Review of Structural Contexts of Opportunities

Social scientists of many different stripes will find the ideas contained in t his book extremely useful. Economists will find here a well constructed model of structures within which exchange relations are embedded, a model that transcends the usual categories of monopoly, oligopoly, and perfect competition. Among psychologists, behavioral decision theorists may come to appreciate the external conditions that simultaneously create opportunities for and constrain individual choice and action. Economic and social historians will find a conception of social structure that is amenable to cliometric analyses. Anthropologists will discover structural explanations that compete with and complement their cultural theories. Sociologists, of course, have the most to gain from applying Blau's theory to pressing questions, such as how various levels of social structure interpenetrate one another.