Social Opportunity Structures Research Articles

Qualitatively Examining and Analyzing Social Learning Theory in an Online Arena with a Focus on Sexting

Technology has completely revolutionized the way people live, work, study, and connect daily in the current world. The fast growth of the technological world has resulted in a greater requirement for theory and practice to successfully utilize the collaborative online arenas. However, there has been widespread sexual exploitation perpetrated by sophisticated organized criminal syndicates, a profitable sex business, and sexting due to frequent interaction with these online arenas. The word “sexting” is used to refer to the practice of receiving and transmitting sexually explicit images through various virtual communications, particularly in most internet environments. Although sexting is not limited to teenagers, their involvement and the impact on their lives have prompted significant concern among parents, schools, and the media. As a result, this article will examine the tiny but growing area of qualitative research on sexting to determine sexting’s impact on people’s well-being. Building on this, the primary goal of this report was to broaden the understanding of why a person engages in sexting by analyzing the theorized behavioral and cognitive mechanisms depicted by social learning theory and social opportunity structure devised to expand this existing, one-dimensional theoretical framework. The results of this study show that many individuals in online communities see sexting as “fun” and “amusing.” Besides, for adolescents unwilling to engage in actual sexual escapades, sexting may play an integral role in the sexual exploration period. Negative consequences for one’s well-being, such as reputational harm, are also addressed. Furthermore, according to the findings, scholars must continue to employ innovative, interactive techniques with the young generation to investigate the impacts of this sophisticated communication type.

The anatomy of a population-scale social network

Large-scale human social network structure is typically inferred from digital trace samples of online social media platforms or mobile communication data. Instead, here we investigate the social network structure of a complete population, where people are connected by high-quality links sourced from administrative registers of family, household, work, school, and next-door neighbors. We examine this multilayer social opportunity structure through three common concepts in network analysis: degree, closure, and distance. Findings present how particular network layers contribute to presumably universal scale-free and small-world properties of networks. Furthermore, we suggest a novel measure of excess closure and apply this in a life-course perspective to show how the social opportunity structure of individuals varies along age, socio-economic status, and education level.

Making, unmaking and remaking of context in entrepreneurial identity construction and experiences: a comparative analysis between Türkiye and the Netherlands

This study analyses how women entrepreneurs of Turkish origin do context in constructing their entrepreneurial identities and experiencing their entrepreneurship in two national contexts, namely Türkiye and the Netherlands. In order to study context, we use the term opportunity structures and analyse how these entrepreneurs interpret and perceive opportunity structures, and construct their entrepreneurial identities in relation to their interpretations. Relying on the life story narratives of 21 women entrepreneurs, we analyse social, political and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these and the processes of entrepreneurial experiences and identity construction. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs make, unmake and remake context during these processes. In the Netherlands, these entrepreneurs challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Türkiye, they are compelled to be more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either have to step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial affiliations to fulfil the requirements of opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship in its contextualisation by providing an extended understanding of the ways in which entrepreneurs do context.

A contextual analysis of entrepreneurial identity and experience: women entrepreneurs in Turkey

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the complex mechanisms of entrepreneurship in context and explores the entrepreneurial identities and experiences of women entrepreneurs in relation to opportunity structures in Turkey. Turkey’s position at the boundary of Western and Middle Eastern geographies and cultures presents a compelling context for the study of women’s entrepreneurship. Drawing on life-story interviews with 11 women entrepreneurs, this study analyses social, political, and institutional opportunity structures in Turkey. The findings illustrate that women entrepreneurs engage in exaggerated perfectionism, strategic political distancing, and closed social positioning in relation to the opportunity structures in Turkey. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by providing a more in-depth and nuanced understanding on the relationship between different opportunity structures and women entrepreneurs and herewith responding to the dominance of Western thinking and context on entrepreneurial experiences and identities.

Rethinking Social Relationships in Adulthood: The Differential Investment of Resources Model

Empirical evidence about the development of social relationships across adulthood into late life continues to accumulate, but theoretical development has lagged behind. The Differential Investment of Resources (DIRe) model integrates these empirical advances. The model defines the investment of time and energy into social ties varying in terms of emotional closeness and kinship as the core mechanism explaining the formation and maintenance of social networks. Individual characteristics, acting as capacities, motivations, and skills, determine the amount, direction, and efficacy of the investment. The context (e.g., the living situation) affects the social opportunity structure, the amount of time and energy available, and individual characteristics. Finally, the model describes two feedback loops: (a) social capital affecting the individual’s living situation and (b) different types of ties impacting individual characteristics via social exchanges, social influences, and social evaluations. The proposed model will provide a theoretical basis for future research and hypothesis testing.

‘Climbing up a new ladder’—drivers and aspirations of Chinese new migrants in Ghana

ABSTRACT The rapid growth of Chinese migrants in Africa since the 1990s has sparked much academic research and debate. Drawing on qualitative data gathered between 2016-2019, this article aims to examine the relationships between the experiences of Chinese new migrants in Ghana and social changes in reform-era China. China’s state-led institutional reforms and market transition have significantly altered the social stratification order, opportunity structure, and individuals’ life chances. The macro-level drivers for new Chinese emigration to Africa can be attributed to two simultaneous processes: the political-economic expansion of China in the global economy versus uneven development and rising inequalities within China. Beyond the economic rewards, Africa offers a space for the new migrants to achieve upward mobility in the class hierarchy and flexibly shift their identity, which can be likened to an easier “ladder’ to climb up. This article contributes to the literature on migration drivers, diaspora-homeland relations, and contemporary migration in the Global South.

Rethinking Social Relationships: The Differential Investment of Resources Model of Social Development

The empirical evidence concerned with the centrality of social relations to individual functioning across adulthood continues to accumulate. Theoretical development about age-related changes in social relationships, however, has lagged behind. In particular, existing theories either do not account for the influence of the developmental context, or are difficult to examine empirically because they do not posit specific testable mechanisms. We present a new conceptual model that we believe effectively incorporates much of the existing empirical work. The Differential Investment of Resources (DIRe) model has five distinct features. First, the model distinguishes between different types of ‘social ties’ by defining two crucial dimensions - closeness and kinship. Second, the investment of time and energy is defined as the core mechanism that explains the formation and maintenance of social ties. Third, individual characteristics, categorized as capacities, motivations, and skills, determine the amount, direction, and efficacy of the time and energy invested. Fourth, the model incorporates the developmental context: (a) in its effect on the social opportunity structure; (b) in its effect on time and energy; and (c) in its effect on the individual. Additionally, the social opportunity structure itself is determined by the individual’s existing social network ties (i.e., social capital). Finally, the model describes how different types of ties, in turn, affect individual characteristics via social functions (social exchanges, social evaluations, and social influences). The proposed model will not only stimulate a healthy new debate in the field, but will also provide a theoretical basis for future research and hypothesis-testing.

Entrepreneurial Diversity: Contextual Variety of Entrepreneurial Identities and Experiences

This study explores entrepreneurial diversity through the analysis of everyday experiences of women entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial identity construction processes in relation to context and questions the manner in which entrepreneurial experiences and identities vary across contexts. Capitalizing on life story narratives of Turkish women entrepreneurs in two country contexts – Turkey as the country of origin and the Netherlands as the country of residence, we evaluate migration as a significant contextual element along with country-specific opportunity structures and look at what differences it makes with respect to entrepreneurial identities and experiences of these Turkish women entrepreneurs. We analyze the social, political, and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these opportunity structures and entrepreneurial identities and experiences in Turkey and the Netherlands comparatively. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs in Turkey engage in processes of ‘self-defense’, whereas in the Netherlands they engage in processes of ‘self-discovery’. The women in the Netherlands challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Turkey, women entrepreneurs are more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial identities in order to fulfill the requirements of these opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship by providing an extended understanding of the manners in which entrepreneurial identities and experiences vary across contexts.

RETIREMENT ADJUSTMENT-THE EARLY YEARS: A 3 COUNTRY QUALITATIVE COMPARISON

In a review of psychological perspectives on the changing experience of retirement, Schultz and Wang note (2011: 8) “retirees actively shape their experiences in retirement. As active selves, retirees reflect on and evaluate their experiences [and] are able to modify their environment to shape their retirement experiences”. Such perspectives emphasise the salience of self-efficacy, agency and proactive behaviour in shaping retired life, but can produce an under socialised conception of the individual agent. In theorising retirement transitions and outcomes it is important to account also for the extent to which retired lifestyles and ‘choices’ are constrained or facilitated by broader opportunities, cultural context and social structure. Social position, labour markets, welfare and pension systems set the context in which retirement pathways unfold. Opportunities may also be more locally determined, with community hubs, associational activity and local facilities playing an important role in the promotion of social integration. In order to explore the influence of social context and opportunity structures on the experience of ‘retirement’ this paper examines a sample of 135 older people aged 55+ interviewed over 3 years as they made the transition from work to retirement in Italy, USA and England – each characterised by distinct cultural orientations and welfare regimes. Using qualitative methods, the paper introduces the voices of these retirees to gain insights into: their retirement journeys; pleasures and disappointments; social roles and activities; and the opportunities and obstacles encountered in pursuing aspirations. Implications of findings for concepts such as ‘successful ageing’ and ‘active ageing’ are highlighted.

Emergence of New Party Based on Social Movement and Political Opportunity Structure : Case of Democratic Labour Party and Green Party in Korea

Emergence of New Party Based on Social Movement and Political Opportunity Structure : Case of Democratic Labour Party and Green Party in Korea

Social Opportunity Structures and the Escalation of Drug Market Offending

Objectives:This study looks at whether social opportunity structures are associated with transitions into more serious drug market offending. Our focus is on the speed at which transitions occurred, and whether variations in criminal embeddedness play a role in explaining this.Methods:A survey of 520 North American cannabis cultivators allowed us to assess one dimension of the criminal career—escalation—looking at the speed of transitions from cannabis user to grower. Our main predictor, criminal embeddedness, was measured through the presence of a cultivation mentor involved in cannabis cultivation.Results:Cox proportional hazard regression analysis demonstrated late cannabis use onset and an indicator of the number of drugs used beyond cannabis were found to accelerate transitions. In addition, within-person changes in mentorship were found to influence the timing of escalation, with meeting a mentor associated with quicker transitions into cannabis cultivation.Conclusions:Findings emphasize the role of...

The Meanings of the Move?

In this article I draw comparatively on ethnographic material from my work with war-affected populations from postcolonial Mozambique and diasporan Liberia to argue for a fundamental shift in the conceptualization and study of displacement. I argue first for a need to shift from an emphasis on physical mobility as the sine qua non of “displacement,” to an empirical investigation of the less-than-self-evident relationship between physical mobility and social mobility. I illustrate how the meanings and outcomes of physical mobility are far from given but must be treated as an empirical problem, in which the social opportunity structures that cultural agents ultimately navigate are reconfigured in complex, contradictory, and inadvertent ways that simultaneously generate new and socially differentiated challenges as well as opportunities.

Drivers of Collaboration in Political Decision Making: A Cross-Sector Perspective

Collaboration between actors in political decision-making processes is crucial from both an actor and a process perspective. Previous studies have highlighted the role of preference similarity, power, and opportunity structures as drivers of collaboration. However, these studies have focused on single policy sectors and have therefore overlooked possible differences in effects across sectors, as well as interactions between sectors. This article innovates by taking a cross-sector perspective. Applying exponential random graph models to collaboration networks covering 11 decisionmaking processes, we show that relational opportunity structures have a fairly consistent influence on collaboration, whereas the effects of social and institutional opportunity structures vary across processes. The effect of institutional opportunity structures is contingent on the importance of institutional arenas. Our hypothesis on cross-sector influences receives partial support. Opportunity structures and interactions between sectors add to preference similarity and power, which have a strong and robust influence on collaborative tie formation.

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.

Tracing shadows: How gendered power relations shape the impacts of maternal death on living children in sub Saharan Africa

Driven by the need to better understand the full and intergenerational toll of maternal mortality (MM), a mixed-methods study was conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the impacts of maternal death on families and children. The present analysis identifies gender as a fundamental driver not only of maternal, but also child health, through manifestations of gender inequity in household decision making, labor and caregiving, and social norms dictating the status of women. Focus group discussions were conducted with community members, and in depth qualitative interviews with key-informants and stakeholders, in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, and South Africa between April 2012 and October 2013. Findings highlight that socially constructed gender roles, which define mothers as caregivers and fathers as wage earners, and which limit women's agency regarding childcare decisions, among other things, create considerable gaps when it comes to meeting child nutrition, education, and health care needs following a maternal death. Additionally, our findings show that maternal deaths have differential effects on boy and girl children, and exacerbate specific risks for girl children, including early marriage, early pregnancy, and school drop-out. To combat both MM, and to mitigate impacts on children, investment in health services interventions should be complemented by broader interventions regarding social protection, as well as aimed at shifting social norms and opportunity structures regarding gendered divisions of labor and power at household, community, and society levels.

The Social Organization of Pet Trafficking in Cyberspace

Recent research has highlighted how deeply pet trafficking has been affected by the use of the Internet, to the point that it can be conceived as a hybrid market that combines both traditional and new social and economic opportunity structures. However, more must be learned about the extent to which the social organization of pet trafficking has changed due to the Internet, since the dynamics of relationships within and between criminal networks, as well as between criminal networks and non-offenders, matter as a potential object of intervention to counter this criminal activity. By focusing on the online market in animals for the Italian pet industry, this contribution offers an examination of the criminal structures and modus operandi of actors involved, using a socio-organizational level of analysis. It is based on case studies analysis and observational research carried out on cyber-hotspots for pet trafficking. These sources were used to identify and chart criminal networks, techniques, and social practices surrounding online sales. They were complemented by seven in-depth interviews with Italian law-enforcement officers and acknowledged experts from NGOs. The results offer empirical evidence for interpreting the impact of the Internet on the social organization of pet trafficking, thus providing a more complete understanding of how criminal actors behave in cyberspace.

Beyond the Emergence of Social Movements and Political Opportunity Structures. Studying the Consequences of Protests on Public Policies

Beyond the Emergence of Social Movements and Political Opportunity Structures. Studying the Consequences of Protests on Public Policies

Profitability, Power, or Proximity? Organized Crime Offenders Investing Their Money in Legal Economy

This article uses empirical data from the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor to give empirical insight into the choices organized crime offenders make when they invest their money in legal economy. Using a dataset of 1196 individual investments, light is shed on what kind of assets offenders purchase and where these assets are located. The results are used to assess the tenability of different theoretical perspectives and assumptions that are present in the literature on money laundering and organized crime: the standard economic approach (‘profit’), the criminal infiltration approach (‘power’) and social opportunity structure (‘proximity’). The results of this study show that offenders predominantly invest in their country of origin or in their country of residence and that their investments consist of tangible, familiar assets such as residences and other real estate and (small) companies from well-known sectors. Investments such as bonds, options, and stocks in companies in which offenders are not personally (or indirectly) involved, such as stocks in companies noted on the stock exchange, were only found in a small number of cases. In other words: offenders usually stay close to home with their investments. So, instead of profitability or power, proximity seems to be a better description of their investment choices.

Congregational Political Activity and Same-Sex Marriage: Social Movement Theory and Evidence for Contextual Influence

We interpret three strands of social movement theory (social threat, opportunity structure, and resource mobilization) to understand religious congregations' political activity related to same-sex marriage. Using a unique, national data set from the 2008 presidential election, we show the importance of the anti-same-sex marriage discursive opportunity structure (DOS) for facilitating, and occasionally constraining, congregational political activity. Other theoretical factors influence congregations under limited, although important, conditions. Our research develops a nuanced understanding of congregations' roles in social movements that prioritize institutionalized political activity and expands DOS theory in relation to local religious organizations.

Use of performance-enhancing drugs and the Internet

The use of physical performance-enhancing drugs is not limited to professional sports only, but has also been reported as common practice in recreational sports. A significant amount of epidemiological studies have highlighted the collective of fitness center visitors to be a high-risk group for using performance-enhancing drugs. From a sociological perspective, however, the decision to use performance-enhancing drugs (e.g., doping in the context of high-performance sport) is not an individual phenomenon only, but rather a result of social opportunity structures. This research article gives insight into enhancing-related Internet forums, in which the expertise of using and applying substances is passed on step by step. Using selected criminological learning theories, the “doping talk” in these social networks is hermeneutically reanalyzed and the Internet is exposed as a previously under-analyzed option for acquiring knowledge on the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This article shows that users of “doping platforms” are highly informed about doping and this offer of information acts like a knock-on effect to athletes who have so far abstained from doping. Consequently, future prevention models against the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs should consider the subcultural background of the milieu in which the athletes act.