Critical analysis on an article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Critical analysis on an - Article Example Though this type of research is not new by any stretch of the imagination, the rigor and thorough nature of the datasets and graphs that the authors present help to engender a degree of well reasoned argument with which the reader can both understand as well as identify with. Although the weakness of the approach are not specifically enumerated upon, the authors begin the piece by discussing the ways in which the study of directional evolution risks over-simplifying the subject matter and ultimately reducing the research question to a form of â€Å"what came first the chicken or the egg†. As a means of addressing such a threat, the piece seeks to lay out a firm and rigid framework of analysis which does not allow any form of broad generalizations on the subject matter (Whittall et al 706). As far as influencing the views of this particular student and providing a bigger picture conclusions, it can be definitively stated that the results that the piece has proven leave little if any doubt in the mind with regards to the clear and inarguable nature of directional evolution and the means through which it occurs. As a function of the bigger picture, this can be understood to re-affirm Darwin’s original theory and helps to shed a further light o n the ways in which individual species evolve, grow, and develop over

Literature Review & Practical Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Literature Review & Practical - Assignment Example Negotiation with the Chinese has been identified as a critical factor in developing business relationships with the Chinese. In order to understand the Chinese negotiation style, researchers have drawn from the findings of the research conducted by Hofstede with respect to analyzing various cultures on the basis of certain dimensions. These dimensions include power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. The Chinese society tends to be characterized by high power distance, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. This is reflected in how deference is shown to those who are higher up in the social hierarchy. Furthermore, decision making is largely influenced by the highly collectivist nature of the Chinese people who tend to take pride in social gains rather than individual ones. As a result of this and the moderate masculinity, the Chinese are generally less ambitious and do not seek personal achievements by and large. Sat isfaction is derived primarily from social order and harmony. Another critical basis of analyzing the Chinese negotiation style is to draw the line between cultures that are labelled as â€Å"high context† and those labelled as â€Å"low context†. ... ext cultures, on the other hand, rely more on verbal communication and negotiation and direct eye-to-eye contact that is missing in cultures such as that of the Chinese. Managers under low context cultures, therefore, tend to be result-driven and focused on getting things done as soon as possible which leads them to negotiate aggressively. Under high context cultures, however, managers tend to focus on building interpersonal relationships as well as trust on an individual level before negotiating on business matters. Therefore, it is not surprising to see hospitality being extended through social gatherings particularly meeting in restaurants. Giving expensive gifts and discussing personal topics such as family wellbeing are a commonplace in the Chinese negotiation style (Edfelt, 2010). The principal force guiding Chinese negotiation is Guanxi. Guanxi is described as the web of personal connections that is quintessential to get things going and done (Edfelt, 2010). Legal contracts ar e, therefore, overshadowed by interpersonal relationships. Guanxi is therefore, essentially an implied commitment which two or more people share with the belief that their current relationship is heavily influenced by the possibilities that lie in the future (Edfelt, 2010). As a result, the Chinese may not trust the party they are dealing with during the negotiation process which is why they may be reluctant to hand over significant responsibility to the other party. This has been illustrated by one of the negotiations between employees of a Western firm called Electrolux and a Chinese firm called Motosuzhou. The negotiation pertained to the formation of a joint venture between the two firms. However, as it turned out, the Chinese delegation engaged in significant effort to analyze whether

Global Impact & Community Essay Example for Free

Global Impact Community Essay Aside from being the most crowded city in the United States, the City of New York is considered the most heavily populated major city in North America. It is the country’s most culturally diverse region, as it holds people that speak 138 different languages drawn from more than 90 countries. The most recognized cultural minorities in the region are Native Americans/Alaska Natives, Asian American/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and African-American. Settlement History From 1892 to 1954, more than 12 million immigrants entered and dispersed all over the United States. Hispanic persons from South or Central American country, Mexico, Cuba, or Puerto Rico, comprised the large number of those immigrants. Throughout the 1990s, Hispanic origin comprised of almost 25 percent of the city’s population, and Hispanic school children of the city consisted of almost 35 percent (DeCamp). Hispanics are the largest minority in the city today, and the population continually grows through immigration and increase through birth. During the early 20th century, the lower eastside of Manhattan was mostly male communities that consisted of Asian immigrant workers who had originally moved out to California. â€Å"Since 1965, the Asian population has been growing steadily, and by 1990, Asians as a whole represented the second largest group of language minorities in New York City† (DeCamp). Conversely, some African-Americans are descendants from natives that were brought to the United States over two centuries ago, while others emigrated from Africa, South America and Caribbean in recent times. It was in 1994 that black residents began to arrive en masse supplied by the Great Migration. Most Famous Ethnic Place-Name, Communities and Districts Harlem is a region in the New York City that is long acknowledged as a major African-American business, cultural, and residential center. Until 1873, Harlem was a village independent of New York City. It has been characterized by boom-and- bust cycles, with considerable ethnic changes going with each cycle. Harlem extends from the East River west to the Hudson River flanked by 159th Street; where it convenes Washington Heights, to a border down the south. Chinatown is New Yorks major and most vibrant ethnic neighborhood which up to now is still rapidly growing. Streets have teemed with hundreds of Chinese restaurants, gift shops and grocery stores. New Yorks Chinatown is the leading Chinatown in the United States and is the cultural, historical, economical, and political center of the Chinese community in the region. It is western hemisphere’s largest site of Chinese concentration. Distinctive Local Food New York City is a blend of nationalities and cultures, and the cuisines served by its thousands of restaurants are a sign of that diversity. Some of the famous restaurants in New York City that offer distinctive local food to ethnic minorities are 2nd Avenue Delicatessen, Inc. , Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant, Aesthetic Alternatives, Bistro Monk, Charley Os, Ding Ho Laundry, Dragon Gems Inc. , and El Rey Delos Caridad Restaurant. In addition, there are hundreds of restaurants located in Chinatown where traditional and authentic Chinese cuisines are served. The styles of Chinese food most recognizable in the region are Hunan, Shanghai, Szechwan, and Cantonese. Contemporary Cultural Influences 1. Currently, dozens of television and radio newscasters are providing their services to several ethnic communities in New York City. Radio and television stations, as well as their respective broadcasters, believe that they are not merely the pipelines of entertainment, information, and news, as they perceive themselves as political and cultural lifeline to the general population from faraway places. These broadcasting networks believe that they are mediums that provide opportunity to all ethnic backgrounds to talk about their distinctive heritage and culture. 2. Because of New York City’s growing ethnic populations over the past decades, members of minority groups have been provided with additional apartments from the City’s private housing projects. More than 86 apartment expansions were built in the city with the goal set to 20 percent minority occupancy (Blair). However, the goal set is not intended as the ceiling to exclude or limit minorities. 3. With New York City’s varied and rich culture, it has long sustained visible and successful minority businesses. Minority entrepreneurs famed themselves to a handful of expected industries such as: Latino-owned bodegas; Korean greengroceries; or Chinese garment factories and restaurants. Years ago, the economic census of minority firms of the federal government counted to just 4,500 Asian, Latino, and Black businesses in New York City, providing work for roughly 18,000 people, or approximately 9 percent of 1997’s total. â€Å"Added to that were another 36,000 self-employed minorities† (Malanga). Since that time, a transformation has occurred in the small-business community of New York City. Gathering together their extensive knowledge as executives in the corporate world, the city’s Asian, Latino, and Black entrepreneurs not only maintained their numerous well-known traditional minority industries but also ascended away from them by opening publishing ventures, design and graphic shops, consulting firms, and ad agencies. Conclusion New York City’s status as one of the most vibrant cultural regions of the United States is shaped by centuries of immigration; nevertheless, the number of foreign born New Yorkers is still expected to increase over the next decade. Asian, Latino, and Black will be numerically elevated to ever growing proportions of the city’s population, and it is not unlikely that in the near future, more than half the city’s inhabitants will have been born outside the United States. Accordingly, attributable to the diverse cultures’ influence, ethnic communities, business, etc. are also expected to flourish. Works Cited Blair, William. 3 May 1984. â€Å"Accord in Minority Suit Provides for More Subsidized Apartments. † The New York Times. 30 April 2009 http://www. nytimes. com/1984/05/03/nyregion/accord-in-minority-suit-provides-for-more-subsidized-apartments. html? n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FM%2FMinorities%20(US). DeCamp, Suzanne. The Linguistic Minorities of New York City. New York: Office of Information, Community Service Society of New York, 1991. Malanga, Steven. 2002. â€Å"Minority Business Triumphs in Gotham. † City Journal. 30 April 2009 http://www. city-journal. org/html/12_2_minority_business. html.

Social Policy Essays New Deal Policy

Social Policy Essays New Deal Policy Labours New Deal policy is a strategy to assist many people to obtain vocational skills and find employment. Following an overview of British Welfare Ideology history, the specific attributes of the New Deal policy will be critically reviewed with illustration of how the policy typifies New Labour Welfare Ideology. A. Welfare Ideologies of the Past A brief overview. (a) The Elizabethan Poor Law The legal relief of poverty was first introduced after the demise of compulsory charity that followed the reformation. There were initial parish registers of the poor in 1552 and compulsory fund raising, through to 1601 with the advent of the Elizabethan Poor Law (43 Eliz I Cap. 2). This law oversaw the levying of taxes for the distribution of money and food to the poor but there was a heavy emphasis on hierarchy and charity as the premise for relief. The notion of a long term solution would have affected the fabric of social distinction, and as class was integral to the ideology of the time, long term solutions for the poor beyond handouts were never conceived of. Despite this, the system was humane as the homeless and infirm were provided with indoor relief in custom built accommodations and the outdoor relief was made available to those in their own homes. This ideology continued throughout a number of adaptations to the act, which included the Settlement Act 1662, the Gilberts Ac t 1782 and the Speenhamland System of 1795. (b) From 1834 to the Welfare State a changing Britain The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 introduced a centralised system of administration of funds and benefits for the poor, and, more notoriously, the workhouse. It was the ideology of the new law that no relief would be made available to those not living inside these workhouses (Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, XXVI). However, the face of Britain was changing and more and more reforms were being brought in to improve the state of public health and education. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Liberal Democrats had set in motion the foundations of the modern welfare state with new laws that were outside the poor law. These included free school meals under the Education Act 1907 and the National Insurance Act 1911. Piecemeal external poor law Acts, designed to deal with specific issues, eventually led to the outright abolition of the Poor Law in 1948 with the National Assistance Act. The concept for this law was for the state to assist all needy UK nationals from the Cradle to the Grave but the sheer cost implications and the rise in numbers of the long term unemployed meant that the New Labour Government of 1997 was faced with a deficit of funds for a dwindling welfare system. When New Labour came to power, there were nearly 2 million unemployed and. In order to rectify this, the Party melded together the 20th century ideology of bettering ones self with the original nurture concepts of post war Britain. B. The New Labour Solution of New Deal A Critical Review 1. An explanation of the New Deal Policy (a) What is New Deal and how does it work? The New Deal policy has two main characteristics. In the first place, it is a Welfare to Work strategy (Department of Employment and Pensions, 2004, at p 1). This therefore means that the policy is to assist individuals, who are on benefits, to make the transition from a dependency on the State to independency through work. The second part of this scheme is also to tie in training with employment in order to achieve long term employment and progression within a chosen industry. Further to this, unlike the Skill Seekers scheme of the Conservative Party, New Deal is aimed at assisting individuals in all age groups and not just school leavers (Department of Employment and Pensions, 2004, at p 1). (b) Has the New Deal Policy been successful? (i) Positive Statistics! The successes of the New Deal Policy are set out at the beginning of the Department of Employment and Pensions report, Building on New Deal: Local Solutions Meeting Individual Needs. Here the Government claims, through its New Deal for Young People (NDYP) to have halved long-term youth unemployment, reduced long term unemployment, including in the over 25s of the New Deal 25 Plus scheme (ND25 plus), by nearly 75% and for those who are over 50 years of age, New Labour professes an addition of over 110,000 individuals into the workforce (Department of Employment and Pensions, at p 2). While it is clear that statistics do not present the full picture and while they may be enhanced through strategic surveying, it is clear that the New Deal Policy has nevertheless proved to be a success in that it has placed many people, who would otherwise have been on benefits, back into the work force. (ii) Room for improvement? Following the first two terms of the New Labour Government, a team at the London School of Economics concluded that while Blairs administration had lifted large swathes of individuals out of poverty, there was, by 2004, a greater gap between the top and bottom ends of the household income brackets (The Guardian, 2004, Target Areas). There has however been a marked negative response, which professes that the New Labour Welfare reforms are nowhere near as successful as those currently in operation in the USA (Smith, D, Online). The Government has acknowledged that the New Deal Policy requires to provide greater assistance to those groups who are referred to as having multiple barriers to work (Department for Work and Pensions, 2004, at p 2). These groups include ethnic minorities, lone parents, the disabled, people aged over 50 and those with few qualifications. 2. How and Why does New Deal typify the New Labour Welfare Ideology? (a) New Labour Welfare Ideology The Third Way? The New Deal Policy of welfare-to-work is clearly set out within New Labours 1997 Election Manifesto and is seen as a key part of New Labours Third Way policy, which is phrased by the acronym PAP (Pragmatism and Populism). This is arguably a distinct approach to Welfare that loosely professes to place itself within the centre to centre-left of present ideologies political spectrum. However, critics argue that the Third Way is not distinctive but instead bears greater characteristics of the political Right than the Centre or Centre Left (Powell, M, at p 41). (b) How and Why New Deal is epitomised by New Labour Ideology (i) Why The divided opinion over the designation of the Third Way into the New Deal policy creates difficulty for the task of illustrating New Deal as a typical example of the Third Way. Therefore, it is better to abandon this concept in order to ascertain the true essence of New Labour Welfare ideology, which is clearly set out in the 1997 Manifesto. The phrase Welfare-to-Work appears frequently throughout this document and is a clear and short summation of New Labours ideology, which is that the Welfare State, far from facilitating a mere basic financial need to survive, is also a support network of services that are to be actively utilised by job seekers in order to place them back into work. Therefore, New Deal, far from merely typifying this ideology, is the very mechanism by which it is realised. This is clarified by the statement made by Andrew Smith MP in his summation of the aims of the New Deal Policy. He states that New Labour is: redesigning the contract between the citizen and the welfare state to one that is active and not passive based on rights as well as responsibilities. We are ending the blight of long term unemployment and the cycle of poverty. (Rt Hon Andrew Smith, MP, May 2004, Department for Work and Pensions, at p iii) Therefore, it seems that the intention of New Labour is that New Deal represents a departure, both from total, long term dependency on the State and virtual abandonment of the impoverished. In other works, it is the tool to progress from Welfare to Work. (ii) How New Deal assists people back into work by providing an interventional service throughout the job seeking stage. As explained above, not only are there separate strategies for the various age groups such as New Deal for Young People, New Deal 25 Plus and New Deal for the over 50s. In addition, New Labour is currently focusing on the development of tailor made care for groups with specific needs, and as also explained above, these include the low skilled, ethnic minorities, lone parents and the disabled. This strategy of focusing on particular groups facilitates a greater efficiency in the carrying out of New Labours Welfare Policy of Welfare-to-Work. Conclusion Analysis of the history of British Welfare Ideology illustrates that New Labours key departure is to create a far more interventional approach to welfare that is designed to ensure that unemployment is strictly temporary. While it is far more likely that this departure is economically as opposed to humanitarianly based, New Deal does far more than merely typify the Welfare-to-Work Ideology as it is the vary basis upon which this ideology is realised. Bibliography Legislation Elizabethan Poor Law 1601 Settlement Act 1662 Gilberts Act 1782 Speenhamland System of 1795. Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Education Act 1907 National Insurance Act 1911 National Assistance Act 1948 Text Books Clarke J, Cochrane A and Smart C, 1992, Ideologies of Welfare: from dreams to disillusion, London: Hutchison Education Hills J and Stewart, K, 2004, A More Equal Society, New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion, Policy Press Articles Powell, M, New Labour and the Third Way in the British Welfare State: A New and Distinct Approach?, Critical Social Policy, Vol. 20, No. 1, 39-60 (2000) Government and Labour Party Publications Labour Party Manifesto, 1997 Department for Work and Pensions Report, 2004, Building on New Deal: Local Solutions Meeting Individual Needs, [Available Online] At: www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2004/buildingonnewdeal/mainreport.pdf Web Resource Smith, David, Welfare Work and Poverty, Publication Commentary, [Available Online] At: http://www.economicsuk.com/original/research/david-wwp.html

Mixed Feminine Message in Wife of Baths Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer Essay

Mixed Feminine Message in Wife of Bath's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer In the Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, various women, such as the Queen and the old hag, stake their claim to authority over men. Yet, they do so in a very covert manner. The knight has clearly abused his male power. He is a rapist. With the help of women, however, he is rehabilitated and seems to achieve the ultimate happiness. When these women support the feminist viewpoint that women should have mastery over their husbands, they are also echoing the sentiments the Wife of Bath presents in her prologue. Yet, these women abandon mastery the moment they attain it. The old hag relinquishes mastery back to her husband immediately after he grants it to her, from that point on she obeys his every command. This ending could be a type of female servitude or it could be a mutually beneficial, blissful marriage and partnership. For this reason, the Wife of Bath’s Tale sends a mixed message about feminism. The tale begins with a violent act of male aggression and dominance. The knight rapes a young virgin. This rape is about more than his being a â€Å"lusty bacheler† (Chaucer l. 889). It is about power. â€Å"He sawgh a maide walking him biforn; / Of which maide anoon, maugree hir heed, / By verray force he rafte hir maidenheed† (Chaucer l. 892). The knight is not merely carried away by his sexual instincts. He sees a woman he covets and takes her by force because he has the power and she does not. This violent rape demonstrates the knight’s initial attitude towards women and his need for rehabilitation. Queen takes over the knight’s punishment for raping the young girl. Instead of death she provides the potential for rehabilitatio... ...re for the most part consistent with her tale. All this suggests a feminist interpretation of the tale. And yet there is the matter of the ending. In every sense of the word the hag submits. She feels she has gained her mastery and then she relinquish it. Does she do so in favor of a mutually blissful marriage or to conform to patriarchal ideals? Perhaps Chaucer and the Wife of Bath are suggesting that male rehabilitation and female dominance are only necessary up to a point. Once the knight and the hag achieve a shared understanding they are able to coexist. Or perhaps in the very end both Chaucer and the Wife of Bath acknowledge that this kind of understanding is sheer fantasy and the Wife cruses the couple for good luck and protection. With both these valid possibilities, the tale presents a mixed message about the place of feminism and female authority.

Diversity :: Title VI, Public Organizations, Race Relations

Diversity is an increasingly important factor in organizational life as organizations world-wide become more diverse in terms of the gender, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, and other personal characteristics of their members. By the year 2000, the American workforce is likely to be gender-balanced, with only 58% of the workforce comprised of White, native born Americans (Jackson et al., 1995). Due to the increasing globalization of business requires employees from different cultures to work together in cross-national teams. Firms are being forced to form cross-functional, inter-departmental, cross-divisional, and inter-organizational alliances in order to make maximum use of scarce resources and thus increase their competitive advantage. People tend to think of diversity as simply demographic, a matter of color, gender, or age. However, groups can be disparate in many ways. Diversity is also based on informational differences, reflecting a person's education and experience, as well as on values or goals that can influence what one perceives to be the mission of something as small as a single meeting or as large as a whole company. Diversity among employees can create better performance when it comes to out-of-the-ordinary creative tasks such as product development or cracking new markets, and managers have been trying to increase diversity to achieve the benefits of innovation and fresh ideas. Informational diversity stirred constructive conflict, or debate, around the task at hand. That is, people deliberate about the best course of action. On the other hand, demographic diversity can sometimes whip up interpersonal conflict. This is the kind of conflict people should fear.

Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Balance in Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and Butterfield’s Verde

Since balance is a key design principle in art, it is important that the artist achieve it in one of two ways. A piece of art must be either symmetrical or asymmetrical to skeletal achieve balance and not create tension in the work. When a piece of art is symmetrical it is a mirror image. There are an equal number of items of equal size, colors, textures, and etc. Many times this is used in architecture to create a pleasing effect to the eye. Balance can also be attained through asymmetrical design.Equilibrium is still attainable through this technique. Asymmetrical means that several smaller items are balanced by a larger item, larger and smaller objects are arranged at different lengths away from the center, different textures are used, or brighter or darker colors contrasted by lighter or muted shades. The famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived in the fifteenth century, used the symmetrical technique in his famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man.In this drawing, it is mostly a mi rrored image of the man and his anatomy. This draws the viewer’s eye to the center of the page. However, there is a tiny portion of the work that is asymmetrical. There is slightly more color on one side that is balanced with both feet turning to the side with less color. Deborah Butterfield, a sculptor from the twentieth century to the present, used the asymmetrical technique for her sculpture of the horse, Verde.The back portion of the horse is bulky held on two skeletal legs while the front of the horse is opened and curvy with thin strips of metal for the neck and head. It parallels the way that a real horse would look and it is totally balanced. Works Cited Butterfield, D. (c. 1990). Verde. Da Vinci. L. (c. 1485). The Vitruvian Man. Skaalid, B. (1999). Classic Design Theory Principles of Design: Balance. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from http://www. usask. ca/education/coursework/skaalid/theory/cgdt/balance. htm