Such a road pricing scheme when drivers have to pay per mile have many benefits in terms of reducing negative externalities, however there are some arguements against this policy.

There are many external costs arising from the use of private cars such air pollutions, traffic jams and time wasted in traffic jams, decrease in efficiency and loss of time; in order to cope with all these problems government as one of the solutions might introduce charging scheme and this will be an effective way since there 'pay as you go' principle will work and every driver will pay as much as he has driven and so this would be more equitable. However, on the other hand, the question of equity will still arise, because people from different backgrounds will have to pay the same amount and thereby there regressive taxation system will work since the poor will spend a bigger proportion of their income on it.
Another advantage of this charging scheme is that it might be really helpful in reducing congestions on major roads and thereby reduce negative externalities. But the problem for the government is the amount of tax that has to be charged per mile.
As you can see from the graph below there wasn’t any market failure before the line started to diverge.



This occurs because volume of cars reached the point when negative externalities appear. Market equilibrium will be at point B, while social equilibrium where external effect is internalized is at point C. If government introduces prices which covers all the costs from congestions, volume of traffic will fall from Q to Q1 and price will increase from P to P1; the net social gain from saved congestion costs is shown by triangle ABC. However, since it is almost impossible to calculate exact price for all the costs, it would be very difficult to achieve such situation.
Another problem with this charging scheme is that instead congestions on smaller roads might appear where drivers have to pay fewer taxes and as these small roads usually increase journey, more time will be lost and more delays might occur.
Moreover, there is an ethical issue about the scheme of having electronic tags in each car since every car will be under control by government which can spy all your journeys. (Big Brother problem)

something about tfl =)))

Transport for London is a huge programme carried out in London in order to improve it’s transport infrastructure. This investment project is aimed in five years make some improvements in different types of transport, make green types of transport more attractive and move to sustainable transport system that is a system that makes contribution to the environmental, economic and social sustainability.
Fall in 6,4 % in August due to recession brought many problems into the whole transport system which was planned ahead. This decline in demand for underground might be caused by switching to it’s cheaper substitutes or by fall in income.
Decline in revenue due to decrease in demand for underground complicated questions of TFL funding as they wouldn’t receive the same amount of money and so will have to find other ways of finding money for their project. Managers of TFL project will have to work hard in order to raise demand for underground even if there is a recession. Peter Hendy, London's transport commissioner, said "Revenue is not where we expect it to be in this year's budget. A decline in revenues now will also have a budgetary effect in the years to come".
As there is a fall in Tfl finances, managers of it cannot be sure whether it will be possible to end the programme in five years and make all the changes that were planned to do. In order to have an adequate Tfl has to either increase number of passengers or raise prices for tickets. However, Tfl have very pessimistic expectations about the former, while the pressure on fares will be and prices for tickets might increase by almost 6% next year already if number of passengers remain the same.
Also Tfl will have to continue to seek reductions in costs of improving infrastructure and remain efficient and useful.
Another consequence of this decline in revenue might be that some constructions which are already started will have to be delayed in continuing and so possibly create traffic jams or increase time spend on the way to work for people and thereby they would be more tired and annoyed, and thereby lose concentration.
Because of decline in demand for underground Tfl is not sure whether demand will rise again and if it rises, how much and so it is difficult to plan how many trains will be needed and how other types of transport have to be improved; whether buses will be more demanded rather than underground or not.

High Speed Rails.

High speed rail is a kind of transport which is much faster than usual trains and their average speed is about 200 km/h and faster. High Speed Rail has many advantages over other types of transport. First of all, it is called to be environmentally friendly and green transport due to a lower consumption of energy per person, big capacity, reduced land usage and also smaller amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
Also when we compare High Speed Rail service with other types of transport such as car, trains, the former has advantage in being much faster and connecting city centers, while trains or aircrafts usually stop outside the city and passengers will have to find ways of getting the town after their plane/train. This advantage increases demand for rails and make them more convenient rather than others.
Besides, there is no need to book and buy ticket beforehand usually, so if one decides to go somewhere he easily can use rails without any reservations. Also some rails allow standing passengers in comparison to planes or buses where only sitting passengers are allowed and this increases capacity of high speed rails. However, on the other hand there is a big disadvantages of using rails when we compare them to private cars, because in your own car you can do whatever you want and change your destination or plans anytime, while in rails if you forget something, it would be difficult to come back then find another rail. The same is with other types of public transport.
In terms of safety, High speed rails are less likely to have different accidents as they are much simpler in controlling due to their predictable course, however it is not 100% safe transport.
Another advantage which we can find in use of High Speed Rails is that they are not so dependable on weather as planes of cars. In businesses’ point of view, High Speed Rails are convenient types of transport since they don’t require going through customs, or repeated checking baggage and highly time-reliable as they usually depart and arrive on time. Also they allow use of mobile phones or internet, while planes not.
When we talk about costs of High Speed Rails it is obvious that this types of transport is more expensive in comparison to buses for example as they require to create the whole modern transport system, also even if they are green transport, they create negative externalities the same with other types of transport: air and noise pollution.

Thank you very much Chris for the knowledge you gave me this year and for everything else =)

=)))

mock exam(will continue later)

1.(a)Explain what is meant by material deprivation.
Material deprivation is lack of money and things that money can buy.
(b)Suggest three reasons why girls and boys often choose different subjects to study.
-Parental expectations – because parents might encourage boys to choose subjects that are more suitable for them in their opinion such as science
-Role models – girls and boys choose subjects according to their parents’ choice
-Stereotyping- because of traditional division of subjects into categories for boys and girls
-Career opportunities- it can be easier for boys to find a job in science, business
(c)Outline some of the current education policies that affect the achievement of social classes
There are many policies exist nowadays that affect achievement of different social classes, however some of them reduce inequalities, and while others widening the gap between classes.
In 1997 when Labor party became the major party, it’s priority was to improve standards of current education and raise attainment of students. Introduction of policy Excellence in Schools, which aimed to encourage young people in deprived inner city areas study and find motivation of going to the higher education, was an example of policies which give equality of opportunities for everyone. Education Action Zones have similar aim as they were located in deprived areas to increase attainment of students by running extra classes and activities. These zones were replaced by more successful program Excellence in Cities which was funded by individuals, businesses, government and aimed to raise achievement in deprived areas by replacing poorly performing schools and providing more school places where necessary. Another policy Education Maintenance Allowance gave opportunity for students from poor backgrounds to continue education as they were given bonuses for good attainment and progress in education.
However other policies weren’t so successful as they made the situation with class inequalities even worse. Current policies reflect New Right ideas of marketisation of education and introduction of grant maintained schools, which were partly independent from government and they could choose their specialization, publication of exam results and creating league tables increased opportunity for parents to choose the schools for children. However, as Stephen Ball argued, marketisation of education put middle class children into advantage. League tables were aimed to increase competition between schools and encourage them to raise standards, however parents by looking at league table would choose the school with higher results while those schools in inner city areas where population mostly consists of people from working class will lose its popularity since pupils from poor background are not so concerned about education. Introduction of National Vocational Qualificationst aimed to provide training courses and vocational education for young people and raise skill levels in a wide range of jobs. This gave opportunities for working class students instead of going into higher education, get qualification and find a job. However, as Marxists- sociologists argued, this vocational training provide cheap labour with low skills and helps only in lowering unemployment statistics. And also as Lee claimed vocational education is for the less able people which channels them into low status and low paid jobs.
As we can see, some policies are useful while others can make achievement of some group of people even worse, however marketisation of education have many advantages and reflects increased diversity of young people in the modern life.
(d)Asses the view that ethnic differences in achievement are primarily the result of home backgrounds.
Hmm, we wrote about that last lesson.

2. Asses the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for the study of teachers’ attitudes.
Unstructured interviews are those interviews where questions are less likely to be pre set, though the researcher usually have a certain topic to cover and just discuss it with the interviewee by asking about appeared details.
Interpretevists are in favour of unstructured interviews since they achieve validity. This type of interviews allow the interviewee express himself in his own words without any limitations in answers and the interviewer have opportunity to ask any questions he wants which helps him to get data in depth. When investigating teachers’ attitudes about towards pupils, unstructured interview may help to establish rapport since teachers are used to “putting on an act in front of pupils” and not telling their real thoughts. That’s why in this case structured interviews may reduce validity of answers as teachers due to their occupations are good in hiding emotions and being formal.
Positivists reject unstructured interviews since it is almost impossible to replicate them. Every interview is unique, the interviewer might ask any questions when exploring the topic and so this data will be unreliable. Also unstructured interviews can not be pre-coded which makes them to be uncomparable, and it is more difficult to generalize the data. Positivists argue that structured interviews could give more reliable data and study larger sample.
When researching teacher using unstructured interviews, researchers will be able to study only small amount of people as each interview takes time, this reduces possibility of having a representative sample if researcher studies particular school where for example there are more modernistic teachers who try to be equal for everyone and don’t show their attitudes towards a particular student. Also there are might be ethical issues and teacher has to be guaranteed of anonymity and be fully informed about the aim of the interview as it might affect his reputation and pupils’ expectations.
Unstructured interviews in some cases might not produce expected result with teachers, because people of this occupation are usually over-worked and will not be happy to spend a lot of time for interview which lowers the response rate. In this case, structured interviews might be more helpful as they take less time and teacher will not be asked extra questions.
One of the advantages of unstructured interviews is that they give opportunity for the interviewer to use non-directive or directive approach. For some teachers direct and aggressive interviewing techniques will be more useful as they give more valid information. Teachers are skilled in controlling their emotions and behavior and as Howard Becker showed in his interview with teachers, aggressive approach helped in finding attitudes and reasons for prejudice of some pupils. This information teacher would not give as volunteer.r
Oh, I will continue later. I don’t know why but it is really hard to think now(

Why do intepretevists prefer documents?

The documents cover a wide range of secondary data, written and recorder material such as biographies, letters, novells, photos, radio and TV broadcasts. From interpretevists’ point of view, this type of data is very important and plays a significant role in their research methods since some kinds of documents are based on people’s understanding of the world and explains reasons for human’s behavior. Diaries, letters may help in understanding the past and compare how people’s views and attitudes are changed over the period of time. It helps to discover and interpret the meanings which guide people’s actions. There are different types of analysis of documents that are used by interpretevists: they might classify the content of the documents into different categories to make the data quantitative( Content analysis) This type of analysis might be valued by positivists since they see translating all the things into numbers as the most suitable way of research because it helps to make comparisons. Also intepretevists might pay more attention on the motives and ideologies of a particular document.( Thematic analysis) And some sociologists may be more interested in text analysis when looking at the text to understand how can it affect people’s ideas and create an impression.
However when using the documents, no one it is difficult to be sure whether what is written is genuine and sociologists can rely on that. While positivists by using Official statistics, will be surer that this data is valid and reliable.

Official Statistics

Secondary data refers to the data that are already exists. This might include historical documents, autobiographies, photos, novells, statistics.
Official statistics are one of the major types of secondary data and they are produced by local and national government, its agencies and organizations. Official data is widely used by positivists since they see all types of quantitative data as the main source of information. While intepretevists see statistics as not useful source of data because they do not help in answering why certain group of people committed to suicide, for example, and what made them to do so, but they just give a factual information about the situation.
When using Official Statistics, for sociologist it is important to know how was these statistics constructed. For example, statistics about the educational attainment might be different for different ethnic groups and social classes, however statistics may not provide with such information.
Also use of this source of secondary data may reflect somebody’s interests and as it is governments who is responsible for the statistics, it might try to show itself in favourable light and hide the real information about the current situation. Also another limitation of Official Statistics that sociologists can not affect the topic and sources of information that will be used for creating the statistics and governmental representatives and officials decide what is useful and what is not.
However, there are many advantages for using official statistics. They are available and cost usually nothing for researchers. Also they are often updated and so sociologists can compare change in the survey over time.

Pupils

a) When making a research among pupils it is important to consider some problems which sociologists have to avoid such as sensitivity of children: they might be shy and not answer questions for example in group interviews, that are interviews based on a group of people and where the interviewer asks questions and respondents answer in turn. So sociologists are more likely to choose unstructured interview where the interviewer can develop rapport that is friendly and trusting relationship and thereby collect more valid and in depth data. However,
Willis, for example, used in his study of ‘lads’ group interviews which allowed pupils to talk freely about their views and values and this gave him opportunity to understand reasons of creating counter school culture. However the researcher could find it difficult to interpret interviewees answers and this might lead to the interviewer bias.
Questionnaire is another convenient type of research which might help to collect data among pupils about some sensitive topics which they might not discuss orally, however this type of research does not guarantee validity of data since pupils might not respond correctly and they just may not understand a question. Also questions might mean for every person something special, so they can answer for the same question in different ways. This makes quantifying and making statistics more difficult. Marxists Bowles and Gintis in their research used self-completion questionnaires for employers and students to compare which personal traits are valued by students themselves and which personal traits are valued by employers in their workers. They could compare and find a correlation between these personal traits to explain and support their Marxist approach. Questionnaires gave opportunity for the researchers to use a large sample and use comparative method. However, questionnaires may be biased since some students could try to show themselves in favourable light and also they could misunderstand some questions.
When researcher wants for example find out how many pupils like mathematics, it is difficult to decide which sample he has to choose. Because if it is a random or systematic sample, it doesn’t mean that it will be representative, because a lot of pupils might be from science ability group and the result of the research will not be valid. Stratified samples are more useful since they give opportunities for researchers to divide the sample into strata such as age, type of school, type of ability group, etc. and make the sample more representative.

more sociology

Politicians about the Family.Some quotations which might be useful when writing essays. (Can’t remember from where I quoted them)

LABOR PARTY.
Family breakdowns are leading to youth crime, unemployment and anti-social behaviour, according to a parliamentary report; women's attitudes have shifted significantly, undermining traditional ideas of patriarchal control and economic dependency.

New Labour's consultation document Supporting Families says that "women increasingly want to work and have careers as well as being mothers". There is no attempt to force women back into the home. On the contrary, the thrust of New Labour's Welfare to Work policy has been to get lone parents, the section of women least likely to work outside the home, into the workforce.

- “Marriage is the "healthiest environment" for the family.” – report Supporting Families

The report comes as Home Secretary JACK STRAW is expected to announce that the government will set up an Institute for the Family, aimed at preventing the breakdown of family life in the UK.
- The New Deal program is primarily motivated by the need to cut back on benefits by encouraging, and as this isn't working, coercing lone parents into work. Those that stay at home to look after their children, either through choice or because they can't get a job, are made to feel guilty for doing so.
- Married couples should get better tax-breaks and child allowances.


CONSERVATIVE PARTY

DAVID CAMERON insisted the modern Conservative party was the party of all families – single parents, divorced parents, widows – and it would be supporting all of them.
So a Conservative Government will give families the support, flexibility and financial help they need.
Financial help:
- Money worries can put a huge strain on relationships – so we will end the couple penalty in the benefits system and recognise marriage in the tax and benefits system
Flexibility:
- We will introduce a new system of flexible parental leave which gives mothers and fathers 12 months' leave to split between them
- We will extend the right to request flexible working to all parents with children under the age of 18, and ensure the public sector becomes a world leader in providing flexible working opportunities

As we can see, both parties are for traditional nuclear family.

Sociology. some important laws and organisations.

The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child. (UNCR)
From 15 January 1992, when the treaty came into force, every child in the UK has been entitled to over 40 specific rights.

The Children Act 1989. Welfare rights of children

Children support agency
“Our role is to make sure that parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep by paying child maintenance.”

Women's Aid is the national domestic violence charity that helps up to 250,000 women and children every year. We work to end violence against women and children, and support over 500 domestic and sexual violence services across the country.

Refuge's network provides emergency accommodation for women and children when they are most in need. -- Financial guide for women experiencing domestic violence.

The new Adoption and Children Act 2002, in force from 30 December 2005.
Improvements in adoption services. Unmarried couples may now apply
to adopt jointly, for example, making sure that any child they adopt will have
two full legal parents.

The Civil Partnership Act - December 2005. The act grants same sex couples identical rights and responsibilities with heterosexual couples

The Divorce Reform Act 1969( since 1971). Don’t have to prove guilty of a partner and have to be married at least three years in order to get divorced.

The Family Law Act 1996. A one year waiting period before a couple can get divorced


Links used:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/family.htm
http://www.womensaid.org.uk/
http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/about/index.asp
http://www.refuge.org.uk/homepage.html

sociology

some points about feminists:

(1)MARXIST FEMINISTS: Exploitation of women is essential to the success of capitalism. Family cost free because society accepts that housework shouldn’t be paid.
Benston 1969: If housework was paid even at minimum wage, it would damage capitalists profits hugely
Ansley 1972: men take out their frustration and stress from work to women
(2)RADICAL FEMINISTS: Housework is an area of exploitation of women BUT: it is not the fault of capitalism system; patriarchy as built into the structure of the society; men will always oppress women
Delphy and Leonard: men get most of the benefits and women do most of the work – that is a patriarchal institution called family(3) LIBERAL FEMINISTS: The family is only sexist because it supports mainstream culture which is sexist; social change is POSSIBLE through the legal system such as laws and regulations

Describe two benefits of economic growth.
Increase in people standard of living. As economic growth in the short run means increase in real GDP and so people’s real income will rise and they will be able to consume more goods.
Also economic growth can help in reducing unemployment, because with higher GDP tax revenue will increase and government will be able to spend more on building public goods in order to provide unemployed with workplaces.

Comment on the effectiveness of one supply side policy in promoting economic growth.
To promote economic growth government can increase labor’s productivity by using supply side policies such as education and training. Investment in human capital that is education, training that workers get, might help to increase productive capacity and stimulate economic growth. However the opportunity cost is very big and government could spend this money on other sectors. Also effect can be undesirable because productivity might not increase and this very often depends on personal abilities.

Discuss the benefits of a fall in the rate of inflation
Inflation is a sustainable rise in the price level. Low level of inflation is one of the main objectives of the macroeconomic performance of the country. Consumer’s real income, that is the income after adjusted for the inflation, will increase so they will be able to consume more. However benefits vary according to which type of inflation is low. Cost push inflation is more dangerous because it is more difficult to reduce it. And low cost push inflation means that producers can produce goods at lower costs and easier can increase supply. Low inflation rates means that people and businesses can make plans and forecast the future as they know that money will not lose their purchasing power very quickly. Firms can make predictions of their sales and this will be beneficial for their profits.
Low price level means can influence balance of payments and make exports more competitive. However, this depends on a relative inflation in other countries and even if in the country is inflation is low but in others it is lower, then goods within the country will be still uncompetitive.
Sometimes too low price levels may cuase a deflation and if this deflation is arising from fall in AD, suppliers will have to stop ptoducing so many goods and this might lead to a higher unemployment rate.

Is the nuclear family universal?

Functionalist Murdock suggested an idea of universality of the family as family is the basic and vital institution in all societies. He looked at 250 societies and found four the most significant functions of the family: sexual, economic, reproduction and socialization. These functions are essential and meet needs in all societies and institution who best fits in performing them is family. Murdock defined the family as social group characterized by common residence, consisting of adults both sexes and depended children. We can consider family as being universal since all children in order to have an adequate socialization have to have their parents with them in early stage of life. However if we look at the statistics, since 1930s till 2005 number of divorces increased by almost 130000 ( Social trends, National Statistics Online) and there are many other types of lifestyles appear such as cohabitation, reconstituted families, same sex relationships and etc. Increase in diversity caused by changing in attitudes: people choose their lifestyle according to their priorities and not societies’ expectations and norms (Weeks). Another reason is increased individualization of women and their economic independency ( Beck and Beck – Gernsheim). Expansion of higher education led to changes in priorities of young adults and now people tend to marriage later: age of marriage for men increased from 25 to 32 in 2005 and for women from 23 to 29; but also more people remarry, divorce and choose another type of households ( Social trends, National statistics online).
However, still nuclear family is promoted by politicians and media. For example, Labour policy Supportin Families (1998) suggested different ways of supporting families, all types of families. However Labours also pointed out that preferred type will be nuclear. Media created cereal packet image of the family (Leach) where it was promoting ideal nuclear family. People being influenced by media and politicians start seeing other types of households undesirable or abnormal (Gittins).

Monetarists and Keynesians about inflation.

Monetarists’ view is based on the idea that the most influential factor of inflation is money supply. Government by using this instrument of monetary policy can change current inflation. If they increase money supply and so banks will be able to lend more and people will have more money to spend on goods and services and also on different financial assets; this might lead to a decrease in interest rates and so further increase in AD and so change in money supply can stimulate wealth effect and lead to a rise in inflationary pressure.
While Keynesians didn’t see strong relationship between money supply and inflation. They emphasized role of the AD in the economy and money supply is one of the determinants of AD. Their major concept was Phillips curve where they showed a trade off between inflation and unemployment and said that as inflation rises unemployment will reduce that’s why some inflation rate might be desirable for the economy. Keynesians said that government has to intervene in order to maintain low unemployment rate while classical economical approach chooses non-intervention. To downward inflationary pressure Keynesian economists accept some deflationary fiscal policies:
* Reducing the level of government expenditure
* Increasing taxation (either direct or indirect) to
discourage spending
* Increasing interest rates to discourage saving
* Reducing money supply growth

Discuss the effectiveness of the use of monetary policy to deal with the inflation

Inflation is a sustained rise in the price level over a period of time. One of the main macroeconomic objectives of the government is having a low level of inflation. To achieve it government can use different policies. One of them is monetary that is decisions on the rate of interest, money supply and exchange rate. The main instrument of monetary policy is rate of interest. By changing interest rates, government can influence producers and consumers. But whether to use different policies, it is important to know which inflation is it and how high it is. If inflation is demand pull, that is caused by increase in AD, high interest rates may influence people’s consumption and reduce it while savings will increase and so this might reduce inflationary pressure. However it is difficult to consider how high interest rates should be in order not to have surplus in the market.
If inflation is cost push, government can reduce costs by appreciating exchange rate and make imports cheaper and maybe reduce some costs of firms. High exchange rates however can cause current account deficit and make the country less competitive. Also in order to deal with inflation, government can increase supply of money and make it easier for banks to lend more and people spend more, however increase in the money supply lowers interest rates as banks will have a bigger amount that they can lend. And so this again affects AD. Also it is difficult to consider how much government has to increase it’s supply. So all instruments of monetary policy are connected and affect each other. When government is seeking to reduce inflation in the long run, government will use supply side as by increasing productive capacity, quantity and quality of labor productivity can increase and costs will reduce. AD will be increasing with parallel increase in AS.

Aggregate supply is a total amount that producers are willing and able to supply at a given price level. Increases in AG that are extensions might be caused by different reasons and differently affects output that is amount of goods produced and inflation that is a sustainable rise in the price level. If short run AS increase this is due to reductions in costs while increase in long run AS might be caused by increased productivity. Increase in AS mostly depends on capacity utilization. Capacity utilization means to what extent firms can expand their production. If firms work close to full capacity increases in AS will lead to increases in total output and might help reduce inflationary pressure as you see on the diagram below.

However it depends also in a position of AD and if AD overheating AS, that is when the growth in AD outstripping the growth in AS, this will lead to inflation in the economy.
If there is spare capacity and unemployment, firms can easily expand their production but this will have almost no effect on output and price levels as it is shown on the diagram below.

Examine the reasons for the increase in family and household diversity in the last 40 years.

Twentieth century brought big changes in priorities of people and their expectations of relationships.
Over the past 40 years people, generally, tended to marry later and didn’t consider creating the family as the most important thing in their life. Also more and more people choose living alone rather than with family and have freedom. And if before living alone gave negative status for women as they failed in finding partners, now views have changed and it is not blame to be alone. Also increasing number of people prefers cohabitation, that is living with a partner together but not marry, because it might help avoid conflicts. For 40% cohabitation is a good alternative to marriage, while for most people cohabitation is a kind of prelude which helps to test relationships and make them stronger. Main causes of an increase in family diversity are changing in attitudes that is how people now define the ideal family life, increased opportunities in going to University for everyone made people be more aimed in making their own career and be more independent; from 1967 contraception became more reliable and available for all women and sexual relationships became not only the way of social reproduction but also the expression of love.
Weeks suggested that nowadays there is an increased choice in personal mortality, that is choosing different kinds of families is individual choice rather than influence of values and attitude in the society.
Also family diversity has increased due to changes in expectations from marriage and as Fletcher said, now people place higher values on marriage. The Divorce act 1969 made it easier for people to divorce and they didn’t have to prove guilty of their partners.
Beck and Beck-Gernsteim argued that our society is characterized by increased individualization, women don’t need to rely on their husbands anymore and they can achieve the same statuses with them if not higher. High values are placed on self-expression and independence while marriages which were the norm in the society before will limit people’s actions. Another reason of increased divorce rates is that nowadays there is a trend towards confluent love (Giddens) that is when relationships are focused on expression of love, intimacy and support. And if people don’t find this love in their partners, they prefer to change their lifestyle.
Divorces for many people led to changes in values placed on relationships and they choose another lifestyle such as being alone or cohabiting. More people become to be lone parents as this make their life easier, and as feminists argued, women will escape violence, conflicts and destructive relationships for them and their children (Bernardes).
In recent years increased opportunities for same sex relationships have formed a big number of households based on same-sex relationships. Dunne suggested in her research that lesbian and gay couples are less likely to have conflicts as they share responsibilities and domestic duties.
So as we can see there are many alternatives to marriage which led to increased numbers of family diversity and as Giddens said, diversity is a reflection of opportunities and priorities in modern era. However, Gittins argued that still nuclear family consisting of heterosexual couple and their offspring acted and acts as powerful ideology for most couples and alternatives of the nuclear family are still considered to be abnormal. Her opinion was supported with another sociologist Chester who used the term ‘neo-conventional family’ describing that even if there was some growth in family diversity, generally, most people marry, have children; nuclear family remains the dominant family structure.
New Right ideas about the family diversity are that the decline in traditional values and appearance of new types of households are a big threat to the society and destruct it. Murray said that, for example, single mothers are a principle cause of crime.
In my opinion still a big importance is placed on societal values and expectations and most people will behave in a way that is considered to be normal for the society.

China Effect

China Effect which is a huge economic growth of the China has a big impact on all other countries. As GDP is growing rapidly in China and the country faces increased demand and demand-pull inflation, the UK will face inflationary pressure from this country and as China is the top producer of coal, steel, cement, and 10 kinds of metal, not only UK but all parts of the world will suffer from inflation. This might lead to an increased trade deficit in the UK when the amount of imports exceeds the amount of exports. But as Saunders, the economist of Citigroup said: “At the same time, growing demand from these countries is pushing up commodity prices across the board”. Also UK faces a high competitiveness from China and has to increase its spending on supply side policies in order to increase productive capacity and remain competitive in the market. Also UK has to increase its lower productivity and reduce unemployment when facing increased demand for goods from overseas.
China’s exchange rates are relatively low compared to pounds and so UK could enjoy cheaper imports for a while however this will not be always “and the exchange rate provides just temporary shelter against import price rises.”

Examine the effects of urbanisation and industrialisation on the family and household structure.

The process of industrialization when there is a development in manufacturing industry started in Britain in the late of 18th and early 19th centuries has a big impact on families’ structure.
Before the industrial revolution, families were unit of production and considered to be multifunctional. Every member of the family had to work, including small children, families had wide kinship networks and supported each other and main sectors of work were agriculture and small cottage industry. With development machines and equipment which could make people’s job easier and had higher productivity, people had to adapt to new conditions and change something in their lifestyle. Firstly, the industrialization demanded higher geographical mobility which led to a reduction of kinship network and appearing of a nuclear family which was better fitted to that time. Families didn’t need such support that they needed before from their relatives. Also the appearance of social mobility gave people opportunities to get higher qualifications and created division of labor. Families couldn’t perform all the functions they had to before and some of them were taken over by other institutions. Families continued to reproduce only main functions and became isolated nuclear as Parsons suggested in his research. Family became to be unit of consumption. However his view was criticized and as Laslett found in his research, in pre-industrial Britain, nuclear family was the most common type of families; however he defined the nuclear family in different way with functionalists (Parsons) and said that it is not necessary for extended families to live under the same roof and they can have close relations in distance.

Also geographical mobility led to increase in urbanization that is when households move from rural areas to towns in order to satisfy the demand for labor and find better job. Both these processes changed not only the structure of the family but also relationships within families. Women and children were stepped aside from work in order to perform family’s functions and men were seen as breadwinners.
However people interpret the effect of industrialization and urbanization differently. And if Functionalists see these changes in family structure necessary in order to cope with all the changes around and be the best fit for the society, Marxists see them differently. They see the main function of the family is reproducing the social conditions and the appearance of new forms of families with these processes will help to better reproduce labor power, give emotional support for workers and help children to socialize in the world of inequality. For feminists, Oakley, industrialization gave the beginning of women’s primary role of caretaker and domestic labor.
Also these processes of industrialization and urbanization have different impact on different social classes and, for example, for upper classes a wide kinship network had always been significant (Gomm).

Examine the reasons for the changes in the position of children in the family and society

Childhood is considered to be a social construction which means that it was created by the society from social views and definitions. However different cultures see childhood differently and there is no universal description for everyone what is the childhood. In biological terms we consider people to be children when they just born and grow up because in this period they can’t be independent and survive without the help. In pre-industrial societies families were as unit of production and all the members of the family had to work in order to survive. But with the industrialization the role of women and children has changed; families lost some of their functions which were taken by other institutions (Parsons), and women were stepped aside of the work and their major duties were taking care of children and all the domestic work. Children became to be more protected and childhood was more independent stage of life when people needed more attention and care and also they had to study in order to get skills to their future jobs in manufacturing.
In Medieval Europe, as Aries suggested in his research, childhood didn’t exist. Children were seen as little adults and had the same rights with them and were treated in the same way. However later because of different diseases and high mortality rates they had to have special care and protection.
However a big importance plays ethnicity, culture. And for instance, if in the West children treated in some cases like Aries said, in the East relationship was different mostly because of diverged values of families. In the West people tended to be more independent, have their own priorities, while in the East families were cooperating and share their values.
However in the 19th century some rights of children were protected by the government such as introduction of Factory Act according to which children had to have special conditions while working, however still they were mostly as unit of production and only in 20th century they became a separate stage of life and had their own rights. Compulsory Schooling Act required primary level of education for all children by law and so they mustn’t work at this age, The children Act in 1989 gave children their rights; education acts said that children had to study up to a certain age.
However nowadays as Lee suggested, children increasingly have more rights, they have greater similarities with adults; adulthood, by contrast is becoming more unstable and uncertain, so generally he said that now adults and children change their roles.
Also, Postman said that now notion of childhood has disappeared. The influence of media, new technologies broke boundaries between children and adults and now there are only biological differences between them. However we can’t say that childhood has disappeared because still children are depended on their parents because parents are those who bring them up and taking care of them and support them in material questions.

a)Expressive role is role usually kept by women which means that their role is to create home comfort and take care after other members of the family.

b) Unpaid domestic labor; emotional support for the whole family

c) Advances in medicine; increased standard of living; end of wars and poverty which was during the last century, economic stability


d) One of the main sociologists of last century Philip Aries argued that childhood started developing only about 300 years ago and in medieval Europe it didn’t exist. However Aries’ main material which he used in his research was paintings by outstanding artists so this source is not very unreliable since we don’t really know whether artists painted the world as it was.
We can say that childhood is socially constructed since there is different behavior to children as writer Pollack noticed. Parents tended to be kind and understanding to their children and there were many examples of violence when parents tried to encourage them to do something or act in a polite way.
In pre industrial societies families were as unit of production and every member did something in order to survive and help his family. As the society was developing, women were becoming out of work as children did and their main responsibility was bringing up children and be a housewife. In 1989 there was the first Children Act which maintained children’s rights and protected them. However in 1975 The Family Law Act had already emphasized children’s rights but not so clearly. Children were under protection of government and in cases of violence or abuse at home they can be taken from their biological parents in order to be safe.
There are laws according to which children cannot buy demerit goods such as alcohol or tobacco before 18 and so this law is aimed to protect young generation and keep it healthier. All these policies are helpful in reducing death rates and increasing standard of living. In the UK there is a law according to which children have to study until 18 and so childhood is considered to be continued till 18 years old, but as O’Donnel noted the length of childhood varies in different countries but usually it is between 18-21 because in this age people are still developing physically and mentally. In most developed countries children get welfare benefits and support in finding jobs after the graduating from university, so this helps them maintain their future life.
Shared Parental Responsibility Act 2006 determines “the best interests of the child” and emphasizes equal time parenting of the child by both parents.
But as Nick Lee said in 21 century childhood is becoming increasingly independent and influenced by media, however they are still dependent on their parents. Media considers childhood as independent and powerful unit of consumption and there are many programs which aimed especially to children in order to attract them with new things or shows. So even if there are many arguments that state that childhood is disappeared (Neil Postman) it is not true because still children will be protected by laws and be independent section of population.


e)Nowadays there are many different ways of constructing the family and as Giddens said this era is era of modernity where everyone chooses his own lifestyle and don’t try to be like others.
First of all, marriage is not the first priority for every women as they are becoming more individualized (Beck &Beck-Gernsheim), their economic position increased; women don’t need necessarily to be dependent on their husbands as they can start their own career which is becoming more and more important for young women. Also social values changed and it is not shame anymore to divorce or be alone as it was before. Both partners don’t expect from each other just taking the part in duties but also spouses demand more support and love, and this can lead to marital breakup (Coontz) and appearing other ways of creating the family.
With changing in priorities expectations of marriage and love change, some need more support, others try to be more independent. That’s why there is a tendency for everyone to choose their own lifestyle. According to the national statistics, households made up with a couple and their dependent children decreased by 15 % from 1961 in 2006, while there was a significant increase in other types of households such as cohabitation, same-sex or single-hood , lone-parents. Of course, still most people want to have good stable relations however as needs increase and now it is easier to divorce, young people choose being alone rather than with unwanted partner; or just they choose cohabitation in order to feel free and change partners when they want. Also more and more people choose same-sex relationships and as evidence shows (Gillian Dunne) they have less arguments, share all the responsibilities and children raised in such families are no different from those who were raised by heterosexual couples (Fitzgerald).
Another point which consider people when maintaining their own life whether they will economically able to support their own family, because they are not usually sure about their future that’s why many people avoid having children and create their own family in elder ages or never.
Also as Anthony Giddens said there is increase in confluent love that is deep emotional intimacy which individuals expect from their partners and if partners fail in giving such love many people choose other types of lifestyle more suitable for them.
However as Somerville argued “these changes are exaggerated” and he in some cases is right because for most people the cereal packet image of the family which includes heterosexual couple with their biological dependent children acts as a powerful ideology and was the ideal image of the family( Gittins 1993). Chester noted in the 1980 Neo-Conventional family where little had changed since 1940 and still more adults marry and have children, most children are reared by their natural parents.

Functionalists' perspecitve about the family

(I know that this topis is not new already but still wanted to write about functionalists in order to remember main points in their view)
The development of functionalists perspective about the family is connected with the study of anthropology. They compared society with the whole organism or human body and so every part of the society has is essential and has important functions. Family represents one of these important parts and it has to change according to changes in the whole body (society). That’s why with the industrialization family had changed and lost some of the functions which probably weren’t necessary.
In pre-industrial society family had wide developed kinship network as it had to help relatives and be supported by them and performed a number of functions. It was extended and multifunctional as there weren’t any other important institutions and every family had to cope with all the difficulties. With the developments in the society family had to evolve and its structure became more beneficial for that time. Increased development of division of labor meant that family had to be more geographically and socially mobile to be more suitable for the society and that’s why reduced it’s connection with kinship and became nuclear. One of the main sociologists-functionalists Talcott Parsons argued that in industrial society family was isolated nuclear and the main reason of this was that as division of labor and industrialization increased some other institutions took over responsibilities of some functions of the family such as education, welfare support… Mainly families weren’t units of production anymore as they didn’t just produced and consumed food but they were main consumers of other producers and so became to be units of consumption also. So generally isolated nuclear family was beneficial for the society as it was evolving and changing according to needs of the society.
Parsons said that even if there many functions that family has lost with changes in the society there are two main and irreducible functions performed by the family:
1)Primary socialization of children that is internalization of society’s culture and giving basic ideas of adequate behavior which is suitable for the society’s needs. With this function children will come to the value consensus.
2)Stabilisation of adult personalities means that children need emotional support in order to cope with difficulties in the society in the future and be prevented from all the threatens in the modern worlds.
Parsons’ theory is also known as ‘warm bath theory’: husband after a stressful day of work comes to get a warm bath that his family provides.
Another sociologist Peter Murdock argued that family as the part of the organism is universal and influence all other parts – institutions and in order to perform well and evolve have four main functions
1)Sexual : it strengthens relations in the family and creates sexual gratification for both partners but also as there are laws in some societies that forbid/limit sexual activity outside the marriage it will prevent disruption or conflicts that might occur.
2)Economic: this functions means that family has to produce and consume something in order to satisfy it’s needs and wants. Specialization of labor means that each person is specialized in particular task and his productivity rises which will be conductive to economic growth in the society
3)Reproduction: family is the main unit of reproduction of children and it helps to reproduce society
4)Educational: family is responsible for primary education of the children in order to help them accept norms and values in the society.
Murdock saw these functions as the most significant for the development of the whole society.

But when we talk about the family it is important to know how we define the family. From functionalists’ point of view family is a heterosexual couple with depended children and different roles between spouses as generally male was a breadwinner and woman housewife. Functionalists didn’t accept other forms of the family as they weren’t suitable for the society and couldn’t evolve according to changes. This picture acts as a powerful ideology as Diana Gittins argued and gave the beginning of stereotyping. However functionalists’ view was criticized because they don’t see positives in other forms of households (Morgan), they don’t take into account drawback of nuclear family such as conflicts and diversity which appear with the development of the society.
Functionalists, generally, see family as patriarchal because it is man who mainly responsible for finding all the necessities for the family and so he has more power among other members, while wife has to create warm bath for him and take care of children in addition to all the housework. Feminists said that there is a work exploitation of women.
Also functionalists in their perspective can’t explain increase family diversity which also was created by changes within society. More people choose cohabitation or single hood because see these types of living as the most suitable for them and the picture of idealized nuclear family which was introduced by Parsons looks weak in the modern society.

Sociology. Family and Households

Hanmer and Saunders 
1983. Women’s behaviour is very restricted by fear of men. 59% of women have experienced threaten/violence during the previous year.

Abbott and Wallace
1980. The main trigger for violence is male’s perception that woman is failed in her duties.

Dobash and Dobash
These duties are about sex, money, housework. 31% of women said that there were reasons for hitting them.
Men blame wives (80%) and ignore the beating and act as nothing has happened.
Wives usually don’t end relations after being beaten but can leave home for a while just to escape aggressiveness of husbands and them come back in order to try reestablish relations.
Violence is considered to be normal and accepted part of English Culture.

Borkowsky
Alcohol is leading contributor to domestic violence

Strauss
Violent homes affect children’s future behaviour.

Sociology.Family and Households

Duncompe and Marsden
1993. Women are mainly responsible for managing the whole family’s emotions; triple shift of work: housework/childcare, paid job, emotional work

Edgel
1980. Decision making: wives are dominantly responsible for minor decisions such as interior decorations, food and clothes while husbands in all other important areas. Most interviewed couples see sexual equality as a bad thing

Pahl
1989.Money and Management. Different types of money management:
 - Housekeeping allowance system: a husband gives fixed sum of money to his wife for housekeeping and controls how this money is spent
 - Pooling system: money is shared between husband and wife however men have dominant role in planning of spending this money.
Women who are in paid job usually have more power in financial question rather than those who don’t have job
Men generally tend to have more personal spending rather than women and if someone had to economize on himself it usually were women.
Independent managing of money usually appear in young couples who don’t have children and don’t need to spend on mortgages or buying expensive things.

Gullian Dunne
1999. Lesbian households share main responsibilities such as housework or childcare
Gender inequality in labor market shape gender inequality in relations.

Allan and Crow

“Women get satisfaction from self-sacrifice. This confirms her identity as a good wife and mother” (Sociology in Focus, AQA AS level)

Families and households

Bott
Conjugal roles. 
Conjugal roles are roles that played by wife and husband within marriage with reference to the domestic division of labour. There are two kinds of roles:
1)Joint: roles are more shared, interests, leisure also shared between wife and husband. Those who have loose knit networks are ore likely to have joint roles
2)Segregated: clear and distinct responsibilities, leisure time is separated. Those who have close knit networks are more likely to have segregated roles.

Oakley
1974.The Sociology of Housework.
 Women have a dual burden: keeping traditional responsibilities for home and children and working in paid jobs.
Housework is seen as being a predominantly female role. Research showed that 88% of women were solely responsible for washing and ironing compared to 1% of men.
Women are a threat to men’s employment
Due the industrial revolution women were banned from some kinds of work. They and children are started to be economically dependent on men. This economic dependence and domestic duties meant that the housewife became the primary role for women

Bernard
1982. The Wife’s marriage.
It is being a housewife rather than being married contributes to the poor mental and emotional health of married women.

Hunt
1980. Husbands of both waged and unwaged wives helped only on the easiest domestic duties. Wives do double shift.

Gittins
1993. The cereal packet image of the family, that is heterosexual couple with children and which have traditional division of labor, acts as a powerful ideology defining what is normal and desirable and labeling alternative types of families as abnormal. 

Weeks
2000. Personal morality has become an individual choice rather than a set of values influenced by religion or dictated in the society. This means that every individual chooses its own life according to his preferences, e.g. singlehood or same sex relations.

Giddens
1992.Late modernity: opportunities to choose and identity and select a lifestyle; diversity is a reflection in differences in views and priorities of late modernity. People choose whether they want marry or cohabit or build reconstituted families. 
Relationships in late modernity are based on confluent love – deep and emotional and couples demand more and more support from each other. 

Stacey 
1996. Postmodern society: family relationships are unresolved and diverse; diversity is an opportunity for people to choose more appropriate lifestyle; increased possibility of more democratic and equal relations (Stacey thinks that gay and lesbian couples are more equal as such couples share domestic duties and responsibilities of taking care of children and usually both have paid jobs)

(to be continued)

families and households

There are some important people whom we have to remember for our first exam in Sociology about Families

Rapoport.
1982. 5 types of diversity:
1)organizational -> differences in the way families are structured
2)cultural -> differences arise from different cultures’ norms and values
3)class ->different views by different parts of society (e.g. middle class and working class havew different views on relations and socializing children)
4)life course ->diversity caused by different stages people have reached
5)cohort ->diversity created by the historical periods the family have lived through ( e.g. unemployment leads to a smaller family structure

1978. Dual career marriage. Costs and strains for women when attempting to balance two roles: family and career.
Two types of the ideas of dual career marriages:
1)Old-style: traditional stereotypes of wives’ roles and thereby as employment rates of women rise, divorce rates also rise because women can not balance these two roles; children of working mothers perform badly at school
2)New-style: dual career marriage is not necessarily finishes with divorces and the net gain in satisfaction for most dual career couples is greater than the perceived losses. However women have to overcome many difficulties such as stress and strong stereotypes with wives’ roles.


Chester.
1985. The rise of the neo-conventional family.
Even if there is a growth in family diversity, nuclear family remains dominant family structure and he argues that: 
- most adults still marry and have children
- most children are rared by their real parents
- most people live as a married couple


Wilmott and Young
1973. The symmetrical family. 4 stages:
1)Pre industrial: family is a unit of production; home and work are not separated
2)The early industial: the family’s economic function is taken by industry, the appearance of differences in husband’s and wife’s duties, large kin networks
3)Symmetrical: nuclear family, home centred and privatized, more equal roles of men and women, more widespread among middle class. The appearance of stratified diffusion when ideas of norms and values are spread through the class system from top to bottom
4)The Asymmetrical: stratified diffusion continues; upper class will set the trends for ideal family life; work-centred rather than home centred

1957. Family and Kinship in East London 
Traditional division of labour gives an opportunity to men and women create a new kind of companionship. Joint conjugal roles are spread; working class couples have relations have more similar styles f relationship with middle class.

Parsons.
   - The essential functions of the family:
-primary socialization
-stabilization of adult personalities
   - Nuclear family is the best fit for industrial society
   - Industrial nuclear family is isolated from its kinship network and the main reason for it is a loss of functions performed by the family, e.g. schools have taken educational function.

Kessler and Mckenna.
Criticism of Parsons: he excludes other types of the family such as childless, single-parent,same sex. Parsons says that they are only exceptions.

Bowlby

It is necessary to have a female caretaker as maternal deprivation affects mental health of the infant

Rutter
Children need to be with their natural parents and caretaker should be a female
(to be continued)

National income measures monetary value of all goods that were produced within the country. To measure national income there were generated three different accounts:
Total expenditure, total output of goods and services and total amount of income.

GDP
Gross Domestic Product measures the value of output produced within the domestic industries. However there are a lot of factories which are located abroad and if we add to GDP income from firms abroad owned by the particular country, so final output of this country will be called Gross National Product. So, GNP = GDP + Net Property Income from Abroad
There are three ways in calculating GDP:
1) Output method which takes into account adding the value for each stage in the production of goods. This method is usually used in manufacturing, construction, agriculture
2) Aggregate demand method. This uses the formula of AD in order to count GDP. 
AD = C+I+G+X-M, where C is consumption by households, I is investment, G is government spending, X is exports and M is Imports. 
3) The Income method, where GDP = sum of different incomes such as Income of Employed and self-employed, profits of firms and rent income. 

When measuring the level of national income and whether it grows or declines it is important to look at some factors such as overall economic growth, changes in living standards distribution of income and also purchasing power of money to compare with other countries.

Comparative advantage exists when one country has lower opportunity cost of production a particular product than another. For example if country X produces 100 of pineapples and 200 of sweet potato and country Y produces 300 pineapple and 900 sweet potatoes. For country X the opportunity of producing extra pineapple will be 2 sweet potatoes, however for the country Y the opportunity cost of producing extra pineapple will be 3 sweet potatoes. So the country X has a comparative advantage in producing pineapples. However if the country Y shifts to producing more sweet potatoes, the opportunity cost will be 1/3, while for the country X it will 1/2, so the country Y in this situation will have a comparative advantage. 
Factors that create the concept of comparative advantage are ability of switching to another industry without losses in efficiency, returns to scale (if increase in inputs in one industry leads to an increase in total output), if no externalities arise from consumption/producing.

There are also factors which determine the cost of production:
- Quantity and quality of labour available (more educated and skilled labor will provide bigger advantage for the country)
- Investment and improvements in technology which also lead to an increase in advantage
- Import controls which limit international trade and create advantage for domestic producers
- Exchange rates: high exchange rates will make exports more expensive and less competitive and thereby country might loose its advantage

(tried to explain this topic, but not sure if im right:)

If price elasticity of demand showed how demand responds to a change in different economic conditions, Price Elasticity of Supply shows the responsiveness of the quantity supplied to a change in the price of product. As firms are usually aimed to make a profit, this relationship will be always positive, because as price for a product increase,more suppliers are willing to sell their goods and so supply will increase. In the short run, PES is usually inelastic as suppliers can't react to changes in the market so fast, but in the long run supply will decrease as prices fall.             Factors that affect PES may be increases in costs of production such as rise in the prices of raw materials, or introducing by trade partners import controls and so it will be more expensive for firms to buy materials from abroad, or rise in wages which are also costs of production. With rise in prices, PES will be more elastic, because supply will also increase.

Elasticity of demand

Elasticity is an extent to which buyers and sellers are responsive to change in market conditions. There are three elasticities which shows the responsiveness of the quantity demanded to a change in price of the product, that is Price Elasticity of Demand, change in income of consumers, that is Income Elasticity of Demand and change is price of another product, that is Cross Elasticity of Demand. 
Price Elasticity of demand helps to determine which of good is it. If PED is negative and less than 1, this is normal good and demand is not really responsive to a change in price and price is inelastic in this situation. If PED negative and more than 1, this is normal good and demand for it is responsive to a change in price, so price is elastic. If PED is positive, that means that there is a snob good or good of ostentation, that is when consumers’ demand increases as price of the good rises. 
The determinants of PED are:
 the availability of substitutes: if there are any goods that can be alternative for a particular product. Generally, the greater the amount of substitutes, the greater chance that price will be elastic for the product;
the expense of the product with respect to the income: if the product takes a big proportion of income, then it is more likely that price will be elastic for it.
Time: sometimes changes in prices don’t affect demand, because consumers have to have time to understand whether it is still worth buying this good or better to switch on substitutes;
Habits: for some products, such as tobacco or alcohol, price is usually inelastic, because if people are addicted and can’t give up, they will still buy products even if prices rise.

Income Elasticity of Demand also helps to determine the kind of product and often YED is positive which means that good is normal, and as income of consumers increases, demand for this good will also increase. And again if YED less than 1, demand is income inelastic and not responsive to a change in income and if YED more than 1, demand is income elastic. 
Sometimes YED can be negative which means that this is an inferior good and as income rises, demand for this good will decrease. Examples of inferior goods are supermarket’s own-label products or just some cheap products.

Cross elasticity of demand shows the relationship between two different goods and determine whether they are substitutes of complements. Positive XED shows that two products are substitutes: as price of one good rises, demand for another product will rise, e.g. apple and banana. The higher the value of XED, the closer substitutes they are and visa versa. If XED is negative, two goods are complements: if price for one product rises, demand for another product will fall, e.g. petrol and cars.

Economic growth is increase in total output in the short run and increase in productive capacity in the long run. One of the objectives of governments is to have sustainable economic growth that is the growth which can continue over time. Sustainable growth helps to achieve trend growth that is expected increase in the output over time. There are many causes of economic growth in the short run and long run. Economic growth in the short run means that there is an increase in AD because of increases in components of it. For example, if there is a fall in the exchange rates, exports will be cheaper and more competitive and so the economy will have export-led growth. Or if government increased its spending on subsidies for firms, this means that prices might go down and consumption will increase. This leads to economic growth. In order to stimulate it government might use monetary or fiscal policies such as reduce interest rates or lower exchange rates, or reduce taxes, etc. In order to achieve long run economic growth government has to spend a big amount of money for supply side policies such as education or training, promoting new firms, because increase in productive capacity can be achieved through the increase in quality and quantity of labour, resources and improvements in capital goods.

Interest rates.

Interest rate is a charge for borrowing money and the amount paid for lending money. There are many factors that affect rates of interest such as national savings, AD and others. Central Bank set the base rate first and this rate varies. If an economy is overheating that is when AD increases more quickly that AS, in order to avoid demand pull inflation, Bank will set high base rates. Because if interest rate is high, people tend to save more in order to get benefits from greater dividends. If AD is relatively low, Bank will set low base rates and this will discourage people to save and their average propensity to consume will increase. 

There is a close link between rate of interest and exchange rate. If interest rates are low, that means that people from overseas are less likely to save money in English banks because they are not gaining a lot. As we know exchange rate is determined by supply and demand, therefore when demand for currency goes down, price decreases too, so consequently exchange rate for that particular currency falls.

Balance of payments.

Balance of payments is a record of flow of money coming in and going out of the country. Balance of payments consists of current account, capital account and net errors. Current account tend to play the most significant role and it includes trade in goods, services, transfer payments and income investments. Trade in goods is also known as visible balance, because there is a trade of real physical goods between countries, trade in services is invisible balance because it is a trade in education, information, health services. Investment income shows how much UK residents earn from their dividends, interests from abroad in comparison to income of foreigners from the country. And transfers are transfer of money made by government or individuals. Capital account shows the movement of direct investment such as loans and purchase of financial assets from abroad. Net errors section is aimed to ensure that balance of payments is balanced. 
There might occur current account deficit, which means that money outflow for buying imports are greater the amount of money coming into the country from exports. To reduce current account deficit, government might encourage exports by depreciating the currency or devalue, or discourage imports using different types of import restrictions such as quotas, tariffs, and so on. Capital account deficit occurs when government lent more money than received. To solve this problem government might increase interest rates and so it will get more money from dividends. 


Budget deficit.

Budget deficit arises when government spending exceeds taxation revenue. Why does this occur? Government spends it’s budget on providing public goods and services such as health, education, defense or intervening into free market mechanism in order to prevent market failure and subsidise prices. These expenses are covered by revenue from taxation. That’s why when budget deficit is rising, government might decide to increase rates of taxes or borrow money from other countries which will lead to a capital account surplus or increase rate of interest and so savings will increase and government will have more money in banks. 

Even if in the country there is no budget deficit, there might be some situations when government has to increase its spending for wars, protecting from terrorists and ets. That’s why it is very seldom when country experiences balanced budget that is government spending = tax revenue.

(was writing without notes, and maybe can have mistakes in my explanation)

Taxes

One of the ways of government intervention into free market mechanism is taxation. Government introduces a wide range of taxes in order to allocate tax revenue to various forms of government spending such as education, health, defense. Also government might consider to spend money from tax revenue onto buying capital goods which will generate greater benefits in the future. 
There are two main types of taxes: direct and indirect. Direct tax is a tax which levies on individual’s income. This tax people cannot avoid and paid by everyone who is employed. Income tax can be regressive or progressive. In Uk’s case it is progressive which means that it takes higher percentage from the income of the rich; in other words, as your income rises, percentage of tax will go up. However there are bands exist, that is when your income is higher than a certain amount of money, percentage of tax will not increase anymore and will remain the same. 
Indirect taxes that are taxes levied on goods and services are regressive. This means that tax will take a greater percentage from the income of the poor. Indirect taxes are widely used to discourage people from buying demerit goods or other goods and services that produce negative externalities. 
Indirect tax imposed on sales of goods and services generally is called Value Added Tax. Excise taxes are imposed on specific products producing negative externalities. They are usually take a big proportion in order to decrease demand for them. Corporation tax is levied on corporate profits; inheritance taxes are taxes on transfers of wealth above the certain amount; in the UK there is also Council Tax that is a form of taxation paid by residents to local councils in Egland, Scotland and Wales.

Inflation is a sustained rise in the price level over a period of time. There are two types of inflation: demand pull and cost push. Demand pull inflation occurs when there aggregate demand rises faster than aggregate supply. When firms work close to full capacity and can’t react immediately to increases in demand, this will push price levels up. Cost push inflation arises from the supply side: when there is an increase in costs of production, wage rates, for example, or raw materials, this will also affect prices and it is difficult to reduce this inflation. 
Inflation will affect others sectors of economy such as Balance of payments. With high price levels, exports will be less competitive and demand for them might decrease, this may lead to a budget deficit. 
Also inflation will affect value of money: purchasing power of money will fall and this will reduce people’s real income, which might lead to a decrease in aggregate demand. 
Inflation creates uncertainty about the future and affects business planning and investments. 
Those workers who have fixed income will lose as their average propensity to consume will decrease with higher prices.

Cost push inflation is more harmful as it usually more difficult to reduce it. Government might reduce corporation tax of firms or give them subsidies, however this would affect budget and might lead to a budget deficit. To reduce demand pull inflation, government could raise income taxes in order to decrease aggregate demand or increase interest rates, which means that people will save more instead of spending. 

Unemployment

Unemployment is a situation where people in the working age are out of work but are willing and able to work and get Job Seekers Allowance. There are different types of unemployment.
 Cyclical unemployment occurs because of lack of aggregate demand in the economy. Also this kind of unemployment is called demand deficient. It is usually associated with economic recessions when there is an inflation and economy works in spare capacity and there are many manufactures’ closures and thereby workers’ lay-offs. 
Fricitional unemployment rises when workers are in between jobs. For example, they moved to another area of living or they are graduates and just joined labour market. It takes time while they find appropriate job with a preferred salary. Government might use more information and improve trainings for workers in order to reduce frictional unemployment. However this type of unemployment is not so dangerous like others. 
Structural unemployment occurs because of decline in certain industry or substitution by capital goods of labour. Because of decline in particular industries such as manufacturing (coal, steel, etc.) usually lead to unemployment. However if government will improve its training programs for workers in order to give them opportunity to find job in another sphere might help to reduce unemployment.
Technological unemployment arises from advances in technology which usually leads to an increase in potential output. Measures to correct this type of unemployment are similar with structural. 
International unemployment might appear when some firms decide to move abroad and produce their goods there, and for them it would be cheaper to hire workers in that area; also if households will switch on buying imported goods and so demand for domestic goods will decrease and this will lead to unemployment. Government need to encourage more small firms in order to increase their competitiveness and demand for them. 
Also even if unemployed are those who want and able to work, there will an amount of people who would like to avoid work and live on Job Seekers Allowance. This hidden unemployment might occur because people have been out of work for a long time and lost their motivation and skills needed to apply for a job and they just give up seeking for a job. Also others may think that with their skills they will not be able to find a job with an appropriate salary and JSA is enough for them to live.
To measure unemployment different countries use their own systems. In the UK unemployment is measured by Labour Force Survey and claimant count, that is a measure of unemployment that includes those receiving benefits. However there are lot of difficulties with measuring unemployment such as whom to consider as unemployed because some people are actively seeking for a job but don’t get benefits; others live on Job Seekers Allowance but aren’t interested in finding job. 

Supply – side policies.

If monetary and fiscal policies are aimed to influence on demand, supply side policies are long run and aimed to increase aggregate supply. The main target of supply side policies is to increase potential output and achieve major economic objectives. 
Some supply side policies are designed to reduce government intervention in free market mechanism such as privatization or deregulation, where the former is to reduce government influence in market and increase competition between firms by transferring assets from public sector to private; the latter means removing rules and regulations that limit firms in free market. Deregulation can help increase competitiveness, increase efficiency and productivity. 
Other policies mean increase in government intervention in order to stabilize economic activity and correct market failure. They include education/training, encouraging infant industries, reduction in taxes and other benefits… if they are well thought they can all lead to an increase in capacity and move long run supply curve outwards. However all these policies might cost a lot of money for government.

Monetary policy

Monetary policies include Central Bank/government decisions on the rate of interest, the money supply and exchange rate. Monetary policies as fiscal can be two types: reflationary and deflationary. So both these policies are aimed to influence AD and its components. If government is seeking to increase AD, it is more likely to cut interest rates, because with low rates of interest, people will save less and so their marginal propensity to consume will increase, this will lead to an increase in a component of AD. Also low interest rates mean that it is cheaper to firms to borrow money and invest and so Investment is also might increase. With low interest rates foreign investors will not be interested in investing into the country because returns will be small and thereby this will make national currency less competitive and will lead to a fall in the exchange rates. With lower exchange rates exports will become more competitive and another component of AD might increase, while Imports will decrease because they become more expensive.
So, as we can see, monetary policies might influence all the components of aggregate demand and stabilize balance of payments by lowering or raising exchange rates. Another type of monetary policy is changes in money supply. By printing more money, government might make AD to rise, because people will have more money to spend. 

In the UK there is Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England which sets base rates with the main objective of achieving government’s target annual rate of inflation of 2%

Fiscal policy

Fiscal policy is a policy connected with government spending and taxation decisions. By using fiscal policies, government influence aggregate demand. It can raise AD by reducing income taxes, for example, and increasing government spending. AD consists of different components, such as Investment, Government spending, consumption and trade balance. If government decided to reduce corporation tax and thereby increase firms’ profit, it can affect Investment, because more firms would be able to invest. If government reduces income tax, disposable income of people will increase and this will lead to an increase in AD because of another component. Government might increase it’s spending on capital goods or public, create more workplaces and so, unemployment rates will go down and this injection is likely to have multiplier effect, causing AD to rise. 

But not all the policies are created to increase an AD, which is known as reflationary policy, sometimes government might decide to reduce AD in order not to have high inflation rates and reduce consumption of demerit goods. This policy is known as deflationary. By increasing taxes or reducing government spending government might achieve this objective.

There are two rules in the UK which government introduced by itself and has to follow them. One of them is ‘golden rule’ which states that government might borrow only for investment purposes. And so this borrowing in the future will be cancelled out by government surpluses arising from investment. Another rule is ‘sustainable investment rule’ according to which government borrowing should never exceed 40% of GDP. These are self-imposed rules however government shouldn’t break them because following them will give international markets confidence about the UK’s market.

labeling theory

Labeling theory which is also known as theory of social interaction was developed by sociologist Howard Becker. According to this theory, we can see changes in behavior and self-identity of the human influenced by the terms used to describe them by others. It was widely used in explaining criminals’ behavior; however this concept is suitable for pupils. Teachers usually are tend to classify their students more by subjective opinion rather than objective. There is a tendency that they label students from middle-class as bright and optimistic and so pupils from working-class as less able, lacking motivation and difficult to control. And usually these labels accompany students for a long time even if they don’t want it. This is because of concepts of self-fulfiling prophecy and stereotyping. Self-fulfiling prophecy is a “prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true”. The concept of self-fulfiling prophecy was developed by Rosenthal and Jacobson when they showed in an example how this concept works: “They selected a random sample of 20 per cent of the student population and informed the teachers that these children could be expected to show rapid intellectual growth. They tested all pupils for IQ at the beginning of the experiment. After the year the children were re-tested and, in general, the sample population showed greater gains in IQ. In addition, report cards indicated that teachers believed that this group had made greater advances in reading skills.”
This example shows us how teachers’ relation and expectations can influence mind and future of the pupil. 

Stereotyping another important concept, according to which one who gets a label usually will be associated with this label and so if he was labeled as lacking motivation and with ‘laddish’ behavior, it would be very difficult for him to change people’s mind about him and more likely that he would continue to behave in a way he was labeled. However there are many exceptions and Margaret Fuller in her research tried to show that it is not always when students behave according to their labels: “In a study of a group of black girls in a London comprehensive school the girls resented the negative stereotypes associated with being both female and black. They felt that many people expected them to fail, but far from living up to their expectations they tried to prove them wrong. The girls devoted themselves to school work in order to try to ensure their success.”

Also labeling theory is strongly connected with streaming and setting. If somebody passed a test and was set to an ability group which is considered to be the brightest one, it usually will affect his progress. One of the researchers who were evaluating this idea was Nell Keddie. She as Becker argued that in schools there is a tendency of creating an image of ‘ideal pupil’ to pupils from middle-class: “Teachers perceived students from non-manual backgrounds as closest to this ideal; those from lower working-class origins as farthest from it.”
So as we can see, teachers have a big power in influencing on educational process of their students. And all these examples show that inequalities start already from school, when students with ‘low abilities’ from working class families deny schools and studying which are essential for educational future and their career..