Life chances (''Lebenschancen'' in German) is a theory in sociology which refers to the opportunities each individual has to improve their quality of life. The concept was introduced by German sociologist

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

in the 1920s. It is a probabilistic concept, describing how likely it is, given certain factors, that an individual's life will turn out a certain way. According to this theory, life chances are positively

correlated In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistic ...

with one's

socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is a measurement used by economics, economists and sociology, sociologsts. The measurement combines a person's work experience and their or their family's access to economic resources and social position in relation t ...

.Blackwell, 2005 Opportunities in this sense refer to the extent to which one has access to resources, both tangible ones such as food, clothing and shelter, and intangible ones such as education and health care. Life chances comprise the individual's ability to procure

goods In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...

, have a

career A career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work (human activity), work and other aspects of personal life, life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ...

and obtain inner satisfaction; in other words, the ability to satisfy one's needs.

Theory

Weberian life chances can be seen as an expansion on some of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's ideas. Both Weber and Marx agreed that economic factors were important in determining one's future, but Weber's concepts of life chances are more complex; inspired by, but different from Marx's views on

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political ...

and

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

. Where for Marx the class status was the most important factor, and he correlated life chances with material wealth, Weber introduced such additional factors as

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...

and

social equality Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social servi ...

. Other factors include those related to one's socioeconomic status, such as

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

, race, and

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

.Kevin Fitzpatrick, Mark La Gory, ''Unhealthy places: the ecology of risk in the urban landscape'', Psychology Press, 2000,
Google Print, p.90-91
/ref> While some of those factors, like age, race or

, are random, Weber stressed the link between life chances and the non-random elements of the three-component theory of stratification – how

social status Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess. Such social value includes respect, honour, honor, assumed competence, and deference. On one hand, social scientists view status as a "reward" for group members ...

and

political affiliation Political identity is a form of social Identity (social science), identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power. This can include identification with a political party, but also positions o ...

affect each individual's life. In other words, individuals in certain groups have in common a specific

causal Causality is an influence by which one Event (philosophy), event, process, state, or Object (philosophy), object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at l ...

component of their life chances: they are in similar situation, which tends to imply a similar outcome to their actions. Weber notes the importance of

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

factors:Multiple Sources of Power – Class, Status, and Party
/ref> how the power of those with

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

, compared to those without property, gives the former great advantages over the latter. Weber also noted that life chances are to certain extent subjective: one's assessment of one's life chances will affect one's actions; therefore, if one believes that one is or can become a respected and valued member of

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

, that outcome and associated positive results are more likely to become a reality for such a person than they are for one without this conviction.Weber and Class
Persons without such a belief, especially those who consciously espouse or have unconsciously internalized a belief to the contrary, are vulnerable to

learned helplessness Learned helplessness is the behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. It was initially thought to be caused by the subject's acceptance of their powerlessness, by way of their discontinuing att ...

and its long-term effects. In terms of agency and structure, life chances represent the structure, the factors that one has no control over; whereas one's life conduct - values and beliefs, attitude to risk taking, social skills, or more generally,

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

ed choices about one's

behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...

- represent the factors one has control over. According to Weber theories, together with life conduct, life chances are responsible for one's lifestyle. In social engineering, life chances may have to be balanced against other goals, such as eliminating

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

, ensuring personal freedom or ensuring equality at birth.

Ascriptive qualities

The life chances approach suggests that status is not entirely achieved, but is, to some extent, ascribed. The idea of life chances is that socioeconomic status and social locations positively correlate to the opportunities and quality of those opportunities that one has. It presents the probability of a person's life to follow a particular path, generally one similar to their parents’. Overall, in societies emphasizing ascription, opportunity is relatively low and status (in the sense of prestige in the community) is often inherited. This means that people are, effectively, given their status as a result of the group into which they are born, rather than earning it entirely on merit.Yeates, Nicola. "Sociology Factsheet – Life Chances."www.curriculum-press.co.uk. Bank House, n.d. Web. 14 November 2013. Ascriptive qualities such as race/

, and

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

of origin can all affect one's life chances. In all societies parents pass on whatever advantages and disadvantages they have to their children.Beeghley, Leonard. "Sociology and Stratification." The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. 5th ed. N.p.: Pearson Education, 2008. N. pag. Print. A person's class of origin determines one's neighborhood they live in, which in turn will affect educational attainment, the people they socialize with, and ultimately their class identification. A very important factor affecting life chances is housing and the general inequalities in the real-estate market. Poorer housing will affect health, available facilities, the likelihood of being a victim of crime, and many other aspects of life. Leisure facilities are often located in middle class areas or near non manual work places. Gym membership is expensive and subsidies are rarely available for lower grade staff. Therefore, in general, the middle and upper classes have far greater life chances available than the less advantaged groups. If born into a

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

y family a person will have access to far more desirable resources that can assist them in further enhancing their life chances to a far greater extent than someone who is born into a

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

poor family. One of these resources includes a family's social ties and the ability for a person with well connected parents to benefit greatly in the status attainment process. Status attainment refers to how each individual enters an occupation. This encompasses how both ascribed and achieved factors combine, because each individual enters an occupation based on the way their parents’ status produces advantages and disadvantages, their own efforts and abilities, and a degree of luck. An additional dimension is the effect of family dynamics on life chances, such as the presence of biological parents, the quality of family relationships, and sibling configuration. For example, it has been demonstrated that children of divorced parents exhibit lower levels of psychological well-being, more problems in their own relationship, a greater risk of experiencing divorce, and also tend to be less educated.

Overcoming bad life chances

discussed the effects of

on life chances. He argued that life chances are opportunities and possibilities that make up one's lifestyle. Life chances are affected by a number of factors. Some of which include:

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. F ...

, and occupational prestige. These factors all affect the availability of resources to an individual. For example, when one has low income, they have low life chances. Their education may not be as great and they may not have a high enough income to attain an advanced level of education. According to Wout Ultee, education is a major aspect of overcoming life chances.Ultee, Wout. "Life Chances and Resources." Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Ritzer, George (ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Blackwell Reference Online. 15 November 201

/ref> Without an education, it is harder to obtain a job that provides a substantial income to provide for a family of four. “Higher education is the way to stay ahead." The higher the education, the higher income and occupational prestige one will have, which results in more resources for an individual and his family. Early Health intervention, intervention is also necessary in improving life chances. Save the Children is a non-governmental group that works in the best interest of children. They promote children's rights and the aid children in underdeveloped countries that need relief. The UK has started an early intervention program that aids in improving life chances early on a child's life. They believe that "No child should endure poverty and no child's life chances should be shaped by the accident of birth.""Early Intervention Review." Save the Children. Save the Children, Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. This program was made to ensure that inequalities in children's learning are tackled before problems can occur and separate them from peers. In order to do so, this program gives parents in lower classes the expertise they need to effectively help their children's learning in a home environment so that they are well prepared when they enter school. An example would be improving the parents' reading level so that they are able to teach their children how to read and write before kindergarten. This allows children in lower classes to be near the same level as children who are in higher classes with higher educated parents. Early intervention will allow for children to start out their education on the right foot, with skills they will need to succeed and achieve a high level of education, thus improving life chances.

Class identification and lifestyle effects

Weber noted that life chances are partially determined by subjective factors, such as by how one perceives their life chances. How one perceives their life chances is in large part determined by what one perceives their

to be since life chances and social class go hand in hand and both reinforce each other. According to Weber this is because life chances are largely determined by economic factors such as social class. The phenomenon of how you perceive things actually affecting the

tangible Tangibility is the property of being able to be perceived, especially by the sense of touch. Metaphorically, something can also be said to be "cognitively tangible" if one can easily understand it. Law In criminal law, one of the elements of ...

outcomes of life chances is explained by Robert K. Merton's theory of "self fulfilling prophecy" which he discusses in his book Social Theory and Social Structure. Essentially what it means is that individuals can tell themselves something like, "I'm lower class, my family has always been lower class, there's no chance I'm ever going to be well off" and although this statement had the potential to not end up being true, it became true simply because the individual believed it would be so and through his attitude and lack of self-esteem, made it his reality. If you identify as low social class and believe you are most likely never going to be anything else, this will affect your life conduct in a myriad of ways. which in turn will affect your life chances. For one, the company you keep can lead to you networking with people that will not help you get out of a low socioeconomic environment. It can also affect your life conduct by making you think you are not qualified enough for anything but

jobs. It can also affect your life conduct by making you think that pursuing higher education is not for someone of your social standing, further ensuring that you never get above working class work. The relationship between social class, life conduct, and life chances is a strong one that often decides what a person's fate in life will be like.

Theory

Ascriptive qualities

Overcoming bad life chances

Class identification and lifestyle effects

See also

References

Further reading