Oxford University Press, USA
Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity
Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity
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Equal opportunity is a powerful idea, and one with extremely broad appeal in contemporary politics, political theory, and law. But what does it mean? On close examination, the most attractive existing conceptions of equal opportunity turn out to be impossible to achieve in practice, or even
in theory. As long as families are free to raise their children differently, no two people's opportunities will be equal; nor is it possible to disentangle someone's abilities or talents from her background advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, given different abilities and disabilities,
different people need different opportunities, confounding most ways of imagining what counts as equal. This book proposes an entirely new way of thinking about the project of equal opportunity. Instead of focusing on the chimera of literal equalization, we ought to work to broaden the range of opportunities open to people at every stage in life. We can achieve this in part by loosening the
bottlenecks that constrain access to opportunities-the narrow places through which people must pass in order to pursue many life paths that open out on the other side. A bottleneck might be a test like the SAT, a credential requirement like a college degree, or a skill like speaking English. It
might be membership in a favored caste or racial group. Bottlenecks are part of the opportunity structure of every society. But their severity varies. By loosening them, we can build a more open and pluralistic opportunity structure in which people have more of a chance, throughout their lives,
to pursue paths they choose for themselves-rather than those dictated by limited opportunities. This book develops this idea and other elements of opportunity pluralism, then applies this approach to several contemporary egalitarian policy problems: class and access to education, workplace
flexibility and work/family conflict, and antidiscrimination law.
Author: Joseph Fishkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 02/11/2014
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780199812141
Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 04/04/2014 pg. 18
Choice 11/01/2014 pg. 534
in theory. As long as families are free to raise their children differently, no two people's opportunities will be equal; nor is it possible to disentangle someone's abilities or talents from her background advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, given different abilities and disabilities,
different people need different opportunities, confounding most ways of imagining what counts as equal. This book proposes an entirely new way of thinking about the project of equal opportunity. Instead of focusing on the chimera of literal equalization, we ought to work to broaden the range of opportunities open to people at every stage in life. We can achieve this in part by loosening the
bottlenecks that constrain access to opportunities-the narrow places through which people must pass in order to pursue many life paths that open out on the other side. A bottleneck might be a test like the SAT, a credential requirement like a college degree, or a skill like speaking English. It
might be membership in a favored caste or racial group. Bottlenecks are part of the opportunity structure of every society. But their severity varies. By loosening them, we can build a more open and pluralistic opportunity structure in which people have more of a chance, throughout their lives,
to pursue paths they choose for themselves-rather than those dictated by limited opportunities. This book develops this idea and other elements of opportunity pluralism, then applies this approach to several contemporary egalitarian policy problems: class and access to education, workplace
flexibility and work/family conflict, and antidiscrimination law.
Author: Joseph Fishkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 02/11/2014
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780199812141
Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 04/04/2014 pg. 18
Choice 11/01/2014 pg. 534
About the Author
Joseph Fishkin is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches and writes about the law of discrimination and equal opportunity in areas from employment to voting rights.
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