Jean Know †„Where the Gods Fly“ Essay

â€Å"Being the new one†, haven’t we all tried that before? Being the new kid in school, or being the new employee at work. Then, imagine being new in a completely different country, where you have to start from zero. Making new friends, creating a network, learning a new language and also a whole new culture, is all very challenging and overwhelming factors, when moving to a new place. This is actually the situation in Jean Know’s short story â€Å"Where the Gods Fly†, where a little family of three people emigrates from China to the USA, to create a new life by working and raising their daughter in school. In this short story, we hear about a mothers concern about, seeing her daughter being encapsulated in the Western culture. Whilst her husband, and father to their daughter Peal, is suffering from cancer. The parents of Pearl are working at a factory, and to avoid that Pearl would have to be home alone or stick around at the factory, they allow her to start dancing ballet. This gives their daughter a lot of unexpected success, and because they want Pearls to have a proper education and not live of dancing, they encourage her to quite dancing ballet. Parts of this paper will focus on the structure of the short story, and the contrast between the two â€Å"worlds† that are represented in the story. The story does not have an introduction, which means that is starts in medias res â€Å"I kneel here before the gods and the thought of what I am about to do stings my eyes like incense.† This is actually the end of the story, so the rest of the story will be leading us to how everything has come to this point. The story is not told chronologically, I would rather say that it was written with flashbacks or some kind of memory, because we first hear of the mother’s childhood and religious background, and then we hear of their life in America. As mentioned, we first hear about Pearls mother’s roots, and then we hear about how their life in America are progressing. The parents are working at the factory, and they do not have a lot time to spend with their daughter, we can see that in this sentence †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ her father and I spent our waking hours at the factory in Chinatown†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This means that Pearl stays home alone every day after school, and at some point her mother start to  feel guilty not to raise her child properly. This is resulting in a scholarship for Pearl, so she doesn’t have to stay home alone all day, but is this really what Pearls mom want her daughter to do? Actually not, the only reason she does this is to avoid, that her daughter will visit her American friends, because her mom doesn’t understand the Americans. This is a huge problem for her, because on the one side she wants to raise her daughter well and create a good life for her, but on the other side she is not willing to adapt the American culture, and this is what creates her problem. A huge contrast in this story is the contrast between the two cultures of China and America, where Pearl is trying to adapt the Western culture to make a new life and get accepted by her American friends, her mother tries to maintain her roots from growing up in China, and she is not willing to adapt the Western culture. In the story she talks about Pearls audition to the ballet school or scholarship, and here appears an obvious contrast of the two cultures, when Pearls mom says â€Å"We don’t belong here, I wanted to say, what do we simple Chinese know of these inhuman people with their impassive faces and elegant shoulders?†. Another contrast in the story is between the old and new world. The mother says, â€Å"When I was a girl in China, I was not permitted to go to classes. Much of the learning I possess, I picked up through lingering at the table, pretending to dust or sweep, as my brothers studied.† This is a way of telling her daughter that one day, she one only has herself to rely on, so it is very important to Pearl to get a proper education and not only focus on dancing. But it is also a way of getting her daughter to something, that she never got the opportunity to do herself. As the story progresses Pearl is actually becoming what her mother doesn’t want her to become, and as her mother is busy taking care of her ill husband, they are slowly drifting apart. In the end the mother says, â€Å"Buddhas, allow my daughter to understand some day why I take her greatest love away; I know this will be the blow that finally severs the already tenuous bounds between us.† Here she has come to the conclusion that it is the best thing for both Pearl and her to take her greatest love away, so that she can be just a normal girl. Because, the  mother states that Chinese people like them doesn’t have to be something special, they just have to fit in. And by this we are back to the beginning where the big decision has been made, but wants her daughter to resist the winds of fate and get to the place where the gods fly.

Ben and Jerry’s Case Study

This case study comes from the second edition of Business Strategy: an introduction published in 2001. It is very readable and interesting, providing students with insights into how two entrepreneurs who set up an ice cream shop in a renovated petrol station became the names behind one of the most well-known ice cream brands around the globe. Students will find out how Ben and Jerry tackled the almighty (at the time) Pillsbury and Hà ¤agen-Dazs, how they developed a brand to distinguish them from competitors which included a focus on people and giving back to society, and how they successfully used PR to come up trumps in the ‘ice cream war’.At the end of the case study you will find a series of questions for students to get them thinking critically about Ben & Jerry’s strategy from its humble beginnings to where it is now. The case also provides the opportunity for students to conduct research into the current state of play. They could find out how Ben & Jerryâ €™s have further developed their brand and product offerings (they now have ice cream counters in cinemas, they offer a full selection of Fair Trade ice creams, etc. ) and what competition they now face, if any.Students will find it helpful to read chapter 20 on social responsibililty and business ethics. They could also use this longer case study as a springboard for their work on the Strategic Planning Software (SPS), to which they have free access with purchase of the textbook. The beginning Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield became friends at school in the late 1960s in Burlington, Vermont in the North Eastern United States. Their reputation as the two ‘odd' eccentrics at school led them to form a strong friendship that would last for many decades.When they left school, both Ben and Jerry became ‘hippies' – social drop-outs who lived an alternative and unconventional lifestyle. They both grew their hair and a beard and together with their dog, Malcolm, they mo ved in together as flatmates. One of the interests they shared was in food and as they discussed various ways of making a living, they concluded that the two most exciting areas of fast food at the time were bagels and ice cream. Having established that the equipment needed to bake bagels would cost $40,000, the two men enrolled on an ice cream making correspondence course for the cost of $5 each.In 1978, having developed some basic ice cream recipes, Ben and Jerry set up a shop in a renovated petrol station in Burlington with a capital investment of $12,000 ($4,000 of which was borrowed). From the outset, Ben and Jerry wanted to produce a premium product and the fact that it was made from ‘fresh Vermont milk and cream' was stressed. The outlet was called ‘Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream' and to give the shop a unique and welcoming character, they employed a piano player to play blues in the background. Initially, the shop was a success amongst Burlington locals, many o f whom had known the men when they were growing up.The staff that Ben and Jerry employed were encouraged to take the same ‘hippiesh' view of business activity as the owners (‘every day was a party'), but the major competitive advantage arose from the uniqueness of the product. Whereas the majority of ice cream products were traditionally-flavoured, Ben and Jerry introduced unusual flavours with ‘chunks' to make the textures more interesting, such as fruit, chocolate, nuts, toffee and similar sweets. ‘Chunky' ice cream became the prominent feature of the new organisation's image. During the summer of 1978, customer numbers grew as the reputation of the shop and the ice cream grew.It was when the winter set in at the end of the year that the troubles began. Over the counter ice cream sales dried up and Ben and Jerry realised they would have to find other outlets for their products if they were to avoid bankruptcy. They persuaded a number of local grocers in Ver mont to stock the product in one pint tubs, but it soon transpired that a broader customer base would be needed. Having approached a number of national supermarket chains, Ben Cohen learned that the size of the business, not to mention his appearance and attitude to business, made the buyers reluctant to take stock from him.He was advised that he ought to seek to sell the ice cream to large independent ice cream distributors in neighbouring states who would then sell the product on to the major retail multiples. It was then that Ben and Jerry encountered a problem. The Pillsbury confrontation Ben approached the Dari-Farms corporation with a view to have it distribute Ben & Jerry's ice cream throughout the New England states. Dennis Silva, the company vice-president, agreed to take some Ben & Jerry's stock despite Ben's unconventional approach to business.In order to increase distribution further, Ben also approached Paul's Distributors where its chairman, Chuck Green, also agreed to act as a Ben & Jerry distributor. The market leader in the super-premium ice cream segment at the time was Hà ¤agen Dazs, which was then owned by the large US based Pillsbury Corporation. Pillsbury turned over $4 billion a year and had extensive food interests in addition to Hà ¤agen-Dazs including Green Giant (vegetables) and Burger King, the fast food outlet. Kevin Hurley, president of the Hà ¤agen Dazs subsidiary of Pillsbury, was the son-in-law of the company's founder, Reuben Matthus.Matthus had started Hà ¤agen-Dazs in 1959 in New York. He came up with the Danish-sounding name in the belief that it conjured up a feeling in the consumer of an exotic European brand. By 1984 when the confrontation with Ben & Jerry's took place, Hà ¤agen-Dazs held a 70% share of the super-premium ice cream market. When Hurley discovered that both Dari-Farms and Paul's were distributing Ben & Jerry's as well as Hà ¤agen-Dazs, he rang both Dennis Silva and Chuck Green. Although Ben & Jerry's still had only a tiny share of the market compared to Hà ¤agen-Dazs, Hurley was determined that the distributors he used were not going to help a competitor.â€Å"We didn't say to the distributor ‘You can't carry Ben & Jerry's. We asked them to make a choice'† said Hurley. â€Å"We just told them [Silva and Green] that they couldn't sell Ben & Jerry's and Hà ¤agen-Dazs. † This ‘it's us or them' ultimatum took the two distributors by surprise and it presented a distressing dilemma. â€Å"We were just stunned at this comment coming from Hà ¤agen-Dazs, this huge company where we were selling trailer loads of ice cream, versus this minuscule amount of Ben & Jerry's we were selling† said Chuck Green of Paul's Distribution. â€Å"They had drawn this line in the sand saying that we had to make a decision.†When Ben and Jerry heard of Hurley's threat, they arranged a meeting with the distributors to discuss the situation. In view of the potential of Ben & Jerry's, neither distributor wanted to stop taking their products, but at the same time, the thought of having Hà ¤agen-Dazs withdraw their supply could prove very damaging indeed. The three parties agreed that they would need legal representation if they were to take on the might of Pillsbury and they chose Howie Fuguet, a business lawyer who had spent his professional life defending large organisations. Like Ben and Jerry, Howie was an eccentric.He was said to have cared little for his appearance and had holes in his shoes. He agreed that Pillsbury had behaved in a curious way and sent off a letter to them setting out the nature of Ben & Jerry's grievance. Protesting that Hurley had acted unfairly, Howie wrote to the Board of Pillsbury. â€Å"It would be wishful thinking on the part of your subsidiary's officers [Hà ¤agen-Dazs] to imagine that it can bully Ben & Jerry's, stifle its growth and cause it to roll over† wrote Howie. â€Å"Ben & Jerry's represents a cla ssic entrepreneurial success story and its owners are aggressive.Hà ¤agen-Dazs will have to learn to compete on their merits in the market place. That is the American way and that is what competition is all about. † Notwithstanding the apparent ‘correctness' of Ben & Jerry's case, the legal odds were clearly stacked against them. If they couldn't beat the ‘bullying' Hà ¤agen-Dazs through normal legal channels, then another weapon would be needed. The ‘dough boy' campaign The key move was to make Pillsbury the target of the campaign and not Hà ¤agen-Dazs; Pillsbury was bigger and had more to lose. Since the mid 1960s, the symbol of Pillsbury was the Pillsbury ‘dough boy'.The dough boy was used by Pillsbury in its advertising and other corporate communications and was a valuable symbol of the company's identity. So as to avoid the appearance of an ‘ice cream war’ between two competitors, Howie proposed that they attacked the Pillsbury comp any by specifically targeting the dough boy. Accordingly, the What's the dough boy afraid of? campaign was launched, intentionally designed to appear as a ‘David versus Goliath' conflict where a small company (Ben & Jerry's) had been unfairly treated by a large ‘bully' in the shape of Pillsbury.â€Å"We didn't really know a thing about PR. We were just trying to survive† said Ben Cohen. â€Å"If we were going to go down, we wanted to let as many people as we could know what was going on. [We wanted to say that] the reason why you can't find Ben and Jerry's on the shelf is because this big corporation [Pillsbury] is trying to prevent you, the consumer, from having a choice about what kind of ice cream you want to buy. † The campaign included T-shirts, bumper stickers, bill posters and other media which all bore the statement â€Å"What's the dough boy afraid of? â€Å".Jerry launched a one-man campaign outside the Pillsbury headquarters in Minneapolis, Min nesota and it wasn't long before the local television news programmes started carrying the story on a regular basis. This made the public sympathise with Ben & Jerry's, but also provided a lot of free publicity for the company and its products. From its 17-strong legal department, Pillsbury assigned Richard Wegener to ‘get rid of' the ‘Ben & Jerry problem'. Wegener quickly realised the size of the task facing Pillsbury. â€Å"The publicity became bigger than the dispute itself† said Wegener.The reputation of Pillsbury was at stake and Wegener sought to bring a rapid end to the controversy. Realising that the campaign had grabbed the public's attention and the sympathies were predominantly with Ben & Jerry's, Wegener advised Hurley to back down. Kevin Hurley was persuaded to sign an out-of-court settlement agreeing not to coerce any distributors. The campaign was over and Ben & Jerry's had won. The controversy not only ensured the defeat of Pillsbury, it also acted unwittingly as an enormous amount of publicity for the Ben & Jerry's brand.After the victory The success of Ben & Jerry's after the Pillsbury confrontation was marked. The distribution channels were widened still further until Ben & Jerry's ice cream was supplied through supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, and food service operations, as well as through licensed ‘scoop shops’ (shops selling just their ice cream), franchised scoop shops, and company-owned scoop shops. By 1992, the company's turnover exceeded $130 million and it was on the verge of international development into the United Kingdom.In the super-premium ice cream sector, a number of new and distinctive product flavours were launched including ‘Milk chocolate ice cream and white fudge cows swirled with white chocolate ice cream and dark fudge cows,' ‘Chocolate comfort low fat ice cream,' ‘Mocha latte' and ‘Triple caramel chunk ice cream. ‘ In addition, non-ice cre am frozen desserts were introduced including a range of ice cream ‘novelties', frozen yoghurts and sorbets such as ‘Chunky Monkey frozen yoghurt – banana frozen yoghurt with fudge flakes and walnuts.'The Ben & Jerry's name and the company's reputation for quality meant that the new products became quickly adopted by the market. The personality of the founders helped to frame the company's culture and its mission. Two important statements were released which described the company's approach to its business. In 1988, the company stated that â€Å"We are dedicated to the creation and demonstration of a new corporate concept of linked prosperity. † This was articulated via its Philanthropy Statement and its Mission Statement.Ben & Jerry's Philanthropy Ben & Jerry's gives away 7. 5 percent of its pre-tax earnings in three ways: the Ben & Jerry's Foundation; employee Community action Teams at five Vermont sites; and through corporate grants made by the Director o f Social Mission Development. We support projects which are models for social change – projects which exhibit creative problem solving and hopefulness. The Foundation is managed by a nine member employee board and considers proposals relating to children and families, disadvantaged groups, and the environment.Mission Statement – Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's is dedicated to the creation & demonstration of a new corporate concept of linked prosperity. Our mission consists of three interrelated parts: wTo make, distribute and sell the finest quality all-natural ice cream and related products in a wide variety of innovative flavors made from Vermont dairy products. wTo operate the Company on a sound financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our shareholders, and creating career opportunities and financial rewards for our employees.wTo operate the Company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in the structure of society by in itiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life of a broad community – local, national, and international. Underlying the mission of Ben & Jerry's is the determination to seek new and creative ways of addressing all three parts, while holding a deep respect for the individuals, inside & outside the company, and for the communities of which they are a part. Questions for students: 1.Identify the stakeholders that Ben & Jerry’s and Hà ¤agen-Dazs had in common at the time of the controversy. 2. Which of Donaldson and Preston’s view of stakeholders did Hà ¤agen-Dazs have at the time of the confrontation? Provide evidence from the case in your answer. 3. Which of Donaldson and Preston’s view of stakeholders did Ben & Jerry’s have in the case? Provide evidence from the case in your answer. 4. Comment upon the ethical behaviour of the two ‘sides’ of the Pillsbury dough boy campaign. Which side, if either, was right?

Development, an Impetus to Urbanization Essay

New ways of thinking about government, science, economics, and religion had brought many changes to America by the eighteenth century. Concern for individual freedoms became so strong that it led to revolution in many lands. In Britain’s American colonies, revolution brought the establishment of a new nation, the United States. In the spring of 1775 few Americans, angry as they were, favored separation from Britain. Support for independence grew over the next six months as fighting continued and the colonists debated the issue. The Americans had declared their independence but still had to win it. They had capable leaders and were strengthened by their dedication to the cause of liberty. The Americans emerged victorious from the Revolutionary War and adopted a plan of government that became a model for other nations (Hinkle, 1994). Since then, modernization and urbanization became the twin paradigms of â€Å"pop culture† from that point on in America. For approximately two hundred years, people in the United States have been wandering towards the fringes in the hunt for reasonably priced domestic shelter, rural community conviviality, and well-preserved and intact nature only to learn that their verdant new neighborhoods are a component of the emergent metropolitan stretch. Modernization describes the process by which a society moves from traditional or pre-industrial social and economic arrangements to those characteristics of industrial societies. Implicit in the notion of modernization is the assumption that there is basically one predominant course of development, namely industrialization and urbanization which were followed by America (Todaro, 1981). This capitalistic and industrially advanced commerce became the impetus of urbanization in America. The relocation of the new technologies furnished the United States its first manufacturing plants, large-scale mills that incorporated spinning and knitting technology in a single factory. As workers drifted into the metropolis in the hunt for employment in the factories, the factory scheme was mainly accountable for the materialization of the urbanized city (Harris and Todaro, 1970). The development of dramatic socioeconomic modifications brought about when wide-ranging automation of assembly systems led to a swing from domestic hand manufacturing to across-the-board factory manufacture. The Industrial Revolution has transformed the visage of nations, creating metropolitan centers involving substantial urban services (Brody, 1989). Viewed in this manner, modernization entails a pattern of convergence as societies become increasingly and inevitably urban, industry comes to overshadow agriculture, the division of capitalistic labor becomes more specialized, colonialism gained a new meaning, and the size and density of the population increase with immigrants coming in from every point in the world (Cohen, 2004). Initially, inhabitants have sought commune, dwelling, and conserved environment in suburbia. People have continuously hankered after sighting their conurbations as human constructions built as one piece. Developers have taken pleasure in a range of imaginings, aiming for revenues from economies of scale and enlarged suburban crowdedness, while swaying opinion on municipal and federal administration to diminish the peril of real estate conjecture (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). Enclosing all environmental hullabaloos in addition to the intricacies of social stratum, ethnicity, and sexual category, several speculate how we mull over the communes Americans construct and make their homes in (Newman, 2006). It is apparent that population size and composition have a great composition have a great many ramifications for all phases of social life. The distribution of a population in space also assumes critical significance. The â€Å"where† may be an area as large as a continent or as small as a city block. Between these extremes are world regions, nations, national regions, states, cities and rural areas. Changes in the number and proportion of people living in various areas are the cumulative effect of differences in fertility, mortality, and net migration (Walls, 2004). One of the most significant developments in human history has been the development of cities. Although many of us take cities for granted, they are one of the most striking features of our modern era. A city is a relatively dense and permanent concentration of people who secure their livelihood chiefly through non-agricultural activities. The influence of the urban mode of life extends far beyond the immediate confines of a city’s boundaries. Many of the characteristics of modern societies, including problems, derive from an urban existence (Cohen, 2004). Urbanization has proceeded quite rapidly during the past two centuries. In 1800 there were fewer than fifty cities in the world with 100,000 or more population. And by 1900, only one in twenty earthlings lived in a city with a population of at least 100,000. Today. One in five people lives in a center with at least 100,000 people (Montgomery, et al. , 2004). Several of the spatial standards and social prospects of the 1800s and early 1900s hang about up till now, layers entwined in protocols, recollection, and experience, in addition to the metaphors of popular culture and the proclamations of draftsmen and urban developers. In the first part of the 1800s, inhabitants, pattern book authors, and engineers created long-term principles of quixotic houses established in picturesque landscape peopled by elite, private neighborhoods (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). Prevalent since the 1840s, the philosophy of female domesticity was married to a trend of mannish home occupancy, stretched out to subsume plebeian males three decades later. Communitarian activities started to have some bearing on draftsmen, landscapers, and engineers, a class of reformers on the up understood they may possibly fashion a transformative societal construction at the outer reaches of the metropolis (Kivisto, 2001). Picturesque enclaves began round about 1850. All over this time, the American suburban abode had turned out to be a private utopia, taking the place of the archetypal town which had taken on a range of Americans’ hopes a thousand years earlier (Satterthwaite, 2005). Nevertheless, it is time to revamp every layer in the discrete metropolitan terrain, and contemplate how to take in hand each variety, keeping in mind that property holder subsidies, developer subventions, and metropolitan services have been dispersed disproportionately over the decades and certain greater impartiality is looked-for. The long-standing enclaves may necessitate conservation, but aid should be rendered in exchange for communal access and construal of their privileged parks and natural terrains (Harris and Fabricius, 1996). New-fangled proposals for picturesque enclaves, such as Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, laid emphasis to communal open area and advanced joint public life (Satterthwaite, 2005). One communitarian community in Mount Vernon, New York, exerted a pull on roughly three-hundred families by putting forward fortification against the biased power and weight of capital; others urbanized model settlements to advance women’s repute through collective services and industrial sustenance (Alexander, et al. , 2004). Most early urban communities were city-states, and many modern nations have evolved from them. Even where the nation became large in both size and land area, the city has remained the focus for political and economic activities, and the core and magnet of much social life. To people of other nations, the city often represents the nation, and this tradition survives in the modern use of a city, such as Washington, London, and Moscow, as a synonym for a nation (Beauchemin and Bocquier, 2004). Industrial-urban centers typically been geographically scattered, and although dominating their hinterlands, have had only tenuous economic and social relations with them. More recently, metropolitan cities have emerged. This phase in urban development does not represent a sharp break with the industrial-urban tradition, but rather a widening and deepening of urban influences in every area of social life. Increasingly cities have become woven into an integrated network (Cohen, 2004). The technological base for the metropolitan phase of urbanism is found in the tremendous increase in the application of science to industry, the widespread use of electric power (freeing industry from the limitations associated with steam and belt-and-pulley modes of power), and the advent of modern forms of transportation (the automobile and rapid transit systems have released cities from the limitations associated with foot and hoof travel, which had more or less restricted growth to a radius of 3 miles from the center) (Todaro, 1981). Steam and belt-and-pulley power techniques had produced great congestion in urban areas by the beginning of the twentieth century. But a number of factors have increasingly come to the foreground and bucked earlier centripetal pressures, including rising city taxes, increased land values, traffic and transportation problems, and decaying and obsolescent inner zones. These and other forces have accelerated the centrifugal movement made technologically possible by electric power, rapid transit, the automobile, and the telephone (Harris, 1988). The result has been the development of satellite and suburban areas, broad, ballooning urban lands linked by beltways that constitute cities in their own right. In population, jobs, investment, construction, and chopping facilities, they rival the old inner cities. They are the sites of industrial plants, corporate offices and office towers, fine stores, independent newspapers, theaters, restaurants, superhotels, and big-league stadiums (Montgomery, et al. , 2004). A good deal of the sociological enterprise is directed toward identifying recurrent and stable patterns in people’s social interactions and relationships. In like fashion, sociologists are interested in understanding how people order their relationship and conduct their activities in space. They provide a number of models that attempt to capture the ecological patterns and structures of city growth (Newman, 2006). In the period between World Wars I and II, sociologists at the University of Chicago viewed Chicago as a social laboratory and subjected it to intensive study. The concentric circle model enjoyed a prominent place in much of this work. The Chicago group held that the modern city assumes a pattern of concentric circles, each with distinctive characteristics. At the center of the city, the central business district, are retail stores, financial institutions, hotels, theaters, and businesses that cater to the needs of downtown shoppers. Surrounding the central business district is an area of residential deterioration caused by the encroachment of business and industry, the zone in transition (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). In earlier days, thee neighborhoods had contained the pretentious homes of wealthy and prominent citizens. In later years they became slum areas and havens for marginal business establishments (pawnshops, secondhand stores, and modest taverns and restaurants). The zone in transition shades into the zone of workingmen’s homes that contain two-flats, old single dwellings, and inexpensive apartments inhabited largely by blue-collar workers. Beyond the zone occupied by the working class are residential zones composed primarily of small business proprietors, professional people, and managerial personnel. Finally, out beyond the area containing the more affluent neighborhoods is a ring of encircling small cities, towns, and hamlets, the commuters’ zone (Harris and Fabricius, 1996). The Chicago group viewed these zones as ideal types, since in practice no city conforms entirely to the scheme. For instance, Chicago borders on Lake Michigan, so that a concentric semicircular rather than a circular arrangement holds. Moreover, critics point out that the approach is less descriptive of today’s cities than cities at the turn of the twentieth century. And apparently some cities such as New Haven have never approximated the concentric circle patterns. Likewise, cities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa exhibit less specialization in land use than do those in the United States (Montgomery, et al. , 2004). Homer Hoyt has portrayed large cities as made up of a number of sectors rather than concentric circles, the sector model. Low-rent districts often assume a wedge shape and extend from the center of the city to its periphery. In contrast, as a city grows, high-rent areas move outward, although remaining in the same sector. Districts within a sector that are abandoned by upper-income groups become obsolete and deteriorate (Satterthwaite, 2005). Thus, rather than forming a concentric zone around the periphery of the city, Hoyt contends that the high-rent areas typically locate on the outer edge of a few sectors. Furthermore, industrial areas evolve along river valleys, watercourses, and railroad lines, rather than forming a concentric circle around the central business district. But like the concentric circle model, the sector model does not fit a good many urban communities, including Boston (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). Another model, the multiple nuclei model, depicts the city as having not one center, but several. Each center specializes in some activity and gives its distinctive cast to the surrounding area. For example, the downtown business district has as its focus commercial and financial activities. Other centers include the bright lights (theater and recreation) area, automobile row, a government center, a whole-sailing center, a heavy manufacturing district, and a medical complex. Multiple centers evolve for a number of reasons (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). First, certain activities require specialized facilities, for instance, the retail district needs to be accessible to all parts of the city; the port district requires suitable waterfront; and a manufacturing district dictates that a large block of land be available near water or rail connections. Second, similar activities often benefit from being clustered together. For instance, a retail district profits by drawing customers for a variety of shops. Third, dissimilar activities are often antagonistic to one another. For example, affluent residential development tends to be incompatible with industrial development (Dentler, 2002). And finally, some activities cannot afford high-rent areas and hence locate in low-rent districts; for instance, bulk wholesaling and storage. The multiple nuclei model is less helpful in discovering universal spatial patterns in all cities than in describing the unique patterns peculiar to particular communities (Todaro, 1981). Structure-function approaches help us to partition social life into discrete structures, including statuses and neighborhoods. They allow us to place a handle on the fluid quality of life so that we may grasp, describe, and analyze it, making it understandable and intelligible. But as many conflict and symbolic interactionist theorists emphasize, the dichotomy between structure and process gives birth to problems that are frequently unnecessary. For one thing, the dichotomy produces difficulty in handling change. Indeed, the word change itself is saturated with certain non-process connotations, implying a shift from one static and relatively stable to another (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). Most of the some of the United States are not necessarily one hundred per cent Americans. This is the result of the continuous social change that has taken place in the metropolitan cities over the past decades. Some cities have especially undergone a vivid transition from rural community to a modern suburb. Language, culture, religion, and ethnic heritage reinforce people’s sense of belonging. These are the bonds out of which will be created new communities. Some people insist that the forces that are making the world into a single economy have separated people from longstanding identities and have, at the same time, weakened nation-state (Davies, 2005). The everyday life of the rural people is uncomplicated and less complex than that of the urban inhabitants, and the rural resident are inclined to keep more of the speech patterns and traditions of their characteristic racial backgrounds (Cohen, 2004). A foremost setback in living in a highly developed city is the high cost of living, owing largely to the continent’s empowered economy (Dentler, 2002). Once, most part of the continent had heavily relied on imports. Transportation expenses were incorporated in the prices of the majority of consumer merchandise. As the residents number rise, housing grows more and more hard to obtain, and it is excessively high-priced when proportionate to housing costs in several of the mainland states. Building materials, nearly all of which are brought in from outside the country, are costly. Residential settlement is limited and expensive, given that much of the land is in possession of corporations and trusts (Harris and Todaro, 1970). Pains have been taken through legislation to correct this state of affairs. Thoroughly-designed housing situated in communities, in which the single-family home yield to high-rise, high-density houses and townhouses and apartment complexes, has become one solution to the lack and cost related to urban housing (Hayden, 2004). Urban settlement some time ago comprised more or less completely of single-family quarters, individual business buildings and stores, small bazaars, and three- or four-story inns. With the upsurge of inhabitants and vacationers since the early part of the 20th century, on the other hand, American states have built increasingly high-rise apartment building houses, hotels, and commercial establishments, with the conventional individual shopkeepers becoming wrapped up into the sets of buildings of shopping centers and supermarkets (Loomis and Beegle, 1950). Urban cities are where the majority of Americans reside at the present. It is the governing American edifying landscape, amalgamating esteemed natural and manufactured ecosystems, lots and single domestic houses. Urban cities are where a massive space of profit-making and residential landed property are bankrolled and erected. It is the locality of most of the charitable toil of fostering and parenting, mirroring both societal and ecological customs. Lastly, urbanized cities are where the large American body of voters live today (Alexander, et al. , 2004). References Alexander, Jeffrey C. , Gary T. Marx, and Christine L. Williams. (2004). Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs: Explorations in Sociology. University of California Press. Beauchemin, Cris and Philippe Bocquier, 2004, â€Å"Migration and Urbanization in Francophone West. Brody, David, 1989, â€Å"Labor History, Industrial Relations, and the Crisis of American Labor. † Industrial & Labor Relations Review. Cohen, Barney, 2004, â€Å"Urban Growth In Developing Countries: A Review Of Current Trends And A Caution Regarding Existing Forecasts†, World Development, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 23-51. Davies, Adam, 2005, â€Å"Migration, Development And Poverty. Towards And New Framework Of Impact Assessment†, Unpublished Dissertation, MSc Development Administration and Planning, Development Planning Unit, UCL, London. Dentler, Robert A. , 2002, Practicing Sociology: Selected Fields. Praeger. Harris, John R. and Michael P. Todaro, 1970, â€Å"Migration, Unemployment And Development: A Two-Sector Analysis†, The American Economic Review, Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 126-142. Harris, Nigel, 1988, â€Å"Economic Development and Urbanization †, Habitat International, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 5-15. Harris, Nigel and Ida Fabricius (eds. ), 1996, Cities and Structural Adjustment, UCL Press, London. Hayden, Dolores, 2004, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. Vintage Books. Hinkle, Gisela J. , 1994, The Development of Modern Sociology: Its Nature and Growth in the United States. Random House. Kivisto, Peter, 2001, Illuminating Social Life. California: Pine Forge Press. Loomis, Charles P. , and J. Allan Beegle, 1950, Urban Social Systems: A Textbook in Urban Sociology and Anthropology. Prentice Hall. Montgomery, Mark R. et al. , 2004, Cities Transformed. Demographic Change and its Implications in the Developing World, Earthscan, London. Newman, Peter, 2006, â€Å"The Environmental Impact Of Cities†, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 275-295. Satterthwaite, David, 2005, â€Å"The Scale Of Urban Change Worldwide 1950-2000 And Its Underpinnings†, Human Settlements Discussion Paper Series Urban Change No. 1, IIED, London. Todaro, M. , 1981, â€Å"Rural To Urban Migration: Theory And Policy†, in Todaro, M. , Economics for a Developing World, Macmillan, London. Walls, Michael, 2004, â€Å"Facts And Figures On Rural And Urban Change†, Report to DFID, Development Planning Unit, UCL.

State of the UK construction industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

State of the UK construction industry - Essay Example These changes in growth of the construction industry in United Kingdom point to long term stagnation and possible shrinking of the industry. While the global financial crisis has been blamed far and wide for these drops in performance across many industries but it must be realised that industrial shortcomings have also contributed to these changes. The current situation is unlike but comparable to stagnation in the construction industry in the past. The previous periods of stagnation and negative growth in the construction industry required government impetus to crawl out of their problems. However, this time around governmental support seems to be unlikely to drive growth in the construction industry. The government has already announced a 20% cut in the capital expenditure over a period of four years but this has failed to attract the attention of the private sector. In turn this has exacerbated the situation on ground. The structural gaps in the construction industry in the United Kingdom need to be looked into in order to find workable solutions. This must be explored in a historical perspective as well in order to discern the previous attempts at resolving issues. These could be taken as guidelines in order to see how the construction industry in United Kingdom is expected to perform in the future. ... A number of different governments in the United Kingdom undertook various forms of studies in order to improve the state of the construction industry and its practices. Various institutional reports have also highlighted the need for change in order to improve the state of the construction industry. Overall the concerns exhibited both by institutional reports and government surveys have remained the same. Such investigations have often blamed building projects for possessing more problems than other areas. Consequently the focus of improvements has also been the building construction sector. Generally the performance of different building construction projects is targeted using indicators such as cost, time and quality. While these indicators may serve to highlight the performance of smaller projects but these indicators cannot be considered as a holistic solution for all kinds of construction projects. As mentioned before, a number of reports were construed to deal with the problems in the construction industry. The earliest of these reports can be traced back to the 1960’s but no report was able to garner industry and government support enough to warrant change (Ward & Crane, 2003). This trend of non recognition and resistance to change was changed by the investigation conducted by the Latham Report. Unlike previous findings on this issue, the Latham Report was able to garner governmental support for change. The Latham Report (1994) Sir Michael Latham was asked by the government of United Kingdom and relevant construction industry organisations to look into industrial practices for procurement and contracting. Latham was given the task of looking into

No specific topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

No specific topic - Essay Example Parsons table has four square legs, which has the same thickness as its deck or top, whatever may be the length or width of the table. It has maximally influenced human behaviours, because it is being part of many homes and also because the people have modified the table according to their purposes. â€Å"Essentially it’s a sleek, spare, versatile table that designer Susan Brunstrum believes every home needs.† (Gerlach Group 2011). In the first part of the 20th century, it was used as a deluxe decorative furniture item without mass use. However, as part of changing culture, people wanted a decorative table, which can be used in a multipurpose manner. â€Å"Its striking design makes it the perfect cocktail table, coffee table, dining table, side table or occasional table,’’ (Gerlach Group 2011). Credenzas are storage cabinets with both fixed cabinets and adjustable shelves. When it was launched in line with culture of perfectionism in early 1960s’, it came up with perfect and at the same time cool and interesting designs. As people from various regions showed interest in this product, it became further adaptive, as it incorporated different fabrics, different metal finishes, etc.

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 15

Case study - Essay Example This event is investigated in light of the company’s behavior post the oil spill and their consequent reaction in front of the press and as expressed in their annual reports. More specifically, this paper looks at how BP’s reaction post the disastrous oil spill ties in with the theories about company behavior. There is extensive secondary research that discusses company behavior and explains how and why a company might behave in certain specific situations. According to the legitimacy theory, an organization only acts according to the behavior that is deemed correct and wanted by society it operates in and as deemed fit by other potentially influential parties; the actions performed by the company should thus be ‘socially acceptable’ otherwise the company will have trouble operating in a society that thinks of it as ‘unethical’, ‘immoral’ or ‘unable to comply with social norms or requirements’ and will be fast rolling downhill on its way to failure. (O’Donovan, 2002, p.344). Results of some empirical researches confirm the legitimacy theory (Branco and Rodrigues, 2006, p.232; Deegan et al., 2002, p.312) while on the other hand, some scholars and their studies outright reject the concept put forward by the legitimacy theory (Guthri e and Parker, 1989, p.343). According to research, the stakeholder theory explains how a company may be portrayed with regards to the internal relations between different units and individuals that comprise it and that this may manipulate the firm’s performance. According to this theory, the company’s stakeholders include not only shareholders, but also other groups such as employees, suppliers, society, etc that have an inherent stake in how the company performs. (Freeman et al., 2010, p.28; Jones, 1995, p.407). critics of the stakeholder theory say that the nature of the relationships between the management and investors are always different from the nature of the associations

Case Study 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

2 - Case Study Example It had the expertise, and had the best knowledgeable game developers in the market then. With these strengths defined, the management could have looked at the weaknesses. Weaknesses are the internal factors that if not managed properly can potentially affect an organization’s very existence. Weaknesses in most times are what other competitors dwell in in offer to win a competitive advantage over other firms in the same industry. When Kotick took over the leadership of the activation blizzard company, he looked at the weaknesses of the EA Company, and capitalized on t5hese to get the company on it5s feet again. After a number of years, the company surpassed the company in the level of sales and the market share. Had EA seen these weaknesses and capitalized on them, perhaps Activision Blizzard would not have taken over from its market leadership. In essence, an opportunity is an unexploited business idea. Kotick, after joining the industry saw a number of opportunities that EA c ould not see. Subsequently, the company managed to take over the leadership of the gaming business from the EA Company. Therefore, exploiting these opportunities before Activision Blizzard could, would have given the company a competitive advantage and saved it from the slippage that it currently faces. Threats on the other hand are a myriad of setbacks that would potentially affect the existence of the company. Competitors are part of the threatening factors for a company, a factor that EA never saw until it was very late. By the time it realized the strength of Activision Blizzard, it was too late as it controlled the biggest portion of the video-games market. 2. Michael Porter’s generic strategies theory consists of three strategies that businesses apply in order to stay ahead of their competition thus maintaining their competitive advantage. Porter classified these strategies into two dimensions, which included the strategic scope and the strategic strength competitive ad vantages. While the strategic scope focuses on the demand side by particularly paying attention to the size and composition of the market, strategic dimension focuses on the supply side of the organization, especially how to meet the needs of the target market (Mun, 10). In his theory, the cost leadership strategy involved two main ways of achieving the competitive advantage in a market, i.e. profit maximization by reducing costs but charging industry rates, or increasing the market share by charging lower market prices. Since the main objective of cost leadership is cost maximization, the costs that customers have to pay for commodities is a different issue (Mun 10). EA could have charged exorbitant prices for its games, regardless of the supply in the market. Perhaps, its games priced high, despite the market prices being relatively low. This way, customers could have preferred the company’s biggest competitor, Activision Blizzard. Differentiation strategy is the manner in which companies strive to make their products unique from the rest of the competitors in the industry. Through research, an organization can provide high quality products and through effective sales and marketing strategies. While Activision Blizzard capitalized on the features of its games, and providing its customers with improved games, EA relaxed, and never improved on the quality of its games through features. Activision

Discussing Issues Relating to Oceanography Assignment

Discussing Issues Relating to Oceanography - Assignment Example A substance melts when its molecules move apart and have a â€Å"wider range† of motion than is possible in the solid state (Yong and Wai 197). During boiling or conversion from liquid to vapor state, energy is not only required for overcoming the attractive forces between molecules but also for expanding the vapor against the atmospheric pressure. The energy required for this process is called latent heat of vaporization. In this case, too, the kinetic energy of the molecules remains constant. Latent heat of melting only breaks down a few bonds between molecules while latent heat of fusion breaks down all the bonds. Moreover, during vaporization, the molecules are reorganized more vigorously than during melting. Therefore, the latent heat of vaporization is greater than the latent heat of fusion. For example, the latent heat of melting of ice (6.0Ãâ€"103 Jmol-1) is only 15% of the latent heat of vaporization (Adkins 79). This is because of the strong intermolecular forces between water molecules. Water molecules are polar because of charge separation between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, where oxygen atoms are partially negative and hydrogen atoms are partially positive. Because of the presence of positive and negative poles, each water molecule bonds with other water molecules. This leads to strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The boiling point and the freezing/melting point of water are higher than that of other compounds of similar makeup, such as H2S, H2Te and H2Se, because larger amounts of heat are required to overcome the strong hydrogen bonds in water compared to other compounds where hydrogen bonds are absent. Thus, the freezing point of water (which is equal to the melting point) is 100 ºC higher than expected and the boiling point is 200 ºC higher than expected (Spencer, Bodner, and Rickard 333).

Managing change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Managing change - Essay Example Among these businesses, there are oil fields in different countries globally, wind power production plants, and natural gas processing plants. The corporation’s business fell under the threat of diminishing levels of performance following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill three years ago (Freudenburg & Gramling, 2011). The following discussion establishes the prevailing changes in concern to the factors of production, and the relationship with the company and the global society. Analytical discussion to the causes of oil spill change Following the 2010 oil spill, British Petroleum Company established that the situation affected the broad global society from the locals that depended on the seafood as a source of livelihood to the end consumer of BP’s petroleum products. The company lacked credibility from the society as the spill caused havoc to the environment and led to destruction of natural resources (Druskat and Wolff, 2001:45). For example, the spill led to deaths of ov er ten employees, and harbored fishing as it considerably led to the death of fish and other sea organisms that remained integral to the society’s benefits. The spill affected the ecosystem and postulated remorse from the diverse human society. Therefore, BP’s management established that the ideal resolution to the increased aggression of the society because of the company’s accident would be the implementation of policies that would reshape the organization’s image towards the general environment. Precisely, the corporation established the changes as achievable through rendering and delivering support from people within the system (Gido & Clements, 2012). British Petroleum Company established that the business programs were undergoing diminishing levels of performance thus denoting the need for strategic resolution to ensure growth to the desired extend. The valuable approaches that the management resolves to use and establish the corporation’s pe rceived current state of business (Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson, 1998:35). With the increased remorse and decreased customer loyalty, the corporation analytically established change as a precise role of targeting ascertainment of the objectives. Initially, the corporation had competitively preserved a profitable market share ahead of other competitors including Royal Dutch Company, Shell, and Exxon Company. However, through enlightening of the global society into adapting environmentally friendly matters, the company fell under a situation of diminishing performances as the loyalty for its business undertakings dwindled accordingly following the oil spill. Arguably, the company resolved to develop a precise plan that would steer acquisition of the set recovery measures. Further, changes were set to recuperate the damages following the loss of the $560 million oil rig that drained the company’s capital base after environmental concerns raised and the company resulted to inject billions of dollars to the cleaning exercise. The changes deferred the company’s profitability forecasts following the capital deviation to budget for the cleaning exercise of the ocean rather than production of the oil to reach the end consumer profitably. British Petroleum Company became a victim to the environmental measures and the abiding fines after they deceived the authorities that the situation was under control, but failed to accomplish the promise (World Bank, 2012). United States of America

Topic Exploration Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Topic Exploration Paper - Essay Example In most western countries like America, fatherhood has undergone a revolution. This revolution has been brought about a change in the traditional gender roles where women were involved in reproductive while men carried out the productive roles to sharing of parenthood responsibilities as the women go into productive roles as well. Women were purely the care givers and men the breadwinners. This therefore distanced them from any direct involvement in their children’s lives other than providing the meals for them while the mother did all the other things for them. As society evolved and women began advocating for their own equality and equity rights, the men started getting more involved in childhood responsibilities other than just fathering and provision of food. The 20th Century has seen fatherhood rise to the status of fathers raising their own children without the presence of a mother or wife. It has also seen gay men becoming fathers and bringing up their own kids without the presence of the traditional family setup of mother, father and child and these children still grow up like other children (Ozgun, Erden and Ciftci, 2011). Fathers have started getting more interested in the other aspects of their children’s lives other than just grooming them towards being the heirs to their property. They care about their other previously trivial aspects of their lives like their health both psychological wellbeing as well as physical wellbeing, their education and their social life as well. Fathers of this era are seen taking their children to sports, to hospitals for checkups, and to recreational facilities for bonding which was non-existent and still in in other cultures. When it comes to African societies, there is a division between those who have become urbanized and hence taken up similar fatherhood roles with the western societies as explained earlier and those who

Hypercoagulable State Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hypercoagulable State - Assignment Example This medication is Dalteparin Sodium 5000 IU o.d. The reason I chose this medication and not others is because this medication minimizes the time that patients are not therapeutically anticoagulated, thus reduces the risk of thromboembolism (Leizorovicz et al., 2004). Moreover, a fixed low dose rate of LWMH has proved to be reliable as compared to the other classes of medication. This is because it diminishes the chances of thrombotic complications (Erkens & Prins, 2010). Adverse drug reactions include bleeding at any site, pain and reactions at the injection site, hair loss, haematoma, and type 1 thrombocytopenia. These side effects can be managed by alerting any medical attendant so that they give the correct management guidelines. However, these side effects go away on their own after some time (Bick, 2002). Worst case scenarios include bleeding from the injection site, allergic reaction signs (swelling of the lips, face, tongue, rash, difficulty in breathing), nose bleeding, bloody stools, increased menstrual bleeding, and signs of stroke. If the mentioned worst case scenarios happen, then the patient must stop taking the medication immediately medical attention immediately. Several drugs have been known to interact with Dalteparin i.e. platelet inhibitors, oral anticoagulants, and thrombolytics. The combination of Dalteparin with these drugs has shown that the risk outweighs the benefit. I.e. severe bleeding may be seen when the drug is combined with other blood thinning agents and anticoagulants, Dalteparin has been known to increase potassium levels when combined with ACE inhibitors. Combinations have to avoid with Dalteparin unless under special circumstances. An applicable measure for this patient is not combining Dalteparin with any other medication (Burton, 2005). I prescribed a generic name. No, there is no available generic version for this medication. The brand name for the medication

Internet Addiction Essay Example for Free

Internet Addiction Essay Abstract Problematic computer use is a growing social issue which is being debated worldwide. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) ruins lives by causing neurological complications, psychological disturbances, and social problems. Surveys in the United States and Europe have indicated alarming prevalence rates between 1.5 and 8.2% [1]. There are several reviews addressing the definition, classification, assessment, epidemiology, and co-morbidity of IAD [2-5], and some reviews [6-8] addressing the treatment of IAD. The aim of this paper is to give a preferably brief overview of research on IAD and theoretical considerations from a practical perspective based on years of daily work with clients suffering from Internet addiction. Furthermore, with this paper we intend to bring in practical experience in the debate about the eventual inclusion of IAD in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).Problematic computer use is a growing social issue which is being debated worldwide. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) ruins lives by causing neurological complications, psychological disturbances, and social problems. Surveys in the United States and Europe have indicated alarming prevalence rates between 1.5 and 8.2% [1]. There are several reviews addressing the definition, classification, assessment, epidemiology, and co-morbidity of IAD [2-5], and some reviews [6-8] addressing the treatment of IAD. The aim of this paper is to give a preferably brief overview of research on IAD and theoretical considerations from a practical perspective based on years of daily work with clients suffering from Internet addiction. Furthermore, with this paper we intend to bring in practical experience in the debate about the eventual inclusion of IAD in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Keywords: Addiction, Computer, Internet, reSTART, Treatment. INTRODUCTION The idea that problematic computer use meets criteria for an addiction, and therefore should be included in the next iteration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 4th ed. Text Revision [9] was first proposed by Kimberly Young, PhD in her seminal 1996 paper [10]. Since  that time IAD has been extensively studied and is indeed, currently under consideration for inclusion in the DSM-V [11]. Meanwhile, both China and South Korea have identified Internet addiction as a significant public health threat and both countries support education, research and treatment [12]. In the United States, despite a growing body of research, and treatment for the disorder available in out-patient and in-patient settings, there has been no formal governmental response to the issue of Internet addiction. While the debate goes on about whether or not the DSM-V should designate Internet addiction a mental disorder [12-14] people currently suffering from Internet addiction are seeking treatment. Because of our experience we support the development of uniform diagnostic criteria and the inclusion of IAD in the DSM-V [11] in order to advance public education, diagnosis and treatment of this important disorder. CLASSIFICATION There is ongoing debate about how best to classify the behavior which is characterized by many hours spent in non-work technology-related computer/Internet/video game activities [15]. It is accompanied by changes in mood, preoccupation with the Internet and digital media, the inability to control the amount of time spent interfacing with digital technology, the need for more time or a new game to achieve a desired mood, withdrawal symptoms when not engaged, and a continuation of the behavior despite family conflict, a diminishing social life and adverse work or academic consequences [2, 16, 17]. Some researchers and mental health practitioners see excessive Internet use as a symptom of another disorder such as anxiety or depression rather than a separate entity [e.g. 18]. Internet addiction could be considered an Impulse control disorder (not otherwise specified). Yet there is a growing consensus that this constellation of symptoms is an addiction [e.g. 19]. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) recently released a new definition of addiction as a chronic brain disorder, officially proposing for the first time that addiction is not limited to substance use [20]. All addictions, whether chemical or behavioral, share certain characteristics including salience, compulsive use (loss of control), mood modification and the alleviation of distress, tolerance and withdrawal, and the continuation despite negative consequences. DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR IAD The first serious proposal for diagnostic criteria was advanced in 1996 by Dr. Young, modifying the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling [10]. Since then variations in both name and criteria have been put forward to capture the problem, which is now most popularly known as Internet Addiction Disorder. Problematic Internet Use (PIU) [21], computer addiction, Internet dependence [22], compulsive Internet use, pathological Internet use [23], and many other labels can be found in the literature. Likewise a variety of often overlapping criteria have been proposed and studied, some of which have been validated. However, empirical studies provide an inconsistent set of criteria to define Internet addiction [24]. For an overview see Byun et al. [25]. Beard [2] recommends that the following five diagnostic criteria are required for a diagnosis of Internet addiction: (1) Is preoccupied with the Internet (thinks about previous online activity or anticipate next online session); (2) Needs t o use the Internet with increased amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction; (3) Has made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop Internet use; (4) Is restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use; (5) Has stayed online longer than originally intended. Additionally, at least one of the following must be present: (6) Has jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the Internet; (7) Has lied to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet; (8) Uses the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression) [2]. There has been also been a variety of assessment tools used in evaluation. Young’s Internet Addiction Test [16], the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) developed by Demetrovics, Szeredi, and Pozsa [26] and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) [27] are all examples of instruments to assess for this disorder. PREVALENCE The considerable variance of the prevalence rates reported for IAD (between 0.3% and 38%) [28] may be attributable to the fact that diagnostic criteria and assessment questionnaires used for diagnosis vary between countries and studies often use highly selective samples of online surveys [7]. In their  review Weinstein and Lejoyeux [1] report that surveys in the United States and Europe have indicated prevalence rates varying between 1.5% and 8.2%. Other reports place the rates between 6% and 18.5% [29]. â€Å"Some obvious differences with respect to the methodologies, cultural factors, outcomes and assessment tools forming the basis for these prevalence rates notwithstanding, the rates we encountered were generally high and sometimes alarming.† [24] ETIOLOGY There are different models available for the development and maintenance of IAD like the cognitive-behavioral model of problematic Internet use [21], the anonymity, convenience and escape (ACE) model [30], the access, affordability, anonymity (Triple-A) engine [31], a phases model of pathological Internet use by Grohol [32], and a comprehensive model of the development and maintenance of Internet addiction by Winkler Dà ¶rsing [24], which takes into account socio-cultural factors (e.g., demographic factors, access to and acceptance of the Internet), biological vulnerabilities (e.g., genetic factors, abnormalities in neurochemical processes), psychological predispositions (e.g., personality characteristics, negative affects), and specific attributes of the Internet to explain â€Å"excessive engagement in Internet activities† [24]. NEUROBIOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES It is known that addictions activate a combination of sites in the brain associated with pleasure, known together as the â€Å"reward center† or â€Å"pleasure pathway† of the brain [33, 34]. When activated, dopamine release is increased, along with opiates and other neurochemicals. Over time, the associated receptors may be affected, producing tolerance or the need for increasing stimulation of the reward center to produce a â€Å"high† and the subsequent characteristic behavior patterns needed to avoid withdrawal. Internet use may also lead specifically to dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens [35, 36], one of the reward structures of the brain specifically involved in other addictions [20]. An example of the rewarding nature of digital technology use may be captured in the following statement by a 21 year-old male in treatment for IAD: â€Å"I feel technology has brought so much joy into my life. No other activity relaxes me or stimulates me like technolo gy. However, when depression hits, I tend to use technology as a way  of retreating and isolating.† REINFORCEMENT/REWARD What is so rewarding about Internet and video game use that it could become an addiction? The theory is that digital technology users experience multiple layers of reward when they use various computer applications. The Internet functions on a variable ratio reinforcement schedule (VRRS), as does gambling [29]. Whatever the application (general surfing, pornography, chat rooms, message boards, social networking sites, video games, email, texting, cloud applications and games, etc.), these activities support unpredictable and variable reward structures. The reward experienced is intensified when combined with mood enhancing/stimulating content. Examples of this would be pornography (sexual stimulation), video games (e.g. various social rewards, identification with a hero, immersive graphics), dating sites (romantic fantasy), online poker (financial) and special interest chat rooms or message boards (sense of belonging) [29, 37]. BIOLOGICAL PREDISPOSITION There is increasing evidence that there can be a genetic predisposition to addictive behaviors [38, 39]. The theory is that individuals with this predisposition do not have an adequate number of dopamine receptors or have an insufficient amount of serotonin/dopamine [2], thereby having difficulty experiencing normal levels of pleasure in activities that most people would find rewarding. To increase pleasure, these individuals are more likely to seek greater than average engagement in behaviors that stimulate an increase in dopamine, effectively giving them more reward but placing them at higher risk for addiction. MENTAL HEALTH VULNERABILITIES Many researchers and clinicians have noted that a variety of mental disorders co-occur with IAD. There is debate about which came first, the addiction or the co-occurring disorder [18, 40]. The study by Dong et al. [40] had at least the potential to clarify this question, reporting that higher scores for depression, anxiety, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, and psychoticism were consequences of IAD. But due to the limitations of the study further research is necessary. THE TREATMENT OF INTERNET ADDICTION There is a general consensus that total abstinence from the Internet should not be the goal of the interventions and that instead, an abstinence from problematic applications and a controlled and balanced Internet usage should be achieved [6]. The following paragraphs illustrate the various treatment options for IAD that exist today. Unless studies examining the efficacy of the illustrated treatments are not available, findings on the efficacy of the presented treatments are also provided. Unfortunately, most of the treatment studies were of low methodological quality and used an intra-group design. The general lack of treatment studies notwithstanding, there are treatment guidelines reported by clinicians working in the field of IAD. In her book â€Å"Internet Addiction: Symptoms, Evaluation, and Treatment†, Young [41] offers some treatment strategies which are already known from the cognitive-behavioral approach: (a) practice opposite time of Internet use (discover patientâ €™s patterns of Internet use and disrupt these patterns by suggesting new schedules), (b) use external stoppers (real events or activities prompting the patient to log off), (c) set goals (with regard to the amount of time), (d) abstain from a particular application (that the client is unable to control), (e) use reminder cards (cues that remind the patient of the costs of IAD and benefits of breaking it), (f) develop a personal inventory (shows all the activities that the patient used to engage in or can’t find the time due to IAD), (g) enter a support group (compensates for a lack of social support), and (h) engage in family therapy (addresses relational problems in the family) [41]. Unfortunately, clinical evidence for the efficacy of these strategies is not mentioned. Non-psychological Approaches Some authors examine pharmacological interventions for IAD, perhaps due to the fact that clinicians use psychopharmacology to treat IAD despite the lack of treatment studies addressing the efficacy of pharmacological treatments. In particular, selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been used because of the co-morbid psychiatric symptoms of IAD (e.g. depression and anxiety) for which SSRIs have been found to be effective [42-46]. Escitalopram (a SSRI) was used by Dell’Osso et al. [47] to treat 14 subjects with impulsive-compulsive Internet usage disorder. Internet usage  decreased significantly from a mean of 36.8 hours/week to a baseline of 16.5 hours/week. In another study Han, Hwang, and Renshaw [48] used bupropion (a non-tricyclic antidepressant) and found a decrease of craving for Internet video game play, total game play time, and cue-induced brain activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after a six week period of bupropion sustained release treatment. Methylphenidate (a psycho stimulant drug) was used by Han et al. [49] to treat 62 Internet video game-playing children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. After eight weeks of treatment, the YIAS-K scores and Internet usage times were significantly reduced and the authors cautiously suggest that methylphenidate might be evaluated as a potential treatment of IAD. According to a study by Shapira et al. [50], mood stabilizers might also improve the symptoms of IAD. In addition to these studies, there are some case reports of patients treated with escitalopram [45], citalopram (SSRI)- quetiapine (antipsychotic) combination [43] and naltrexone (an opioid receptor antagonist) [51]. A few authors mentioned that physical exercise could compensate the decrease of the dopamine level due to decreased online usage [52]. In addition, sports exercise prescriptions used in the course of cognitive behavioral group therapy may enhance the effect of the intervention for IAD [53]. Psychological Approaches Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client-centered yet directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving client ambivalence [54]. It was developed to help individuals give up addictive behaviors and learn new behavioral skills, using techniques such as open-ended questions, reflective listening, affirmation, and summarization to help individuals express their concerns about change [55]. Unfortunately, there are currently no studies addressing the efficacy of MI in treating IAD, but MI seems to be moderately effective in the areas of alcohol, drug addiction, and diet/exercise problems [56]. Peukert et al. [7] suggest that interventions with family members or other relatives like â€Å"Community Reinforcement and Family Training† [57] could be useful in enhancing the motivation of an addict to cut back on Internet use, although the reviewers remark that control studies with relatives do not exist to date. Reality therapy (RT) is supposed t o encourage individuals to choose to improve their  lives by committing to change their behavior. It includes sessions to show clients that addiction is a choice and to give them training in time management; it also introduces alternative activities to the problematic behavior [58]. According to Kim [58], RT is a core addiction recovery tool that offers a wide variety of uses as a treatment for addictive disorders such as drugs, sex, food, and works as well for the Internet. In his RT group counseling program treatment study, Kim [59] found that the treatment program effectively reduced addiction level and improved self-esteem of 25 Internet-addicted university students in Korea. Twohig and Crosby [60] used an Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) protocol including several exercises adjusted to better fit the issues with which the sample struggles to treat six adult males suffering from problematic Internet pornography viewing. The treatment resulted in an 85% reduction in viewing at post-treatment with results being maintained at the three month follow-up (83% reduction in viewing pornography). Widyanto and Griffith [8] report that most of the treatments employed so far had utilized a cognitive-behavioral approach. The case for using cognitive-behavioral therap y (CBT) is justified due to the good results in the treatment of other behavioral addictions/impulse-control disorders, such as pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating-disorders [61]. Wà ¶lfling [5] described a predominantly behavioral group treatment including identification of sustaining conditions, establishing of intrinsic motivation to reduce the amount of time being online, learning alternative behaviors, engagement in new social real-life contacts, psycho-education and exposure therapy, but unfortunately clinical evidence for the efficacy of these strategies is not mentioned. In her study, Young [62] used CBT to treat 114 clients suffering from IAD and found that participants were better able to manage their presenting problems post-treatment, showing improved motivation to stop abusing the Internet, improved ability to control their computer use, improved ability to function in offline relationships, improved ability to abstain from sexually explicit online material, improved ability to engage in offline activities, and improved ability to achieve sobriety from problematic applications. Cao, Su and Gao [63] investigated the effect of group CBT on 29 middl e school students with IAD and found that IAD scores of the experimental group were lower than of the control group  after treatment. The authors also reported improvement in psychological function. Thirty-eight adolescents with IAD were treated with CBT designed particularly for addicted adolescents by Li and Dai [64]. They found that CBT has good effects on the adolescents with IAD (CIAS scores in the therapy group were significant lower than that in the control group). In the experimental group the scores of depression, anxiety, compulsiveness, self-blame, illusion, and retreat were significantly decreased after treatment. Zhu, Jin, and Zhong [65] compared CBT and electro acupuncture (EA) plus CBT assigning forty-seven patients with IAD to one of the two groups respectively. The authors found that CBT alone or combined with EA can significantly reduce the score of IAD and anxiety on a self-rating scale and improve self-conscious health status in patients with IAD, but the effect obtained by the combined therapy was better. Multimodal Treatments A multimodal treatment approach is characterized by the implementation of several different types of treatment in some cases even from different disciplines such as pharmacology, psychotherapy and family counseling simultaneously or sequentially. Orzack and Orzack [66] mentioned that treatments for IAD need to be multidisciplinary including CBT, psychotropic medication, family therapy, and case managers, because of the complexity of these patients’ problems. In their treatment study, Du, Jiang, and Vance [67] found that multimodal school-based group CBT (including parent training, teacher education, and group CBT) was effective for adolescents with IAD (n = 23), particularly in improving emotional state and regulation ability, behavioral and self-management style. The effect of another multimodal intervention consisting of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), family therapy, and CT was investigated among 52 adolescents with IAD in China. After three months of treatment, the scores on an IAD scale (IAD-DQ), the scores on the SCL-90, and the amount of time spent online decreased significantly [68]. Orzack et al. [69] used a psychoeducational program, which combines psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral theoretical perspectives, using a combination of Readiness to Change (RtC), CBT and MI interventions to treat a group of 35 men involved in problematic Internet-enabled sexual behavior (IESB). In this group treatment, the quality of life increased and the level of depressive symptoms decreased  after 16 (weekly) treatment sessions, but the level of problematic Internet use failed to decrease significantly [69]. Internet addiction related symptom scores significantly decreased after a group of 23 middle school students with IAD were treated with Behavioral Therapy (BT) or CT, detoxification treatment, psychosocial rehabilitation, personality modeling and parent training [70]. Therefore, the authors concluded that psychotherapy, in particular CT and BT were effective in treating middle school students with IAD. Shek, Tang, and Lo [71] described a multi-level counseling program designed for young people with IAD based on the responses of 59 clients. Findings of this study suggest this multi-level counseling program (including counseling, MI, family perspective, case work and group work) is promising to help young people with IAD. Internet addiction symptom scores significantly decreased, but the program failed to increase psychological well-being significantly. A six-week group counseling program (including CBT, social competence training, training of self-control strategies and training of communication skills) was shown to be effective on 24 Internet-addicted college students in China [72]. The authors reported that the adapted CIAS-R scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group post-treatment. The reSTART Program The authors of this article are currently, or have been, affiliated with the reSTART: Internet Addiction Recovery Program [73] in Fall City, Washington. The reSTART program is an inpatient Internet addiction recovery program which integrates technology detoxification (no technology for 45 to 90 days), drug and alcohol treatment, 12 step work, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), experiential adventure based therapy, Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT), brain enhancing interventions, animal assisted therapy, motivational interviewing (MI), mindfulness based relapse prevention (MBRP), Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), interpersonal group psychotherapy, individual psychotherapy, individualized treatments for co-occurring disorders, psycho- educational groups (life visioning, addiction education, communication and assertiveness training, social skills, life skills, Life balance plan), aftercare treatments (monitoring of technology use, ongoing psychotherapy and group work), a nd continuing care (outpatient treatment) in an individualized, holistic approach. The first  results from an ongoing OQ45.2 [74] study (a self-reported measurement of subjective discomfort, interpersonal relationships and social role performance assessed on a weekly basis) of the short-term impact on 19 adults who complete the 45+ days program showed an improved score after treatment. Seventy-four percent of participants showed significant clinical improvement, 21% of participants showed no reliable change, and 5% deteriorated. The results have to be regarded as preliminary due to the small study sample, the self-report measurement and the lack of a control group. Despite these limitations, there is evidence that the program is responsible for most of the improvements demonstrated. CONCLUSION As can be seen from this brief review, the field of Internet addiction is advancing rapidly even without its official recognition as a separate and distinct behavioral addiction and with continuing disagreement over diagnostic criteria. The ongoing debate whether IAD should be classified as an (behavioral) addiction, an impulse-control disorder or even an obsessive compulsive disorder cannot be satisfactorily resolved in this paper. But the symptoms we observed in clinical practice show a great deal of overlap with the symptoms commonly associated with (behavioral) addictions. Also it remains unclear to this day whether the underlying mechanisms responsible for the addictive behavior are the same in different types of IAD (e.g., online sexual addiction, online gaming, and excessive surfing). From our practical perspective the different shapes of IAD fit in one category, due to various Internet specific commonalities (e.g., anonymity, riskless interaction), commonalities in the underlying behavior (e.g., avoidance, fear, pleasure, entertainment) and overlapping symptoms (e.g., the increased amount of time spent online, preoccupation and other signs of addiction). Nevertheless more research has to be done to substantiate our clinical impression. Despite several methodological limitations, the strength of this work in comparison to other reviews in the international body of literature addressing the definition, classification, assessment, epidemiology, and co-morbidity of IAD [2-5], and to reviews [6-8] addressing the treatment of IAD, is that it connects theoretical considerations with the clinical practice of interdisciplinary mental health experts working for years in the field of Internet addiction. Furthermore, the current work gives a good  overview of the current state of research in the field of internet addiction treatment. Despite the limitations stated above this work gives a brief overview of the current state of research on IAD from a practical perspective and can therefore be seen as an important and helpful paper for further research as well as for clinical practice in particular.

Controversies And Arguments Of Euthanasia Philosophy Essay

Controversies And Arguments Of Euthanasia Philosophy Essay Nonetheless, the vast majority of Australians from doctors to philosophers support voluntary euthanasia. For example, Australian philosopher, Peter Singer, actively supports euthanasia in his book of Taking Life: Human while pro-euthanasia Doctor Phillip Nitschke assisted Bob Dent to die by a lethal injection. This essay explains what euthanasia is and discusses whether voluntary euthanasia should be a right of the terminally ill. Euthanasia means a gentle and easy death, (Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006) and it is usually used to refer to the induced death of those who are incurably ill and in great pain or distress in order to spare them further suffering or distress. It is often referred to as mercy killing. Singer (1993, p.175) classified euthanasia as voluntary, involuntary or non-voluntary. Involuntary euthanasia means without the consent of the person who dies even if they express a wish to live and is effectively murder even if the motives are to benefit the deceased. Non-voluntary euthanasia occurs where a persons mental age is or has always been that of an infant so that they have no capacity of express any preference to live or die such as when someone is severely disabled infant since birth or those who suffer severe brain damages after accidents and become permanently mentally disabled. Sometimes people in this situation are allowed to die by withdrawing medical services such as intensive care treatment. Voluntary euthanasia which is where a person consciously chooses an early death (Singer 1993, pp.175-177). This essay will only focus on ethical arguments as to whether voluntary euthanasia and non-voluntary should be legalised. One argument for euthanasia is the utilitarian principle which says that the lives of some people can be sacrificed for the benefit of others deemed more worthy of care. It has been said that When applying the utilitarian theory to the ethics of euthanasia, can it not be said that Self Deliverance for a competent terminally ill patient is an unselfish act (Maj 2002)? Utilitarianism is commonly expressed as the greatest good for the greatest number (Rohnann 1999, cited in Rich Butts 2005, p. 9). A moral theory is utilitarian if and only if it assesses rules in terms of nothing but their utility. Jeremy Bentham, invoked what he described as a fundamental axiom it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong (Bentham 1823). Utilitarians theorise that there is the same ground for voluntary euthanasia as for non-voluntary euthanasia as death is the benefit for the person killed but is it possible to justify ending the life of a human being who lacks the capacity to consent in the same way as where people are capable of consenting, and do in fact consent (Singer 1993). Utilitarians consider that death will bring peace to the patient, family and friends and can be justified purely on the utilitarian grounds that a terminally ill person has lost the ability to pursue the intellectual or physical life they once had or has lost dignity by becoming dependent on others for fundamental needs such as going to the toilet. (Maj 2002). Something I can identify with having seen my once proud grandfather after a stroke having to wear a nappy. In my opinion for many once dignity and self sufficiency are lost death is a release. The strongest argument for active voluntary euthanasia is based on respect for individual autonomy or self governance. Autonomy is the belief that every person has the right to shape their own life through their choices which includes the right to choose the time and circumstances of their death and is expressed concerning basic human dignity (Grey 1999, p.21). The principle of autonomy is an expression Kants ideal that having ones own choice whether that choice is good or bad is of paramount importance for life. Kant believes that suggesting someone knows better than yourself in such a personal thing as death is a dubious paternalistic presumption (Grey 1999,p.21) in many ways similar to this current governments belief that they know best what you should see or read on the internet. J.S. Mill in his expression of the harm principle state: the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against their will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. (Grey 1999, p.21)   Autonomy acknowledges an individuals sovereignty over all acts which only affect self on the basis that it is insupportable to have someone else choose the timing of ones own death. (Grey 1999,p.21).  This is difficult to argue against since only in the most horrendous crimes do States now have the power to deprive a criminal of life yet involuntary euthanasia suggests they have the right to kill non criminals. However if a person chooses to die we should respect that wish. Peter Singer believes voluntary euthanasia is a matter of respecting a persons preference and overall well-being, welfare or interests in their particular circumstances such as when they are suffering from cancer. In Holland, a nationwide government survey found that Many patients want an assurance that their doctor will assist them to die should suffering become unbearable (Singer 1993). One argument for euthanasia which involves utilitarian theory is the need to reduce societys costs in an ever more crowded world by reducing the number of people needing intensive care. There are many arguments against euthanasia. The possibility of abuse is one of the most common arguments against euthanasia. Abuse may mean patents are pressured by families or medical facilities to agree to ending their own life. Family may want to see the suffering end but they may also want to see the inheritance now. Doctors may wish to free up scare medical resources for those they believe they can save and in fact hospitals make these sort of choices by withdrawing medical support for the terminally ill. Opponents argue that we can never be sure that a request to be killed is the result of a free and rational decision, particularly as they are likely to be suffering pain, very probably drugged and confused (Singer 1993). Depression is also an issue because it is a form of pressure from within. A depressed person is more likely to choose to take their own life whether or not they are terminally ill. Another argument against euthanasia is the level of protection required to ensure it is not misused will actually make it more painful. No one who is ill is going to want to face a barrage of questions and forms to choose death yet leaving the documentation to Doctors or Family or some other party leaves open the door to abuse. There is also the opening the floodgatesor Slippery Slope argument that if society accepts euthanasia as a universal right of competent terminally ill patients to decide their fate (Maj 2002) then how long will it be before society decides what should be done with the chronically ill, handicapped or simply old who no longer contribute but are a burden on society. The Catholic Church objects to euthanasia on religious grounds saying that the church opposes euthanasia as that life which God has bestowed on each one of us, can never be sacrificed for the sake of the good of self-determination as it contravenes the Thou shalt not kill commandment (Demarco 2003, p. 154).However, the church distinguishes euthanasia from decisions to forego aggressive medical treatment which are medical procedures which no longer correspond to the real situation of the patient, either because they are by now disproportionate to any expected results or because they impose an excessive burden on the patient and his family (Demarco 2003, p. 155). In conclusion voluntary euthanasia may be seen as a way of giving respect to those who are in distress and paid and wish to leave life, family and friends with dignity. While there are arguments against voluntary euthanasia they are, apart from religious moral concerns, easily overcome by putting in place appropriate safeguards such as a number of independent witnesses who must ensure that the person who is contemplating euthanasia is fully aware of what they are doing and that there is no going back. Non voluntary euthanasia is more difficult as no consent is possible but can be justified on the grounds that the benefit to society is larger than the detriment to the individual particularly if the individual is and has been so damaged that they cannot appreciate the life they live. Singer says in his book of Rethinking Life and Death We should say theyre alive but nonetheless their life is not viable. They are alive but that life is not worth living (Singer 1999)

Social Justice in Education

Social Justice in Education This paper presents a critical evaluation on the issues which link the current educational system with social justice. The paper will provide a critical evaluation based on the development of an appropriate framework for finding how education is supposed to be constructed to reflect social justice around the world today. By examining the various research, that centers social justice and education, one finds evidence that educational social justice in the education context is based on the aspect of democracy; this may be seen as an example of the extreme individualism. This hyper-individualism has dominated the educational debate as it relates to social justice. In this situation, the whole society, and social cohesion are marginalized. This marginalization led to the development of a school curriculum which is based on providing education for specific individuals within the economic imperatives. The paper concludes with the recommendation that in the creation of a socially just socie ty, it is important for hyper-individualism to not overlook the importance of the whole social group. This means that there is a need for a shift of culture which would respect individual responsibilities and rights as part of the whole social setting. Development of a curriculum which addresses the needs of all in the educational setting is a product from addressing the middle of a society rather than all of a society. Introduction Social justice means ensuring equality in all aspects which affect people in the community, society, nation and the around the globe. Social justice is a concept which fights s for the right of every individual for the opportunities available in the society, no matter the class, age, gender, race or ethnic origin. Social justice in modern day education is aligned to the dominate ideology of democratic liberalism. This is about the examination of the hyper individualism emergence which results into the dominance of the educational system and social justice. American students comprise of those from rich and poor families, those from the urban and rural areas and those who are straight and gay. Each day they are taught on the importance of equality and in every pledging they make, they promise to be indivisible, ensuring there is justice and liberty to all. Students are also taught of the value of democratic equality which suggests on the need of all American to be treated and regarded as equal citizens with no biasness on the basis of ones background ,economic status, belief , background, religion, race, or sex. The students are also taught on the fundamental on the main democratic value of justice which is a core belief that America provides the same opportunities and benefits to all the citizens. Despite the teachings given to students on social justice the education system of America is characterized by inequalities which from year to year are being perpetuated. The education system of American the 21st century is characterized by increasing wide gap between those with and those without. This situation has been fostered by the trickle-down economic policies and deregulation. These policies are traced back to the administration of President Reagan and Clintons administration which enacted the anti-worker legislation. President Bush administration further supported the major businesses and offering tax free breaks for the rich as compared to the lower and middle class people these polices have hindered the ability of America to move towards being an enlightened society because these policies have introduced a few Feudalism where as other already developed countries have had positive development in their education system. The implementation of policies which support social justice in the American education system will mean providing equal opportunities to students in their rights to education. The reality about the American system of education is that schools have distinct economic disparities. There are those schools considered for the rich and those schools seen as poor schools. The socio-economic condition of the families the students comes from determines the schools they attend to. The choices of their extracurricular activities, access to money to pay for advanced placement, yearbooks field trips and many other academic and non academic aspects. In most cases, the students of low SES provide special education classes and remedial schools while their counterparts attend schools which have college preparatory curriculum. Therefore the reality is that students in America are not provided with the same educational opportunity as it is often assumed. History of public education in the United States The public education of America is very distinct and unique compared to other countries mainly because of the roles and responsibilities played by the individual school district and the states. The formal public education of the United States was created I during the 19th century. The public school system was initially suggested by Jefferson the American leader whose ideas were well incorporated in the development of the countrys education system. Other continents and regions which had been colonists by New England such as New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts had already established the primary form of education of public education which had already been implemented during the 1600s the main reason why the colonizers took to educate the children was solely based on religious aspects of the Congregationalists and the Puritans who were dominating on those regions. Alter when the regions began to be populated by other people of different faiths. The initial concept of these publ ic schools became weakened through the opposition to learn both in the clergy imposition to the system and also in denial to learn in English. This led to the formation of private schooling which were already a norm by the mid of the 18th century. The Declaration of Independence brought about unique standards and specifications of the public education system. Jefferson suggestion was that all the public schools be under the control of the government with no discrimination based on religious biasness and to be made available to all people irrespective of ones social status. Other contributions on the issue of public education by then were made by George Washington, Robert Coram, Noah Webster and Benjamin Rush However the true concept of education system by then was not well defined due to the impact of economic transformation, political upheavals and wide scale immigration. Currently a lot of vast changes have taken place in both the education sector which comprises of public schools, religious, private and charitable institutions. Public education system in America began in the 1840s and was attended with the wealthy people within a given locality. Reformers came up to fight for the need of ensuring education benefits are provided to even students from the poor families. One commonly known reformer is Horace Mann who was for education reforms in Massachusetts and Henry Bernard based in Connecticut. Common schooling was for the benefit of uniting the society, prevention of poverty and crime by ensuring every citizen is well. These reforms calls led to the development of public schools to students at the elementary level towards the fall of the19th century. The Catholic Church was however not in support of these reforms but instead created its own schools to be attended by students privately. The first public school which came up in the United States came in 1635 called the Boston Latin School. And later Harvard University became the first university to enroll students from the various public schools who had done well. Students in these early colleges and schools got involved in the events of the time such as the World war 11, the Greater depressions and the Cold war. The passing of Morill Act in 1890 meant greater support to the universities of various states and land was also granted to construct these universities. Efforts were made to finance these public universities and even those at the lower level to ensure that each student in America gets high quality education. However, the education system was not up to the level required by the members of public that education should be made available to all the children irrespective of their gender, race or economic standards. This was not the case in reality. Schools became highly discriminative despite them being founded by the tax paid by all the members of the public. Discrimination of these schools was on the basis of gender and race. In many schools, girls were not admitted and if admitted, they were not provided with the same courses as those done by the boys. They were only taught subjects like tailoring, cooking and secretarial courses. Discrimination in the United States public education has also been enhanced by the unfair public policies passed especially in school districts. The cause of inequality in education system According to various researches done to establish the cause of inequality in the education system, it has become evident that the socioeconomic factors play a significant role in the education of a child. Jerome Brunner, a cultural psychologist in his book the Culture of education (1996) explains that the mental growth of a child is determined by the effect of alienation, racism and poverty (p xii). He goes on to say that effective education is as a result b of the constituencies and culture which is powerful in the maintenance of the social status quo than in flexibility fostering (p, 15). The social status quo is promoted by political motivation which aims at developing a body of the underclass people who support the industry. During the whole of the 20th century, the economy of America was depended on the manufacturing labor which was in need of workers who perform repetitive and simple jobs with no any required formal education. Therefore the aim of these manufacturing companies with the support of the government was not to cultivate a workforce which was educated. The 21st century saw a shift of the manufacturing company reliance into an economy based on information. This reliance required a workforce which is highly educated or literate; employees who are critical thinkers in solving problems have technological know-how. These are the goals which found not been achieved by every student because in the first place they are not been given the opportunity to attend to schools due to the inequality in funding, lack of school environment or the preparedness of teachers. That student who ahead attended the fully funded schools by the government had students who were attended to individually compare to the le ast successful schools which is a form of both geographical and economic segregation. In 2001 president Bush passed the policy of the No child Left behind Act as a law with the goal of meeting the high standards of education and as a solution to enabling schools around the United States to work and meet the standards provide by the Act. The Act has brought about heated debate on why it is not addressing the issue of racism and poverty which are the central problems that affect the education system in the United States. On the Contrary to the intentions of the Act as a way of maintaining high level of education in the United States the Act has instead fostered the racial segregation in the education system especially through its award system. It is only the schools which perform better that they are provided with funds but when critically examine these high performing schools are the schools attended by the whites students because they have been well equipped with the educational fac ilities and resources necessary for students success. Those schools which are attended by the Black students are mostly less equipped resulting to high rate of students with the least academic scores. Public policies Discrimination based on race In 1619, many Blacks arrived in the United States as slaves and by mid 19th century there were as many as 5.5 million Black people in the country. The early form of education the blacks were provided with was religious education and to make them be Christians. In many regions with slaves many missionary schools were created but in some parts mainly at the southern states were against the provision of any form of education to the black people m because they were not ready to do way with slavery use. All in all, the education provided to the blacks was of low standards until 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was passed by Lincoln. The backs literacy rate was pushed up to 70% by 1910 compared to 5% in the 1860s. Reaching 1950s, segregation was still a common phenomenon in America. For example in the southern states, there was a clear distinction of the black and white schools according to the Supreme Court rulings on the Plessey V. Ferguson case. Such laws were not in the North of America but still racial segregation in schools was still the common aspect and due to this unbalanced form education, the blacks were provided with inferior forms of education. The schools attended by the whites were also fully funded and had well equipped facilities and teachers were also well remunerated compared to the black schools. The passing of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 by the Supreme Court was meant to ban any form of racial segregation in the countrys schools. This law marked that racial segregation was unconstitutional and it went ahead in ensuring that schools to be diverse. This was especially in the South where federal courts had made great efforts of eliminating segregation in the schools which in fact had been legalized. Despite the efforts by the courts it was still not possible to totally eliminate the practice of discrimination in schools. The urban schools became a place where the Hispanic Americans who were on the rises and the poor blacks to attend the middle class blacks and majority of the white student were move to private schools. Poverty became a common aspect to many Native Americans who had already lost their lands to the whites making them not to even attend school all together. Discrimination based on gender Social inequality in the school system also involves discrimination along gender lines. What the reality was during the time is that girls were not encouraged to study but this was fought by the work of Mary Lyon, Jane Addams, Emma Willard , Mary McLeod . They came up with colleges of higher learning for women which enabled young girls to learn the courses also learned by boys which had been deemed as courses only for the boys. The first college for girls was the Oberlin College which was founded in 1833. Others which followed were Vassar College in 1861 and Bryn Mawr College. By 1960s many schools for girls and women had come up because of the rise of gender movements which was against sexual discrimination. This lead to the passing of the federal Education Amendment prohibiting against the discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1972. The girls schools and school for women began to be funded by the federal government. Despite the equality of education to both boys and girls, women and men, discrimination on the basis of gender is further seen when in search of employment after graduation. Many employees would prefer to employ a man engineer than a lady engineer which also applies to the other professions which were only meant for men in the past. The current nature of the education system of America Education today is considered as a vital and lever in uplifting the modern society. But this perception according To Sacks is a myth he presents various insightful aspects which portrays the true nature of the education system in America in the current times. His books present factual statistics and information to show the segregation in schools especially in the higher education level of studies. For example in 1988 students from the lowest economic background results showed that for him to attain a university degree, he had to 6.9 % chances of gaining this chances. By currently this does not apply. Low economic background means no bachelors degree or even a masters. The only probability is that they can afford to join colleges by 50%. Also as student from high social economic background has 51 % chances of earning a degree and for a masters degree with probability of 8%. 9% and only 4. 4 percent to join a college (U.S Department of education 2002). In the early 1990s students selected to join the national universities were 3% who are from the lowest economic backgrounds while at the same time those from the highest economic families had 75% chances of joining the compass. These statistics indicate the widening gap of the education level among the rich and poor students. As years goes by those from low economic backgrounds have ended upon not having education and if so they attended poor schools which offer cheap schooling and low quality of education. Racial disparities are evident in the education system. Minorities like the Latinos and African Americans among others are suffering most because of this. These racial inequalities are an associate also of the class inequalities. The educationist also characterized by unequaled findings depending on the prosperity level of the school the quality of education and the social class of most parents in that School. Recommendation Addressing the issue of social justice in the education system portrays the negative consequences of injustices in the education sector. Failure of equipping all the students in a given country leads to a group of idol people who have the time to involve in various social crimes in the society as well as Bad habits like drug trafficking and alcohol abuse. For the general good of all the members of the public it is important for the government to look into ways which even students from extremely low economic background can manage to learn. Education to all also means empowering the nation economically because all people will be having the skills and knowledge of investing and earning a desirable living condition. Brunner points that, Education is risky, for it fuels the sense of possibility. But a failure to equip minds with the skills for understanding and feeling and acting in the cultural world à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ risks creating alienation, defiance, and practical incompetence (pp. 42- 43). Dewey also believes that the society can only be empowered through education because it brings forth a change in knowledge, behavior and intelligence (Fishman, 1998). This therefore is the crucial time when the nation has to critically think on ways of improving the society by ensuring there is justices and equality in the education system. The advancement in learning methods and technology has significantly contributed to major changes in the public education in a positive way but the modern day social life in Americans characterized by smoking, alcoholisms, drugs violence and issues related to sex. The public education I of America has been looked as a system of education which inculcates the ideas of individual freedom and equality but its current low standards has made any educators to find the ways of improving the system. The No Child Left Behind Act is one of the ways of improving the education standards in America but it requires critical examination to prevent the act from further contributing to the issue of bringing forth social injustice based or race and economic backgrounds of the students.