机遇不平等:概念、机制与启示

Opportunity Inequality:Concept,Mechanism and Implication

机遇是特定时间和地点下的社会环境,具有不受个体控制、不可预期性、不可解释性、突发性的特征。时间和地点是考量机遇的两个基本维度。机遇影响具有普遍性和异质性两个特征:普遍性表现为在一定时期、一定地域内的所有人均受到影响,非此时期和地域内的人未受到影响,异质性表现为在一定时期、一定地域内机遇与个体特征产生交互作用,对不同的个体影响不同。机遇不平等则是因社会环境不一样造成的个体社会结果差异。机遇不平等产生的社会影响包括:改变个体先天或后天因素与社会结果之间的关系,改变既定的社会分层结构,影响长期的代际流动格局。

This study proposes the concept of opportunity inequality, and analyzes the underlying mechanism of its formation and discusses its far-reaching social impact. Opportunity refers to the social context at a specific point of time in a specific location, that is characterized with being free from the control by any individual, unexpected, inexplicable, and even paroxysmal. Temporal and geographic variations are two basic dimensions to measure opportunity. Universality and heterogeneity are two distinct features regarding the impact of opportunity. On the one hand, all the individuals living at a specific time in a specific geographical area will be universally affected by their social contexts, while other individuals who don’t live at this specific time in this specific area will not be affected. On the other hand, opportunity at a specific time in a specific area may interact with an individual’s characteristics and make an impact which varies from person to person. Opportunity inequality is the social outcomes of individual differences that are caused by different social contexts. Social consequences of opportunity inequality include: altering the relationship between ascribed or achieved attributes and social outcomes, changing the existing social stratification, and generating long-term impacts on intergenerational mobility.