There are three parts to the book as implied in the title. Part I explains the ‘sociology of the life- chances’ concept based on Ralf Dahrendorf's reworking of Max Weber's original idea and its relationship to the well- being of individuals and generations. Part II describes the transformative power and necessity of education in the lives of individuals and the role of education movements, specifically the widening participation movement and the lifelong learning movement. Part III focuses on social movements (SMs) aimed at improving the life chances (LCs) of human and non- human animals; the chapters include the social justice movement, risk movements against threats to the planet and movements instigated by students, workers and citizens. The book mainly centres on Australia, with comparative examples and case studies from the UK, Europe and the United States.

Dahrendorf's monograph Life Chances: Approaches to Social and Political Theory – published four decades ago – provides the theoretical spine of the book's structure. He argued that LCs were a function of options and ligatures, where options were defined as choices or structural opportunities, and ligatures as linkages or networks. I argue that education via formal institutions and informal groups in the community provides the most important opportunities for enhancing individual LCs. I propose that the linkages in Dahrendorf's thesis are SM networks of advocates and activists whose campaigns are designed to improve the lives of an increasing number of disadvantaged groups in affluent countries. These are people, perhaps a majority, whose lives continue to be blighted by forces allegedly beyond their control.

A simple way of describing how the three parts of the book are linked is shown in the formula LCs = f (O, L), where LCs are described as a function (f) of options (O) and ligatures (L). In Chapter 1 of Part I, the theory and practice of LCs are explained including the difference between the ubiquitous term ‘lifestyle’ and – what is arguably of greater importance in the lives of most people – the less developed, life- chances concept or Lebenschancen, as coined by Max Weber and reinterpreted by Dahrendorf in his above- mentioned monograph.