This is my blog!!!!!!!!!!

WITH REFERENCE TO DATA, EXPLAIN HOW AND WHY ECONOMISTS MAKE FORECASTS OF TRANSPORT DEMAND.

2010-01-07T21:42:00.001Z

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.
In the UK, for example, it was forecasted 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.
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.
However, as forecasts are based on past info, they might not reflect the real picture of situation and lead to market and government failure.

OUTLINE THE MAIN SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTY IN TRANSPORT FORECASTS AND EVALUATE THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT TO THE ECONOMY.

2010-01-07T15:14:00.001Z

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also it difficult to predict how income will change and how this change will affect the demand for certain types of transport.

EXPLAIN HOW THE CONCEPT OF ELASTICITY OF DEMAND IS USED IN TRANSPORT.

2010-01-07T09:06:00.000Z

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

2009-10-13T08:16:00.004+01:00

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 =)))

2009-10-01T22:21:00.000+01:00

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.

2009-09-20T17:17:00.000+01:00

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.

2009-06-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

2009-06-04T10:35:00.001+01:00

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

=)))

2009-06-02T20:09:00.002+01:00

mock exam(will continue later)

2009-05-16T11:04:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-05-15T13:49:00.000+01:00

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

2009-05-15T13:48:00.000+01:00

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

2009-05-15T13:46:00.000+01:00

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

2009-05-04T19:27:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-05-03T11:49:00.000+01:00

Sociology. some important laws and organisations.

2009-05-02T23:10:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-28T23:51:00.001+01:00

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

2009-04-27T18:29:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-04-26T10:01:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-04-26T00:59:00.001+01:00

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

2009-04-26T00:07:00.001+01:00

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.

2009-04-21T20:18:00.005+01:00

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.

2009-04-18T10:16:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-17T23:52:00.001+01:00

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.

2009-04-17T23:12:00.001+01:00

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

2009-04-17T22:15:00.001+01:00

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.

2009-04-09T15:52:00.001+01:00

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

2009-04-06T20:24:00.004+01:00

(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

2009-04-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

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

2009-04-05T15:40:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-01T19:16:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-01T13:51:00.001+01:00

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)

2009-03-26T20:10:00.002Z

2009-03-26T06:52:00.001Z

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.

2009-03-25T21:03:00.001Z

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:)

2009-03-23T14:45:00.004Z

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

2009-03-22T21:07:00.001Z

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.

2009-03-22T20:26:00.002Z

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.

2009-03-21T14:29:00.002Z

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

2009-03-17T20:30:00.002Z

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.

2009-03-15T22:17:00.003Z

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

2009-03-15T18:31:00.005Z

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.

2009-03-15T18:31:00.002Z

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

2009-03-13T18:50:00.001Z

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

2009-03-13T06:42:00.001Z

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

2009-03-12T22:51:00.000Z

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..

The tripartite system

2009-03-11T21:24:00.000Z

The tripartite system was introduced by The 1944 Education Act. This Act was aimed to give everybody equal chance. But after evaluating the effectiveness of this act, it was strongly criticized. All pupils at the age 11 had to pass a national test; according to its results, pupils were being allocated into three different types of secondary school. First type was grammar schools which was considered to be the most prestigious and aimed to the brightest students. Second type is technical school which “provided a general education with special emphasis on technical subjects.” And the most popular school was secondary modern for mostly working class students. As we can see there weren’t equal opportunities for everyone. Also it became clear that it is impossible to say about person’s educational future at the age of 11, as he is too small and his attainment might change over time. And if somebody, for example, was located into the secondary modern school, he had fewer opportunities to get a well paid job and achieve more than others even if he had abilities.

2009-03-11T20:16:00.000Z

There are two forms of data which is used bi sociologists in evaluating educational or any other systems: qualitative and quantitative.
Quantitative data is a data in the forms of numbers. It is widely used by researches because it enables them to give the whole picture of the situation in any section and prove their point of view by using some statistics or facts. Another way of using the quantitative data is comparing and measuring relations between different factors affecting education. If, for example we are given ages and time spent on doing homework of the group of people we can conclude which age group spend most of their time on doing homework and which the least. There are many examples of quantitative data.
Another type of data is qualitative which refers to all other types of data excluding numbers. It gives richer and clearer image of the situation. Qualitative data has different types. It includes: data from direct observations, interviews, photos and videos, written documents. By examining this data’s resources we will provide not only the whole picture of social life, but also will give variable sources of information.

There are two methods of making a research: positivism and interpretivism. Both these methods are suitable for evaluating educational system and explaining some inconsistencies.
Interpretivists believe that to understand and explain behavior of people and to have clearer picture of them it is necessary to study the way they think, their ideas. For these researches the most factual and significant type of data is qualitative. Participant observation, that is observation which involves researchers in participating in activities of those who are being observed. Interviews are also very useful kind of data as it gives an opportunity to talk to people about their norms, behavior as they see it.
While positivists believe that the most significant data is quantitative. Use of statistics, comparisons explaining the behavior of people who were being observed, easier as we make a comparisons and state facts about the past to prove our point of view. Questionnaires are very useful way of interpreting data and explain human behavior.

The official statistics are the data which is produced by national and local governments. Official statistics provide a wide range of quantitative data, however researchers before using these statistics should know how the statistics are constructed, which surveys they are based on. And if statistics don’t say about their sources of data, researchers might make wrong conclusion of their research. Another limitation of official statistics is that as they are constructed by government, so the government must provide data according to its political purpose and priorities. However there are many advantages of Official Statistics, such as they are well planned and organized and usually take into account different types of data; also they are up to dated and so it gives to researchers opportunities to make comparisons: for example, comparing exam results in the school this year and last year.

Paul Willis ‘Profane culture’

2009-03-07T22:08:00.000Z

Willis’s research is based on evaluating two different minority cultures: the motor-bike boys and hippies in early 1960. Even if the research has made long time ago, these cultures are still appear but in other forms.
“Both cultures reproduced –even creatively-the weaknesses, brutality and limitations of their own structural locations and parent class cultures”. Of course, both these cultures were excluded from the society and created their own rules, norms and values. The main difference were in their locating parent cultures. The motor bike boys were mostly from working class families, while hippies from middle class. Another difference is that motor bike boys didn’t create their cultures despite hippies wanted to be excluded and so they did that.
Motor bike boys are those who accept masculinity and relied on the strength. They ignored all the rules and norms by creating their own. ”Their appearance was aggressively masculine. They did not make demands, or pioneer changes there for more humanized systems of work – or even see any connections between technology in their leisure and the most massive application of technology of all: machinery in work.” Hippies behaved in another way, they had more cultural capital and accepted rules of the society. However: “Hippies did indeed reject existing attitudes and practices: they did not work. But even here there was no attack on the basis of work (as motor bike boys did). The culture privately maintained its own rhythms and sense of time which constituted a profound exposure and criticism of industrial time.” This gave an opportunity for hippy to spread their culture faster and have an influence on the society. The culture had a real purpose of its appearance.

If we look at the world nowadays, almost every society has their own ‘motor bike boys’ but in new appearance. Their tastes, living styles, preferences, views have changed but the whole idea hasn’t. Still there are ‘lads’ reject hidden curriculum and creates new generation of working class, while ‘hippies’ seem to be disappeared as their main points of view were based on rejection industrial society and in some cases supporting capitalists:"You look for a Hippie today where are they? They are living in nice apartments and houses, or dead of drug overdoses, with flat screen TV’s and fancy stereos. They still read the writings of Karl Marx and will usually be at the rallies for liberal politicians, or protesting conservative politicians."

However, macho lads now have more risk than they used because of a big reduction in masculinity work, so it is difficult to forecast what cultures we will have in future.

(source:Paul willis, Profane culture, issued by Routledge & Kegan Paul)

about racism

2009-03-07T21:47:00.000Z

Every society has a problem of racism and it will never be wiped out completely as soon as there will be different races. There are might occur many types of racism, but still the meaning will be the same: discrimination, abusive/aggressive behavior towards the person of another race. Almost every social group might experience racism: teachers, students, workers, etc.
Racism in schools is widespread and only among students but also in relations teacher and student. Even if a teacher tries to treat all the students fairly and in the same way, discrimination occurs. Usually racism is seen towards black race and Asians. Young black people, especially boys, considered to be badly behaved and so teachers paid more negative attention to them. One of the reasons of their ‘laddish behavior’, in opinion of Tony Sewell, is that they lack of role models: “One of the major problems is a lack of sympathetic adults, whether they are role models or just sounding boards.”. They didn’t have a good example of a male behavior and so when they grow up they try to show off and by rejecting the curriculum and not paying attention, make themselves look more independently and serious. Another reason is a stereotype. Many teachers are afraid of black students as even if they don’t know the person they already expect laddish behavior from him and so already act negatively towards him by not giving him a chance to show his abilities: "The boys complain that there is very little discipline because teachers seem afraid to challenge them. These boys are not in an environment where there are consequences for their actions and we should be asking questions about the lack of ethos, expectations and discipline in some schools." And so this racism will affect his future educational attainment and discourage from working
If we look at the statistics, racism is very strong and unemployment among non-white races is high as a result of not getting higher degrees and low educational achievement in school. Racism might occur from white race because of many reasons: differences in skin, behavior, norms, values or just misunderstanding.

There are some other statistics about black students:
- they are more often subject to ’permanent exclusion’ from school (DfE 1992)
- black students are between four and six times are more likely to be excluded than their white peers (Gillborn and Gipps, 1996)
- African-Caribbean are seen ‘as having “low ability” and potential discipline problems’ (Mac an Ghalil, 1988)

These are examples of stereotyping within the society and it is unlikely that these stereotypes disappear but they might become insignificant. The problem is that the myth of a black challenge is handed down from one generation to another and teachers also transmit this myth by believing in it and trying to find rove for it. For example, ‘some students with family origins in the Caribbean turn their eyes away from teacher’s gaze; it has been argued that this is a cultural trait signifying respect. ’(Driver 1979). However, teachers don’t want to accept others’ values and see this action as a rejection of the authority and all this creates racism.

(Source of statistics: Race and Higher education, Tariq Modood and Tony Acland, issued by Policies Studies Institute)

2009-03-07T21:24:00.000Z

i've found just these two conferences in sociology but they are far away from Oxford =)in Uni of Essex and Sussex

balance of payments. questions

2009-03-06T08:44:00.000Z

633. The current account of the UK balance of payments records
a)Transactions in financial assets such as stock and bonds
b)Trade in goods only
c)Trade in services only
d) Trade in goods and services, investment income and transfers
ANSWER: D
634. An economist might argue that a current account deficit can be consistent with a healthy economy
a)when the economy is not growing so fast -- wrong, because even if an economy is not growing so fast, because there is no connection and with a slow growth in economy there can be both deficit and surplus
b)when the deficit is partly due to a rise in imports of new technology - right, because if there is an import of new technology, it might affect production and productivity in future by increasing capacity utilisation
c)when the deficit is partly due to a rise in standards of living of consumers - wrong, because rise in standards of living of consumers might and so increase in demand of imported goods will mean that there will be no expand in production and productivity in domestic goods and services
d)all of the above - wrong
ANSWER: B
635. Which one of the following would appear as a credit item in the UK balance of payments?
a)the purchase by a French company of a UK insurance business - money coming into the country
b)money sent by UK residents to their relatives overseas - money going out
c)expenditure by the british government in maintaining foreign embassies overseas - money going out
d)the expenditure of Japanese tourists on holiday in Britain - I don’t know
ANSWER: D
636. ANSWER: C
637. Which one of the following is a debit item on the current account of the UK’s balance of payments?
a) foreign tourists choosing to spend money in London whilst on holiday - money spent in country
b)sales of Sky televison programmes to the US - money coming in
c)exports from UK ports transported on UK merchant ships - money coming in
d)the costs of supporting UK armed forces in overseas counties - money going out
ANSWER: D
638. A government may seek to improve the current account of the balance of payments by introducing either expenditure-reducing or expenditure-switching policies. Which of the following expenditure-reducing policy?
a)a rise in income tax- right- reduces expenditure by domestic residents
b)devaluation of the currency - wrong, will not reduce expenditure
c)the introduction of an export subsidy - increase in government expenditure
d)the introduction of an import tariff - expenditure-switching policy
ANSWER: A
639. “Increase in imports causes the UK’s current account deficit to worsen by 4 billion” Which of the following is most likely to have the situation described in the headline? An increase in the UK’s
a)exchange rate - right, with a rise in the exchange rate exports are less competitive and imports prices decrease and so Import volume increasing
b)aggregate supply
c)level f taxation
d)rate of productivity growth
ANSWER: A
640. Which one of the following items would appear as a credit item on the UK balance of payments?
a)the purchase of wine from a French vineyard by a British wine merchant - money going out
b)a group of american tourists flying to Britain using concorde - money not coming into
c)the purchase of UK produced digital cameras by a german company - money coming in
d)the purchase of shares in a british oil company by Japanese investors - private industry
ANSWER: C
641. ANSWER: B

Rhubarb

2009-03-05T13:05:00.000Z

so what is rhubarb?
"A relative of buckwheat, the fruit has an earthy and acerbic flavor. In fact, the acidity of rhubarb is so high that you need sugar, honey or fruit juice to balance it completely.It is native to western China and is usually cultivated in cold climates. Since rhubarb is mainly used for the purpose of making pies, its plant is often known as ‘pie plant’. Though the fruit is also available in fresh form, it is the frozen variety that is more commonly used. In the following lines, we have provided information on the health and nutrition benefits of eating rhubarb.

Studies have shown that rhubarb has anti-cancer properties and might help in cutting down the risk of cancer.
Fresh rhubarb stalk is a very good source of dietary fiber and is beneficial for those suffering from indigestion.
Eating a cold piece of rhubarb stalk can help counterbalance stomach acid and thus, restore health.
Regular consumption of fresh rhubarb has been seen to have a positive effect on lowering of blood pressure.
It is believed that regular intake of rhubarb extract can help in diminishing the problem of hot flashes.
Rhubarb has anti-bacterial properties and when applied topically, can inhibit the problem of staphylococcus aureus.
Researches have suggested that rhubarb can prove to be beneficial for those suffering from high cholesterol.
Rhubarb has been found to have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy properties. "

Poverty and education

2009-03-03T22:16:00.000Z

-Of the 100 schools with the highest proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals in England, only three attained the national average GCSE point score
-Schools in the poorest areas have 10-25 % of pupils achieving 5 GCSE at grade A*-C against national average of 50%
-In 2002, 13% of 18 year olds and 7% of 16 year olds in England and Wales were not in any education, training or employment; 30% of these 16 year olds children had no reported GCSE; one third of them at age 18 were not in paid work, training or education
(Poverty: the Facts, Jan Flaherty, John Veit-Wilson, Paul Dornan, 5th edition)
These statistics are examples of how the poverty influence on educational achievement. Children who live in poverty tend to be culturally and materially deprived, which means that they are lack of motivation, parental encouragement in case of cultural deprivation and lack of money and basic necessities, equipment in case of material deprivation. Research of Jan Flaherty showed that lack of material resources such as space to work, books, computers, money are the key factors in children’s low performance. They get low scores and have very low attainment, this may lead to excluding from schools: “Children, excluded from school are unlikely to return to mainstream education.”(G Palmer, M Rahman, R Kenway, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2002) They are not only educationally disadvantaged but also excluded socially as they don’t participate in different kinds of activities and support trips, excursions because of their financial exclusion.
Usually children who grow up in poor families leave schools at the lowest age to find a job and to get paid, even if they go to schools, they don’t do any homework because of lack of equipment and stressful environment at home. Also research of Jan Flaherty has shown that those children tend to help their parents and protect them from total poverty by doing simple things for others for money or helping somebody.
Research showed that children who grew up in a low income families are more likely to be economically inactive, “have lower self-esteem and have a fatalistic attitude to health” because of financial exclusion of their parents: children start to behave in similar way and they usually have a little knowledge of the role of banks and building societies and they disadvantaged in terms of financial skills as their parents don’t show them an appropriate example of making a profit and earning money.
Also children in poverty tend to have more health problems and so they miss more classes and worse master classes.
“In general, children of poverty are more likely to form lower expectations about their succes at school or work and they in fact turn out to be less successful in achieving higher levels of education or getting jobs or avoiding getting pregnant” (J Ermisch, M Francesconi, D J Pevalin Outcomes for children poverty, Research Report 158, Department for Work and Pension, 2001)

(All the research results of Jan Flaherty are taken from the book: Poverty: the Facts, Jan Flaherty, John Veit-Wilson, Paul Dornan, 5th edition)

IB vs A level

2009-03-01T11:19:00.000Z

“The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme is a challenging two-year curriculum, primarily aimed at students aged 16 to 19. It leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities.” while “AS (Advanced Subsidiary) and A (Advanced) level qualifications focus on traditional study skills. They normally take two years to complete full-time, although they're also available to study part-time.”. So the first difference between them is that A levels are courses and so they can be part time, while IB Diploma is full independent programme which for some advantages increases its popularity last years. One of the reasons of it is that A levels was designed more as a set of single subject examinations, but IB “is
designed to be a full-time course for highly-committed and internationally-minded students, between
the ages of 16 and 18. Its nature is highlighted by the fact that it includes a compulsory element of
what in the A level world are called enrichment activities.” Also there are some features in the curriculum of IB programme such as extended essays where students improve their writing and research skills, CAS programmes when students should participate in activities and share their knowledge with others. IB Diploma offers theory of knowledge which is “central to the educational philosophy of the Diploma Programme.
It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
reflect critically on diverse ways of knowing and on areas of knowledge
consider the role and nature of knowledge in their own culture, in the cultures of others and in the wider world.
In addition, it prompts students to:
be aware of themselves as thinkers, encouraging them to become more acquainted with the complexity of knowledge
recognize the need to act responsibly in an increasingly interconnected but uncertain world.”
It is a stated aim of TOK that students should become aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases, regardless of whether, ultimately, these biases are retained, revised or rejected.
TOK also has an important role to play in providing coherence for the student as it transcends and links academic subject areas, thus demonstrating the ways in which they can apply their knowledge with greater awareness and credibility."
A big advantage of A levels programmes is that students are more sure about their choice and can concentrate on the subject they would like to study in future and still for British Universities A levels is very necessary. But for international Universities it is better to choose IB programme, in my opinion.
IB Programme is much newer than A levels and its increasing popularity might make think us that IB will have better future and as head one of the schools said: "They've become much narrower, atomized and rigid; the IB is much more interesting."

Views on education

2009-02-27T22:58:00.000Z

Social democrats argued that everyone should have an equal chance to succeed in the education system. But as middle class children tend to have higher educational attainment than working classm this suggests that schools don't provide equal opportunity for everyone. As one of the sociologists Halsey concluded after the research that ' relative success and failure in school is determined by the assets or burdens children bring with them, and schooling itself cannot compensate for society the school is a causally less powerful agent than home or community'.

When we talk about liberal education, it means the opposite of specialized education, when students take courses in a wide range of subjects including the major once.As one of the sociologists said liberal education helps find from mass democracy cultured human beings: "Liberal education is the necessary endeavor to found an aristocracy within democratic mass society. Liberal education reminds those members of a mass democracy who have ears to hear, of human greatness."

New Right view based on a findings solutions of educational problem in the society such as state dependency. There is a need of comptetions between school and allowing schools and colleges self management. "Schools face outside pressures from two main sources: the education bureaucracy and the teacher unions..; the weaker these outside pressures, the more effective was school organisation and consequently the greater was student achievement." (Chubb & Moe)

2009-02-24T22:15:00.000Z

Before 70s vocational training had been a responsibility of the employers. If they saw that thier employees are lack of skills they could organise different trainings. But in 70s government started to introduce training schemes for young people and this was called new vocationalism - direct involvement in youth training. New vocationalism establishes close link between education and economy. It gave the opportunity for those who want particular work take vocational qualifications and learn skills. First of all these schools are mostly were specialised and work-based. But them new qualifications allowed young people broader their minds and increase knowledge in different subjects such as art,design etc. Vocational qualifications are tend to be more popular among working class people as they often don't have financial support to continue their study so they start working from youth. But also new vocationalism was criticised for itd disadvantages such as making class inequalities in the education system, young workers already accept being exploitet and get low paid jobs.

Marxist - sociologist Phil Cohen (1984): "the real purpose of "New Vocationalism" is social control. To create good behaviour and discipline rather than training for work. Young people who refuse to take part are "punished" by having benefits withdrawn"

Notes on Sociology

2009-02-24T06:33:00.000Z

So as i wrote already in one of my posts about differences in educational achievement, one of the possible reaons of it is deprivation. Deprivation is a loss, the disadvantage of losing something. There are two types of deprivation: material and cultural and both of them affect educational achievement of pupils. When the pupil is materially deprived this means that he has lack of money and material things that money could buy. High income in the family provides many opportunities for children to have a success in a learning proccesses, as they don't need to care about different problems such as where to find books or necessary equipment, what they will eat. While children in poverty usually have part-time jobs, they tend to leave schools in early ages, they are more stressfull and more likely to have different health problems. Cultural deprivation means an absense of the attitudes and skills that are needed for the educational success. Douglas and Sugarman supported this idea and argued that those who are culturally deprived also is likely to fail in educational process, as their life lacks the kind of stimulation for high attainment. Those at the bottom classes have lack of educational equipment and also their parents are more likely not to encourage their children to succed at school. Because of lack of motivation and different life problems, these pupils fail at school.
Deprivation is an example of how important family life in educational achievement.
Cultural capital, according to Bourdieu, can be seen from the dominant culture which is the culture of those in the highest levels of the class structure which is generally regarded as superior, since it can be converted into material rewards - high salaries, high qualifications, etc.
As educational system reproduces dominant culture, so it helps to reproduce the class system. So by creating educational failure or success, it legitimates position of those who are on the highest levels and those who are at the bottom.

Davis and Moore

2009-02-22T22:43:00.000Z

Fuctionalism on Inequality:

1. Society is an organic system whose various components work together to contribute to the health of the system. Some of the positions within the system, though, are more important than others for the survival of the society.

2. For a society to remain healthy, the most functionally important positions must be filled by the most qualified people. However, the number of people with the talent and/or the training to fill these roles is limited.

3. Individuals must be induced to spend the time, effort, and financial resources that training requires.

4. Consequently, society allocates greater rewards to those positions that are more important and require scarce talents.

5. Inequality is an unconsciously established system through which societies fill the most crucial positions with the most skilled persons.

6. Some degree of inequality is inevitable because it contributes positively to the functioning of societies."

Ivan Illich

2009-02-22T21:05:00.000Z

Ivan illich wrote a number of books which described essential changes in major institutions of the industrial world. One of the books, 'Deschooling society' was devoted as it is shown in its name to deschool society. Schools confuse students and make them feel obedient and undercontrolled. "Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value."

While all pupils are different and should develop their creativity and abilities on subjects they know and can do well.

In Deschooling Society Ivan Illich argued that a good education system should have three purposes: to provide everyone who want to study with all the resources at any time; make it possible for all who want to share knowledge find their own 'pupils'; and to create opportunities for those who want to present an issue to the public to make their arguments known.To have such an educational system it is necessary according to Illich to have four convival webs, which are different educational apprtoaches which give student an opportunity to have a success:

"1. Reference services to educational objects - which facilitate access to things or processes used for formal learning. Some of these things can be reserved for this purpose, stored in libraries, rental agencies, laboratories and showrooms like museums and theatres; others can be in daily use in factories, airports or on farms, but made available to students as apprentices or on off-hours.

2. Skill exchanges - which permit persons to list their skills, the conditions under which they are willing to serve as models for others who want to learn these skills, and the addresses at which they can be reached.

3. Peer-matching - a communications network which permits persons to describe the learning activity in which they wish to engage, in the hope of finding a partner for the inquiry.

4. Reference services to educators-at-large - who can be listed in a directory giving the addresses and self-descriptions of professionals, paraprofessionals and freelances, along with conditions of access to their services. Such educators... could be chosen by polling or consulting their former clients. (Illich 1973a: 81)"

Generally, we can say that Illich suggested new way of education which is non-formal however it was criticised it had a lot of important points which used next generations.

education

2009-02-22T11:23:00.001Z

Paul Willis also argued about the correspondence between school and work but this was not produced by school, pupils – lads, themselves produced this correspondence by rejection of the school. They rejected the school and created their own counter school culture. This rejection prepared them for the low-skilled and low-paid obedient job.

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis said that there is a close correspondence between school and work. This correspondence is necessary for social reproduction – reproduction of new generation of workers who will obey and accept their roles in the society. As many workers work in a job they don’t like, they are motivated only with external benefit – salaries. The same is with young pupils. They don’t get satisfaction with their studies and they are also motivated only with external reward such as educational qualifications and grades. Schools help to spread inequality into the society by broadcasting that schools give everybody an equal chance. And those students who work hard will get the highest job because they do their best and do what they have been told. So they become well behaved obedient subject class.

Glenn Rikowcki argued that Marxists view now is still relevant: "Marxists as it illustrates and illuminates the ways in which employers view, assess and differentiate between potential labour powers. Labour power only becomes an actuality when exercised and materialised within the labour process. In recruitment, employers are forced into considering (to varying degrees and using more or less sophisticated recruitment methods) the extent to which individual labour power as presented in and through the person will attain concrete form through actual labour, both in a quantitative and qualitative sense.”

Education now is increasingly privatized as more and more aspects of educational system is now not free and controlled by privatized industry. He said that in future education will be primarily for the benefit of shareholders and its main function will be to produce profit.

taxation in the UK

2009-02-20T10:32:00.000Z

There are three main types of government spending. Government purchases of goods and services for current use are classed as government consumption. This includes spending on areas such as education, defense, health service. Another type is government purchases of goods and services in order to get future benefits which is called government investement. This area includes building a new factory, or buying new equipment or cost of putting child to school. And the third type of government spending is transfer payments. This covers spending that is not a purchase; for example, Jobseekers Allowance payments or the State Pension.
There are number of ways which cover government spending and one of the most important is taxation. There are many different types of taxes in the UK. And they were established many times ago and it will be not an easy task to change taxes because government can not know the way individual and firms respond to a change in taxation.
There are different taxes which are charged from the UK citizens. One of the most spread is income tax as everyone who employed pay this tax. Income tax is progressive which means that individuals who are earning larger sums of money will pay more tax until they reach the upper band, at which point the percentage of their income remain the same. Progressive tax is considered to be the fairest as it gives possibilities for poor have bigger proportion of their income to spend on their necessities, while rich will have to give larger proportions and this might reduce differences between classes according to their income.
Also there is an excise tax which is an indirect tax imposed on a specific goods such as tobacco, alcohol which considered to be demerit goods as there are many negative externalities arise from them. Indirect taxes are mostly regressive because if government would not count approximate sum of money which will be needed to internalize the external effect arising from consuming these types of goods it will have to spend much more in taking measures with consequences. Corporation Tax means that organisations assume certain related responsibilities.
Now a big proportion of taxes is spent on project to counter the contraction of the economy. According to the statistics now a current budget deficit of £5.9 billion;

net borrowing of £8.1 billion in the UK, which means that government spending is much bigger than taxation revenue. Some could argue that there is a need of fundamental change in taxation and create new types of taxes, others say that there is a need of simplifying taxation system. "A radical simplification of the tax system, together with measures to remove many of the lower-paid from direct tax altogether, would benefit almost everyone." - Mark Wilson

But anyway both these reforms will affect different social classes and if common UK citizens would be happy in reductions of UK’s taxes, it will be only its their first view, because borrowing will increase and unemployment would rise and more time will be needed to maintain economic stability.

Phillips curve

2009-02-19T14:48:00.000Z

Alban Phillips new Zealand born economist in 1958 suggested a relationship between unemployment rate and inflation rate.
He said that there a historical inverse relation between unemployment and inflation. Whenever unemployment is low, inflation tends to be high. Whenever unemployment is high, inflation tends to be low. However the fact showed that there were no steady relations between them though generally he was right. There long run and short run Phillips curve exist. Long run correlation curve is shown as a vertical line and if unemployment at this rate inflation is considered to be stable. Short run curve can move inwards or outwards according to different policies such as monetary which may influence short run curve by decreasing rate of unemployment and increasing inflation. However there is no perfect market in an economy that’s why Phillips curve can not be suitable for every situation.

Brief notes on sociology

2009-02-19T11:06:00.000Z

The French sociologist PierreBourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital..
He starts from the ides that there is a dominant culture in the society which is the culture of those in the higher levels of the class structure which is generally regarded as a superior.He said that those people who dominates in a have its own culture and this culture will be the most important for other classes. According to Bourdieu, the dominant culture can be seen as a cultural capital since it can be converted into material rewards – high status job, high salaries, etc. Cultural capital exists in three distinct forms: in its embodied form, when it means a skill which can not be separated from its ‘bearer’. Also Bourdieu said that some objects may function as a form of cultural capital since their use ‘presupposes a certain amount of embodied capital’. And finally, cultural capital exists in its institutionalized form when it become a real objective value.

Social control is a mechanisms that regulate social behavior. Social control can be in two types: informal and formal. Informal social control means social values and norms in the society which are not written but everyone should follow them. Informal socials control has the main power in traditional and religious societies but anyway in every society there are different norms which individuals will follow in order not to be excluded from the society and be like others. While Formal social control means different restrictions and rules which are regulated in every modern society against deviant behavior. But as all the rules are being broken there are different laws which make people follow these rules and obey them

The hidden curriculum consists of a knowledge and skills which pupils are expected to acquire and norms and values which they should follow. The hidden curriculum isn’t written, it is a messages that teachers transmit to pupils about norms, values, beliefs and hidden curriculum is considered to be an important part of socialization. There are different ways of transmitting the hidden curriculum: through behavior of teachers, headmasters; their reaction on different pupils actions and etc.
There are two main views on hidden curriculum:
o Functionalists: “the hidden curriculum helps to integrate future citizens into society’s by ‘teaching’ and reinforcing them with society’s norms and values in order to establish the value consensus”
o Marxists: “the hidden curriculum is a tool or instrument of the ruling class. Bowles and Ginitis argue it teaches the children to accept their position in society. And to accept the society is unequal and exploitative”

Meritocracy refers to a system where rewards those who showed more talent and abilities rather than wealth, family connections, class privilege, etc. Meritocracy appears among pupils as they all try to compete between each other through different types of competitions and actions.

Hierarchy means that one group of people being placed higher or lower on different types of measuring scale than another group. If we talk about hierarchy we mean social inequality because placing different groups of people higher or lower than another stratifies society. Hierarchy in education means ranking pupils according to their scores and educational achievements. Also hierarchy in educational system means stratification between pupils, teachers, staff and so on. Hierarchy creates norms and values and subordination between groups.

As we know capitalism means ‘a system of production in which the economic institutions are privately owned”. As they are privately owned thereby there will not be equality in the society, because not everyone will have an ability to owe something and as he would have more power set rules to others. Thereby in capitalist society there are two social groups are dominated: rulling class and subject class that is all the workers. School socialize children into becoming obedient workers and follow all the norms and values created by ruling class in order to stabilize and develop capitalist society.

Government policies

2009-02-19T10:56:00.000Z

1) Fiscal policy – the taxation and spending decisions of a government
• Reflationary of policy: measures designed to increase AD
• Deflationary of policy: measures designed to reduce AD
To influence AD government may use:
Disccretionary fiscal policy – deliberate changes in government spending and taxation designed to influence AD
Automatic stabilizers – forms of government spending and taxation that change automatically to offset limitations in economic activity
Types of taxes:
1)progressive tax – that takes a higher percentage of the income of the rich ( income tax)
2) Regressive tax – that takes a greater percentage from the income of the poor ( VAT, excise duty, corporation)

Government spending:
• Capital expenditure (hospitals, schools)
• Current spending (public services)
• Transfer payments (benefits to unemployed, pensioners)
• Debt interest payments ( payment to government debt holders)
2) Monetary policy – central bank/ government decisions on the rate of interest, money supply and exchange rate
3) Supply – side policies – policies designed to increase AS by improving the efficiency of labour and product markets ( E.g. reduction in direct taxes, national minimum wage, reduction in unemployment benefits, privatization, deregulation)
Policies to control Inflation:
- Cost – Push inflation  restrict wage rates, reduce taxes
- Demand-Pull Inflation  deflationary fiscal, monetary
Policies to improve Balance of Payments:
 Exchange rate adjustment
 Deflationary demand management
 Import restrictions
Protectionism:
o Tariffs
o Quotas
o Voluntary Export Restraint – the limit on imports arises from a voluntary agreement between the exporting and importing country
Foreign Exchange Restrictions:
o Embargoes: ban on X or M
o Red Tape

Indicators of economic perfomance and government objectives. Summary

2009-02-18T11:55:00.000Z

Indicators of economic performance:
• Low unemployment
• Inflation
• Balance of payments
• Distribution of income
Objectives of government economic policy:
1) Sustainable economic growth, that is economic growth which can continue over time
2) Full employment
3) Low and stable inflation

GDP
Real GDP which is GDP after adjusted for Inflation equals: Nominal GDP x base year price index / current year price index
Difficulties in interpreting changes in Real GDP:
• Distribution of income
• Purchasing Power Parity
• Home production
• Existence of informal economy
Measuring unemployment
The unemployed x 100% / labour force
Two measures in the UK:
Labour Force Survey – a measure of unemployment based on a survey
Claimant Count- a measure of unemployment that includes those receiving unemployment – related benefits.
Measuring inflation
Consumer Price Index - a measure of changes in the price of a representative basket of consumer goods and services.
How to calculate:
1. Choose a base date
2. Collect price data for that date
3. Calculate the average
4. Express the average for the base date as a number of 100
5. Compare other dates to the base date to make a price index and compare price changes
Difficulties:
- Content of the basket of goods
- Weightening
Retail Price Index – measure of inflation that is used for adjusting pensions and other benefits to take account of changes in inflation and frequently used in wage negotiations
Differences:
- CPI includes housing costs ( mortgage, interests, council tax), foreign students’ fees, stockbrokers charges
- CPI excludes road fund license and TV license
- In CPI weights based on spending by all private households, foreign visitors, while RPI weights based on expenditure by private households only, excluding highest income households, pensioners
Structure of current account of the balance of payments
Trade in goods = visible balance – records earnings from exports, expenditure on imprts
Trade in services = invisible balance – includes all the services
Income - investment income
Transfers – transfer of money made and received by the government and individuals
Causes of unemployment
Cyclical unemployment – arising from a lack of AD
Structural unemployment – caused by the decline of certain industries and occupations due to changes in demand and supply
Frictional unemployment – short term unemployment occurring when workers are in between jobs
Causes of inflation
Demand pull – caused by increase in AD
Cost push – caused by increase in the cost of production
Causes of current account deficit
- Country’s residents spend more on goods and services from abroad than overseas residents spent on the country’s products
- A net outflow of investment
How to reduce deficit:
- Use import controls : tariffs, quotas, administration restrictions
- Devalue currency
- Deflation -> decrease demand for Imports
Consequences of unemployment:
- Lost output
- Lost tax revenue
- Government spending on unemployment benefits
- Pressure on other forms of government spending
- Hysteresis – unemployment causing unemployment
Consequences of inflation:
- Menu costs – costs of changing priced due to inflation
- Shoeleather costs – costs in terms of the extra time and effort involved in reducing money holdings
- Inflationary noise – the distortion of price signals caused by inflation
- Random redistribution of income
- Fiscal drag -> higher taxes
- Administrative costs
- Uncertainty
- Inflation causing inflation

AD and AS and their interaction. Summary

2009-02-18T10:47:00.000Z

Aggregate demand – total demand for a country’s goods and services at a given price level and in a given time period
AD = C + I + G + X – M
Components of AD:
CONSUMER EXPENDITURE. Influences of consumer expenditure:
• Real disposable income
• Wealth
• Consumer confidence and expectations
• The rate of interest
• The age structure of population
• Distribution of income
• Inflation
SAVING. Influences:
• Real disposable income
• The rate of interest
• Confidence and expectations
• Saving schemes
• Range of financial institutions
• Government policies
• The age structure of population
INVESTMENT. Influences:
• Changes if real disposable income
• Expectations
• Capacity utilization
• Current Profit levels
• Corporation tax
• The rate of interest
• Advances in technology
• Price of capital equipment
GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Influences:
• Extent of market failure an ability to correct it
• The level of economic activity
• A desire to please the electorate
• Rising crime
NET EXPORTS (exports – Imports) Influences:
• Real disposable income abroad
• Real disposable income at home
• The domestic price level
• The exchange rate
• Government restrictions on free trade
Aggregate Supply – the total amount that producers in an economy are willing and able to supply at a given price level in a given time period.
Causes of change in AS:
-In short run: change in the cost of production
-In long run: change in the quality and quantity of resources
The circular flow of income
The movement of spending and income throughout the economy.
Additional forms of spending:
1)Leakages ( Taxes, Saving, Imports ) which reduce AD
2) Injections ( Investment, Government Spending, Exports) aimed to increase AD
Multiplier Effect
When people spend money, this expenditure becomes the income for others. Others will also spend some of their income. So there is a knock – on effect with AD rising by more than the initial amount

2009-02-16T10:00:00.000Z

The most common mistakes that teachers make.

Attempting to control a class

Sometimes teachers while explaining new topic or example notice that pupils start loosing their attention and focus on something else rather than listening to the teacher. Some teachers get very nervous and attempt to control the class by shouting or doing something else. They don't understand that even if they l try to do their best if pupils don't find your explanation interesting they wouldn't listen to the teacher. To solve this problem and attract pupils teacher should change the way of speaking and by giving different examples, changing his voice make pupils be interested in the subject

Taking poor behavior personally

As it is known most pupils can’t behave properly and always try to joke with teachers and interrupt them while they think that pupils don’t respect them and don’t appreciate their work. This may lead to a conflict between pupils and teachers. In this situation teacher has to take easily all the jokes and actions of pupils and remember always that pupil is only a child.

Criticizing the person rather than behavior

Teacher’s aim is to teach pupils and socialize them. Teachers usually when trying to bring up the pupil and make him behave properly forget to control their speech and say very personal things about the pupil. They can do that but be very careful and if for example the pupil doesn’t know hot to solve any task or answer the question, teacher mustn’t insult the pupil but just point out on his mistake

Not giving children a second chance

Teachers have to remember that every person makes mistakes and if the pupil made something wrong or wrote any test or exam very bad, the teacher should be understandable and kind and give the pupil the second chance to correct himself and get better results

Making threats

There are some teachers who threaten to their students in order to make them be quieter or get better results in exams. This is a mistake of teachers because by threatening teacher will not make the student listen to him and work harder but it might make student feel unconfident and start not liking classes with that teacher and thereby the subject.

2009-02-15T10:32:00.001Z

It is well known that some people achieve more from education and do better at schools than others. So how can we explain these differences?
If we look at the statistics of the performance in the exams, We can notice that in every ethnicity there is a girls’ domination in achieving better results. This statistics gives a clear example of gender inequality in school achievement. But why girls do better than boys? Even if their levels of attainment are improving, they raising more slowly than girls’. And this doesn’t mean that girls are cleverer than boys, the reason in their Character traits. Girls are tending to be more ambitious and confident. Also nowadays more and more girls are interested in making career and being financially independent, that’s why educational achievements for them is a key point in finding a good job. While boys have more opportunities to find a job in future because still employers in many kinds of work prefer men and here appears obvious gender discrimination.

Another important reason is social status. Pupils from middle and upper class families gain better results than children from working class families. This occurs because of material and cultural deprivation. Material deprivation means that children from working class that they had a lack of money and the things that money could buy, they even sometimes don’t have enough food, that’s why educational process becomes for them not so important. Also these children are cultural deprived which occurs when children because of lack of upbringing and attention from parents don’t have enough skills and attitudes that are needed for educational success. But of course we don’t talk about all the children from working class but in general these problems appear. Also another important problem which affects differences in achievement at school is that working class families are tend to think about future in ‘short run’ that is they think about their present rather than making sacrifices for the future.
As we can see home and family play a very important role on an achievement of pupils. But even from middle and upper class families some children achieve less than working class and this is because of inadequate socialization as more and more parents think more about their career and forget about their children by thinking that giving them enough pocket money will solve all the problems with the child. Those pupils are tend to be more spoilt and think that they don’t need to have good results as their parents will always help them and find a good job without their educational achievements.

Role of education

2009-02-13T06:44:00.000Z

“Education is the learning of knowledge, information and skills during the course of life.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education)
As it was said in the definition above Education is a process of learning, understanding and preparing for social life. But why do we need to be prepared, to learn something? If we look at the statistics, in many developed countries where literacy rate, which means “the number of literate adults expressed as a percentage of the total adult population aged 15 years and above”, we can see that a lot of students find school boring and not interesting place. And so they would rather do something else. But they are just too young to understand all the benefits which studying will give them and the society as a whole.
Every society has its own norms, values and every generation has to accept these rules in order to be a part of this society. And one of the most important functions of education, in my opinion, is preparing young people for adult life with all it’s restrictions and limitations. By studying children not only learn knowledge and basic skills to do something but also know the value consensus which is an agreement about the major values of the society. Education is a part of socialization of children.
It is known that if the literacy rate is high, this country is less likely to have a war and conflicts among people, because they understand better than those who aren’t educated differences in views and accepts other points of view and behave in more solid way.
Another role of the education is that schools, universities help young people understand what they would like to do in their future life and in which sphere their have more talents and abilities. As the majority of students after the school is going to work somewhere, education will direct them into the most appropriate job. It is very important to choose job which will be interesting for you, because this influences your productivity and ability to work. Someone who likes his job will be more productive and happier rather than those who don’t. And this is a benefit not only for youth but for the society as a whole, because with a greater productivity, country can increase it’s wealth and standard of living. But some children don’t study subject they want, and the reason is simply because some families can’t afford university. As in most countries high education isn’t free and it costs
Sometimes a lot it makes a big difficulties for some to continue their educational process.

But if in most developed countries parents understand benefits from the education, in some undeveloped countries people are unaware of importance of the education. As they have problems such as where to find food or needed things they are more interested in earning money in order to survive rather than in their educational status. Parents prefer their children making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education.

As we can see education is a process which is important not only for those who study but the whole society will have a lot of benefits from it.

2009-02-09T22:34:00.001Z

Sunday,25 of January i wrote about primitive societies and their modern counterparts and differences in treating their children. this article was according to Ruth Benedict studies

Perception of Economics

2009-02-09T22:13:00.000Z

In my opinion, Economics is one of the most essential subjects, and its understanding is very important in modern world. Now our life is full of changes and difficulties. And i don't talk only about moral but also problems with wealth. If we look at the current situation, the US in the recession and this affects world prices and if we don't understand economics our life would become more difficult. All these changes affect consumers’ demand in cases that some types of goods which are non-essential, like cars, expensive electronics and etc. may suffer from decrease in demand because of inflation. And perception of Economics would mean that consumers are updated with all the news and may have approximate forecast for the future and so plan their budget. Perception of Economics means for all of us preparing for our future economic situation and be aware of all the changes in economy. And not only consumers get benefits of understanding the economics but Government by introducing new policies don’t need to bother itself by explaining all the possible consequences of its actions and calming down the population, but also it could be possible for the government to manipulate with people’s actions. And as it was said in the article that we were given: “creating a perception of economic wellbeing can materially impact the economy in an indirect sense by influencing consumer and business willingness to spend, therefore potentially reducing the length or depth of a downturn.”

Facebook

2009-02-08T19:50:00.000Z

I think all these different communication services are used by sociologists and psychologists in order to make some kind of research about young generation. There are a lot of problems among youth which are very difficult to understand and explain reasons of, for example, strange behavior or actions. While community sites such as Facebook gives an opportunity to examine young people and look after them. About 100 million people all over the world have their profiles in this site and every day more and more people register there and share their own information about themselves. So what does Facebook make so addictive and why so many people join there so often? In my opinion, this site helps you create your own world and make it smaller. Facebook make it possible to be updated about all the news which happened with your friends, it is a continue of our social interactions and another way of communicating. Also for many people Facebook is the way of making new friends and maintaining relations.
But I think that we should be careful with these sites, because really we don’t know who else can use our information, because it might be another reason of running and creating such services, that’s why when sharing your private information don’t be very open minded and honest.

2009-02-08T13:50:00.000Z

“For women to become equal they not only have to change the laws but also change attitudes and culture, because our culture is still incredibly patriarchal” (Judy Rebick)
And this is true. If we look at the history, patriarchal families started to be widespread since primary agricultural civilizations. In those extended families, which were as a unit of production and had only few functions, males dominated because their aim was one of the most important – to bring food into the family, while females had to do all other works such as feed her family, take care of a big number of children and look after the health of all members of the family. While civilizations were developing, and people created different views on the family, still patriarchal families dominated as women already considered this male domination as a common. And I agree with the remaining family as a patriarchal institution, because males in their nature are stronger and resilient, while women are fragile and tend to rely on a person who is stronger than her. And this structure of the family make feel woman to be responsible for the home comfort and childcare and man to assume the duty of protecting and providing with all the necessities his family. Children who grow in such structured families tend to have the same priorities in their future life and behave in the same way.
Patriarchal structure of the family became a principle of the society and the source of social continuity. But still there were many views which say that female domination in the family might improve relationships and make couples be happier. One of that views was written in Elise Sutton’s book ‘Female Domination’: “Female Domination lifestyle can build a bond of intimacy, defuse arguments, relieve stress, transport sex to a higher level than just the physical, empower women in society, and inject excitement into the mundane tasks of life such as household chores.”

Influence of social laws and policies on families

2009-02-08T12:51:00.000Z

There are number of ways by which government may influence families. And all of them are aimed to change current demographic situation in the country. If there is, for example, a decline in population, Government might introduce benefits for second child in the family and so encourage families to have children more than one. Also IVF programmes will make possible to have children for those families where male is not able to have them because of health problems, also there are laws in some countries which give an opportunity for homosexual partners to marry and have children.
But not all countries are suffering from decline in population; some of them have to introduce policies aimed to decrease it such as in China or India. And in the former the law was introduced according to which families can have only one child and for more they have to pay taxes. This policy helped government stabilize population in the country.
Also there are many other policies which influence structure of the family. For example, The Family Law Act, which was introduced in 1996 introduced a one year waiting period before a couple could divorce. The intention of this policy was to discourage divorces and give couples a time to save their marriage. Other policies such as helping households find job and get employed may improve current situation of unemployment and help lone parents be sure about their and children’s future.
If we look in general to all these policies, they are all aimed to save families and maintain better relationships because if there are more families rather than singles, it might help to stabilize the whole economic and politic situation in the country.

and about media

2009-02-01T10:16:00.000Z

And i forgot to add in these article below that in my opinion another solution to the problem is to do something with media. Because most young generation now spend a lot of time playing computer games and watching TV. But what do they watch?Almost every film and cartoon include some violence and almost every game now is aimed to kill or rob people. All these have a big influence on children and make them more aggressive . So there is something should be done with violence in media by being more strictly with it or maybe increase censorship on it.

feral youth

2009-02-01T09:19:00.000Z

Increasing number of crimes made by youth has become difficult and concerning problem in Britain. And what the reasons for it? One of the main are drugs, alcohol and tobacco. They cause psychological problems and make youngt people be more aggressive and very impulsive. According to the Statistics, 'In 2001, about three fifths of boys and girls aged 11 to 15 reported that they had ever drunk alcohol, with around a quarter of both having had a drink in the last week.

A survey of young people in England in 2001 reported that a fifth of 11 to 15 year olds had taken illegal drugs in the previous year. Cannabis was the most commonly used drug, taken by 13 per cent of those surveyed.'

So as we can see the most popular age of trying new things is between 11 and 15. And even if these children tried alcohol and drugs once and they didn't like it, it is not the fact that they will not try it again. Another reason of rising crime among youth is poor parental supervision and low income in the family. Children from poor family where there is no enough money and where parents don't pay attention to their children are more likely to have a criminal careers in the future. Also parental conflicts and divorces might affect children's psyche. They observed physical and moral abuse in their families and would think that this is normal life and violence is permitted and these will be their way of life in the future. As it was written in the article: 'If Dad did put in an appearance, it was probably a disruptive and violent one.Dad was not there to provide security, order and love as he socialised his son into manhood. Dad imparted one lesson. If you want something - money, a woman, wheels - take it. Such an upbringing is guaranteed to ensure that its victim is full of rage and hate. When he was little, other people hit him. As he grows bigger, he hits them.'

And there a lot of such stories in different families! So To prevent crime one should look deeper to the problems, look at the causes of crime instead of doing his best to prevent it. "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime''. So what can be done to stop feral youth? In my opinion one of the main causes of crime among youth is also poor attainment at school and influence of media. So to reduce crimes something should be done with schools such as social skills trainings and trainings among teacher, organizing school activites, which will help children to understand norms of behaviour and think about the consequences of their actions. Also it is necessary to encourage parents to spend more time with their children, to look after them more careful and kindly. There are many different programs which are aimed to do that and help government in solving this problem.One of them is for example 'Youth Crime Action Plan'. Some of it's actions are:

We have improved victim and community
involvement in the youth justice system.
There has been pioneering use of
restorative justice and reparation. During
2006-7 17,728 victims participated in
restorative processes and 97% of the
participating victims reported satisfaction.

We have worked with the third sector to
increase their involvement in delivering
effective programmes for young offenders
and providing them with support during
the sentencing process. For instance we
have set up agreements with the Prince’s
Trust for employment and training
opportunities, with the YMCA for
accommodation and with Clubs for Young
People for activities.

There are some others plan which aimed to do work at schools ('Connexions')

And all these programs really help to solve the problem of feral youth. I think we should all be concerned with that problem and try to help young generation to solve their problems and cope with difficulties in their families.

2009-01-30T09:33:00.000Z

Violence among females is rising. Nowadays teenage girls are responsible for almost 40 crimes every day. Reasons of this violence is that more and more young people start drinking earlier and take drugs and they make them more aggessive and not stable emotionally. The most dangerous time are friday evenings as more young people are allowed to go out this day. This violence is one of the causes of closing gap between girls and boys. To stop this violence parents should be more careful and instead of forbidding their children go out, they should just try to understand them and be closer and try to get friends with them. In my opinion if our parents are our friends it can decrease the number of drinking teenagers.

divorced families

2009-01-27T18:16:00.000Z

As we know divorce may bring a lot of unwanted consequences not only for the family but for the country whole as it can be a reason of decreased population, increased poverty and so on. So Government is interested in having low level of number of divorced families. It introduces different policies such as for example helping to find divorced women a job. For a lot of divorced mothers it can a big a problem but still even if the government helps them get employed it doesn't guarantee improving the situation as commonly those women will be employed in low paid job. Other policies might allow partners after divorce have insurance, like it is being in the US, or paying subsidies for the children in divorced families like in the UKand it is called endowment policy.All these policies are necessary because for some people divorce might change many things in their lives and only government can help them

Official statistics of Domestic Violence

2009-01-27T17:17:00.000Z

Gender trends: Women make up 3/4 of the victims of homicide by an intimate partner. Actually, 33% of all women murdered (of course, only cases which are solved are included) are murdered by an intimate partner. Women make up about 85% of the victims of non-lethal domestic violence. In all, women are victims of intimate partner violence at a rate about 5 times that of males.

Racial and Ethnic trends: Black women and men suffer from the highest rates of domestic violence. "Black females experienced domestic violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced domestic violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races."

Age trends: Domestic violence is most prominent among women aged 16 to 24.

Economic Trends: Poorer women experience significantly more domestic violence than higher income women.

Marital status: For both men and women, divorced or separated persons were subjected to the highest rates of intimate partner victimization, followed by never- married persons.

Reporting to police: The rates at which individuals report domestic violence to police vary along racial and gender lines. Hispanic and black women report domestic violence at the highest rate (approximately 65% to 67% of abuse is reported). For white females, only about 50% of the abuse is reported.

Childhood has disappeared

2009-01-25T13:21:00.000Z

There are many theories about childhood and one of them was suggested by Neil Postman. He argued that in western European countries childhood has disappeared. Of cource, we can't say that with a full confidence as we know that it can't disappear at all. But here is a talk about the reduction of a period of childhood in twenty first century. Recently before such achievements in developing technologies the boundary between adult world and childhood was seen very clear. But in the modern world 'the information and communications revolution at the turn of the twenty-first century has delivered the end of childhood' because now the distance between adults and children has changed by children's adoption of information and communication technologies that is now everything is accessible for children.

Why celibacy?

2009-01-25T12:58:00.000Z

www.associatedcontent.com/article/51003/why_celibacy.html

"Celibacy is an unmarried person not engaging in sex, a person practicing abstinence.

A vow of celibacy would eliminate the risks of venereal disease. For some, especially young teens, it would allow focusing energies on other matters such as careers, or social issues. Practicing celibacy would eliminate the numbers of unwanted pregnancies.

Celibacy could be a means of preventing a hereditary condition or something like HIV from spreading.

It has always been that sexual activity encouraged the belief that a person's worth, rather than being unconditional, depended on either his or her ability to be sexually desirable and to gain sexual fulfillment or, at the very least, to gain stable companionship. To achieve a deeper sense of meaning in life, individuals, with vows of celibacy, have chosen to remove themselves from the outside distractions of life, including sexual gratification.

One of the goals of positive celibacy, is to find that deeper feeling of worthiness for self and others that is without any conditions, least of all sexual ones. Thus, above all, it is not to lead a celibate life that makes for a true monk or nun, but this ability to realize that the sexual desirability of self or others is not the true criterion of human worth. We are aware of this only when we can be totally at peace with our singleness. In fact, it might be said that we are only truly qualified to be partnered after we have realized this peace.

Studies support that there is a link between teenage sexual activity and emotional health. The findings show that when compared to teens who are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly less likely to be happy and more likely to feel depressed when compared to teens who are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly more likely to attempt suicide. Vows of celibacy would eliminate many of these problems.

Taken a vow of celibacy would honor God because according to His word, we are to keep ourselves pure, until marriage.

Celibacy may contribute to a greater peacefulness and spirituality.

Making a celibacy vow would also dispose of a whole load of worries on your mind. You won't even have to think about the worries of contraception, venereal disease, physical compatibility, impotence, frigidity, or whether your partner is good in bed, or sexual fidelity etc. People you talk to will know that you're not interested in them for their body.

It has been noted, that there is no proof that celibacy is in any way damaging to one's health, and it is clear that many celibates lead long, happy lives.

Celibacy should be recognized as a valid alternative sexual lifestyle."

After reading this article we can see many positives of being celibated, but still if one of the purposes of people's life is reproduction, which can not be achieved in such situation, can we be fully satisfied with our lives?

primitve societies and their modern counterparts

2009-01-25T12:37:00.001Z

If we compare the way of treating children in non-industrial, primitive countries where worklife and family life was like the same and where families was very big including all the relatives with countries where family and work have a clear boundary, we can see many differences and all they are because of different values, norms, aims and very important- culture. As Ruth Benedict said in her work 'Patterns of culture': "If we are interested in cultural processes, the only way in which we can know the significance of the selected detail of behavior is against the background of the motives and emotions and values that are institutionalized in that culture". And to understand some maybe strange for us rules and values in culture we should learn it as a whole and try to accept and understand it. In some countries for example it is acceptable and common that children start working from their childhood as they should thinki about their future and help parents, in other countries girls in families already in childhood (8 and older) get married and if they don't want, there are rules which they can't break. While in their modern counterparts, children have less bad thoughts and don't think about different domestic problems, their childhood might be seen happier in comparison with primitive countries. While this opinion is not right, because in different countries people understand happiness and good life in different ways so i can't say exactly that in modern societies children have better life.

Factors of symmetrical relationship

2009-01-24T12:03:00.000Z

Main factors that determine symmetrical relationship between men and women is that their relations must be equal which means that they should share same interests, and aims in life. Their roles in the family also shouldn't be as men earn money and women are responsible for domestic duties. They should share duties and work. All these things can help maintain symmetrical relations as men and women will have the same rights in their relations.

But in my opinion those factors which i noticed are not the same for everyone as different people have different views on such things. Factors of symmetrical relations depend on religions, social status and so on. For example if you are in working class, it usually happens that woman will be depended and her role will be to take care of child and be responsible for domestic duties. Also in Islam men and women usually have different rights and rules are very stricted.

(I wrote only my opinion without using any references thats why i am not sure if I am right.)

Feminists about domestic violence

2009-01-24T11:48:00.000Z

Feminists made an analysis according to European, American and Canadian cultures. The most important contribution that has been made is that domestic violence that are usually occuring in families came from patriarchal structure where men dominated in relations. And still unequality between genders happens very often. Men are tend to demand domestic labour from their wives and behave possesively towards their partners.

Feminists' view of housework

2009-01-24T11:06:00.000Z

If we see feminists' point of wies to the housework, most of them say that housework makes sexes be unequal. As housework is unpaid but it is still a work it gives men power over women. marxist feminists argue that housework is a sort of social reproduction and thereby it should be paid. Unpaid housework is a sexual division of labour to productive and reproductive work which allows capitaists make more profit and exploit women's unpaid labour.

But the problem is how to divide housework between leisure and real work? If we talk for example about childcare it can't be considered only as a work because one of the women's instincts is bearing their children. Since market doesn't have a detailed criterion to distinguish work from non work, it is impossible to calculate how much women should be paid for their housework and thereby there will be still unequality.

One of the solution that had been done was giving all the housework to specialists, such as nurses, maids and so on and pay wages them. Others argued that as people, mostly women, spend a lot of time by taking care after children and old people all the time they spend on it must be compensated.

Elizabeth Bott

2009-01-23T13:27:00.000Z

Elizabeth Bott continued developing the last stage in her study "Family and social network". SDhe argued that the segregation in the roles between wife and husband varies with the connection with social network. After interviews with 20 London families she developed the idead of two conjugal roles: joint and segregated. Class plaied a very important factor in determining the type of roles. She said that joint conjugal roles are more typical in middle class families, when wife and husband have the same interests, they share all the duties and tasks, dispersed social network. While segregated conjugal role is more typical in working class families, when husband and wife have different tasks and duties ( more common when husband is earning money for the family while wife is responsible for domestic duties) and also they have separated interests; those who know family, knows each other

Young and Wilmott's theory

2009-01-23T08:31:00.001Z

According to Young's and Wilmott's study there are four different stages of the Symmetrical Family. The first stage is pre-Industrial Family. It is the first and th most undeveloped kinf of familis when they were as units of production. Everyone in the family worked together in agriculture. Workplace and home weren't separated. Second stage is The early Industrial Family. Members of families are now work to earn money. Home and workplace are separated. There was a tend in making good relations with different relatives. Women are now more responsible for different domestic duties whereas men’s purpose is to earn money for the family. This stage happens more often in working class. The reasons of appearing next stage are that women became more independent and most of them employed. Families become more independent and nuclear and less children in the family which gives an opportunity to women to get jobs. And so the next stage is called Symmetrical Family as there is an economic and social equality between men and women, husband and wife now share their ideas and experience between each other. And the last stage was predicted by Wilmott and Young in the extension of the theory 'Principle of Stratified Diffusion'. Upper class will set trends of family life. And so bottom classes will take as example lives of directors, managers. According to this theory, life will become more work-centred rather than home centred. Husbands will spend more time at work and their entertainment will also be connected with worklife while wives will be responsible for domestic duties.

Talcott Parsons

2009-01-22T16:11:00.000Z

Talcott Parsons in the last century developed the model of nuclear family from functionalists' point of view. He was talking about gender roles in the family and how they differ.He said that women's role in the family is that they should take sare of other members of the family and also strenghten relations among them whereas men should have an instrumental role in the family such as earning money for it. He also said that as if many actions are tend to be expected it can help to avoid conflicts.

2009-01-22T15:46:00.000Z

As i understand the science 'Sociology' it is a study of behaviour and interaction of people. It helps us to answer questions such as reasons of behaving of different social groups, some stereotyps, socialization and ets. I think this science is very important and basic sociology has to know everyone of us. I haven't tried studying this subject before and thats why i am interested in it and want to know if it is that science that i would like to continue studying in future

Cultural Capital

2009-01-20T21:41:00.000Z

In early 1960s french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu developed his concept of cultural capital where he said that not only economis factors but also cultural habits and status of the families play an important role in school success. He compared and found similar things in economic and cultural capital and he asserted that 'cultural habits and disproportions comprise a resource capable of generating profit.'

In Bourdieu's opinion cultural capital exists in three forms. It is a skill that can not be separated from it's holder, objects themselves may functiona s a form of cultural capital and also cultural capital exists in an 'institutionalized form'.

Hovewer there are many differences between cultural and economis capital. Cultural capital is considered to be an 'unborn talent'. And because schools transform inherited capital into 'scholastic cultural capital', it is supposed to be an individual achievement.

Also it is mentioned that cultural capital has an impact in sociology. As Bourdieu thinks classes are differentiated 'from one another in terms of the overall volume of capital' or by the ration of economic and cultural capital. Bourdieu indicated that each class has a uniwue range of tastes and it depends on its cultural and economic capital. Those who richer in economic capital for example are tend to be less interested in cultural capital. And these differences of taste Bourdieu termed 'symbolic capital'.

I love pineapples (doesn't relate to the subject i study)

2009-01-20T19:44:00.000Z

The pineapple is the most famous and economically important member of the Pineapple family (Bromeliaceae). It is the only bromeliad with edible fruit. The family is almost exclusively from the New World, with over 2000 species besides the pineapple native to the tropical Americas. One additional species is from Africa. The pineapple, however, can now be found in all tropical regions. Portuguese explorers carried it around the world in the 16th century. The Chinese were cultivating it by 1640, but it was only introduced to Hawaii in 1813. Hawaii started exporting canned pineapples in 1892 and James Dole started his plantation there in 1900.

In contrast to most of its Bromeliad relatives, the pineapple is terrestrial. It grows best in a mineral soil medium. Bromeliads typically are epiphytic (growing upon other plants) and do not require a mineral soil but do best living on bark or humus in the crotches of tree branches.

While most everyone is familiar with the pineapple fruit, many do not know what kind of plant produces it. Pineapple plants are perennials growing from a thick crown close to the soil surface. They reach a height of 4 feet with numerous stiff 3-foot long leaves often armed with sharp edges.

The pineapple “fruit” is not really a fruit at all but is a mass of individual berries fused to the central stalk. This is why the “fruit” has leaves on top. They are actually the continued growth of the stalk beyond where the berries are attached.

Pineapples are not grown from seed. The important commercial cultivars such as ‘Smooth Cayenne’ from Hawaii and ‘Red Spanish’ from the West Indies are self-sterile – the inconspicuous flowers are not capable of fertilizing their own eggs. Unless different cultivars are grown near each other (an unlikely occurrence in commercial plantations), the resulting fruits are seedless (parthenocarpic). Pineapples are readily reproduced by vegetative propagation, using crowns, slips, or suckers. The crown is the vegetative shoot on top of the fruit, and new plants take 2 years to produce fruit. Slips are side shoots from just below the fruit. Plants from slips take 20 months to produce fruit. Suckers are side shoots that develop from the main stem at ground level, and take 17 months to produce fruit.

Each plant that is propagated produces one fruit at the top of its stem. This high quality fruit is called the “plant” crop. After the fruit is harvested, several suckers develop and one year later produce the “ratoon” crop. The fruits are smaller and of lesser quality. A second ratoon crop can develop after the first crop is harvested. After that, the field is dug up and replanted.

Pineapple fruit quality is at its best only if the fruit matures on the plant. They do not become sweeter if harvested earlier since there are no starch reserves to be converted to sugar. The sugar content must come from the rest of the plant.

Pineapples are 15% sugar along with malic and citric acids. In areas near where it is grown, a pineapple wine is fermented. It does not store well so it is rarely seen outside of the tropics. Pineapples also contain bromelain, a protein digesting and milk-clotting enzyme similar to pepsin. Bromelain is used commercially to tenderize meat and chill-proof beer. The bromelain may account for the belief that pineapples are good for our digestion.

Getting a field of pineapples to produce a crop simultaneously (to avoid repeated, labor intensive harvests) has always been a problem. Months could pass before a plant next to a fruiting one comes into flower. During the early 20th century, pineapple growers found that fields where smudge pots had been used to prevent frost damage flowered and fruited uniformly. By the 1930’s it was known that ethylene (a by-product of combustion) was responsible for the uniform flowering, and that similar compounds such as acetylene or the plant hormone auxin could do the same. Shortly thereafter the practice of dropping a few granules of calcium carbide onto the growing point of pineapple plants developed. Calcium carbide reacts with water to yield acetylene. Today, the ethylene releasing compound ethephon is sprayed onto pineapple plants to promote uniform flowering.

The cultivation of pineapples has become an exact science. For best fruit quality the plant has specific environmental requirements such as mineral rich soil that is moist but well drained, low humidity, full sunlight, and temperatures that do not get below 32F or above 90oF. This environment can be found in many tropical countries, and the pineapple industry is significant in Thailand, the Philippines, United States (Hawaii), Mexico, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Malaysia, Kenya, Taiwan, Australia, and other countries. Interesting enough, prior to 1950 Hawaii produced 70% of the world’s pineapples. Increasing production costs and foreign competition has reduced Hawaii’s market share to less than 30%. Still, Hawaii produces 500,000 tons of pineapples each year.

Besides its use as a food, the pineapple fruit has a long history of symbolism that persists today. When first cultivated in European greenhouses in the 17th century, it was used only by the wealthy to adorn banquet tables. It became a status symbol of the social elite. During the Napoleonic Wars, English caricaturists used the fruit to symbolize high living and opulence. European colonists carried the pineapple symbol back to the Americas to represent “friendship” and as an image of “welcome”.

http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/pineapple.htm

Research report

2009-01-20T19:18:00.000Z

This report is about research which is made to evaluate social changes in family life from the early 20 century till new twenty first century. It was found that families during the last fifty years continue to be central importance of the life of individuals. Also research investigates that in families now there is a reduction of rules to govern behaviour and increasing importance of negotiating among family members.

As it is said, 'the research aimed to investigate the impact of structural and cultural change on kin relations' and it based on a research made by Rosser and Harris 'The family and social change'.

The research is aimed to investigate reasons of changes in family life and roles of members: why there is an increase in economic activity among women and how does the full time employment of younger women affect family.

Analysis shows that in researched areas there is a decline of nuclear family and the classic extended families consisting of three generations are also in decline. One of the reasons of that is that there is a decline in strenght of sibling relations. And relations are now based on relations between daughters and mothers and fathers and sons. And even if the contact between mothers and daughters has fallen it is still very big. But as there is an increase in full time employment among women, it reduces their frequency of contact with kin but increases their need to support childcare. Also employment increases gender equality which is very important in relations between genders.

It is written that the enormous growth in employment opportunities for women leads to higher rates 'of female labour participation'.

All these changes are because of increased individualism among people. 'Families are made up of people who are increasingly individuated and as a result family life is made up of the unscripted choices negotiated by family members between one another'

Educational differences between girls and boys

2009-01-20T08:16:00.000Z

" Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys, until now no one has clearly provided a biological basis that may account for their differences.

For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa show both that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks.

"Our findings -- which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls -- could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single sex classrooms," said Douglas D. Burman, research associate in Northwestern's Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers measured brain activity in 31 boys and in 31 girls aged 9 to 15 as they performed spelling and writing language tasks.

The tasks were delivered in two sensory modalities -- visual and auditory. When visually presented, the children read certain words without hearing them. Presented in an auditory mode, they heard words aloud but did not see them.

Using a complex statistical model, the researchers accounted for differences associated with age, gender, type of linguistic judgment, performance accuracy and the method -- written or spoken -- in which words were presented.

The researchers found that girls still showed significantly greater activation in language areas of the brain than boys. The information in the tasks got through to girls' language areas of the brain -- areas associated with abstract thinking through language. And their performance accuracy correlated with the degree of activation in some of these language areas.

To their astonishment, however, this was not at all the case for boys. In boys, accurate performance depended -- when reading words -- on how hard visual areas of the brain worked. In hearing words, boys' performance depended on how hard auditory areas of the brain worked.

If that pattern extends to language processing that occurs in the classroom, it could inform teaching and testing methods.

Given boys' sensory approach, boys might be more effectively evaluated on knowledge gained from lectures via oral tests and on knowledge gained by reading via written tests. For girls, whose language processing appears more abstract in approach, these different testing methods would appear unnecessary.

"One possibility is that boys have some kind of bottleneck in their sensory processes that can hold up visual or auditory information and keep it from being fed into the language areas of the brain," Burman said. This could result simply from girls developing faster than boys, in which case the differences between the sexes might disappear by adulthood.

Or, an alternative explanation is that boys create visual and auditory associations such that meanings associated with a word are brought to mind simply from seeing or hearing the word."

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303120346.htm)

Formal and Informal education

2009-01-19T23:50:00.001Z

As i understand it formal education is a studying at school and informal education is what you learn by your own. There is some comparisons of these types of education: http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/started/what/formal.html

Differences between functionalists and marxists.

Functionalists:

Education provides a society with 'division of labour' which means that schools will help to identify who you will be in a future
Education socialises children with society's shared norms and values. The process of socialisation moves children away from the particularistic values of their home life towards the universalistic values of society
The 'hidden curriculum' helps to integrate future citizens into society's by 'teaching' and reinforcing them with society's norms and values
Education helps provide the means for people to make themselves upwardly mobile. Therefore if you make the effort you will be rewarded - meritocracy. This process legitimizes social inequalities as functionalists believe everyone has the opportunity to get a qualifications. Education is a level playing field - if you fail to achieve at school it is nobody's fault but your own - meritocracy.

Marxists:

Social class - Education helps meet the needs of society by dividing it into distinct social - classes the rulling (bosses) and working class (workers)
For Marxists, the role of education is considered in terms of the idea that there is always a basic “conflict of interest” in Capitalist society. The most-fundamental conflict is between Capital (the owners of the means of production) and Labour (people who sell their labour power in exchange for money). Marxists try to relate all other forms of conflict (gender, age, racial, etc.) to the economic sphere.

Marxists are mainly concerned with analysing the way education involves the transmission of ideas and beliefs about the nature of the social world. The reason for this is that education is a process that enables a ruling class to reproduce its domination of other social classes. It does this by trying to socialise children with ideas that legitimise the nature of society “as it is”; that is, a society in which there are fundamental inequalities of wealth, income, power and status.

The concept used to express this idea is that of structured inequality (inequality that stems from the nature of relationships within Capitalist societies). Inequality is structural in origin because it is fundamental to the economic system.
A ruling class, if it is to continue in power, must ensure it reproduces itself over time. People have to be socialised into accepting the basic ideas of Capitalism.

(http://www.slideshare.net/sociologytwynham/marxist-functionalist-differences-presentation)

League tables at school

2009-01-19T23:36:00.000Z

There are some negatives of league tables at school. Actually in my opinion there is only few positives such as competition among school which MIGHT lead to a better results, and help for a parents to choose the right place for their children.

The Case Against Reporting Individual School Results
Reporting the literacy and numeracy outcomes of individual schools, providing public
comparisons of school results and ranking schools in league tables of school results:
• provides misleading and inaccurate information to parents about school
performance;
• punishes, humiliates and demoralises students, teachers and schools;
• leads to greater inequities in schooling and social segregation of schools;
• biases teaching priorities;
• promotes competition about image and diverts efforts and resources from
effective school improvement;
• discourages collaboration between schools and discourages parents from seeing
themselves as partners in schooling; and
• does not lead to better quality schools.

To find whole article, link this: http://www.schoolparents.canberra.net.au/League%20Tables%20Exec%20Summary.pdf

Also try this site to find out more information about league tables =)): http://sos.freeforums.org/labor-backs-school-league-tables-t42.html

'When markets collide' (continue)

2008-11-05T23:03:00.000Z

The book starts with Introduction which I actually explained in my last post. In his introduction the author explains some of the reasons of present turmoil and emphasizes that ‘the present turmoil is neither the beginning nor the end of the transformation phase.’ He shares his experience with us and explains a big importance of market noise.

ABERRATIONS, CONUNDRUMS AND PUZZLES

He starts chapter first with explaining that when political and economical problems and issues are risen and haven’t concrete explanation they come to be called aberrations, conundrums or puzzles. And many of them were dismissed in market as a just noise while they needed to be solved and predicted. As the author says for him the strangest puzzle was that financial system has always been able and willing to overconsume and overproduce risky products ‘in the context of such large systemic uncertainty’. Now many investors instead of waiting for proper explanation and exact forecast rushed into trades with a big risk and high leverage. The consequence of this is that few months later the world economy ‘found itself in grip of significant market turmoil’. Good example of it is again US market turmoil. This country shows us a ‘stable disequilibrium’ –payment imbalance. Now dominant industrial countries are being challenged by developing competitors and some countries meet the situation when they have to ask for a help from countries which are don’t play a big role in the world economy. It is just because now developing countries have very high potential and ability to return credits and they ‘shift from operating in debtor regimes to creditor regimes’.
And it is still not clear what caused such a consequence in US market. One of the reasons is an interest rate conundrum. That recently long-term interest rates tended to be lower that they used to be and also ‘the U.S. equity markets were experiencing a period of robust price appreciation consistent with a period of strong economic growth that was forecast to continue.’ And again all these things are because people are missing market noise. And what recently was a noise for policy makers and economist became a big signal of reconsidering all the global financial system

HOW TRADITIONAL RESOURCES FAILED US

Second chapter is talking about different Institutions which have a great influence in global economic life, which are available to identify noises and even predict them. But even these institutions might fail us. The International Monetary Fund has considered to be the most influentional institution and as Rodrigo de Rato, managing director of IMF, said: “the Fund is fully prepared to meet the great macroeconomic challenges that lie ahead”. But IMF has to deal with global problems and questions and interact in traditional economic issues and innovations. And the IMF is not such trusted and knowledgeable “trusted advisor”. It faces different budget problems and its income is falling now. Changes which are being now in the world are so powerful that have a huge effect on an institution which is center of the international monetary system.
Another problem is declining market volatility which we can see the VIX. As more and more investors now are willing to assume risk, it is one of the reason of declining the VIX. But the VIX is not ‘only variable that behaved in this way’. The same has happened in measures of volatility for the fixed income and foreign exchange market. And the main reason, as the author emphasize is changing in investors’ behavior.
El-Erian says that we came to the time when ‘you have to worry about the return of your capital and not return on your capital’

SEPARATING WHAT MATTERS FROM WHAT DOESN’T

In third chapter it was written that it takes time to understand the transformations that are ongoing now. As time is going things changes and we can observe it by reading history. Most people feel themselves comfortable and in peace ‘with predictability and repetition’ and we tend to escape from difficulties and noises. In the chapter author gives some points which will help us to ‘identify and think about signals within the noise’ and which will give as an opportunity to manage consequences in appropriate way. But we shouldn’t forget that the noise will always accompany this complex world and unless we start to predict it and think about the consequences we can’t get a balance in the world economy.
So to learn the hardest step – identifying the source of the noise we should have practice and discipline and develop an ability to immediately interpret the signal when there is a big amount of data is being released by market. It is also important to understand if the anomaly related to ‘steady state’ or to the process of getting to the ‘steady state’ and the last step that you should to is underline the factors that caused a rise in anomalies.
Another important point in this chapter is an explanation of different market imperfections and one of the most useful is ‘market for lemons’ –MFL. The meaning of it is that there are a lot of goods and services which have hidden defect and people can’t know about these defects and have not sufficient information. This market illustrates ‘the impact of information and signaling asymmetries and breakdowns’. The term ‘blindness to Black Swan’ implies that people’s bias about dismissing large major developments even if they will have great consequences. Human beings don’t want to believe in Black Swan because they used to see the world structured and understandable and don’t see many important things. There is a tendency to simplify all events and interpret data as they want to understand it.

'When markets collide'

2008-11-03T22:22:00.000Z

Mohamed El-Erian is a managing director and member of PIMCO's Portfolio Management and Investment Strategy Group. He also has other businesses and plays very important role in PIMCO’s work. In may 2008 his book ‘When markets collide’ was published and he won the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year for it. So what this book is about?

In the book author shares with his thoughts about present and future economical situation and shows analysis of the reasons why some serious global economists make such a strange mistakes sometimes and can’t say right subsequences of economic decisions. Mohamed El-Erian wrote this book for individual investors, economists and policy makers, “It provides readers with insights on how best to exploit new opportunities and minimize exposure to changing patterns of risks.”

As there are always a lot of transformations in global economy, market and policy infrastructures can’t always cope with all the problems and a good example of it is a series of collapses in US mortgage market and present turmoil in all over the world which affected almost all social communities. And all these inconsistencies show us that present economy is changed and now we can see that some countries start dominating while previously they didn’t have any influence on the global economy. Also El-Erian attaches significance to such thing as a market noise. People in market tend to miss noise and react only to different transformations while noise plays very important role in economy; they believe there is little point in thinking about the longer-term implications for investment strategies, business models, or national and multilateral policies. The author shares with us with his experience about studying and importance of this noise and says that now people started to notice noise and think about all the consequences beforehand.

Mohamed has investigated the present market and its future and says that now policy makers became data-dependent and still mostly react to transformations. Also the author explains present economical situation and shows that in future “due to the difficulties in being able to rapidly identify and adapt to multiple structural changes” some firms may fail, some investors may become relevant instead of popular now.

The author gives us appropriate ways of behavior in present economic situation, shows the a new big influence of SWF, risks which we can have now, ways of protecting our own portfolio and advices not think only about present transformations but also listen to the noise in markets.

Email Usage

2008-09-22T13:36:00.001+01:00

Question: How many emails are sent every day?
Answer: Statistics, extrapolations and counting by Radicati Group from August 2008 estimate the number of emails sent per day (in 2008) to be around 210 billion.
183 billion messages per day means more than 2 million emails are sent every second. About 70% to 72% of them might be spam and viruses. The genuine emails are sent by around 1.3 billion email users.

http://email.about.com/od/emailtrivia/f/emails_per_day.htm