Opportunity Structure: The Emergence, Diffusion, and Differentiation of a Sociological Concept, 1930s-1950s (From Legacy of Anomie Theory: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 6, P 3-78, 1995, Freda Adler and William S Laufer, eds. -- See NCJ-159627)

• NCJ Number: 159628
• Author(s): R K Merton
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 76 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The social structure and anomie (SSA) paradigm is derived from research conducted by Merton and clarifies the concept of opportunity structure, primarily in its interaction with related concepts basic to structural sociology.

Abstract

The first published formulation of the SSA paradigm in 1938 was based on the sociological idea of continuing interplay and frequent tension between the cultural structure (values, norms, and interests) and the social structure (social position or status). The social distribution of adaptations to the interaction between culturally defined goals and institutionally acceptable means is closely linked to the basic structural concept of differential access to opportunities among those variously located in the social structure. Sociological bases of the SSA paradigm in the 1930's and 1940's and collateral paradigms of structural analysis and SSA in the 1940's are reviewed. The explicit concept of opportunity structure, the synthetic concept of the delinquent subculture, and differentiated concepts of legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures in the 1950's are described. 165 footnotes