Economic Overview of BRICS †Industry Analysis Essay Example

Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis Essay Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis Name: Course: Date: We will write a custom essay sample on Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Economic Overview of BRICS – Industry Analysis Introduction One of the key industries in the growth of the global economy is the telecommunication industry that is growing at the fastest rate with advancement in technology. The total spending in the telecommunication technology is growing by 2.8%, which represents $1.84 trillion (Wansink, 2009). The whole world is now interconnected with telecommunication technology that comprises of telephones, mobile phones and internet linked to computers. Previously, the telecom industry was comprised of large national and regional companies owned by governments. The previous decade has seen a change in this where many organizations are privatized, and more players coming up to increase competition. This has also come with deregulations. Among the biggest growing countries that comprise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS, telecommunication is the main contributor to growth. In each of the BRICS countries, there are key players, both local and multinational playing a crucial role in th eir development. Brazil The Brazilian telecom industry is expected to generate revenue of US$ 120 billion in 2012 (Wansink, 2009). Within its market, fixed line revenues continue to decrease while the mobile, internets and data, and pay television continue to gain prominence with their revenues growing rapidly. Just like the other BRICS countries, its growing economy and high population continue to fuel the growth. The spending power of Brazil is driving the growth, with more and more demand for telecommunication services. Additionally, the government has taken measures to reduce the cost of telecommunication services in order to push into the market. Additionally, with the expected growth of 3%-3.5% in 2012 and 4%-5% in 2013, growth within the telecommunication industry can be expected (Wansink, 2009). Some of the companies in Brazil include Telefonica Brasil, Sercomtel and Nextel Brasil. Telefonica Brasil is the second largest company in the Brazilian telecommunication industry. The company is currently focusing on an expansion of its network coverage and the increasing subscribers to its mobile broadband. To increase its mobile broadband revenues, it is expanding on 3G data network, and it is taking an advantage to take an early lead in the 4G network (Wansink, 2009). Sercomtel is yet another leading local telecommunication company in Brazil. It operates in voice services that include landline, mobile services and long distance telecommunication, as well as internet services through its broadband. Considering the stability of the market, Brazil is one of the best countries to invest in, since it might not be affected by the Euro recession. Russia The telecom market in Russia has been growing, in part due to liberalization in long-distance telecom and a new introduction of interconnection between operators (Russian-American Business, 2007). Some of the leading operators in Russia are VimpelCom, MegaFon and MTS. MegaFon is the second largest mobile operator and fourth largest telecom company in Russia. It operates in GSM and UMTS standards. As at June 2012, the company had a total of 62.1 million subscribers locally and another 1.6 million subscribers in other countries that include Osetia, Abkhazia and Tajikistan. The MTS is the largest mobile operator within Russia with more than 102.4 million subscribers at the end of 2009 (Russian-American Business, 2007). It is licensed to operate in 82 regions in Russia out of the total 83. It also serves other countries, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, and Belarus. It provides GSM services. It also operates around 3300 retails chains for mobile phones (Russian-American Business, 2007). It also has MTS branded mobile handsets. The other key player in the Russian telecom market is the VimpelCom, which is among the largest integrated telecom companies worldwide. It provides both voice and data services using a range of traditional fixed technology and mobile broadband. It provides services to its customers under the Beeline, Mobilink, and Telecel among others. As at June 2012, the company had 208 million subscribers (Russian-American Business, 2007). Competition in Russia is increasing rapidly with many companies that are established in its market considering it is the biggest country. The development and growth of the telecommunication market in Russia has been pushed by support from the government with expenditure on information and communication, as well as the growing economy that grew by 6.8% in 2006 (Russian-American Business, 2007). India India is yet another rapidly growing country with the largest growth of mobile phone users. Its rapid growing economy due to manufacturing is one of the main contributors as well as its enormous population providing ready market. Some of the telecommunication companies in India include Bharti Airtel Limited and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. Bharti Airtel Limited is commonly known as Airtel, operating in over 20 countries across south of Asia, Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. It currently ranks as the third largest mobile service provider company. Airtel provides voice services, data services including 2G, 3G and 4G internet services depending on the country (airtel.in, 2012). As at august 2012, the company had around 261 million subscribers within the 20 countries. Additionally, it provides television subscription in India and second largest in fixed telephone (Wansink, 2009). The other key player in the Indian telecommunication industry is the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, B SNL. It is a state owned company. It is the largest fixed telephony service provider in India and ranks fourth in mobile service provision. It also provides broadband service. The company has recently incurred losses due to stiff competition from other telecommunication industries. However, it remains as one of the largest and oldest providers of telecommunication. Competition within India is increasing steadily with the entrant of new companies in the telecommunication industry. Additionally, the vast population cannot be served by one telecommunication industry considering the high demands of telecommunication especially mobile services and internet since India is the biggest outsourcing country. Additionally, its growing economy is contributing to the development in this industry with the government reducing regulation and allowing more companies to enter the market. China A brief overview of the Chinese telecommunication industry shows that it is among the fastest growing industries. In 2010 to 2012, the industry revenues grew by 4.1%. Some of the key players in the telecommunication industry in China include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom (Simon, 2011). The Chinese telecom industry is dominated by the three companies and highly controlled by the government. Initially, they were six, but then reduced to three. China mobile is the biggest among them all, taking a market share of 67.5% in 2006 (Simon, 2011). It has taken over from several other companies towards the end of the last century such as Fujian mobile, Henan mobile, and among others. Through these takeovers, it has grown to become the biggest digital mobile company in the world serving the largest number of customers (Simon, 2011). The other key player is the China Unicom that is a state owned telecom company. In 2008, the company had 125 million GSM subscribers and 43 million CDMA subscribers Chinaunicom.com. (2012). However, it moved its CDMA services to China telecom and Universal Mobile Telecommunication System that has launched recently in China. China Telecom is the third player in the Chinese telecommunication market that is entering other markets part from China such as Australia. It has 149 million subscribers including 3G subscribers (chinatelecom-h.com 2012). It was voted the best managed company in Asia in 2011 that was awarded by Euromoney, FinanceAsia and among most honored companies by Institutional Investor. Currently, the telecom industry in china is highly controlled by the state considering it has a company owned by the government. However, competition is deemed to increase soon from the government plans to enhance other entrants. South Africa South Africa is the largest and most developed economy in Africa. Telecommunication industry is the fastest growing industry in South Africa that is driven by growth in mobile telephony and broadband connection. The network in South Africa is 99.9% digital, serving as the most developed telecommunication technology in Africa (southafrica.info, 2012). In terms of fixed line telephony, the country ranked 34th and 26th in terms of subscriber number in mobile telephony. All telecommunication sectors, including undersea connectivity and broadband, are growing at a rapid rate (southafrica.info, 2012). Some of the telecommunication companies in South Africa include Vodacom and Neotel Vodacom is mobile telecommunication company in pan-Africa that was the first cellular network introduced in South Africa. The company provides GSM services to more than 35 million subscribers across South Africa, Lesotho, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Neotel is yet another competitive company in South Africa’s telecommunication industry. It was previously known as SNO telecommunications. It was unveiled in 2006 and becomes the first company to offer direct competition to the current companies at the time. It provides mobile telephony and data services. In South Africa, competition is only increasing considering there are few competitors. However, the few companies available are able to serve the demand of the country as it increases. An opportunity for more telecommunication companies exists (southafrica.info, 2012). In Flight Broadband Services As telecommunication technology and services continue advancing, provision of broadband services to customers in flights has also been increasing with companies such as Gogo Air increasing its presence internationally. Gogo Air has been prominent in United States and Canada. Recently, it has moved to other countries with the intention of increasing its services (gogoair.com, 2012). Its services are dependent on the potential of growth in both broadband and air transport services considering it targets those in flight. The company depends on the airline companies to provide its services. One of the ideal countries among the BRIC where in flight broadband services is attaining rapid growth is Brazil. With its approximate 30 airlines, both domestic and international, as well as a rapidly growing demand for broadband telecommunication services in general, there is a tremendous opportunity for in-flight broadband services. India also has a considerable number of airlines, but there is potential for growth. Additionally, its growing telecommunication market provides an exceptional opportunity for in flight broadband services. Gogo Air remains the key player in Brazil, with a recent expansion to United Airlines having fitted its broadband in their airplanes. Other companies that offer competition include Row 44 that provides its services in the Transaero airlines (Sharkey, 2012). With a growth in the telecommunication industry in Brazil, there is a massive opportunity for growth of in flight broadband services. Gogo Air provides its services to other BRIC countries as well. The company has established its services in India. It serves several airlines, both Indian and from other countries that land in the country. It is currently expanding its business to the available airlines. The demand for in-flight broadband services in India continues to increase as more and more continue to demand internet services. However, other competitors are also establishing in India such as the Row 44 and Lufthansa. Row 44 provides services to some of the international fight going in n out of India. In-flight broadband allows a company providing the service to offer it in several countries as long as it provides the service to the airlines flying to the particular country (Sharkey, 2012). Lufthansa, on the other hand, provides the same services, and currently is expanding its route such as between India and Germany. It has already started providing wi-fi broadband services for internet through laptops and soon will extend to mobile phone services such a text messages and emails a well by the end of the year (Economic Times. 2012). Gogo Air has recently entered a deal with Air China to provide in flight broadband services to their customers. Trials have already been done, and services are underway as of last year. This means that services have already commenced, and travelers can access internet services in flight from United States to china as well as between local cities in china. The major competitor in China for Gogo Air remains as Row 44 that is looking forward to start operating in China. Gogo Air is also operating in Russia, but just like the other BRIC countries is faced by competition from Row 44 that provides the same services in Russia as well. This service is growing and gaining prominence in Russia just as the other BRIC countries considering the growing demand for internet services in these countries. However, South Africa does not have any company established to provide in flight services. Conclusion With such an analysis, it is possible to rank the countries in terms of which would be best to enter. The attractiveness of each market can be assessed to find out the level of competition and requirements of entering each of the market. Each of the BRICS countries has a potential for further growth. Thus, entering each of these markets would yield profits. However, entering some of them like China could prove quite hard since the government has substantial control of this industry. The most favorable for entering business would be Brazil, due to its risk factor and a fact that it might not be adversely affected by the Euro economic crisis. In terms of in flight broadband services, Brazil has the best opportunity due to it number of airlines as well as several telecommunication companies both international and domestic. On the other hand, India has immense potential due to its continuing growth in telecommunication as well as airlines. China is also growing as well as Russia in the in-flight services. On the other hand, South Africa is yet to provide such technology. References Airtel.in. (2012). Bharti Airtel. Retrieved from http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/about+bharti+airtel/Bharti+Airtel/About+bharti+airtel/ Chinatelecom-h.com. (2012). Key Performance Indicators. Retrieved from http://www.chinatelecom-h.com/eng/company/company_overview.htm Chinaunicom.com. (2012). Products and Services. Retrieved from http://www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/products/products_mobile.html Economic Times. (2012). Lufthansa to provide wi-fi as paid in-flight service on select routes. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/news/34322881_1_wi-fi-hotspot-lufthansa-ground-network Gogoair.com. (2012). An Exclusive In-Air Experience. Retrieved from http://www.gogoair.com/gogo/cms/inAirService.do Russian-American Business. (2007). Russia‘s Telecom industry. Retrieved from http://www.russianamericanbusiness.org/web_CURRENT/articles/178/1/Russia%26%2339%3Bs-Telecom-industry Simon, J. P. (2011). The ICT Landscape in BRICS Countries: Brazil, India, China. European Commission. Sharkey, J. (2012). Offering in flight broadband service. Retrieved from http://www.deccanherald.com/content/165480/offering-inflight-broadband-service.html Southafrica.info. (2012). South Africa’s telecommunications. Retrieved from http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/infrastructure/telecoms.htm Wansink, K. (2009). Global – Industry – The Telecoms Markets in the Emerging BRIC Economies. Retrieved from http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Global-Industry-The-Telecoms-Markets-in-the-Emerging-BRIC-Economies.html

A Look At Hollow Men Summary English Literature Essay Essays

A Look At Hollow Men Summary English Literature Essay Essays A Look At Hollow Men Summary English Literature Essay Essay A Look At Hollow Men Summary English Literature Essay Essay as in, TheA Is are non here. There are no independent personalities or egos among the group. Hope continues to melt, as the stars fade or die off. The vale leads us to believe of one a celebrated Psalm from the Bible, that goes, Even though I walk through the vale of the shadow of decease, I will fear no immorality, for you are with me ; your rod and your staff, they comfort me ( Psalm 23 ) . They are in a vale of decease, but there is no 1 at that place to soothe them because they neer joined with God. The Hollow Men each used to hold their ain lands literally or metaphorically but these lands have been lost or broken like a jaw. Why a jaw? We re non sureaˆÂ ¦maybe you can state us! At any rate, here the lone true land is the Kingdom of God, and they had their opportunity to fall in it but did non. Lines 57-60 In this last of meeting topographic points We grope together And avoid address Gathered on this beach of the tumid river We eventually larn where the Hollow Men are gathered: on the Bankss of a swollen or bombastic river. They are huddled together as if they were traveling to be washed off. The river is practically overruning with H2O, in contrast to the waterlessness of the work forces and the desert around them. This is the last topographic point that they will run into before they face some more awful destiny. The river most likely represents Acheron, subdivision of the fabulous River Styx in Greece that souls must traverse into decease. To do the trip, you would hold to pay Charon, the ferryman, a coin to take you on his boat. Unfortunately, no 1 has arrived to take these psyches across. They are stranded. There s nil left to state about their dire state of affairs, so they avoid address. InA Canto 3 of DantesA Inferno, Dante asks his usher Virgil why psyches are so eager to acquire across Acheron, and Virgil responds that God s justness spurs them on so that they really want to acquire to Hell Oklahoman. But the Hollow Men ca nt even acquire to Hell. Lines 61-67 Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the ageless star Multifoliate rose Of decease s dusk land The hope merely Of empty work forces. The Hollow Men are eyeless, like a clump of belowground worms, but if the eyes return their vision could be restored. Their lone hope is if the celestial eyes come back as a star. This star would be ageless or ageless, unlike the attenuation or deceasing stars in the desert. By now you ve likely noticed that Eliot is throwing about symbols like confect at a Fourth of July parade. A multifoliate rose has many petals. Here once more Eliot is mentioning to conjecture who? Dante Alighieri. In DantesA Paradiso, the concluding vision of Eden is of a flower made up of saints, angels, and other illustrations of goodness and virtuousness. The community of Heaven is like a rose with petals made of people. Dante besides compares Mary, the female parent of Jesus, to a rose. The point of these lines is that the Hollow Men can non salvage themselves. They have no hope except for the Heavenly souls to come down and reconstruct their vision of truth and goodness. Lines 68-71 Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear bristly pear Here we go round the prickly pear At five oclock in the forenoon. Admit it: if you had to blindly wait on the Bankss of a river until the terminal of clip, you might fall in custodies and get down singing Here we go round the mulberry shrub, excessively. And if you did nt hold a mulberry shrub, good, so you d merely hold to sing about the bristly pear cactus. Here we go round the mulberry shrub is a kids s vocal about people dancing around the shrub so early in the forenoon. Eliot really gives the clip at which they are dancing: 5 oclock in the forenoon. Harmonizing to one commentary on the verse form, 5:00 a.m. is the traditional clip of Christ s Resurrection ( beginning ) . The Resurrection is the most of import minute in the Christ narrative, but here the Hollow Men are executing a kids s dance around a cactus, wholly incognizant of the significance of the clip. Lines 72-76 Between the thought And the world Between the gesture And the act Falls the Shadow If you look back to lines 12-13, you ll retrieve the list of losing necessities, or things that are missing some indispensable constituent, like gesture without gesture. In this concluding subdivision of the verse form, Eliot presents a similar thought. For the Hollow Men, some cryptic shadow has fallen between some possible for action and the action itself to forestall them forA doingA anything. They have thoughts but can non convey them into world. They can travel but non organize their motions into action. The shadow falls like an Fe drape to barricade their purposes. Line 77 For Thine is the Kingdom The Hollow Men get down to state portion of a supplication but do non complete it. For Thine is the Kingdom is portion of the stoping to theA Lord s PrayerA that goes: For thine is the land, and the power, and the glorification, for of all time and of all time. Amons. You get the feeling that if the Hollow Men couldA justA get to the terminal of the supplication, possibly they would be saved. You ll detect that the word land has been used a batch in this verse form. God has his everlasting land in Heaven, and the Hollow Men had their lost lands. Lines 78-83 Between the construct And the creative activity Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow Life is really long Here comes that Shadow once more. Concept is the minute of gestation or the beginning of thought, but creative activity is when that being comes into being. An emotion is a mental province, but a response is an action ensuing from that province. The shadow prevents one thing from taking of course to the other. If you went to the physician and he or she tapped your articulatio genus with that small gum elastic cock, and you had no physical response, it would be a job. The stanza ends with the beginning of another statement: Life is really long. You can about here the Hollow Men suspiring tiredly as they say that, as if they are bored and worn down. Compared to infinity, of class, life is pretty short. Lines 84-91 Between the desire And the cramp Between the authority And the being Between the kernel And the descent Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom The verse form gives three more illustrations of the Shadow s dirty work. It prevents desire from going the cramp of sexual satisfaction that is, climax. It besides comes between possible or authority and being, and between the higher kernel of things and the descent of this kernel into our physical universe. In instance Eliot is acquiring excessively philosophical, here s a simpler manner of seting it: the Shadow prevents things that should of course follow from one another from go oning. The stanza ends, once more, with a fragment of theA Lord s Prayer. They still ca nt state any more than this one portion of the supplication. Lines 92-94 For Thine is Life is For Thine is the The Hollow Men repeat the disconnected lines from the terminal of the last three stanzas, but this clip chopped down even further. They merely drag off, as if they ca nt retrieve how the remainder goes or hold slipped into some semi-conscious province. Cut them some slack, though: their caputs are filled with straw. Lines 95-98 This is the manner the universe ends This is the manner the universe ends This is the manner the universe ends Not with a knock but a whine. They pick up once more with another brainsick version of the Mulberry Bush vocal. The vocal provides small lessons about how to make jobs around the house, like This is the manner we wash our apparels and This is the manner we sweep the floor. ( Read the full vocal. ) ( Wow, that vocal is wholly merely a manner to flim-flam childs into making work! ) In Eliot s version, the Hollow Men are singing about how the universe ends as they dance around the bristly pear. These lines are the most celebrated and often repeated lines in the verse form. The universe ends non with a knock like you might anticipate, with some immense war between angels and devils, but with a whine, like a defeated puppy. The inquiry is, does the universe terminal this manner for everyone, or merely for the Hollow Men? Keep in head that they are the 1s singing. The terminal of the universe is, in a word, anticlimactic.

Discussion Board Post Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Discussion Board Post Response - Essay Example e analysis making out why there are variations in a budget and subsequently creating strategies to address the problem (Laureate Education Inc, 2012). The fact that analyzing the budget reflects the internal financial situation or performance denotes how variations can be identified. Catherine Schneider, your writing also clearly explains the value of variance analysis in decision making. I concur that variance analysis enhances accountability (Zelman, McCue and Glick, 2009) as it is similarly the case in my organization. Analyzing the budget will help identify departments where variations are occurring and the department manager is answerable for any mismanagement of funds. This drives the departmental managers into making more effective pronouncements in terms of staffing and supportive action plans such as trainings to improve employees skills and abilities. This clearly shows that variance analysis determines how managers make decisions. In other words, it forces managers to make more effective decisions. I also agree that variance analysis may reveal the need to expand the budget and give data and information to support the claim. This means that decisions to expand a budget is dependent on budget

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reflection - Essay Example A conclusion to the essay will then be given which will discuss my reflection skills, acknowledge my teaching skills and show my personal and professional development. The first stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection requires description of events. I was placed into a group with four members. I will refer to my group members as A, B and C due to confidentiality (NMC 2004). As a group, we discussed the topics that we had chosen to teach our fellow colleagues. After discussing our options, we finally agreed as a group to teach Anorexia Nervosa. We chose this disorder as we found the subject to be challenging and we wanted to become more knowledgeable about it. At this time, it was necessary to research the topic that was selected and then section the topic into parts. Member C chose to be responsible for the ethical portion of the project. Member B wanted to work on the legal aspect of the project. Member A and I therefore investigated care management followed by a discussion concerning our group meetings. The group meetings consisted of the group discussing its plans for the teaching session, sharing ideas as well as sharing research. The group had several meetings. On many occasions, there was no progress on our group work. The teaching plans were conducted on an individual basis. After discussing teaching plans in our group meetings, we agreed to combine the teaching plans in order to create one comprehensive teaching plan. The teaching plan that we developed as a group involved member A putting the plan together. It is noteworthy to mention that Member C spent a good bit of time discussing another topic which was unrelated to the plan. It was not unusual for member C to interrupt member A. Member C would then begin work on an entirely different and unrelated project. This consistently disrupted the group and caused unnecessary hardship to the group. As a group, we had only one

Split at the Root by Adrienne Rich Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Split at the Root by Adrienne Rich - Essay Example The author also traces a large amount of influence on her identity stemming from the shadows of her father. These influences not only affected her social persona but also her literary persona as well. Rich claims that her mother was gentile in comparison to her father and that she has her â€Å"Jewishness from him and not from my gentile mother†. The author sees the influence of her father as pervasive and even overwhelming at times in terms of his influence on her identity. Given the backdrop of the Second World War and the years leading up to it, the author is seen beginning to reflect on life as a growing adult. Her father can be seen as a person caught in limbo. On the one hand he is Jewish but he rejects his Jewish roots in order to claim greater breathing space in life. The author claims that her father does not complain of any anti Semitic attitudes diverted towards him. Moreover he rejects institutionalized religion and this can be seen when he asks Rich to read from T homas Paine’s The Age of Reason after she comes back from church. He explains that this would provide her with â€Å"a balanced view of these things, a choice†. ... â€Å"†pushy† Jews of New York, the â€Å"loud, hysterical† refugees from Eastern Europe, the â€Å"overdressed† Jews of the urban South† all contributed to the author’s image of distancing herself from a Jewish identity. Her visit to the immigrant old woman proves that the author just wanted to keep her distance from being Jewish. When asked by the old woman if the author was Jewish, the author immediately replied in negative and this reaction can be seen as more or less of an impulse than a calculated move. The influence of Rich’s father can be seen as acting prominently in this event. His disassociation from his Jewish identity can be seen as an overwhelming influence on the author’s life and identity. However the influence of the author’s mother can be seen as very prominent too. The author’s mother can be seen as exerting Christian values and identity onto the author. For example when the author is filling out h er forms for admission to college her mother stresses that she should list her Christian sect rather than answering as none to the question of religion. Furthermore the author relates that her mother used to take her to church which can also be seen as a method to indoctrinate Christian values in children. In her later life, the author visits a synagogue for the first time in Baltimore which signifies that her Jewish identity had been severed at the expense of her Christian identity. Moreover the author was influenced by her mother to display a very â€Å"gentile† social behavior. Rich was told to dress as simply as possible and to be as well spoken as possible by her mother to display the â€Å"good breeding† instilled in her. She also relates that there was much talk of â€Å"ancestry† and â€Å"background† in the â€Å"southern talk of the family†

Positivist Approach to Sociological Research

Positivist Approach to Sociological Research Scientific methodology in sociology, the study of the social world, is most often associated with what is known as the positivist approach. In this essay, to determine whether or not it is indeed possible to apply scientific methods to the study of the social world, I will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of positivist sociology. â€Å"As developed by Auguste Comte, positivism is a way of thinking based on the assumption that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about how it works.† (Johnson p231) This established knowledge was then to be used to affect the course of social change and it would help improve humanity. Comte’s work was in part a reaction to the ‘anarchy’ that besieged France in the wake of the revolution. Comte sincerely believed that scientific rationality could temper the raw human emotions that had lead to such chaos. Sociology, in his definition (and others), literally the science of society, co uld apply such scientific rationalism, empiricism and positivism to social life, thus improving it and preventing continued anarchy. â€Å"Comte believed that social life is governed by underlying laws and principles that can be discovered through the use of methods most often associated with the physical sciences.† (Johnson p231) One would identify the methods of positivism thus; 1) careful observation measurement; 2) quantification; 3) formalisation of concepts precision in definition; 4) operationalisation of theoretical questions 5) mathematisation (connects with all of the previous features; 6) logic and systemisation of theory 7) symmetry of explanation prediction; 8) objectivity understood as value neutrality. Positivism, â€Å"Is above all a philosophy of science. As such, it stands squarely within the empiricist tradition. Metaphysical speculation is rejected in favour of positive knowledge based upon systematic observation and experiment. The methods of science can give us knowledge of the laws of coexistence.† (Marshall p510) However, as shall hopefully be shown later, these scientific methods can not show us anything about the inner ‘essences’ or ‘nature’ of things. Broadly speaking structuralism is, â€Å"Used loosely in sociology to refer to any approach which regards social structure (apparent or otherwise) as having priority over social action.† (Johnson p646) Positivism and structuralism are generally highly complementary, positivism effectively being the scientific methodology of structuralism. This can be observed in the works of Comte, Marx, Durkheim and the Vienna circle. Later theorists such as Parsons can also be described as both str ucturalist and positivist although in Parson’s case he does consider certain interpretivist sensibilities. Marx, Durkheim, Comte, the Vienna circle and many others all saw sociology as a science and all believed that social structure was the core component of society. â€Å"Perhaps one of the most important traits in naturalistic or positivistic sociology is the belief that social phenomena are patterned and are subject to deterministic laws much as are the laws governing the natural sciences. Sociological theory then becomes a quest for laws similar to the law of gravity or the law of material density in physics† (Poloma p3) The main difference between the social and natural worlds is that the subject of study in the social world is humanity. People, in basic terms, have a consciousness where as the subjects of the natural sciences, rocks or atoms or chemicals, do not. People are aware of themselves and their surroundings in a way that rocks, for example, are not. This, clearly, is a potential problem for positivist sociology. However, this problem is resolved, in positivist science, by arguing that the self-consciousness of human beings (the ability to think, act and feel) is not a significant factor in our ability to understand social behaviour. This, according to positivists, is because peoples behaviour is, at its genesis, always a reaction to some form of stimulation. This stimulation can be from their socialisation (as we shall see in Parsons work), or it can be something more direct like the need to earn a living or a confrontation with another human. This produces one of the criticisms of positiv ist sociology, as we shall see, action and the meaning placed on that action becomes unimportant for study, only the cause of the action, the stimuli, has any sociological value for positivists. The positivist view of sociology, of its aims, of its methods, is certainly a contentious one. Two of the first sociologists to question these methods, and the first that can be labelled as interpretivist, were Weber and Simmel. â€Å"Weber argues that sociology is not concerned with totalising explanations; only individuals have an ontological reality, society does not exist in that real sense, and so sociological explanations must be in terms of individual events and processes.† (Craib 1997 p51) Rickert’s term of Geisteswissenschaften (literally the sciences of the spirit/mind) greatly influenced Weber’s conception of what sociology should be. The ontological reality which Weber speaks of is that humans are very different from other natural beings. We have free will, an inner life, use symbols, possess language, live in culture and act meaningfully. This ontological reality ensures that humanity cannot be studied using positivist scientific methodology, or any other conventional scientific methodology, sociology must use other methods. While the natural sciences wish to explain natural events, sociology, as understood by Weber, Rickert or Simmel, wishes to understand social action. Social scientists should endeavour to understand social action in very much the same way as one attempts to understand other people, by communicating, through empathy, and through argument. These views are also associated with, and expanded upon, by the philosopher Peter Winch. (Winch 1958) â€Å"Sociology differs from the natural sciences in that it does not deal with a pre given universe of objects. People attribute meaning to their social world and act accordingly.† (Baert p97) Weber, in his Methodology of The Social Sciences, points out that all knowledge of cultural reality is always from a particular point of view. The philosophical idea that there is no truth, only human opinion is prevalent in this argument. Simmel emphasises and expands upon this point, â€Å"In the last resort the content of any science doesn’t rest on simple objective facts, but always involves an interpretation and shaping of them according to categories and rules that are a priori of the science concerned.† (Stones p74) Any scientific conclusion, be it in the field of physics or sociology, has to be interpreted by its author, then represented by that same author and then reinterpreted by those that read it. In these interpretations any ‘truth’ or ‘law ’ is surrendered to human opinion, human meaning, human understanding. This criticism of positivist sociology is probably best illustrated by a discussion of a classic positivist sociological text, Emile Durkheim’s suicide study. In his study, Durkheim analysed the differential distribution of the occurrence of suicide by country and region. Durkheim professed to have found suicidogenic currents (Durkheim 1963) in society; the pressures to commit suicide, the laws of suicide. Through a positivist, scientific methodology, Durkheim identified the pressures to commit suicide were greater in regions where the Protestant faith was dominant, and weaker where Catholicism dominated. Durkheim’s account posits an external force (suicidogenic currents) as the cause of suicide cause and effect. (Durkheim 1963) However why suicide occurs tends not to be the issue. To say that suicide is caused, not entirely obviously but in part, by the following of the Protestant faith is to assume that the term suicide is a simple one, a fixed one, with no room for differing meanings. This view is wrong. What is of importance is how a suicide comes to be defined as such by the coroner’s court. One must remember that a sui cide is not an objective fact, but a interpretation, an interpretation that can be influenced by the coroner’s own personal feelings. If a ruling of suicide is likely to cause the deceased’s family pain and suffering, as is likely if they are Catholics, then the coroner may be inclined, where ever possible, to not record a suicide verdict, but an accidental death instead This alerts us to the problematic nature of Durkheim’s, and positivist sociology in general, reliance on statistics. For Durkheim takes those statistics as giving a ‘true’ picture of the incidence of suicide. But do they? Are they rather a representation of the interpretation of suicide as opposed to cold hard objective fact? Interactions/ interpretive work on suicide states that suicide statistics are a construction involving police, courts and coroners. Thus for a death to be counted as a suicide involves a complex social process concerning meaning and interpretation, two unquantifiable characteristics of humanity. Thus suicide is not just the effect of a societal cause, but an interpretation of events, thus not a positivist, scientific event. Therefore if sociologists wish a knowledge of social life, they cannot explain social actors’ action in terms of cause and effect. Rather, they must seek out what the social actors themselves say they are up to, wha t they mean. â€Å"Comte’s view shifted in later life, under the influence of Cloitilde de Vaux. He came to see that science alone could not be a binding force for social cohesion as he had earlier supposed. He argued that the intellect must become the servant of the heart, and advocated a new ‘religion of humanity.’† (Marshall p509) Comte, the originator of the positivist sociological methodology shifted his emphasis away from positivism in his later work, thus exposing the inherent problems and weaknesses at its methodological core. â€Å"Positivism has had relatively little influence in contemporary sociology for several reasons. Current views argue that positivism encourages a misleading emphasis on superficial facts without any attention to underlying mechanisms that cannot be observed.† (Johnson p231) For example, we cannot observe human motives or the meaning that people give to behaviour and other aspects of social life, but this does not me an that meaning and motive are nonexistent or irrelevant. The best way to illustrate the above points is to set them within the context of a positivist sociological study, in this case Parson’s work on personality. For society to function, it is logical according to Parsons to deduce that the individual members of society have to agree with society’s rule. â€Å"For Parsons, the social system is†¦made up of the interactions of individuals. Of special concern is†¦ that such interactions are not random but mediated by common standards of evaluation. Most important among these are moral standards which may be called norms.† (Hamilton p155) When people in society interact the interactions themselves, the emotions that seemingly control them, the goals that the individual actors (people) are hoping to obtain, they are all in fact controlled by the norms of society. â€Å"The concept of order is located predominantly at the level of the social system itself and the cultural system becomes a mechanism of the functioning of the social system.† (Hamilton p146) These norms are adopted and agreed by each member of the society for Parsons and this is his consensus theory. Imp ortantly Parsons’ theory suggests that the power of societal expectations, the power of norms, is more pervasive than merely being a moral standard that mediates interaction and personal relationships. They are in fact the organisational foci of personality, of people themselves. â€Å"Socialisation is the process by which we learn to become members of society, both by internalising the norms and values of society, and also learning to perform our social roles (as worker, friend, citizen and so forth.)† (Marshall p624) The family, for instance, is controlled by the same norms as society because it is that society, just it is a smaller component of it. The subsystems of society are analogous to body parts in the Parsonian model, they are all essential, each provide their own unique function and all interrelate, interpenetrate and are dependent upon one another. Analogous to the human body where each body part has a specific function to perform, and all of those parts work in unison to keep the structure going, so society is organised. Immersion within these subsystems, such as the family leads to internalisations of norms and objects, and this in turn creates personality. Because personality is internalised from society, â€Å"The foci of organisation of both types of system lies in†¦the value systems.† (Parsons p357) The values of society are the values of people, or personality. People are not just guided by the norms of society, but their very personalities are organised by the very same norms and principles and morals, according to Parsons. Thus peoples actions are quantifiable, reducible to a law since they are mediated by common standards. As gravity is a constant, so are the norms of a society and therefore of personality. The positivist law here is that personality, every action of a human is controlled by the same standards of evaluation as society. The person’s personality is derived directly from society, it is society. Thus a scientific study of society is possible because there is cause and effect, there is a reaction to stimuli. Socialisation is the stimulation that people react to. For Parsons, laws can be discerned from humanity because people will react in predictable ways, mediated by norms, to the stimulation of events and socialisation. Thus sociology can be scientific, empirical and positivist. A major problem with Parson’s work is that it reduces human personality to being produced and organised solely by societal expectations and norms. This societal determinism fails to acknowledge or explain where certain feelings, motives and actions originate. Goffman argues that â€Å"it is . . . against something that the self can emerge. . . Without something to belong to, we have no stable self, and yet total commitment and attachment to any social unit implies a kind of selflessness. Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wider social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull.† (Goffman 196 p305) A favourite example of this for Goffman was that of mental patients in asylums. The total institution of an asylum probably forces more strict adherence to societal expectation than most other social situations by using methods such as drug induced control and disciplinary measures such as EST. Yet in the se institutions, despite being forced to play the role of the mental patient, to conform to societal expectation), patients still resisted those expectations. The hoarding of banned materials being an example of this. The motivation to do this does not come from internalisation of norms, as the correct way to behave is to not horde banned items. It comes from a need to keep ones own identity, to satisfy needs and drives and wants. These needs drives and wants are absent from the Parsonian model and a full understanding or explanation of society and social actions needs to take them into account. â€Å"The maintenance of this surface of agreement, this veneer of consensus, is facilitated by each participant concealing his own wants behind statements which assert values to which everyone present feels obliged to give lip service.† (Goffman 1990 p20-21) The norms and laws that Parsons believes to control personality and society, are revealed by Goffman as only being a veneer. Furthermore Goffman states that other feelings and motives in fact influence social action, not just norms. If, as Goffman claims, the so called common standards of evaluation that Parsons identifies are in fact a veneer that hides other motives and feelings, then the actions of humanity are not as easily quantifiable, reducible to a scientific, positivist law, as Parsons first shows. Freud’s metapsychology deals with the general structure of mental life. For Freud there were three psychic structures. The first, the id, contains, â€Å"those basic drives we have by virtue of being human, of which sexuality is the most important.† (Craib 1989 p3) The Id is often equated to by Freud as being like an infant, demanding immediate satisfaction irrespective of societal expectations. The Id makes up the greatest part of the unconscious and it is in this unconscious realm of basic biologically influenced drives that the motivational forces that Parson’s can not identity come from. The Id influences personality. It is important to remember that, as opposed to biological instincts driving us to act like a shark would, a mindless automaton, â€Å"the unconscious is composed not of biological instincts but of the mental representations we attach to these instincts.† (Craib 1989 p4) Thus each individual creates their own mental representation for the ir drives thus meaning that every persons internal world has a different geography. This clearly poses problems for the positivist approach to personality and society and social action, as represented by Parsons here, for if reaction to stimulation is not predictable because each person acts differently, then universal scientific laws can not be established. The second structure of personality according to Freud, the ego or the ‘I’ is the central organiser of mental life. The third, the superego is thought of as the conscience. â€Å"The superego is the internalisation of external control which demands the renuncification of instinctual satisfaction in order that society might be formed and maintained.† (Craib 1989 p21) The superego is the part of personality that Parson’s identifies the part that internalises norms. The basic drives of the id demand immediate satisfaction, immediate gratification of those drives, these demands are contrary to the superego norms and morality, and the conflict has to be resolved by the ego. Our consciousness, predominantly consisting of the ego and superego, protects us from our own id impulses that, if they were followed, would leave it impossible for us to exist within society. Freud stated that â€Å"Civilisation depends upon repression†¦If we tried to gratify all our d esires, sexual or otherwise, as and when they arose, society, civilisation and culture would vanish over night.† (Craib 1984 p195) For Freud the ‘I’, is the resolution of the conflict between the id biologically directed drives, and the superego’s societal restraints. Therefore personality is the site of the, hopefully, resolved conflict between the normative mind evaluated by common standards as Parsons identifies, and the basic id drives. These Id drives, as I shall show, influence personality thus influence social action and society. This being the case then Parsons’ explanation for personality is insufficient and so is the positivist claim for the scientific study of society. The positivist tenants of careful observation and measurement; quantification; formalisation of concepts precision in definition; operationalisation of theoretical questions; mathematisation; logic and systemisation of theory; symmetry of explanation prediction and objecti vity cannot be applied to individualistic Id drives and impulses. â€Å"The desire to kill anyone who frustrates us thus becomes unconscious, but none the less remains.† (Craib 1989 p24) Evidence for these desires for Freud appears in slips, where the unconscious desire can ‘slip’ into conscious conversation. â€Å"Freud quotes the husband who supposedly said, ‘If one of us two die, I shall move to Paris.† (Craib 1989 p24) One can not scientifically measure how these unconscious desires influence and effect social action, especially since it can be so hard to identify them as existing in the first place. â€Å"A feature of human life is that an instinct such as the sexual instinct is not directed at any one object, but has to be socially channelled, in our society usually towards members of the opposite sex.† (Craib 1989 p4) â€Å"Human beings are restrained by social organisation from a free and good expression of their drives. Through its oppression, society forces people into neuroses and psychoses.† (Craib 1989 p19) For Freud the very problems that he and other psychoanalysts dealt with were in fact often as the result of the repression of id drives by the superego and societal repression. As such the very existence of neuroses and psychoses can be seen as evidence to the fact that this conflict does indeed exist, that the resolution of this conflict does indeed produce the ‘I’ with all its faults and problems. To fully understand society, sociology needs to be aware of societal pressures, the Parson’s personality through positivism, but also nee ds to recognise the other meanings and emotions that cannot be quantified, cannot be analysed scientifically. Sociology needs to use interpretivism and positivism together. In terms of this example, Parsons positivist models needs to be considered at great length and detail as he does indeed identify a huge force in shaping society, that of norms and how they do penetrate into the psyche and personality. However, a study that only concentrates on the positivist methodology misses the crucial aspects of personality that Goffman and Freud identify, and that is not in the interest of any sociologist. â€Å"Positivism may be dead in that there is no longer an identifiable community of philosophers who give its simpler characteristics unqualified support, but it lives on philosophically, developed until it transmutes into conventionalism or realism. And even if in its simpler philosophical forms it is dead, the spirit of those earlier formulations continues to haunt sociology.† (Halfpenny p120) In conclusion positivism’s attempt at scientific sociological methodology, though fallacious is admirable and certainly many of the aspects of positivism should be considered desirable. As quoted elsewhere, â€Å"positivism is a way of thinking based on the assumption that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about how it works.† (Johnson p231) The desire for reliable, valid knowledge is of course a relevant and important sociological aim and some of the tools that positivism uses to try to reach such knowledge are useful and wort hwhile. Careful observation, measurement; quantification; formalisation of concepts precision in definition; operationalisation of theoretical questions; logic and systemisation of theory; symmetry of explanation and prediction and objectivity, if all of these tenants of positivism can at least be attempted in a sociological study then that sociological study will indeed be the better for it. However, sociological study needs to recognise, as Comte himself did, that these aims, in their fullest, are unobtainable and that those aims are not ends in themselves, rather a very rough guide to sociological methodology. As I have hopefully shown above, sociological analysis needs positivism, needs scientific methodology, but a carefully tempered and monitored positivism. The aim of sociology is understanding and that understanding should not be limited by methodology, especially a methodology that is inherently flawed. Positivism shows us how to analyse data, data that is essential to soc iological understand, but that data must not be treated uncritically thus a synthesis of positivism and interpretivism is recommended. To study the social world using a strict scientific methodology is impossible, that does not, of course, mean that scientific methodology is not a useful and critical tool in sociological study. Bibliography Baert, P, 1998. Social theory in the twentieth century. Polity press Craib, I, 1984. Modern social theory. Wheatsheaf books Ltd Craib, I, 1989. Psychoanalysis and social theory the limits of sociology Wheatsheaf Craib, I, 1997. Classical social theory pub by Oxford university press Durkheim, E, 1963. Suicide, a study in sociology. Routledge Goffman, E, 1961 Asylums. Doubleday Anchor Goffman, E, 1990. The presentation of the self in everyday life. Penguin Halfpenny, P, 1986. Positivism and sociology. Routledge Johnson, G 2000 The dictionary of sociology Blackwell Hamilton, P, 1992. Talcott Parsons critical assessments. Routledge Marshall, G 1998. Oxford dictionary of sociology. Oxford university press Parsons, T, The structure of social action Free Press 1949 Poloma, M, 1979. Contemporary sociological theory. MacMillan Stones, R, 1998. Key sociological thinkers. Palgrave Winch, P, 1958. The Idea Of a Social Science. Routledge

Women as Victims in the Media Essay -- Feminism Feminist Women Critici

Women as Victims in the Media      Ã‚   One interesting aspect of murder is the way it is portrayed in different forms of media. In particular the way female murder victims have been portrayed over time reflects the social norms of the period. Focusing on the way murdered females were portrayed in various forms of media, beginning in the late eighteenth century in the United States and ending with the present day representations in film it is evident that a traditional style of portraying dead women has continued to pervade society through the twentieth century.    Stories, either fictional or based on actual events, began around 1800 portraying women victims as young, unmarried, beautiful and innocent. Their deaths were portrayed as resulting from a loss of innocent, generally through premarital sexual contact. The descriptions of the dead bodies were graphic and occasionally erotic in nature. (Cohen, 277-306) These descriptions came at a time when the literacy rate was rising rapidly and the relatively free attitude towards premarital sex was changing to a more restrictive ...