collaborative relationship between civil society actors and the state.

Leveraging Crises: How the Russian Aggression in Ukraine Benefited the Populist Government in Hungary’s 2022 Election Campaigns

This article contributes to the literature focusing on the relationship between crises and populism. It argues that the timing, the crisis type, and the contextual factor of whether populists are in power, matter for changes in the discursive strategies of populists and their ability to turn crises into opportunity structures. Guided by the constructivist literature on external shocks and a thematic content analysis of 561 online media news reports on the 2022 Hungarian national elections before and after the outbreak of the Russian aggression in Ukraine (RAiU), the article shows that this crisis helped to refresh the people-centrist elements of Fidesz’s populist discourse while slightly downgrading its anti-elitist aspects. The absence of any material impact of the RAiU on Hungarian society at the time of the elections, combined with the dominance of Fidesz’s ‘pro-peace vs. pro-war’ discourse, transformed the RAiU into an opportunity structure for Fidesz during the elections.

Caught in the Crossfire: Anti-Corporate Activism and Non-Market Strategies of Corporate Targets in the Creation of Emissions Controls

The paper explores a unique phenomenon in the context of the strategic interaction of activists and their corporate targets. We explore a unique phenomenon - how less targeted firms leverage activists-focal firm rivalry in the context of instituting emission controls in Japan. We find that less targeted firms employ social value-based strategies against market rivals by capitalizing on the opportunity structure created by the conflicts between activists and their primary targets in non-market environments.We contribute to the literature by developing a more fine-grained argument on how dynamic interactions between multiple players (activists, primary targets, and non-targets) can lead to a different path for movement activists to achieve their goals. We also draw attention to the proactive strategic actions taken by non-target firms when their market rivals are under attack by social activists. We add to the previous arguments by revealing social value-based strategies that can serve as an alternative for corporate targets to exert influence on non-market environments.

Unraveling the dynamics of information exchange in governance networks: Opportunity structures in anti‐corruption multi‐stakeholder partnerships

AbstractInformation exchange is critical to the functionality of governance networks. Traditionally, it has been argued that actors within governance networks tend to engage in information exchange with others who share similar beliefs and motivations, as these are deemed catalysts for achieving collective objectives. An alternative viewpoint posits that actors may prioritize strategies aimed at minimizing transaction costs and maximizing returns when selecting their partners. This paper proposes that information exchange predominantly occurs with partners who are easily accessible (i.e., where transaction costs are low) and with partners who are perceived as influential (i.e., where benefits are high). To investigate these alternative propositions, we examine three distinct opportunity structures that actors may utilize, which are based on their preferences for (1) partners with similar participatory motivations, (2) partners who co‐participate in institutional committees, and (3) those perceived as influential. We empirically test these opportunity structures using unique survey data gathered from 10 anti‐corruption multi‐stakeholder partnerships within the public infrastructure domain in countries of Latin America, Africa, and Eurasia. Results from Exponential Random Graph Models suggest that shared participatory motivations do not significantly impact information exchange within our context, whereas the perceived influence of a partner emerges as a critical predictor. In addition, co‐participation in institutional committees significantly facilitates information dissemination, particularly when those committees involve discussions on deliberating about strategies to communicate findings on public‐sector infrastructure discrepancies and formulating recommendations to governments on transparency and accountability. These findings prompt discussions on four network management strategies aimed at restructuring networks and fostering stakeholder involvement and inclusivity.

Making Friends as Interactional Work: Young Refugees in Germany

This article focuses on the friendships that young refugees make in Germany as their country of arrival. Although friends are highly relevant in children's lives, little attention has been paid to this subject regarding young refugees. We conducted ego‐network interviews with 17 young refugees aged 9–15, with which we explored the opportunity structures in which young refugees choose their friends and their ways of establishing and deepening friendships, as well as the limitations thereof. Core dimensions of friendship, as proposed by Shmuel Eisenstadt, are used as sensitizing concepts: voluntariness, moral quality, unconditionality, trust, deep meaning/brittleness, and ambivalence. By reinterpreting them through an interactionist lens, the analysis reveals the complex work young refugees invest into making friends and establishing themselves in the social world of their school and peer groups.

The pitfalls of smart urban infrastructure during a period of unrest: Networked dissent against smart lampposts in Hong Kong

While the notion of the smart city has grown in popularity, the backlash against smart urban infrastructure in the context of changing state-public relations has seldom been examined. This article draws on the case of Hong Kong’s smart lampposts to analyse the emergence of networked dissent against smart urban infrastructure during a period of unrest. Deriving insights from critical data studies, dissentworks theory, and relevant work on networked activism, the article illustrates how a smart urban infrastructure was turned into both a source and a target of popular dissent through digital mediation and politicisation. Drawing on an interpretive analysis of qualitative data collected from multiple digital platforms, the analysis explicates the citizen curation of socio-technic counter-imaginaries that constituted a consent of dissent in the digital realm, and the creation and diffusion of networked action repertoires in response to a changing political opportunity structure. In addition to explicating the words and deeds employed in this networked dissent, this article also discusses the technopolitical repercussions of this dissent for the city’s later attempts at data-based urban governance, which have unfolded at the intersections of urban techno-politics and local contentious politics. Moving beyond the common focus on neoliberal governmentality and its limits, this article reveals the underexplored pitfalls of smart urban infrastructure vis-à-vis the shifting socio-political landscape of Hong Kong, particularly in the digital age.

BEYOND LEGAL OSSIFICATION: THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD AND ENDOGENOUS LEGAL MOBILIZATION

Despite widespread perceptions of the National Labor Relations Act's (NLRA) waning relevance, recent years have witnessed a surge in charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Notably, over the past decade nonunionized workers, not seeking immediate unionization, have increasingly mobilized their Section-7 right to engage in “mutual aid or protection.” Drawing on qualitative interviews and freedom-of-information-act charge data of the NLRB, this study reveals two key findings. First, some regional NLRB officials have strategically redesigned their outreach programs to target “alternative worker organizations” focusing on low-wage workers. Second, these revamped programs correlate with higher numbers of charges brought by nonunionized workers. These findings illuminate the adaptability of the political opportunity structure as officials respond to the NLRA's perceived decline by cultivating new constituencies and elucidating the law's protections for diverse organizing efforts

MOVEMENT OF MOVEMENTS: RUSSIAN ACTIVISM IN EXILE AND THE POROUS POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE

What happens when a social movement must relocate to continue its advocacy? Such a “movement” of movements has been going on—in a partial, fragmented way—since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, raising a host of issues for Russian social movements. Past research has identified several broad trends in Russian civil society prior to the war: enduring, evaporating, and adapting forms of activism. These terms captured, respectively, organizational types that had persisted since the 1990s, those unable to survive, and those that adapted to Russia's increasingly repressive environment. This article examines a new trend in Russian civil society, escaping, in light of the concept of political opportunity structure. Specifically, we find that Russian feminist and environmental activists operating beyond Russia's borders experience a porous political opportunity structure that crosses state boundaries, creating new opportunities for activism as well as constraints.

Growth Determinants, Challenges, and the Role of Micro and Small Enterprises in Debre Birhan City, Ethiopia

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) are vital components of the economic landscape in Debre Birhan City, Ethiopia. This study examines the factors influencing the growth, challenges, and the role of MSEs in the city. Through primary data collection from MSE owners/operators, key determinants such as the gender, level of education, and family business background of MSEs owners/operators, ownership structure of MSEs, start-up size, market opportunities, and competition from the informal sector were identified as crucial drivers of MSEs growth in the city. However, challenges such as insufficient working capital, limited market linkage, inadequate working premises, lack of technical skills, and inadequate infrastructure and services were found to impede the expansion of MSEs in the city. Despite these challenges, MSEs in Debre Birhan City play a significant role in generating employment, creating wealth, reducing poverty, satisfying customers, and promoting local entrepreneurship. To capitalize on these opportunities and address the challenges faced by MSEs, local authorities and relevant stakeholders must collaborate to create an enabling environment that fosters entrepreneurship, provides access to finance, provides working premises, and improves infrastructure. By addressing these factors, MSEs in Debre Birhan City can realize their full potential as engines of economic growth and job creation. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers, stakeholders, and supporting organizations looking to support the sustainable development of MSEs in Debre Birhan city.

Illegal Earnings, Opportunity Structures and the Timing of Life Transitions

Illegal Earnings, Opportunity Structures and the Timing of Life Transitions

The Europeanization of Wage Policy and Its Consequences for Labor Politics: The Case of Ireland

This article investigates the transnational labor politics associated with the Europeanization of wage policy, based on process tracing of Irish minimum wage regulation reforms over the past two decades. The policy struggle in Ireland started as an employer-led domestic challenge to market-embedding regulation and was then affected by two EU interventions on wage policy: one with a de-regulatory orientation (during EU-IMF conditionality) and one with a re-regulatory one (with the approval of the EU minimum wage directive). Findings show that differences in collective action undertaken by employers and trade unions to influence wage policy at the national level can be explained by the intersection of each actor’s preferences toward market-constraining or liberalizing labor regulation and their access to supranational (EU-level) institutions and support. This analysis contributes to debates on how transnational opportunity structures can alter labor’s and employers’ local power resources and strategies.

Living with parents or attaining residential independence? A comparative study of young adults’ living arrangements in China and South Korea

This study examines the living arrangements of never-married urban young adults in China and South Korea from 2003 to 2018. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey and the Korean General Social Survey, we investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and young adults’ living arrangements. Our findings show that a majority of Korean young adults lived with their parents during the observed time period, while Chinese young adults experienced large shifts in their living arrangements. Findings from weighted logistic models demonstrate that employed or high-income young adults were more likely to leave the parental home than those who were not working, suggesting the important role of economic security in independent living. Highly educated young adults in China tended to have residential independence, while education was not significantly associated with Korean young adults’ living arrangements. Korean young adults with highly educated fathers were more likely to stay with parents. The interconnection between family socioeconomic characteristics at the micro level and variations in opportunity structures at the macro level results in country-specific patterns of living arrangements.