Econ final exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Econ final exam - Essay Example The price of alternative good, Y (PY) while the consumers income remains constant From the budget constraint PL1, the optimal use is at point e1 whereby the end user buys OX1 units of commodity X and OY1 units of product Y. The optimal consumption combination is located on a lower indifference curve U1. In the event that the price of commodity X falls, the buyer will tend to buy more of the good, budget constraint hence becomes flatter. The optimal consumption is now at point e2, whereby one buys OX2 units of X and OY2 units of Y. The consumer’s total utility, therefore, increases with the decrease in the price of the good with the optimal consumption combination at the indifference curve U2. This measures changes in buyer’s optimal consumption combination as a result of changes in the price of one commodity, say the price of good X (PX), which is an inferior good. The price of another good, say good Y (PY) and consumers income remaining constant. A market is a collection of consumers and producers, where consumers determine the demand and producers control the supply. In a competitive market, it is best understood in proper economic theory, where they depend on the numbers of both buyers and sellers available. In a market where the numbers of sellers drop to only two sellers, the economy is referred to as a duopoly market the price of the goods will fall below the optimal level. This is as a result of the tag war between the organization and sellers in the market. The sellers will try to win the available customers by providing a conducive price. (Jean 1991) A market with a single seller and multiple buyers is a monopoly. The prices in such kind of a market tend to rise above the optimal price of the commodity due the forces of demand and supply of the goods. With many buyers competing for a single commodity, the seller tend to

Human Resource Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 5

Human Resource Management - Case Study Example The company that is discussed in the case study is the Oceanic Airways. The case is about the human resource management of the company and how the organization has failed to maintain profitability due to a massive failure in managing in its human resource. The case discusses the factors that have led the company to its downfall. The case also gives brief information on the airline industry of Asia. The main focus of the case is on Oceanic Airway’s HR practices. The case presents the failure of the HR department of Oceanic Airways due to many factors. The information about the practices of the company is given and the main players in the organization are also discussed with the comments of the employees. The case study also identifies many problems in the organizational structure of the company. The company is has seen any interference from the government and that is considered one of the main problems of the company. Communication gap was another problem identified. There are other factors like high fuel prices and other economic factors that have contributed to the downfall of the company. These factors are more or less uncontrollable for the organization. The main information is on the human resource management practices of the company and how different human resource department work in order to perform basic functions of recruiting, selecting, training and promoting. The details of how human resource department work is provided in the case. Human resource problems of the company are actually increasing with the day with more and more employees getting disgruntle about the situation. The company has to start to think about its practices and should revamp all its policies in order to satisfy employees and in turn make profits. Employees actually are a source of income for the company especially in times of uncertainty when the airline industry is facing intense competition and fuel prices are fluctuating like anything.

Importance of Stakeholders

Importance of Stakeholders Project management is the discipline of supervising all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way so that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints (Lewis A. , 2010). It is the application of skill, knowledge, tools and techniques to project activities to achieve project requirements. It can be accomplished through the application of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and closing (Lewis, 2007). This is mainly done in order to meet the exceeding needs and expectations of the stakeholders (Introduction to Project Management Principles, 2003). The call for project management was determined by the various businesses that realised the benefits of organising, communicating and co-ordinating work across the various departments and professions. This helps in coordinating the various resources of a project durning the project initiation stage so that by the time the project has begun its work all stakeholders and team members will have a clear cut understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcomes of the project. (Lewis A. , 2010) Stakeholders refers to those individuals or a group who has vested interest in the outcome or the results of the body of a work in an organisation. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, 2008) defined stakeholders as the people or small groups who depend on the organisation to fulfill their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends. They may be actively involved in the project and may have an interest on the total performance or completion of the project. They have the power to exert positive or negative influence over the project, its deliverables and its team members.(Bourne, 2009). Hence stakeholders can be called as the key people involved in a project. They have an interest in the execution of the project, getting the approvals and resources, and they also have a stake in the project outcome. Although they may not have an official role on the project, these are the people who will ultimately estimate the success or failure of a project (Koning, 2009). IMPORTANCE OF STAKEHOLDERS All projects, in spite of its size, needs to have a clear cut idea and agreement about: who will decide the requirements of the project, the budget, resources, standards and in case of any change in the project, who will do the authorization of the changes and so on. Although a project manager could independently decide all these factors, unless and until the key stakeholders agree to the decision made, the project will not be able to progress and will have no scope for success (Koning, 2009). STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT The term stakeholder engagement is budding as a means of describing a broader, more inclusive, and continuous process. It takes place between the company and the potentially impacted stakeholders that encompasses a range of activities, approaches and, the entire span of a project. The change that is likely to occur reflects the broader change in the business and financial worlds. It increasingly recognizes the business and reputational risks that may occur as a result of poor stakeholder relations. It also places a growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, transparency and reporting (Corporation, 2007) . Stakeholder engagement can therefore be defined as the process of effectively eliciting the stakeholders views on their relationship with the organization (Friedman Miles, 2006). Stakeholder engagement is increasingly becoming a part of mainstream business and is being used to improve communications, obtain wider community support or buy-in for projects, gather useful data and ideas, enhance public sector or corporate reputation and encourages more sustainable decision making (Gray, 2002). Without proper engagement of the stakeholders, it is impossible to have a common abiding agreement, ownership and support for a particular project. Any company or an organisation is likely to benefit if it takes care of the environment in which it is operating and aiming to meet the needs of its stakeholders (Gray, 2002). Stakeholder engagement gives the impression of corporate responsibility. It appears evident that if an organisation shows commitment, through policy and practice, to stakeholder involvement it is acting responsibly towards these stakeholders: the more an organisation engages with its stakeholders, the more accountable and responsible that organisation is t owards these stakeholders (Greenwood, 2007). It is traditionally seen as a corporate responsibility in action. The impetus behind the use of the term engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the need to emphasize that, for firms merely to interact with stakeholders is no longer sufficient and the interaction with stakeholders is a logically necessary activity of business (Noland Phillips, 2010). WHY ENGAGE WITH STAKEHOLDERS IS NECESSARY? Effective stakeholder engagement relies on a commitment to engage and communicate openly and honestly with stakeholders. The benefits an organization gets from stakeholder engagement activities are cooperation on operations/activities and at times on policy development as well. It enhances the community confidence and creates a more user-friendly, community/industry targeted service. Future costs can be reduced: for example, times spend in managing the crises with regard to the confidence level of the stakeholders can be avoided. It also helps in improving the access to emerging issues and communities, and helps in gaining the capacity to handle them before they develop a negative vibe in the community. This will include avoiding negative press releases. In the case of changes and benefits that can take place inside the organisation are as follows: It increases the organisational effectiveness which will result in more effective and efficient practice and high quality policy input within the organisation It enhances the two-way communication skills and better understanding on both sides and thereby bridges the cultural gaps. It develops a culture of innovation and learning, for example by building the knowledge into our decisions and practices. Simplifies the conflict resolution through building trust, and a clearer articulation of what cannot be resolved. STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT PLANNING Often the importance of stakeholder engagement is overlooked. It allows you to identify strengths and weaknesses and ultimately develop strategies to engage effectively. The stakeholder engagement is a critical element to the success of the project and it may be useful to develop a stakeholder engagement plan. For this, various sources, conventional and unconventional is used such as the media, online, literature or even word of mouth. As a part of the analysis, it is important to examine existing, current and past relationships, available resources and constraints and the desirable outcomes it looks forward to. For this purpose, the different desired outcomes of the stakeholders as well as the stakeholders engagement processes is analysed and studied. DESIRED OUTCOMES Desired outcomes are nothing but the overall aims of the engagement process. The desired outcomes for undertaking stakeholder engagement process would be Improved personal or working relationships Changed attitudes Improved communication channels Promotion of expansive circle of responsibility for actions and decisions Identification of key issues, conflicts and benefits Creation of new ideas Establishment of new orderly partnerships Improved services for society Change in policy Cost savings to long term Betterment of individual and organisational learning Local support and hostility supported for a new initiative Increased community union and strengthened shared identity (Gray, 2002) STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES Stakeholder is an umbrella term which incorporates range of activities and interactions over the project life cycle. These activities can be divided into following components (Corporation, 2007): Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Information Disclosure Stakeholder Consultation Negotiation and Partnerships Stakeholder Involvement in Project Monitoring Reporting to Stakeholders (Appendix 2) STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS When it comes to identifying the key stakeholders, the project sponsor works along with the project manager to identify the stakeholders. Stakeholders may comprise of a wide range of people that come from different areas of business. It may be people from senior management, human resources, finance, marketing and IT departments. They typically have a particular business stream and their interest in the project is focused on the needs of their particular area. Some stakeholders will have more interest and involvement than the others. (Koning, 2009) When identifying stakeholders, it may be helpful to first determine the most relevant dimensions: organisational unit, process, function, job role, geographic area and so on. It is more important to consider the external stakeholders including partners, suppliers, customers, customers cutomers, consumers and those who would wish they were not stakeholders, such as victims of crimes etc (Bradley, 2006). It is quite important to note that stakeholders are selected with a verification process. It is necessary to ensure that all relevant parties are represented and those participants indicate the interests of those they claim to speak on behalf of (Friedman Miles, 2006). Once the identificationis completed, the group of stakeholders are analysised. It is important to understand the interests and opinions of every stakeholder as they may affect the project work. All the stakeholders may not share the same opinion and may have a unified opinion or priorities. Hence conducting a stakeholder analysis has become so important because of its increased interconnected nature of the world (Ketti, 2002). Hence, finding out what the problemis and what is the right solutions might be taken as a way to overcome this problem. This will also help in identifying the stakeholders who are a part of this crucial aspect of problem solving (Bardach, 1998). Stakeholder Analyses mainly helps in better organisational performance and fulfilling its mission. Fulfilling the mission should arise from producing fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what the organisation is, what it does and why it does it (Bryson, 1995). Hence it is quite important to study and f ind out the key players amongst the stakeholders itself for the successful completion of the project. Again as said above, the success of the project, not only depends on being able to deliver customers demand but also in being able to met all the stakeholder expectations as well.. The selected stakeholders play a primary task in making the important decisions during the time of initiation, planning and execution of the project. The five primary project stakeholders that are present in most of the projects are: the project manager, the project team, the functional management, the sponsor, and the customer.ÂÂ   In a larger sense, anyone who participates in the project or is impacted by its results is a stakeholder. Each stakeholder has an essential contribution to make and they need to meet their expectations. Contribution made by different people to the project is the principal criteria for identifying stakeholders (Project Stakeholders, their Roles and Contribution, 2006) (Appendix 1) COMMUNICATION IN STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT The core of all relationships is communication and stakeholder engagement is essentially a complex relationship. Negotiation occurs when two or more people are prepared to bargain to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. It is important to acknowledge the effects it might have on the relationship with the organization. Communication also involves being open and honest about the objectives and planned activities. The stakeholders should be communicated in the loop as much as possible, whether it is through email trails, phone calls or face to face engagement. The latter is often the most effective form of stakeholder engagement as it gives the relationship a more human element. A well-informed stakeholder can prevent a project from continuing on a path that will fail to deliver the required benefits, by highlighting issues and concerns as soon as they arise. (Koning, 2009) STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROJECT MONITORING Stakeholders involvement in any project improves the progression of the project and as project monitoring consists of collection of the data and reporting information according to the project plans, budget and requirements, stakeholder involvement and interaction is needed (Tammer, 2009). The assessment and reporting technique should depend on the size and complicatedness of the project and stakeholder position. If the stakeholders are lacking the required skills in monitoring, then adequate training need to be provided to them for fostering the participatory monitoring. The participation of the project affected stakeholders in monitoring the social and environmental affects is a good practice. External monitoring can lead to the development of trust between the project and the primary stakeholders. CONCLUSION The stakeholder engagement always provides opportunities to further align business practices with community needs and expectations aiding to drive long term sustainability and shareholder value. Stakeholder engagement must take place if the organisation truly needs the inputs from the people involved in the business for decision making. The stakeholder engagement planning should be done in such a manner that it remains beneficial to the organisation. Stakeholder engagement assists any organisation to compete with its rivals in a complex and changing business climates. Works Cited Bardach, E. (1998). Getting Agencies to Work Together. Washington: Brookings Institution Press. Bourne, L. (2009, September 22). Who is a Stakeholder? Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Project Management Institute: http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2009/09/who-is-a-stakeholder.html Bradley, G. (2006). Benefit Realisation Management. A Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits through change . Bryson, J. (1995). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Corporation, I. F. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets. Washington: International Finance corporation. Friedman, A. L., Miles, S. (2006). Stakeholders: Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Gray, R. (2002). The Social Accounting Project and Accounting Organizations and Society (Vol. 27). Accounting Organizations and Society. Greenwood, M. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Myth of Corporate Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics , 74, 315-327. Introduction to Project Management Principles. (2003). Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/hip/lld/olt/resources/toolkit/project_management/project_management_intro.shtml Johnson, G., Scholes, K., Whittington, R. (2008). Exploring corporate strategy: text and cases. Peason Education. Ketti, D. (2002). TheTransformation of Governance: Public Adminitration Twenty-First Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Koning, L. (2009, May 1). Project Stakeholders. Retrieved March 22, 2011, from Insightful Writers: http://www.suite101.com/content/project-stakeholders-a114023 Lewis, A. (2010). Introduction to Project Management. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Project Smart: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html Lewis, J. P. (2007). Fundamentals of Project Management. New York: AMACOM, American Management Assciation. Noland, J., Phillips, R. (2010). Stakeholder Engagement, Discourse Ethics and Strategic Management. International Journal of Management Reviews , 39-49. Project Stakeholders, their Roles and Contribution. (2006). Retrieved March 28, 2011, from Business e-coaching: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/project_stakeholders.html Stakeholders Engagement. (2010, October 25). Retrieved March 28, 2011, from Continuous Developer: http://continuousdevelopment.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/stakeholder-engagement/ Tammer, M. D. (2009). Early stakeholder involvement in projects. PM World Today , 9 (4). Bibliography Bardach, E. (1998). Getting Agencies to Work Together. Washington: Brookings Institution Press. Bourne, L. (2009, September 22). Who is a Stakeholder? Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Project Management Institute: http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2009/09/who-is-a-stakeholder.html Bradley, G. (2006). Benefit Realisation Management. A Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits through change . Bryson, J. (1995). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Carroll, A. B., Buccholtz, A. K. (2008). Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder. Management. Mason: Cengage Learning. Condrey, S. E. (2005). Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Corporation, I. F. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets. Washington: International Finance corporation. Friedman, A. L., Miles, S. (2006). Stakeholders: Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Gray, R. (2002). The Social Accounting Project and Accounting Organizations and Society (Vol. 27). Accounting Organizations and Society. Greenwood, M. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Myth of Corporate Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics , 74, 315-327. Introduction to Project Management Principles. (2003). Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/hip/lld/olt/resources/toolkit/project_management/project_management_intro.shtml Johnson, G., Scholes, K., Whittington, R. (2008). Exploring corporate strategy: text and cases. Peason Education. Ketti, D. (2002). TheTransformation of Governance: Public Adminitration Twenty-First Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Koning, L. (2009, May 1). Project Stakeholders. Retrieved March 22, 2011, from Insightful Writers: http://www.suite101.com/content/project-stakeholders-a114023 Lewis, A. (2010). Introduction to Project Management. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Project Smart: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html Lewis, J. P. (2007). Fundamentals of Project Management. New York: AMACOM, American Management Assciation. Noland, J., Phillips, R. (2010). Stakeholder Engagement, Discourse Ethics and Strategic Management. International Journal of Management Reviews , 39-49. Phillips, R. (1997). Stakeholder Theory and a Principle of Fairness. Business Ethics Quarterly , 7, 51-66. Project Stakeholders, their Roles and Contribution. (2006). Retrieved March 28, 2011, from Business e-coaching: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/project_stakeholders.html Stakeholders Engagement. (2010, October 25). Retrieved March 28, 2011, from Continuous Developer: http://continuousdevelopment.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/stakeholder-engagement/ Tammer, M. D. (2009). Early stakeholder involvement in projects. PM World Today , 9 (4). APPENDIX APPENDIX 1 KEY STAKEHOLDER IN A PROJECT Internal Stakeholder External Stakeholders Project sponsor Customers Functional Department Government Corporate Leadership Competitors Other Project Teams Joint Venture Partners Employees Vendors Unions Investors/ Shareholders

Outsourcing Development Work to India Essay -- Globalization Jobs Work

Outsourcing Development Work to India I. Introduction Globalization has had a major impact on the way business is conducted. Companies are increasingly turning to offshore software development outlets for design management. Anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies are already outsourcing to India and the amount of work done there for U.S. companies is expected to more than double this year according to Forrester Research. This paper will take a look at some of the arguments for and against outsourcing IT development to India. Most importantly this paper will take a look at ethical standpoints taken on outsourcing. But first, we'll take a look at the history of outsourcing to India. II. History In the late 1980's the rise of India outsourcing had its start. During this phase, India provided skilled contract workers for the US. Efforts to outsource projects to India arose in the late 1990's. This was driven by a combination of rapidly changing technologies and shrinking IT budgets Little by little the small offshore development projects started to multiply. In the beginning it was trial and error because there wasn't much focus on a repeatable and process driven model. During this time offshore outsourcing led to several failures. The big outsourcing force during the late 1990's came with Y2K. Work needed to get done quick and outsourcing to Indian companies was a solution to this. Indian companies had the ability to scale rapidly. Y2K conversion wasn't too high in the value-chain job, however it gave Indian companies a view of what was possible. Then came process maturity and standardization through processes. Indian companies have spent much time honing rigorous developmen... ... http://news.com.com/2100-1011-5175699.html [4] Gupta, Sachin. For a global software company, outsourcing began at inception . World Paper. April 19. 2004 http://www.worldpaper.com/2004/april/april4.html [5] India greets H-1B cutback with a shrug -- But cap could sting if U.S. market rebounds. Electronic Engineering Times: 1, October 13, 2003. [6] Kripalani, Majeet & Egnardio, Pete. The Rise Of India. Business Week Online. December 8, 2003. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_49/b3861001_mz001.htm [7] Outsourcing created more jobs in US. MSN Business. IANS. http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandoraV2/output/33601A5C-9FA2-491F-8E3B-EBC7CC04EDAF.asp [8] Pink, Daniel. Wired Magazine. The New Face of the Silicon Age. How India became the capital of the computing revolution. February 4, 2004. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html

Short Essay About Sports and Education

The great Duke of Wellington, of Waterloo Victory fame, once saw the boys of Eton public School playing on the field and was moved to say, There our great battles were won† He meant that young lads acquire on the playground not only physical stamina but discipline, the habit of obedience, the will to win, -and these virtues make them good soldiers when their country calls them to the field of battle. It is good to enjoy the delight of running about in the open field and to ‘feel life in every limb’.But that only makes the lesson that we learn, of discipline, obedience and tenacity, all the more pleasing. To develop character not by arid and dry moral lessons, but in the course of our enjoyment of games, is a privilege which we must set store by. The most important lesson that sports of all kinds teach us is a sense of discipline. A good sportsman must always learn to obey the rules of the games and the orders of the captain. He knows the value of the proverb â€⠀œ â€Å"He who knows how to obey will know how to command†.Discipline goes hand in hand with duty. On the playground, each individual has an allotted duty to perform. He has to carry out his share. It is his duty to help in winning games by obeying his captain and maintaining teamwork through concerted movement and display of spirit de crops (team spirit). Another great virtue, which sports help us acquire, is the will to win. Life is a struggle, a constant fight against difficulties. The week-willed man resigns himself to what he calls his fate. Hr belongs to the ranks of the defeated.He is not a sportsman. For a sportsman takes defeats and disappointments as a true part of the game in its stride. Today he is defeated, but he knows that tomorrow he may win. He knows also how to take defeat in a sporting spirit, and to prepare for a greater fight. The true sportsman knows also the value of unity in action. Look at the rowers in a boat from the cockswain to the helmsman, how harmonious and concerted are their strokes. If one of them misses his rhythm, the harmony is destroyed.How often have we not seen on the football ground, a splendid opportunity lost by the selfish desire or individualistic effort of one man to score! It is the same in the cricket field; the same everywhere, not individualistic display for record but to play for the team. Sports should teach us another lesson, which is often ignored, to obey the umpire or the referee whether he is right or wrong. In the hard battle of life, we do not always get justice. Often the verdict goes against us through no fault of ours.A true sportsman takes these ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ as in the course or part of the game. He is not disheartened but prepares for a further effort; for he is not to question why in defiance. So sports of all kinds are not only good for the body, but they are good for the mind and for the moral make-up, i. e. that is, conducive to building the ch aracter. The lessons learnt on the playground will make better soldiers of us in the battlefield of life, in our war with adversity, illness, opposition and destiny itself.

Columbus vs. de Las Casas

In the textbook of Bartolome de las Casas From The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies, de la Casas said â€Å"This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating the food they provided with their sweat and toil. Base on this saying we can guest his thought about the New World and its inhabitants, he explains how the Spaniards have behaved and acting, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before. De las Casas think this new world was the first one to be devastated destroyed and conquered by imperialist and colonialist Spaniards. Columbus’s letters we can see the arrogance he possessed in claiming the islands he found. In his letter describing his findings to his king, he wrote, â€Å"And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable and of them all I have taken possession for their Highnesses. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Columbus never stopped to consider that these islands were not his to take, nor were the people that inhabited them. He simply took over these lands, even going so far as to rename them all. His first sight of what he termed â€Å"Indians† was of a group of attractive, unclothed people. Speculation is that, to him, their nakedness represented a lack of culture, customs, and religion. Columbus saw this as an opportunity to spread the word of God, while at the same considering how they could possibly be exploited. He believed that they would be easy to conquer because they appeared defenseless, easy to trick because they lacked experience in trade, and an easy source of profit because they could be enslaved. It obviously did not occur to Columbus to consider these people in any terms aside from that of master and slave. Columbus thinks that New World could be well adapted for the working of the gold mines and for all kinds of commerce.

Aztec Origins and the Founding of Tenochtitlan

Aztec Origins and the Founding of Tenochtitlan The origins of the Aztec Empire are part legend, part archaeological and historical fact. When the Spanish conquistador Hernn Cortà ©s arrived in Basin of Mexico in 1517, he found that the Aztec Triple Alliance, a strong political, economic and military pact, controlled the basin and indeed much of central America. But where did they come from, and how did they get to be so powerful? The Origins of the Aztecs The Aztecs, or, more properly, the Mexica as they called themselves, were not originally from the Valley of Mexico but rather migrated from the north. They called their homeland Aztlan, The Place of Herons., but Aztlan is a location which has not as yet been identified archaeologically and was likely at least partly mythical. According to their own records, the Mexica and other tribes were known as a group as the Chichimeca, left their homes in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States because of a great drought. This story is told in several surviving codices (painted folding books), in which the Mexica are shown carrying with them the idol of their patron deity Huitzilopochtli. After two centuries of migration, at around AD 1250, the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico. Today, the Basin of Mexico is filled with the sprawling metropolis of Mexico City; but underneath the modern streets are the ruins of Tenochtitln, the site where the Mexica settled, and the capital city for the Aztec empire. Basin of Mexico Before the Aztecs When the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico, it was far from an empty place. Because of its wealth of natural resources, the valley has been continuously occupied for thousands of years, the first known substantial occupation established at least as early as the second century BC. The Valley of Mexico lies ~2,100 meters (7,000 feet) above sea level, and it is surrounded by high mountains, some of which are active volcanoes. Water coursing down in streams from these mountains created a series of shallow, marshy lakes that provided a rich source for animals and fish, plants, salt and water for cultivation. Today the Valley of Mexico is almost entirely covered by the monstrous expansion of Mexico City: but there were ancient ruins as well as thriving communities when the Aztecs arrived, including the abandoned stone structures of two major cities: Teotihuacan and Tula, both referred to by the Aztecs as the Tollans. Teotihuacn: Almost a thousand years before the Aztecs, the huge and carefully planned city of Teotihuacn (occupied between 200 BC and AD 750) flourished there. Today Teotihuacan is a popular archaeological site a few miles north of modern Mexico City that attracts thousands of tourists each year. The word Teotihuacn is a Nahuatl (the language spoken by the Aztecs) word meaning The Birthplace of the Gods. We dont know its real name, but the Aztecs gave this name to the city because it was a sacred place associated with the legendary origins of the world. Tula: Another city that developed in the Valley of Mexico before the Aztecs was the city of Tula, the early post-classic capital of the Toltecs between AD 950 and 1150. The Toltecs were considered by the Aztecs to be the ideal rulers, brave warriors who excelled in the arts and sciences. Tula was so revered by the Aztecs that the king Motecuhzoma (aka Montezuma) sent people to dig up Toltec objects for use in the temples at Tenochtit ln. The Mexica were awestruck by the massive structures built by the Tollans, considering Teotihuacan to be the sacred setting for the creation of the current world or Fifth Sun. The Aztecs carried away and reused objects from the sites: more than 40 Teotihuacan-style objects have been found in offerings within Tenochtitlans ceremonial precinct. Aztec Arrival in Tenochtitln When the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico about 1200 AD, both Teotihuacn and Tula had been abandoned for centuries; but other groups were already settled on the best land. These were groups of Chichimecs, related to the Mexica, who had migrated from the north in earlier times. The late-coming Mexica were forced to settle on the inhospitable hill of Chapultepec or Grasshopper Hill. There they became vassals of the city of Culhuacan, a prestigious city whose rulers were considered the heirs of the Toltecs. As acknowledgment for their assistance in battle, the Mexica were given one of the daughters of the King of Culhuacan to be worshiped as a goddess/priestess. When the king arrived to attend the ceremony, he found one of the Mexica priests dressed in the flayed skin of his daughter: the Mexica reported to the king that their God Huitzilopochtli had asked for the sacrifice of the princess. The sacrifice and flaying of the Culhua Princess provoked a ferocious battle, which the Mexica lost. They were forced to leave Chapultepec and move to some marshy islands in the middle of the lake. Tenochtitln: Living in a Marshland After they were forced out of Chapultepec, according to the Mexica myth, the Aztecs wandered for weeks, searching for a place to settle. Huitzilopochtli appeared to the Mexica leaders and indicated a place where a great eagle was perched on a cactus killing a snake. This place, smack dab in the middle of a marsh with no proper ground at all, was where the Mexica founded their capital, Tenochtitln. The year was 2 Calli (Two House) in the Aztec calendar, which translates in our modern calendars to AD 1325. The apparently unfortunate position of their city, in the middle of a marsh, actually facilitated economic connections and protected Tenochtitln from military attacks by restricting access to the site by canoe or boat traffic. Tenochtitln grew rapidly as both a commercial and military center. The Mexica were skillful and fierce soldiers and, despite the story of the Culhua princess, they were also able politicians who created solid alliances with the surrounding cities. Growing a Home in the Basin The city grew rapidly, with palaces and well-organized residential areas and aqueducts providing fresh water to the city from the mountains. At the center of the city stood the sacred precinct with ball courts, schools for nobles, and priests quarters. The ceremonial heart of the city and of the whole empire was the Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitln, known as the Templo Mayor or Huey Teocalli (the Great House of the Gods). This was a stepped pyramid with a double temple on top dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the main deities of the Aztecs. The temple, decorated with bright colors, was rebuilt many times during Aztec history. The seventh and final version was seen and described by Hernn Cortà ©s and the conquistadors. When Cortà ©s and his soldiers entered the Aztec capital on November 8, 1519, they found one of the largest cities in the world. Sources Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst Berdan FF. 2014. Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Healan D. 2012. The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 20(1):53-115.Smith ME. 2013. The Aztecs. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Van Tuerenhout DR. 2005, The Aztecs: New Perspectives. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO Inc.

Lord of the Flies Symbolism Essays

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Katherine Mansfield Essay Example for Free

Katherine Mansfield Essay She was born in 1888 in Wellington, a town labeled â€Å"the empire city† by its white inhabitants, who modeled themselves on British life and relished their city’s bourgeois respectability. [1] At an early age, Mansfield witnessed the disjuncture between the colonial and the native, or Maori, ways of life, prompting her to criticize the treatment of the Maoris in several diary entries and short stories. [2] Mansfield’s biographer, Angela Smith, writes: â€Å"It was her childhood experience of living in a society where one way of life was imposed on another, and did not quite fit in† that sharpened her modernist impulse to focus on moments of â€Å"disruption† or encounters with â€Å"strange or disturbing† aspects of life. [3] Her feelings of disjuncture were accentuated when she arrived in Britain in 1903 to attend Queen’s College. In many respects, Mansfield remained a lifelong outsider, a traveler between two seemingly similar yet profoundly different worlds. After briefly returning to New Zealand in 1906, she moved back to Europe in 1908, living and writing in England and parts of continental Europe. Until her premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 34, Mansfield remained in Europe, leading a Bohemian, unconventional way of life. The Domestic Picturesque Mansfield’s short story â€Å"Prelude† is set in New Zealand and dramatizes the disjunctures of colonial life through an account of the Burnell family’s move from Wellington to a country village. The story takes its title from Wordsworth’s seminal poem, â€Å"The Prelude,† the first version of which was completed in 1805, which casts the poet as a traveler and chronicles the â€Å"growth of a poet’s mind. †[4] Although the Burnell family moves a mere â€Å"six miles† from town, the move is not inconsequential; it enacts a break with their previous way of life and alerts the family members to the various discontinuities in their lives. Beneath the veneer of the Burnells’ harmonious domestic life are faint undercurrents of aggression and unhappiness. The haunting specter of a mysterious aloe plant and a slaughtered duck in their well-manicured yard suggests that the family’s awfully nice new home conceals moments of brutality and ignorance toward another way of life that was suppressed and denied. [5] As I will propose, these two incidents echo the aesthetic concept of the sublime, as they encapsulate a mysterious power that awes its beholders and cannot be fully contained within their picturesque home. Through her subtle, dream-like prose, Mansfield deploys traditional aesthetic conventions like the picturesque while simultaneously transfiguring, subverting, and reinventing them in a modernist context. The concept of the picturesque was first defined by its originator, William Gilpin, an 18th century artist and clergyman, as â€Å"that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture. †[6] Thus, a scene or representation is beautiful when it echoes an already-established, artistic conception of beauty, revealing the self-reinforcing way in which art creates the standard of beauty for both art and life. Mansfield presents these picturesque moments in order to demystify them and reveal the suppression and violence they contain. In addition to â€Å"Prelude,† her stories â€Å"Garden Party† and â€Å"Bliss† dramatize the transformation and inversion of picturesque moments of bourgeois life and domestic harmony. While she seems to exhibit a certain attachment to these standard aesthetic forms, Mansfield subtly interrogates many of these conventions in a strikingly modernist way. Through her childhood in a colony, Mansfield also became attuned to the violence and inequalities of colonialism. As Angela Smith suggests, her early writings demonstrate a keen sensitivity towards a repressed history of brutality and duplicity. [7] In her 1912 short story â€Å"How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,† she questions and overturns the perspective of the colonialist, whose vantage point historically trumps that of the native. The deliberate ambivalence of the word â€Å"kidnapping† dramatizes the conflict between the colonist’s perspective and Pearl’s joyful, eye-opening experiences during her abduction. In a similar way, empire dramatized for Mansfield the way that a picturesque, bourgeois household could suppress alternative perspectives. The Sublime In â€Å"Prelude,† the mysterious, sublime aloe plant disrupts the pleasant domesticity of the Burnell household. Their well-manicured yard with its tennis lawn, garden, and orchard also contains a wild, unseemly side—â€Å"this was the frightening side, and no garden at all. †[8] This â€Å"side† contains the aloe plant, which exerts a mysterious, enthralling power over its awed beholders. In its resemblance to the ocean, the aloe assumes the characteristics of the sublime: â€Å"the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a shop with the oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water, and on the green wave glittered the dew. †[9] For many writers and poets, the ocean was a manifestation of the sublime because of its unfathomable power and scale that awed and humbled its observers. The aloe’s strikingly physiological effect on its viewers recalls Edmund Burke’s sublime, which overpowers its observer and reinforces the limitations of human reason and control. In his famous treatise on the sublime, Burke writes: â€Å"greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity† is a powerful cause of the sublime, as it embodies the violent and overpowering forces of nature. [10] In a similar vein, the child, Kezia Burnell’s first impression upon seeing the â€Å"fat swelling plant with its cruel leaves and fleshy stem† is one of awe and wonder. [11] In this case, the sublimity of the aloe plant disrupts and challenges the domestic picturesque as it defies mastery, categorization, and traditional notions of beauty. In its resistance to categorization and control, the sublime embodies the part of the ungovernable landscape that the Burnell family cannot domesticate and the picturesque cannot frame. As a result, in â€Å"Prelude,† the magnitude of the sublime interrupts and fractures the tranquil surface of the picturesque by exposing the unfathomable depths beneath it. The colonial backdrop of the Burnells’ yard also contributes to the mysterious, occult power of the aloe. This unruly part of their property hints toward a landscape that eludes domestication and serves as a constant reminder that the Burnell family is living in a land that is not quite theirs and cannot be fully tamed. [12] At the age of 19, Mansfield wrote that the New Zealand bush outside of the cities is â€Å"all so gigantic and tragic—and even in the bright sunlight it is so passionately secret. †[13] For Mansfield, the bush embodies the history of a people whose lives have been interrupted and displaced by European settlers. [14] After wars, brutal colonial practices, and European diseases had devastated the local Maori population, the bush became a haunting monument to their presence. As the Burnell family settles down to sleep on the first night in their new home, â€Å"far away in the bush there sounded a harsh rapid chatter: â€Å"Ha-ha-ha†¦ Ha-ha-ha. †[15] In her subtle way, Mansfield unveils the voices of those whose perspectives are excluded from this portrait of nocturnal domestic harmony. In a similar way, the aloe plant exudes an unfathomable history that is beyond the time and place of the Burnells. Even its age—implied by the fact that it flowers â€Å"once every hundred years†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggests that the aloe exists on a different scale than its human beholders. [16] In its ancient, superhuman scale, the aloe gestures towards the â€Å"gigantic,† indicating a subtle, but implicitly threatening power within, or in proximity of the home. The aloe is a kind of lacuna in the imperial landscape of New Zealand, whose power threatens the colonial household and its control over the landscape. [17] By disrupting and encroaching upon the ostensibly safe domestic sphere, the aloe also echoes the â€Å"unheimlich,† or uncanny, an aesthetic concept explored by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay, â€Å"The Uncanny. † The uncanny becomes, in part, an invasive force violating the sacred, domestic sphere and hearkens back to a previously repressed or hidden impulse: â€Å"The uncanny is something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light. †[18] In â€Å"Prelude,† the aloe is initially depicted as a threatening force that â€Å"might have had claws instead of roots. The curving leaves seemed to be hiding something. †[19] Positioned within the safe space of their property, the aloe is a menacing, ungovernable force that seems to encroach upon it. The plant becomes part of the repressed history of the landscape—a history that is only apparent to Kezia, her mother Linda Burnell, and her grandmother Mrs. Fairfield, who are attuned to the forces below the surface of the picturesque exterior. Violent Underpinnings Beneath many of Mansfield’s picturesque domestic scenes are moments of violence and rupture. In â€Å"Garden Party,† for instance, a poor man falls to his death during the preparations for a much-anticipated social gathering of the wealthy Sheridan family, undermining the convivial spirit of the occasion. In â€Å"Prelude,† Pat, the handyman, slaughters a duck while the children watch with grotesque enthrallment as it waddles for a few steps after being decapitated. â€Å"The crowning wonder† of the dead duck walking hearkens back to Burke’s sublime, which is experienced in â€Å"Prelude† within the confines of the private residence. [20] The sublimity of this apparent defiance of the properties of death acts as a dramatic external force imposing on the observers’ intellect and reason in a profoundly Burkian way. But later that night, when the duck is placed in front of the patriarch, Stanley Burnell, â€Å"it did not look as if it had ever had a head. †[21] The duck’s picturesque dressing—â€Å"its legs tied together with a piece of string and a wreath of little balls of stuffing round it†Ã¢â‚¬â€conceals its violent death. [22] In a similar way, the â€Å"awfully nice† picturesque house is imposed upon the landscape, as if it had never been any other way. [23] Through reconfiguration and transformation, a new imperial order conceals the fact that an older order once lay beneath it. In both cases, the picturesque functions as a way of naturalizing the violent order of domination. As Pat’s golden earrings distract Kezia from her grief over the duck’s death, the duck’s pretty garnish conceals its â€Å"basted resignation. †[24] There is no such thing as a pure aesthetics, Mansfield seems to suggest, as each serene moment is implicated in some act of violence, brutality, or suppression. In â€Å"Prelude,† the good-natured Pat disrupts a pre-existing picturesque scene in which ducks â€Å"preen their dazzling breasts† amidst the pools and â€Å"bushes of yellow flowers and blackberries. †[25] Tellingly, the duck pond contains a bridge, a typical feature of the picturesque that reconciles or bridges the gap between different aspects of the scenery. In this way, the Burnell family’s cultivation of the land by planting and slaughtering ducks disrupts another underlying order. Their unquestioning appropriation of this pre-existing order mirrors the way colonial life disrupted and undermined the indigenous Maori life. Juxtaposing two picturesque scenes that interrupt and conflict with one another, Mansfield questions and unravels the conventional image of the picturesque. This interplay of various conflicting aesthetic orders constitutes part of Mansfield’s modernist style, in which aesthetic forms are ruptured, fragmented, and overturned. As the yard’s landscape bears traces of the Maori past, so the quiet harmony of the Burnells’ domesticity is underscored by deep, unspoken tensions and an animosity that hints at the uncanny. In fact, the only character who expresses any contentment is Stanley, who reflects, â€Å"By God, he was a perfect fool to feel as happy as this! †[26] Yet even he shudders upon entering his new driveway, as â€Å"a sort of panic overtook Burnell whenever he approached near home. †[27] Beneath this veneer of marital bliss and familial harmony, his wife Linda occasionally ignores her children and expresses hatred towards her husband and his aggressive sexuality: â€Å"there were times when he was frightening—really frightening. When she screamed at the top of her voice, ‘You are killing me. ’†[28] Meanwhile Stanley and Beryl, Linda’s sister, seem to have a flirtatious, indecent relationship: â€Å"Only last night when he was reading the paper her false self had stood beside him and leaned against his shoulder on purpose. Hadn’t she put her hand over his†¦ so that he should see how white her hand was beside his brown one. †[29] Dramatizing these dynamics, Mansfield suggests that a â€Å"happy† household outside of town is not as â€Å"dirt cheap† as Stanley boasts; it comes at the cost of servitude, sexual aggression, and a ravaged Maori landscape. [30] Through these layers, which Mansfield subtly strips off one at a time, she artfully exposes the way that an existing political and aesthetic order is not what it seems to be or how it has always been. Her short stories are fraught with their own tensions; while exposing the picturesque as false and absurd, she nevertheless draws on its conventional associations. Similarly, her subtle attempts to question colonial power are embedded in a seemingly idealized portrait of colonial life. Mansfield creates a seemingly beautiful or normal image, such as the happy family in â€Å"Prelude,† â€Å"Bliss,† or â€Å"Garden Party,† and then slowly challenges it through a subtle counter-narrative. In this way, her deployment of modernist techniques is less pronounced than that of James Joyce and her other modernist contemporaries. Just as she challenges aesthetic conventions, Mansfield unravels the reader’s ideas about her own stories by presenting a seemingly beautiful, transparent narrative that is haunted by tensions, lacunae, and opacity. Like the headless walking duck, these fictions of transparency and harmony quickly collapse upon closer inspection.

The Background Of The Social Stratification Sociology Essay

The Background Of The Social Stratification Sociology Essay All societies place their members according to superiority, inferiority and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this categorization of people in layers is called stratification. Social stratification is a natural and controlled division according to race, religion, social and economic status. In sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society. Anthony Giddens has defined social stratification as the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. According to Peter Saunders, in modern Western societies, stratification depends on social and economic classes consisting of three main layers: Upper class, Middle class and Lower class. Every class is further divided into smaller classes according to occupation. 1.1 BACKGROUND: The notion of stratification came into existence in 1940s. Social stratification is the basic cause of inequalities. The basis for social stratification are earnings, privileges, ethnicity, disability,    education, access to benefits, sex, caste, wealth, religion, power, age, gender, occupation, race, region, language, party and politics. Stratification is a trait of society and not just individual differences. Indeed it is the outcome of the social arrangement and it has a great impact on everyone. Stratification is universal, but tremendously changeable in form. Stratification persists over generations. It is still prevailing in our society. Four fundamental forms of stratification are class, caste, estate and slavery. Stratification is common in the animal kingdom on the basis of power and gender and some form of stratification has most likely always existed among humans. With the progress of food and other surpluses resulting from hi-tech advances in agriculture and manufactur ing, some people began to mount up more wealth than others. There could be many other things influencing social stratification. For the larger part of history, the on hand stratification arrangement was regarded as an undeniable feature of society and the implicit purpose of commentators was to clarify or rationalize that arrangement in terms of religious doctrines. 1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: Social stratification is social, universal, diverse in structure, very old and consequential. It is a trait of society, not merely a reflection of individual differences. Those at the top of the ladder the higher class has more advantages in life than those at the bottom of the ladder the lower class. The upper classes have more opportunities to thrive in life; chances include such things as conditions of work, healthiness and accommodation. People at the top of the ladder may choose the area that they live in which will tend to have less crime, better schools and better living than those in the lower class. Social stratification moves from generation to generation. Each human being born into the world is involuntarily allocated to social strata. Their place is usually their parents place at that time. We are born with nothing so consequently we inherit what our parents have. Children are influenced by their family members. Every family within the social order and within each social stratum has different ambitions, determinations and goals to be successful in life. A child will gain knowledge of these through the accomplishments of his own parents.    Even though social stratification is universal, it is also variable which means that all different countries have different forms of stratification but its characteristics vary in every country. In the United Kingdom it is very much a class system, whereas in some Asian countries the stratification is on the basis of the religion. Social stratification involves inequality and beliefs. Everybody within society has to believe that stratification is fair otherwise there is going to be unrest in the society. Social Stratification can be seen in all places around us from our schools to government agencies to even our homes. It is a definite part of our social system that represents the discrimination of opportunities that we experience and observe in our everyday lives. The idea of pecking order emerged in the 17th and 18th century by sociologist Hobbes and Locke and it was through these sociologists that people realized that inequality existed in the society. On one hand, inequalities based on individual qualities (charisma, economic or social skills, etc.) do not add up to stratification, since they arent defined by membership in a particular category. So, if in a hunting band the best hunter or the spiritualist/sage is held in high regard and has privileged access to some resources, this isnt social stratification. Symbolic Interactionists reveal that symbols help to describe the meaning of all social actions, and a persons self is developed socially through social interaction. Legitimating thoughts, expressed symbolically in the form of language give reasons for inequality, for strata, for the ways people are positioned in the strata and for changes in the stratification system. These sustaining ideas also strongly manipulate how people assess themselves within the system, influencing them to agree to their position in the structure as good and right. 1.3 MAJOR FORMS OF STRATIFICATION: Primal collectivism characterized by an elevated level of sharing and negligible social inequality, Slavery involving enormous social inequality and the ownership of some persons by others, Caste in which a person is permanently assigned to a status based on his or her parents status, Estate in which peasants are required by law to work on land owned by the noble class in exchange for food and protection from outside attacks. There are different forms of social stratification that are present in our societies i.e. Class society: In this society persons status is ascribed to them by the accomplishments they have achieved. In the United States, the social stratification that divides the most is the class system, whereas in areas of Africa not only are there class differences to divide people but women are in a class by themselves. The class system is defined by the possessions of wealth or material possessions (Henslin, 2010, p.189). Even though we like to think of ourselves as a very progressive nation, we still look down on people that are below us in class.    1.4 REASONS OF EXISTENCE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: Natural predictability suggests that discrimination exists because of natural differences in peoples abilities and is a just system. Structural -functionalists states that stratification is helpful to society because it enhances strength and induces members of the society to endeavor. Conflict suggests that stratification occurs through conflict amid different classes, with the upper classes using greater power to take a bigger share of the social resources. Evolutionary states that people will share sufficient resources to guarantee the survival of the group until an excess exists at which point power determines how the surplus is distributed. Symbolic Interactionists calls attention to the significance of symbolic displays of wealth and power that influence ones definition of self and the importance of ideas in defining social situations. Inequality may originate from natural differences in peoples abilities. Structural-functionalists believe that societies have a tendency to be stable and are held as one through agreement. Stratification provides an important function to society by aiding this process because it lessens conflict and provides structure. Conflict theorists believe that society tends towards conflict and change and that stratification system compel the lower classes to benefit the upper classes. 1.5 ORIGINS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: In early societies, people shared a common societal position. As societies evolved and became more intricate, they began to elevate  some members. To understand stratification, we must first understand its origins. Though there is a lot that we dont know about origins of stratification, it is apparent that it is a fairly recent development, as exposed through study of grave goods, and historical record of state expansion and conquest of more democratic societies. Once they come up, stratified systems lean to expand at expense of egalitarian systems, but this cannot explain origins of first stratified systems i.e. cases of pristine state formation. It is not simply survival mode, since some foragers are less democratic than many agricultural and most pastoralist societies Attempts to elucidate cultural advancement of social stratification in ecological terms by and large rely on one or another of  two basic approaches: 1. Stratification = solution to an ecological problem 2. Stratification = system by which one class extracts resources from another These two approaches often termed  functional  and  conflict  theories, respectively. Functional theories focus on benefits to all parties; in contrast, Conflict theories argue that elites benefit at expense of commoners. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: The book by Macionis, J and Plummer, K., 2007, called Sociology: A Global Introduction defines   Social stratification as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy and that one group has access to a disproportionate amount of money, power and prestige and stratification can be used as a lens to focus on social inequality. The books by Haralmbos, M., Holborn, M. and Heald, R., 2008, called Sociology themes and perspectives  defines, social stratification to the presence of distinct social groups which are ranked one above the other in terms of factors such as prestige and wealth. The five societal pyramids explain how societies work.   This pyramid arrangement focused on how people were ranked by their financial positions, their power and their prestige. The way society effort with social division depends upon wealth and power, not on hereditary position. The open system based on personal accomplishment, where people have control over position between upper and lower class in society can lead to discrimination amongst each other. The stratification systems focused on other social divisions such as: Gender stratification Ethnic stratification Age stratification Health and disability In the 19th and 20th century the structural functional paradigm argued that stratification systems are functional for society. The Davis-Moore Thesis argues that industrialized societies for the most part are prolific under a system of meritocracy. Under this kind of inequality, the stratification system rewards good performers with high salaries and punishes poor performers with fewer salaries. Davis-Moore argued that several jobs have to to pay more than others; they are important jobs, so their high salary will magnetize the most excellent performers. These top performers will be more inventive and this is functional for society. Functionalists also argue that stratification promotes in-group harmony. Marx and Weber, who were Conflict theorists, alleged that the finest way to study social stratification was by using Conflict theory. On the whole, the main aim was to scrutinize and elucidate social inequality in society. Marx thought that there were two classes in the social order, owners and the workers. He wanted the workforce to become aware of this theory to ultimately bring down the owners. Weber, in contrast, considered more about Marx theory and thought that there must be another class involved which is the middle class. Middle class inhabitants are ones with skills required for jobs but do not have ownership; this set them at a distance from blue-collars, because they had skills for certain jobs which gave them a sense of power. Mills and Domhoff thought that there are little structured groups of people who stay out of political affairs so they are not estranged. This gives them a key to power in society.   Ã‚   Social Stratification allows people who have proficient varying competence and riches to function in ways that are appropriate for them. This is a functionalist perspective supported by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore. They started by pointing out that no society is classless or unstratified. 4. CONCLUSION/SUGGESTIONS: From the above mentioned things we can conclude that the basic factor that causes social stratification is poverty. Steps should be taken for its eradication which will bring change in the society.   In order to eradicate social stratification, we should try to eradicate things that are causing it including unequal education, facilities, opportunities, wealth, poverty etc. if all the citizens of every country will get everything in equal quantity and quality, only then change will happen. This is the basic right of every citizen and it should be given to them. More fortunate people should help the less fortunate ones. They should try to be empathetic towards poor only then they can help them. They should be motivated and interested in keeping everybody equal and everyone should try, on individual level, to see the needy around them. Other than this the only best solution to solve this vicious circle is to apply a Sharia law on national scale, which stipulates that each person should set aside 2.5% of the income each person earns monthly to help eradicate poverty and the money gathered can be used to purchase things needed for those who are in need as capital, like sewing mach ines or seeds etc.   Theres no way for the government to be able to reduce or let alone eradicate poverty as long as it tightly clings on to capitalism and those 99% Americans are the living proofs, who say capitalism cant eradicate poverty.

Prayer - The Most Important Part of our Life Essay -- Prayer Praying

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We need to look at prayer with deeper thoughts. Prayer isn’t just closing your eyes, folding your hands and speaking. Prayer is a much more meaningful part of religion. We all need to pray, God himself demands us to pray. Prayer is defined as an act of God, a god or another object of worship, such as in devotion, confession, praise, or thanksgiving. When most people pray, they just say the same prayer, like the Lord’s prayer for example. Saying the same prayer isn’t really such a bad thing, its more about the meaning and the time that you spend praying. Prayer shouldn’t just be looked at as a routine or habit, but as more of a love poem to express ones self to God. Questions such as: why do we need to pray? What is this prayer?, and What does God command us to pray for? Are what we should be asking ourselves before we come to God in prayer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prayer is a very important action in all of us as Christians. We should know why we pray and why it is important. We should also know that prayer cant just come from our mouths but from our hearts as well. Our affections cling to self and to worldly objectives; our prayer cannot rise above their level no matter what words we use. In Luke 11:1 it says â€Å" Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.† we should be taught to pray either from the church or from the people around us. Taught in a sense of listening, not actually taking lessons on it. We need to pray because prayer is the most important part of the thank...

Economic Growth :: Economy Economics Governmental Essays

Economic growth is the most important study in economics today. The first book on economics was by Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations the full title was the Inquire Into The Nature And Sources Of The Wealth Of Nations. â€Å"Economic growth determines a countries future, and economic growth in the past determines a countries present as far as it’s material values are concerned.† (Buechner Recording) So every material value of the modern world is a result economic growth in the past, or your standard of living is the result of economic growth in the past. Economic growth in the future will determine whether or not there is rising or falling economic wealth, and coordinated with that whether or not the standard of living in the future continues to rise or fall. For example: In 1870 England was the leading industrial power of the globe, and as a consequence it also was the leading political power of the globe. According to M. Northrup Buechner the real wage rate in England is estimated to have been about 50% higher than the real wage rate in other European countries at that time. (Recording) It was about 1870 because of the rise of statist policies and ideologies that rate of growth in England started to lag behind that of the other European Countries. It didn’t lag a lot Buechner states the statistical estimate was less than one percent a year, however for a period of 10 or 20 years that’ll make a difference hardly anybody would notice. Yes maybe so, but if you compound that interest rate over 100 years what you get is what you see today. England is essentially a third rate economic power, and the real wage rate in England today is estimated to be â€Å"about 33% less than the real wage rate in other European countries.à ¢â‚¬  (Buechner Recording) In 1870 the United States in 1870 was an economically backward, internationally insignificant, and unimportant country in the world with respect to matters regarding foreign affairs. According to Buechner it was about 1870 when the United States embarked on a growth rate of over 5% percent a year, which was sustained for a period of over 40 years. (Recording) No country in the history of the world matched that record. At the end of that period about the time of World War I the United States took Britain’s place as the leading industrial power of the globe.

Judicial review

We repeat these answers here as a convenience to you. IA Judicial review The courts can decide whether the laws or actions of the legislative and executive branches of government are constitutional. The process for making this determination is judicial review.The doctrine of judicial review was established in 1803 when the United States Supreme Court decided Mammary . Madison. AAA Jurisdiction To hear a case, a court must have jurisdiction over the person against whom the suit is brought or over the property involved in the suit. The court must also have jurisdiction over the subject matter. Generally, courts apply a â€Å"sliding-scale† standard to determine when it is proper to exercise jurisdiction over a defendant whose only connection with the jurisdiction is the Internet. A Trial and appellate courts A trial court is a court in which a lawsuit begins, a trial takes place, and evidence is presented. An appellate court reviews the rulings of trial court, on appeal from a j udgment or order of the lower court. AAA Discovery Discovery is the process of obtaining information and evidence about a case from the other party or third parties. Discovery entails gaining access to witnesses, documents, records, and other types of evidence. Electronic discovery differs in its subject-?that is, e-media rather than traditional sources of information, such as paper documents. A Alternative dispute resolution The traditional method of resolving a legal dispute is through litigation. Alternative methods include negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. In negotiation, the parties attempt to settle their dispute informally without the involvement of a third party acting as mediator. In mediation, the parties attempt to come to an agreement with the assistance of a neutral third party, a mediator, who does not, however, make a decision in the dispute. In arbitration, a neutral third party or a panel of experts hears a dispute and renders a decision.Answers to Critical T hinking Questions in the Features Beyond Our Borders-?critical Thinking (Page 76) One of the arguments against allowing Shari courts in the United States is hat We would no longer have a common legal framework within our society. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Arguments in favor of allowing Shari courts-?or at least permitting the application of Shari principles in disputes in U. S. Courts or in alternative methods of dispute resolution-?include the legal and cultural principle of giving effect to agreements.If the parties to a dispute have agreed to a certain set of standards to govern their situation, those standards could be applied. This would not undercut our common legal framework, but reinforce it. Arguments against allowing Shari courts or reminisces in the United States would most likely center on the conflicts between Shari tribunals and standards and state or federal authority, governmental bodies, or law. Adapting the Law to the Online Environment-?critical Thinking (Pag e 83) How might a large company protect itself from allegations that it intentionally failed to preserve electronic data?A corporation might defend against charges of intentional destruction or loss of data by showing, for example, that the absence is due to the implementation of a policy to periodically purge electronic systems. Such charges might be avoided by not destroying he data but instead storing it. Questions in the Cases Case 3. 1 -?Critical Thinking (Page 69) Ethical Consideration Was it fair for the North Carolina courts to require a New Jersey company to litigate in North Carolina? Explain. Yes, it was fair to require Independence to litigate in North Carolina.The courts ruling did not offend â€Å"traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice† because Independence purposely availed itself of the privilege of doing business in North Carolina. Independence had engaged in numerous transactions with Southern for a year and had billed Southern for services in amounts totaling ore than $21,000. Therefore, Independence should have expected to be hailed into court in North Carolina in the event of a dispute. Case 3. 2-?What If the Facts Were Different? Page 73) Suppose Gucci had not presented evidence that the defendant made one actual sale through his Web site to a resident of the court's district (the private investigator). Would the court still have found that it had personal jurisdiction over Hugging? Why or why not? The single sale to a resident of the district, Gucci private investigator, helped the plaintiff establish that the defendant ‘s Web site was interactive and that the defendant used the Web tit to sell goods to residents in the court's district.It is possible that without proof of such a sale, the court would not have found that it had personal jurisdiction over the foreign defendant. The reason is that courts cannot exercise jurisdiction over foreign defendants unless they can show the defendants had minimum conta cts with the forum, such as by selling goods within the forum. Case 3. 3-?Critical Thinking (Page 90) gal Consideration How would business be affected if each state could pass a statute, like the one in Texas, allowing parties to void out-of-state arbitration?If all states could pass statutes like the one in Texas, many parties would probably be less inclined to transact business. An arbitration provision allows a party to limit the burden and expense of settling any disputes. If another party could freely void such an agreement, there would be a greater risk of arbitration in an inconvenient forum, costly formal litigation, or both. That risk increases the perceived costs of doing business, making the business opportunity less attractive. Thus, many parties may decline to enter contracts without enforceable arbitration provisions.Answers to Questions in the Reviewing Feature t the End of the Chapter IA. Federal jurisdiction The federal district court can exercise jurisdiction in th is case because the case involves diversity of citizenship. Diversity jurisdiction requires that the plaintiff and defendant be from different states and that the dollar amount of the controversy exceed $75,000. Here, Garner resides in Illinois, and Foreman and his manager live in Texas. Because the dispute involved the promotion of a series of boxing matches with George Foreman, the amount in controversy likely exceeded the required threshold amount. A. Original or appellate jurisdiction Original jurisdiction, because the case was initiated in that court and that is where the trial will take place. Courts having original jurisdiction are courts of the first instance, or trial courts-?that is courts in which lawsuits begin, trials take place, and evidence is presented. In the federal court system, the district courts are the trial courts, so the federal district court has original jurisdiction. AAA. Jurisdiction in Illinois No, because the defendants lacked minimum contacts with the state of Illinois.Because the defendants were located out of the state, the court would eave to determine whether they had sufficient contacts with the State for the Illinois to exercise jurisdiction based on a long arm statute. Here, the defendants never came to Illinois, and the contract that they are alleged to have breached was not formed in Illinois. Thus, it is unlikely that an Illinois state court would find that sufficient minimum contacts existed to exercise AAA. Jurisdiction in Nevada Yes, because the defendants met with Garner and formed a contract in the state of Nevada.A state can exercise jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants under a long arm statute if the defendants had sufficient contacts with the State. Here, the parties met and negotiated their contract in Nevada, and a court would likely hold that these activities were sufficient to justify a Nevada courts exercising personal jurisdiction. Answer to Debate This Question in the Reviewing Feature at the End of the Chapter In this age of the Internet, when people communicate via e-mail, tweets, Backbone, and Keep, is the concept of jurisdiction losing its meaning?Many believe that yes, the idea of determining jurisdiction based on individuals' and companies' physical locations no longer has much meaning. Increasingly, entrants are formed via online communications. Does it matter where one Of the parties has a physical presence? Does it matter where the e-mail server or Web page server is located? Probably not. In contrast, in one sense, jurisdiction still has to be decided when conflicts arise. Slowly, but ever so surely, courts are developing rules to determine where jurisdiction lies when one or both parties used online systems to sell or buy goods or services.In the final analysis, a specific court in a specific physical location has to try each case. Answers to Issue Spotters in the Example Feature at the End of the Chapter IA Sue contracts with Tom to deliver a quantity of computers to Cue's Computer Store. They disagree over the amount, the delivery date, the price, and the quality. Sue files a suit against Tom in a state court. Their state requires that their dispute be submitted to mediation or nonbinding arbitration. Fifth dispute is not resolved, or if either party disagrees with the decision of the mediator or arbitrator, will a court hear the case?Explain. Yes. Submission of the dispute to mediation or nonbinding arbitration is mandatory, but compliance with the decision Of the mediator or arbitrator is voluntary. A At the trial, after Sue calls her witnesses, offers her evidence, and otherwise presents her side of the case, Tom has at least two choices between courses of actions. Tom can call his first witness. What else might he do? Tom could file a motion for a directed verdict. This motion asks the judge to direct a verdict for Tom on the ground that Sue presented no evidence that would justify granting Jan relief.The judge grants the motion if there is insufficient evidence to raise an issue of fact. Answers to Questions and Case Problems Business Scenarios and Case Problems 3-1 A Standing to sue (BELT page 73) This problem concerns standing to sue. As you read in the chapter, to have standing to sue, a party must have a legally protected, tangible interest at stake. The party must show that he or she has been injured, or is likely to be injured, by the actions of the party that he or she seeks to sue. In this problem, the issue is whether the Turns had been injured, or were likely to be injured, by the county's landfill operations.Clearly, one could argue that the injuries that the Turns complained of directly resulted from the county's violations of environmental laws while operating the landfill. The Turns ivied directly across from the landfill, and they were experiencing the specific types of harms (fires, scavenger problems, groundwater contamination) that those laws were enacted to address. Thus, the Turns would have st anding to bring their suit. 3-?AAA Question with Sample Answer-?jurisdiction Marry can bring suit in all three courts. The trucking firm did business in Florida, and the accident occurred there.Thus, the state of Florida would have jurisdiction over the defendant. Because the firm was headquartered in Georgia and had its principal place of business in that state, Marry could also sue in a Georgia court. Finally, because the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, the suit could be brought in federal court on the basis of diversity of citizenship. 3-AAA Discovery (BITE pages 81-82) Under the work-product rule, attorneys are allowed to protect information that they have gathered as a result of their own skill and diligence.For example, an attorney for a party involved in an auto accident can go out to the scene of the accident and observe the fact that there is a stop sign missing without being under any obligation to divulge such information to his opponent in the lawsuit. Similarly, an attorney who discovers a recently ecocide case decision supporting his or her theory is under no obligation to share this discovery with the opposing attorney. If attorneys had to share everything, they would be less inclined to expend efforts on behalf of their clients because, in essence, they would be working for both sides at once. -?AAA Case Problem with Sample Answer-?Arbitration Based on a recent holding by the Washington state supreme court, the federal appeals court held that the arbitration provision was unconscionable (see page 296 in Chapter 1 1) and therefore invalid. Because it was invalid, the restriction on class-action suits was also invalid. The state court reasoned that by offering a contract that restricted class actions and required arbitration, the company had improperly stripped consumers of rights they would normally have to attack certain industry practices.Class-action suits are often brought in cases of deceptive or unfair industry practices when the lo sses suffered by an individual consumer are too small to warrant a consumer suing. In this case, the alleged added cell phone fees are so small that no one consumer would be likely to litigate or arbitrate the matter due to the expenses involved. Because the arbitration agreement eliminates the usability of class actions, it violates public policy and is void and unenforceable. 3-AAA Venue The purpose behind most venue statutes is to ensure that a defendant is not â€Å"hailed into a remote district, having no real relationship to the dispute. The events in dispute have no connection to Minnesota. The Court stated: â€Å"Looked at through the lens of practicality-?which is, after all, what [the venue statute] is all about-?Nestsg's motion can really be distilled to a simple question: does it make sense to compel litigation in Minnesota when this state bears no relationship to the parties or the underlying events? ‘ The court answered no to this simple question. The plaintiff resides in South Carolina, her daughters injuries occurred there, and all of her medical treatment was provided (and continues to be provided) in that state.South Carolina is the appropriate venue for this litigation against Nests to proceed. 3-AAA Arbitration (BELTS page 85) Arbitration can be compelled under a contracts arbitration clause as long as a dispute involves matters covered by the contract provision. In the set of facts in this problem, the terms of the parties' contract are central to the resolution of their dispute. Under the contract, all claims that PRM has against Premiering go to arbitration because the arbitration clause covers â€Å"all disputes. † That includes allegations of fraud and theft.Such matters can be resolved by arbitration. In the actual case on which this problem is based, the court ruled that PRM had to take all complaints about Premiering to arbitration. On appeal, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed this ruling. 3-A AA Spotlight on National Football-?Arbitration An arbitrator's award generally is the final word on the matter. A court's review of an arbitrator's decision is extremely limited in scope, unlike an appellate court's review oaf lower court's decision.A court will set aside an award only if the arbitrator's conduct or â€Å"bad faith† substantially prejudiced the rights of one of the parties, if the award violates an established public policy, or if the arbitrator exceeded her or his powers. In this problem, and in the actual case on which this problem is based, the NAP argued that the award was contrary to public policy because it required Matthews to forfeit the right to seek workers' compensation under California law. The court rejected this argument, because under the arbitrators award Matthews could still seek workers' compensation under Tennessee law.Thus, the arbitration award was not clearly contrary to public policy. 3-?AAA Minimum contacts (BITE pages 66-68) No. This statement alone was insufficient to establish that Illinois did not have jurisdiction over the defendant. The court ruled that Med-Express failed to introduce factual evidence proving that the Illinois trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over Med-Express. Med-Express had merely recited that it was a North Carolina corporation and did not have minimum contacts with Illinois. Med-Express sent a letter to this effect to the clerk of Cook County, Illinois, and to the trial court judge. But that was not enough.When a judgment of a court from another state is challenged on the grounds of personal jurisdiction, there is a presumption that the court issuing the judgment had jurisdiction until the contrary is shown. It was not. 3-?AAA A Question of Ethics-?Agreement to arbitrate 1. This is very common, as many hospitals and other health-care provides have arbitration agreements in their contracts for services. There was a valid contract here. It is presumed in valid contracts that arbit ration clauses will be upheld unless there is a violation of public policy. The provision of medical are is much like the provision of other services in this regard.There was not evidence of fraud or pressure in the inclusion of the arbitration agreement. Of course there is concern about mistreatment of patients, but there is no reason to believe that arbitration will not provide a professional review of the evidence of what transpired in this situation. Arbitration is a less of a lottery that litigation can be, as there are very few gigantic arbitration awards, but there is no evidence of systematic discrimination against plaintiffs in arbitration compared to litigation, so there may not be a major ethical issue. . McDaniel had the legal capacity to sign on behalf of her mother.Someone had to do that because she lacked mental capacity. So long as in such situations the contracts do not contain terms that place the patient at a greater disadvantage than would be the case if the pati ent had mental capacity, there is not particular reason to treat the matter any differently. Critical Thinking and Writing Assignments 3-AAA Business Law Critical Thinking Group Assignments 1. The statute violates litigants' rights of access to the courts and to a jury trial because the imposition of arbitration costs on those who improve their sections by less than 10 percent on an appeal is an unreasonable burden.And the statute forces parties to arbitrate before they litigate-?an added step in the process of dispute resolution. The limits on the rights of the parties to appeal the results Of their arbitration to a court further impede their rights Of access. The arbitration procedures mandated by the statute are not reasonably related to the legitimate governmental interest of attaining less costly resolutions of disputes. 2. The statute does not violate litigants' constitutional right of access to the courts because it provides the parties tit an opportunity for a court trial in the event either party is dissatisfied with an arbitrator's decision.The burdens on a person's access to the courts are reasonable. The state judicial system can avoid the expense of a trial in many cases. And parties who cannot improve their positions by more than 10 percent on appeal are arguably wasting everyone's time. The assessment of the costs of the arbitration on such parties may discourage appeals in some cases, which allows the courts to further avoid the expense of a trial. The arbitration procedures mandated by the statute are reasonably related to the estimate governmental interest of attaining speedier and less costly resolution of disputes. . The determination on rights of access could be different if the statute was part of a pilot program and affected only a few judicial districts in the state because only parties who fell under the jurisdiction of those districts would be subject to the limits. Opponents might argue that the program violates the due process of th e Fifth Amendment because it is not applied fairly throughout the State. Proponents might counter that parties who object to an arbitrator's decision have an opportunity to appeal it to a court.Opponents might argue that the program exceeds what the state legislature can impose because it does not reasonably relate to a legitimate governmental objective-?it arbitrarily requires only litigants who reside in a few jurisdictions to submit to arbitration. Proponents might counter that this is aimed at the reduction of court costs-?that the statute rationally relates to a legitimate governmental end. An equal protection challenge would most likely be subject to a similar rational basis test. Under these and other arguments, the reduction of court costs would be a difficult objective to successfully argue against.