Aqa-Scly1-W-Qp-Jun11

General Certificate of Education Advanced Subsidiary Examination June 2011 Sociology Unit 1 Wednesday 18 May 2011 For this paper you must have: ? an AQA 8-page answer book. SCLY1 9. 00 am to 10. 00 am Time allowed ? 1 hour Instructions ? Use black ink or black ball-point pen. ? Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Examining Body for this paper is AQA. The Paper Reference is SCLY1. ? This paper is divided into three sections. ? Choose one section and answer all of the questions from that section. Do not answer questions from more than one section. ? Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. Information ? The marks for questions are shown in brackets. ? The maximum mark for this paper is 60. ? Questions carrying 24 marks should be answered in continuous prose. In these questions you will be marked on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist v ocabulary where appropriate. G/T64897/Jun11/SCLY1 6/6/ SCLY1 2 Choose one section and answer all of the questions from that section.Section A: Culture and Identity Total for this section: 60 marks Read Items 1A and 1B below and answer questions Item 1A Interactionists see a person’s identity as arising from interactions with other people and from how those interactions are interpreted. For example, social expectations about what is an appropriate leisure activity for an older person may influence what that person does in their spare time. This choice of leisure activity may affect how they see themselves and how others see them, both of which contribute to their sense of identity.Item 1B For Marxists, culture in society reflects ruling-class ideology. It expresses the distorted view of the world put forward by the dominant class and is important in maintaining the system of social inequality that exists in capitalist society. Functionalist sociologists argue that the culture of society reflects the shared values of that society. Society needs a shared culture to run effectively, and various agencies play their part in socialising members of society. 0 0 1 2 Explain what is meant by ‘socialisation’. 5 0 1 to 0 5 that follow. (2 marks) Suggest two reasons, apart from the one mentioned in Item 1A, why leisure choices may vary across different age groups. (4 marks) Identify three characteristics and/or concepts associated with interactionist views of culture and identity, apart from those mentioned in Item 1A. (6 marks) Examine sociological explanations of the ways in which ethnicity may shape social identity. (24 marks) Using material from Item 1B and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations of the role of culture in society. (24 marks) 0 3 0 4 0 5G/T64897/Jun11/SCLY1 3 Section B: Families and Households Total for this section: 60 marks Read Items 2A and 2B below and answer questions Item 2A Many people see childhood as a natural stage of l ife that is determined by biology. What is expected of children is shaped by their age. However, sociologists suggest that childhood is a social construction. For example, changes in the laws regarding compulsory education and access to the labour market have shaped the experiences of children today. Item 2B Feminists take a critical view of the family.They argue that family life maintains and promotes gender inequality. For example, this is reflected in the domestic division of labour. Housework and childcare in the family, which are carried out mainly by women, are unpaid and hardly recognised as work at all. However, some sociologists suggest that feminist theories ignore the extent of family diversity. In fact, family roles and relationships are varied and therefore women’s experiences of family life are more diverse than some feminists suggest. 0 0 6 7 Explain what is meant by the ‘social construction’ of childhood (Item 2A). 0 6 to 1 0 that follow. 5 (2 mar ks) Suggest two ways, apart from those mentioned in Item 2A, in which government policies and/or laws may shape the experiences of children today. (4 marks) Identify three reasons why the birth rate has fallen since 1900. Examine the reasons for changes in the divorce rate since 1969. (6 marks) (24 marks) 0 0 1 8 9 0 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to an understanding of family roles and relationships. (24 marks) Turn over for Section C Turn over ?G/T64897/Jun11/SCLY1 4 Section C: Wealth, Poverty and Welfare Total for this section: 60 marks Read Items 3A and 3B below and answer questions Item 3A In the United Kingdom, there is a mixed economy of welfare provision. This means that a range of different individuals and organisations provides welfare. The state benefits system is part of this provision and includes some benefits that are universal and others that are means-tested or selective. Voluntary groups also provide welf are services alongside the state and other providers.Item 3B Some sociologists suggest that the attitudes and behaviour of the poor themselves are a significant factor in the existence and continuation of poverty. The poor have a distinct subculture that is different from the rest of society. This subculture encourages certain attitudes and behaviour that keep the poor locked in poverty. However, other sociologists question the existence of a set of different norms and values among the poor. Instead, they suggest that poverty arises from the structure and organisation of society. 1 1 1 2 Explain the difference between income and wealth. 1 1 to 1 5 that follow. 5 (4 marks) Suggest two advantages of welfare benefits being universal, rather than selective (Item 3A). (4 marks) Suggest two advantages of welfare provision by voluntary groups (Item 3A). (4 marks) 1 1 3 4 Examine the reasons for the increasing inequality of wealth in the United Kingdom since the 1970s. (24 marks) Using mate rial from Item 3B and elsewhere, assess the view that the attitudes and the behaviour of the poor themselves are responsible for poverty. (24 marks) 1 5 END OF QUESTIONS Copyright  © 2011 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. G/T64897/Jun11/SCLY1

Motions

MACHINE ELEMENTS 2 Cams ? Cam is a link having an irregular surface or groove that imparts motion to a follower ? Cams are very important and frequently occurring elements in many types of machines – especially AUTOMATIC MACHINES ? Cams are the heart of such automatic devices as automatic devices as automatic machine tools, record changers, mechanical calculators, cash registers, and many other devices. Types of Cams: Motions Used for Cam Followers: ? The motion of the follower is of primary interest in the analysis of existing cams or in the design of new cams. It is easier to analyze the motion of cam followers if their motion is plotted as a graph often referred to as DISPLACEMENT DIAGRAM A. Displacement Diagram B. Motions that are most commonly used: 1. Uniform Velocity (straight line) motion – UVM 2. Simple Harmonic Motion – SHM 3. Uniformly Accelerated motion (Parabolic Motion) – UAM or PM 4. Modified Uniform-Velocity Motion – MUVM a. Arc meth od – MUVM-Arc b. Uniform Acceleration Method – MUVM-UAM 5. Cycloidal Motion – CM A. Uniform Velocity Motion (Straight Line Motion)If the follower is to move with uniform velocity, its displacement must be the same for equal units of time. Its curve in the displacement diagram, therefore, is a STRAIGHT LINE. Example 1: Lay out the displacement diagram for a cam follower that is to have the following motions: Dwell 30O (at rest) Rise 2 inches in 90O (uniform velocity) Dwell 30O Fall 2 inches in 60O (uniform velocity) Dwell 150O B. Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM) As a point moves around the circumference of a circle with a constant velocity, its projection on the diameter of the circle moves with simple harmonic motion.How to plot in the displacement diagram? Example 2: Lay out the displacement diagram for a cam follower that is to have the following motions: Rise 2 inches in 120O (SHM) Dwell 30O Fall 1 inch in 90O (SHM) Dwell 30O Fall 1 inch in 60O (SHM) Dwell 30O C. Uniformly Accelerated Motion (Parabolic Motion) ? A motion of uniform or constant acceleration, often called parabolic motion because a graph of its equation ( s = at2 / 2 ) is a parabola. ? It is motion in which the displacement taking place in each successive interval of time proportional to the square of the time.How to plot in the displacement diagram? Example 3: Layout the displacement diagram for a cam follower that is to have the following motions: Rise 2 inches in 120O (uniform acceleration and deceleration motion) Dwell 30O Fall 1 inch in 90O (uniform acceleration and deceleration motion) Dwell 30O Fall 1 inch in 90O (uniform acceleration and deceleration motion) D. Modified Uniform Velocity Motion a) Arc Method: This method consists merely in introducing arcs at the beginning and at the end of the displacement period.The size of the arcs is arbitrary, but they are usually drawn with a radius equal to one half the displacement. The arcs are drawn first to an indefinite len gth then a straight line is drawn tangent to both arcs. b) Uniform Acceleration Method: This method consists in introducing short periods of uniform acceleration or deceleration at both ends of the displacement period. D. Cycloidal Motion ? If a circle rolls along a straight line without slipping, a point on its circumference traces a curve that is called a cycloid. How to plot in the displacement diagram?In the figure below shows how such motion is laid out in a displacement diagram. Line AB is drawn and is extended to some point such as C. A circle is drawn at C whose circumference is equal to the displacement s or whose diameter is equal to s over constant pi. The circumference of this circle is divided into a number of parts corresponding to the number of divisions along the horizontal scale. The points around the circle are projected to the vertical center line of the circle and then parallel to the line AB to the corresponding vertical lines in the displacement diagram. â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] In this construction, it should be noted that the diameter of the semicircle is equal to the follower rise and that the number of divisions around the semicircle agrees with the number of divisions along the time axis (angle of cam rotation). [pic] [pic] The figure at the left shows the displacement, s of a falling object compares with arbitrary time units [pic] a) First method (Figure @ the right)In laying out this type of motion in a displacement diagram, a given displacement is divided into two halves – the first half is uniformly accelerated, and the second half is uniformly retarded motion. It is therefore, necessary that the horizontal distance involved in the total displacement be divided into an even number of divisions. [pic] b) Second Method (Figure @ the left) Figure as shown, shows an alternative method of constructing this type of motion. In this case, the half displacement is divided into equal sized divisions corresponding to the number of horizontal divisions. [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic]

What are the steps for improving semantics as outlined in your Essay

What are the steps for improving semantics as outlined in your textbook Explain them - Essay Example This may be different from what the same word connotes to different people that is its implied meaning. The order of words in sentences is important in providing us their meaning more clearly than the words themselves (Kholoud 714). In order to improve semantics, our word choice and arrangement should help to clarify meaning and show respect. The way the words flow in the sentence clarifies what they mean and shows us the context in which they have been used. The use of specific language or words that narrow the meaning down from a general set to one item or inclusive group. This is the use of precise words to clarify the meaning of the phrase. This addresses the problem of semantic under specification where the meaning of a word is not complete without certain elements of context.  Another way is by the use of concrete language. This is the use of words that appeal to the intellect. Such words assist you to clarify semantic meaning by boosting understanding. Such words appeal to the senses and are related to feelings evoked by certain words or phrases. Use of language that is familiar to the recipient can diffuse confusion in a sentence. This is because familiar language is in a language context understood b y the recipient enhancing clarity and dispelling ambiguity. Through the use of descriptive details and examples in your content, you can improve semantic meaning by enhancing visual perception in the mind of the recipient. Visual descriptions help the listener to create a mental picture of what is being said and understand the concept better (Kholoud 716). Such tools increase clarity particularly in eliminating any form of ambiguity. When local and familiar examples are used in statements, listeners tend to understand the intended message and may seek further clarification with certainty. Localised examples also eliminate confusion since the explanations become customized per se. Sensitivity in communication is attained by being

See the Message Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

See the Message - Essay Example Arguably, this is an unethical way of governing a region, as it is important for the rulers to scrutinize the reasons for the theft cases. The punishment of a livestock thief should not be equivalent to that involving violence. The English society The growth of a particular society lies upon several characters within and outside the society. The English society involves people of diverse groups living in England. There are two principal groups of individuals in England namely, the wealthy and the poor also referred to as the peasants. It is vital to look into the political background to ensure there is a clear establishment of the concepts that affect the characters delighted to join the political rallies of the country. The peasants have their right to ownership violated by the rich. To ensure that the political environment is clear and favorable to different individuals, there should be a scrutiny of the political models in politics. This helps improve the power that particular ind ividuals have when carrying out political activities. The English society looks into amalgamating public lands into private ownership (Bodden 8). This is a source of increased theft, as the individuals previously occupying the land forcefully vacate to search for ways to feed their families. Therefore, for a decrease in theft cases, there should be a stoppage of the rich from occupying peasant lands. This is one of the ways to enable individuals have better ways of providing for their families. Problems of the English society The immorality of capital punishment for theft Capital punishment concerning theft refers to punishment subjecting a thief to death. This is against the stipulations of the law, despite provisions in the amendment of law, which encompasses all that which should proceed to an individual involved in theft case for the third time (More 60). In the English society, death in theft cases is vital to have a reduction in the number of individuals involved in theft crim es. Secondly, it is a way of imposing punishment to individuals prone to frequent stealing. It also instills fear to other individuals out there and who belonged to the gangster group. The English society uses capital punishment on theft cases with the thought that it helps impede further theft cases in the communities. It helps enhance security to individuals living in the societies, as the robbers may find it difficult to have a smooth time when carrying out their normal burglary operations. The punishment is also an effective way of hindering young people from growing to be thugs (More 11). This is because of the fear instilled in them regarding punishment on individuals convicted with theft cases. On the contrary, capital punishment is not vital for a government looking into the wellbeing of the individuals of the English society (Bodden 11). The English society evicts community lands for corporate use leaving some individuals with inadequate sources of wealth. This is the prima ry reason for individuals to adopt theft actions, since they lack ways of providing for their families. Therefore, it is the mandate of the government to ensure that it provides better working environments for individuals to earn their living and provide for their families. The government should however, make stipulations regarding readjusting the punishment imposed on individuals who steal to secure the necessities of their families. An oligarchy that controls

Case anaylise Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Anaylise - Case Study Example In essence, there was lack of specialization in the structure and processes of the company. Poor adoption of technology by the management also exposed the company to increased competition and pressure from competitors (A New Caterpillar Emerges 63). The poor organizational structure resulted in disharmony, comparably low quality products, and poor marketing strategies. The change strategy adopted by Fites basically revolved around changing the organizational structure to reflect the Japanese decentralized model (A New Caterpillar Emerges 63). Fites integrated marketing staff, manufacturing engineers, and product designers into the different product development teams (A New Caterpillar Emerges 63). Fites also decentralized the marketing processes to the regional levels from the corporate headquarters. The third strategy was the incorporation of the aspect of modernization into the manufacturing processes for enhancing productivity and efficiency. This third approach enhanced the productivity of Caterpillar to 30 % (A New Caterpillar Emerges 63). The splitting of the company structure to 14 divisional teams enabled each unit to work in a semi-autonomous manner so that specific performance could be assessed. In the revised organizational structure, the different manufacturing teams were now responsible for the performance of the divisions. The overall impact of the decentralized model was an increase in performance in all areas of the

Gender, Race, and Class in Latin American Literature and Film Annotated Bibliography

Gender, Race, and Class in Latin American Literature and Film - Annotated Bibliography Example ved on to 19th-century accounts of widespread socially approved cannibalism among Polynesian people of Rarotonga in cook islands this record was written by a Christian convert for the London missionary society. However, he highlights a number of inconsistencies and logical impossibilities in Ta’unga’s claims. The author explores the accounts of cannibalism produced by European colonialists and travelers in America during the modern era. According to Christopher Columbus Caribs gad been described as man-eaters by the neighboring Arawak people of West Indies, the book widely explores the possibility of existence of cannibalism among people the author choose to remains dubious about it. Nevertheless, he does not rule out the possibility that it had never existed among people. The author who was a professor in Florida international university wrote the book he majored on the height of Brazil’s political repression through revolutionary and consequential art. Through the use of different film makers like Leson Pereira dos Santos directed a period –piece inspired by the 1557 account of a German captive among the Brazilians. During his captivity, he was waiting to be eaten by his captives in their ritualistic cannibalism is paramount to understanding the author intention to bring out the meaning of the book. Alternatively, the author in a different issue he argue that a person’s diet determines how close related to whom one can have sex with in many preindustrial or rural societies. The author also notes that marriage and kinship system is a more fundamental ideology as opposition between the relations which gives a person we group notion. According to the author the perception of relation, where siblings do not marry, and cousins can in some societies and neighbors. Nevertheless, strangers are not immediately selected until their qualities are discerned. Professor Levi a French anthropologist, discusses the issue of kinship in a deeper manner according to

Aerosol-Cloud InteractionsA Piece of the Climate Puzzle Essay

Aerosol-Cloud InteractionsA Piece of the Climate Puzzle - Essay Example There have been a number of potential effects about the aerosols that have been implied though there should be much more investigation and study in order for the size of these effects in a worldwide view. Therefore, for a much more improved model outcrop of future climate, there is much importance in the quantitative comprehension of these effects. There are findings that have been put into writing as well as pictures in regard to the aerosol and cloud properties during the previous years. Nonetheless, these types of seen connection are not essentially as a result of microphysical end products. They may relatively be as a result of retrieval errors, cloud flagging errors, seasonal factors, spatial climatological factors, humidity conditions or even synoptic effects. This report herein shows a discussion of the contribution of spatial climatological factors and synoptic effects to aerosol-cloud associations. Therefore, this paper is going to handle the needed aspects that deal with th e aerosol and cloud interactions, a piece of the climate puzzle. In addition, that will entail all the necessary details required. Aerosols in as much as is known always have an effect in the cloud formation in general. There are, therefore, specific aerosols that can be found in the clouds, whether they are organic or inorganic. The specific organic or inorganic aerosol found in the clouds is a sea salt, which is the most common CCN over the ocean. It is mostly how they aerosols affect or get involved in the cloud formation. To add to that, there is the question of what happens when these major oceanic clouds move over land and whether the aerosol interactions change (Bowler 76). The answer that comes to that question is that, once droplets of clouds have been formed, aerosols or CCN are separated by water of ice and would not be directly interacting with anything else. As a result, when cloud droplets or raindrops evaporate, aerosols are free and can be able to

LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES - Essay Example Executives of companies consider the long-term objectives before deciding the necessary organizational changes. Since objectives have timelines, they serve as guidelines for the organization to determine the strategies used to achieve them. Executive teams involved in strategic planning should differentiate between value disciplines, generic and grant strategies if they seek to gain competitive advantage. Notably, generic strategies denote the ideas that an organization can use to have an advantage over competitors in the market. Three different generic strategies exist. They include low-cost leadership, differentiation, and focus differentiation (Dye & Sibony, 2007). Low-cost leadership involves the reduction of the cost of production. Since a company registers lower production costs, it can offer standard products at relatively lower prices than competitors can. Differentiation involves the improvement of product features in an effort to add value to the customers. Differentiation may result in premium prices for the products. Focus differentiation targets a specific market segment. Companies that indulge in the focus differentiation design unique products that can satisfy the needs and expectations of an identified target market that can pay premium prices. On the other hand, value disciplines include operational excellence, customer intimacy, and product leadership. Finally, executives should give considerations to grant strategies, which denote the basic directions that they should follow in making strategic decisions (Ali, 2014). Understanding the difference between value disciplines, generic and grant strategies are of critical importance when companies seek to gain competitive

The Mbuti Culture Essay Example for Free

The Mbuti Culture Essay The Mbuti Culture The way a culture makes their living impacts many aspects of cultural behaviors and has been a very effective way to organize thoughts and studies about different cultures. For most of human history people have lived a foraging or in other terms, hunting and gathering type of lifestyle. It has been said that foraging is the oldest form of human society and it was dated all the way back to the Paleolithic period, which was at least a million years ago (Nowak Laird, 2010). The Mbuti are Bantu speaking foragers, who live in small, independent communities within the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There actual location is found in the southern part of the Ituri Forest (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). Mbuti people have a nomadic lifestyle within a certain territory and live in a subsistence economy, meaning they only produce what they need to survive (Nowak Laird, 2010). They make their living by hunting and gathering, and this has had a big impact on their kinship, political organization, and their beliefs and values. The Mbuti culture has also had to overcome many changes throughout the past seventy years. Among foragers such as the Mbuti, there’s an endless movement of goods through kinship ties and residential closeness that have a positive impact on people’s obligations to one another. The responsibility to share and the traveling lifestyle prevent the buildup of individual wealth. No one person owns or has control over the resources and there are no differences in wealth among individuals (Nowak Laird, 2010). However, individuals do have rights over the natural beehives or termite mounds which they have located and marked (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). The Mbuti culture has certain beliefs and customs regarding marriage. When people from the Mbuti culture marry, it involves the payment of bridewealth or either the exchange of sisters or other close female relatives. The bridewealth was usually paid with iron implements or bark clothing, but today it’s paid in cash. Nowadays, exchanged marriages are the most common in bridewealth and they account for nearly half of the marriages in some bands. A rightfully married couple most of the time lives  virilocally, which leads to the band structure of partilineally related men and their wives and children. Families are involved in clans with each specific clan having certain names and totemic animals that are avoided by members (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). â€Å"Actual band composition is, however, more composite, with uxorilocal residence, and band fission and fusion† (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006, p.3). Aside from kinship, the political organization is another feature that is greatly impacted by the primary mode of subsistence. It has been said that, the main difference between our society and the Mbuti’s society is that, ours is based on discrete or â€Å"separated individuals†, while theirs is a single corporate group (Ground, 1983). Within each band, there is a spokesperson called the kapita. Until recently, the kapita’s role was limited to liaison work with horticultural villagers and regional administrators. The kapita handled things such as tax collections, census taking, and administrative demands. If those demands were not in-fact handled, the kapita was called into the local administrative office. Oddly enough, the kapita authority was recognized by other band members, through recognition of his sufferings on behalf of the community. Conflicts within the band were handled usually by face-to-face interactions, especially when it had to deal with labor, food, material culture, and bridewealth (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). Decisions that needed to be made concerning the entire band such as camp movement or certain hunting grounds are made in the course of men’s gatherings in what they call the tele. The opinions that came from the elderly and more experienced individuals were respected th e most. Sometimes the aged women were allowed to join in on the discussions, but the younger women had to listen quietly from their families homes. Usually when conflicts arose, one of the disputants moved to another camp to calm down. If the conflicts resulted in injury, the matter was submitted to the local village’s court (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). Another aspect of the Mbuti culture, that the primary mode of subsistence impacts is their religious beliefs and values. For the Mbuti people, their physical environment is clearly all accommodating, their food is fresh in hand every day, and they don’t have marked seasons so in return, they live day to day rather than thinking about the past and future. Their attention is on the present moment as well as the present space. They do not worry about what  isn’t here and now and that goes the same for time and space as well. Like for instance, if the hunting and gathering isn’t good near the camp, they would just simply move the camp. This method helped to restore the habitual â€Å"goodness† for the â€Å"here† and the â€Å"nowà ¢â‚¬  (Turnbull, 1985). â€Å"Even the visual aspect of the Mbuti world has a profound effect on their thinking† (Turnbull, 1985, p.9). They see the forest clearings to be cavernous, their houses are sphere shaped, and their concept of space is also spherical. They believe that each hunting camp and house is its own sphere surrounding the greatest sphere of all, the forest. All in all, every Mbuti is in the center of his own sphere that moves with him through time and space; he is always equally adapted to everything that is around, at any given moment (Turnbull, 1985). The Mbuti people believe that forest animals are an important source of food; however, some of them could cause awful diseases and other hardship if they were eaten imprecisely. For example, they felt that pregnant women and babies were vulnerable to certain animals and these animals were called kuweri. It was stated, that about eighty percent of the sixty mammals were avoided for that particular reason for at least a part of the life -cycle (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). Mbuti were famous for their dancing and singing; this was performed for amusement as well as the essential part of the rites of passage. Some examples were circumcision, girls’ puberty, marriages, and funerals. There were also known for communicating with the dead ancestors, who supposedly caused the living to sing and dance. The different kinds of songs were associated with different types of activities such as net fishing, elephant hunting, and honey collecting (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). One ritual that the Mbuti often practiced was the Ritual Performance of the Molimo Made’ and Molimo Mangbo. This particular ritual involved the use of a trumpet that was made out of wood and was secretly hidden in a tree, deep into the forest. â€Å"The ritual itself involves both dance and song for the trumpet (referred to as â€Å"the animal of the of the forest†) as well as for all other participants† (Turnbull, 1985, p.12). Singing and dancing takes place every night that the ritual lasts and the appearance of the trumpet is unpredictable. The Molimo Made’ might only last one night, but it seldom ever went past three or four nights and the trumpet would usually make at least one appearance per night (Turnbull, 1985). â€Å"This ritual is intended  to â€Å"cure† noise-or akami- and the trumpet appears in the form of the elephant in direct response to such akami† (Turnbull, 1985, p.12). On the other hand, the Molimo Mangbo continues for about a month or so, and the trumpet only appears when there’s ekimi (Turnbull, 1985). â€Å"This is the molimo that cures death itself, by â€Å"making it good†, a process that demands the total ekimi it brings, with the trumpet appearing as the leopard† (Turnbull, 1985, p.12). In both cases, a young Mbuti member goes off into the woods to find the trumpets hiding spot after dark. There isn’t anything special about how t hey go retrieve it, but the youth are all boys and are close to the marrying age. When the boys do in-fact find the trumpet, there is a certain ceremony that one boy must perform because the trumpet isn’t sacred all by itself (Turnbull, 1985). â€Å"Like any Mbuti ritual paraphernalia, it is not sacred merely for what it achieves† (Turnbull, 1985, p.12). If the trumpet just so happens to be rotten or is becoming too short, it is left there to rot without ceremony. Each time that the trumpet is taken down from a tree, the young boys inspect it and test the sound (Turnbull, 1985). When the trumpet arrives at the camp, the ritual will differ according to whether or not it is of greater or lesser molimo. If it’s lesser, the trumpet will circle the camp numerous times sounding shrilly just as if a herd of elephants were surrounding the camp. Then the young boys will all put one hand on the trumpet and run head first into the camp. They go right through the central place and attack the house that’s on the opposite side. Sometimes they might would run directly into it and beat on it with their fists or tear off some of the leaves, or they might even uproot the sticks that were used to make the foundation. After that, they run back through the central place and attack the house that was closest to where they came out of the forest. This is repeated and every time they make sure to cross the central place and if anything should be in the way, it was destroyed (Turnbull, 1985). The Mbuti people, who were in the houses that were being attacked, tried to plead with the young boys to go away, but neither the people who were barricaded in their homes nor the young boys would make direct references as to why the akami had brought out the molimo made’. The Mbuti people knew everything was over when they heard the boys singing as they took the trumpet away after its final attack. The song that the boys sang was a rather aggressive, defiant and  potentially destructive sound, like the elephants would make. When the boys got back to the hidden place to put the trumpet back into the tree, they would make a shrill trumpeting sound into the instrument. If it was a molimo mangbo, the trumpet would again circle the camp, kind of like before, but growling and coughing sounds would be made, like a leopard (Turnbull, 1985). â€Å"It occasionally breaks into song as the singer echoes the sound of all those gathered around the central fire, the kumamolimo. Sometimes this is all the youths will do, refusing to enter the camp at all† (Turnbull, 1985, p.14). If this was to happen, then the kumamolimo knew that it was in-fact their fault, because they didn’t sing and dance well enough. This would be repeated every night until the singing and dancing around the central place was sufficient enough to entice the greatest dancer and singer of all (Turnbull, 1985). When the trumpet did decide to enter the camp, it was welcomed because it brought ekimi rather than akami. The trumpet may stay all night or it may only decide to stay for a few minutes, but that depends on how well everyone sings and dances. â€Å"There is always a sense of sadness when the trumpet finally leaves as suddenly as it came, for it brings to the camp a degree and quality of ekimi that, the Mbuti say, mere humans can never achieve by themselves† (Turnbull, 1985, p.15). At the end of the festival, when the curing is complete, the dancing becomes more intensive and makes it more communal rather than individual, with very specific uniqueness to the occasion. Within the final week of the festival, an old woman joins the group of men and she also brings a number of nubile girls. The girls take over the men’s position of singing and dancing until the tribute is paid. Then one night the woman will dance around slowly through the fire, scattering the burning logs to every side. â€Å"After that, the men jump to their feet and kick the logs back into the center, dancing around as if in a communal act of regeneration, clearly imitating the act of copulation as the fire springs back to life† (Turnbul l, 1985, p.15). It has been stated that this would happen several times and then the old woman triumphs. An old man would slowly stamp through the ember, putting out every last one until the fire that fed the molimo was indeed gone. The trumpet sounds for the last time and this time, it leads the singing. This camp remains very special until the camp decides to move. It’s special because it has been transformed by the molimo mangbo (Turnbull,  1985). Needless to say, the Mbuti Molimo Ritual is a major ritual in Mbuti life. The molimo is associated with the death after a successful kill has been made and could also take place at the time of a crisis such as a poor hunting season. Mbuti’s current situation is very different now then back in the day. The profitable meat trade began in the nineteen-fifties and intensified in the nineteen-seventies and has inspired market-oriented hunting for the Mbuti. The Mbuti had links to the outside economy only indirectly with their villager patrons before the development of the meat trade. The meat trade aloud traders from outside of the forest to visit Mbuti camps and do face-to-face transactions with the hunters and this avoided the traditional kpara relationship. â€Å"The kpara relationship has declined as it’s economic basis of meat and labor has lost its former importance† (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006, p.4). In the nineteen-eighties, the gold dust mines opened and this caused the immigration to progress. The Mbuti population has increased by as much as forty percent during this same time period. Deforestation and degradation of resources was caused by the sudden increase in population (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). The Mbuti have become more involved in the market economy and they have had to start paying government taxes. â€Å"Most Mbuti men in the Teturi area now pay half the tax paid by villagers, and hold their own national identity cards. In addition to tax collectors, there are soldiers and civil servants demanding meat and labor from Mbutis† (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006, p.5). The main reason that the sedentarization plan failed is because of the flight of Mbutis from officials and government agents back in the nineteen-seventies. To say the least, the Mbuti are gradually becoming incorporated with the Zaire/Congo state through the ways of taxation, elections, national identity cards, and participation in other national events (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). In conclusion, the Mbuti are Bantu speaking foragers, who live in small, independent communities within the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There actual location is found in the southern part of the Ituri Forest (The Mbuti of northern congo, 2006). Mbuti people have a nomadic lifestyle within a certain territory and live in a subsistence economy, meaning they only produce what they need to survive (Nowak Laird, 2010). They make their living by hunting and gathering,  and this has had a big impact on their kinship, political organization, and their beliefs and values. The Mbuti culture has also had to overcome throughout the past seventy years as well. References Ground, P.L.B., Berger, P.L. (1983, April 10). Western complaints. New York Times, pp. A. 13. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/424621445?accountid=32521 Nowak, B.S., Laird, P.F. (2010). Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from http://content.ashford.edu/AUANT101.10.2 The Mbuti of northern Congo. (2006). In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Retrieved from http://credoreference.com/entry/cuphg/i_iv_7_the_mbuti_of_northern_congo Turnbull, C.M. (1985, Autumn). Processional Ritual among the Mbuti Pygmies. The Drama Review: TDR, 17(3), 6-17. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145649

Managing Business Problems Essay Example for Free

Managing Business Problems Essay What are the causes of poor productivity within large organizations and how can we look at trying to improve this? Productivity is the degree of output achieved in relation to a certain level of input. For example, in a call centre environment, productivity would be seen as the number of telephone calls answered per hour by a certain number of staff. The telephone calls are the output and the staff available to take the calls are the input. In order to improve productivity, one of the following has to occur: The level of input is decreased however the level of output remains the same, or, the level of output increases but the level of input remains the same. In relation to the example of the call centre, this would mean reducing the number of staff available to answer the phone but yet the remaining staff would still have to answer the same number of calls, i.e. they would have to answer more calls each to compensate for the decrease in staff. Or the other way to increase productivity in a call centre would be to keep the same number to staff available to take customer calls but the number of calls being answered in total would have to increase. Productivity is a major issue within any organisation but especially call centres. Call centres do try to forecast the number of calls they expect everyday and allocate resources accordingly to deal with these pressures, however there are still thousands of calls abandoned (where the customer hangs up before even getting through to an advisor) each and every day, this is sometimes referred to as call leakage. This is a growing problem for call centres across the country and it is surprising the amount of customers who will take their business elsewhere simply because they cant get through on the phone as they see it as poor customer service. In many cases it isnt feasible for staff numbers to be increased in order to cope with the call volumes that are being received and so the only solution to reducing the call leakage is to increase the productivity of the existing staff. Working in a call centre environment myself I appreciate that this is a very challenging task as call centre agents generally feel overworked and underpaid already and trying to get more work out of them will be difficult. However my research into call centre life has thrown up some issues surrounding the task of increasing staff performance in order for your business to work smarter. My research examines the possibility of reward systems as a means of increasing productivity, how call centre staff view their own roles and changes they would like to see in order to help them perform better During my research I searched the Emerald website to find relevant journal articles to assist my studies. I came across an interesting one called An exploration of managerial issues in call centres by Colin Armistead, Julia Kiely, Linda Hole and Jean Prescott. This paper consisted of two case studies carried out in two large organisations; these will be known as Case Study A and Case Study B. I found this article useful as it explores why people work in call centres, how they feel about their jobs and this research is spread over all levels from call centre agent to general manager. Case Study A provides a good background to call centre life and will aid understanding of what it is like to work in a call centre environment. In Case Study A, a total of fourteen staff members of all levels were interviewed, interviews lasted one hour and were all taped and transcribed. The interviews explored the initial decision to work for a call centre, the expectations they had before they started and the extent to which their jobs had lived up to those expectations. The authors also examined company statistics; they found evidence of high turnover in staff who had been employed for a few months then reducing to comparatively low turnover after they had been employed for more than six months. I found the findings from Case Study A to be very surprising having worked in a call centre myself and not having had very many positive experiences during my time there. The overall impression from those interviewed was that they felt very positive about their workplace. There were inevitable differences in how different levels of employees viewed certain issued but there were more similarities than differences. I was interested to see how employees had spoke about productivity and performance targets. It became apparent that performance targets were related to the number of calls answered, the time in which it took to answer the calls and also the levels of call leakage. It is very easy to monitor call centre agents against an array of time-related measures and staff felt under a lot of pressure at times due to this. I can relate to this, as this is exactly how I felt working as a call centre agent. One manager interviewed in Case Study A stated that the most important thing in managing call centre staff was motivation, motivation, motivation, yet the manager in question admitted he had little idea of how to motivate staff. I do agree that motivating staff to perform well is an issue and I appreciate that highly motivated staff will be more productive but I also think that if staff working in call centres had a better understanding of the bigger picture and knew how their actions impacted upon the business as a whole they may change their attitudes and automatically perform better and more efficiently. This is just my opinion from my experience of working in a British Gas call centre for almost three years I have been privileged enough to have been given an insight into the deeper realms of the business, something which frontline staff rarely come into contact with and I do feel this would be of benefit to them. As it stand now, staff are being thrown tough performance targets by management and expected to meet them without question, they have no understanding of why the business needs them to perform at a particular level and what the consequences will be if they dont. I believe business awareness to be a vital part of representing a company to the public and the company I work for do offer a business awareness course, however this is e-learning based and has to be completed in your own time. Needless to say, there are not many staff who take advantage of this opportunity to understand the business they work for due to the above conditions and a lot of staff are probably unaware that the facility even exists. If British Gas were to allow the time for staff to complete this course during working hours or even to be paid overtime for the time they spend on it outside their scheduled hours, they would have a massive response and although this would be time consuming and possibly quite costly, I believe that the positive effects on how employees work would outweigh the costs. Productivity is very poor in the call centre I work in after reading relevant sections in a book called Remuneration Policy by Patrick McCauley I am under the impression that a successful reward system can help to improve productivity. McCauley defines motivation simply as goal directed behaviour and he makes it clear that employees will only be motivated to increase their performance by goals that are actually of interest to them, for example if a manager said to his team one day that the person with the highest productivity that day would be rewarded with a family ticket to the local pantomime then you would get Sandra, the mother with 2.4 children, husband and nice semi-detached house working her socks off, however, Matt, Gary and Emma, the three students on the team and Harold the grandad of the team who is six months off retirement would not be interested in the slightest by the managers offer of reward. McCauley states that the three key questions we need to consider when devising a successful reward system are: * What goals will employees actually pursue? * What factors will determine their success or failure in achieving these goals? * What will be the consequences of achievement or frustration for the employee and the organisation? As I have already mentioned, it is important to offer rewards that are of interest to the staff and that will actually motivate them to perform better and drive them towards goals which involve meeting productivity and performance targets on the way. It is important to offer generic rewards that are appealable to all or a choice of a few different rewards in order to cater for all the different ages, cultures etc. I have dome some research in to reward systems whilst working on a service excellence team in the British Gas call centre and the rewards that were constantly being requested by staff were things such as an extra days annual leave, high street vouchers, deputising for a higher level role for half a day as a development opportunity etc. These were things that the frontline staff were telling management would motivate them to work harder and to a higher standard, however management declined these requests as they saw them as too ambitious and they were especially against the extra holiday which unfortunately was the most popular suggestion. It was a shame these suggestions were declined as staff then felt that they were being ignored which in turn lowered morale and saw a drop in productivity for a short while, it would probably have been cheaper for the company to have allowed a small number of desired rewards which would have increased productivity for while and certainly wouldnt have reduced it. Staff are already aware of what their targets are on a day to day basis and we need to remember that there will be a percentage of staff who do consistently meet these targets, therefore when setting criteria for a reward system we have to set it higher than daily performance targets to show that staff are being recognised for going above and beyond the call of duty and not just being coaxed into doing what is already expected of them. Staff will have to meet daily performance and productivity targets and then some before they can achieve a reward. If an employee successfully achieves a reward for their performance then not only will their productivity have had to increase to achieve the reward in the first place but as that desired behaviour has now been rewarded, the employee will be conditioned into repeating it in order to gain further rewards. If an employee either attempts and fails to reach the goal required to achieve a reward or doesnt make the effort and sees his colleagues around him being rewarded for their increased effort and performance it will have one of the two following effects upon him: * He will become de-motivated as he is feeling left out or a failure as his efforts are not being recognised because he fails to reach the required standard and his performance will drop further. * He will become determined to work to the required level to achieve a reward to prove to himself and his managers that he too can perform well. If the latter of the consequences occurs then the reward systems is still being effective in all areas as even failures are being motivated to continue to strive for the reward on offer. However if the company begins to see individuals experiencing a drop in motivation and performance they may need to consider addressing this with a reward for example for the most improved productivity each month, therefore even those whose efforts dont bring them above the required productivity level for a standard reward have a chance of recognition for their efforts alone. McCauley examines Vrooms expectancy theory and this supports the issues raised above. Vroom does state though that the criteria that needs to be met in order to achieve a reward has to be very clear cut and communicated thoroughly to all levels of staff so as to avoid woolly areas where decisions to reward or not may be disputed. Throughout my research I have identified underlying issues surrounding the productivity of call centre staff and how to improve this by encouraging motivation amongst staff and providing them with personal goals that at the same time guide them towards achieving the productivity levels required by the business. I have come to the conclusion that productivity can only really be successfully increased in the long term by providing something for the individual to work towards, not just setting targets and expecting them to be met. I also think that increased business awareness amongst frontline staff would be beneficial to any call centre so then at least they know and understand why there are certain pressures placed upon them and they may be more welcoming to the challenge of attaining higher targets. Bibliography An exploration of managerial issues in call centres. (Journal Article) Colin Armistead, Julia Kiely, Linda Hole Jean Prescott. Remuneration Policy

Impact of Campaign Appearances on Key Constituencies

Impact of Campaign Appearances on Key Constituencies Abstract Why do people vote the way they do and what can candidates do to sway the votes of those that go to the polls? Do people cast their votes based on the policies advanced by a candidate, rational self-interest, or political campaigns and the get-the-vote-out efforts (e.g. campaign appearances, advertising, door-to-door canvassing, leaflets, phone banks, electronic mail)? Which one of these influences most the number of votes a candidate gets in elections? Recent studies in voting behaviour point out to an increased importance of get-the-vote-out strategies. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the effects of one type of get-the-vote-out efforts more precisely, local visits by the candidate or incumbent in a certain constituency and the strategies politicians employ in order to increase the number of votes they get. I take as a case study the Romanian 2009 presidential election. I look at whether the abovementioned type of get-the-vote-out efforts made a difference in the number of votes the candidates got. Social scientists have recently started to pay increasing attention to matching in an attempt to infer causation based on experiments that rely on observational studies. In order to test my hypotheses I use matching as a main method. In addition to it, I conducted content analysis on printed and audio-visual media and run several OLS regressions. The results show that only one candidates campaign appearances were marginally significant in statistical terms and did have an effect on the number of votes that candidate got. INTRODUCTION Voting means freedom of expression in terms of political views; in any democracy, it is the ultimate method through which a mature, informed, law-abiding individual expresses his/her decision about how he/she wants to be ruled. It is about representation and participation; it is the assumption that those casting the vote are politically knowledgeable and want to express that knowledge (Popkin vs. Converse, Popkin, 2006). Thus, one of the key elements that candidates to public offices need to bear in mind is the fact that they must persuade the average individual not only to participate in the electoral process (and exercise their Constitutional right to freedom of expression) but also to cast a vote in their favour. The standard literature on voting behaviour lists as factors that influence the voters preferences for one candidate or another, elements such as: the position of the candidate on certain issues and their respective policy priorities, ideological attachments, rational self-interest (which candidates policies best fit the voters private interests) Kim 2009 and Sears et al. 1979, discussants (the political preferences of people one esteems, trust etc.), and charisma (Popkin 2004, Lau and Redlawsk, 2006). However, these elements fail to explain much of the realities in newer democracies, for instance post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe such as Romania. Even in old democracies, researchers have started to focus more on political campaigning and advertising as factors that make individuals cast a vote for a particular candidate. The broad category of political campaigning includes: campaign appearances, advertising (TV spots and billboard ads), door-to-door canvassing, leaflets, phone banks, direct and electronic mail. This approach has proven to be a promising stream in voting behaviour research, as many studies conducted in the U.S. show. A somewhat similar study was conducted after the 2000 election in the U.S., by King and Morehouse (2005), their aim being to demonstrate that the Gore Mississippi River trip of August 2000 was paramount in moving voter preferences for this candidate in the states included in the itinerary of the trip this being a more productive campaign scheme than television ads and media consulting services. The natural question that emerges thus is to what extent political campaigning has an effect on voters preference for one candidate or another. The present paper aims at exploring this question by focusing on the case of the Romanian presidential election of 2009. Of all the abovementioned types of political campaigning I decided to take into account the candidates electoral visits in different towns, the main reason being the fact that this the most commonly used in Romania. Therefore, the main research question that this paper raises is: Do campaign appearances have an effect on the number of votes a particular candidate gets in elections? To answer this question I test one main hypothesis: H1: In towns where a particular candidate already enjoyed a high number of supporters, that candidates electoral visit led to an increase in the number of votes he got. Several additional hypotheses are tested, although they do not refer strictly to the core research problem the effect of making appearances on the number of votes a candidate gets in election. H2: Candidates organizing electoral visits in constituencies leads to an increase in the turnout of a particular election. H3: Candidates organizing electoral visits in constituencies lead to an increase in the added number of votes of those respective candidates. In order to test these hypotheses I use matching, a statistical method that compares groups (in this particular case, the number of votes each candidate got in the towns where they made an electoral appearance against the number of votes they got in the towns where they did not make an electoral appearance) on measurable parameters. The mentioned parameter should be as closely resembling (if not equal) as possible. Thus, the paired towns have similar (sometimes even identical) values for the confounding variables, the difference in the number of votes each candidate got being therefore attributed to the electoral visits of that said candidate. While this method has been extensively used in medical or economics researches, recently political scientists started using it on a more extensive basis, especially when it comes to observational or experimental studies. In addition to this, I conducted content analysis in order to identify the towns where the presidential candidates made appearances. I analyzed two national newspapers (chosen based on the total circulation number) and one national TV station. I crosschecked the information derived from the media against the information provided on the personal web pages of the candidates. Furthermore, I ran several OLS regressions in order to test whether the hypotheses hold. In what regards the structure, the paper is divided into four main sections as follows: the first offers an overview of the existing literature in the field of voting behaviour; the second deals with the theoretical background and the methodology employed; the third introduces the data used and presents the analysis, whereas the fourth section discusses the main findings and proposes directions for further research. The novelty that this paper brings consists in applying a relatively new approach in voting behaviour research the effects of political campaigning on voters choice for a particular candidate to a country that previous studies have tackled very little. In addition to this, matching represents an innovative method able to provide a more in-depth and meaningful insight in this particular field, still underused by social sciences researchers. LITERATURE REVIEW, METHOD AND THEORY This chapter will focus on a brief overview of the current literature in the field of voting behaviour with an emphasis on campaign events used by candidates to persuade voters to cast a vote for them, while highlighting at the same time the aspects of the theory that are of crucial importance for the present study, and propose a way to analyze them further. Literature Review Together with voting, electoral campaigns represent the main tool through which citizens in representative democracies assess the suitability of a candidate running for office. This allows that candidates, in their turn, can use the same tool in order to attract a larger and broader audience whose political views they can thus hope to shape into favouring them above all other candidates (Arceneaux, 2010). For the purpose of the present study, it is important to point out from the very beginning, that the scholarly literature on electoral campaigning and voter behaviour focuses on two main aspects of campaigning. The first deals with campaign appearances and local visits in key constituencies (Holbrook 2002, 1996, Campbell 2000, Shaw 1999, Jones 1998 cited in King and Morehouse 2005), while the second with television advertisements (Shaw 1999, Freedman and Goldstein 1999, Ansolabehere and Iyengar 1995, Finkel 1993 cited in King and Morehouse 2005). The two aspects mentioned above have been deemed as the two most important in impacting voters behaviour in terms of choosing a candidate and/or voting on Election Day. Yet it has been argued by scholars (Fowler et al. 2002 and Joslyn and Ceccoli 1996) that in order for a candidates visit or ad to have a lasting impact on the voter, the specific voter needed to have a previous lingering inclination towards that specific candidate (cited in K ing and Morehouse, 2005). As I have previously mentioned, the literature on elections and voting behaviour, focuses primarily on types of voting or factors that influence voting, i.e. economic voting, instrumental or expressive voting, self-interest voting, issue voting and so on. The focus is thus on who votes (Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980, Sigleman, Roeder, Jewell and Baer 1985, Verba, Nie and Kim 1978) or on what makes individuals vote. More precisely, the focus is on what are the influences of how individuals vote and how a candidate can persuade voters to cast a vote in his/her favour. Relatively recent studies on campaigning and campaign management (Feddersen and Pesendorfer 1997, Dutta, Jackson, Le Breton, 2001, Thurber Nelson, 2004, King and Morehouse, 2005, Gerber and Green, 2008) illustrate that campaigns usually aim at influencing the reasons individuals have for voting in a particular way, with a strong emphasis on manipulation and appeal to emotions. Still a clear-cut connection between differe nt types of campaigning, the symbolic factor and the rationality of the voter is yet to be found especially in what concerns new democracies, such as Romania. In order to explore the issue of how Romanian leaders carried out campaigns in the last 20 years since the revolution it needs to be pointed out that their main focus was, as mentioned above, to appeal to the emotions of the individual. They achieve this through the symbolic over-flooding of messages (Sears, Hensler and Speer, 1979, Pippidi, 2004) in the printed press and the audiovisual, in the speeches they hold during TV debates and/or rallies, or in their campaign appearances in different constituencies. In the U.S. case (the 2000 U.S. elections); King and Morehouse point out that the Democrats presidential campaign made use of campaign appearances as a tactic to generate positive media coverage. Through these campaign appearances the Democrat candidate managed to energize the base, while it also generated free advertising and appealed more to the local community since is their media reporting the news. King and Morehouse go on to underline that: local newspapers and television s tations are eager to cover campaign events and they tend to approach politics with less cynicism than one finds among the national press corps[1] (King and Morehouse, 2005). Thus they emphasize that candidates should in fact choose key swing states for campaign appearances and attract the local media to generate free coverage both locally and at national level. Although both in 2004 and 2009 Romanian presidential candidates made use of electoral visits in order to gain media coverage, the Romanian media landscape is quite different from the American one. In contrast to the U.S. where local media is powerful and autonomous, the Romanian local media is mainly an extension of the national media. Most national TV stations and newspapers or radios have local versions for most of the towns or counties. Consequently, the news coverage these local media do is still in accordance to the articles printed at the national level at least in the case of high level importance elections. Referring to the pieces of news that voters use to inform themselves about candidates and campaigns, recent research showed that (Baum, 2006) soft news impact to an important degree inattentive individuals by making them change their preferences depending on the cues they get from that type of news. Following the idea presented by King and Morehouse (2005) that local media is and should be used by politicians to get their message across for free during elections to as many individuals as possible, it also follows that candidates should and must tailor their message and their campaign strategies depending on the different societal groups they aim at reaching (Baum, 2005). Since most supporters of parties build their political knowledge and political preferences based on the cues they get from different tabloids or entertainment shows yet still do this on a rational manner (Jerit, Barabas, and Bolsen, 2006) it is all the more clear why Romanian politicians use the sensational factor in their speeches and why they centre their campaign discourse more on rhetoric than ideology and concrete policies. The average voter tends to watch more soft news than hard news, as the former promote a humanized version of politics and politicians, emphasizing the personality and character of a candidate (as well as his/her shortcomings and mistakes). Thus, instead of the policies, the voter ends up identifying with the candidate and vote more based on feelings and emotions rather than ideological attachment or policy preferences. Jerit mentions that even if learning from this medium is largely passive and unintentional, individuals may obtain enough information to function as monitorial citizens (Schudson, 1998) (Jerit et al., 2006). Another relevant aspect involving the literature on campaigning and campaign appearances promoted through national and local media is presented by Zaller. His main argument, that mass communication is a powerful instrument for shaping attitudes and [that] it exercises this power on an essentially continuous basis (Zaller, 1996, p. 18) strengthens the argument made by King and Morehouse (2005) and mentioned above. By meeting with the local press and presenting their platform they insure that even those not present at the rallies or not watching the debates might still find out about what their campaign platform is. Lastly, still on the issue of media and campaign appearances, Natalie Strouds article points out that there is in fact a relationship between selective exposure and political attitudes (the example she gives is that those who watched Fahrenheit 9/11 were significantly more negative towards the Bush administration; not only that, but they also were more prone to start political discussions on the topic, as opposed to those who did not see the film). Thus, those exposed to such means of communication, tend to be more politically active and to engage in political discussions due to the attitude polarization of the extreme media messages. For the present paper, this argument can be interpreted in the light of the local visits made by candidates. Given the trail of articles following the candidates visits, the previous argument supports the statement that visits generated local and national coverage in the press for the candidates. This in turn generated debates between the supporters and even the detractors of those said candidates, ultimately leading to their being moved towards the polls on Election Day. Directly related to turnout though, Powell (1980, 1986) was the first to look at vote turnout in an analysis that span over twenty-nine democratic countries, between 1958 to 1976, in an attempt to answer why is turnout high in some countries and low in others. He found that there are certain mobilizing voting laws: compulsory voting and the fact that the governments assume responsibility for registering individuals on lists for elections, as well as strong-line party alignments (Crewe, 1981, also lists strong-line alignments) that increase turnout. Consequently, for the present study, one can take from Powells study the fact that having a party with strong-line alignments (Romania already has a system where the government assumes responsibility for registering the eligible voters on lists), that has kept a constant line in politics over time, and that enlists as a candidate a charismatic individual has more chances to move voters and persuade them to cast a favourable vote for that c andidate, given that the party has a campaign that ensures its candidate makes appearances in key constituencies. Other similar studies include those made by Jackman (1987), Blais and Carty (1990), Black (1991) or Franklin (1996), but all dealing with turnout and what influences higher or lower turnout either the electoral system, compulsory voting, degree of disproportionality of electoral outcomes, unciameralism vs. bicameralism, postal voting, Sunday voting, number of polling days. While focusing on all the abovementioned factors that influence turnout the referred studies either eliminate or loose sight of the campaign effect on the number of votes a candidate gets. This is why the present paper, following these studies, in an attempt to complete the picture presented by them, focuses on the effect of campaign visits on the number of votes candidates got in the visited constituencies. Another aspect to bear in mind is that the previously mentioned studies were focusing on old democracies, while this paper analyses the election in an East-European new democracy. Method and theory As this paper is using matching as a main methodological tool constituencies where the candidates made appearances are matched with similar constituencies where those candidates did organize electoral visits a closer look it is needed in order for the analysis to be better understood. Method Matching has been proposed as a non-parametric solution to problems of bias that emerge in observational studies (Rosenbaum and Rubin, 1983, 1985 cited in Arceneaux et al. 2006). However, scholars are split between the issue of matching having a bias or not, especially given the fact that it is nonetheless a method that allows for unobserved differences between groups to remain unnoticed. The literature on the topic, to date, focuses on the performance of matching estimators but uses experimental benchmarks, and not observational data (Dehejia and Wahba 1999; Heckman, Ichimura, and Todd 1997, 1998; Heckman, Ichimura, Smith, and Todd 1998; Smith and Todd 2003 cited in Arceneaux et al. 2006). The matching process identifies treated individuals [in this case, towns] who share the same background characteristics as untreated individuals [towns]. It is hoped that after matching on covariates, any remaining difference between groups can be attributed to the effect of the treatment (Arcenea ux et al. 2006). This is one of the reasons why this paper will look at the performance of matching estimators in explaining if campaign appearances generate increases in a candidates obtained number of votes in those constituencies visited but will use observational data instead of experiments. Another aspect to bear in mind when conducting an electoral campaign focused research is the strategic nature of campaigns, for as Arceneaux highlights, selection biases may appear in voter exposure to campaign stimuli therefore creating biased estimates of campaign effects (Arceneaux, 2010). This is why it would prove interesting to look at the campaign trail for each candidate and highlight the strategy used for getting-out-the-vote in the constituencies visited. Yet the present study will not deal with this aspect extensively since the main issue that it addresses remains the ability of campaign appearances to persuade voters to cast a favourable vote for the candidate making the appearance. In terms of time and geographical parameters, the focus here is on the Romanian presidential elections of 2009. In order to counteract the possible matching bias that the literature on the topic mentions (Arceneaux et al. 2006), a comparison between the number of votes the candidates considere d for this study got in 2009 and the number of votes their parties got in the 2008 parliamentary election is introduced as an independent variable (the comparison is made for each of the towns included in the study and their matches). For the purpose of this study it is also of great importance to shortly note the manner in which the candidates lead their campaign. Pippa Norris mentions that most candidates are vote-maximizers, following set patterns when setting their electoral agendas, and that they usually involve putting issues before voters (Pippa Norris, 2004). Therefore, a candidates electoral agenda should focus on issues that are crucial points for the constituency he is running for. For the presidency this means centring their agenda on issues that interest most of the country. Consequently, the agendas should follow the lines of thought of the majority of voters without transforming the speech into pure rhetoric, demagogy or empty promises. As the following sub-chapter will highlight this is usually not the case for Romania and for the Romanian electoral campaigns. Social networks researchers (Valdis Krebs, 2004) suggested that there are certain key facts to take into account when addressing the issue of building the electoral campaign in such a way that will mobilize voters and persuade them to vote for a particular candidate. One is getting a charismatic figure as candidate, someone that could be perceived as a role model. A second one would be using candidate appearances (or party supporters) to get the votes of the undecided this has been a technique also used by the Gore campaign of 2000 (King and Morehouse, 2005), whereas the third would be using campaign appearances to consolidate the faith and votes of a constituency that already supports that particular candidate. For the Romanian 2009 electoral campaign the latter two mentioned strategies were used using campaign appearances to either convince the undecided or consolidate the faith and votes of a constituency though with a higher emphasis on the latter. As far as the present paper is concerned, it is also important to look at the campaign agendas and stump speeches the candidates tailored for each visited constituency. It is noteworthy to point out that, contrary to what Rose and Haerpfer (1994) highlighted for Eastern European voters, voting in Romania is based on socio-tropic evaluations. In Romania, as in most Eastern European new democracies, the main problems governments are faced with are political and economical. Due to the negative views regarding the state of economy, individuals tend to vote economically. In other words, this means that they hold the president responsible for the state of the economy even if to a lesser extent than they view it as the parliaments responsibility. Having in mind the aspects mentioned above, one of the independent variables chosen for this study is the unemployment rate, at county level, this helping pinpoint the level of development of the region. The assumption for that choice was that the better developed the region was, the more people it has employed in different industry branches, the higher the income of the inhabitants is (this may also mean better education for the voters), and the better the ability to assign responsibility correctly and therefore, make more informed decisions when casting their vote.[2] Further on, I looked at previous voting patterns for those constituencies where the candidates made campaign appearances, in order to establish whether there is a recurring pattern in the voting habits of the inhabitants of the area, and if the appearances influenced it one way or another. This is needed to show whether political candidates chose some constituencies with the intention to get those voters to go to the polls and vote for them, the choice being done strategically or not. As mentioned before, this paper will not attempt to deal with the large issue of political campaigning as a whole. It will examine a particular aspect of it candidate appearances, whether it is rallies (events where candidates meet with their constituents), or meetings with the media in a certain constituency. The latter aspect of campaigning is a practice commonly used in Romanian elections, where candidates meet with the local media and thus get free advertising in the local media as well as coverage at the national level. Yet it is unclear if this aspect is at the back of the minds of the candidates when doing it. Theoretical Background for Romania In post-Revolution Romania, too often party members change their affiliation; floating from one party to another, only to adapt to the fact that their former party lost elections or simply because the party no longer meets their needs and political aspirations. Each election, the electorate is faced with incumbents or new candidates who have both tailored their political rhetoric to the current political persuasion of those who have nominated them so that they can secure elections without having a clear and strong ideology. Consequently, politicians are transformed into clients of the parties or party officials and vertical accountability in office is void of its initial meaning (Pippidi, 2004)[3]. This system has been maintained in place by a dual executive that doesnt share power but functions on a servitude basis and on the basis of repetition a bicameral legislative framework, where the two chambers are equal, elected in the same way, with almost identical functions and where both deputies and senators cannot be bound by instructions of their constituencies (Ludwikowski, 1996, pp. 129). All these have been a staple of the post-communist elections in Romania and have eroded the quality of the democratic process. As a consequence, both presidential and parliamentary elections are heavily dominated by populist discourses. In 2009, the main parties having candidates running for the presidential office were the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L), and the National Liberal Party (PNL). The first one, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), is considered to be the heir of the former Communist Party following the revolution of 1989, and as such maintained itself as the largest and best institutionalized one (Curt, 2007). However, the alleged failures of the 1992-6 and 2000-4 governments placed it on the second position in the preferences of the people. For the purpose of this study, I have chosen to exclude from the analysis candidates of other parties or independent candidates that also ran for the presidential office. That is based on the assumption that their importance in the preferences of the majority of the electorate was secondary compared to the candidates of the three parties mentioned above. DATA DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS This section of the paper focuses on the collected data, more precisely the sources of the data, the method of collection, as well as how it was used further in the analysis. Data Given that before I have mentioned the tendency of the Romanian voter to base political decisions on the state of the economy and on feelings (the persuasiveness of the candidate playing a key role here), it will facilitate the understanding of the analysis to point out that voters also tend to be influenced by other factors (since they dont appear to vote by making evaluations, appraisals or weighting their decision). This is why the speeches of the candidates during their campaign appearances in the thirty towns used in the analysis were centred on aspects such as the economy and the recent economic crisis, family values, wages and the incompetence of the other candidate versus their own competence superiority. By choosing these facts to centre the speeches on, they tackled some of the key aspects that influence the Romanian electorate: the socio-economic background, their social environment, self-interest, the charisma of the candidate, and the fear of change that the elections wi ll bring changes in government that will prove to the detriment of the country. The socio-economic background is important for both the Romanian voter and the candidates since it is a well known fact that most of the Romanian middle class families tend to vote for coalitions or for democrat-liberals, as these give them the confidence that their income will stay at the same level; while the working class families, for example tend to vote for socialists or social-democrats. The social environment also is a crucial factor, since family values are still of paramount importance in Romania. Individuals therefore, tend to vote in high percentages, the same way their parents vote (Hatemi et al., have already shown that parents have a major role in determining the initial political direction of their children especially if the children still live at home which is the case for most Romanians, thus the previous inference gets higher support.) Individuals also tend to focus on only one or two key policy areas (issue publics as they tend to acquire information about candidates and elections based on their interest in particular issues) and inquire only about issues they are primarily affected by or interested in (Young Mie Kim, 2009). Therefore, candidates tailor their speeches based on the issue that is more pressing for the electorate they visit. Seeing things in this light, Feddersen and Pesendorfer (1997) argue that though individuals focus on one or two policy areas makes the electorate as a whole better informed collectively about what the alternatives and best outcomes are, for this particular case, at an individual level, the choice might still not be the best one. On the other hand, yet still highly related to the previous statement, it is not clear if self-interest is necessarily what guides the Romanian voter. On these lines, Sears et al. (1979) highlight that self-interest guides the vote choice together with rational choice and that it is defined as minimizing losses for private well-being. But for Romania in 2009, the former correlation, that self-interest in terms of voting goes hand in hand with rational choice, is not necessarily always the case. What is more important is the security of the job, maintaining lower taxes, the ability to pay-off debts or receiving credits to pay-off debts, free medical care, a welfare state on the lines of the socialist credence. Subsequently, as long as a candidate promises the electorate the fulfilment of these, and appears credible (and here the charisma of the key party leader plays a very important role) in his promises, rational choice reasoning for casting a vote is rarely used. Lastly, I would al so argue that, at least for Romania, candidates, but especially incumbents, use fear of change to influence voters and to move them to polls. Here fear of change is understood in the sense of apprehension towards everything and anything that is new, that might change the previous order, the previous system and its institutions, that might demand for different behaviour. Having all of the above in mind, and going back to the purpose of the paper, to conclude, the main issue this paper looked at was if by making campaign appearances in different constituencies, and using the abovementioned influencing factors, the candidates for presidency persuaded voters and managed to get them to cast a favourable vote; that is to say, if the campaign appearance of a candidate in a particular co

Friendship in Of Mice and Men and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part T

Friendship in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and the essay on Friendship by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. -- (Khalil Gibran) Once I was looking on the internet that what is friends and what is friendship, since I never know what it was or never really read a definition of them. I was looking all over the place and I found this: â€Å"No one knows the exact definition of "Friendship"; however, they do have their own way to tell if they have a friend or not.† From the bedtime stories parents read to their children when they are going to bed, to the books students ready in high school, or the books adults ready have one most common element friendship. The history in the American literature three were many books, essays and songs about great friendships some are still famous and some are lost, in the era where people become friends by following each other on Instagram or sending request on Facebook. Mostly all persons on earth have a best friend and people say that it is hard to fine because a best friend should be some on whom you can always count on and that a person always count on you too. Sometimes having right person as your friends can help you but at the same time if you are in companionship of a bad person it can hurt you too. Who is the bad person and who is the good person is totally up to the person’s personal choice? Some books and movies have a stereotypical character o... ...micemen/ Mignon, Charles W., and H. Rose. CliffsNotes on Emerson's Essays. 01 May 2014 literature/e/emersons-essays/ralph-waldo-emerson-biography Van Kirk, Susan. CliffsNotes on Of Mice and Men. 01 May 2014 literature/o/of-mice-and-men/of-mice-and-men-at-a-glance References Steinbeck, J (1937) Of Mice and Men. Covici Friede. Alexie, S (September 2007) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Emerson, R Friendship. Spark Notes Editors. (2007). Spark Note on Of Mice and Men. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ Mignon, Charles W., and H. Rose. CliffsNotes on Emerson's Essays. 01 May 2014 literature/e/emersons-essays/ralph-waldo-emerson-biography Van Kirk, Susan. CliffsNotes on Of Mice and Men. 01 May 2014 literature/o/of-mice-and-men/of-mice-and-men-at-a-glance

Catch22 :: Essays Papers

Catch22 In Catch-22, Joseph Heller reveals the perversions of the human character and society. Using various themes and a unique style and structure, Heller satirizes war and its values as well as using the war setting to satirize society at large. By manipulating the "classic" war setting and language of the novel Heller is able to depict society as dark and twisted. Heller demonstrates his depiction of society through the institution of war (i.e. it's effects and problems during and after war). Heller’s satire of war and his anti war themes evoke pleasure and disquietude to show the mess of war, the victimization of the conscripts, and the monstrous egotism of the top brass. Catch-22 shows how the individual soldier loses his uniqueness not as much from the battlefield like other novels set during a war, but from the bureaucratic mentality. An example of this Lt. Scheisskopf's obsession with parades that he sees the men more as puppets than as human beings. At one point in the novel, he even wants to wire them together so their movements will be perfectly precise--just as mindless puppets would be. This theme also appears when Colonel Cathcart keeps increasing the number of missions his squadron must fly--not for military purposes, but to solely enhance his prestige. One other example of this theme is in the novel, when Yossarian is wounded. He is told to take better care of his leg because it is government property. Soldiers, therefore, are not even people, but simply property that can be listed on an inventory. In a bureaucracy, as Heller shows, individuality does not matter. In form, Catch-22 is a social satire--it is a novel using absurd humor to discredit or ridicule aspects of our society. The target in Catch-22 is not just the self-serving attitudes of some military officers, but also the Air Force itself as a mad military bureaucracy. The humor in the novel along with descriptive styles such as: Doc Daneeka, "roosted dolorously like a shivering turkey buzzard"; the mountains, blanketed in a "mesmerizing quiet," Yossarian, wet "with the feeling of warm slime," "lavender gloom clouding the entrance of the operations tent" These descriptive styles help depart from pure realism--they serve to transcend physical reality by making sensations metaphors for states of mind and by attributing unusual qualities to objects, making the reader take a second look at familiar objects and feelings.

A Visit to Zoo

A Visit to the Zoo Last Sunday it was cloudy. I, along with my friends visited the zoo. As we reached the main gate of the zoo, we saw a huge crowd. Some were buying, entrance tickets, some were gossiping and chatting while others were relaxing under the shady trees. We entered the zoological gardens and ca me across a beautiful lake, where some water-birds, like ducks, were swimming. Seeing the white ducks on the smooth surface of water is a charming sight. As we moved further, we came to the enclosure where birds were kept. They ranged from sparrows, eagles and parrots to pigeons of various colours.The birds were chirping. It was enchanting music. We enjoyed it very much. In the next enclosure were kept lions and leopards, tigers and tigresses, whose roars were deafening. As we approached the net, a lion rushed towards us and we were terrified. Their fierce looks were frightening. After seeing this, we came across a garden having stags, very smart and beautiful. In one of the corne rs, monkeys were jumping. Their tricks and pranks were very pleasing. Some people threw peanuts to them and they immediately jumped down the trees to eat them.Many children were making faces at them. Our next halt was at an aquarium in which we were most interested. A large number of fishes were kept there. There were fish of many species and colours. To see them fidgeting in water was really a delightful spectacle. There were many other aquatic animals. Just by the side of this enclosure we came across polar bears, which looked sad and deserted. The black bear’s enclosure attracted a mammoth gathering. The bear was playing many tricks which thrilled the spectators. Some people offered him eatables which he gulped at once.The zoological parks are so vast that it is very difficult to describe all the cages and enclosures fully. After taking a complete round of the zoo, we relaxed for some time in a cool and beautiful garden nearby. The fragrance of the flowers was tremendously intoxicating. Then we had snacks and drinks, which refreshed us very much. It was evening and the sun was setting. We came out of the zoo like many other visitors. We boarded the bus while casting our last and lingering look at the zoo, which is surrounded on one side by the old but majestic wall of the old fort, which, no doubt, added to the beauty and grandeur of the zoo.

IMImportant Scholars of Education: The Work of Paulo Freire and William W. Brickman

This article discusses the contributions of the amazing scholars Paul Freire and William W. B. Brickman and how their theories on education impacted their philosophies on improving education in their time. Friere believed the, â€Å"Banking† concept of education was the best theory to improve education in the poverty and oppressed areas(Flanagan, 2005) versus Brickman argued that the â€Å"comparative† approach on education gives students more versatility of educational learning(Silova and Brehm, 2010). These scholars developed these ideologies from their own personal background and obstacles they endured in their own economic environment and communities. Even though, Friere and Brickman theories on education were different, they both had a passion for the love and knowledge of education and took the time to research different educational strategies to make learning more effective and liberating to all students. Important Scholars of Education: The Work of Paulo Freire and William W. Brickman. Throughout the years, many scholars, politicians, scientist, and psychologist have performed many studies and have researched how to improve education. Education is a tool that we need to survive in this world (Oak, 2011). Education is a tool that helps promote wholeness and integration in the individual by focusing on the child’s personal growth and development to develop creative, confident and competent members of society who are able to contribute effectively to the life of their co mmunity (Oak, 2011). The question is can economic and social factors play an intricate part to the education success of young lives. Paulo Freire and William W. Brickman were extraordinary scholars whose social and economic status affected how they viewed education. What they encountered led them to research and explores different ideologies of improving education for all people. Paul Freire and William W. Brickman Contributions Paulo Freire was an extraordinary Brazilian educator whose revolutionary pedagogical theory influenced educational and social movements throughout the world and his personal philosophy influenced academic disciplines that include theology, sociology, anthropology, applied linguistics, pedagogy, and cultural studies (Flanagan, 2005). Freire believed that teachers played an intricate role to the welfare of the students’ education that students were considered banks and the teachers are constantly making deposits in the brains. Paulo Freire called this the â€Å"Banking Education â€Å"and Freire felt that banking education model was designed to improve critical thinking about situations (Flanagan, 2005). Educators role of teaching were to expand the minds of students by teaching them how to problem solve and this strategy would help students understand the world /society is not fixed and it potentially opening to transformation (Flanagan, 2005). William W. Brickman was amazing scholar whose focus on education was for the development in its history and international expansion. William Brickman goal was to strive to understand and not undermine others in expanding educational development. Brickman strove to expand educational concepts through extensive traveling to understand first hand social and linguistics issues (Silova and Brehm, 2010). He encouraged extensive international cooperation and working with specialist of a multitude of disciplines to expand on educational history so as to better provide the tools necessary for the teacher to engage in study. Through this, Brickman was known for his â€Å"study tours† which added extensive knowledge to the comparative field (Silova and Brehm, 2010). Challenges. The challenges of Paulo Freire were that his educational theory was based on a political oppressed people. The problem with this educational method is that it would not be applicable consistently in comparison to more developed countries. His oppressed and oppressor political view in terms to education would not carry the same weight in more democratic societies where education is not as politically dominated (Flanagan, 2005). However, the challenge of William W. Bickman entails he felt that the new found theories of science and statistics was starting to jeopardize his philosophy of comparative education (Silova and Brehm, 2010). His main concerned that these current scholars would focus on more practical educational theories versus his ideology of methodological development on comparative education. Similarities. To become great educators, one must possess the love and passion for education and finding different strategies to improve the education for students. Friere and Brickman both shared the common passion and love for improving education in their time. Their passion to improve education came from world events that change how they viewed the elements of education. Freire and his family encountered a financial crisis and Brickman developed comparative education after World War II. Their love of knowledge and education freedom made them pioneers of their time to embark on education success for all learners. Differences. As educators we all have different ideologies/methodologies of how we believe educated students show be illustrated. Freire‘s educational strategies/theories were based from the oppressed/poor (Flanagan, 2005). He devoted his life to develop effective strategies to better educate the oppressed/poor and make them more competitive in society. Brickman’s philosophy on education portrays a more international way of learning. He believed more of hands on learning approach, meaning students will become more successful learners from traveling the world, sharing/exchanging ideas and learning through comparative education (Silova and Brehm, 2010). Impact on Success Society and world issues play and important part how we view religion, politics, education, etc. We as people can endure obstacles in our lives that can change our perception on how we interpret/perceive set ideas/knowledge that is bestowed upon us. We do live in a democracy which allows us to have our own ideas and act upon those ideas. Freire’s upbringing was in a middle class environment until, his family experienced â€Å"The Great Depression†, leaving him in a world of unbelievable struggles and poverty (Flanagan, 2005). He experienced education from a poverty outlook and was dismayed by the education of poverty kids. Paulo Freire devoted his life of improving the education of the oppressed people and encouraging freedom of justice.