Essay on The Negative Effects of Affirmative Action on...

Imagine going through your school years working hard academically in hopes of going to a respectable college and broadening your horizons. Unfortunately, many students in America strive to reach this goal only to be rejected because the university had to meet a racial quota. Every year in America many students are turned down from colleges because the University was required to select a set amount of minorities before them thanks to something knows as affirmative action. On the other hand, you may be a minority who simply can’t earn the feeling of equality because of educational and employed handicaps. Affirmative action in our education system it an unjust practice that we can do without if we can learn to live in a color-blind society.†¦show more content†¦This is not equal protection for these students. Some of these young adults may decide from their high school freshman years that they have a dream to push themselves and attend the college of their dreams and whe n this is taken away, most people feel cheated that all their hard work has just gone to waste. For some, it might even be enough to shatter their hopes and discourage them from perusing their education further or even just moving on. Having to select a number of minorities in an educational situation is just not fair to everyone. Our country is one that values and rewards hard work whether it be putting on your best to secure a job, or putting many years of work and experience into being accepted to the college you desire. If everyone wants to be treated as equals in this country then we must make these people work as equals. Nothing in this country is free without working for it and your education is not something that should be handed to you without previous dedication. You can not encourage students to go foreword in school and do the best they can only to reject them later because you gave their chance away to someone simply because they are a minority. When you work hard and are rewarded it means so much more that having it handed to you. In addition to looking at the negative outcome of non-minority students, we must also look at the effect affirmative action can have on the minoritiesShow MoreRelatedRace Based Affirmative Action On Higher Education Essay1445 Words   |  6 PagesRace-Based Affirmative Action in Higher Education In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, which created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, or CEEO. One purpose of the CEEO was to â€Å"recommend additional affirmative steps which should be taken by executive departments and agencies to realize more fully the national policy of nondiscrimination† (Kennedy). This executive order planted the seeds that grew into what is today known as â€Å"race-based affirmative action,† or theRead MoreAffirmative Action And Its Effects On Affirmative1263 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout America there are many different views on the effects of affirmative action. Many see it as a negative policy which gives an unnecessary advantage to minorities in America. In a 2009 Pew Poll, â€Å"58% of African Americans agree† and only â€Å"22% whites agree† that there should be â€Å"preferential treatment to improve the position of blacks and other minorities† (Public Backs Affirmative Acti on†). Today affirmative action and other racial injustices tend to be in the spotlight quite often, suchRead MoreUnderlying Reasons for Affirmative Action1442 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction The issue of affirmative action has existed for around forty years, but the Wall Street Journal reports that the idea may be coming to an end (Sander Taylor, 2012). The reason for this is that while the idea of affirmative action originated for positive reasons, it has also had some negative side effects. In light of the possibility that affirmative actions are unwound, it is necessary to consider what might happen if that were to occur. This essay will consider precisely that issueRead MoreAdvantages and Disadvantages of Affirmative Action Essay1667 Words   |  7 PagesThe Affirmative Action Debate Affirmative Action Defined Affirmative Action can be defined as â€Å"positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)†. However because those steps involve â€Å"preferential† selection affirmative action generates intense controversy (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Affirmative Action (Negative) Read MoreThe Ban On Affirmative Action902 Words   |  4 Pagesplan on researching why California and other states should uplift the ban of Affirmative Action is establishments like universities. Removing the ban on Affirmative Action would help encourage and advance that generally don’t gravitate towards higher education thus equalizing the playing field in terms of success in future life. So California should heavily consider lifting the legislative bans on the Affirmative Action Plan because although all Americans should be treated as equals, there are instancesRead MoreAffermative Action1316 Words   |  6 PagesBy: Elissa Thomas E-mail: elissa@usais.net Affirmative Action Affirmative Action efforts were started in 1964 to end the long history of overlooking qualified people of color and women from higher education. Affirmative Action sets standards for a business or office of admissions, so that a white man does not have the upper-hand over an equally or greater educated minority. The initial way the government tried to justify Affirmative Action was to develop a human resource approach: first identifyingRead MoreAffirmative Action For College Admissions990 Words   |  4 Pages Affirmative action in college admissions continues to be heatedly debated. In 2003, the Supreme Court had ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that diversity was a compelling interest for colleges to use race in admissions. In the amicus brief that the American Sociological Association et al. provided to the Supreme Court, sociological evidence was presented to elucidate the value of affirmative action. Yet in 2006, Proposal 2 was passed in Michigan to ban affirma tive action in public education (Levitsky)Read More Two Views of Affirmative Action Essay1498 Words   |  6 PagesTwo Views of Affirmative Action We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal†¦. Even before it became a nation, America was heralded as a land of equality. Thomas Jeffersons statement begs more than a few questions, one of which is: How can we ensure equality to everyone? Beginning in the late 1960s, the federal government provided an answer to this question in the form of affirmative action. In recent years, many people have called this policy into question. InterestinglyRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Civil War1309 Words   |  6 Pagesproven to have negative implications that are difficult to mend. There have been different approaches to rectify the effects of racism dating back even before the Civil War. One of the fruition of these attempts is Affirmative Action, which was initially enforced â€Å"to ensure equality in hiring† among minorities. Later, Affirmative Action was amended to include education under its protection. Throughout its duration, however, it has all eviated the racial tension unsubstantially. Affirmative Action’s attemptRead More Affirmative Action Essay1086 Words   |  5 Pages The roots of Affirmative Action can be traced back to the passage of the Civil Rights Act where legislation redefined public and private behavior. The act states that to discriminate in private is legal, but anything regarding business or public discrimination is illegal. There are two instances when opposing affirmative action might seem the wrong thing to do. The nobility of the cause that help others. Affirmative Action was a great starter for equality in the work place. The most

Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior

Question: Discuss about the Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior. Answer: Introduction: Human behavior includes number of actions and reactions exhibit by human at different stages. Generally society expects from individual that he behave in good manner. In this paper we discuss the impact of social factors on individual behavior, and how these factors influence the personality and growing up of individual. Many factors affect the behavior of individual and some social factors are attitude, ability, gender, race, culture, norms and culture of society and many more (Dornsife, n.d.). In this we discuss effect of gender and sexuality on individual behavior, and how these factors affect the personality of individual. At last we conclude the essay with brief conclusion. Influence of gender and sexuality on individual behavior: A person is male or female that is completely rely on genes, and it is genetic in nature. This feature is considered as inherited. Research shows that there is lot of difference man and women, and society also treats both of them in very different ways. There are number of baseless assumptions which are made by the society from many years and it was expected from individual that they behave according to those assumptions such as there is a traditional assumption that men is tougher and womens are emotional and because of this society always expects that its not right for men to get emotional. Gender norms affect the personality of the person in same manner as other norms affect. We can notice the differences between the behavior of men and women at various places such as at workplace. One research proves that both men and women perform equally at their workplace, and they have equal mental abilities. Society not even considers all these research and proofs and treats both of them differently. We can see that difference in one area in organization that is absenteeism. This is the area where womens gets more preference and considered as important caregiver to childrens. In an organization allocation of work and evaluation is influenced by the personal values and behavior of manager (Caragillis, n.d.). There are number of ideas are developed by society which address the appropriate behavior of men and women in society. These ideas vary according to the culture of society and change according to the need of time. For example it is expected from women that they develop traits like submissiveness, caretaking and sensitive in their behavior while on the other hand men must be aggressive, ambitious and dominant. These factors not only influence the behavior of the person but also affect the language such as females must not have deep and husky voice, and they must speak softly and politely, whereas it is ok if men talk very loudly with high pitch voice (Giffron Nilson, 2014). These gender traits influence the behavior of child from the day he takes birth and the main source which gives shape to the child behavior on the basis of gender is its parents, teachers and culture. These sources are described below: Parents: parents are the first person who teach the child and give him understanding of his or her gender. Parents thoughts and understanding direct affect the individual and personality, and their own expectations from the men and women become the foundation of the childs behavior. They influence the personality of their childrens through their behavior towards men and women. Teachers: teachers are the person who shapes the personality of their student and they are the person who guides their student regarding gender roles after their parents. Research shows that teachers treat boys and girls differently in their classroom. Teachers teach their girls student to be calm, neat and quiet whereas boys are encouraged to speak and think. Media and culture: there is a great contribution of media in promoting gender roles. We can understand this with the help of example that is movie Meet the Parents. Starting scene of the movie was a person named Ben Stiller was in hospital room and treating the patient. Later on patient said thanks to stiller by assuming that he is a doctor because he is men. Ben replied on this thank you but I am not a doctor I am nurse. Later on in the same movie Stiller gets mocked to be nurse. This shows gender role in normal life. Society already made assumption that nurse job is suitable for women and men is not able to do this job (Krieger, n.d.). Gender roles are not given biologically, they are constructed by society. Society gives shape to the human behavior as per their culture. From the day child takes birth parents start treating them differently such as they dressed according to their gender, they get different household tasks and they play with different toys. Usually, teachers and parents discourage their childrens to do such task which are designed for other sex. Males are expected to behave in rigid and masculine behavior, and must not follow feminine traits and behavior. Whereas it was expected from girls that they develop feminine traits in their behavior and they must concentrate in finding a good mate and have children. It was found that number of girls develop traits that males found attractive instead of developing their own talent (Psychology, n.d.). Definition of gender roles vary according to time, and in modern period women have more expectation from their life such as career and childrens, and from men it was expected that they develop traits like sensibility, care in their behavior. Conclusion: In this we discuss the impact of gender on human behavior, and how this social factor shapes the personality of individual. While analyzing on this topic we found that it was expected from men to develop masculine traits in their behavior while on the other hand womens need to develop feminine traits in their behavior. At last, we conclude that from the changing era gender roles are also changing, and now womens have more expectations from their life and in case of men it is good if he behave sensibly and care for other rather being aggressive and dominant. References: Caragillis. Gender Roles. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://www.caragillis.com/LBCC/GenderRoles.htm. Krieger N. Genders, sexes, and health: What are the connectionsand why does it matter? International Journal of Epidemiology. 2003;32(4):652657. Giffron, R. Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology. DOI: 10.1002 Psychology, (2016). Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://psychology.com.pk/social-factors-affecting-human-behavior/. Dornsife, D. Gender Differences in Social Behavior. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendywood/gender-differences-in-social-behavior/.

Culture Ruled By Social Norms Essays - Social Psychology, Conformity

Culture Ruled By Social Norms Our culture is ruled by social norms. In America it is expected that we abide by these unwritten laws. Whether viewed by a small group of people or society as a whole, breaking such guidelines could have devastating effects. I choose to do my experiment with the least intimate group of people; total strangers. I feel that testing a norm that is shared by society, as a whole is the only effective way to understand peoples responds. It is customary to go to the end of the line; a norm violation would be to cut in front of people that have been waiting. I did this in very open, public places to record the sanctions people place on me. I did this with total strangers because with a more intimate group one might not get the same caliper of a responds. Often, people who are friends will let them join in line. Rarely do strangers allow someone to break in line, especially when not asked. The following observations and analysis are a result from informal sanctions placed on people who break social norms. To understand the reactions and behaviors of the people, one has to know why they picked that group of population. In two of my experiments, I purposely pick people of a much older age group then my own. Philosophy

Karyotyping essays

Karyotyping essays Karyotyping is used to identify chromosome abnormalities in order to determine whether an individual will be born with any syndromes. Scientists count the number of chromosomes in the sample and whether or not the chromosomes have any structural changes in them. If this is the case then the individual may have been born with a number of things, depending on the variations of chromosomes. The sample is normally some blood, or a marrow sample, placenta fluid or amniotic fluid. (Understanding Genetics: A molecular approach, p. 251) The procedures in getting these samples are different for each one; also the age of the child determines how the procedure will be done. The most painful of these is the bone marrow sample; while the most common is the blood sample. The sample of placenta fluid is taken only if there is a miscarriage; while the amniotic sample is drawn from the baby itself while it is in the womb. Because chromosomes contain thousands of genes, which are stored in DNA, they are ideal in performing tests to find out about a baby before it is born. After the specimen is collected it is grown in tissue culture and then harvested. After this, scientists then stain the chromosomes and view them under a microscope. Then they are photographed to provide a karyotype. (Understanding Genetics: A molecular approach, p. 251) A normal count is about the same for both male and female, with the exception of the sex chromosomes, of course. (DNA Microarrays; A Practical Approach, p. 148) But if the results are not normal then the results could be a number of different syndromes that could either mess up the sex of the baby or other aspects of the babys health. Karyotypes are very important in knowing the health of a baby before its born, and in letting parents know ahead of time whether their baby is going to be born with defects and if it is, things that they need to do in order to prepare for that. With proper info...

Canon in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Canon in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - Essay Example The canons describe the nature of the relationship that God required a man to establish both among themselves and with Him. By upholding the specific religious laws, the canons succeed in safeguarding the longevity of the faiths since successive lineages pass the canons orally or through articulate literature. In doing this, the canons further succeed in creating the peaceful and cohesive societies envisioned by God. The same concept and role of the canons manifest itself in Christianity as well. The first set of laws in the bible originates from God as he strives to regulate the behavior of the Israelites. With the introduction of Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus reaffirms the need for upholding the laws besides introducing a feature of liberty in the religion. In retrospect, the above discussion presents the position and the role of canons in the respective religions. The laws are both written and oral often passed down through a series of linages through the teachings of the reli gious leaders. The nature of the canons just as is the case with the other religions strives to unify the adherents of the faith by providing a standard for behavior. This results in the creation of holistic and equally cohesive societies. The Torah, which is the holy book in Judaism, provides a chronological set of required behaviors thus providing the adherents of the faith with a series of legislation often interpreted by the leaders of the religion thus ensuring the longevity of the faith as has been the case.

Don Martin Limited Marketing Analysis Case Study

Don Martin Limited Marketing Analysis - Case Study Example The business has attempted several strategies to increase its profits, including increasing the prices of its products, increasing production lines, and promoting the business through newspapers and radio. Due to these pitfalls, marketing strategy is exceptionally paramount for the success of the business (Pearce and Hardy 379). Most of the customers in this business are low income earners. They also live within the business jurisdiction. Due to their limited income, these customers require low priced products. To attract more customers from the area, Don Martin limited has decided to open credit account to its customers. Despite offering credit to customers, the business has continued to lose them due to poor services and high cost of its products. Frequent increases in price to maximize profit have, therefore, discouraged customers from shopping in Don Martin limited. To attract more customers and compete effectively in the market, the business should consider reducing the cost of its products. The demographic size in the business location is high. The business is located along the thoroughfare street right in the middle of the city blue-collar district (Michael and Kenneth 379). The business potential customers are blue-collar workers who constitute both middle and lower class males and females. There are different products in the business essential to the potential customers. The number of people in the town where the business is located is high enough to make the business succeed and earn adequate profit. To attract a considerable number of potential customers into the business, the business managers and administrators must consider improving the quality of their services. As confirmed by Don Martin, many customers expect quality services from the salespersons in the business. The business potential customers are middle aged people. Most of the products sold in the store are regularly used by middle aged people. Additionally, most of the blue-collar jobs a re done by energetic middle aged people. Middle aged people buy products from Don Martin limited during weekends and in the evenings. To attract most of these customers, Don Martin administrators should consider offering their services over the weekends and during evening hours. Middle aged people also prefer buying their household products close to their residential areas. Therefore, Don Martins limited should consider opening businesses nears their residential areas. They should also consider improving their services delivery. This is due to the fact that most young people prefer quality services for their money. To attract and retain middle aged customers, the business management should consider advancing its service delivery to potential customers. In the recent past, Don Martin limited has faced severe reduction in its customers due to its poor services. To attract more customers, Don Martin limited should conduct market survey to understand its customers’ needs. The bus inesses should ensure that the relevant products are offered to young people in their area of coverage. On the other hand, the business has also relied on outdated service delivery methods. As observed by Don Martin, the other stores have offered different products for shoppers to compare. Don Martin limited lacks variety of products and services for the potential shoppers to compare. In its early years, Don Martin lim

Housing and environmental issues Essay Example for Free

Housing and environmental issues Essay Community development officer: CDOs should have: †¢ the ability to communicate with a wide range of people †¢ the ability to manage a budget †¢ sensitivity in dealing with multi-cultural issues, such as religion †¢ networking skills and a good memory for names and faces †¢ the ability to work on their own initiative †¢ Commitment to social inclusion issues. CDOs may work for a local authority; he must also involve public decision in multi cultural communities housed by the associations. Public involvement in regeneration is widely held to be a good thing. There are very few who write about or comment on regeneration, however it is defined who do not claim that public involvement is an important if not essential component of effective and successful regeneration. And to a great extent this has been the position in the UK and elsewhere for well over a century. However, there are very few studies that have set out to measure and to analyse the impact of public involvement. In other words, few researchers have attempted to see what difference it makes in practice to involve the public and whether any such differences are positive, in the sense of being both anticipated and desired. There are, nevertheless, many studies that shed some light on the processes of public involvement and draw conclusions about its impact in specific cases. The conclusion of many of these studies is that public involvement did not work very well in practice: it was embarked upon too late; insufficient resources were provided to make it effective; the local environment was not very conducive; and key decisions continued to be taken by people not living in the areas affected. The importance of involving the public in attempts to improve and regenerate neighbourhoods has been recognised for many years. However, the consensus around the value and potential benefits of greater public involvement has probably never been stronger, not least because government has put it at the centre of its plans to modernise both the delivery of public services and the very processes of government. A simple theory of public participation The political imperatives driving forward the agenda of public participation are well established, but three stand out at present. First is the belief that participation is intrinsically good and worthwhile, and hence more participation is desirable. Second is the growing acknowledgement that many major policy issues do not appear to be capable of obvious resolution – they can be termed ‘wicked problems’ for this reason (Rittel and Weber, 1973). An obvious consequence of this recognition is to take a more open approach to their resolution, in other words to allow a wider range of partners into the arena of policy debate and hence to share the burden of resolution. Finally, there is a clear belief that greater participation is needed to stem if not reverse the apparent decline in social capital charted by Putnam (2001) and his followers (see DeFilipis, 2001). A slightly broader set of factors can be derived from the wider academic literature where at least four distinct explanations of or justification for greater public participation in government generally are apparent. Instrumentalist conceptions point to the fact that individuals are the best judges of their own interests and hence by participating in policy debates and political discussions they are best able to articulate and advance these interests. The job of government then lies in the aggregation of individual interests and the balancing of conflicting positions into a plausible public interest. Communitarian conceptions take a different approach and advocate a more collective or social approach among the participating public, such that a negotiated view of the public interest is provided to rather than by government. Of course government may then have to perform further rounds of aggregation or even facilitate further rounds of negotiation or consensus building, but the public plays a more prominent part in the social construction of their own idea of public interest. In this conception there is some degree of aggregation but government is still left to aggregate, adjudicate or reconcile the possibly conflicting views of different communities or even coalitions of communities. Educative approaches suggest that public participation helps in developing a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of policy issues; of the ethical dilemmas and the need to make trade-offs for example between price and quality or between the achievement of short and long term priorities. Finally, expressive conceptions of participation emphasise the opportunity that political participation gives individuals to express their political identity. Through active campaigning, displaying posters, attending rallies, donating money or time, one is able to demonstrate to the world at large that fact that one is a feminist, a socialist, a conservative, a nationalist and so on. It is of course important also to bear in mind that political participation can involve much more than voting in periodic elections, or even campaigning in them. Attending meetings about issues of local or international concern and taking part in participatory events such as juries, consensus conferences or citizens juries are also important as is participation in ongoing campaigns or lobbies, again from local (save our school) to global (save our planet) issues. There is something of a paradox here, in that there is plentiful data available on formal political involvement in voting, but relatively little available on the more prosaic but nevertheless significant everyday acts of involvement, such as going to meetings or simply engaging socially and maybe politically with ones neighbours (Hoggett and Bishop, 1986). In recent years some regular and extensive surveys have begun to provide valuable data of this type, but it is still the case that many sophisticated models of community engagement, civic renewal and social capital, have been constructed on flimsy empirical foundations (Prime, Zimmeck Zurawa, 2002). But to develop a simple model of participation we need to consider in some more detail questions along each of the three main dimensions implied in the expression: public participation in planning or policy making. Robert D. Putnam That Western society has changed dramatically since the middle of the 20th century. There is less agreement about what caused the changes, and whether they have been beneficial. One barometer of change in Western society is the level of ‘social capital’ (a concept popularised by Robert D. Putnam), which results from high levels of investment by citizens in their community. Putnam’s investigation of American society, Bowling Alone (2000), considers the full range of changes affecting America (and all western societies): declining participation in institutional Christianity; less involvement in sport and recreational clubs, politics, charitable causes, and volunteer work; and a radical re-shaping of the family though divorce, a lower birth rate, and a disinclination to marry at all. These trends, Putnam argues, result in diminished social capital. Putnam’s analysis of America holds for the three Anglophone members of George W. Bush’s ‘coalition of the willing,’ America, Britain and Australia, and may explain why hawkish, right-wing governments are the people’s choice at the start of the 21st century, despite an unprecedented liberality and inclusiveness throughout the second half of the 20th century. Putnam notes a range of factors responsible for civic disengagement: suburban sprawl; the popularity of television and electronic media; changed work patterns, including the large-scale entry of women into the workforce; and generational changes resulting in the ‘replacement of an unusually civic generation by several generations [Baby Boomers, Generations X and Y] †¦ that are less embedded in community life’ (p. 275). In the United States, where voting is optional, these developments dilute democracy, and societies with low participation rates tend to become distrustful. Untrusting citizens call for tougher; ‘law and order’ focused governments, resulting in the election of increasingly right-wing political parties. Social capital: 1. Definition The concept and theory of social capital dates back to the origins of social science; however, recent scholarship has focused on social capital as a subject of social organization and a potential source of value that can be harnessed and converted for strategic and gainful purposes. According to Robert David Putnam, the central premise of social capital is that social networks have value. Social capital refers to the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other. Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a societys social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions that underpin a society; it is the glue that holds them together However, social capital may not always be beneficial. Horizontal networks of individual citizens and groups that enhance community productivity and cohesion are said to be positive social capital assets whereas self-serving exclusive gangs and hierarchical patronage systems that operate at cross purposes to communitarian interests can be thought of as negative social capital burdens on society. 2. History of the research on the concept Robert David Putnam, if not the first one to write on the issue, is considered as the major author on the concept of social capital. He is a U. S. political scientist and professor at Harvard University, and is well-known for his writings on civic engagement and civil society along with social capital. However, his work is concentrated on the United States only. His most famous (and controversial) work, Bowling Alone, argues that the United States has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life (social capital) since the 1960s, with serious negative consequences. Though he measured this decline in data of many varieties, his most striking point was that virtually every traditional civic, social, and fraternal organization had undergone a massive decline in membership. From his research, a working group has formed at Harvard University and is called Saguaro Seminar. Most definitions around the social capital concept, notably those used by the World Bank, come from Putnam’s work and this research. 3. Measuring social capital The Saguaro Seminar, in the continuation of Putnam’s work, has been elaborating various means to measure the level of social capital in different contexts. It says on its website that measurement of social capital is important for the three following reasons: (a) Measurement helps make the concept of social capital more tangible for people who find social capital difficult or abstract; (b) It increases our investment in social capital: in a performance-driven era, social capital will be relegated to second-tier status in the allocation of resources, unless organizations can show that their community-building efforts are showing results; and (c) Measurement helps funders and community organizations build more social capital. Everything that involves any human interaction can be asserted to create social capital, but the real question is does it build a significant amount of social capital, and if so, how much? Is a specific part of an organization’s effort worth continuing or should it be scrapped and revamped? Do mentoring programs, playgrounds, or sponsoring block parties lead more typically to greater social capital creation? Measuring social capital: Towards a theoretically informed measurement framework for researching social capital in family and community life. by Wendy Stone. Research paper no. 24, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2001, 38p, ISBN 0 642 39486 5 To inform the Institutes Families, Social Capital and Citizenship project, this paper contributes to the development of clear links between theorised and empirical understandings of social capital by: establishing a theoretically informed measurement framework for empirical investigation of social capital; and reviewing existing measures of social capital in light of this framework. The paper concludes with a statement of guiding principles for the measurement and empirical investigation of social capital in family and community life. Social Capital as Credit Social capital, or aggregate reputation, is a form of credit. Some formal transactions can be supported by social capital. Informal transactions are rarely underpinned by financial credit or legal agreement and instead rely entirely social capital. We all have our internal calculators keeping tacit track of who is doing wrong and who is doing right, the health of the relationships and adjusting our actuarial tables according to experience. While undertaking government activities environment problems should also be considered. As it has became a global issue we need to take care of everything. Globalisation and cultural identity It is fair to say that the impact of globalization in the cultural sphere has, most generally, been viewed in a pessimistic light. Typically, it has been associated with the destruction of cultural identities, victims of the accelerating encroachment of a homogenized, westernized, consumer culture. This view, the constituency for which extends from (some) academics to anti-globalization activists (Shepard and Hayduk 2002), tends to interpret globalization as a seamless extension of – indeed, as a euphemism for – western cultural imperialism. In this discussion which follows we approach this claim with a good deal of skepticism. we will not seek to deny the obvious power of globalized capitalism to distribute and promote its cultural goods in every corner. Nor will we take up the argument – now very commonly made by critics of the cultural imperialism thesis (Lull 2000; Thompson 1995; Tomlinson 1991) that a deeper cultural impact cannot be easily inferred from the presence of such goods. What we will try to argue is something more specific: that cultural identity, properly understood, is much more the product of globalization than its victim. Identity as Treasure To begin, let us sketch the implicit (for it is usually implicit) reasoning behind the assumption that globalization destroys identities. Once upon a time, before the era of globalization, there existed local, autonomous, distinct and well-defined, robust and culturally sustaining connections between geographical place and cultural experience. These connections constituted one’s – and one’s community’s – ‘cultural identity’. This identity was something people simply ‘had’ as an undisturbed existential possession, an inheritance, a benefit of traditional long dwelling, of continuity with the past. Identity, then, like language, was not just a description of cultural belonging; it was a sort of collective treasure of local communities. But it was also discovered to be something fragile that needed protecting and preserving that could be lost. Into this world of manifold, discrete, but to various degrees vulnerable, cultural identities there suddenly burst (apparently around the middle of the 1980s) the corrosive power of globalization. Globalization, so the story goes, has swept like a flood tide through the world’s diverse cultures, destroying stable localities, displacing peoples, bringing a market-driven, ‘branded’ homogenization of cultural experience, thus obliterating the differences between locality-defined cultures which had constituted our identities. Though globalization has been judged as involving a general process of loss of cultural diversity, some of course did better, some worse out of this process. Identity as Cultural Power Let us begin with identity, a concept which surely lies at the heart of our contemporary cultural imagination. It is not, in fact, difficult in the prolific literature of analysis of the concept to find positions which contest the story of identity as the victim of globalization. Identity and Institutional Modernity This brings the central claim that globalization actually proliferates rather than destroys identities. In this respect we depart somewhat from Castells’s position: in setting identity as a sort of autonomous cultural dynamic, surging up from the grassroots as an oppositional force to globalization, Castells really fails to see the rather compelling inner logic between the globalization process and the institutionalized construction of identities. This, in other way, lies in the nature of the institutions of modernity that globalization distributes. To put the matter simply: globalization is really the globalization of modernity, and modernity is the harbinger of identity. It is a common assumption that identity-formation is a universal feature of human experience. Castells seems implicitly to take this view when he writes: ‘Identity is people’s source of meaning and experience’ (1997: 6). But whilst it is true that the construction of meaning via cultural practices is a human universal, it does not follow that this invariably takes the form of identity construction as we currently understand it in the global-modern West. This form of ethnocentric assumption has been recently criticized both by anthropologists and media and cultural critics. Globalization and Modernity To appreciate this, it is necessary to take a more complex view of the globalization process than is often adopted – certainly in the polemical discourses of the anti-globalization movement, where globalization is essentially understood as the globalization of capitalism, achieved in its cultural aspect via a complicate western dominated media system. This more complex, multidimensional conceptualization, which views globalization as operating simultaneously and interrelated in the economic, technological-communicational, political and cultural spheres of human life, is in fact relatively un-contentious – at least in principle – within academic discourses. But the cultural implication, rather less easily swallowed by some, is that globalization involves not the simple enforced distribution of a particular western (say, liberal, secular, possessive-individualist, capitalist-consumerist) lifestyle, but a more complicated dissemination of the entire range of institutional features of cultural modernity. References Putnam, R (2001) Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community, Touchstone, London Tomlinson, J (1999) Globalisation and culture, Policy Press, Cambridge Social capital: http://www. jrc. es/home/report/english/articles/vol85/ICT4E856. htm http://www. envplan. com/ http://www. infed. org/thinkers/putnam. htm http://www. naturaledgeproject. net/NAON_ch11. aspx