life chances

(noun)

Life chances (Lebenschancen in German) is a political theory of the opportunities each individual has to improve his or her quality of life. The concept was introduced by German sociologist Max Weber. It is a probabilistic concept, describing how likely it is, given certain factors, that an individual's life will turn out a certain way.

Related Terms

Examples of life chances in the following topics:

  • High School Dropouts

    • While education can improve life chances, not everyone has equal access to education.
    • The more education people have, the higher their income, the better their life chances, and the higher their standard of living.
    • Max Weber used the concept of "life chances" to express an individual's access to employment opportunities and other resources.
    • In part, life chances are determined by birth.
    • Thus, the consequences to dropping out can be high, as they significantly decrease the opportunity to improve one's life chances.

  • Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

    • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
    • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
    • The logic of human rights does not necessarily imply that all people should achieve equal status, but it does assume that all should have equal opportunities to advance, or Weberian life chances.
    • Social justice advocates generally argue that inequality is unfair, as it leaves some individuals with greater life chances and higher standards of living than others, regardless of individual worth or merit.

  • Poverty

    • "Life chances" is a term used to describe someone's access to marketplace resources—essentially, how likely it is in their environment that they might be able to find employment or have a social safety net.
    • Someone who is living in poverty but has high life chances may be able to improve their economic standing, but someone with low life chances will likely have a consistently low standard of living.

  • Poverty

    • Life chances are an individual's access to basic opportunities and resources in the marketplace.
    • Someone who is living in poverty but has high life chances may be able to improve their economic standing, while someone with low life chances will likely have a consistently low standard of living.
    • Billions of people around the world live in poverty, and often experience hunger, preventable illness, and low life expectancy as a result.

  • The bottom line

    • Future-proofing products involves working to insulate products and services from risk and uncertainty by eliminating waste in all phases of a product's life-cycle to: (1) avoid rises in raw material costs, (2) reduce the chances of bad publicity, and (3) prepare for coming changes in environmental legislation.

  • Life History Patterns and Energy Budgets

    • Energy budgets and life history strategies determine the type of reproductive capacity displayed by a population.
    • Plants with high fecundity usually have many small, energy-poor seeds (as do orchids) that have a relatively-poor chance of surviving.
    • Although it may seem that coconuts and chestnuts have a better chance of surviving, the energy trade-off of the orchid is also very effective.
    • The timing of reproduction in a life history also affects species survival.
    • Describe the energy budgets of, and the life history strategies used in, reproduction

  • Half-Life of Radioactive Decay

    • However, the chance that a given atom will decay is constant over time.
    • The half-life is related to the decay constant.
    • What is the half-life of element X if it takes 36 days to decay from 50 grams to 12.5 grams?
    • This means each half-life for element X is 18 days.
    • Nuclear half-life is the time that it takes for one half of a radioactive sample to decay.

  • Sample Persuasive Speech

    • Eisenhower delivered the speech entitled "Chance for Peace" on April 16th, 1953.
    • This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense.
    • President Eisenhower attempted to change prevailing attitudes on the cost of an arms race in his speech "Chance for Peace

  • Introduction to defining probability (special topic)

    • What is the chance of getting 1 when rolling a die?
    • If the die is fair, then the chance of a 1 is as good as the chance of any other number.
    • Since there are six outcomes, the chance must be 1-in-6 or, equivalently, .
    • What is the chance of getting a 1 or 2 in the next roll?
    • Since the chance of rolling a 2 is 1/6 or 16.6%, the chance of not rolling a 2 must be 100% - 16.6% = 83.3% or 5/6.

  • Theories of Life History

    • Modern theories of life history incorporate life and survivorship factors with ecological concepts associated with r- and K-selection theories.
    • While reproductive strategies play a key role in life histories, they do not account for important factors such as limited resources and competition.
    • This includes the way they obtain resources and care for their young, as well as length of life and survivorship factors.
    • Seeds that land in inhospitable environments have little chance for survival since the seeds are low in energy content.
    • New demographic-based models of life history evolution have been developed which incorporate many ecological concepts included in r- and K-selection theory, as well as population age structure and mortality factors.