Thursday, October 31, 2019
Compare the Impact that the American Revolution had on Women and Research Paper
Compare the Impact that the American Revolution had on Women and African Americans - Research Paper Example However, the number of slaves was relatively small, and they worked and lived in every colony. States in the North had begun implementing laws that abolished slavery outright or promoted gradual emancipation even before the ratification of the Constitution. Among the legislations was the 1787 Northwest ordinance barring slavery form new territories during that period, therefore slavery existed effectively in the southern states and became the peculiar institutions of that region. Between the eve of the civil war and the federal census of 1790, the slave population rose to four million from approximately seven hundred thousand2. The revolution brought radical changes in sentiments, opinions, and principles to the American people. Ideas and issues that had an impact on the political, social customs, racial and gender roles in the thirteen states colonies had to be addressed as they united to form the United States. Despite the fact that the concept of an autonomous was not new, calls t o design and implement a democratic republic was of major concern to a relatively large number of colonists. At the end of the eighteenth century, majority of towns (especially Massachusetts) began experiencing firsthand republicanism through town elections and meetings. This promoted termination of British monarchy authority and limitation of the governing powers of elected public leaders, which subsequently appealed to individuals of all social status in all the colonies. Nonetheless, some key individuals in the society did not embrace the idea of a complete overhaul of the political system3. Majority of the high-class colonists ideally wanted an end to the hereditary aristocracy without essentially dismantling the existing social hierarchy. They were against the idea of a government that would consider everyone equal, from rich business people and property owners, to poor farmers and tenants, a well as slaves and women. Their conservative argument was that equality of all social classes would lead to illegal outbursts similar t those of the Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act crisis. The fight for independence from the Great Britain by the leaders of the colonies led to a broad concern for wider focus on social reforms, including slavery, religion, womenââ¬â¢s rights, and voting rights4. The Declaration of Independence upheld the equality of all men, though the state leaders did not fully support these sentiments. The right to vote was strictly the business of white males who owned property with a certain value. The legislatures had the general assumption that individuals in society who lacked property did not a significant stake in the government, the moral prerequisite, and the proper work ethic to vote intelligently. Nonetheless, American leaders often highlighted the morel wrong of slavery, complaining on the attempts of the parliament to make them slaves, though majorities of the founding fathers were slaveholders. Of particular note was in 1775 when the royal governor of Virginia announced freedom to slaves who were willing to rebel against their masters, a move that received enormous outrage from the southern states. Similar attacks on the slavery institutions came under attack during the revolutionary era5. Early nineteenth century saw slavery ban in northern states and the prohibition of further importation of slaves by the federal government. In the northern states, slavery had a negligible
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Business cards Essay Example for Free
Business cards Essay With business cards, people could keep them in their wallet or pocket, as they are small and light to carry around. Also, people keep them around their house just in case they need to contact a certain business and people do look at business cards to see what the business is promoting and looking to see if they need it. Posters Posters are a great way to catch someones eye as they are, bold, bright and in your face all the time. You cant ignore posters as they are really big and your eyes just get a hold of the image and stares at it and you are attracted to it because of the vibrant colours. If Errol uses posters than he would get a wide audience, as many people would pass the poster whilst they are driving walking etc. With posters they are also a great way of promoting his business as they are outside with a wide audience. Web Page There is such a wide audience on the Internet, so with a web page on the Yellow Pages or Thomson Local site, there is a guarantee that lots of people would be browsing those sites in search of a service. With the web sites they are much easily organised and categorised so it would be very easy to locate something you may need and very fast. They even do it by area and business names as well so the searching is much faster and easier. I have got evidence of different marketing medias of secondary research in the back of the coursework (appendices); there it will show the different types of ways you can advertise. Here I am going to write why I chose these pictures as evidence. Yellow Pages Pictures 1, 2 and 4 are from the Yellow Pages and in these pictures you can see how the person had laid out to advertise their business. Picture 1 the writing stands out as its blue and the background is white, but with picture 2 these people didnt want to spend as much money on advertising so they kept it plain and simple and unfortunately with this advertising it is not going to catch anyones eye so they wont get as much customers as picture 1 and 4 would get. Pictures 1 and 4 stand out much more, even though they are still small, they are so much bigger than picture 2. Thomson Local Pictures 3 and 5 are from the Thomson Local book. Picture 3 is quite representable as there are a variety of colours, but not so much colours so it keeps it subtle and calm looking and it doesnt look overdone. The writing is also quite clear on it even though the ad seems to look quite small. But, picture 5 is huge; this stands out on its page and catches the readers eye to that ad straight away. The orange background helps it as its so bright, you cant take you eyes off it, as its so attractive. Picture 5 also has a lot of information about the business, they have more information than picture 3 but you wouldnt need that much information so that amount of information for both the pictures is just fine. The Leader Picture 6 is from the local Leader newspaper and this ad is quite good as its quite big and bold. There are only two colours but the readers eye is still wedged into looking at the advert. This ad has all the information you would want to know about the garage and the phone number is very bright so you wouldnt need to squint to read it and all the writing is clear and is understandable and easy to read. Web Page Pictures 7 and 9 are both web pages. Picture 7 is from yell. com and picture 9 is from thomsonlocal. com. By doing web pages the customer can easily find what he/she is looking for as the searching is quick and easy, as everything is organised and categorised. It is very easy to find what you are looking for and its very sufficient, so if you lost the book of each of these sites than all you have to do is go to the web site and find what you are looking for there. These web sites have all the details you need to know about the business and it has ways that you can contact the business to. Business Cards Picture 8 is a business card and these are great to use, as they are small and easy to carry and people can keep it in their wallet and you can have all the information you need on them about your business. I chose this business card as the number is very big and takes up nearly the whole card and the name of the company comes next so people have a rough idea about what the business does. This business card is just right as it has just the right amount of information on it like a web site, phone number, companies name and as its double sided, there is more information on the back about the prices they charge. Posters Picture 10 is a poster about a motor garage. I think that the poster is very simple, its also very eye catching but it doesnt have that much information on it. This poster doesnt have as much information on it than it should have, but thats ok in a way, as you wouldnt want to squash everything up in one tiny poster. The colours are daring as they all just stand out and as the picture is animated it looks quite fun in a way as it looks interesting to look at. But there is no phone number or address to locate the business or get in touch with them. Leaflets Picture 11 is a leaflets front cover. As we can see it doesnt give as much information away but thats probably in the inside of the leaflet. The colours are again bright and a clever use of colours like a dark colour and a bright one so each colour makes each other one stand out. The title could also be quite catchy, as people wouldnt want to get ripped off by a garage so they will look at this leaflet so they get a better deal; this title is a way people could save money. For each of the media stated which is appropriate to Errol, I am going to analyse it and say the advantages and disadvantages of it. Local Newspapers Advertising in local newspapers is great as the newspaper is free and everyone has one. So if Errol were to advertise in a local newspaper like The Leader than, loads of people in that catchment area would know about him and the word can spread around quick as everyone reads the newspapers. It costs about i 200 per week to advertise in the local newspapers, but if it was a regualr advertisement than it would get 20% discount off a week. On the other hand, in newspapers, people mainly look at the articles not the adverts so they tend to ignore them and newspapers get recycled and throw away so they wont get looked at again. Newspaper adverts dont get much attention and businesses dont get helped by these adverts, so if you were to have an ad in the paper then it should stand out a lot and the reader should want to look at the ad. Radio Stations If Errol were to get an advert on the radio than its very likely that loads of people would be listening to the advert and its also very likely that people in the area if his business would be listening too. With the radio, there is a wide audience and adverts on the radio are more effective than adverts on the TV as you can change the channel, but with the radio people arent as bothered with the adverts because if they are driving they cant mess about with the radio. If there is an advert on the radio than people like to paint a picture in their head about the advert, consequently making it more successful. The cost of advertising on the radio can be quite expensive and I have the figures of how much it would cost roughly: A simple advertisement for a small station will usually cost i 200-i 300. London stations and Digital Stations can cost up to ten times that. The price includes: script writing, audio production, actors to voice the ads, music (if used) and special effects (if used). All of this has to be licensed for broadcast for 12 months from the first time its played. Aim to spend at least 10% of your budget on the creative for example A i 2,500 campaign on a small station over four weeks will probably run with one piece of creative which might cost you i250. Ã A i 25,000 campaign over a year will likely need a few different advertisements. At this level of investment, a jingle or audio identifier would be useful so listeners start to recognise your ads as soon as they hear them. A i 250,000 campaign over a year might be worth licensing a famous song for i 25,000 so your company really stands out. But listeners may not pay attention to the adverts and if Errol was to get an advert on radio than it will cost him a lot of money and as hes just started the business it could lead him into bankruptcy. Sometimes motor garage ads on the radio arent as effective as people dont pay attention to what the people are saying and they think that its boring. Directories Yellow Pages The Yellow Pages is a great place to promote your business, as the Yellow Pages is widely known, loads of people trust it more and as it comes free to your doorstep, every household has one. The Yellow Pages is also great as it has target areas so no one will be complaining about going too far to get a service as its all very near to them. Plus, its free to advertise in the Yellow Pages book, which displays your business name, address and telephone number under a single classification heading of your choice. However, the disadvantages of the big yellow book is that its heavy to carry and people wouldnt want to be carrying that book around with them trying to find a suitable service and as there are millions of other ads, you are all competing and if your ad doesnt stand out as much as the others or doesnt sound very appealing than you will be losing customers as they will be going onto another business of the same service. So if Errol was to advertise in the Yellow Pages than he should make sure that his ad stands out the most on the page and that it looks appealing and trustworthy and to have the right information, like the information the customer would want to know not something they wouldnt.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Case Study on Big Pharmas Marketing Tactics
Case Study on Big Pharmas Marketing Tactics Case Study On The Big Pharmas Marketing Tactics In The Pharmaceutical Industry Facts And Assumptions The term ââ¬ËBig Pharma is a terminology used to refer to the pharmaceutical industry. The name relates to peoples strong belief that it has played an active role in the ever increasing complicity and costs of health care. There is a crisis in the health care sector and it is believed that the Pharmaceutical Companies have abandoned science and resorted to salesmanship. No reasonable progress is currently being made in the industry due to the negative perception created by unscrupulous marketing strategies being employed (Archie 2009). Doctors should prescribe drugs to patients but are never expected to do marketing and advertising of their products and services. The other fact in the case study is that unethical business practices such as Pfizers off-label marketing practices and undue influence to medicines that should be prescribed by doctors to patient, normally lead to a likely increase in the cost of medical services due to the unfair and unleveled competition. The assumptio n among most people, which is not the truth, is that all pharmaceutical companies engage in dubious marketing tactics. The other assumption is that the Big Pharma companies sell unethical drugs. However, the truth is that the company sells ethical drugs even though the marketing strategies employed by the company are of questionable standards. Major Overriding Issues There are a number of problems in the case study.à One of the overriding issues is that Pfizer Company illegally did the marketing of Neurontin anti-seizer drug. The fact that pharmaceutical industry has decided to lay a lot of emphasis in the marketing of pills and other related drugs rather than developing new crucial ones is an issue of concern too. Drugs firms have also been accused of marketing drugs for purposes that have not been prescribed by the renowned drug and food administration department. Accusations of off-labeling illegal marketing policies and other related marketing wrongs have also emerged as a major problem in the industry. This is a very serious problem which has compromised the integrity and ethical standards of doctors and the entire pharmaceutical industry. Sub-issues And Related Issues The ââ¬ËBig Pharma companies have been accused of participating in unethical business practices. Medical students have been hired to companies even before they graduate from their medical schools.à This is a likely act of poaching talented skills in the market without following the right recruitment process and laid down procedures and policies in the industry. Furthermore, methods such as offering doctors underserved holiday packages, expensive gifts and other kickbacks, have been used to compromise the integrity of the industry as doctors who are given these favours are expected to recommend the specific companys drugs thus boosting the performance of the companys in the competition. The costs of drugs have continued to skyrocket due to lack of control of the market practices. Analysis And Evaluation Medical practitioners such as doctors, pharmaceuticals, governments and other law enforcement agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and the entire public that seek medical services are the major stakeholders in the industry. The governments stake in the case is its responsibility and duty to ensure that their subject receive the right medical services they deserve. People have a right to a healthy life and proper medical services. The government also benefit through the taxes paid by other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry. The doctors stake in the industry is based on the fact that for them to grow in their career and attain self fulfillment, they have to ensure that the sick people get proper medical care. Their salaries and duration of being employed would also be determined to a greater extent by the standards they maintain in the market. Expensive medical serviced would lead to a decline in customers due to very costly services hence low income. The pharmaceutical industry, research institutes and shareholders in the company have an interest of maximizing profits and making the highest gains possible in their various investments made in the industry. Unscrupulous and corrupt means being employed by the pharmaceutical companies and some medical practitioners compromises the integrity and ethical standards of the industry. It also leads to decline in the performance of most pharmaceuticals organizations. CSR Analysis Pfizer Company has the responsibility of ensuring that it regulates the costs of medical services and products under its line of operation. Good pricing would also make more people to receive better healthcare services since they would be in a position to afford the prescribed drugs. It also has the ethical responsibility of using ethical marketing tactics that would benefit both the company and the community of persons who uses its products. Legally, the company must ensure that it follows the due marketing process, price regulation standards, marketing policies hence fully adhering to the rule of law. Such efforts would lead to fair competition in the marketing thus other pharmaceutical companies (competitors) in the industry would have an opportunity to compete on a fair platform. The government would receive the necessary taxes while doctors would live a more fulfilled life with good salaries and wages being received. Proper CSR would help in facilitating efforts to reach a solut ion to the health care problem. Evaluation The case mainly involves Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company in its use of very questionable marketing tactics. The company used very unscrupulous methods in marketing the Neurontin anti-seizer drugs and doing off label-marketing of the painkiller Bextra and other medicines in order to lure more customers into using their medicines. Rather than employing such unfair and unethical marketing tactics, the company should instead have followed the normal marketing channel of producing medicine and simply alerting the medicine practitioners through various existing hospital departments of the existence of their medicines. It is indeed the discretion of the doctors, upon their tests and knowledge, to choose which medicines to prescribe to the patients without any undue external influence. Recommendations And Implementations Various relevant laws and policies need to be put into practice. This would ensure easier market control measures meant to ensure that any unethical practices in the industry are curbed. Guidelines on how marketing by pharmaceutical companies should be carried ought to be clearly stipulated. In order to ensure ethical practices are adhered to, education and public awareness forums should be carried to the stakeholders. Doctors should also be protected against selfish companies that demand, threaten and force them into prescribing certain company drugs. Control mechanisms of the cost of healthcare also need to be put into place in order to ensure that customers are not exploited by selfish and unscrupulous medical practitioners. In addition to that, serious penalties and in some instances, nullification of trade licenses should be enforced to companies and individual persons who use unethical marketing tactics. Appendix: Stakeholder Map Work Cited Archie B.C. Business Ethics: A Brief Readings on Vital Topics, a collection of his columns. Athens Banner-Herald Publishers, 2009
Friday, October 25, 2019
Ecosystems and Environmental Discourse :: Essays Papers
Ecosystems and Environmental Discourse What is an ecosystem? At first glance, this seems to be a straightforward question, one to be answered by environmental scientists. However, the concept of an ecosystem, or more specifically, the action that posits the existence of an ecosystem, raises a series of questions that challenge some basic assumptions about the environment. For instance, is an ecosystem a concrete object in the same way that a stone or a tree is? Or instead, is an ecosystem a set of interactions between such objects? While ecosystems do indeed exist, it is not without dramatic changes in our epistemology that we can speak of such objects without contradiction. Most importantly, we must acknowledge that the existence of ecosystems is contingent on human society. Environmental scientists certainly play an important role in describing ecosystems and in prescribing correct management of these systems, but we miss an important aspect of humanityââ¬â¢s role in the environment if we see ecosystems as discrete objects that exist independent of human society. Then what is an ecosystem? An ecosystem is a concept constructed by human society that aids us in perceiving an amazingly complex structure of interactions. This construction is rooted fundamentally in our language and the discourse that surrounds environmental issues. As such, the concept of discourse and the practice of discourse analysis are vital to understanding what an ecosystem might be. While there are advantages to seeing ecosystem as concrete objects, it is my intention in this section to describe an alternative view of ecosystems that is rooted in postpositivistic, postmodern analysis of reality. Hopefully, such analysis will also be useful in analyzing other concepts pertinent to environmental issues. To approach this alternative view, I will outline the concept of discourse as formulated by Michel Foucault, summarize the views and extension of post-Foucauldian discourse analytic theorists, and finally, apply these concepts to the question of ecosystems. Throughout, I will address the epistemological changes implicit in discourse analysis. A discourse is an institutionalized way of speaking that determines not only what we say and how we say it, but also what we do not say. Originating in the field of linguistics, the term discourse initially referred to whole units of speech (conversations) and the speech community in which these units were communicated. William Labov (1972) and other sociolinguists have used discourse analysis primarily as a descriptive tool, leaving epistemological and postmodern considerations aside.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
How is globalization affecting marketplaces in remote areas of the world? Essay
Quality of life for the poor is increased at an accelerated rate. The poor are better able to earn money and afford to buy the things they need. The International Monetary Fund talks about a study of the subject that was carried out by World Bank economists David Dollar and Aart Kraay: They concluded that since 1980, globalization has contributed to a reduction in poverty as well as a reduction in global income inequality. They found that in ââ¬Å"globalizingâ⬠countries in the developing world, income per person grew three-and-a-half times faster than in ââ¬Å"non-globalizingâ⬠countries, during the 1990s. In general, they noted, ââ¬Å"higher growth rates in globalizing developing countries have translated into higher incomes for the poor.â⬠Dollar and Kraay also found that in virtually all events in which a country experienced growth at a rate of two percent or more, the income of the poor rose. (IMF Staff, 2008) Information sharing capabilities are provided through the introduction of technology infrastructure introduced into remote areas. Farmers are able to research and share best practice techniques. Crop yields would likely rise. A paper by Dr. Alka Dhameja and Dr. Uma Medury discusses the Warna Wired Village Project in India: The primary objective of this project is to demonstrate the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in the accelerated socio-economic development of villages around Warna Nagar in the Kolhapur and Sangli districts of the state of Maharashtra. The project area has a cluster of 70 villages, consisting of 46 villages from Kolhapur and 24 villages from Sangli district. It has been jointly implemented by the Government of India through the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the Government of Maharashtra, and the Warna Cooperative Society. This project was initiated to serve the information needs of the farmers for different crop cultivation practices of major crops such as sugarcane, pest and disease control; marketing and processing information etc., right up to the village level through networked facilitation booths in the villages. Theà existing cooperative structure has been used along with the state of the art infrastructure to allow Internet access to the existing cooperative societies. Issues in remote areas have opened new markets for some companies. Blandine Laperche and Gilliane Lefebvre describe the ââ¬Å"reverse innovationâ⬠approach by GE HealthCare who locates the research design centers for products in the developing country itself: The first ultra-portable electrocardiogram (ECG) was fully designed, worked out and produced in India to meet the needs of a large number of remote rural inhabitants who had to be visited by fully equipped doctors. To face the frequent mains failures that occurred in many Indian regions as well as a serious shortage of healthcare professionals, the Mac i had batteries and was designed for an easy use. It was portable and light so that doctors could get to the patients who lived in remote areas. GE HealthCare brought some of the technological advantages of developed countries to remote areas of the globe. One of the greatest things about it was that even though the performance features may be half of the original product, the cost for the new portable units were 85 percent lower.(Laperche & Lefebvre, 2012) References Dhameja, D., & Medury, D. (n.d.). Information and Communication Technology in the Globalization Era: The Socio-economic Concerns. Retrieved January 16, 2015, from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/eropa/unpan014261.pdf IMF Staff. (2008, May 2). Issues Brief ââ¬â Globalization: A Brief Overview. Retrieved January 16, 2015, from https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2008/053008.htm Laperche, B., & Lefebvre, G. (2012). The globalization of Research & Development in industrial corporations: Towards ââ¬Å"reverse innovationâ⬠? Retrieved January 17, 2015, from http://www.cairn.info/zen.php?ID_ARTICLE=JIE_010_0053
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Racial Formation in the United States (1960-1980) Essay
Michael Omi and Howard Winantââ¬â¢s book, Racial Formation in the United States, identifies race and its importance to ââ¬Å"Americaâ⬠. Saying, it ââ¬Å"will always be at the center of the American experienceâ⬠(Pg.6). Challenging both mainstream (ethnicity-oriented) and radical (class-oriented) analyses, Omi and Winant argue that race has been ââ¬Å"systematically overlookedâ⬠(Pg. 138) as an important factor in understanding American politics and society. They set as their task in construction of ââ¬Å"an analytic framework which to view the racial politics of the past three decadesâ⬠in America (pg.5) The book is organized in three parts. Part one surveys three perspectives on American race relations: ââ¬Å"ethnicity-based theoryâ⬠, ââ¬Å"class-based theoryâ⬠and ââ¬Å"nation-based theoryâ⬠. Omi and Winant have arguments with each. Ethnicity-based theory is criticized for its tendency to consider race under the rubric ethnicity and thus to overlook the unique experiences of American racial minorities (blacks, Native Americans, Asians). Class-based theory is similarly taken to task for overlooking the power of race in social, economic, and political relations in its concern with economic interest, processes, and cleavages. Finally, nation-based theory is challenged as geographically and historically inappropriate for analyzing the structure of American race relations. What is needed according to Omi and Winant, is a ââ¬Å"racial formation perspective,â⬠one that can deal with race as ââ¬Å"an autonomous field of social conflict, political organizations, and cultural/ideological meaningâ⬠(p.52). Part two is an elaboration of racial formation perspective. Omi and Winant define ââ¬Å"racial formationâ⬠as ââ¬Å"the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meaningsâ⬠(pg.61). The racial formation perspective emphasizes the extent to which race is a social and political construction that operates at two levels: the ââ¬Å"microâ⬠(individual identity) and the ââ¬Å"macroâ⬠(collective social structure). The two levelsà interact to form a racial social movement when individuals (at the micro level) are mobilized in response to political racial injustice (at the macro level). Through racial movements, social and political conceptions of race are ââ¬Å"rearticulated,â⬠and a new racial order immerges. Then the new racial order itself becomes a target of reactionary challenges and re-rearticulating. In part three, Omi and Winant discuss the period since the 1950s in the civil rights movement and its increasingly militant demands for American political reform, continues through the actual body of civil rights legislative and policy changes enacted by American political system, and culminates in the racial reaction of the new Right and the Reagan ââ¬Å"revolution.â⬠While they argue for the continued importance of the role of race in American politics, culture, and economics in their conclusion, Omi and Winant make no specific predictions. They sate, in fact, that ââ¬Å"the nature of the racial contest the next time around remains open.â⬠This lack of specificity is not limited to the conclusion, but a lack of thoroughness throughout the book. The result explanation of Racial Formation in the United States is interesting but ultimately not very compelling or a useful book. The authors present their ideas in an engaging manner but fail to provide detailed analysis. We are told that ââ¬Å"race has been a key determinant of mass movements, stat policy, and even foreign policy in the United Statesâ⬠(pg.138), yet we are given only the occasional examples as support for these assertions. The authors remind us that ââ¬Å"one of the first things we notice about people when we meet them (along with their sex) is their raceâ⬠(pg. 62). This is not news. To live in American is to know the power of race in society. In addition to a lack of efficient evidence, the authorsââ¬â¢ criticisms and arguments are often inconsistent and unclear. For example, the three literature review chapters in part one are far from encyclopedic, are rather dated, and draw from a very narrow range of the bodies of writing they are supposed to cover. Such incomplete and unconventional citations rise suspicious arising from selectivity combine with confusion arising fromà inconsistency. After devoting a chapter to a critique of ethnicity-based theory, the authors conclude that ââ¬Å"ethnicity theoryâ⬠¦comes closet to our concept of ââ¬Ëracial formationâ⬠(pg. 53). Similarity, after spending a chapter outlining uselessness of nation-based theory, the authors cite ââ¬Å"Chicago nationalismâ⬠(pg. 104-105) as evidence of the primacy and longevity of race in America. Perhaps most confusing in the whole presentation is Omi and Winantââ¬â¢s insistence that American sociologyââ¬â¢s use of the concept of ââ¬Å"ethnicityâ⬠has blinded us to the importance of ââ¬Å"raceâ⬠in America. Never in the bookââ¬â¢s 201 pages do the authors define either term. We are left to conclude that race refers to some bundle of a body of differences, while ethnicity refers to linguistics, religious, or cultural divisions among populations. The implication is that physical (racial) characteristics are more powerful than social or cultural (ethnic) characteristics in shaping inter group relations and ethnic politics. This implication reveals the authorsââ¬â¢ conceptual short sightings resulting from their exclusive focus on Americaââ¬â¢s narrow expedience. While color constitutes a powerful ethnic boundary in the United Sates, any broad understanding of racial and ethnic relations in America or elsewhere cannot ignore the reality and unpredictability of no grouping of ethnic boundaries, for example, among black Africans in Nigeria, Uganda, or Zaire, or among white Europeans in Northern Ireland, Belgium, or Spain. Class lectures and discussion expressed many different experiences of Immigrating groups in the U.S. Omi and Winantââ¬â¢s book explore a theory-based approach to understand racial formation, and the development of immigrating individuals and groups. The class was introduced by four ââ¬Å"main concepts in immigrationâ⬠; Uprootedness (Handlin), Transplantation (Bodnar), Assimilation (Higham) and Ethnicity (Conzen). All important components of the immigrating experience, although assimilation is the most important. The ability for an immigrating individual and/or group to assimilate is imperative for future prosperity, which is the consistent intention behind emigrating from original homelands. Highamââ¬â¢s theory of assimilation ignores original cultures and identities, classifying many specific cultures under one pluralism. Omi and Winant, criticize this phenomenon and suggestion in theà Ethnic-based theory. Believing in specific contribution each American minority makes socially, economically and politically. The diversification of cultures and experience is the ââ¬Å"continual building on which America was foundedâ⬠(pg. 32). Constant with the book, there is no suggestion to improve the ignorance of racial and cultural grouping in assimilation and the books theories are left short at criticism. Despite its conceptual and evidentiary shortcomings, Racial Formation in the United States makes two important contributions: to assert the independent or at least interdependent power of race and ethnicity in society and emphasizes the extent to which ethnicity is a political phenomenon enacted both in social movements and in political policy. The book will be most useful reading for sociologists who adhere to what Omi and Winant identify as class-based theories of ethnicity, that is, that ethnicity is really class disguise.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
6-B3 Dropping a Product Line Essays
6-B3 Dropping a Product Line Essays 6-B3 Dropping a Product Line Essay 6-B3 Dropping a Product Line Essay 6-B3 Dropping a Product Line Hambleyââ¬â¢s Toy Store is on Regent Street in London. It has a magic department near the main door. Suppose that management is considering dropping the magic department, which has consistently shown an operating loss. The predicted income statements, in thousands of pounds (? ), follow (for ease of analysis, only three product lines are shown): General Electronic Magic Total Merchandise Products Department Sales ? 6,000 ? 5,000 ? 400 ? 600 Variable expenses 4,090 3,500 200 390 Contribution margin ? 1,910 (32%) ? 1,500 (30%) ? 200 (50%) ? 210 (35%) Fixed expenses (compensation, depreciation, roperty taxes, insurance, etc. ) 1,110 750 50 310 Operating income (loss) ? 800 ? 750 ? 150 ? (100) The ? 310,000 of magic department fixed expenses include the compensation of employees of ? 100,000. These employees will be released if the magic department is abandoned. All of the magic departmentââ¬â¢s equipment is fully depreciated, so none of the ? 310,000 pertains to such items. Furthermore, disposal values of equipment will be exactly offset by the costs of removal and remodeling. If the magic department is dropped, the manager will use the vacated space for either more general merchandise or more electronic products. The expansion of general merchandise would not entail hiring any additional salaried help, but more electronic products would require an additional person at an annual cost of ? 25,000. The manager thinks that sales of general merchandise would increase by ? 300,000; electronic products, by ? 200,000. The managerââ¬â¢s modest predictions are partially based on the fact that she thinks the magic department has helped lure customers to the store and, thus, improved overall sales. If the magic department is closed, that lure would be gone. Should the magic department be closed? Explain, showing computations.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Laws Against Discrimination in the Workplace
Laws Against Discrimination in the Workplace Free Online Research Papers While discrimination in the workplace has become more difficult to identify, Americans can rely on several federal laws that prohibits job discrimination. In the hiring and terminating process, employers need to be fully aware of the correct legal course of action to avoid discrimination practices. John is an employee in a private sector organization that has strong resistance to enforcement of existing discrimination laws. He wants to file a discrimination complaint against his employer. Based on this scenario, the entire discrimination complaint and civil litigation process will be discussed as it applies to an employee and employer in a private sector organization. In the case of John filing a discrimination complaint against his employer there are certain steps he has to follow. When an employee of a private sector organization believes that he or she have been discriminated against, he or she can file a charge or claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Private sector employee claims must be filed within 180 days of the event, after the complaint is filed with EEOC, within 10 days the employer is served notice of the charge (Author Unknown, 2008). An employee with a discrimination complaint against his or her employer will begin his or her journey of reconciliation with the EEOC. The EEOC is made up of five commissioners and a General Counsel appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The collective EEOC is responsible for the enforcement and litigation process of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (Author Unknown, 2008). Based on the initial evidence, the EEOC will determine if a priority investigation will be assigned. For charges that support a violation of a law, a higher priority is set, for charges not so obvious; a follow-up investigation will be needed. A settlement can be sought at anytime during the investigation, but if no settlement can be found, the investigation continues. When the EEOC has finished an investigation, the information will be discussed with the charging party and the employe r. At this time, options are considered on how to proceed with the discrimination complaint. The EEOC may dismiss the charges if further investigation will not produce any evidence that a violation of the law has occurred or if discrimination has been established, the EEOC will inform the employer and attempt a resolution between the charging party and employer. The EEOC offers mediation as an alternative to the traditional investigative or litigation process (Author Unknown, 2008). The mediation process is voluntary by both the employer and complainant, in which a third party will facilitate the opposing partyââ¬â¢s negotiation process to reach a resolution. This gives both parties an informal platform to work out their issues, differences, and misunderstandings. It is important to know the mediator does not resolve the issue, but helps the parties agree to a common resolution that will benefit both the employer and employee. The mediation process is free, confidential, and most important, avoids the litigation process. If all avenues have been exhausted and the charge warrants due process, than a civil suit may need to be filed. The apposing parties may request either a trial by jury or trial by Judge only. In a jury trial, a selection of peers will decide the validity of the complaint and the damages awarded, whereas a bench trial a Judge will decide on the issues presented. Once the case has been decided, the losing party has the right to appeal the decision. The appellant must prove that an error has been made and the decision needs to be overturned. At this point, three Judges working together will read the briefs from the opposing parties and either make a decision or recommend oral arguments in the courtroom. The appeals court usually has the final word unless a petition for a writ of certiorari (Appeals process) is filed asking the Supreme Court to review the case (Author Unknown, 2008). This however, is not always granted. The Supreme Court usually gets involved in important legal issues or when two appellate courts give apposing views. In very few cases, the Supreme Court may be required by law to h ear the case; otherwise, the review may be turned down. Conclusion Knowledge of the legal process and discrimination is power to the success of a business. To protect both the employee and employer, organizations should be fully aware of the discrimination process and its laws. Additionally, organizations should conduct an orientation on ethics and discrimination to express to its employees that his or rights are valued. To discriminate does not only occur in the hiring process, but can occur throughout employment and the firing process. Upon filing a discrimination complaint against an employer, people can expect the process to be quite lengthy. However, the laws are put in place for all to use in the event people truly feel violated against. It is, after all, the strong will and desire that people stand up for what he or she believes in and hope that justice prevails. References Author Unknown (2008). EEOC: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The information was retrieved from the World Wide Web on May 21, 2008: eeoc.gov/ Author Unknown (2008). U.S. Courts: The Federal Judiciary. The information was retrieved from the World Wide Web on May 21, 2008: uscourts.gov/ Research Papers on Laws Against Discrimination in the WorkplaceMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesTrailblazing by Eric AndersonTwilight of the UAWThe Fifth Horseman19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraPETSTEL analysis of IndiaThe Project Managment Office SystemAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2
Saturday, October 19, 2019
A Christmas Carol Essay Example for Free (#13)
A Christmas Carol Essay Christ (509) , Charles Dickens (378) , Christmas (159) , A Christmas Carol (87) , Christmas Carol (60) , Bob Cratchit (35) , good extended (7) , Powerful (1) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints ? The Ghost of Christmas Past is the epitome of the contradictions of youth and age as well as winter and spring. The ghost has a beam of light jetting from his head and Scrooge extinguishes the light when he feels that he is unable to bear any of the other memories that the ghost is showing him. By showing Scrooge his past, the ghost has makes him realize that he has changed drastically from who he was when he was young and that his interests have turned from people to money. The Ghost of Christmas Present is a friendly, generous giant who shows Scrooge the homes of Bob Cratchit as well as Scroogeââ¬â¢s nephew, Fred. In both homes, good will is extended toward Scrooge although he has never shown the same good will to either his clerk, or his nephew. As the time passes the ghost, who was young when he first appeared to Scrooge, seems to age in the way that the present changes to the past with the passing of time. Then, just as he is approaching his last moments, the ghost shows Scrooge that want and ignorance are two products of society that will destroy it if not combated against by those who can prevent both social ills. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a dark phantom, and the only part of this ghost that Scrooge sees, beyond his black robe, is a hand with which he points at the things Scrooge is to take notice of. This ghost shows Scrooge how he will die, and it is a sad scene. Scrooge begs the ghost to tell him that this fate can be changed if he changes his ways, but the ghost doesnââ¬â¢t answer him. Scrooge is left only with the knowledge that he must change and become a more charitable person if he is to alter the fate that the ghost revealed to him. Last of the major characters is Tiny Tim who is Bob Cratchitââ¬â¢s youngest son. He is a lame boy with a cheerful nature despite his ailments and symbolises hope. At the Christmas church service, Tim hopes that people will look at his ailment and be reminded of how Christ healed the lame and blind. Tiny Timââ¬â¢s guileless nature impresses Scrooge, and when he learns from the Ghost of Christmas Present that Tiny Tim will die soon, Scrooge is saddened. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come also shows the Cratchit house without Tiny Tim, and the vision is a sad one. Scrooge is touched by the gentleness of the little boy and wishes to prevent this fate from occurring. There are also some minor characters in ââ¬ËA Christmas Carolââ¬â¢ but who also play an important part of the story. Firstly there is Fred, Scroogeââ¬â¢s nephew (his deceased sisterââ¬â¢s son), is a pauper, but a cheerful man nonetheless. He comes to the counting house to wish Scrooge a merry Christmas and invite his uncle to dine with himself and his wife on Christmas Day. Scrooge, however, refuses to associate with his nephew. Fred actually pities his miserly uncle because although he has all that money, he is still alone and unhappy. Fred insists that he will visit Scrooge at Christmas every year no matter whether or not Scrooge ever agrees to dine with Fred and his wife. After his visitation by the three ghosts of Christmas, Scrooge attends the Christmas dinner at Fredââ¬â¢s home and enjoys himself immensely. Secondly there is Mr. Fezziwig who was Scroogeââ¬â¢s kind and generous employer. He revisits the memory of his employment with Fezziwig when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows him Fezziwigââ¬â¢s great Christmas party. The memory of this kind employer makes Scrooge feel a twinge of regret at how poorly he treats Bob Cratchit, his own employee. Last of the minor but nonetheless important characters is Belle, the young woman who once loved and was loved by Scrooge. Unfortunately, his love for her was replaced by his love for money, and she did not want to be second in favour to gold. She left him and went her own way after that and married. Scrooge remained alone. The Ghost of Christmas Past reminds him of why Belle left him and shows him where his life began going the wrong direction While reciting ââ¬ËA Christmas Carolââ¬â¢ I noticed some themes that were entwined within the story, the most important themes of the story are stated more or less clearly by characters in it. The first of these might be Marleyââ¬â¢s saying, ââ¬Å"Businessâ⬠¦ Mankind was my businessâ⬠. Where Scrooge sees business in the familiar sense of trade and finance, Marley now sees that oneââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"businessâ⬠is what one should do in life, duty or obligation. Mankind is or was not just Marleyââ¬â¢s business of course, but Scroogeââ¬â¢s business, your business and mine, in fact, everyoneââ¬â¢s. Secondly, Scroogeââ¬â¢s unkind remark that poor people should die and ââ¬Å"reduce the surplus populationâ⬠brings us to another theme of the story. When Scrooge asks if Tiny Tim will die he is reminded of these words. Why? Because the ââ¬Å"surplus populationâ⬠is not an abstraction but real individuals. Scrooge is told by the Ghost of Christmas Present to find out ââ¬Å"What the surplus is, and where it isâ⬠before making such statements. Another theme is that change is possible however set we are in our ways. Dickens imagines the most miserable and hard-hearted man he can, and shows how he can be reformed if he sees his responsibilities. The message that Dickens is trying to get across is one of happiness. If you live your life in seclusion, only speaking to those who you must and always being nasty, you can never be truly happy. Dickens uses Scrooge as the epitome of selfishness and we are supposed to realise this and contrast it with Tiny Timââ¬â¢s attitude of caring and sharing. Tiny Tim is the epitome of joy and hope; he is the person in the book with who we are supposed to learn from. The ghosts are the conduit from which we are to understand the past, present, and future of an unhappy man. A Christmas Carol. (2017, Sep 23).
Friday, October 18, 2019
Foundations of Finance and Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Foundations of Finance and Investment - Essay Example The Repo rate is the short-term interest rate at which financial institutions such as banks and building societies can borrow money from the BOE for a two-week period. The MPC meets monthly to set the Repo rate as part of its monetary policy function to control inflation. Its decision on what this rate should be acts as a signal to the money markets of how much to pay savers and charge borrowers for the use of money. The Repo rate therefore acts as the baseline for the cost of money that can be loaned to customers, which can include other banks, in the form of mortgages and overdrafts (BOE, 2005). Many households and firms, however, borrow for longer time periods and prefer to fix borrowing costs in advance, either because this helps them plan their cash flows better or protects them from the future risk of rising interest rates. This is a gamble some lenders and borrowers take, since interest rates may also move the other way. Fixed long-term borrowing or interest rates are relevant to those who want fixed-rate mortgages for housing or to firms with long-term investment plans like expanding a factory that needs some years to pay off. Long-term interest rates ranging from one to ten years are calculated simply by taking an average of forecast short-term interest rates over the desired period. Short- and long-term interest rates are closely related, but differ on the basis of MPC decisions; the expectations of how the national economy will fare; the expected future inflation rates; and how likely the MPC will achieve its inflation targets (BOE, 2005). The direction of short-term rates is easy to determine because the figure depends on the latest interest rate decision of the MPC that can either raise or lower the Repo rate. Long-term rates, however, may go either way, determined by how the economy will perform many years from now. It can happen that whilst the MPC raises the Repo rate next month, ten-year rates may go down if the market thinks such a decision will cause rates to fall in the future. Future rates depend on how reliable the market finds the MPC (Barrell et al., 2006, p. 60). In deciding to keep the Repo rate at the same level in April 2006, the MPC considered several rigorously monitored variables such as U.K. inflation (down from 2.0% to 1.8%), money supply (M4, the sum of notes, coins, and so-called broad money consisting of what is held in bank and building society accounts, grew 12% in the year to February), economic growth (in line with first quarter trend rate at 0.6%), U.K. consumer spending and manufacturing (growing steadily), asset prices (rising prices of equities and houses), the sterling exchange rate (weakening or depreciating to the dollar and the Euro), risk of higher inflation (rising due to the increase in energy and oil prices), the economic performance of the U.S., the so-called Eurozone (EU countries that have the Euro as its common currency), and Japan (inflation, exchange rates, asset prices, etc.), wage pressures (rising average real product wage balanced by lower growth of average real consumption wage; the first refers to the re al cost incurred by employers whilst the second refers to the take home pay of employees), and consumer surveys on inflationary expectations (rising), a key emotional factor that influences personal decisions to either save or spend. Inflation - the rise in prices of a basket of goods and services in the whole economy - if
Environmental Toxicology. Homework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Environmental Toxicology. Homework - Essay Example IBI is a multimetric index signifying the capacity of a habitat to sustain and maintain a balanced, incorporated, adaptive biological mechanism having the complete range of elements anticipated in a surroundings natural habitat (Noss, Westra & Pimentel, 2000). The user(s) categorizes environments to describe homogeneous series within or crossways environments such as lakes, streams, or wetlands; small or large streams. Metrics (attributes ) are selection that provides relevant and reliable signals about the biological impacts of human practices. Sampling designs and protocols are developed that make sure that those attributes are measured precisely and accurately. Data is gathered from each location and analyzed to establish the orientation standard for every metric. The ranges of metric qualities are transformed to converted metricscores such as 1, 3, or 5 (Noss, Westra & Pimentel,
A fundamental concept of modern architecture Essay
A fundamental concept of modern architecture - Essay Example e architecture in the modern period not only created house and public buildings that combine beauty and technical aspect of social efficiency, they also ensured the buildings were economical in all ways the architecture operating in the modern period were successfully blending technology with expressive style, history with science, beauty with practicality. These are elements that completely changed the building environment in ways that are still discernible today. This is an historical argument paper about the modern architecture. It is based on the definition architecture according to Siegfried Giedion and the development of the space, time and architecture concepts. The definition of modernist architecture is still an issue of debate between the art historians and other critiques. In Space, Time and architecture, Giedion argues that there is an apparent chaos in the state of culture that has been brought about by contradictory tendencies between the enormous technological and industrial development and peoples values. There is a need to feel the gap between the advances in the humanity in the realm of thought and realm of feelings. The emergence of the modern architecture in the early 20th century has been a matter of debates and arguments among different architecture historians and other critics. It is believed that the modern architecture and movement emerged in the late nineteenth century and was completely formed in the 1920s, just before the World War one began. Modernism has been understood differently by different authors and critics in architecture history.2modern architecture has been reflected by such publications as The international style by Hitchcock and Johnsons that was published in 1932 and 1995.Pevners works titles Pioneers of modern design of 1936 and Space time and Architecture that was published in the 1941 and 1982. The contemporary accounts of the modern movement provide a contrasting view. These more architectural historians
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Four managerial function Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Four managerial function - Term Paper Example Planning can be defined as the process of selecting the course of action for the project. There can be different ways of achieving the same goal, with some incurring more costs than others. The purpose of planning is to identify such a course of action to achieve the goals that enables a manager to minimize the cost without compromising upon the quality. The need for planning originates in the fact that the market economies in which an organization has to establish itself, survive, and thrive are highly competitive and change is a norm in such market economies (Rao, 1988). Planning is a technical skill. To facilitate the managers in the present age, several planning software are available in the market. Such planning software include but are not limited to MS 2010 and Primavera. After the suitable course of action has been identified to achieve the goal, the next step is to schedule the project. Organizing is the second function of management. ââ¬Å"Organizing is the process of linking and arranging activities in a sequence. It includes allocating work, authority and resourcesâ⬠(Rao, 1988). In this stage, the different steps identified in the plan are time-phased. The plan is divided into a range of activities that are assigned durations and relationships are established between them. A manager needs very good technical and intellectual skills in order to be able to execute this function successfully. Organizing, as the name implies, is also concerned with structuring and administering the organization in such a way that adequate channels for effective communication and execution of plans are formed. In the organizing function of management, the manager decides what kind of organizational structure should prevail in the organization so that the desired organizational culture, hierarchy, and channels of communication are formed. A manager needs to have a
Ancient Civilizations Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Ancient Civilizations Governance - Essay Example The period of the Pharaohs started when the Lower and Upper Egypt were unified under the same state. Same us Mesopotamia the Nile was the only source of livelihood in Egypt as were Tigris and Euphrates. There were royal governors appointed to national administrative centers by the pharaoh who were worshiped as the god. During this period of the fourth dynasty it was strong than ever and it's when the pyramids were built to bury the pharaohs (Clare, 1906). They had a centralized form of government to organize the vast kingdom and hold on together, where they used slave labor from around Egypt. They are also known to be the cradle of civilization as their counterparts in Mesopotamia, who also had specialist in writing, stone cutters for pyramid construction as well as mathematicians and painters. The kingdom came to for fall during the fifth dynasty when civil wars arose and the regional governors revolted against the royal family which undermined the unity of the government (Alcock, 2001). Ancient Hebrews of Israel and Judah Israelites are traced in the book of genesis, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their leaders in the beginning, where Abraham lived a nomadic lifestyle and bore the royal family of Israel that was later led by his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. The history of Israelites and Judah is mostly found in the Bible conceptualization in the Old Testament, dedicated to the Bronze Age. After living in the desert, they conquered cities in Canaan such as Jericho, Hazor and Ai. The structures of Israelites were conforming to those of Canaanites states in their monarchial government, religion, economy and social structures, where they improved on these structures to establish a strong kingdom (Collingwood, 1946). The Israelite Kingdom... Ancient Civilizations Governance The habitants of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic religion, with same belief that the world was surrounded everywhere by water and it was a flat disc. As a region they had the same beliefs on the universe but they differed from one city state to another, where they refer to different gods and goddesses. The city states of the Sumerian people thrived independently of each other, where the larger cities would try and conquer the whole region to unify it under the latter's rule, where this was met with great resistance breaking down the empire most of the times (Clare, 1906). The Mesopotamian's believed that the authority of their rulers ( kings and queens) were anointed by their Gods, giving them total control over the populace as it was legitimized by the religion of the land. Other rulers were believed to be as gods being more than two-thirds gods and lesser human. The empire was divided into the city states which were known as provinces and were headed by a governor who made sure that people paid their taxes, gathered soldiers for war, supplied workers for building temples and was entirely in responsible for law enforcement in his state. Some of the early city states were Samaria, Damascus, and Nineveh and later there was Babylon which expanded much during the times of Hammurabi's rule. Growth and prosperity in this period was stagnant as a series of plagues and famines had reduced the populace almost by half leading to peasant revolts and social unrest. This also threatened the Catholic Churchââ¬â¢s unity.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
A fundamental concept of modern architecture Essay
A fundamental concept of modern architecture - Essay Example e architecture in the modern period not only created house and public buildings that combine beauty and technical aspect of social efficiency, they also ensured the buildings were economical in all ways the architecture operating in the modern period were successfully blending technology with expressive style, history with science, beauty with practicality. These are elements that completely changed the building environment in ways that are still discernible today. This is an historical argument paper about the modern architecture. It is based on the definition architecture according to Siegfried Giedion and the development of the space, time and architecture concepts. The definition of modernist architecture is still an issue of debate between the art historians and other critiques. In Space, Time and architecture, Giedion argues that there is an apparent chaos in the state of culture that has been brought about by contradictory tendencies between the enormous technological and industrial development and peoples values. There is a need to feel the gap between the advances in the humanity in the realm of thought and realm of feelings. The emergence of the modern architecture in the early 20th century has been a matter of debates and arguments among different architecture historians and other critics. It is believed that the modern architecture and movement emerged in the late nineteenth century and was completely formed in the 1920s, just before the World War one began. Modernism has been understood differently by different authors and critics in architecture history.2modern architecture has been reflected by such publications as The international style by Hitchcock and Johnsons that was published in 1932 and 1995.Pevners works titles Pioneers of modern design of 1936 and Space time and Architecture that was published in the 1941 and 1982. The contemporary accounts of the modern movement provide a contrasting view. These more architectural historians
Ancient Civilizations Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Ancient Civilizations Governance - Essay Example The period of the Pharaohs started when the Lower and Upper Egypt were unified under the same state. Same us Mesopotamia the Nile was the only source of livelihood in Egypt as were Tigris and Euphrates. There were royal governors appointed to national administrative centers by the pharaoh who were worshiped as the god. During this period of the fourth dynasty it was strong than ever and it's when the pyramids were built to bury the pharaohs (Clare, 1906). They had a centralized form of government to organize the vast kingdom and hold on together, where they used slave labor from around Egypt. They are also known to be the cradle of civilization as their counterparts in Mesopotamia, who also had specialist in writing, stone cutters for pyramid construction as well as mathematicians and painters. The kingdom came to for fall during the fifth dynasty when civil wars arose and the regional governors revolted against the royal family which undermined the unity of the government (Alcock, 2001). Ancient Hebrews of Israel and Judah Israelites are traced in the book of genesis, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their leaders in the beginning, where Abraham lived a nomadic lifestyle and bore the royal family of Israel that was later led by his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. The history of Israelites and Judah is mostly found in the Bible conceptualization in the Old Testament, dedicated to the Bronze Age. After living in the desert, they conquered cities in Canaan such as Jericho, Hazor and Ai. The structures of Israelites were conforming to those of Canaanites states in their monarchial government, religion, economy and social structures, where they improved on these structures to establish a strong kingdom (Collingwood, 1946). The Israelite Kingdom... Ancient Civilizations Governance The habitants of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic religion, with same belief that the world was surrounded everywhere by water and it was a flat disc. As a region they had the same beliefs on the universe but they differed from one city state to another, where they refer to different gods and goddesses. The city states of the Sumerian people thrived independently of each other, where the larger cities would try and conquer the whole region to unify it under the latter's rule, where this was met with great resistance breaking down the empire most of the times (Clare, 1906). The Mesopotamian's believed that the authority of their rulers ( kings and queens) were anointed by their Gods, giving them total control over the populace as it was legitimized by the religion of the land. Other rulers were believed to be as gods being more than two-thirds gods and lesser human. The empire was divided into the city states which were known as provinces and were headed by a governor who made sure that people paid their taxes, gathered soldiers for war, supplied workers for building temples and was entirely in responsible for law enforcement in his state. Some of the early city states were Samaria, Damascus, and Nineveh and later there was Babylon which expanded much during the times of Hammurabi's rule. Growth and prosperity in this period was stagnant as a series of plagues and famines had reduced the populace almost by half leading to peasant revolts and social unrest. This also threatened the Catholic Churchââ¬â¢s unity.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Experiential Leadership Essay Example for Free
Experiential Leadership Essay Executive Summary à The researchersââ¬â¢ aim is to point out to the effect of Experiential Leadership in the selected company liked Barras Home Improvements. Background: à The Progress Report Name of the Business Manager of Barras Home Improvement Company is Mike Allen. He supervised 16 employees. Eight of them were assigned in office and eight were outside in the field. Nature of business/service market Barras Home Improvements was formed in 1987. During the past year, the company has positioned itself as a leader in the sales and home improvement. Home Improvement is the field of expertise in fact customer can easily choose their desired lay out for their home improvement, guided by the advice support to meet the great improvement of the home. In addition, they are now celebrating a twenty years in service. Barras Home Improvements Company is classified as family Business. They have large selection of Kitchens, Bathrooms and Bedrooms gallery lay-out or so called showrooms. Their mission statements are choice and value for money, service and quality product, and first class workmanship. The purposed of the operation of the company is to provide customer with highest standards of quality and service. Their products are sinks, taps, wall and floor tiles, Amtico flooring and shower enclosures and etc. They are also specialised in the complete installation service covering every aspect from plumbing and electricââ¬â¢s, plastering and minor building work and tiling to maintenance free ceilings. Insurance work is also undertaken and a 12 month written guarantee is given on all our work. We are both CORGI and NIC EIC registered. They also have a promotion of à £50.00 deposit only for the customers instillation fee Customer scope and demographics The informational data that the company can offer to the customer is as follows: Local: This Company is situated at the top of Clay Lane, off Ball Hill Shopping Centre on the Walsgrave Road. M6 ââ¬â à Heading South: Leave M6 at Junction 3. Follow A444 towards Coventry. Turn à à à à à à à à à à left into Mercer Avenue and the showroom is at the top of this road, which is at à à à à à à à à à à the junction of Clay Lane. M6 ââ¬â Heading North: Leave M6 at Junction 2. Follow signs for the A4600 heading towards Coventry City centre. At Ball Hill shopping centre on the Walsgrave Road turn right into Clay Lane and our showroom is at the junction with Barras Green and Mercer Avenue. à Organizational Structure of the Barras Home Improvement Company Organizationââ¬â¢s Workforce The Barras Home Improvement Company was subdivided into two groups of 8 in the office and 8 in the out field for installation and contractors. The people in office were responsible for customer service and do some paper works and entertain clients or customer. And in addition they lead the customer on the computer lay outing for the home improvement processing. Presentation Situation; The current situation of the organization is very exciting.à Recently, business has relocated to a larger and more efficient facility. This move will enable the company to streamline its method of operation and increase its bottom line. Market environment; The market place is undergoing tremendous technological change. New Technologies of Home improvement and materials are making products increasingly attractive stronger and less costly.à The business is poised now to take advantage of these changes, and expect to become an important supplier of home appliances and home improvement installation. Products and Services; The raw material and other home appliances that we are using were the latest awith high quality materials. This is primarily due to the strong influence of committed manufacturers and the demands of the appliances and raw materials. Gathering and Collection of Data: This investigation adopted the descriptive method of research as this is the appropriate way in evaluating the manager of the Barras Home Improvement Company in relation with his experience in Leadership Management style and behavior. This will be viewed from the responses of his 16 employees in the company. The descriptive method is also defined as studying components to serve as direction in reaching the goal. Its purpose is to tell what exist or what is about a certain business phenomenon, predicting and identifying relationships among and between the variables describe. The data and information was gathered through interview of some customers of Barras Home Improvement Company, employees and through internet the profile of the company has been gathered and studied. à Facts: The company is still a leading company in terms of home improvement because of the experienced manager of the company. The trend of the company was remarkably improving because of the good feedback and referral of the customer. They have the additional benefit of being able to provide a computer aided photo-realistic image that can even show the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom in the finish of their own choice. The Actual Report à Executive Summary à This paper studies the company named Barras Home Improvements (BHI). The purpose of this study is to evaluate effectiveness of the Experiential Leadership Manager to the Business Flows specifically in family business like BHI. This study was conducted to enlighten other businessmen in the market place to exercise Experiential Leadership Management. Background: Barras Home Improvements was formed in 1987. During the past year, the company has positioned itself as a leader in the sales and home improvement. Home Improvement is the field of expertise where a customer can easily choose their desired lay out for their home improvement, guided by the advice support to meet the great improvement of the home. In addition, they are now celebrating a twenty years in service. Barras Home Improvements Company is classified as family Business. They have large selection of Kitchens, Bathrooms and Bedrooms gallery lay-out or so called showrooms. The purpose of the operation of the company is to provide customers with highest standards of quality and service. Their mission statements are choice and value for money, service and quality product, and first class workmanship. Their products are sinks, taps, wall and floor tiles, Amtico flooring and shower enclosures and etc. They are also specialised in the complete installation service covering every aspect from plumbing and electricââ¬â¢s, plastering and minor building work and tiling to maintenance free ceilings. Insurance work is also undertaken and a 12 month written guarantee is given on all our work. They are both CORGI and NIC EIC registered. They also have a promotion of à £50.00 deposit only for the customerââ¬â¢s instillation fee Definition of the Problem à à The objective goal of this research is to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of experiential leadership management in business. The Barras Home Improvement is the company that will be treated on this study. Initially, a simple random sample of 16 employees will be given a baseline test organized by the researcher. The results will be compiled for later comparison with the research results, and those initially tested will no longer take part in the study. Questionnaires are one of the most popular ways in which data may be collected. These are used for a range of purposes and will often be the tool used to collect quantitative data. But it is worth mentioning that although this may be classified as mostly a quantitative process of collecting data it may also be a qualitative method, depending on the number, depth and style of the questions. Research questions This study sought to evaluate the Business Manager of Barras Home Improvement Company. Specifically, it aimed to answer the following questions: How to determine the degree that the person like working with task and people? What is the Leadership dimension of the Business Manager of Barras Home Improvement Company possess? What practice of leadership style does the Business Manager of Barras Home Improvement Company have? Is there a significant effect on experiential leadership management to the Barras Home Improvements company employees? à HYPOTHESIS: Hoà à à à à à :à à There is no significant effect on experiential leadership management to the Barras Home Improvements employees. à à à à à à à THEORETICAL Framework à à à à à à à à à à à the theoretical framework adopted for this study may be reflected in this model below. Inputà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à Processà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à output à Figure1. This paradigm was used to determine the effect on experiential leadership in the Barras Home Improvements. à à à à à à à à à à This model suggests that Leadership behavior and leadership style survey questionnaire may be anchored on the manager of Barras Home Improvement Company who is Mike Allen. The conceptualization of this study revolved around the notions clearly represented by this model. The paradigm of the study consists of the inputs that contain all those which have been studied in this research. The process consists of the survey questionnaires that were used to analysis the company data.à The output consists of the effects of Experiential Leadership Management to the company performance. Analysis of Variance was also used to treat the data statistically. Research design à Sample Size: All the employees were included in the sample and then the researcher calculated the weighted mean of the survey questionnaire to determine the effect of experiential leadership. Sample selection: Employees of Barras Home Improvements company were selected as sample selection of this study Instrument used: This study used a survey questionnaires of leadership behavior and leadership style à Editing of data: Standard editing and coding procedures with MS-EXCEL program. Analysis of data: Simple tabulation and cross-tabulation used. RESULTS: The following results were gathered and tabulated with the use of leadership survey questionnaire: This study reveals that the Manager of Barras Home Improvements Company has a characteristic of a Team leader. This is because the score 6.9 in the people section and a score of 7.3 in the task section revealed it. The quad where the two lines intersect is the leadership style in case of Team Leader quality. The manager used delegative and democratic leadership style. Sometimes he also used autocratic leadership style may be because it is necessary and it is revealed in the scores that 26 means being autocratic. This means that the style was used in some cases where the problem arises or decision making is required in the process for humanitarian sake. Conclusions: From the results of the experiential leadership management evaluation the following conclusions were drawn: The more experience the manager have the more effective and organized the business is. Experienced manager has more wisdom than an autocratic manager or even none experienced leader. Managers need to be team leaders for building much effective and successful business. A Team leader is the most ideal manager a company needs. Recommendation: This study suggests every businessman to undergo on the survey questionnaire to identify if their characteristics are autocratic, democratic or free reign. The new public relation officers must widen the scope and topics. Leadership Questionnaire Questionnaire Below is a list of statements about leadership behavior. Read each one carefully, then, using the following scale, decide the extent to which it actually applies to you. For best results, answer as truthfully as possible. Neverà à à à à à à à à Sometimesà à à à à à à à à Alwaysà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 0à à à à à à 1à à à à à 2 à à à à à à 3 à à à à à à à à 4 à à à à à à à à à 5à _______ encourages team to participate when decision making time comes and also attempts to implement ideas and suggestions. _______ ââ¬Å"Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or taskâ⬠. _______ closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. _______ enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. _______ ââ¬Å"The more challenging a task is, the more he enjoys it. _______ encourages employees to be creative about their job. _______ seeing a complex task through to completion, he ensures that every detail is accounted for. _______ found it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. _______ enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what have been read into action. _______ when correcting mistakes, he do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. _______ He manages time very efficiently. _______ He enjoys explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. _______ breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. _______ nothing is more important to him than building a great team. _______ He enjoys analyzing problems. _______ He honors other peoples boundaries. _______ He Counsels his employees to improve their performance or behavior which is second nature to me. _______ He enjoyed reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implemented the new procedures he learned. à à Scoring Section Put your answers on the spaces provided for every question. PEOPLE TASK à Question 1.______à 4.______à 6.______à 9.______à 10.______à 12.______à 14.______à 16.______à 17.______à TOTAL ________ X 0.2 = ________ à Question 2.______ 3.______à 5.______à 7.______à 8.______à 11.______à 13.______à 15.______à 18.______à TOTAL ________ X 0.2 ________ Leadership Style Survey Directions: This questionnaire is about leadership style ideas. Please encircle any of the number provided for at right-end of each item/statement to express your honest judgment by using the following code: Categoryà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à Weight Almost Always True à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 5 Frequently True à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 4 Occasionally True à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 3 Seldom True à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 2 Almost Never True à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 1 1. I always retain the final decision making authority within my department or team. 5 4 3 2 1 2. I always try to include one or more employees in determining what to do and how to do it. However, I maintain the final decision making authority. 5 4 3 2 1 3. I and my employees always vote whenever a major decision has to be made. 5 4 3 2 1 4. I do not consider suggestions made by my employees as I do not have the time for them. 5 4 3 2 1 5. I ask for employee ideas and input on upcoming plans and projects. 5 4 3 2 1 6. For a major decision to pass in my department, it must have the approval of each employee or the majority. 5 4 3 2 1 7. I tell my employees what has to be done and how to do it. 5 4 3 2 1 8. When things go wrong and I need to create a strategy to keep a project or process running on schedule, I call a meeting to get my employees advice. 5 4 3 2 1 9. To get information out, I send it by email, memos, or voice mail; very rarely is a meeting called. My employees are then expected to act upon the information. 5 4 3 2 1 10. When someone makes a mistake, I tell them not to ever do that again and make a note of it. 5 4 3 2 1 11. I want to create an environment where the employees take ownership of the project. I allow them to participate in the decision making process. 5 4 3 2 1 12. I allow my employees to determine what needs to be done and how to do it. 5 4 3 2 1 13. New hires are not allowed to make any decisions unless it is approved by me first. 5 4 3 2 1 14. I ask employees for their vision of where they see their jobs going and then use their vision where appropriate. 5 4 3 2 1 15. My workers know more about their jobs than me, so I allow them to carry out the decisions to do their job. 5 4 3 2 1 16. When something goes wrong, I tell my employees that a procedure is not working correctly and I establish a new one. 5 4 3 2 1 17. I allow my employees to set priorities with my guidance. 5 4 3 2 1 18. I delegate tasks in order to implement a new procedure or process. 5 4 3 2 1 19. I closely monitor my employees to ensure they are performing correctly. 5 4 3 2 1 20. When there are differences in role expectations, I work with them to resolve the differences. 5 4 3 2 1 21. Each is responsible for defining their job. 5 4 3 2 1 22. I like the power that my leadership position holds over subordinates. 5 4 3 2 1 23. I like to use my leadership power to help subordinates grow. 5 4 3 2 1 24. I like to share my leadership power with my subordinates. 5 4 3 2 1 25. Employees must be directed or threatened with punishment in order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives. 5 4 3 2 1 26. Employees will exercise self-direction if they are committed to the objectives. 5 4 3 2 1 27. Employees have the right to determine their own organizational objectives. 5 4 3 2 1 28. Employees seek mainly security. 5 4 3 2 1 29. Employees know how to use creativity and ingenuity to solve organizational problems. 5 4 3 2 1 30. My employees can lead themselves just as well as I can. 5 4 3 2 1 Scoring Section Put your answers on the spaces provided for every questions. Item Score Item Score Item Score 1 ______ 2 ______ 3 ______ 4 ______ 5 ______ 6 ______ 7 ______ 8 ______ 9 ______ 10 ______ 11 ______ 12 ______ 13 ______ 14 ______ 15 ______ 16 ______ 17 ______ 18 ______ 19 ______ 20 ______ 21 ______ 22 ______ 23 ______ 24 ______ 25 ______ 26 ______ 27 ______ 28 ______ 29 ______ 30 ______ TOTAL _______ TOTAL ________ TOTAL ________ Authoritarian Style Participative Style Delegative Style (autocratic) (democratic) (free reign) à à à à à à à à References: à Covello, Joseph and Hazelgren, Brian, (1998). Your First Business Plan.Sourcesbooks 3rd Ed., Inc.USA Culp, C.(2001), The Risk Management Process: Business Strategy and Tactics, Wiley, New York, 60 -75. Gardner, Lawrence , (2006) Why businesses fail: and strategies for a successful turnaround, Detroiter, retrieved July 3, 2006, www.findarticles.com Kiyosaki, Robert T. and Lechter, Sharon L. (2002) Prophecy. Rich Dadââ¬â¢s.Warner Business Books, Inc. USA Spindler, A.,(1984) Publication Information: Book Title: The Politics of International Credit: Private Finance and Foreign Policy in Germany and Japan, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC., P. 37-50. Vlieghe, G.(2001) Corporate Liquidations in the United Kingdom, Bank of England Financial Stability Review Weygandt, Jerry J., Kieso, Donald E. and Kimmel Paul D. (1998) Financial Acounting, John Wiley and son Inc. Canada Yoder James, (2004) Time diversification and changing volatility in an options pricing framework, Journal of Academy of Business and Economics à Unpublished Book: No author, (2007) My firm, Business Resource Services, has developed a process that I call Profit Mastery.,à At the risky end of finance Credit derivatives, Economist
Monday, October 14, 2019
Refurbishment Vs Redevelopment In Malaysia Construction Essay
Refurbishment Vs Redevelopment In Malaysia Construction Essay Malaysia property market has experienced a drastic change in 2008. The property market moved from a boom at the end of 2007 to uncertainties due to increasing construction cost. Finally, the property market moved into a relatively quiet market towards the end of 2008. With all the banks trying to tighten their loan terms, obtaining loans for development of all types of commercial building have been difficult in the last three years. Yet, study shows that there is still a high demand for space in office building in area like Kuala Lumpur. From time to time, there are several developments of new office buildings in Klang Valley area. From the study done by JPPH, there is an increase of approximately 10 million square metres of new office space throughout Kuala Lumpur. Yet, the average vacancy rate in office space decreased to 18.6%. This proved that the demand for office building is still able to cater the increase in new office space. Study also showed that there is a new supply of approximately 280,000 square metres of new office space and additional 92,000 square metres of office being refurbished and repositioned in the year of 2009. So, building owners have to struggle to maintain the popularity and the competitiveness of their building. The current lack of new-build development raises the likelihood of grade-A supply shortages when the occupier market returns, creating investment opportunities for carefully targeted refurbishment. But, usually owner is in great dilemma when they are in such situation. As everyone know, the refurbishment of office space offers advantages over new-build which can facilitate the achievement of economic, social and environmental sustainability. But, redevelopment is the ultimate solution for eliminating all problems regarding the maintenance, changing tenants requirement and other probems. Making comparisons between refurbishment and redevelopment is also problematic because the term refurbishment can be used to encompass a wide spectrum of building works, from minor cosmetic improvements through to extensive reconstruction. But, in the majority of cases, refurbishment will be a quicker and cheaper means of restoring second-hand office space to grade-A specification. As a low-cost option, the refurbishment of office space should be intuitively attractive in an economic climate marked by a lack of development finance. But in many cases refurbishment is as costly as redevelopment and likely to carry with it greater risks and physical constraints. Problem statement Malaysian has been accused as a clever builder but poor manager. For example, certain office buildings in Golden Triangle are often looked deteriorated and relatively matured compared to other purposed-built office building. Example of such older office buildings are those office building located on the fringe of Central Business District, like Jalan Ampang. These older office buildings have a higher tendency to be left vacant due to its poor office building images. This will leads to lower rental rate to be paid by the tenants to remain its competitiveness. Other important characteristic of such office building also includes by low occupancy rate, lower quality of the building and services provided. Besides, recent office developments are very likely to adopt green features such as energy saving, reduction of wastage and water usage, as well as the use of environmentally friendly materials. This new trend in development had forced many owners evaluate the condition of their building and try to make several changes to the buildings to attracts more tenants. These efforts are important to attract corporations who fascinate energy-saving and environmental-friendly building. But making such decision is not easy. The owners have to evaluate the cost and benefit of each choice, and determine the solution he desires to improve the condition of his buildings. But other factors also have to take into consideration. For example, the rate of interest the bank would charge for development of different risk, the time of completion and others also greatly affect the decision-making of owner Objectives of study This study has three main objectives. There are: To determine factors influencing the decision-making in deriving a solution to the method chosen. To identify the benefits of building refurbishment or redevelopment to the building users. To determine whether tenant likes refurbished secondary office building or newly redeveloped building. Scope of study The scope of this study will focus on selected office buildings, both building which had undergo refurbishment and those which had undergone redevelopment. To ensure a more complete study, the newly constructed building is also considered as building undergone redevelopment. The respondents of the questionnaire are limited to tenants in Golden Triangle area only. As for the property manager, all property managers can be chosen as the interviewee. Building manager who are hired by owners and acted on behalf of them, will gives their opinions in owner perspectives (maximise profit) and current tenants will voice out their preferences in choosing a building space. Methodology All the relevant data are collected through primary data and secondary data. Primary data includes questionnaire, samplings, interviews and case study. In this study, respondents identified in questionnaire study are selected property manager who represents building ownerà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â ¢s point of view and some tenants within Golden Triangle area through sampling. As for interview session, interviewees targeted are property manager who are the representatives of building owners. Through this interview sessions, benefit of building refurbishment and redevelopment will be ascertained. Finally, case study of three similar office buildings will also be done as the quantitative analysis. All three building will be compared according to the cost incurred for construction and the benefit obtained. Then the differences in term of occupancy rates, rental and others will be calculated to represent the increment in term of market value. On the other hand, collection of data in this study will also includes references such as reference book, journal, articles, conference paper, property market reports, internet/ website searching and other sources. In addition, data will also be collected from books, magazines or newspaper article to obtain general information on building refurbishment and the effects of building refurbishment. Further details of methodology will be discussed in Chapter 3. Structure of Study This study consisted of five chapters. The brief discussion of each chapter is discussed as follows: Chapter 1 Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study. This chapter starts with an introduction of this study with a brief background. Besides, other things like problem statement, scope of study, methodology and others are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 is about the literature review. In this chapter, definition of building refurbishment and redevelopment, benefit of building refurbishment and redevelopment and others will be discussed in this chapter. Besides, factor influencing decision making of building refurbishment and the tenant preferences will also be discussed. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 is the methodology. In this chapter, methodology used to survey and interview in order to gather information needed. The structure of questionnaire is also discussed in this chapter. Furthermore, a brief discussion on the opinion of respondents of questionnaire and interviews will also be carried out in the last part of this chapter. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 is the chapter regarding research findings analysis. In this chapter, data gather will be analysed and presented in this chapter. An analysis on the benefit of building refurbishment and its value-enhancing ability will also be carried out by studying the information gathered through interviews, questionnaire survey, and secondary data. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 discuss about the conclusion and recommendation. In this chapter, conclusion from the findings and analysis of data in the previous chapter will be discussed and summarized. Besides, it also illustrate on the confirmation of the objectives and overall summary for the whole study. Other information included in this chapter is the suggestions for further study.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Global Education and Local Communities :: Teaching Learning Schooling Papers
Global Education and Local Communities Let me begin with a summary of what I am going to say. Cyberspace is a new kind of reality, in some crucial respects less real, but in some respects more real, than the space of face-to-face encounters and of physical documents. Signs in cyberspace might be quite unconnected to any real-life states of affairs, they might be quite abstract, but often they are much less abstract than, say, signs in a printed book. As I will endeavour to show, communication in the world of printed books is, characteristically, the communication of abstract meanings among members of an abstract society, such as a modern nation. The communication of knowledge in an interactive audiovisual medium is less dependent on an extended process of education in some national - i.e. literary - language than was the communication of abstract, typographical knowledge in earlier ages. Successful navigation in cyberspace does however presuppose some specific training leading to appropriate combinations of technical skil ls and literary skills, the latter normally encompassing both a rudimentary English and one's mother tongue. Working out how in fact such a combination of skills can be taught and acquired, and exploring the ways in which local communities can form a suitable learning environment, are the goals of an ongoing research program in Hungary; I conclude by sketching some essentials of this program. The Ontology of Cyberspace In some crucial respects cyberspace is, obviously, less real than the space of face-to-face connections. One should recall here GÃ ©rard Raulet's profound study "The New Utopia", written in the 1980s, pointing to the spurious idea of "supplanting places by spaces", and to the gap separating symbolic "interactivity" from actual social interaction.[1] And one should recall the essentially consistent findings of an impressive array of empirical investigations showing that telecommunications, however dense and multidimensional the networks, do not have the effectiveness, let alone the emotional impact, of face-to-face encounters. Until the late seventies, such investigations focused, understandably, on the effects of the telephone. What they found was that although telephone contacts did of course make a difference when no other contacts were available, [2] the former, as contrasted with face-to-face contacts, had no great propensity to create new linkages. Telephone contacts are effect ive if they can rely on background information from earlier personal meetings, and if they are regularly reinforced by such.[3] The same pattern still holds when e-mail and teleconferencing enter.
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