NEIGHBORHOODS, OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES AND OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

In this paper we use evidence from the Scottish Young People's Surveys to explore some of the ways in which local contexts help to shape you ng people's subjective orientations towards the labour market. We atte mpt to move beyond the concept of 'opportunity structures' introduced by Roberts by considering the salience of a number of possible compone nts of these structures of opportunity. We argue that young people's o ccupational aspirations are shaped as part of an interplay between ind ividual inequalities and opportunity contexts and we provide evidence to challenge earlier research which cast doubt on the importance of lo cal contexts. Our research suggests that neighbourhoods have an import ant impact on male occupational aspirations but that contextual effect s have a weaker effect on females.