tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8821732666331487842024-03-05T17:25:59.313+00:00This is my blog!!!!!!!!!!“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”Buddha.
Welcome to my blog!!!!Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-50116031623076876612010-01-07T21:42:00.001+00:002010-01-07T21:46:22.897+00:00WITH REFERENCE TO DATA, EXPLAIN HOW AND WHY ECONOMISTS MAKE FORECASTS OF TRANSPORT DEMAND.Forecast is a future estimate usually based on past information. It is important to make predictions about the demand for transport since transport plays very important role in economic growth. It can be assessed in terms of usefulness of transport in providing services for people and connecting different steps in the supply chain. Economists make forecasts of demand for transport in order to predict how much the provision of transport services is needed and this is sometimes called ‘predict and provide’ approach. Another reason of making forecasts is to know in which parts of roads there will be the highest amount of cars and the biggest congestions might occur. This will help government in taking measures to reduce these congestions before they occur.<br />In the UK, for example, it was <a href="http://tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/transport/transport_trends.htm">forecasted</a> that by the year 2010 road congestion will increase by 65%, while motorway congestion by 268%. By introducing 25 years plan ‘The Future of Transport’ government is considering to increase the capacity of roads and by reduce congestion.<br />Also forecast of transport demand can show the effectiveness of introduction of transport policies at both national and local levels. In order to make these forecasts economists have to gather and analyze past statistics of demand and also make other assumptions of population growth, GDP growth, fuel prices and the amount of license holders. For freight transport industrial output and import of goods have also to be assumed.<br />However, as forecasts are based on past info, they might not reflect the real picture of situation and lead to market and government failure.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-28351921054717944552010-01-07T15:14:00.001+00:002010-01-07T15:14:34.561+00:00OUTLINE THE MAIN SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTY IN TRANSPORT FORECASTS AND EVALUATE THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT TO THE ECONOMY.Transport is a movement of people and goods for personal and business reasons. It is widely recognized as central to economic growth. It provides an immediate service to a wide range of productive activities in almost all economic sectors. Since demand for transport is derived demand because it depends upon the final output, that is the destination that people need to get to, it will depend upon people’s aims of travelling.<br />In the modern world most of the activities of people involve the use of transport and, everyday millions of people use cars, buses, trains to get to work, go to holidays, etc.<br />Many people usually live far away from the place where they work and therefore they have to use transport every day. And what government has to concern about is how to make easier and faster for people to get to their work. Since private transport is considered to be the most convenient mean of transport, many people use their cars every day to travel to work. When the amount of cars exceeds the capacity of roads, congestions might appear which create a big negative external effect and lead to a reduction in productivity, wasting time of people, which they could use to do some work, and environmental pollution. So there are many measures are being taken in order to reduce this impact by promoting other modes of transport such as buses or trains. <br />Changes in costs of the use of some modes of transport also play a big role in the economy of the country because if these costs increase, for example, people might decide to save more and reduce consumption in order to be able to afford to use buses everyday to get to work. Also since transport sector accounts for a substantial proportion of employment, it affects the employment levels of the country. <br />Another sector of economy – government spending is also hugely affected by transport because by introducing different policies, investments and promoting substantial types of transport government increases its spending and so other sectors of the economy might suffer from underinvestment. In such cases when government can’t raise sufficient funds, Private Financial Initiative is being introduced which includes using money from private and public sector with contractual agreement.<br />Freight transport also has a big impact on the economy because the whole supply chain includes transporting goods from one place to another and so without an integrated and efficient transport, the whole production of services and goods might suffer. Example of congestions also might be suitable here because if goods are moved by truck, congestion might delay delivery of goods to customers or some perishable goods might go off and so companies will make losses.<br />So as we can see transport plays important role in the economy and increases the welfare of people by providing them access to social facilities.<br />When economists make forecasts about the demand and supply of transport there might some uncertainties appear such as economic and political shock which has a huge impact on the demand for transport and can’t be predicted sometimes. Also the growth of population difficult to predict and so economists are not sure how many people will get driving licenses. When government introduces transport policies it can’t know for sure how this policy will affect the demand for transport and whether it will change or not.<br />Also it difficult to predict how income will change and how this change will affect the demand for certain types of transport.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-22370443168257251562010-01-07T09:06:00.000+00:002010-01-07T09:07:25.488+00:00EXPLAIN HOW THE CONCEPT OF ELASTICITY OF DEMAND IS USED IN TRANSPORT.Elasticity of demand is the responsiveness of a quantity demanded to a price/income/price of another good change. This concept is hugely used for business purposes and it plays very important role in determining the demand for transport. Transport is a movement of people and goods for personal and business reasons. Now in the UK most of the transport modes are owned by the private sector and firms who own these modes, that is means of transport, use elasticity as one of the most influential concepts when forecasting demand. Firstly, if we look at price elasticity of demand, that is the responsiveness of a quantity demanded to a price change, even if it an estimate and may not reflect the true picture of a situation, it can show whether this or another mean of transport is normal good and demand is elastic or inelastic. If it elastic, for example, as in case of air travel, businesses have to be careful with changing prices and can be sure that with lowering prices they might be able to increase their market share. Low cost airlines in the UK such as EasyJet or Ryanair are good examples of this situation, when they by introducing very low prices in comparison to big and established companies, such as British Airways, could increase their market share and outrun BA in the amount of flights per year. However, in case of private cars, which have relatively inelastic demand, increase in taxes or fuel might not have such a huge effect since private car owners see obvious advantages to travel by car in some cases. But as private cars are considered to be unsustainable mode of transport, government is taking different measures in order to make drivers switch to ‘greener transport’ by making it more integrated, improving the quality of services.<br />Another type of elasticity of demand – income, which shows how change in income affects demand, also widely used in transport, because by knowing that decrease in income will reduce demand for long haul airtravel, businesses might decide to increase provision for short-haul flights. However, again Income Elasticity of Demand is just an estimate so it might not show correct figure and if businesses will heavily rely on it, they might make wrong decisions and end with market failure.<br />Cross Elasticity of Demand is another concept of elasticity which shows how change in price for product A will affect the quantity demanded for product B. There are substitute goods that are competing goods and complements which have joint demand. In case of transport, substitutes might be just two different providers of services such as Oxford Bus Services, for example, and Stagecoach. By analyzing the income elasticity of demand they might see whether increase in ticket fares of one provider will lead to a huge decrease in demand for another or whether this change will be insignificant, which will allow to consider that this Bus Company has bigger market share and more successful in the market.<br />In case of complements, which might be train and bus which provides a service in the nodes of traveling by train, increase in prices for train fares might lead to a decrease in demand for them and therefore less people will demand this bus service. So businesses will be able to know how big effect the change in the price for train has on change in demand for bus.<br />So, as we can see elasticity of demand plays very important role in transport by helping businesses be aware of the situation in the market and take measures according to it.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-86168389910511027742009-10-13T08:16:00.004+01:002009-10-13T08:18:09.117+01:00Such 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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />As you can see from the graph below there wasn’t any market failure before the line started to diverge.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391980193584530354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1E-KbbNEBp6s_ckhT9_Lb-CWpUgbVtoScJ8xe6oKDk4Km2SNr-HZJm4Pvfy0YhyqByjsMJd9zXvyCSKBduijNV-b29EGaFSpK0jYt87WaDrChR38VyiwRUn71mMPOpvoQLJ_SPjmlMc/s400/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BC%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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)Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-26201061810189565612009-10-01T22:21:00.000+01:002009-10-01T22:22:07.802+01:00something 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.<br />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.<br />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".<br /> 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.<br />Also Tfl will have to continue to seek reductions in costs of improving infrastructure and remain efficient and useful.<br />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.<br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-48885484206423423852009-09-20T17:17:00.000+01:002009-09-20T17:26:10.122+01:00High Speed Rails.High speed rail is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail">kind of transport</a> 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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-35171941623300905142009-06-08T15:16:00.000+01:002009-06-08T15:18:32.461+01:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutw1IZ6F_OSa1HgByk7c8Cz-vbFT5X9dUB7Qc_qK65XZF3hREPRim82Ryb9FTRkpbtDMSWz5gmn2Uv4vbe3QnXI0v6k6HMd-r3gU0wL1iyzpZlSlhoTCjlfVuJ6xBA0oDR3YuCs0FcfE/s1600-h/IMG_7357.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344960944044493026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutw1IZ6F_OSa1HgByk7c8Cz-vbFT5X9dUB7Qc_qK65XZF3hREPRim82Ryb9FTRkpbtDMSWz5gmn2Uv4vbe3QnXI0v6k6HMd-r3gU0wL1iyzpZlSlhoTCjlfVuJ6xBA0oDR3YuCs0FcfE/s400/IMG_7357.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ADByOT7ysn5XEWoAsdDlg-Kbr9t5lR8_KqhKhvPVkfgvKirSPpVA9Fwg5UCD3T9uBrAFHi7VXtRZaJZERupyrX4VYmvSxMwvQ8Ica3WFyVBK545uLx70U9hljzR0_uB3mPueaGDy0yU/s1600-h/IMG_7361.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344960937598506802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ADByOT7ysn5XEWoAsdDlg-Kbr9t5lR8_KqhKhvPVkfgvKirSPpVA9Fwg5UCD3T9uBrAFHi7VXtRZaJZERupyrX4VYmvSxMwvQ8Ica3WFyVBK545uLx70U9hljzR0_uB3mPueaGDy0yU/s400/IMG_7361.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div></div></div>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-83451978547991883442009-06-04T10:35:00.001+01:002009-06-04T10:37:04.846+01:00Thank you very much Chris for the knowledge you gave me this year and for everything else =)Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-29111354480621922852009-06-02T20:09:00.002+01:002009-06-02T20:13:03.913+01:00=)))<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAk9TOYJBSXQ007ZREd5u7kVMJS1qY7wdhHc0WNIvqo8_sAl1m69ObABOXk5kNNkMZqqmCfssyPt6Mz0DTbeMKOT3tV3s__s2d4WvvTFj7MjyCapILjogJXKUxw8Le8RzrW76shKZUHQ/s1600-h/DSC00383.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342809875758455330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAk9TOYJBSXQ007ZREd5u7kVMJS1qY7wdhHc0WNIvqo8_sAl1m69ObABOXk5kNNkMZqqmCfssyPt6Mz0DTbeMKOT3tV3s__s2d4WvvTFj7MjyCapILjogJXKUxw8Le8RzrW76shKZUHQ/s400/DSC00383.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54JEOQ2E0jHd5GyVctkr9jTfgR5EE4hrLLxk95o4hSnxXIHmHGL9DDPTolnHlTsKj_NwOV3tRsAv-yDfksY8qtMnTRI_URXfXNzCwsztFv0f3cXFLfRIw9YNpEWOR_8AacMDh7XVRXdw/s1600-h/DSC00387.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342809871330365394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54JEOQ2E0jHd5GyVctkr9jTfgR5EE4hrLLxk95o4hSnxXIHmHGL9DDPTolnHlTsKj_NwOV3tRsAv-yDfksY8qtMnTRI_URXfXNzCwsztFv0f3cXFLfRIw9YNpEWOR_8AacMDh7XVRXdw/s400/DSC00387.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div></div></div>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-53917056806964482382009-05-16T11:04:00.002+01:002009-05-16T11:12:10.884+01:00mock exam(will continue later)1.(a)Explain what is meant by material deprivation.<br />Material deprivation is lack of money and things that money can buy.<br />(b)Suggest three reasons why girls and boys often choose different subjects to study.<br />-Parental expectations – because parents might encourage boys to choose subjects that are more suitable for them in their opinion such as science<br />-Role models – girls and boys choose subjects according to their parents’ choice<br />-Stereotyping- because of traditional division of subjects into categories for boys and girls<br />-Career opportunities- it can be easier for boys to find a job in science, business<br />(c)Outline some of the current education policies that affect the achievement of social classes<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />(d)Asses the view that ethnic differences in achievement are primarily the result of home backgrounds.<br />Hmm, we wrote about that last lesson.<br /><br />2. Asses the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for the study of teachers’ attitudes.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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<br />Oh, I will continue later. I don’t know why but it is really hard to think now(Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-30009753807368750942009-05-15T13:49:00.000+01:002009-05-15T13:50:37.160+01:00Why 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.<br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-10561450916282389002009-05-15T13:48:00.000+01:002009-05-15T13:49:35.610+01:00Official StatisticsSecondary data refers to the data that are already exists. This might include historical documents, autobiographies, photos, novells, statistics.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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. <br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-25980152746130180182009-05-15T13:46:00.000+01:002009-05-15T13:48:08.034+01:00Pupilsa) 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,<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-50157188941499810692009-05-04T19:27:00.002+01:002009-05-04T20:14:40.855+01:00more sociologyPoliticians about the Family.Some quotations which might be useful when writing essays. (Can’t remember from where I quoted them)<br /><br />LABOR PARTY.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /> - “Marriage is the "healthiest environment" for the family.” – report Supporting Families<br /><br />The report comes as Home Secretary <strong>JACK STRAW</strong> 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.<br /> - 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.<br /> - Married couples should get better tax-breaks and child allowances.<br /><br /><br />CONSERVATIVE PARTY<br /><br /><strong>DAVID CAMERON</strong> insisted the modern Conservative party was the party of all families – single parents, divorced parents, widows – and it would be supporting all of them.<br />So a Conservative Government will give families the support, flexibility and financial help they need.<br /><em>Financial help:</em><br /> - 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<br /><em>Flexibility:</em><br /> - We will introduce a new system of flexible parental leave which gives mothers and fathers 12 months' leave to split between them<br /> - 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<br /><br />As we can see, both parties are for traditional nuclear family.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-11181900898679014322009-05-03T11:49:00.000+01:002009-05-03T11:50:21.965+01:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZtfi9vpKTLaku80KPwoYSmDkxV3tvaJ7M7oJi3t4RAMWn-iK6dGywW1JkYOIjcfzmMm2xpfQEwUZwvUI2F_Nj9rhyphenhyphen7Attx_vq1BshrNrIOeQNeOadFl0c_rSVWlgmv738s0PqG52a2I/s1600-h/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BC%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331548226042462594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZtfi9vpKTLaku80KPwoYSmDkxV3tvaJ7M7oJi3t4RAMWn-iK6dGywW1JkYOIjcfzmMm2xpfQEwUZwvUI2F_Nj9rhyphenhyphen7Attx_vq1BshrNrIOeQNeOadFl0c_rSVWlgmv738s0PqG52a2I/s400/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BC%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-32375488375183989082009-05-02T23:10:00.004+01:002009-05-02T23:26:59.677+01:00Sociology. some important laws and organisations.<span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child. (UNCR)</span></strong><br /></span>From 15 January 1992, when the treaty came into force, every child in the UK has been entitled to over 40 specific rights.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>The Children Act 1989.</strong> Welfare rights of children<br /><br /><strong>Children support agency<br /></strong>“Our role is to make sure that parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep by paying child maintenance.”<br /><br /><strong>Women's Aid</strong> 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.<br /><br /><strong>Refuge's network</strong> provides emergency accommodation for women and children when they are most in need. -- Financial guide for women experiencing domestic violence.<br /><br /><strong>The new Adoption and Children Act 2002, in force from 30 December 2005.</strong><br />Improvements in adoption services. Unmarried couples may now apply<br />to adopt jointly, for example, making sure that any child they adopt will have<br />two full legal parents.<br /><br /><strong>The Civil Partnership Act - December 2005.</strong> The act grants same sex couples identical rights and responsibilities with heterosexual couples<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>The Divorce Reform Act 1969( since 1971).</strong> Don’t have to prove guilty of a partner and have to be married at least three years in order to get divorced.<br /><br /><strong></strong><strong>The Family Law Act 1996.</strong> A one year waiting period before a couple can get divorced<br /><br /><br />Links used:<br /><a href="http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/family.htm">http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/family.htm</a><br /><a href="http://www.womensaid.org.uk/">http://www.womensaid.org.uk/</a><br /><a href="http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/about/index.asp">http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/about/index.asp</a><br /><a href="http://www.refuge.org.uk/homepage.html">http://www.refuge.org.uk/homepage.html</a><a href="http://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=000100010019&sectionTitle=About+us"></a>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-21365090896365214882009-04-28T23:51:00.001+01:002009-04-28T23:59:42.280+01:00sociologysome points about feminists:<br /><br />(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.<br />Benston 1969: If housework was paid even at minimum wage, it would damage capitalists profits hugely<br />Ansley 1972: men take out their frustration and stress from work to women<br />(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<br />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 regulationsElvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-71330170451070877932009-04-27T18:29:00.002+01:002009-04-27T18:36:52.043+01:00<strong>Describe two benefits of economic growth.</strong><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br /><strong>Comment on the effectiveness of one supply side policy in promoting economic growth.<br /></strong>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.<br /><br /><strong>Discuss the benefits of a fall in the rate of inflation<br /></strong>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.<br />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.<br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-19917780896196741212009-04-26T10:01:00.002+01:002009-04-26T10:01:55.836+01:00Is 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).<br />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).Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-69007630989721487922009-04-26T00:59:00.001+01:002009-04-26T01:01:18.991+01:00Monetarists and Keynesians about inflation.<strong></strong><br /><strong>Monetarists’</strong> 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.<br />While <strong>Keynesians</strong> 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 <a href="http://www.interzone.com/~cheung/SUM.dir/econthyk1.html">Keynesian economists </a>accept some deflationary fiscal policies:<br /> * Reducing the level of government expenditure<br /> * Increasing taxation (either direct or indirect) to<br /> discourage spending<br /> * Increasing interest rates to discourage saving<br /> * Reducing money supply growthElvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-40702062041610979022009-04-26T00:07:00.001+01:002009-04-26T00:09:42.649+01:00Discuss the effectiveness of the use of monetary policy to deal with the inflation<div><br />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.<br />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.</div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328769942940290498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 353px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyf0jtvAjIeGKl00lT3vwa1unl-88danSozLN6iGkaxvAx7QnUriwhpcior6LTRyHD5IiL8Q_J3sSHLjYEpftgW2wM9jChTaIrNLHUw-yxUPm0SJo7Jm3ue1vz127SoDWVjMrqqD0Rhk/s400/lr-economic-growth_1.jpg" border="0" /></div>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-57088616772309902272009-04-21T20:18:00.005+01:002009-04-21T21:05:14.511+01:00Aggregate 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.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327227871699263586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 334px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyroZjHCWSJbaBRdx_hu7Gk-DKLSkVljaqE8dK3SCDisU4LXzTZp5zdg89hq1SjwtQU1r33PMsohjfVnUO7Q1qkvMY1kwmmz43A6_nBeM1QyxGBVIhwxx99rQBgrN-u2QMwojenVITMPc/s400/first.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><div>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.<br />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. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327228186450178402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-8M2o01wUsgKIg_4EGx-cZe1NAe_I4M0buYKmmfsb1lamTCPPRCFXMIuVRgCJPxBMixl1roFLuMaDplXXLagAneni_ang9p5w4PNPElEtovYhnhbgaia8yT-tvOuis66-3p9hfvx3oA/s400/second.jpg" border="0" /></div>Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-26168581022299847882009-04-18T10:16:00.002+01:002009-04-18T10:16:54.868+01:00Examine 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. <br />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.<br />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.<br /> 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.<br /> 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.<br />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).<br />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.<br />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.<br />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. <br />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.Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-22781907117642684412009-04-17T23:52:00.001+01:002009-04-17T23:53:54.912+01:00China EffectChina 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 <a href="http://www.rense.com/general79/chna.htm">top producer </a>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<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2811718/As-China-effect-reverses-inflation-threatens.html"> Saunders</a>, 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.<br />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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/evandavis/2007/04/is_the_china_effect_over.html"> always </a>“and the exchange rate provides just temporary shelter against import price rises.”Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882173266633148784.post-13003028309656527512009-04-17T23:12:00.001+01:002009-04-17T23:13:06.948+01:00Examine 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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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).Elvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782148837079760316noreply@blogger.com0