Thursday, October 3, 2019
Sociological Approaches To Health And Ill Health
Sociological Approaches To Health And Ill Health In this assignment I will look at the different sociological perspectives on health and ill health as well as the different definitions of it. Defining health is really difficult as there are many different views. There have been many criticisms of the defining of health. The definition of health has changed over the years. For example In Mauritania; a small country in N.W. Africa, obesity is considered a sign of beauty. Girls are force-fed so that they grow up with that obesity look. In the western country obesity is seen as ill health, unattractive and associated with negative stereotypes. Obesity is still seen as a sign of wealth and well-being in many parts of Africa. Functionalist Approach The functionalist approach on health and ill health derives from Talcott Pearson. Talcott saw ill health as a threat to society and believed that good health was essential in order for society to be still functioning. He said that ill health affects our ability to work and perform our roles in society. For that reason he said that for a person to be considered sick there are several expectation to be met. He called the expectations the sick role which indicated how people are supposed to be like when they are ill and how they should be thinking. The sick role divides into two groups; the rights and the obligations. Rights; The sick person is free from any social roles. For example work, or school, they should be allowed to take the day off in order to get back to normal The sick person is not responsible for their condition Obligations; The person should seek for medical assistance. For example going to the doctors to get checked up and get treatment The person should not like being sick. For example the person should not fake being sick just because they get attention as well as getting a day off their normal duties. However the sick role backfires sometimes as people tend to lose patience with the sick person or deny that they are sick for reasons such as liking the role. For example family, they may show sympathy at the beginning but after a while they lose patience with the sick person and assume he/she is seeking attention or is a hypochondriac. Marxist Feminist Approach Marxist approach believes that the health and social care service care services are provided just to help the bourgeoisies gain profit. The Marxist believe that the health and social care of the service users should be maintained in order for them to quickly get back to work so that they can make profit for the bourgeoisies. In order to maintain the social hierarchy the government purposely ignores the selling of products which can harm ones body for example, cigarettes, tobacco etc. In the modern world I believe the hierarchy is shaped into a pyramid with a few elite at the top controlling and manipulating those below which allows the rich to always be the rich and the poor to be the poor giving no chance for movement in the hierarchy. Feminist writers believe that the medical profession and pharmaceutical industries have given a low priority to developing male contraceptive pills which have fewer harmful side effects compared to contraceptives used by women. This shows that society is exploiting women and increase anxiety and stress for women there by suppressing their abilities and making life outside of family harder so that women resume their position as a housewife. For example a women experiencing depression or nausea at her workplace will perform badly therefore in comparison to males who are performing better and getting better result she will seem inferior .This clearly shows how society and its medications are purposely full of side effects to marginalise women, so that the males will be more dominant. While Marxist and Socialist Feminist argue that women are not receiving the same medications as males. Women have two roles, also known as double day which signifies two roles women have to undertake. First of all as a housewife, taking care of her domestic duties, and the other as a worker/employer. Sociologist Doyal suggests that it is the fact that women have two roles in society, that they getting sick. Personally I believe it is due to the medication we receive as women, which could otherwise be given to men with far less side effects. It is the due to the lack of consideration and its need for male dominance that women are sick. Even now in this modern day the definition of health is not clear. There are two opposing theories one being that health means the absence of disease the other being not only an absence of disease but also a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being. The negative concept is the absence of disease which would mean that the person needs to be diagnose with a disease in order to be unhealthy. However the positive definition which is provided by the World Health Organization (WHO)in 1974;not merely an absence of disease but also a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being means that you dont have to be diagnosed with a disease you could be mentally ill ,physically, spiritually ,socially, emotionally, or intellectually. So therefore the health and social care sectors usually take a holistic assessment in order to address the needs of the whole person rather than single issues. (Btec level 3 health and social care book 3). Sociologist Mildred Blaxter carried a large survey and then identified three definitions to health and well-being; One positive definition; regarding health as being fit Two being a negative definition; Regarding health as being free from pain or discomfort And lastly a functional definition; regarding health in terms of being able to perform certain, day-to-day tasks Concepts of ill health Clinical Iceberg One concept of health is Clinical Iceberg this is a term used to describe unreported illness. The statistics produced by the government and the doctors have a 94% off unreported illness missing from the statistics. For example Lyme Disease is one of the highest unreported illnesses that is unreported. A survey last month for the Everyman Male Cancer Campaign suggested that nearly twice as many men as women had not visited their GP in the past year. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154200.stm last accessed 22/10/12 18:02) (http://www.anh-usa.org/lymedisease/ last accessed 27/12/12 )So therefore this could be one of the reason why there are so many unreported illness because men do need see a doctor because the try and live up to the saying of men dont cry and they are tough so this leads them to think that if they do go to the doctors that they are weak. Impairment Impairment is the restrictions to our day-to-day activities caused by physical or mental dysfunctions for example Down syndrome; a learning difficultly. Disability Disability is seen by Tom Shakespeare as restrictions that arise for a person with impairments because society does not take into account the needs of people with impairment for example someone in a wheel chair not having ramps in buildings or someone deaf not having hearing aids available. However some people may refer this to disabling environment which suggests an environment where facilities for the impairments are not available for people to take full part in social life.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Sophocles - Antigone Essay -- essays research papers fc
The Power of Choice Choices affect all of our lives. We are always faced with choices. What we do with those choices will determine how are lives will turn out, what destiny lies before us and even what will become of us. The choices we make are in our complete control. Whether we make choices during the heat of the moment or with an open mind there are going to be consequences that follow whether good or bad are can only be blamed on us. Sophocles's Antigone portrays human emotions and consequences that follow two distinct choices. We can broaden the spectrum by saying that Creon represents public policy and Antigone represents individual conscience. According to E.S. Shuckburgh we must examine which is more important 'state law or divine conscience';. (Shuckburgh xviii) Antigone is a story about two people who choose to make choices that each are passionate about and the consequences that follow. I can argue that the choice made by Antigone was noble and honorable because she was standing up for what she believed in. Antigone was trying to do what she felt was the right. She was standing up for her family. I think that many people would feel the same way in her situation. Antigone wanted to offer her brother the burial that she felt he deserved. Although it did not seem as though she agreed with what her brother had done she did believe in family loyalty.When Antigone approached Ismene with her proposal, Ismene said no. She justified her decision by telling Antigone that they were already punished and that there was no need to make matters worse for the two of them by defying Creon's law. Oh my sister, think- think how our own father died, hated, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Mimi 2 his reputation in ruins, driven on by the crimes he brought to light himself to gouge out his eyes with his own hands- then mother…his mother and wife, both in one, mutilating her life in the twisted noose- and last, our two brothers dead in a single day, both shedding there won blood, poor suffering boys, battling out their common destiny hand-to-hand. ( Sophocles 60-69) Isemene tries to say ... ...always be a part of our life, what we so with those choices will determine our future as they did in the case of Creon and Antigone. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Mimi 5 Works Cited David Bender, Bruno Leone, Scott Barbour, Bonnie Szumski, Don Nardo, eds. Readings of Sophocles. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Sir Richard C. Jebb, E. S. Shuckburgh, abs. Introduction. Antigone. By Shuckburgh. New York: Press Syndicate of the U of Cambridge, 1987 Sophocles. 'Antigone.'; The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Compay, Inc., 1995. 632-667
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Outsourcing and Offshoring of IT to India :: Workforce Work Jobs Globalization
Outsourcing and Offshoring of IT to India Introduction One of the hottest trends today for big corporations is outsourcing and offshoring. Outsourcing simply means a company based in one nation will hire from other nations in order to more efficient accomplish its goals. It makes sense on the part of the corporation, why pay a programmer in the US $80,000 a year when they can pay a programmer in India less than 1/10th of that salary, and make him a very happy man. This because even when he is earning 1/10th of the US salary, he is still earning more money than he ever hoped to get in that industry in India. It seems like a win-win situation1, but there is still a loser: The growing unemployed population of the US. As more jobs go overseas, more US citizens are finding themselves becoming obsolete. Recent History of IT in the US Between 1987 and 1997 imports used in US manufacturing rose from 10.5% to 16.2%2 and in High Technology rose from 26% to 38%. The US has a long history of outsourcing blue-collar jobs, including those that are intermediate steps within business processes in many industrial sectors. Manufacturing’s outsourcing success can be attributed to the lower cost structures found in many East Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia and others2. These countries not only provide a lower cost structure, but also have a highly educated work force and business friendly environment. Outsourcing of blue-collar jobs has increased the demand of white-collar jobs in the US. The focus on white-collar jobs by US firms has pushed US profitability upwards. The outsourcing trend continues to eat up the value chain from blue-collar jobs to white collar jobs3. The software industry is experiencing an outsourcing trend to countries such as China and most significantly to India. The proliferation of the Internet has opened easier access to information and collaborative environments. Previously communication costs and access to mind power was limited. The Internet made communication costs virtually free and collaboration with groups around the makes software engineering and collaboration tasks easier. In additional, liberalization of free markets across international lines has made it easier for companies to set up and outsource engineering tasks throughout the world. Business-process and software outsourcing rely on cheaper cost structure as found in East Asia with manufacturing4.
India & Mexico: the two stories Essay
By the end of 20th century, the world had realized that the next century is going to be driven by developing nations from South America, Central America and Asia on economic ground. The role of the economically developed nation will get reduced to that of investor and consumer while the developing nations will be converted into producers with foreign direct investment will bring capital and technology for that production. Looking into Asia, the nations which is supporting the above mentioned view are neither Japan nor the South East Asian tigers comprising ASEAN; but the world’s two most populated nations namely China and India. Many economists called this advent of the two nations as the arrival of Chindia. The China has now become the factory of the world while India is a service sector giant while leading in the sectors like software development and BPO industry (Perkovich, 2003). And in case of Central America and South America, the countries which are expected to match the growth of other developing nations are Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. These nations have a very different past if things like political stability and economic policies are taken into consideration. India and its late rise            Though both China and India have now become a very successful case of FDI channeled development model but the structure of economy of these two nations are at the two ends of any of the economic theory. In China, being a one party communist state and very strong central government economic decisions are taken irrespective of what is actually the people at ground wish while in India, being a secular democratic nation with multi-party political system decisions related to economy are often taken while considering the compulsions like electoral promises and is very much populist in nature.            The governments which includes both central and states are always under pressure from both opposition parties and popular public demand and many a times the decisions get affected due to this factor. At the same time, India’s economic stand for more than forty years of its independence had been protective and least connected with the world (Bromley, Mackintosh, Brown & Wuyts, 2004, p. 196). Its neutral stand during the cold war and strategic military relationship with USSR caused very less interaction with western world led by USA. The country continued to pursue its independent political stand and entered 21st century, its economic structure saw extreme changes and the country now boasts of having the USA as its largest trading partner and at the same time, US has also found great interest in world’s largest democracy and the recently signed nuclear treaty between the US president George Bush and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh clearly underlines the growing interest between the two.            So the new India or better to say the liberalized India post reforms presents a beautiful case where Kenneth Waltz’s theory of International Relations which states that the action of a state can often get affected due to pressures being exerted by international forces and thereby limiting the options available to them(1979). The neorealist or structured model has been developed with the aim to explain the repeating patterns of state behavior and power and its extent which is the combination of its capacity to resist external influence while influencing others to behave according to its wishes.            The liberalization process in India began in early 1990s in the tenure of the Prime Minister P. V. Narashimha Rao under the leadership of then Finance Minister Dr. Manamohan Singh. The reform process and India’s integration into world economy was widely appreciated with International Monetary Fund or the IMF calling it a long term corrective measure. The reform process which began with India signing GATT and becoming a part of WTO was widely appreciated by almost all economic quarters (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 173). The Narashimha Rao govt. continued with his reforms though slowly despite stiff resistance from major opposition parties by destroying the opposition unity (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 167).            After entering into a new economic fold, the Indian State’s decision showed the signs of getting influenced through external international forces which includes IMF, World Bank and other trade partners including US and EU. On economic issues, the Indian government for obtaining loans from IMF and World Bank had to observe their demands. Some of the demands that IMF made were import liberalization, tariff reduction, decontrolling the food grains market, decreasing subsidies in food and agricultural sector, PSU privatizations, enabling law for attracting FDI in manufacturing and infrastructure projects and opening the domestic banking and insurance sector i.e., financial liberalization (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 199).. The Indian government reacted cautiously but in a considerably long period, opened some of the sectors with foreign players holding majority stakes while in most of the sectors FDI was promoted to some percentage that may be 26 percent or up to 49 percent (Govt. of India, 2005).            The economic reforms of Indian economy went into super fast mode during the regime of new political party. The BJP government was found to be pro-reformist with measures taken by continued to follow the path initiated by the Narashimha Rao Government. This stand of BJP was in sharp contrast to what it had observed during the beginning of the reform movement (Bromley et. al., 2004, p. 168). Under the BJP government, India tested five nuclear weapons and was widely criticized by most of the countries (Perkovich, 2003). The US government imposed a series of economic sanctions and the relationship between the two nations started showing down turn. But the Indian economy showed resilience and even the US congress and other western nations realized this fact and the sanctions were removed in a number of phases. The terrorist attack of September 11 2001 changed the scenario and the world under US leadership started considering terrorism as an international threat and India being a victim of Pakistan sponsored terrorism gave unequivocal support to US led war against terror (Perkovich, 2003).            But the real success of India has been observed in form of the success of software giants like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and many smaller ones (Bromley et. al., 2004, p. 209). These companies opened new era of business through outsourcing of jobs from US and this led to the advent of many of the US based MNCs like Accenture, IBM, GE and others investing a lot in India. The condition has become so different that the growth of Indian firms is dependent on US. Now the other sectors like retail, automobile, telecommunication etc. are getting large input through FDI channel (Perkovich, 2003).            Now this US supported growth of economy has made the government to follow foreign policies with extra care so that the interests of US must be taken into account and the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries should remain intact. These things are clearly showing that the country’s stand on different international issues have started getting affected by economic policies of developed nations especially USA (Kapila, 2006). Mexico & Economic Liberalization            Now when we think of the continent of North America, we normally have the picture two economically very developed countries namely United States of America and Canada. But Mexico is another major economy of the region but with a different structure and status. Basically a developing country with a very unusual past when compared with other major countries of the region mentioned above, the country’s economic policy in the major part of 20th century had been without any vision. The political establishment has always supported various ideologies at the same time. The left centered administration and economic policy of Cuba and other left economies of the world got support from most of the Mexican government over the past 50 years but the same governments had reacted sharply against any move to any communist movement in the nation. Before 1970, the economy policy of Mexico was that of Private Public supported and investment by foreign companies had been given high priority. But after the massacre in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, the newly elected government started following an economic policy leaned more towards left philosophy of collective ownership. And despite flagging economic condition of the nation, populist policies for earning political mileage became a national policy. With every new government the country followed comparatively different policies creating more economic and monetary instability instead of any straight forward economic growth.            The year 1994 saw the beginning of a new era in trade relations among three major countries of North America. With the launch of North America Free Trade Agreement i.e., NAFTA, comprising of world’s two most powerful economies USA and Canada and Mexico, the whole economic situation of the region has become a matter of close observation. If the case of Canada and USA is looked upon, there already exist a number of bilateral agreements on issues from defense, border security to trade and commerce. But from Mexican point of view, NAFTA has been much more than a simple regional trade agreement. Despite being a platform for boosting trade, participation of Mexico in NAFTA has been seen as the most effective tool to achieve two important missions. The first one has been for the purpose of directing the Mexican economy to an export-led growth path on a non-inflationary note. With USA as the major economic partner, NAFTA has been seen by the Mexican government as a platform to initiate large scale export to its much superior economic partner. Internal structure of the Mexican economy has also been made available on a platter to get a change with new set policies ensuring free trade initiative and drastic reduction in terms of tariff and quota issues to promote intra-regional trade (Moreno-Brid, Validiva & Santamaria, 2005). The second objective of the above mentioned reform process was to make the nature of this process very much irreversible. Though NAFTA accord has made sufficient provision so that any attempt to be made by the governments of future would cause the imposition of international legal and extra-legal constraints thereby deterring any attempt of returning back to the days of trade protectionism but the Salinas administration along with other supporters blunted all attack by its opponents to ensure the path of reform unruffled. The whole purpose of this treaty for Mexico was to make the nation a very lucrative region for the manufacture of products that can easily be exported to USA (Moreno-Brid et. al., 2005).            Now it’s been more than a decade that NAFTA came into existence and if the economic condition of Mexico is viewed then the expectations that was raised by the Salinas govt. has actually been partially satisfied. The country has made considerable economic advancements and these things are visible through the era of small budget deficit, low inflation that followed the treaty. Also the export of non-oil products has reached a very high level with surge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). But euphoria associated with the treaty loses its charm when the number of jobs being created in the liberated economy is taken into account. The rate of growth of the GDP is still below the level which the economy had attained in days much prior to liberalization (Moreno-Brid et. al., 2005).            So, for Mexico, the outcome of being a part of NAFTA has been very limited. If the limited gains are compared with what had been expected before, the NAFTA will appear more as a failure than a success. In 1994 only, the possibility of this sort of result was predicted by eminent US political scientist Stephan Krasner. While depending on realist model Krasnar had clearly stated that though NAFTA is an excellent attempt to have a very beneficial regional agreement but from Mexico point of view it’s not going to yield any golden egg (Bromley, Mackintosh, Brown & Wuyts, 2004, p. 264). The extreme differences in the business culture and size of the economies of US and Mexico will be a very important reason behind the limited success of the agreement and expecting a broad result of something like the one between US and Canada can never be achieved (Extra Material, p. 10). The economic policy of US has been more of imperialistic in nature. This very US policy gives rise to anti-Americanism. The actually reduces the extent up to which both US and Mexico could have cooperated. This is very much in agreement to Waltz theory, which has clearly mentioned that the international condition is very much anarchic due to the lack of any common controlling authority giving rise to the issues like national threat and rise of conflicts of both military and economic nature (1979). As a result the apprehensions with rich nations fearing the rise of issues of illegal migration and human trafficking, the extent of cooperation between the two states will be very limited (Hollifield, 2006). The states would be found more concerned towards maintaining their relative power in relation one another and at the same time will avoid any permanent loss to existing relationship (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 278).            The much analyzed theory of Waltz on International Relations valid in almost every case can be successfully used in understanding the case of NAFTA and Mexico. The history is full of differences and conflicts between the US and Mexico with Mexico in constant fear of losing its sovereignty. This fear and the bitterness of past has always been a very important reason the success of any pact between Mexico and US. Even the economic policy of US has widely been considered as imperialistic and Mexico had become a part of NAFTA for increasing its exports especially to US, hence the Mexican establishment will always be under the influence of US economic policies and decisions and may have to modify its international economic and business policies to suit US and the economic benefits Mexico is having with the trade with such a large neighbor (Bromley et. al, 2004, p 264).  So the fear of the past was the invasion over geographical boundary with Mexico preferring Latin culture rather the pro-US North American trend. Now becoming a very important part of North American economic group, Mexico is under continuous fear of losing is control over its economy and currency and might have to face economic colonialism.  References Hollifield, J. F. (2006). Trade, Migration and Economic Development: The Risks and    Rewards of Openness. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:           http://www.dallasfed.org/news/research/2006/06migr/hollifield.pdf Moreno-Brid, J. Validiva, J. C. R. & Santamaria, J. (2005). Mexico: Economic growth  exports and industrial performance after NAFTA, Economic Development Unit.            Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:                    http://www.wilsoncenter.org/news/docs/Mexico_after_NAFTA_ECLAC.pdf Bromley, M. Mackintosh, W. Brown & M. Wuyts (2004). Making the International: Economic Interdependence and political Order. Pluto Press Waltz, K. N. (1979).Realist Thought and Neorealist Thesis 1979. Journal of International          Affairs. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:                    http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/PSC783/Waltz44.pdf Govt. of India (2005). Investing in India Foreign Direct Investment -Policy & Procedures         Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry,      Government of India, New Delhi Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide           Web:  http://dipp.nic.in/manual/manual_03_05.pdf Kapila, S. (2006). Iran’s nuclear issue: India well advised to be objective. South Asia    Analysis Group Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide       Web:http://www.saag.org/%5Cpapers17%5Cpaper1694.html Perkovich, G. (2003).The measure of India: what makes greatness? 2003 Annual           Fellows’ Lecture, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the     World Wide Web:           www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/publications/Papers/Perkovich_2003.pdf Â
Monday, September 30, 2019
A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, by Craig Raine Essay
Formal The first method of criticism to use to better understand the 1979 poem â€Å"A Martian Sends a Postcard Home†by Craig Raine is Formalism. When you want to analyze a poem wishing the formalist method you should look at three things. The form, the physical structure of the poem, such as the length of the lines or stanzas, their rhythms, and their rhymes and repetition. Next is diction, what the words of the poem literally mean and why they chose that exact word instead of another one. Last is the unity of the poem, this is when significant parts of the poem come together to make the entire then whole. A formalist will look at all of these things when they critique a poem to try to understand the deeper meaning. Let’s first look at the structure of the poem. â€Å"A Martian Sends a Postcard Home†is comprised of 34 lines in couplets that do not rhyme. Sometimes words seem to be places where they shouldn’t be almost overflowing onto the next line. This use of couplets is for the readers benefit, it makes the poem much easier to read on the page. He also could have formatted his poem like this because the poem contains many metaphors and it is easier to focus on the metaphor if there is a break in between. Cleanth Brooks would call this an Aesthetic Structure because the structure of the poem is meant for the readers to understand it easier. Raine tries to write the poem to appeal to whoever is reading it and that is why he chose this form of writing in his poem. Second, we need to look at the diction inside the poem and there is a lot of interesting word choices by Raine. The best way to do this is to look at what words are in each line and what each line is saying. The first six lines are where the author uses his first comparison. A Caxton is a reference to the Englishman Will Caxton who first printed books. He then compares these books to a creature of earth, birds. He compares the bird’s wings to the pages of the books and both birds and books each have their way of showing their importance or meaning. Birds show how their importance and meaning with their color and books show how their importance and meaning with the words they contain. â€Å"cause the eyes to melt/ or the body to shriek without pain†refer to human emotions cry and laugh that the speaker of the poem (The Martian) doesn’t understand. Then he goes on to say how a book cannot fly but he has seen one perch on the hand, making note of how humans hold bo oks as they read them. The next four lines also make a comparison between nature and mankind. â€Å"Mist is when the sky is tired of flight†could be saying that the sky is a way to travel for the Martian through a UFO or spaceship. â€Å"engravings under tissue paper†takes us back to a book but this time it seems unimportant, like the Martian might not understand the importance of a book. Lines 11 and 12 the rain is compared to a T.V. They both make things appear darker than they really. Also, rain could be like the static in a T.V when the signal is fuzzy often when it is raining. The next two lines talk about â€Å"a Model T†which is a kind of car that was very popular in the early 1900’s. The â€Å"room†is the inside of the car where everyone sits and the â€Å"lock†is ignition where the key goes. â€Å"Key is turned to free the world†is the car moving and the â€Å"film†is the mirror that lets you see the world as it goes by in case you mis sed something. Lines 17 and 18 talks about something a lot of people have an obsession with keeping track of, time. Tied to a wrist is a watch and kept in a box is a clock. The Martian is saying that humans try to make time an object and there is no reason for this because your time will always run out. Lines 19- 24 make another comparison to mankind and nature, an ongoing theme in the poem. This time it’s comparing a telephone to a baby. If the phone rings it is similar to a baby when it cries, a parent needs to pick the baby up when it cries as you need to pick up the phone when it is ringing. When the baby is tickled it is like when you dial a number into the phone you are both using your fingers do the action. The next six lines talk about a child and an adult using the restrooms differently. The children â€Å"are allowed to suffer/openly†while the â€Å"Adults go to a punishment room / with water but nothing to eat.†Going back to a similar theme with time being imprisoned the people impress themselves in these bathrooms. Everyone is punished when they use the restroom and no one is safe from this punishment. The people force themselves to use the restroom and the children as well, in the eyes of the Martian. The last lines have the last comparison which brings us full circle in the poem. He makes the comparison of reading to dreaming. The night everything becomes dark and the people as a couple start to dream. The author might have used couples like how the whole poem is in couplets showing that humans belong in pairs. â€Å"With their eyelids shut†is them sleeping in bed â€Å"read about themselves†is their dreams. All in all, there are many metaphors to unpack in this poem and you start to get an understanding of the overall meaning of the poem and its unity. So what message is Raine trying to get across to us with all of his man vs nature metaphors? A formalist would argue that Raine is just trying to paint a picture of what an outsider would actually see if they were not in our society. They don’t see things the way humans do and they can’t even think of the right words to say for the things the Martian is seeing. The metaphors thought out the poem reinforce the point that the Martian isn’t sure what he is seeing and can only describe them in things that he has seen before. The Martian is able to take his experiences and connect them in a way with the humans. He thinks some of the things they do are strange and funny at the time, but he can still make references to his own life and his views on life. However, this might not at all be what the author is saying. It is possible that we have no idea what Raine meant when writing this poem and Allen Tate argues the only real way to understand what modern poetry contains is to â€Å"Start young, read the classical languages and later read the philosophers.†We can only make a guess at what Raine was saying in this poem and that is what makes poetry beautiful. Everyone can take it their own way, an infinite possibility of what the poem means to them or to anyone. Or could it be that formalism is not the best method of understanding this poem and we need to look more outside the text to understand what Raine meant? Psychological Criticism This next method of Criticism isn’t as much as taking the text at face value like the formalist method. It is about trying to get inside the mind of the author and figure out what was going on in his head when he was writing his poetry. There are 4 main critics that use Psychological criticism when unpacking literary work and they each have similar but unique styles when doing so. The first is Sigmund Freud, to have a Freudian approach to this text you would not oversimplify what the author meant and exaggerate your interoperations of symbolism as well as using all of Freud’s psychological jargon. This will allow you to dive deeper into the text and not just float on the top of the water. The second is Carl Jung and Mythological Criticism. Jung focuses on two things, the Conscious/Unconscious and archetypes. The Conscious/Unconscious refer to the human psyche and how our ancient ancestors thought and felt. Archetypes are very typical examples of a certain person or thin g. Jung talks about archetypes for characters, images, and situations. The third Northrop Frye used Jung’s ideas of archetypes to help promote his â€Å"theory of myths†. Frye argued that every text follows one of four mythoi and the whole text was called the monomyth. Last Jacques Lacan came up with an updated Freudian method for understanding literature. He had a different method for analysis characters in stories such as other and Other. The small o being the inside and the Big O is the outside of the body. Lacan also came up with Antirealism which is his assertion that langue is detached from reality. All of these four authors methods are important when looking at what Rain meant when writing â€Å"A Martain Sends a Postcard Home†and to get a better understand lets us apply of these to the Poem. The last Stanza of this poem â€Å"read about themselves/ in color, with their eyelids shut†could be argued that this is a dream that the humans are having. Freudian theory becomes stronger when people are dreaming, Freud believed that dreams are a symbol of antiquity and that their dreams contain the needs of the induvial that they might fight troublesome
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Max Weber: A Short Biography Essay
Being a man with great aspirations, Max Weber’s life was filled with complexities and complications. Therefore, it is worthy of one’s time to explore the reasons of his success, a revolutionary thinker of the 19th century whose theories still remained as the subjects of interest among academics of the new millennium. In this paper, we shall explore on his life, followed by what influenced and motivated Weber to achieve the milestone of his life: scientific management theories. Lastly, we shall critique on the relevance of his theories in modern management. Biography Born in Erfurt, Thuringia, on 21st April 1864, Max Weber was the eldest son of Max Weber Senior and Hellen Fallenstein Weber. Suffering from meningitis at the age of four, Max Weber adopted reading as his past time which developed his academic strength at a young age (Secher 1980). Max Weber studied at the University of Heidelberg in the year 1882, specializing in the subject of Law. However, his education was disrupted while volunteering for military training as an Officer. In 1884, he resumed his education and graduated in 1890 (Secher 1980). He took up an offer at Freiburg University as an Economic Professor in 1894, a year after his marriage with Marianne Schniger, the grand niece of Max Weber, Senior. Ironically, Weber was haunted by a long term psychiatric breakdown and withdrew from work during the peak of his career as in 1897(Gerth & Mill 1982). Although psychologically disturbed, Weber inherited a vast amount of wealth from his deceased father (Secher 1980). The monetary gains enabled Weber to recuperate from his conditions along with the time and space to develop one of his academic masterpiece, â€Å"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism†in 1904, which contested on the relevance of capitalism in the absence of spiritual belief (Gerth & Mill 1982). Max Weber died of pneumonia in Munich, on 14 June, 1904. However, he kept the world in awe with the introduction of Bureaucracy. A term which was quoted from his work â€Å"Economy and Society†published by Marianne in 1922; which advocated logical and scientific research methodology known as ‘rationalisation’ (Casteel 2009). Bureaucracy was originated from his skeletal invention of a system of management hierarchy while institutionalising a series of hospitals during World War I, of which; in hope to remedy the inequality of hereditary su ccession and the abused of authority within the German empire (Gerth & Mill 1982). Influences: Political and Social Factors Hegelian philosophy had been the German paradigm for centuries, originated from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who advocated that Nations could only be prosperous when the state, the civil society and its citizens are managed with strong moral principles (Pippin, Hoffe & Walker 2004). Despite the grand notion, the Hegelian society became a system of corruption and abused, under the governance of the aristocrats. Defunct and degenerative, its relevance was threatened in the 19th century by the evolution of socialism. Unlike the Hegelian society, the mission of the modern socialism is to serve beyond self-interest, while promoting its non-affiliation between a society and its state; which resonated with the oppressed peasants and middle-classes of Germany (Steinmetz 1993). The problem was further intensified by the ruling of Kaiser William ll, whose political interests polarized from Bismarck’s political philosophy which has served as a political stabiliser in Germany (Burbank & Cooper 2010). During his reign, the Kaiser had developed his policies through public image and popular opinion of the Germans. Unfortunately, the approach proved to be unwise, given the autocratic nature of Kaiser William the II, policy making became a game of propaganda to glorify him along with the riddance of any negative publicity or criticism directed at the imperial family (Kohut 1991). Inspired by modern socialism and disappointed with the Kaiser’s and nobilities’ myopic view on politics, Max Weber began to question on the effectiveness of hereditary succession in political power versus meritocracy. In association with his first hand experienced on bureaucracy, Weber began to infuse it with the theory of Charismatic Leadership; where visionaries should be appointed as leaders and serve the nation, with an alteration to the original concept: that leaders should be elected based on merits and not chosen by birth (Wren & Bedian 2009). Economics Factors In the late 19th century, industralisation began to take flight across the western part of the world; however European industrialising nations failed to capture the economic advantages brought about by machinisation (More 2000). France was an exception who experienced spurring growth at the point of time in conjunction with the United State of America (USA). An economist by profession, Max Weber observed that the theory of capitalism and free competitions advocated by Adam Smith was the key for the two nations’ success (Gerth & Mill 1982). In 1904, Max Weber visited the USA on a mission to understand the true essence of capitalism, and noticed that Americans relied excessively on the convenience of technologies for profit generation; that moral ethics began to dissipate in the society (Gerth & Mill 1982). It was the fear of the dissipation which triggered Weber to theorise â€Å"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism†to address the underlying moral hazards b rought about by technologies, in the absence of spiritual faith (Wren & Bedian 2009). Intellectual Factors John Calvin’s philosophy for Protestant reformation had been one of the rare ideologies which Max Weber adopted in his publications. The underlying reason for Weber to adopt Calvinism; which promotes economic growth and the specialization of labour under the context of the Protestant teachings (Wren & Bedian 2009), was associated with Max Weber’s mother, Hellen Fallenstein Weber. Being a strong proponent on humanitarian issues and the faith of a Protestant, Hellen had been the mentor of Weber in issues related to liberalism and spirituality (Gerth & Mills 1982). Hence, Weber’s choice of religious philosophy and his publication of â€Å"The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism†can be seen as a form of tribute to Hellen, in recognition for the undying care and love for her eldest son. Any educated German of the 19th Century would have read the two most important works of the century: â€Å"Communist Manifesto†and â€Å"Capital†writ ten by Karl Marx. In summary, what Karl Marx was trying to advocate is the forsaking of self-interest among entrepreneurs and workers in their quest for monetary profits, instead both parties should collaborate as a collective unit in achieving communal benefits where a man’s gain will not be another man’s loss (Patterson 2009). During the period where destitute and suffering prevails, the Utopian theory of Marxism were alluring to the masses; including Weber. However, given his critical nature, Weber discovered the fundamental flaws of generalisation in Marxist’s theories; the absence of actual steps to achieve the desired outcome. With the intention to prove the functionality of Karl Marx’s theory, Weber began to formulate concrete steps to identify individuals’ motivations at work and suggestions on how to improve the societal well being (ed. Wiley 1987) which are reflected on his publication of â€Å"Economy and Society†Relevance to Management Today In the 21st century, bureaucracy has become the corporate culture of large organisations. The system has been a darling in the business arena due to the ease of its implementation, which readily provides a hierarchical framework for governance. Albeit its popularity, formal communication has always been a problem associated with bureaucracy (Wallace 1998). According to Welch (2005, p. 115), ‘hierarchies tend to make little generals out of perfectly normal people who find themselves in organisations that respond only to rank’. However, the underlying problem of bureaucracy is never with the theory itself, but rather the failure of modern managers to rationalise that the system are built upon human relationship. In order to resolve the existing problem, one have to understand that business management is not solely about delegating task and supervision of the employees under a stipulated framework. Instead, success is greatly dependent on ‘who manages and motivates’ the employees (Drucker 2006, p. 56). With reference to Drucker (2006, p. 60), ‘Employees may be our greatest liability, but people are our greatest opportunity.’ The ideology was well adopted by Anita and Gordon Roddick of â€Å"The Body Shop†, who had successfully unleashed the potential of their workers; with the creation of a strong sense of belonging and camaraderie; resulted from the company strong mission and values which focuses on human relations (Tomer 1999). Therefore, one could contest that the success of a manager, are associated with his or her foresight to set visions and missions. Followed by the ability to garner support from the worker and lastly to motivated them in achieving the objectives. In relation to Max Weber’s theory, the idea is what we known as charismatic leadership. Although charismatic leadership has been the ideal form of management style, researchers of organisational behaviours have noticed that it may not be the best approach for adoption. The reason for such an argument is that charismatic leaders are rare gems within the labour market. In order to resolve the issue, a modified version of charismatic leadership known as transformational leadership was introduced as the new frontier. Unlike charismatic leadership, transformational leadership is a set theory which focuses on how different leaders lead and inspire (Mcshane and Travagoline 2007), which are widely used to developed business leaders of tomorrow. Conclusion In retrospect, Max Weber’s penetrative ability to analyse human behaviours, is the reason for his theories to remain highly relevant and widely adopted by modern managers of today. However, as discussed earlier, the theories must not be seen as separate and independent entity. Instead, managers must first understand the nature of Weber’s theories in relation to their respective organisations. Followed by the need to anticipate and rationalise the possible problems that might arise from the application. Only then, may the managers tailor a set of solutions in accordance to the existing need and requirements of the organisations. Reference List Burbank, J & Cooper, F 2010, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference, Princeton University Press, New Jersey. Casteel, P.D 2009, ‘Weber and rationalization’, Research Starters Sociology, pp. 1-5. Drucker, PF 2006, Classic Drucker, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Massachusetts. Gerth, HH & Mills, CW 1982, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Kohut, TA 1991, Wilhelm II and the Germans: A Study in Leadership, Oxford University Press, New York, viewed on 10 February 2011, Marx, K 1970, German Ideology, The Electric Book Company Ltd, London, viewed 9 February 2011, McShane, S & Travagoline, T 2007, Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim, McGraw Hill Australia Pty
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Criteria For Leadership And Its Importance For The Firm's Success Essay - 1
Criteria For Leadership And Its Importance For The Firm's Success - Essay Example The presentation of the project to Paul’s boss, Larry, did not have the expected effect. The position of CEO would be offered to another colleague of Paul, probably George since Larry believes that Paul is not tough enough in order to become the firm’s leader. The disappointment of Paul, as noted in the case study, can be explained by referring to the criteria on which the relevant judgment – regarding the ability of Paul – to become a leader was based. The events described in the case study are related to a series of issues, which have been extensively examined in the academic literature. Particular emphasis seems to be given to a) the concept of leadership, which has been related to specific qualities; in accordance with Daft et al. (2010) the leadership can be characterized as ‘a process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates and directs their activities to help achieve group of organizational goals’ (Daft et al. 2010). The above definition makes clear that leadership is not a position; rather it is a process, which has specific phases/ parts. The specific definition helps to understand the decision of Larry regarding the inappropriateness of Paul for the specific role; b) the concept of management, as being differentiated from leadership; the former focuses on practical aspects of the organizational activities; the latter focuses on the promotion of the firm’s vision and spirit; it is at this point that manager is differentiated from the leader; a successful leader needs to be able to promote the organization’s vision without being restricted by personal thoughts or the views of his environment (Millmore 2007), c) also, through the case study, the need of management theory for understanding the firm’s strategic priorities is revealed – reference is made especially to the theory of Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991) who set 6 criteria for identifying the ability of a person to become a successful leader: ‘ambition and energy, desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self confidence, intelligence and job relevant knowledge’ (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991).
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