ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the proposal that specific opportunities-resulting from the prevailing conceptions of the welfare state and of the discursive context of claims making-have an influence on the political mobilization of the unemployed in Ireland. To do so, we apply a revised Political Opportunity Structure (POS) approach to assess mobilization levels from 1991 to 2011, that is the impact of institutional approaches towards unemployment and claims making by unemployed people. The revised POS approach suggests that levels of mobilization vary because unemployed people face obstacles that are context sensitive and that specific opportunities have a strong impact on mobilization. The chapter focuses, therefore, on three points: we assess probable levels of claims making by the unemployed; we make predictions according to general and specific opportunity structures and on discursive contexts; and we test these predictions. Our objective is to assess the usefulness of the POS approach and thus to contribute to a growing body of research on social movements, in general, and to research in the area of specific opportunities, in particular.
