chance
An opportunity is a favorable opportunity or a stroke of luck, but also the prospect of being successful with someone through sympathy. In statistics, the word is synonymous with the probability that a favorable event will occur.
The term is also used with a broader meaning: opportunity as a favorable prospect opposed to a danger. Here opportunity and danger together form a risk . Occasionally, both risk and danger are seen as antonyms to opportunity.
Chance as a mathematical (equal) distribution
From a mathematical point of view, chance ([ ˈʃɑ̃ːŋs (ə) ], also [ ˈʃaŋsə ]) describes the possibility of the occurrence of a favorable event with a mathematical probability that is greater than zero but less than one. The probability itself is then often referred to as an opportunity. Occasionally, risk is used as the probability of an event occurring; in this case chance and risk can have the same meaning.
game
In the game , the chance is determined by the type of bet and the amount bet.
A chance is fair in a zero-sum game if the chance to win is at least as great as to lose. Expressed in absolute frequency (see odds ), this means a chance of 1: 1 (or 50:50; "fifty-fifty"), ie the two possibilities are equal. Expressed as a relative frequency , this corresponds to a ratio of 1/2 (50 percent) - the profit opportunity is one of two possibilities.
equal opportunity
In the social sciences , the concept of chance is usually associated with the equal distribution of access to social resources among members of all population groups, so that everyone has the same starting position. See also Equal Opportunities and the Educational Paradox .
Action / act
In another (non-mathematical) view, chance describes the recognized possibility of reaching a state in one's own interest through targeted action. Opportunity here refers to a subject (person or organization). The use of the opportunity therefore presupposes a targeted action by the subject who recognizes the opportunity. At its core, the opportunity lies in targeted action. In relation to the individual, there is no probability of this action, since the individual himself decides whether to carry out the action.
The difference to the mathematical perspective can be seen, for example, as follows. In roulette, the chance for red or black in the next game is the same and almost 50 percent. A player who still has a token (money chip) has the chance to increase his possessions by using the token. A player who no longer has a token has no chance of increasing his possessions. This does not affect the probability of which color the ball will fall on.
ideology
Since an opportunity assumes that it depends on conditions that cannot be further questioned and to which the owner of the opportunity submits, the possibility of ideological use arises. Opportunity appears as a positive term. Whoever has a chance should take advantage of it because it is offered to them. The conditions for success are therefore not to be questioned. The supposed (subjective) advantage of having had a chance legitimizes the underlying competition and the design of the concrete conditions for success. The naive approval of an event in which opportunities are given therefore primarily promotes the objective benefit of those interest groups / persons who have created and control the conditions of the opportunities ( casino , politics , business , education ). Those who set the conditions for opportunities are therefore also interested in ensuring that the fundamental non-contradiction of the conditions for opportunities - there are real opportunities - is no longer called into question. In this way, the interests of the participants can be ideologically undermined and the failure rate, which statistically necessarily results, can be discussed and problematized as a bundle of personal guilt / fate questions (see also: Heid 1988 and 1991).
See also
literature
- Helmut Heid : Opportunities - in the education and employment system . In: Zeitschr. f. Vocational and Business Education, 87, 1991, 8, pp. 667–675
- Hermann Scherer : Glückskinder - Why some look for lifelong opportunities - and others use them every day , Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-39349-0
- Treibmann, Felix: Business interruption as an opportunity , St. Gallen: University of St. Gallen (HSG) 2005 = dissertation, and Düsseldorf: Setzkasten 2005 = book trade edition (the first main chapter deals with the existence, recognition and use of opportunities)
