Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.98 (806 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0190639431 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 282 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-09-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A fundamental contribution." --Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University "Joseph Fishkin develops the 'bottleneck' metaphor into a powerful lens for understanding the structure of opportunity in our society, and thereby recasts the 'equal opportunity' project in a way that is both novel and resonant with deeply rooted intuitions about fairness." --Cynthia Estlund, Catherine A. Fishkin's observations about human development also advance the social model of disability, in which disability is seen not as fundamentally physiological but rather as socially constructed." --Michigan Law Review. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania "Joseph Fishkin offers a new and important framework for defining equal opportunity - one that gets beyond questions of 'merit.' If what looks like 'merit' is more often than not a result of advantages that can be boug
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.
“insights for theory, practice, and even parenting” reviewia Bottlenecks is a beautifully written work of theory with serious practical implications. It’s full of accessible prose, pithy articulations of complex philosophical and scientific ideas, and evocative imagined worlds that illustrate key concepts.This is a story about equal opportunity with far more emphasis on opportunity than on equality. Fishkin argues that we should care about equality to the extent that it serves the goal of expanding individual opportunities (and inclinations) to pursue diverse concepts of the good. Bottlenecks—where many people have to pass through the same narrow p. Great read for anyone interested in social change and how Amazon Customer Great read for anyone interested in social change and how we can get people to work together to solve social problems now and in the future.. "Four Stars" according to Murray Johnson. Opportunity pluralism is an interesting take on equal opportunity. Definitely worth a read.
Fishkin 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.. 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. A bottleneck might be a test like the SAT, a credential requirement like a college degree, or a skill like speaking English. 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. 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 attra