Author: Andre Coleman

Last year I spent a lot of time working for the charity entitled “The Hope House.” This charitable organizations objective is to educate the children that are born into the brothels. The organization intends to build a place where these children can be provided with training in several artistic areas such as: photography, dance, painting etc- which I intend to teach at when I achieve my degree. There is a documentary on this subject matter “Born Into Brothels”, directed by Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman , which brutally displays what these children endure throughout their childhood. One of the little boys featured in the documentary now attends NYU for photography, which is unheard of by the people in the brothels of Cambodia; Avijit is now one of my closest friends. The involvement I have in this organization sparked my interest to look further into the brothels and examine the different theories of how to essentially stop the red light district.

A brothel can be defined as “a house where men visit prostitutes” ( OED 2. a). A brothel is an institution that enforces the trafficking of women by providing a place where the prostitution can occur. A brothel itself is the actual house where the prostitutes, in most cases, live, and where the prostitutes take their customers(OED 2. a).

Throughout my paper I will thoroughly examine the different areas of social, political and economic factors contributing to the continuation and/or abolition of the red light district and the brothels. The economic factors I will discuss in my paper is based on money, and economic stability, the political factors which include the laws and regulations implemented that influence the sex trade, and the social factors which is the

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demand for prostitution- or the consumers of the sex trade. I will thoroughly depict how the economic factors are essentially the ultimate cause of the brothel industry of these three important key factors, and that if the women in prostitution are given economic stability, the brothels would be essentially eliminated as well.

It is hard to examine only one particular country in relation to the sex trade because it is a global phenomenon. The sex industry as a whole needs to be considered and analyzed if an individual is trying to decipher the underlying contributor to the red light district, but in the sole purpose of examination and to take a closer look at the problems imbedded in the vicious cycle of prostitution, my paper will focus solely on the brothels of Malaysia. My paper will examine factors that enforce prostitution and therefore will identify the ultimate cause, which in turn will illustrate how to eliminate the sex trade.

There are several reasons as to why women enter the prostitution industry, or the brothels. These reasons can range from almost anything and in turn can force a women to result in selling their bodies for money, economic stability. The economic reasons I am referring to in my paper consist of anything concerning money and poverty, social reasons consist of the demand and want for prostitution from the consumers, and the political reasons I am referring to is anything concerning laws for or against prostitution; as discussed above. Throughout this paper it is apparent that the economic factors are the underlying cause of the red light district and will be exploited throughout the history of Malaysia.

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When a woman has sex for money it is dangerous to an individual’s health and considered a criminal offense in most countries (100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies. 2010). It is dangerous especially because of STI`s and long term diseases that not only the women have to live with but the customers themselves. According to Ramachandran and Ngeow (2010) more than three quarters of women, associated with prostitution in brothels, suffer from some type of sexually transmited infection. The only reason a woman would exploit themselves and risk their health is because of their need to survive and provide for themselves (Ngeow 2010). Therefore if there were available jobs that would ensure security, they would certainly never voluntarily enter the sex trade. If these women were economically stable , then they would never enter this health threatening trade, which is apparent in the remainder of my paper. I will first examine ideal causes and factors of prostitution by scholars, and then examine prostitution more closely by exploiting the sex trade in Malaysia. Malaysia is a third world country and this will further prove my point that women do this for the sole purpose of money and survival, because third world countries are not economically stable.

The economic factors that play an important role, primarily in the prostitution industry, is the lack of support and necessities to survive. An individual needs a certain amount of income to provide for their family and when they do not have this income, a woman can sometimes result in surrendering themselves to prostitution. In the article Sexual Trafficking in Women: International Political Economy and the Politics of Sex written by the scholar Andrea Bertone, the idea of economic factors, issues with money

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and debt, being the cause of prostitution is brought to attention. She explores the reasons why women enter the industry, which mainly are caused by lack of money and support for families, as stated above, and how this forces them into the sex trade. Aside from being physically forced into the industry, because some families do force their daughters into it, the only reason and girl or woman, according to Andrea Bertone, would willingly join the industry would be because of survival and economic stability (Bertone 2010). Brothel owners use this against these vulnerable women and tell them that there is a lot of money to be made overseas or in the sex trade, Bertone also states, and they therefore turn away from their families, and move over seas. In most cases, their families never hear from them again. When the brothel owners state that there is a lot of money to be made over seas, and these vulnerable woman leave their families, this illustrates how desperate these women are for economic stability. They will travel “many times in inhumane conditions and in unsafe vessels.”(Bertone 2010) which shows how determined they are to find some type of economic stability. Bertone also states that one of the main reasons “women choose, or are persuaded by others, to leave their country of origin and migrate is economic” (2010). This quotation clearly states that the economic factors are the reason in which women travel across the world for prostitution. These women want economic stability and will do almost anything to achieve that.

Bertone also states that the women that are vulnerable and targeted in the prostitution industry specifically, “ the supply side–the women of the third world, the poor states“ (2010). This also further suggests that the only reason a women enters the

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sex trade is for survival and for some type of security. The poor states and the women with less money that need to resort to the sex trade are the women that enter it. The third world countries do not have enough resources or money to support these women (International labour office. 1998), so they therefore resort to prostitution. Therefore if poverty was eliminated, in places such as Malaysia, the sex trade would go down sufficiently and would slowly head towards abolition. Malaysia is a good example of how to eliminate prostitution and the brothels as it is an unsafe and very risky trade.

The political aspect of the sex trade, the laws and regulations of prostitution, is explored throughout the article Female Sex Work as Deviance by Ronald Weitzer and in Malaysia specifically the article 100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies. In this article 100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies it illustrates the definite laws that Malaysia has against and for prostitution. There is some legalization of prostitution, in Malaysia, but the brothels and “pimps” are illegal. Interestingly enough the sex trade has gone up in Malaysia the past couple years. Even though brothels are illegal there, there are still many regulated institutions. This contradicts with many North Americans beliefs as “the majority of Americans see both prostitution and pornography as immoral; three-quarters believe that we need “stricter laws” to control pornography; and a substantial number want prostitution to remain illegal“ (Weitzer 2007). This North American Theory is proved to be false in the case of Malaysia because as the policies and laws against prostitution increase, the more prostitution occurs. Throughout Malaysia’s history, it is evident that these North American theories do not help the abolition of the

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sex trade. As illustrated in the article 100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies by implementing laws and regulations it most definitely will not help lower the prostitution rates. In the article Female Sex Work as Deviance Weitzer illustrates also how the more policies that are implemented the more sex work there is, “Over the past three decades some cities and suburbs have indeed banned or restricted massage parlors, strip clubs, and X-rated video stores” (2007). In European and poorer countries, such as Malaysia, the prostitution has had an up rise over the past couple of years (Weitzer 2007). This also illustrates the apparent fact that when policies and regulation on the sex trade are implemented, it just makes prostitution more desirable and valuable. Therefore by implementing policies and influencing the abolition of prostitution through government laws, it does more harm then good, this is clearly not the way in eliminating prostitution and brothel houses.

The social factors, that I am focusing on, of the sex industry are the consumer’s desires. Male desires for sexual wants and needs are not hidden in this trade and can also be considered as a driving factor of prostitution. This is explored throughout Kamala Kempadoo`s Prostitution and Sex Work Studies and The Sex sector: The economic and Social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia. “Prostitution, it was claimed, would never completely disappear, “since the vicious instincts to which it corresponds are, unfortunately, inborn in the human species” (Kempadoo 2004). Kempadoo illuminates that the sex trade, prostitution, cannot completely disappear unless the want for it disappears, because the want is “inborn in the human species.” It is true that without

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consumers there would not be an industry in the sex trade as the international labour force analyzes that “The sector responds to the changing tastes and sophistication of customers“(International labour office 1998). These two articles ultimately illuminate the idea that the consumers control the sex trade and change it to what they want, and that they are the sole purpose for the changes and uprising of the brothels and prostitution. There is a huge difference between the roles that women play in the sex trade and the role that men play in the sex trade, “Promiscuous” sexual activity was deemed a male right, whereas women were condemned for similar behaviour” (Kempadoo 2004). Men have the overall power in this area, according to Kempadoo, but It is not apparent that it is the most important contributing factor to prostitution, although it is apparent they have some contributing factor to the brothels and sex trade. A man’s desire, according to Kempadoo, is imbedded in nature and cannot be changed. So there will always be men who have unfulfilled sexual desires and have a want and need for this fulfillment, but if this desire will never go away, then this is surely not how to abolish the brothels. This is not the way to solve the problem of prostitution, it is the suppliers that must be focused on, not the consumers, or the social factors. This leads us back to the economic factors, which have proven to be the most influential factor in the prostitution sector. If women had economic stability there would be no need or urge pushing them towards the sex trade, therefore this would lower the prostitution rate.

The brothels and sex trade are clearly linked to political, social and economic factors, but if a woman had a choice to avoid the brothels awful conditions and health

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risks they would. The political aspects of prostitution such as the laws and restrictions that are posed on prostitution, as demonstrates in Malaysia, are proven to not be a sufficient way of eliminated prostitution, the sex trade, and the brothels. Implementing laws works against the initial idea, and although the intentions are positive, there are many negative outcomes. The North American idea of forcing prostitution to stop by forceful laws, as shown in Malaysia would only result in a failure. The social demands of prostitution are high, but if there were not suppliers then essentially there would be no prostitution. To stop sex work from happening, it is hopeless to try and stop the demand, because as Kempadoo stated, it is natural, and is imbedded in our human nature. I do agree with this. Although the social factors are a huge factor on changing the sex trade, these factors cannot be focused upon when trying to eliminate them. It is essentially the supplies that need to be focused on. In conclusion of this paper, the economic reasons are essential in the abolition of prostitution. The reason behind why women enter it in the first place is because of economic needs and survival, even though it is a risk to their health. If these women were supplied with economic stability then the brothels and the sex trade would slowly disappear. Even though the political and social factors are important when considering the overall aspects of prostitution and the brothels, the economic factors are the main components in exterminating prostitution.

The television advertising industry has changed the way Americans raise their children in the United States. Generally, pink is for girls and blue is for boysaˆ¦these concepts have been around for ages. “Color palette as bold or pastel and predominant color are often an important aspect of gendered learning that allows children to begin to associate objects, including toys, with one gender or the other” (Karniol 2011).Within media, the history of advertising has evolved from black and white televisions of the past to the color televisions that exist now. Although advertising promotes new products that may enhance your lifestyle, emphasis is placed on gender and influences the way children think. My unobtrusive research will focus on the influence and evolution of television ads from the 1960s through the 1980s, and how it contributes to gender roles.

To understand television’s influence on society, one must realize how society affects people. Society exerts influence on its members through certain identifiable structural features and historical circumstances (David 2011). This is what we call socialization. “Socialization is a process through which society learns how to act according to the rules and expectations of a particular culture” (Newman 2011:57). Through socialization, individuals learn what role to play in society. Socialization is a lifelong process and the roles that we play differ based on the situations that we are in. There are variables included in this process such as “family friends, peers, teammates, teachers, schools, religious institutions and the media which are called agents of socialization” (Newman 2011:59). “Many agents of socialization can influence our self-concepts, attitudes, tastes, values, emotions, and behavior” (Newman 2011). Television is a major influence which helps society determines what purchases to make by giving a false reality of being part of a glorious total experience. For example, in the 80s, there was the Cabbage Patch Doll craze. Each doll was unique because it came with a name and its very own birth certificate, they were marketed as one of a kind dolls there were no two alike. Many people purchased them for their children so that they would be able to flaunt their purchase. The purchase of a Cabbage Patch doll led to many aggressive interchanges during holiday seasons. Gradually the uproar died down and the popularity faded. Undeniably, advertising encourages the sense of urgency to its viewers. Many ads use celebrities such as actors, singers, and young models, as a spectacle. This notion creates an instant need to the consumer so they can have what their favorite celebrity is promoting. Most consumers of media want to feel as close to the particular medium as possible. Aware of the effectiveness of advertising, companies are willing to spend billions of dollars to engage viewers in profitable commercials. Commercial cost can run anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to millions of dollars for a 30-second spot depending on network, time of day and if there is a special event such as a Presidential Campaign, the Olympics or the Super Bowl.

Television is a luxury that some Americans refuse to live without. In America the average household has at least two televisions. One can see how detrimental television is by the general expectation that, “if it is on television, than it must be true.” Majority of truths that people perceive is provided by major networks broadcasted on television. “The average American over the age of two spends more than 34 hours a week watching live television, says a new Nielsen report – plus another three to six hours watching taped programs making TV a major agent of socialization” (Hinkley 2012). Advertising has dramatically changed, prior to the 1960s; television was black and white which made the ads neutral because you could not see the color of the product that is being advertised. The ads painted the picture in the absence of color. In the 60s, television commercials were more kid friendly; the shows that the children watched introduced them to the products. The Howdy Doody show which was very popular at that time, introduced everyone to products ranging from Hostess cakes, wonder bread, etc. Those were the less-intrusive days of advertising.

According to Newman, “gender designates masculinity and femininity, the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness” (Newman 2011:65). The concept of gender has been around for a long time. Gender separates males from females. Shockingly enough, we select a gender even before a child is born. For example, if the baby kicks too hard, we assume that it is a boy or try to make an educated guess based on how the stomach is sitting. When the baby is in the womb, some pregnant mothers use different voices depending on if they anticipate a boy or a girl. One may speak softly perhaps if it’s a girl and louder if it’s a boy. According to Kimmel (2011), “during the first six months of a child’s life, mothers tend to look at and talk to girl infants more than boy infants, and mothers tend to respond to girls’ crying more immediately than they do to boys’.” We use color preference on birth announcements “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl” and one cannot forget the nursery decorations. As stated before, the color selection for the two primarily recognized genders are usually the standard pink or blue.

According to research conducted by Rheingold and Cook (1975) they observed toys and other objects present in one to six-year-old boys’ and girls’ bedrooms. The results indicated that boys and girls had the same number of books, musical items, stuffed animals, and the same amount of furniture. However, boys had a greater variety of toys, and they tended to have more toys overall. There were also differences in the kinds of toys that boys and girls possessed. In a typical boy’s room one may find a vast array of vehicles such as cars trucks and trains and sports equipment like footballs, basketballs, baseballs. On the other hand, a typical girl’s room may contain dolls, doll houses, stuffed animals and coincidently, toys that reflect domestic roles such as vacuums, toy washer and dryers, and kitchen sets. The differences also reflect the parent’s acceptance of said gender roles by purchasing these items.

In any event, color preferences for genders are evolving. Clark (2012) noted “in the 1920s children wore white, boys and girls wore dresses, and there was no social issue. When the color assignments among boys and girls evolved in the ’20s, the colors were reversed: pink was for boys and blue for girls. It was not until around the 1940s that the colors flip-flopped to the assignment we recognize today. Clearly, America has entered a new era where society is slowly loosening gender stereotypes. According to Kahlenberg and Hein, they found “that when commercials on Nickelodeon were mostly pastel, they had only girls in them and pastel colored toys tended to be shown with girls. In contrast, boys tended to be dressed wearing bright or neon colors in these advertisements” (Kahlenberg and Hein 2010). As an illustration, while channel surfing through television shopping networks for clothes, the colors of the clothes is what draws attention to the product and gives the urgency to make your purchase without feeling or trying on the clothes before they sell out of the item. “Of course, color is not the only factor that is important when companies try to sell a product, but it is one factor that attracts the customer, and if the wrong color is used the product will be less likely to sell” (KILINC 2011). Therefore, advertising is playing a big part in mainstreams America.

Consequently, gender stereotypes are introduced to society through television ads in which advertisers push these stereotypes onto children. While watching television, children learn social behaviors and their roles by imitating what they see. To demonstrate this, there was a recent YouTube video showing of a young boy about five years old playing with an Easy- Bake Oven. The interviewer asked what he wanted for Christmas and the boy replied “I want a dinosaur and an Easy-Bake Oven” he went on to say that boys cannot play with an Easy-Bake Oven because there are only girls in the commercials” (YouTube 2012). His visual of the commercial made him able to determine if a particular toy that is available to all children are made to be played with by either the girl or the boy. Children who cannot read may know exactly what aisle is for them in any department store or toy store based on the colors that are more prevalent on that aisle. Girls search for pink to find dolls and Easy-Bake Ovens and boys find blue and acquires cars and trucks. The boys find out at an early age that it is not masculine to play with dolls. Unfortunately this is reinforced by the parents and these lessons are embedded in the children which enforce gender roles.

In modern day, television has changed the concept of gender with the acceptance of new gender roles. Reality shows are now bringing to light individuals who do not conform to standard gender roles such as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT). “Lesbian/Gay is a term that is used to describe a woman/man who has an emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to members of one’s own sex” (Committee 2012). “Some women also define themselves as gay rather than lesbian; it is a generic term for lesbian and gay sexuality” (Teeside Positive Action 2012). “A bisexual person is someone who is sexually and/or emotionally attracted to people of all genders. Many people who experience a wide range of feelings towards both men and women use the term bisexual” (Woodhouse and Roberts 2008-2012). A transgender is someone who insists that they were born in the wrong body. While they have the body of one gender, transgender people have the conscience of the opposite gender (Bassplayer 2010).

Television has introduced us to programs that are available for members of LGBT community and others to view such as Queer Eye for the Straight guy and The New Normal. The main characters of these shows are gay and have problems like heterosexuals do. For instance in Queer Eye, we witness the trials and tribulations they face as gay men in American which lessen the shock value because society can relate. The New Normal is a sitcom in which the two characters are trying to have a baby to complete their family via a surrogate mother, which is the same route some heterosexual couples take if they are unable to conceive. Also color roles are shifting within genders. Nowadays, men are more susceptible to wear bright colors such as pink. “Rather than equating masculinity and femininity with stereotypical gender traits and roles, masculinity and femininity can be re-conceptualized in terms of the gender identity construct, and, thus, as part of one’s self concept” according to Hoffman. (2000). For example, artists such as Justin Beieber may wear colors that are usually categorized as feminine colors and on the other hand Janelle Monae can frequently be seen wearing a dark suit and tie displaying a more masculine look. Neither Justin nor Janelle is viewed by the public as a member of these categories. Role models are now being accepted regardless of gender by the newer generation although there are people that are not willing to conform.

Americans see a more diverse group of people doing diverse thing on television. Boys are no longer stigmatized if they wear pink. Many toy companies are introducing more gender neutral toys for children to identify and play with. According to Auster, companies have the ability to market toys in a more gender-neutral way, such that advertisements for action figures and cooking toys could portray both boys and girls playing with them. (2012) Companies could also modify the toys to make some of them more likable to both boys and girls. This will offer change, but it proves the unrelenting influence of certain colors as gender markers. If children played with a wider assortment of toys, they might grow with an open repertoire of cognitive, physical, and social skills (Auster 2012). Offering children opportunities to develop their interpersonal skills would be a worthy objective, and acceptance of toys that are for both genders would help this come to fruition.

Abstract

In this paper, teen pregnancy is discussed. You would get an insight on contraception, abortion, sex ed., peer pressure, parental influence, and social situations. As stated in the paper, teen pregnancy is very serious, and it’s also a very sticky situation to go through especially as a teen. Teen females usually don’t purposely want to get pregnant; they are mostly pressured or want to explore their sexual curiosities. Sometimes however, girls purposely try and get pregnant because they want to be a mother. In this paper you will learn all about teenage mothers and their babies and how it affects the both of them.

What are the effects of Teen Pregnancy?

Once upon a time, there was a baby who gave birth to a baby…Babies giving birth to babies? The teenage pregnancy rate is constantly increasing. In Louisiana alone there were 54 per thousand teen births as of 2006. In the U.S. 43 per thousand teen births took place in 2007. There are many risks for both the child and mother when giving birth to a child as a teenager. There are also ways to avoid pregnancy and other options when becoming pregnant as a teenager.

In research, the Save the Children foundation found that approximately 30 million children are born to mothers under the age of 20. Not just in America but in more than 90% of the world’s developing countries. The birth rate in the U.S. is 53 per 1000 women (ages 15-19) as of 2009. In socioeconomic damage, teen pregnancies cost the United States over $7 billion annually. With adolescent pregnancy rates rising, costs are rising as well.

The risks for teen pregnancies are numerous, for both mother and child. As a teen your bones are not fully developed, and you are not finished maturing body wise. To prevent some early risks teens should see their primary healthcare provider to reduce complications. Many moms put their selves at risk in fear or because of denial. In order to have a healthy pregnancy, the mother requires a healthy diet, prenatal care, exercise, and rest because as an adolescent the body is still maturing. The child is put at risk because as a teen mother, the baby is more likely to be premature along with a low birth weight which leads to problems in their later life. The problems range both mentally and physically. The child may also be born with birth defects. The teen mother is at great risk as well. The body is strained in order to birth the child. If the bones are not entirely developed the pelvic bone is injured as well as the spine with permanent damages.

In psychological ways, when a teen becomes pregnant she may slip into a depression and she also is fear stricken because she feels she is too young to be pregnant. Sometimes they don’t finish school because their pregnancy is too much to handle along with their education. If they do finish school they are alone. Stranded, people look at them strangely because they are young and pregnant. They are shunned from society in schools and public places; people use profanity against them and call them inappropriate names. The friends they once had don’t hang around them anymore because they don’t want to be caught with someone pregnant, or because their parents think it is inappropriate to have a pregnant friend and that the friend might influence them.

In most high schools, students are taught sex education. However, in the state of Louisiana and several other states, schools are not required by law to provide sex education. If any of the school districts inside Louisiana would like to offer the course they must teach abstinence as well. They do not have to teach of HIV/AIDS, contraceptives, or any STDs at all. When sex education is taught it cannot be taught in grades first through sixth and it must be incorporated into another course curriculum.

The options when dealing with teen pregnancy are not very broad. One option is adoption. There are many types of adoption such as agency adoption, independent adoptions, closed adoption, semi-open adoption, and open adoption, etc. When dealing with teens, most lean towards open or semi-open adoptions. In open adoptions, the parents get acquainted with the adopting parents. The parents are also allowed to be a part of the child’s life as they mature. In semi-open adoption, the parents exchange information with the adopting parents and receive pictures, e-mails, updates, etc. about their child. In closed adoption, the parents never meet the adopting parents, and know very little about them. Another option for teen pregnancy is abortion, in which there are many types. One type of abortion can be done at eight weeks in which a tiny tube is inserted into the cervix and the body is vacuumed out. At twelve weeks suction aspiration abortion can be done, the mother’s cervix is dilated and a knife like curette is stuck into the womb and vacuums out the body. Dilation and curettage is another type in which the baby is cut into pieces and the body is then scraped out. At eighteen weeks, the mother can have dilation and evacuation abortion. Dilation and evacuation is the use of forceps to break the baby into pieces and then scrape the inside of the womb. Saline injection is the injection of a salt solution into the amniotic sac. It slowly kills the child in approximately one hour and then the mother gives birth to a dead or dying child. In prostaglandin chemical abortion, a chemical is used to induce labor. The mother goes into labor but it is more violent and the child is usually killed or decapitated during the birth. In the last three months caesarean abortion is used. The womb is cut open and the umbilical chord is cut. The oxygen supply is cut off to the child and the child dies. As a last minute option, the teen may under go partial-birth abortion. Partial abortion is cruel and painful for both mother and child. An ultrasound guides the abortionist. The abortionist grabs the babies’ legs with forceps, pulling the legs out into the birth canal; the whole body is delivered excluding the head and scissors are inserted to enlarge the skull, the babies’ brain is then sucked out and the dead baby is delivered. One final option for teen mothers is to raise the child, they may or may not be given the ability to finish school but their child is happy. The parents may be forced to get jobs to supply for their children. In some cases, the teen’s parents offer help to the teens and take care of the child as they finish school.

Adult pregnancies are difficult but as teens the situation is extremely complex because the teen is still young and their bodies have not fully matured. The teen has responsibilities such as their education and social lives that are at stake because of their growing embryo. To avoid teen pregnancy they can try abstinence, and a plethora of contraception devices ranging from condoms, to birth control, to inter-uterary devices. Shunned from society and possibly their own families, teens are put under a truck load of stress.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this paper has taught you a lot about teenage pregnancy. This is 100% preventable with abstinence, 89.9% with protection, and 99.9% with birth control. The risks and social astigmatism are noted. With the exploration of psychological situations, the active sex rate is declining yet its still a problem.

Bibliography

“Effects of Teenage Pregnancy.” 2004: 16. Web. 12 Dec 2009. .

“Teen Mom.” MTV Teen Mom. Web. 12 Dec 2009. .

“16 and Pregnant.” MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. Web. 12 Dec 2009. .

“Abortion Methods.” Life Site News. 2009. Life Site Mews, Web. 12 Dec 2009. .

Tattooing Body MutilationSociology & Cultural Studies

Question. Undertake a case study of any contemporary cultural practice or set of practices of your choice, explaining what you consider to be their sociological significance.

Tattooing

Body mutilation has long been part of non-Christian cultures as a positive mark of identity, while in many modem Body modification practices are so prolific that an exhaustive account of the practices of body magic and marking around the globe is nearly impossible.

Body mutilation such as tattooing often functions as part of a healing ritual, protection against forces that may cause injury and admission to a social group. Cultural practices of body mutilation are often functionally akin to prayer as a practice that spiritually elevates an individual.

Tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable. -Henry David Thoreau. Several major religions exhibit complex attitudes toward self-mutilation and adornment. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 19.28 prohibits followers of Judaism from marking the body: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you.” The “Holly Koran” forbids marking the body. The Christian Bible associates body markings with sin as shown in the story of Cain, who was marked in punishment for slaying his brother.

Still, many people apparently have continued to feel a need for confirmation of their religion by marking their bodies. The Judaic custom of circumcision persists. Coptic, Armenian, Abyssinian, Syrian, and Russian pilgrims returning from the Holy Land frequently acquired souvenir tattoos to commemorate their journey. At the turn of the nineteenth century, it was traditional for Gypsies to tattoo these pilgrims, and the tattoo marks became part of the pilgrim’s social status.

An example of this is the Armenian title for one who has made the pilgrimage which is Mahdesi, which translates as “I saw death.” Because only religious pilgrims were tattooed, the religious tattoos were also known as Mahdesi. The tattoo is a code indicating a spiritual passage, or at least a religious pilgrimage. Similarly, in Turkey the souvenir tattoos were known by the Turkish word for one who has made the religious pilgrimage, Haji.

These religious tattoos became symbols of entry into a higher plane of spiritual existence and exemplify the overlap between Christian beliefs and body magic. First documented by a traveler in 1660, common marks included dots in the shape of a cross at the base of the fingers and crosses on the back of the hand or inside of the wrist. Biblical scenes marked the bearer as a devout Christian, but also served magical purposes.

Women chose Annunciation scenes to ensure fertility, and sufferers of illness placed tattoos on ailing parts of the body to promote healing. Although Greek and Latin Christian churches have criticized these practices, they persist, and many Muslim Arabs tattoo in disregard for the Islamic prohibition on marking the body. Even today, many American tattooees have permanent religious icons and emblems as well as personal magical symbols inked upon their bodies.

Tattoos are prompted by “the primitive desire for an exaggerated exterior” and are manifestations of deep psychological motivations. They are “the recording of dreams,” which simultaneously express an aspect of the self and recreate and mask the body As products of inner yearnings, self-concepts, desires, and magical or spiritual beliefs, designs on the human body formed by inserting pigments under the skin have been crafted by nearly every culture around the world for thousands of years.

Definitive evidence of tattooing dates to the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt, approximately 2000 B.C., but many scholars believe that Nubians brought the practice to Egypt much earlier. There was little anthropological attention to tattooing in the early part of the century because of preconceived notions of its insignificance to cultural analysis. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec cultures performed tattooing and scarification, and that the practice is thousands of years old in Asian cultures.

Although tattooing was practiced in pre-Christian Europe, the word tattoo does not appear in English until Captain John Cook imported it after a journey to the Pacific Islands in the eighteenth century. Although no connection has been made between the words tattoo and taboo, it seems highly likely that they are related. While enduring the process of acquiring socially meaningful marks, the tattooee is being formed and shaped into an acceptable member of society.

Prior to the completion of the tattoos the person is not only physically vulnerable because of the possibility of contamination during the penetrating process of tattooing but symbolically vulnerable as well. No longer without a tattoo, but without a finished tattoo, the person’s body and therefore the self are not yet completed. The person is a luminal entity not yet in society and therefore taboo.

Although the origin of tattooing is uncertain, anthropological research confirms that tattooing, as well as other body alterations and mutilations, is significant in the spiritual beliefs of many cultures. Various peoples tattoo or scarify during puberty rituals. In traditional South Pacific Tonga society, only priests could tattoo others and tattoos were symbolic of full tribal status.

Eskimo women traditionally tattooed their faces and breasts and believed that acquiring sufficient tattoos guaranteed a happy afterlife. In many African cultures scars indicate social status and desirability as a marriage partner. Scarification patterns often identify the bearer as a member of a specific village. Many of these practices are changing and fading as Western influences enter African cultures.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, Cree Indians living on the Great Plains tattooed for luck, for beauty, and to protect their health. Cree men with special powers received tattoos to help them communicate with spirits. A dream conferred the privilege of receiving a tattoo, which would be inscribed during a ceremony conducted by a shaman authorized to tattoo.

The ability to withstand the painful and tedious process of tattooing, which often lasted two to three days, confirmed the tattooee’s courage. Blood shed during the process was believed to possess magical power and was absorbed with a special cloth and kept for future use.

The ritual recreates the flesh bequeathed to initiates by their parents and experienced during childhood. The physical change marks a symbolic rebirth into a new spiritual, social, and physical reality as well as a real physical change. This magical use of the body reiterates the idea that physical and spiritual existence and their interactions are deeply entwined.

European “civilizing” cultures often attempted to eradicate body marking practices, often in the name of religion. In 787 A.D. Pope Hadrian I decreed a ban on tattooing. Constantine prohibited tattooing as an act of altering the body that God molded in His own image. Puritans in the New England colonies connected body markings with witchcraft, and those suspected of practicing witchcraft were searched for “devil’s marks” as proof of their alliance with Satan.

Quoting the Old Testament interdict against printing or cutting marks upon the flesh, the Puritans also condemned Native American tattooing. By the 1850s many Native Americans had adopted the settlers’ customs of dress and began to view tattooing as unnecessary and uncivilized. Africans brought to the colonies as slaves often bore scarification marks of royalty, social standing, or servitude, which were probably perceived by the colonists as heathen tokens of savage cultures.

In some cultures, the elite class marks the bodies of individuals considered pariahs or marginal members of society. In the Near East, slave masters sometimes tattooed slaves as a sign of degradation and branded incorrigible slaves. In late medieval and early modern Europe, slaveholders branded their slaves, a practice continued in France until the early 1800s and in Russia until the mid-1800s. Runaway slaves in Brazil, the renegade quilombos who were branded if recaptured, considered their brands marks of honor and infamy.

In Yoruba, where body markings placed one within society, slave owners denied their slaves distinguishing marks of social status. Exemplifying a much different assumption about body marking, slaveholders in the Americas branded and tattooed their slaves to place them firmly outside mainstream society. During the eighteenth century, prisoners incarcerated in France were physically marked. The use of body markings as positive signs of identification and inclusion in many African societies contrasts sharply with European use of the marks as signs of degradation and marginalization.

The American association of tattooing with exoticism solidified in 1851 when Dan Rice hired a tattooed man named James F. O’Connell to appear in his circus. During this time Rice was also fascinating America with another body image in popular culture, the blacked-up minstrel. The minstrel representation of the black body was replete with complex meanings of manhood, race, and class. The tattooed body on display was probably less familiar but equally intriguing. Without evidence of what kind of tattoos Rice’s employee had, or whether or not he performed, or served only as a display object, it is difficult to assess the meaning of his existence.

Perhaps O’Connell conjured images of a white savage, halfway between the articulate, civilized white man and the Native American who expressed his culture with paint and body markings. Perhaps audiences saw the tattooed man as Melville’s Queequeg incarnate; exotic, half-blackened with ink-and half? black, but not without feeling or humanness. P.T. Barnum followed Rice’s success by displaying an elaborately inscribed Albanian named Constantine, who was an extremely popular attraction. Barnum was the first to exhibit a tattooed woman, in 1898, which added the erotic element of viewing the female body.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century as the public became more familiar with the art of tattooing through the circus, which was primarily a working and lower-class entertainment, tattoo was also developing commercially. The first known professional tattooist in the United States was Martin Hildebrand who had an itinerant practice during the Civil War and opened a shop in New York City in the 1890s.

At the turn of the century, tattoos showed up in titillating and disreputable places. Tattooing became a shop-front industry in the disreputable Chatham Square area of New York City. Electric tattoo machines made tattooing cheaper and less painful and good tattoos easier to render. With this new technology, tattooing became popular among the lower classes and quickly came to be associated with blue-collar workers and ruffians.

Although tattooing was an upper-class trend for a brief period, by the 1920s the middle class considered it deviant. Tattoos were considered “a decorative cultural product dispensed by largely unskilled and unhygienic practitioners from dingy shops in urban slums,” and consumers were “seen as being drawn from marginal, rootless, and dangerously unconventional social groups.”

In the 1930s, the American fascination with body alteration as a deviant practice, continued. During this time a psychiatrist and writer named Albert Parry often wrote about the significance of tattoos and embedded stereotypes of deviance in the public discourse. Although Parry was an avid fan of tattooing, and bemoaned its decline in popularity, he called tattooing a “tragic miscarriage of narcissism.” He claimed tattooing was a substitute for sexual pleasure, evidence of homosexuality, and a source of masochistic pleasure.

Parry associated tattooing with abnormal sexuality. Although the exhibition of a tattooed woman in the circus in prior decades was tinged with a hint of sexual voyeurism, Parry explicitly constructed images of tattooed women as abnormal and accessible commodities. He claimed that five percent of American women were tattooed and insinuated that beneath their conventional clothes, these disguised women had marked their bodies with signs of desire and erotic adventure. Parry stated that “prostitutes in America, as elsewhere, get tattooed because of certain strong masochistic-exhibitionist drives.”

Parry reasoned that prostitutes obtained tattoos because they desired yet another reason to pity themselves and were seeking to be mistreated by clients. He also asserted that they believed tattoos would prevent disease and that they obtained sexual pleasure from the tattoo process. As proof of the prostitute’s urge to self-humiliate, Parry described several tattoos of cynical humor and sexual innuendo inscribed upon prostitutes, such as “pay as you enter.”

Conflating racism, homophobia, and the idea of women as a sexual commodity, Parry also claimed that English prostitutes etched names of their pimps on themselves or likenesses of “their Negro lovers, much to the chagrin of American sailors,” while French women inscribed the names of their lesbian lovers, and gay men tattooed themselves in order to seduce young boys. Parry relished the stereotype of tattooing as a perverse and deviant activity. His assertions reverberated for decades in the assumptions psychologists held about tattooed man and women.

Tacitly based on the preconception that marking the body is deviant, psychologists have sought to determine a connection between tattoos and psychopathology. Members and potential members of the military who bear tattoos have served as subjects for several studies that correlate tattoos and social adjustment. A study in 1943 concluded that “psychopathology or social or emotional maladjustment is significantly higher among tattooed than among non-tattooed men.”

A 1968 study concluded that sailors with tattoos were more likely to be maladjusted, and military men with “Death before Dishonor” tattoos were more likely than non-tattooed sailors to be discharged from the service. Other studies conducted during the late 1960s link tattooed women with homosexuality and masochism and tattooing practices in institutions with high levels of aggression, sexual insecurity, and social maladjustment. These studies both pre-selected the subject pools and ignored the effects of the institutional milieu on the tattooees.

Other studies of imprisoned populations reveal motivations to tattoo that are similar to the motivations to self-mutilate as a reaction to the surrounding environment. Similar to inmate self-mutilation, tattooing may provide relief from the numbness of incarceration and establish individual or gang identity. A 1964 survey of the public perception of tattooed persons revealed that a majority of people perceived tattooed individuals as physically strong and psychologically aggressive. This survey concluded that whether or not tattoos are indicators of social maladjustment, they may function to enhance the bearer’s self-image and integrity.

Returning to the theory of confirmation of the self in a pain-enduring interaction, one can understand the connotation of toughness and integrity that a tattoo confers. One psychoanalytic case study observed that a dominatrix in this relationship bore her tattoos as evidence of her ability to manage the ritual infliction of pain adroitly. This self-mastery and “toughness” earned her the right to control her submissive partners and proved her ability to alter, both own and her partners’ consciousness and identity.

The lack of understanding of the functional purposes of both the tattooing process and the final marks have led to a perception of tattooing as barbaric, deviant, and sexually perverse. Dominant American culture has considered tattoos as marks of degradation, criminality, and marginality. Without an understanding of manipulation of the body to inspire “sacred awe” in viewers and bearers of tattoos and other body alterations, one can not grasp the significance of these alterations as tangible establishment of personal, spiritual, and social identity.

Although body modifications such as tattooing and piercing have been construed as signs of deviance, during the past two decades body alteration has begun to filter into mainstream culture as a popular form of self-expression. Articles about tattooing and piercing proliferate in popular literature. Fashion magazines show models with tattooed ankles and pierced navels, and recruit well-known tattooed musicians for their pages. Children are able to play with tattooed dolls. Exhibits of tattoo art are shown in art galleries. Piercing boutiques and tattoo shops are conducting brisk business.

Several factors have encouraged a “tattoo renaissance” since the 1950s. Post war prosperity along the West Coast combined with a new interest in Asian cultures, many of which revere tattooing. The Japanese, for instance, have a long tradition of tattoo as an intricate body art. New technology and interest in tattooing as a fine art have produced new aesthetic standards, a wider clientele, and an infinite variety of tattoo designs, including “neo-tribal” stylistic forms that are heavily influenced by tattoo traditions of other cultures. Today, as sociologist Clinton Sanders notes, tattooing has become more professional and more of a fine art.

Tattoo artists are much more likely to have formal artistic and academic training than in previous years and to consider their tattooing practice a creative pursuit. A more diverse population is getting tattooed in the past two decades. New tattoo clients are better educated, have more disposable income, and care more about the decorative and aesthetic elements. Customer’s often custom design their own tattoos and the tattooer-customer relationship is changing from one of service provider and buyer to a collaborative effort. The relationship between a piercer and his or her client may be even more intricate and personal. With or without conscious realization of the significance of body making in other cultures, Americans today are adopting similar practices. To understand these practices as cultural phenomena, we must first understand their significance for individuals.

Tattooing and piercing are not just adornments added to the body surface like jewelry or cosmetics, but they penetrate the flesh. Piercing is a quick process followed by several weeks of tenderness while healing. Tattooing is a tedious, painful process followed by a period of transformation in which the wound heals and the redesigned body emerges. These adornments, like self-starvation and self-cutting, accrue significance from both the process of physical transformation and the final product.

The tattoo procedure is often a “highly social act” in which an individual manipulates and asserts identity within a specific social milieu. Getting a tattoo is often “a social event experienced with close associates,” who provide moral support, offer advice, and help pass the “anxiety-filled waiting time.” Many tattoo artists and piercers comment on the large percentage of their customers who belong to college fraternities or sororities and get pierced as part of the initiation process. It is rare that these individuals tattoo or pierce alone. Often several associates accompany the initiate to provide companionship and fortification.

Many cultures attach social status to body alterations and consider pain a crucial element for imparting meaning to body alteration. Yoruban scarification is not only considered aesthetically pleasing but announces the marked individual’s fortitude and ability to endure pain.

A Yoruban woman acquires her markings when she is old enough to marry and accept the painful ordeal of childbirth. Her kolo cicatrices “exhibit her willingness to bear pain. Aesthetic value is bound up with the value of endurance and the willingness to bear discomfort to accomplish a greater good.” Tiv women remark on the ability of scarification to indicate masculinity and the desire to withstand pain in order to be attractive: “What girl would look at a man if his scars had not cost him pain?”

Withstanding the pain of tattooing and other body alterations is also significant in American culture. The tattooee or piercee, like any initiate, vulnerably awaits the pain and new status the procedure will impart. Enduring pain is often considered crucial to gender constructions and demonstration of toughness. Although some tattooees have a difficult time bearing the pain, others see it as a “good pain.”

Part of the pleasure of a tattoo is the macho implication of being able to bear the pain, and during the 1950s and 1960s getting a tattoo was a common rite of passage into adulthood for many young men. Still today, withstanding the tedious and painful process with bravado may be required to gain membership in a youth gang, or to demonstrate rebellion against authority. College fraternities may require members to get tattooed or pierced as a sign of their loyalty.

One tattoo artist with many tattoos connects the pain of the process with the pleasure of creativity. “It’s a strange metaphor to say that pain is like an orgasm, but it is in a way. And it’s like labor too, to go through this pain to create a thing, to get it out of you. The design is inside of you, it just wants to get out.” The creative expression of identity is enhanced by the feeling of “aliveness” that accompanies the pain of the process for many people. “This sense of existing, of feeling, of enjoying life, [comes] to many with the touch of the needle.” The prolonged pain produces euphoria for many, and pain is also a meaningful and enjoyable element of the piercing process for some piercees as well as people who indulge in body branding or scarification.⁶²

Individuals who tattoo and pierce imbue the body with narcissistic or magico-religious powers to confirm identity and connect them to a deeper self-awareness, a social group, or a vision of integration with the cosmos. Similar to the way in which the self-mutilator or anorectic physically demarcates a change in self-awareness and interaction with the surrounding milieu, an individual who chooses to self-mark physically confirms a change in status.

The “badge of admission” may carry personal meaning as well as a message of affiliation with a religion, one other person, a community, a youth gang, a fraternity, a military organization, or any specific group. The complexity of the action lies in the fact that the confirmation of identity is based on distancing the self from a large non-marked portion of the population. Body markings are marks of disaffiliation with the mainstream and “visually proclaim a sense of camaraderie to others so marked.” The change in status, similar to the self-mutilator’s change in tension level and temporary “cure” of feelings of fragmentation,

Body alteration functions in similar ways in Western culture, but it accrues a different potency as a deliberate choice of identification because of the stigma it incurs as a rebellion against, rather than an embodiment of, dominant cultural values. American women, fully aware of the stigma attached to tattooing and body alteration that doesn’t help achieve standard beauty goals for women, are more likely than men to choose adornment that is not publicly visible and attach more personal meanings to their markings.

In a culture that has taught them to preserve their bodies for the enjoyment of others, women who tattoo themselves are implicitly making a declaration of independence from at least some aesthetic standards expected of them by families, friends, and society. One 21-year-old woman explained the reaction of her mother to her tattoo. “She asks me to keep it covered if we go out in public. It is a sign of disrespect to her.” One woman explained, “I did this not for my husband, not for my parents, not for a boss, not for anyone else but me, my internal reason was to make a statement.” Women mark their bodies as an act of reclamation of their identity after a divorce, as a gesture of healing from sexual or other physical abuse, or simply as self-celebration.

Body alteration symbolizes “control over and pride in the physical self” for many women. Centuries ago, this tangible evidence of self-control and self-celebration may have been enough to convict a woman of witchcraft and sentence her to death. If a “devil’s mark” was found on the body of a woman accused of witchcraft -whether self-imposed or organic in reality-it was interpreted as a chosen mark that confirmed the woman’s autonomous nature and rebellion against prescribed behavior. Her willful desecration of her God-given body proved her collusion with the Devil.

Today, a woman’s self-creation carries less formidable consequences. Similar to the ways of punk styles of “leather and metal access forbidden gender symbols and behavior” for women, tattoos and piercing provide a form of gender rebellion also. The 1970 study highlighted this idea when one of the woman subjects proclaimed her motivation to tattoo as “I want to act like a boy … anything they can do I can do better.” Tattooing and body piercing blur previous assumptions about gender roles for both women and men.

Historically considered a salacious and pagan badge by Western cultures, deliberate body alteration proclaims defiance of cultural standards for both men and women, and many body modifiers enjoy the shock value of their adornment and take pride in their stigmatized identities.

Piercers and tattooees reject mainstream norms of adornment while simultaneously embracing subterranean status. This is an especially important component of the body modification trend for adolescents who are trying to establish social identity and autonomy from parental authority. Recreating the body differentiates one from one’s previous childhood body, and conventional familial and cultural milieus.

One connection between body alteration and youth and popular culture is explained by Daryl “Bear” Belmares, who had been a professional piercer for nine years in 1996 Belmares attributes the rise in piercing popularity since 1990 to the influence of media and describes two general motivations to pierce. Some people are entranced by the trends of the look. “They come in and say ‘I saw it on MTV.’ They’ve seen the Aerosmith video that has a model with a pierced navel and think it looks sexy.” Their main motivation is a desire to be different.

These individuals are likely to let their piercing heal over after a few years. Other piercers are “functional piercers” who spend more time premeditating their decision and pierce for sexual enhancement, to consciously mark a transition in their life, or to heal emotional scars. Although one might think that women are more likely to pierce as a narcissistic use of the body to establish identity, based on the proportion of self-starvers and self-cutters who are women, Belmares denied this gender distinction, noting that his clientele is 50 percent men and 50 percent women.

In 1969, Edward Podvall noted that “not only does the iconography of self-mutilation appear continually on the landscape of our culture as something seemingly more honest, authentic, pure, or disciplined, but it can be found as an unexpected posture within one particular developmental epoch.” He concluded that individual self-mutilation is an attempt to fend off developmental anxiety, and its prevalence may indicate “exoneration and approval by the surrounding culture.”

As a cultural phenomenon, the iconography of self-mutilation may be interpreted in several ways. Podvall’s depiction of self-mutilation as part of a developmental process, like Turner’s delineation of body marking as a resolution of an initiation process and like psychoanalytic theory of body narcissism and self-mutilation as attempts to combat fragmentation of the ego, reveals the cultural significance of body modification.

Self-starvation, self-cutting, performance art, and painful, permanent body adornment are potent expressions of rebellion, desire for autonomy, and need to disseminate tension. They are attempts to self-heal, self-initiate, and self-symbolize. Self-mutilation may augment self-awareness, provoke euphoric feelings of spirituality, and resolve a state of liminality by culminating in marks of identity.

In the context of culturally sanctioned rituals, these marks incur social inclusion and demarcate social status. In American society, which has considered body alteration practices barbaric and has few formal coming of age rituals that mark the body, the perception of these marks as deviant or perverse has been changing as they have become more common.

Conclusion:

Although the extent to which contemporary Western society accepts self-mutilation is debatable, many forms of self-mutilation are becoming increasingly popular as real and symbolic forms of self-creation. The public and private, individual and social spheres in which body alteration is significant are entwined. Self-mutilation cannot be separated from the culture in which it exists. As David Napier points out, American culture is obsessed with “coming of age” as a never-ending process. This struggle to achieve identity is reflected by the implosion of self and identity into the physical symbol, and reality, of the body.

The human body is an accessible and viable pathway to holistic integration of self and is a terrain upon which to carve and etch one’s deepest desires for identity and meaningful connection to both earthly and spiritual realms. At times altering the body is a form of play and adornment, assuming a mask, playing a role, at other times it is a desperate attempt to feel alive and combat a feeling of alienation and disassociation. Altering the body is an exploration of limits and boundaries of the self, whether in the arena of staged art, subculture, or the local tattoo shop. As individuals test their own limits, they test and change the limits of society.

Although still considered distasteful and non-mainstream by many people, body piercing and tattooing are being adopted by individuals seeking to fulfill spiritual and social identity needs. In contrast to societies in which body marks are inscribed according to cultural tradition, the self-chosen marks of today’s modem cultures are marks of disaffiliation with convention and historical values.

Finally, as individuals modify their bodies as exploration of their individual identities, the culture composed of these individuals begins to explore what it means to be human and what role the body plays in civilization. Tattooing is an act which is very much painful in some cases so why should someone get the tattooes even when they are so terrible. This is society‘s responsibility to set such standards for such unusual things so that every body can have clear mind about these weird things.

Bibliography

1. Edward Westermarck, “The History of Human Marriage” Volume: 1. Macmillan. London. 1921

2. Alfred Metraux, Easter Island: A Stone-Age Civilization of the Pacific Oxford University Press, New York. 1957

3. Tattooing and Civilizing Processes: Body Modification as Self-Control Michael Atkinson Journal Title: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. Volume: 41. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2004

4. Tattooing, Gender and Social Stratifica

We cannot talk about groups without including social psychology; to me these two terms go hand to hand. According to Forsyth (2006), the meaning of group is two or more people connected to one another by social relationships (p.3). Social psychology according to Baron, Byrne and Branscombe, (2006), is the scientific field that looks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations (p.6).

The way roles, status, norms, and cohesiveness allow a group to function is by giving structure to its members. Each one of them plays an important part affecting the group’s members in different ways.

Roles – Different tasks assigned or obtained engaging specific positions within the group.

Status – Positions generally associated with different levels or categories in a group. The higher the level the better advantages.

Norms – Rules or regulations in a group that specify the way the members should conduct themselves.

Cohesiveness – all the factors that connect all the members together which will contribute for them to continue in the group such as “benefits”.

Definitely, cohesion is the foundation that establishes how well a group holds together. Group cohesion is characterized by the strength of the unity linking the group members and/or the group as whole. Cohesion develops if the group stays together with same members (stability) and develops more quickly in small groups (Group dynamics, 2010).

The way reciprocity, personal orientations, communication, and the discontinuity effect influence group’s cooperation vary and there is no doubt about how people utilize them to solve cooperation problems. There have been different studies on how directly and indirectly they are important determinants of successful cooperation. According to Baron, Byrne and Branscombe, (2006), in the situations in which cooperation could be developed, all the people participating in the process will benefit from it (p. 478).

Cialdini, (n. d.), indicated that according to sociologists reciprocity is one of the most prevalent norms in the human culture. It is basically when one person tries to repay what others have done to him/her. The way this “rule” of reciprocity enables people to do or give something to another with the confidence that is not being mislaid and will be paid in the future (para. 2).

According to Baron, at al, (2006), personal orientation is another factor that has a strong effect on cooperation. Some people are willing to work together with others in almost every situation, others would follow their own interests, and some are just there just to compete with others. These three distinct orientations are called cooperative, individualistic and competitive (p. 480).

Working in this field I have witnessed how communication increases cooperation as well as the lack of it decreases cooperation in a group of people. I have experienced how communication affects the credibility and correlate with trustworthiness as well as enable expectation of compliance to those involved. Baron, at al, (2006), indicated that communication can lead to increase cooperation if certain conditions are met (p. 481). Although this is true in most cases, I do not agree that in order to increase cooperation there has to be certain conditions but a common goal.

I understand that the way discontinuity effect influences cooperation is more when a group of people get together with the sole intention to compete against others other than establishes a relationship between them. For some people their main focus is to be more competitive than just being there to establish a relationship.

A social dilemma is based on how individuals in groups often find themselves between acting selfishly and cooperating for the common good of all. For example getting together with a group of friends in a restaurant, we start ordering food but there was not a previous discussion to divide the bill. I often find myself in a dilemma of what to order a modest entree or a nice high-priced piece of steak. The two major factors are, social facilitation, and social loafing.

Social facilitation – the effect of the presence of others in our performance. When the task is easy, the presence of others works as positive stimulus to perform better. When the task is difficult, the presence of others could affect negatively our performance (Social facilitation, 2010). An example of this is when I facilitate psycho-educational groups in my work. When I have ample knowledge of the topic or there is someone important in the group, I tend to be more energetic with the audience.

Social loafing – is when some people makes less efforts than others as a group, this usually happens when the contributions of each individual are combined to reach a group goal. An example of this, at my work there was a co-worker whom was supposed to be participant of a project in my department. The guy came to the first two meetings and after that he always had an excuse and left the meetings earlier than the rest of us. Another co-worker and I ended doing our part and his. The project was a success and at the time of the credits that person wanted his name to be included because he was part of the group.

According to Baron, at al, (2006), social loafing can be averted by identifying the role of each participant, this way each one know what to do and not just sit and watch others do the entire work. The second will be increasing the participant’s awareness and commitment to perform their tasks. Third, by giving emphasis on the importance of the participant’s task and therefore how will affect the outcome. And the fourth and most important is by letting the participants know that their tasks and/or contributions are unique due to expertise or experience (p. 475).

Perceived fairness in groups is very important to all individuals that are part of a group. This is important to maintain the satisfaction within the group. According to Forsyth (2006), member satisfaction creates a healthier workplace because people respond to each other in a more positive manner decreasing anxiety and tension in the group (p.153). We all want to be treated fairly and defend our status in whatever group we are involved but at the same time is a very complex issue to deal as not always all the parties implicated agrees. This fairness can be judge and describe based on three main categories of justice, distributive justice, procedural justice and transactional justice.

Distributive justice – is when the outcome in which the individual receive his/her dues, fair share and/or rewards based on the contributions.

Procedural justice – this is based on the idea of fairness of the process that resolves the argument and allocates or distribute the resources among all the individuals engage.

Transactional justice – is when the person has being explained the reasons why the resources or rewards have been divided like that and also the individual was treated in a courteous way throughout the process.

The social decision schemes are rules initiated by allocation of member’s views towards the group’s final decisions. Baron, at al, (2006) stated that some of those schemes are: majority wins, truth-wins, first shift, and unanimity decision rules.

Majority wins rule – when the group will decide on the arrangement that was initially supported by the greater part of the group members. For example when ten members of a club want to buy some equipment but the rest twenty five opposed to it declaring it unnecessary. No matter how hard those ten argue about the importance of buying it the majority of them opposed and decided not to buy.

Truth-wins rule – when the correct solution will be adapted or accepted by other members as the best decision just because is the most excellent answer. An example will be there is a financial problem in the group and some individuals are trying finding a solution. All of them make their propositions one of them provide extra information that based on his financial experience make more sense that the others. The members recognize that solution as its correctness.

First shift rule – when the group members are inclined to accept a decision consistent with the same line of the first shift in opinion revealed by any member. Example is when members are inclined to decision first given or modify at the beginning of the process.

Unanimity – when all group members agree in the decision made. Example is in a boxing match all judges point cards and results are in agreement toward the same fighter therefore a winner.

Members of a group could also change their attitudes in reaction to how others argument and their ideas. According to Forsyth (2006), persuasive arguments theory is an explanation of polarization in groups indicating that often group members change their judgment during group discussion (p.351). Usually members are more willing to convey arguments that are more reliable with social norms.

I understand that social norms are the rules a group of people use to show inappropriate or appropriate attitudes and behaviors regarding specific circumstances. In other words, social norms are behavioral expectations regarding a specific situation and/or condition. According to Baron, at al, (2006), descriptive norms are those that indicate how people behave in certain situations whether are approved or not by others (what is normal). The injunctive norms are those behaviors that people will perceive as approved or disapproved by others in certain situations (what have to be done).

Norms in groups come forward progressively in unclear situations as members bring into line their actions. According to Forsyth (2006), emergent norm theory is an explanation of collective behavior signifying that the uniformity in behavior frequently observed in groups is caused by member’s conformity to unique normative standards that develop spontaneously in those groups (p. 574). This relates to a situation in Mexico where a small community decided to take justice into their own hands. They were tired of being victims of crime and robbery and they did not trust justice anymore.

After a group of thieves robbed a family business, the owners asked the people in the community to help capture the thieves. More than four hundred people or residents participated in the pursuit of those bad guys. When the residents captured the thieves they were taken to a soccer field where the residents made them pay for their actions and beat them badly. The injuries were so bad and serious that three of the thieves were taken to the hospital. At the arrival of the police they had to negotiate for about three hours with the people trying to convince them to hand over the thieves assuring that they will keep them in jail (Carenas, 2010). Forsyth (2006) stated that people do not actively try to conform to the judgments of others, but as an alternative use the group consent when making their own behavioral choices (p. 575).

Although they might look similar, conformity, compliance and obedience are slightly different. I understand the difference of these concepts is as follows; Conformity is how we change our perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors based on the social norms or “conforming” to the expectations. Compliance is when a request is made and even though is optional the person agrees to do it. Obedience is following orders when they are given and submit to without questions because comes from an authority figure.

People choose to “go along” and conform in certain situations because they want to be accepted by others or to feel they “fit in” (normative social influence) and want to be right and look into others opinion to direct theirs (informational social influence) Baron, et al, (2006). In order for some people to feel comfortable when others are talking or doing something different, they tend to conform. According to Constable, Shuler, Klaber and Rakauska, (2002), “Those that conform tend to be obedient and compliant” (para. 1).

Some people will not conform and resist therefore they will go in the opposite direction. When this happens, the person wants to develop or maintain his/her individuality and/or maintain control over his/her life. A good example of this will be teenagers going against what their parents and society estipulate just to show they are different and also as desperately seeking acceptance from their clique, friends, and in some occasions gangs. There are others that even though they would like to conform they are not able to due to a significant limitation, like physical, cultural, and language between others.

Cialdini’s six principles of compliance are principles that will produce automatic responses from people. Those principles are liking, commitment or consistency, scarcity, reciprocity, social validation, and authority.

Liking – people are more likely to comply with requests or favors from people they know, like or are familiar with than “strangers”.

Commitment or consistency – people stand behind any previous decision they have made previously or are consistent with.

Scarcity – people are more likely to comply with requests that might be available just temporarily. Example, a person will buy a product because it is the last one of its kind.

Reciprocity- when a person complies to a request because that person or identity has previously granted us one and he/she feels obligated to do it in return.

Social validation – when people belief they need to comply because others are doing it and it might be the right thing.

Authority – people will comply with request from any authority figure because they know better.

Group decision making has advantages and disadvantages. Ideally one of the advantages is the diverse expertise and strengths of its members and the greater number of higher quality of alternatives that could be generated increasing the rate of a problem solution. A disadvantage is the so call “group think” which occurs when members of a group feel pressure to obey to what might be the dominant view in the group (Group Decision Making, 2010).

There are also serious problems that can interfere with the process to make precise decisions. Some of those group problems can lead to costly and devastating decisions. Among those are group think, group polarization, advocate technique, and authentic dissent (Baron, at al, 2006).

Group think – when there are high levels of acquaintance among group members and all of them make a decision believe that the group as whole cannot be wrong even though the results are no favorable. Example of this when a group of ten marines agreed to engage a confrontation against an army of fifty soldiers. Even though the odds for them to win the battle are minimum to none they made the decision to do it.

Group polarization – when individual members of a group change in the direction from conservative to more extreme action or point of view as a consequence of the group discussion. An example will be when some senators slightly opposed to a law reform but by the end of the meeting they strongly opposed to the reform to the extent of wanting to change it completely.

Advocate technique – better known as devil’s advocate; this is when a group member is assigned the duty of disagree and condemn the decision or action made by the majority of the group. It is usually done to motivate further discussion so the can be more careful on making decisions. An example of this is when a CEO of a company vote against the decision of all of the vice-presidents of the company so they could revisit the proposal and make changes as needed.

Authentic dissent – when one or more group members without being assigned disagree with the original idea with the intention of improving the quality of decision making process. Example would be member of an association want to change some of the ethic codes and four of them opposed to stimulate the examination of all possible angles of the original proposal.

Overall, one of the reason people usually look to belong in a group is identity. The sense of belonging to a group at times is so strong that it will defeat other characteristics of the person’s identity. This is called collective identity, which through the participating in social activities, people usually gains a sense of fitting in with a unique “identity” that exceeds the person (What is collective identity, 2008). According to Forsyth (2006), collectives as intergroup provide members with a broad view of the self, not only based on individual but also collective qualities (p. 582). This is the reason why people like to participate in a variety of social groups. As described throughout this essay, social groups provide immense satisfaction and sometimes immense risks from participating.

The terms group and social psychology go hand to hand when discussing collective and people’s behavior. Group is two or more people connected to one another by social relationships (Forsyth, 2006). Social psychology is the scientific field that looks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations (Baron, at al, 2006). The identification on how roles, status, norms, and cohesiveness allow a group to function as they cause us to act in some ways we might never will prefer to act. We all want to be treated fairly and defend our status in whatever group we are involved but at the same time is a very complex issue to deal as not always all the parties implicated agrees.

The social decision schemes are rules initiated by allocation of member’s views towards the group’s final decisions. Norms in groups come forward progressively in unclear situations as members bring into line their actions. Social norms are behavioral expectations regarding a specific situation and/or condition. Serious problems also can interfere with the decision making process which could end with costly and devastating results. With advantages and disadvantages participation in group is vital for any person as it helps establishing direct and indirect relationships with others in different ways.

“The essence of society lies in an ongoing process of action- not in a posited structure of relations” -Blumer, 1969,(p.71)

Although symbolic interaction theory is often applied primarily to the micro level, the structuring of interdependent lines of behavior at the meso and macro levels also involves shared definitions developed through interaction. The overall culture of a society is the objective outcome of these shared social definitions whereby subjective meanings are created, often expressed in material artifacts of various types, and either sustained or transformed through interaction.

Symbolic Interaction-Process Versus Structure

Many of the core ideas of symbolic interaction theory are grounded in the pioneering work of George Herbert Mead, particularly his perspective regarding the close relationship between the mental processes whereby people make sense of their environment and their interaction with one another. This relationship is manifested in the patterns of collaboration among people as they seek to develop shared interpretations of the situations they face. It is also reflected in how one’s self-concept develops through awareness of the perspectives of others. In addition, contemporary symbolic interaction theory draws on Charles Horton Cooley’s analysis of how one’s feelings about oneself (pride or shame, for example) reflect one’s sensitivity to the positive or negative reactions of others, especially in primary group settings. This is consistent with his often-cited concept of the “looking-glass self.”

Symbolic interaction theory is comparable in some ways to Georg Simmel’s focus on the forms of interaction, but symbolic interaction theory goes deeper than Simmel’s perspective in emphasizing the symbolic medium through which interaction takes place plus the subjective mental processes that accompany it. This focus on the subjective level may be compared to Weber’s emphasis on understanding the subjective meanings of individuals’ actions. But while Weber moved well beyond the level of individual actions and subjective meanings to deal with broad patterns of institutional and cultural change, many symbolic interactionists resemble Simmel in their strong micro-level focus.

Human beings relate to one another and to their environment in terms of interdependent roles they create and sustain. At the center of this process are the self-concepts or identities of the individuals involved as they interact and adjust to one another in face-to-face encounters. Human beings are thus transformed into students and teachers, friends and lovers, husbands and wives, team players and college graduates, customers and sales people, celebrities and deviants, soldiers and social workers, lawyers and police officers, members and outsiders, and so on. Social definitions are crucial even for defining the meaning and social relevance of human beings’ biological characteristics, such as sex, age, and weight, for example. The socially contrived character of large-scale institutional structures may not be as obvious as in small group relationships or children’s micro-level play worlds, but macro level social institutions are also socially constructed through widely shared subjective definitions that are developed and sustained through interaction. This implies that when subjective definitions and interpretations undergo widespread change, institutional transformation may occur, which then changes the context of subsequent interactions at the micro level. The divisions between micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis are not rigid distinctions. From r various micro-level social circles, networks of social relations extend outward, thus providing an opening to meso and macro levels of the social world.

The heritage one share as members of society also includes enduring cultural products and artifacts that have been constructed or reproduced by countless other people far beyond the range of one’s own limited social circles or personal knowledge. Language obviously transcends personal micro-level social settings, even though language is actually reproduced regularly in the context of face-to-face interaction as well as in mass media communication. Even one’s adaptation to the objective physical reality of the natural world (like the food one eats) is mediated through the symbols used to define and interpret it. All symbolic interactionists emphasize the micro-level linkages between the subjective consciousnesses, interpersonal interaction, and identity formation, as well as the symbolic and socially constructed nature of the larger social world.

Symbolic interaction theory today differs from the pioneering “social behaviorism” emphasized by Mead in the early part of the twentieth century.

Blumer’s Theorey:

Symbolic interaction theory, under the influence of Herbert Blumer, was in large part a critical reaction to macro level types of analysis, particularly as reflected in functional theory, and the strong emphasis on the notion that people’s behavior is largely determined by social structures. For symbolic interaction theorists, the strong emphasis on culturally scripted norms and institutionalized roles was misplaced. This focus seemed to leave little room for individuals to make choices or to improvise as they interpret and adjust to the specific situations they face. For symbolic interactionists social structures do not exist as an objective reality that is independent of the actions of its human participants. Instead, all aspects of the social world are negotiated, constructed, and reproduced or sometimes transformed through ongoing processes of interaction and subjective interpretation whereby people mutually shape one another’s perceptions, definitions, and responses to their environment. Within this general framework, several different areas of emphasis can be identified within symbolic interaction theory. Symbolic interactionist perspective serves as a general framework for role theory, reference group theory, analyses of social perception and person perception, self theory, and dramaturgic theory.

Of the various versions of symbolic interactionism, Herbert Blumer’s (1962) perspective expressed the strongest skepticism regarding macro-level theories such as functionalism. As he put it:

By and large, of course, sociologists do not study human society in terms of its acting units, instead, they are disposed to view human society in terms of structure or organization and to treat social action as an expression of such structure or organization. Thus, reliance is placed on such structural categories as social system, culture, norms, values, social stratification, status position, social roles and institutional organization.

(Blumer, pp.188-189 in Rose, ed. 1962)

Blumer coined the term symbolic interaction and promoted Mead’s strong emphasis on the interrelated processes of mutual role-taking, interaction, and subjective interpretation that occur as people adjust their actions to one another in dealing with the particular situations they face. This emphasis on the need for people to improvise their responses to their environment and to one another seems to downplay the habits and memories that individuals bring to situations that they encounter over and over. It also seems to push the cultural and institutional “framework” that might influence their interpretations into the background. Even though social organization, culture, roles, and other structural features of the social world may not determine people’s behavior in a strong sense, such features may nevertheless be taken into consideration, especially in familiar situations. When people repeatedly face similar types of situations, they may employ ready-made responses with only a minimal amount of negotiation or reflection. This does not mean that social organization determines people’s behavior as an external force. It does suggest, however, that patterns of interaction and interpretation are not always as fluid as Blumer seems to suggest.

People do indeed sometimes face novel situations that are unstructured and ambiguous and so will need to make a conscious effort to make sense of them as they explore with one another how to cope. In other situations, they may each have their own distinctive ideas on how to respond and so will need to negotiate their differences. But in many routine situations they already share an implicit understanding of its salient features and know how to respond. This means that very little negotiation is required if any. Regardless of these variations, patterns of social organization, including written rules and established authority or power structures, are never automatically self-enforcing. Instead, these “structural” factors become relevant only to the extent that people remember them and decide how to apply them. Sometimes there may be discussion and debate regarding whether or how an established rule or custom should apply. If there are large differences in power and authority, the negotiation actually may be quite minimal, as those with relatively less power realize the futility of trying to get those with greater power to see things their way.

By pushing social organization, culture, and similar concepts that transcend particular situations into the background, and by emphasizing the fluid and indeterminate nature of the immediate social world, Blumer’s approach makes it difficult to establish principles of social behavior that apply across different situations or to move from the micro to the macro level. However, other symbolic interaction theorists give more emphasis to stable structural categories than Blumer did. These structural influences do not determine behavior from the outside, as external or objective forces, however; instead, they are encoded in individuals’ subjective consciousness and shared memories and expectations. Although they may be interpreted to apply in unique ways in different situations, they are nevertheless reflected in participants’ predispositions regarding how to respond to the specific situations they face.

The contrast between Blumer’s view of the fluid and undetermined nature of the social world versus a more structural version of symbolic interaction theory can be illustrated through the process whereby individuals’ self-concepts are developed, maintained, and changed. The relation between individuals’ self-concepts or identities, their social roles, and the reactions of others can be traced back to the pioneering work of Mead and Cooley. Contemporary symbolic interactionist theory offers several different strategies for exploring how individuals’ self-concepts or identities are expressed through the different roles they perform. The following section will deal in more detail with the relation between people’s role performances and their identities.

Blumer’s image of the fluid and negotiated character of the social world implies that identities and social roles are not fixed but instead are largely improvised in each encounter as individuals seek to align their own self-concepts and intentions with the expectations of others. In contrast to Blumer, a more structural version of symbolic interaction theory puts greater emphasis on the standardized and routine expectations and behaviors of various roles. With this alternative focus social life is viewed as having a higher level of predictability than implied in Blumer’s perspective, especially in routine situations. Although behavior is not determined by social roles, with no room for individual variations, this structural version is closer to the conventional forms of sociological analysis that Blumer criticized. While roles may not be scripted in detail, there are definite guidelines and expectations that people tend to follow. People’s self-concepts are multidimensional. They may reflect roles associated with various personal characteristics as well as with the social positions they occupy. These roles include, for example, those associated with gender, age, family status, occupation, race or ethnicity, residential location, leisure time pursuits, general lifestyle preferences, and so on. Such roles are likely to be partially structured by general cultural expectations as well as by specific expectations that develop among people who interact on a regular basis. Even so, there is room for considerable improvisation in most cases as individuals express their own unique individuality and seek to satisfy their current needs and concerns.

There are three fundamental premises underlying a symbolic interactionist perspective; and it is to Blumer’s great credit that these premises receive emphasis in his work. All are in fact central to Mead’s arguments, even while none of them originates with Mead.

The first of these premises holds that an adequate account of human behavior must incorporate the perspective of the actor and cannot rest entirely on the perspective of the observer alone. The second of these premises asserts the priority of social interaction and the derivative, emergent nature of both self and social organization from that social process. The third argues that self, or persons’ reflexive responses to themselves, serves to link larger societal processes to the social interactions of those persons.

The first and last of these premises contain between them the justification for insisting that socially formed meanings that are aspects of the subjective experience of persons are not only legitimately but are necessarily part of observers’ accounts of the social behavior of human beings.

Contrary to Blumer’s position would be the emergent character of social life as well as ignoring the reality in experience of the dialectical relationship of what Mead called the “I” and the “me.” However, working from Blumer’s perspective on these matters does not require that one must retreat to phenomenologies of individual minds, or forgo attempts to develop theoretical explanations of social life that have some general applicability.

If one accepts interaction as the source and substance of society, i.e., accepting the foundational character of the social process, it will surely be the acceptance of Blumer’s emphasis on the emergent character of self and social organization. This acceptance in turn implies the recognition of some degree of indeterminacy in attempts to foresee what will be from what is at any given moment of that social process. Further, such indeterminacy is principled and not merely a recognition of the incompleteness or inadequacy of present knowledge.

The central role of self in mediating the relationship of social process and social behavior, one of the basic premises of symbolic interactionist thought whose emphasis in Blumer’s work need to be emphasized.

Without invoking a concept such as self, attempts to come to grips with obvious variability of persons’ behavior in the face of apparent constancy of circumstance-biological, ecological, cultural, or social-are likely to founder similarly in a complementary way the concept of self permits dealing with that variability in specifically social terms.

Meta-theoretical Conceptions of Blumer:

The metatheoretical ideas proclaim the impossibility of general, predictive sociological theory as a consequence of the centrality of meanings and definitions in the production of human behavior. For Blumer, all social life is actively constructed by participants in the very process of interaction itself because this “micro-constructivist” process is taken to be descriptive of social life in general, it is also taken to be descriptive of the meanings and the interpretations applying those meanings assumed to be critical for each “next step” in the processes of interaction. Meanings in that sense are truly emergents, subject to literally continuous reformulation on a moment-to-moment basis. If meanings are indeed central, and if meanings are constructed in and particular to the experience of individual actors, emergent from their ongoing experience, it follows for Blumer that the generality required of the predictive, theoretical concepts in terms of which theoretical arguments are couched cannot exist. Preexistent concepts cannot match the emergent interpretations of actors constructing their lines of social interaction. Given all of this, Blumer concludes, sociology can expect to be able to develop after-the-fact understandings of behaviors that have occurred, but cannot anticipate the development of general explanatory sociological theory in a predictive sense.

Methodological consequences of Blumer:

His metatheoretical argument has methodological consequences. For one thing, it implies the futility of a research enterprise that is initiated by a priori theory, or that anticipates behavioral outcomes via hypotheses arrived at deductively from such theory. For another, it suggests that research methods that fail to focus directly upon actors’ interpretations by setting up prior procedural or substantive constraints on how issues are formulated or are attacked-experimentation and survey research methods are cases in point-necessarily lack va1idity and the capacity to generate meaningful data. And for yet another, it underwrites the condemnation of the application of mathematical or statistical manipulations of data in efforts to draw from those data their sociological implications, on the grounds that numerical data are necessarily bereft of the meanings that define the essential character of sociological phenomena. Thus along with denying the possibility of explanatory sociological theory, Blumer severely restricts the legitimate range of investigatory (data gathering) techniques as well as analytic methods.Apparently, in his own mind only participatory observation meets his strictures but even that method would not survive a thorough logical analysis of its fit to Blumer’s methodological arguments.’

It is important to note that Blumer’s ideas which are fundamental to defining symbolic interactionism do not necessarily lead to the metatheoretical and methodological ends at which he himself arrives. Actors’ perspectives, the definitions of situations they call into play that are critical to the course and the content of interaction, are not unconstrained. Both the meanings those are possible to invoke in the course of defining situations, as well as the particular meanings from the range of possible meanings that are likely to be invoked, are not random events. They are, on the contrary, subject to the constraints of extant social and cultural systems. Further, there is some reasonable stability over time to the meanings attached to social objects. For practical purposes these do not change willy-nilly or from moment to moment in a way that signifies great change in behavioral outcomes. If there were no such stability, if meanings did not in general entail relative constancy from moment to moment, from day to day, even from year to year, there is no way that social life could have the predictability that enables people to live their lives as they do.

The fact that meanings can change radically and precipitously does not argue that in general they do change radically and precipitously. This implies that one can indeed formulate general statements or theoretical propositions that go beyond the phenomenologies of single individuals, statements or propositions that are not subject to a priori rejection, whatever their fate may be at the hands of empirical evidence. To recognize that social life is constructed via definitional or interpretive processes and that there are few limits on what constructions are possible does not require one to abjure reasonably strong predictions, or to anticipate that predictions, when based on solid theoretical grounds, will lack credibility or validity. Neither does it obviate the recognition that the social process sometimes, perhaps even frequently, crystallizes and stabilizes in a manner that permits the theoretical recognition of “selves” and “social structures” that they themselves operate to constrain and limit the possibilities for emergence in social life, that operate to transform possibilities into probabilities.

Substantive ideas in Blumer:

In substantive terms, it is Blumer’s treatment or lack thereof of social organization and social structure are both nonessential and highly problematic. For Blumer, “society consists of the congeries of lines of individual action, the fitting together of these lines. Individual action is a matter of persons guiding their own action by interpreting the significance of things for that prospective action; group action is a matter of aligning individual action through a process of role-taking, i.e., searching out the meaning of others’ acts by ascertaining what they are doing or intend to do (Blumer 1969, p. 8).

Social organization and social structures enter action only by shaping situations and providing the symbols used in interpreting situations, “only as they enter into the process of interpretation and definition out of which joint actions are formed”; and, in any event, they are less important in modern society than in stabilized, settled societies precisely because in the former there are fewer situations calling for previously regularized and standardized actions.

Conclusion

There obviously exist a number of very different senses of what symbolic interaction is substantively and what it implies methodologically. The problem is not that these different senses exist; the problem rather lies in the artificial and unnecessary oppositions among them created by the polemics that have historically characterized the literature of symbolic interactionism-the polemics of social movements and embattled minorities, the polemics that define orthodoxies and heterodoxies in seeking to recruit adherents to the banner being waved by the pure. The fact of multiplicity of alternative viewpoints in itself is healthy: self-control, choice, freedom and various other good things spring from alternatives symbolically represented in human experience. But multiplicity of views can be unhealthy if there is no communication across differences, if either structural or cognitive barriers prevent the alternatives from in fact entering the experience of persons, for then each person becomes the prisoner of his or her preferred -perspective.” One is then used by perspectives rather than using them and the perspectives themselves are likely to ossify, to become unquestioned Truths and not potentially fallible ideas subject to logical and empirical examination and reformulation.

Overpopulation, resource crisis and environmental pollution are the three major social problems of the contemporary world; they are also three major obstacles that restrict economic and social development and the improving people’s living standard in the world. China has the largest population in the world and there are more than 1.3 billion people in China. And now, China is serious shortage of fresh water, arable land, forest and grassland, energy and other resources (Rozelle, 1997; Deng, 2008.) Per capita of these resources are less than one-third of the world’s averages. Per capita consumption of mineral resources is not to half the world average. As China’s social and economic development increasingly, the total population is approaching the maximum carrying capacity of resources, environment. Irrational exploitation of resources exacerbates the shortage of resources and waste further, and the trend of ecological deterioration has not been fundamentally reversed. Population growth on resources and the environmental impact of socio-economic sustainable development has become the most important issue. So to deal with the population problems, all the people and stakeholders are required to cooperate with the Chinese government and then raise a sustainable development to deal with the problems.

In this paper, it will first have a look at the background of China’s population problems and then talk over which people are affected by the pollution and the barriers that are stopping the people to get a sustainable development. In the following part, it will have a brief introduction of the six processes which is developed by Dr. Mark Diesendorf and used to deal with the population problems. Next, how the six processes are implemented will be discussed. At the end of the paper, there is a brief discussion on the relationship of the steps and their dependence on each other and a conclusion will be presented as well.

The direct problems which result from over population are the environmental problems and health problems. But the environment is changeable that it can flow from one place to another, such as air pollution, water pollution. So it implies that every people in China are affected by the population problems.

With the increasing of population in China in recent years, China has suffered a lot. More people mean more energy and resources that could be consumed, but there will be more waste let out. Therefore, it will make the environment pollution to move forward a single step. So many environmental problems have appeared one by one. For example, in order to have good harvest of more and more fertilizers are used to improve the crop productivity (Jiang, 2009). But the low efficiency of the fertilizer use makes most of the fertilizer leave into the soil or flow with the water thus it both causes water pollution and soil pollution (Foy, 2001; Green, 1993; Jin, 2001). So in many places, especial in the rural areas, there is no fresh water to drink but it is also a lack of running water in these areas, that it is a great threat to people’s health. In addition, with the population growth, more people move into the city, so this leads an increase on the price of house. But on the contrary, in order to save the cost to the enterprises, many enterprises invest in the rural area directly; in order improve its profit, a large mount of the waste materials are let out into the river without any treatment. To the city people, with a growth of population, they are also the victims. More and more people live in the city, that much more rubbish is produced. Now many cities are crowded with rubbish and it is becoming a headache problem to the government.

Although in order to have sustainable development, there many barriers before implementing the six steps to deal with the problems. It mainly concludes political factors, economic factors, legal factors, educational factor and cultural factors.

Political factors: China is on the way of socialism, but now it is primary stage of socialism. Although the central government has enacted many laws and politics, but few of the local officers follow the path of central government. In their eyes, economy development is the most important. If the economy has risen up, it will reflect their hard work on the position that it will bring greater chances to promote. But in fact, it is quite harmful to the local people to a long term.

Economy factors: China is a developing country and developing economy is the biggest theme all the time. Thus it misleads a large number of the officer pay much more attention to economic development without regarding the population problems. But the population problems react to the economy development. The population problems prohibit the economy development in many places. Moreover, many local governments are very poor in China especially in the west of China. Although they realize the population problems are quite harmful to local development, it is hard to de with it. In order to achieve instant success, GDP is the best choice, thus they have to give up the idea to deal with population problems.

Legal factors: China is on the way of primary stage of socialism, many laws are not perfect. Family planning policy is not effective at present, especially in the west China. In addition, many of the families have realized the population, but they prefer boys to girls that there are at least two children if eldest son is a daughter (Luo, 2008). Moreover, some families have three or four children. Because of the special national conditions, to some degree, the local law may be not useful to them because of special relationship in China.

Educational and cultural factors: A survey shows that only 21% of all the Chinese people enter in school that many people get little education. With little education, the people could not realize the importance of population problems and they have little knowledge to protect the publicity. In addition, family planning policy education is very poor in China’s education. Another, there are 56 nations in China that they differ in culture significantly. Difference in culture will lead different attitude towards population problems and water protection.

More money is input to deal with population problems and more money is punished for the parents with more than one child. With the development of economy, more and more money has been input into deal with population problems. Because the government have realized that development building on destroying the environment is an unsustainable way of development because of population growth. So in order to deal with the population problems, money input will be a basic factor. And in fact it takes effects in many places.

Education. In order to deal with population problems, education is a key measure. First, more measures to dealt with the population problems will be developed through education. Second, through education, it will improve people’s awareness of population problems. Now, China government has input more and more money in education year by year. At present, many universities have the major named sociology science or sociology, and so on. It implies that the government has fully realized the seriousness of the population.

The six step process is developed by Dr. Mark Diesendorf, the University of New South Wales. He gives us an easy but practical six step process to get a sustainable development process. The six steps are following.

First, present a guiding vision, goals and scenarios. Second, Develop sustainability policy in all sectors, at all levels, with all types of instruments. Third, Create supportive environments. Fouth, Strengthen community action. Fifth, Develop personal and organizational skills. Sixth, reorient the system. (Diesendorf, 2000)

The model will be used to give out a sustainable development process to dealing with population problems in China.

China is becoming one of the core countries in the world, especially after the economy crisis. But now the population is becoming one of the biggest problems in China. On the one hand, in order to protect astogeny, more new births are encouraged, but on the other hand, to have a sustainable development process and maintain full of vigor, new births are limited. So it is difficult to achieve a medial policy. Therefore, in order to have a health, livable and sustainable development in China, there is a vision that is designed for China. The vision could be: in order to create a country with health, harmonious, and livable lives in China, China should do its best to improve people’s life in a sustainable aspect.

Goals and scenarios: To deal with population problems, there is a long way to go. First, the growth trend of population problems should be under controls. There are many families which have more than one child. So measures should be taken out to restrict the families to deal with the population problems. Second, reduce the birth rate in rural area, especially in China. There is a lack of realization of reducing reduce the birth rate thus broadcast of the population problems is essential to local people to help them realize the seriousness of population problems around them. Third, improve the life standard to deal with the population problems. At present, population problems are affected by the life standard because in many poor places in the west China, people think that more children mean much happier. Early birth means that early happiness will come. Forth, more laws should enact to ensure these measures to take effect normally.

First, money is essential to deal with the population problems. Finance support is one of the most important measures to handle with population problems. Without money, any treatment measures could not take effect.

Second, stricter laws should be carried out to assess the quality of the people’s life. There could be an annual assessment of the population problems. In addition, the present laws to assess the population problems should be improved and perfected.

Third, develop new ways of accumulating the achievements in local official career. In the past, GDP is unique target to accumulate the achievement in local official career. But now although GDP is important, the green GDP is encouraged. If the officer pursue the number of GDP, not focus on the quality of GDP, it is difficult to deal with population problems efficiently.

Forth, recycle economy is encouraged. In order to have a saving and harmonious society, recycle is an efficient way. With more children birth every day, more energy and resources will be consumed, so in order to improve the efficiency of energy and resources, recycle economy is encouraged.

Fifth, improve monitoring of dealing with population problems. While dealing with energy and resources, monitoring is important to make sure to operate normally. Because there is an interpersonal relation in China, that many laws may be ineffective. So improving monitoring of population problems would be effective to avoid special interpersonal relation in China.

To deal with population problems efficiently, supportive environments are necessary. It main contains cooperation, transparency and compliance with relevant stakeholders. To the families with more two children in the rural areas, the government should warn them to realize the burden of the family and the whole society. But the birth control measure should be put among them. The government should help them how to get birth control in daily life. The government also could organize a group of specialist to give guide the birth control.

Population problems in national minority are also not ignored. Useful and practical ways of birth control should be widely broadcast among them. In addition, more village officials could be introduced to bring new concerns to national minority area.

Although many laws have been carried out and will take effect, it is difficult for a single or few people to take them into practice. So it needs community action. As James Fallows said in an email (main ideas), in the past decades, because of the Chinese people’s support in the population problems, China’s have got greatest achievement in reducing the number of new birth, they also pave the path to population problems (Fallows, 2007). It implies that community actions play a great role in reducing birth rate. So the community should be called to deal with population problems. To deal with population problems, college students are the most suitable community. In China, there is a social practical activity in both summer holiday and winter holiday and now it is becoming a required course to them. They have many advantages among other groups. For example, people in the rural area would believe college student more than because many of them desire to go to university, but they have no chance. Second, the college students have many channels to deal with the practical problems when they meet in social practical activity. They can get easily in touch with the specialists. In addition, there are so many college students in China that they can spread the knowledge in each corner.

In China, it is a pity that not many personal and organizational skills in dealing with population problems. The main reasons are following: it is a lack of personal power among the Chinese people because of the economic level to some degree. There is also a lack of education and public awareness in reducing population. As Jared Diamond said, in China there is a low awareness in public protection, because China input low invest in public education—is just half of the developed countries as a percentage of GDP. China has a population of 20% of the world population, but China has put only 1% of the world’s investment in education (Diamond, 2005).

But now the situation is becoming much better than before. More and more people have poured in deal with population problems voluntarily. For example, a large number of people want to be volunteers in BeiJing Olympic Games 2008 and ShangHai World Expo in 2010. In addition, the government has input more (including finance and politics measures) in dealing with the population problems.

Reorient the system is the largest challenge when get a sustainable development process. Because it links barriers—political factors, economic factors, legal factors, educational factor and cultural factors together. But the governments play the greatest role in reorienting the system. As referred above, the central government has made many useful laws, but the local government could not follow the path, mainly because there is a large of economic interest to the government. As GDP is the most important target in their eyes. Another, the economy growth is imbalance in different areas in China and the concept diversity towards population in national minority; especially there is a big difference between west and east. So in order to achieve a sustainable development, China should reform many laws relevant to population problems.

Each of the six steps could not stand separately. First, in order to realize sustainable development, the most import thing to do is have a goal and vision, which is step 1. But without step 1, all the following steps are useless. With a goal and vision, measures should be carried out to realize the goal. But measures can take effect only under proper policy; that is step 2. With a politic guarantee, the measures could take into practice and good supports environment are necessary; that is step 3. In order carry out the measures, community action are needed as well, and this step 4, because the laws and measure can take out by the people, not a single person. But now, in order to have good performance on reducing birth rate, personal and organization skills will help; that is step 5. To have a large scale to deal with population problems, there would be a big challenge that it should reorient the system and that is step 6. In all, the six steps is an organic entirety.

In conclusion, in order to get a sustainable development in China, population problem is a serious problem. To deal with population problems, there is a specific analysis of the background and the victim. All the people in China are the victim of population problems. In the process of deal with population problems, there are both barriers and useful factors. The main barriers conclude political factors, economic factors, legal factors, educational factor and cultural factors, because China is in the primary stage of socialism. But there are many useful factors as well including money and education. More and more money is input in dealing with population problems and invested in education. After analyzing the background, a six-step process is raising out to deal with population problems. It includes a guiding vision, goals and scenarios, sustainability policy in all sectors, supportive environments, community action and personal and organizational skills. The six steps could not exist alone, on the contrary, they an organic part.

The Central Claims of Critical Theory

In order to understand the central claims of Critical Theory, it must first be defined. What is Critical Theory? Critical Theory first coined as such in 1937 is a name given to a series of new approaches to the study of culture, literature and thought that developed during the 1960’s primarily in France (Leitch, 2001). It refers to a series of pathways for intellectual inquiry that first emerged with the end of the 18^th century European Enlightenment (mid 1600’s to late 1700’s) (Nowlan, 2001) in which the causes associated with it were legal equality, the right of ordinary Europeans to hold their rulers to account, the rule of law, transparent government, freedom of expression, the right of nations to self-determination and to freedom from colonial domination – and they are as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago (Glendening, 2003). Critical theory questions and challenges that which seems obvious, natural and simple in the world around us – the conviction that what is, or what is in the process of becoming, or what appears to be, or what is most commonly understood to be, or necessary and inevitable – it does not accept any of this (Nowlan).

The Frankfort School is the name given to a group of German Jewish intellectuals associated with the Institute for Social Research (Institut fur Sozialforschung) founded in 1923. Their work was an attempt to integrate psychoanalytic insights and the domain of culture into a Marxist analysis of twentieth century societies. The group composite was that of thinkers such as Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse (Agger, 1993). According to these theorists a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” (Horkheimer, 1982, 244). Theories aim to explain and transform circumstances; critical theories provide the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in their forms. A clarification is given to what is not clearly understood or is questionable.

Theories arise in many ranges – anthropology, film, religion, linguistics and political science – and even family lifestyle. Critical theory is not a system, nor it is reducible to any fixed set of proscriptions (Bronner, 2002). Today, social theory is in crisis because of growing dissatisfaction with the dominant methodologies and conceptions of social theory and research. The 1960’s is when Stephen Eric Bronner became interested in critical theory as new theoretical paradigms emerged that questioned prevailing quantitative, empiricist, and positivist conceptions of social theory. But where did the central claim of critical theory begin?

Since the Frankfort School was the first Marxist-oriented research center affiliated with a major German university directed by Carl Grunberg, it tended to be empirical, historical, and oriented toward problems of the European working class movement. Works by Karl Korsch, Georg Lukacs and others also had works published in its journal Archiv fur die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung. Grunberg retired in 1930 and Max Horkheimer became the director. Under Horkheimer, the Institute sought to develop an interdisciplinary social theory which could serve as an instrument of social transformation publishing a journal Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung (1932-1941) that contained a wholesome collection of articles and book reviews. These compilations detailed social theory and defined any misconceptions of their meaning.

Horkheimer, upon assuming his position as Director, delivered an inaugural address on January 24, 1931, entitled “The State of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research (Bronner and Keller 1989: 25-36). Within the contents of the text, he defines social philosophy as an attempt to elucidate the “fate of human beings, insofar as they are parts of state, law, economy, religion, in short, with the entire material and spiritual culture of humanity. He criticizes Kant for grounding social philosophy in the experience and faculties of the particular individual (Ibid: 33) and praises Hegel’s theory as an improvement but yet questions speculative metaphysics and their tendencies to celebrate a higher transcendental sphere of Being and meaning over concrete existence. (ibid:38-39). Horkheimer continued to defend the importance for critical social theory and envisaged a program of supra-disciplinary research which would investigate current social and political problems. Philosophers, sociologists, economists, historians, and psychologists would be united in and ongoing research community who would do together what in other disciplines one individual does alone in a laboratory, – which is what genuine scientists have always done: namely to pursue the great philosophical question using the most refined scientific methods; to reformulate and to make more precise the questions in the course of work as demanded by the object; and to develop new methods without losing sight of the universal (ibid:41). Hence we see the first steps toward the formation of critical theory in the making.

It is impossible to characterize the “Frankfort School” as a whole since its work spanned several decades and involved a variety of thinkers who later engaged in sharp debates with each other. Rather, one should perceive various phases of Institute work: 1) the empirical-historical studies of the Grunberg era; 2) the attempts in the early to mid-1930’s to establish a materialist supra-disciplinary social theory under Horkheimer’s directorship; 3) the attempts to develop a critical theory of society during the exile period from about 1937 to the early 1940’s; 4) the dispersion of Institute members in the 1940’s and the new directions sketched out by Horkheimer and Adorno; 5) the return of the Institute to Germany and its work in Frankfurt during the 1950’s and 1960’s; 6) the development of critical theory in various directions by Fromm, Lowenthal, Marcuse, and others who remained in the U.S.; 7) the continuation of Institute projects and development of critical theory in Germany by Jurgen Habermas, Oskar Negt, Alfred Schmidt, and others in the 1970’s and 1980’s; and finally 8) contributions to critical theory by a variety of younger theorists and scholars currently active in Europe and the United States.

Kellner believes that a crisis of critical theory emerged with its fragmentation after World War II. Social theory stopped developing despite some empirical research projects and sustained meta-theoretical analyses be certain of its members, especially Adorno (Kellner, 1989). He believes that critical theory provides the most advanced theoretical perspectives within contemporary social theory from the 1930’s through the early 1960’s; new socio-cultural developments since then have rendered obsolete some of its theses concerning on-dimensional society, the media, technology, and so on. In particular, critical theory has not continued to theorize new technologies, new developments in the media, changes in socialization practices, and new cultural developments. This is surprising as earlier contributions were precisely in these areas (Wiggershaus, 1986).

Adorno did a great deal of work in social theory in the 1950’s and 1960’s, as well as turning out an incredible profusion of texts in the areas of literary criticism, cultural critique, philosophy, and aesthetics. His work turned from supra-disciplinary research to philosophical reflections (Kellner, 1989). Herbert Marcuse argued that Marxism had degenerated into a rigid orthodoxy and needed concrete experience to revivify the theory and that it neglected individual’s problems. He was concerned about individual liberation and well-being in addition to social transformation. The intentions of his writings were of great interest, yet many were unpublished and unknown (Kellner, 1984).

The theory of hegemony by Antonio Gramsci reserves a place for the intellectuals in society. Men find themselves born in a process independent of their will, they cannot control it, they can seek only to understand it and guide their actions accordingly was noted to be economic determination by Marx. Gramsci was concerned to eradicate economic determinism to develop its explanatory power with respect to super-structural institutions. His holdings were that class struggle must always involve ideas and ideologies, ideas that would make the revolution and also that would prevent it. He stressed the role performed by human agency in historical change: economic crises by themselves would not subvert capitalism. He was more “dialectic” than “deterministic”: he tried to build a theory which recognized the autonomy, independence and importance of culture and ideology (Strinati, 1995).

The works in the last decade relative to critical theory has followed Habermas in attempt to develop a more adequate philosophical aspect of critical theory (Heinemann, 1986). A deficit of social research and elaboration of new theoretical perspectives has come about with contributions from members of the postmodern camp who attempt to theorize the impact of new technologies, the media, and other socio-cultural developments (Kellner, 1988 and 1989).

The focus on democracy as the location for cooperative, practical and transformative activity continues in the work of Jurgen Habermas, as does the attempt to determine the nature and limits of “real democracy” in complex pluralistic, and globalizing societies. Habermas’ work is concerned with rethinking the tradition of critical theory and German social philosophy. He has advanced that tradition in distinctive ways. His rationality consists not so much in the possession of knowledge and thus primarily concerned with the consistency and conten of one’s belief’s, but rather in “how speaking and acting subjects acquire and use knowledge” (Habermas, 1984). Rationality, freedom and justice are not just theoretical issues to be explored and debated. Habermas’ entire work aims to defend and continue the enlightenment project against the challenge of Weber’s instrumental rationality, Horkheimer and Adorno’s earlier critical theory and Nietzscheanism in the forms of post-structuralism as presented by Foucault and Derrida and the postmodernism of Lyotard. The reconciliation of the competition of claims of the reason of the life and the world are contributions of Habermas to contemporary and social theory. His account and his answers are not complete, but raise questions without losing the hope of continued research (Rasmussen, 1990).

People create conditions and deal with them. Their opinions influence the thoughts of others. In his theory, Habermas fails to incorporate or appreciate gender and racial inequality. Habermas’ calls for particular “reconstructive sciences,” whose aim it is to render theoretically explicit the intuitive, pre-theoretical know-how underlying such basic human competences as speaking and understanding, judging, and acting. It is not certain if Habrmas’ theories are built on a conception of the world in which essentialist characteristics (middle class, white, males, or class) dominate. Historically discourses of rationality and progress have sided with men over women (Stanley and Pateman, 1991). Certain valuable elements are cited of by Selya Benhabib (1986) that can provide basis for a wide-ranging normative critique of contemporary society.

An excerpt from Critical Theory and Society: A Reader: “essay is a stylistic vehicle with its inherently unfinished quality is the logical form for generating anti-systemic claims and fostering the existence of reflexivity” perhaps best describes the logic that inspired Bronner and Kellner to publish this book. Within is a collection of seminal essays, many appearing in English for the first time, which provides an excellent overview of the critical theory developed by the Frankfurt School. An essay is a short work that treats of a topic from an author’s personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them (Wikipedia). What better way can a criticism be announced than through an essay? Personal opinions are relished because they may have something within their contents that was not seen by others. In the essay Le Prix Du Progress by Max Horkheimer exemplifies the nature of discussions that were presented to the early theorists. A French physiologist, Pierre Flourens, was disenchanted with the use of chloroform. He states his belief, and cites his reasoning. The essay ends with Horkheimer’s comments. Somewhat in the form of an editorial for a newspaper, but yet an answer is given. A concern was presented – a problematic thought was answered. Another famous essay by Theodor Adorno elaborates on Culture Industry

Reconsidered. In it Adorno explains the term culture industry, corrects inconsistencies from a prior publication and remarks on the term “mass culture” (from “The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Cuture” London: Routledge, 1991). In Critical Theory and Society: A Reader are included the works of Horheimer, Erich Fromm, Lowenthal, Pellock, Herbert Marcuse, to mention a few.

The time realm of critical theory displays evidence that modern culture needs to redefine the conclusions of its predecessors. The understanding of theories, imply that they have to be updated continually to include new circumstances. Modernization has to be critiqued to include the changing of the times. We should be concerned with something other than uncovering the past. Instead we should reinvigorate the present, salvage the Enlightenment legacy, and contest those who would institutionally freeze its radicalism and strip away its protest character (Israel, 2001). The inclusion of the way people act and why they act can begin with critical theory of family. Family history provides an example of some of the theoretical deficiencies as in social scenes. The family is attacked and defended with equal vehemence. With a dominant empiricist tradition, historians have come to the field of family history without a clear sense of what the significant questions are. They have not self-consciously theorized the family as a field of investigation. Instead they began by adopting the conventional wisdom of sociology which, goes back for Federic Le Play (L’Organisation de la famille selon le vrai modele signale par l’histoire de toutes les races et de tous les temps –Paris, 1871), and saw a broad change in the family from an extended form of the Middle Ages to a nuclear form of modernity (Shorter, 1975). From the family come the leaders of the world. Understanding distinct family structures enables an outline to the future tasks of its members. The tendency of Marxist social theorists is to view the family as a dependent variable, a secondary structure, unintelligible in its own right, which will change after the revolution. The family is an intelligible as a structure (Morgan, 1975) composed of race, religion, gender, which impose these factors towards their beliefs.

From a “Gramscian” perspective the mass media have to be interpreted as an instrument to spread and reinforce dominant hegemony – or they can be used to spread counter-hegemonic ideas too. “Pop culture and the mass media are subject to the production, reproduction and transformation of hegemony through the institution of civil society which cover the areas of cultural production and consumption. Hegemony operates culturally and ideologically through the institutions of civil society which characterizes mature liberal-democratic, capitalist societies. These institutions include education, the family, the church, the mass media, popular culture, etc. (Strinati, 1995: 168-169).

From Strinati’s point of view the main problem with Gramsci’s ideas is the same as the the Frankfurt School’s theories and Althusser’s work: their Marxist background. The framework does not allow history to contradict the theory, and the interpretation of reality becomes rather elementary.

Critical Theory offers an approach to distinctly normative issues that cooperates with the social sciences in a nonproductive way. Its domain is inquiry into the normative dimension of social activity, in particular how actors employ their practical knowledge and normative attitudes from complex perspectives in various sorts of contexts. It also must consider social facts as problematic situations from the point of view of variously situated agents. In conclusion, Kellner feels that in order to find a way out of the contemporary crisis of social theory, it must develop new perspectives. Critical Theory should be responded to with theoretical analyses of developments within the capitalist economy and of changes in class stratification, the labor process, new technologies, the media, and politics. The central claims of critical theory should be emphasized by those who wish to revitalize it in an attempt to politicize it with new social movements and existing political struggles to build a better society. The development of both its “analysis of the present situation and a new politics is in order to become once again the cutting edge of radical social theory” (Kellner, 1989). Critical theory enables the development and refinement of the ability to engage in comments as critics, through movements encompassed around incomprehensible situations of society. All productive and concerned citizens should be the empowered critical agents that are able to question, challenge and contribute toward the progress of transformation of the prevailing status quo within the communities, societies, and cultures that are worked in to help maintain and reproduce every day. In relation citizens should not only be inescapably interested, but also vitally important as participants to opinionate on theory (Nowlan).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agger, Ben. 1993. The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism. Northwestern University Press. January.

Bronner, Stephen Eric. 2002. Critical Theory & Its Theorists. Routledge Publishers: 2^nd Edition. April.

Bronner, Stephen Eric and Douglas Keller. 1989. Critical Theory and Society: A Reader. New York and London: Routledge.

Glendening, Marc. 2003. Visions for a democratic Europe. Brussels, December 12.

Habermas, J. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action. Volumes 1 and 2. Boston: Beacon Press.

Heinemann, Benhabib, Seyla. 1986. Critique, Norm, and Utopia. New York: Columbia University Press.

Horkheimer, M, 1982. Critical Theory. New York: Seabury Press.

Israel, Jonathan. 2001. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and theMaking of Modernity 1650-1750. Oxford University Press.

Kellner, Douglas. 1984. Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism. London and Berkeley: Macmillian and University of California Press.

– 1988. Postmodernism as Social Theory: Some Problems and Challenges,” Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 5: 240-269.

– 1989. Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity. Cambridge and Baltimore: Polity Press and John Hopkins University Press.

Leitch, Vincent B. et al. (eds), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (New York/London: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Morgan, D.H.J. Social Theory and the Family. London, 1975.

Nowlan, Bob. Introduction: What Is Critical Theory and Why Study It? University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. September 21, 2001.

Stanley, L and Pateman, C. 1991. Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity.

Rasmussen, D. 1990. Reading Habermas. London: Blackwell.

Shorter, Edward. The Making of the Modern Family. New York. 1975.

Strinati, Dominic. 1995. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. Rouyledge, London.

Wiggershaus, Rolf. 1986. Die Frankfurter Schule. Munich: Hanser.

Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

“Suicide terrorists are said to be fanatics.” Discuss this statement with regard to the analysis of suicide terrorism and Asymmetric warfare.

This paper is a discussion on modern suicide terrorism, starting with a brief history of suicide terrorism, moving onto definitions, characteristics, theories and the asymmetries of suicide terrorism. Suicide terrorism can be dated back to ancient times; it is the evolution of the suicide bomber that brings the most notoriety. With many analysts such as (Gunaratna, 2000; Winkates, 2006), trace the evolution of modern suicide terrorism to Sri Lanka and Lebanon in the 1980s. Acts of suicide terrorism in the past have been relatively confined and their use limited to a small number of locations around the world. In the last decade there has been a significant expansion in the scope and frequency of suicide terrorist attacks. The number of terrorist attacks fell from 660 in 1988 to 250 in 1998; the number of suicide terrorist attacks was climbing rapidly (Clayton, 2003, p. 18). This increase in suicide attacks during the period 2000-2005 “is 2.7 times greater in comparison to the period beginning in the 1980s and lasting until 1999” (Pedahzur & Perlinger, 2006, p. 1987).

During the period 2000-2009 the scope of suicide terrorism expanded dramatically, with suicide terrorist attacks in Indonesia (Bali), Sri Lanka, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, England, Spain, Russia, Chechnya and Bangladesh. Although there have been suicide attacks within the west, it is the rapid increase of attacks within countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq that is the notable with a year on year increase. Saudi Arabia became so alarmed with the rise in suicide terrorism that in April of 2006 the Saudi government announced plans to build a multibillion-dollar electrified fence along its 560 mile border with Iraq (Dreazen & Shiskin, 2006, p. A1). According to ISAF, in 2008 suicide bombings increased 26 percent from 2007(ISAF, 2009, toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, January 2009). There has also been a noticeable change in the individuals who carry out suicide attacks, once seen as mainly carried out by young men for either Religious or political reasons and yet there has been an increase in the number of women and children now playing an increasing part in suicide missions . One of the latest attacks took place on the Moscow subway, killing 35 and wounding many more; both of these attack where carried out by female suicide bombers. Suicide terrorism can be seen as inexpensive, deadly, and especially effective in accomplishing terrorists’ goals (Hoffman, 2003, p. 1; Jalalzai, 2005, p.110) attacks have also become increasingly effective in terms of the destruction they cause and the number of people they kill, as the suicide terrorists adopt new innovations such as explosive vests (Gall, 2006, p. A15).There is an asymmetry within suicide terrorist attacks, western countries have a reliance upon smart weapons in the conflict against those seen as terrorists. These weapons can cause huge amounts of damage without the need to directly attack the enemy with ground troops, thus lessoning the casualties sustained during combat operations.

The use of a suicide bomber in effect becomes the human equivalent to the smart bomb. The weapon is self directing to the target, it can make changes to the target location, timing and delivery method on an ad hoc bases making the suicide bomber the ultimate smart bomb (Hoffman 2003). The use the human body as a weapon is not a new phenomenon being well documented through the ages.

Pape (2005, p.11) calls the Zealots and the Sicarii the “world’s first suicide terrorists”. The name sicarrii means “dagger-men”, “who would infiltrate Roman-controlled cities and stab Jewish collaborators or Roman legionnaires with a sica, kidnap the staff of the Temple Guard for ransom, or poison their enemies” (Bloom, 2005, p. 8). The Zealots and Sicarii used violence to encourage public uprising, including the Jewish War of AD 66. They would attack their victims in broad daylight and in highly public places with little apparent regard for their own safety or escape. Pape (2005) notes that many of these attacks “must have been suicide missions, since the killers were often immediately captured and put to death – typically tortured and then crucified or burned alive” (p. 12). Assassins were an 11th – 12th century Shia Muslim sect from the Nizari state, their name, the assassins comes from the Arabic word hashishiyyin. According to Pape (2005), “the Assassins created an effective organization for the planned, systematic, and long-term use of political murder that relied on suicide missions for success. Pape (2005) reports that “between 1945 and 1980, suicide attacks temporarily disappeared from the world scene” (p.13). Pape (2005) and others (Laqueur, 2003) note the occurrence of politically- and/or religiously driven hunger strikes and suicides (particularly self-immolations) during this period but Pape (2005) claims “there is not a single recorded instance of a suicide terrorist killing others while killing himself” (p. 13). Reuter (2004) disagrees, citing a pro-Palestinian “Japanese Red Army”-sponsored attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on May 20, 1972. In what Reuter (2004) notes as the “first suicide attacks in the Middle East”, on this day three Japanese gunmen with machine guns killed twenty-four people at the airport. They made no effort to escape, and two were shot dead by the airport guard (Reuter, 2004, p. 136).

Inspired by Iran’s use of “human minesweepers” against Iraq, Hizbollah, launched a series of attacks against Western and Israeli targets in Lebanon (Winkates, 2006, p. 92). Hizbollah suicide attackers killed 80 and wounded 142 in its April 1983 attack on the American Embassy in Beirut, killed 241 and wounded 81 in its October 1983 attack on the US Marine headquarters near Beirut and its attack against the French Multinational Force, killed 58 and wounded 15 (Winkates, 2006, p. 92). In November 1983, Hizbollah suicide terrorists killed 88 and wounded 69 in an attack on the Israeli Defence Force headquarters in Tyre and a month later killed four and wounded 15 in an attack on the American Embassy in Kuwait (Winkates, 2006, p. 92). Sprinzak (2000) notes that Hizbollah leaders were initially very uneasy about the decision to launch suicide attacks, under the reasoning that Islam does not approve of believers taking their own lives. Hezbollah’s spectacular success at achieving its goals of expelling foreign forces from all of Lebanon inspired other organizations such as Hamas, Tamil Tigers and al-Qaeda to adopt the suicide terrorist method of attack (Pape, 2005, p. 14). The Tamil Tigers were founded in 1972 as a Marxist, ethnic Tamil, Hindu separatist group seeking independence from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka. Their Black Tiger division trained to launch suicide attacks against Sri Lankan political leaders, military targets and civilians (Pape, 2005; Winkates, 2006). Hafez (2006) observed that outside of the Middle East, the Tamil Tigers “have led the pack in the number and sophistication of suicide missions”. It is estimated that the organization completed some 250 successful suicide attacks between 1987 and 2006 (Hafez, 2006, p. 5).

In the early 2000s, ethno nationalist and Islamist Chechens began launching suicide attacks against Russian targets (Hafez, 2006, p. 5). Al Qaeda began launching attacks against American and Saudi targets in the Middle East in the mid-1990s. Al Qaeda’s spectacular entry into the suicide terrorist hall of fame occurred on August 7, 1998 when suicide terrorists used two delivery trucks loaded with explosives to blow up within minutes of each other, the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing a total of 224 people and injuring more than 4,300 persons (Reuter, 2004, p. 142). A little more than two years later, in October of 2000, Al Qaeda suicide bombers detonated 225 kg of explosive charges alongside the American destroyer, the USS Cole on a refuelling stop in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors and injuring forty. A year later, Al Qaeda suicide terrorists launched their principal suicide operation and what is described as one of the biggest single suicide terrorist action to date, the 9/11 attacks in the United States, killing about 3,000 (Reuter, 2004, p. 144). This attack lead to explanations of suicide terrorism becoming defined as, first, that the suicide terrorist was irrational and/or mentally ill (Brym & Araj, 2006; Pastor, 2004; Wintrobe, 2003).Secondly that the “deprivation hypothesis” this theory uses the explanation that that suicide terrorists were educationally, economically or otherwise deprived compared to their peers (Brym & Araj, 2006; Krueger & Maleckova, 2002 .In recent years the Bush Administration has advanced both of these theories in some of its anti-terrorist expression. President Bush repeatedly spoke out against the evil and irrational terrorists who commit these actions. The Bush Administration argued that poverty reduction programs in terrorism-prone regions will reduce the incidence of suicide terrorism (Pastor, 2004; Pape, 2005). Numerous studies have found little or no support for these two theories of suicide terrorism, recent studies have provided evidence which directly refutes these theories. Krueger & Maleckova’s, study in 2002, on the economics and education of suicide bombers directly refutes the deprivation hypothesis of suicide terrorism. Krueger & Maleckova 2002 concluded that, the evidence that we have assembled and reviewed suggests that there is little direct connection between poverty, education, and participation in or support for terrorism. Indeed, the available evidence indicates that compared with the relevant population, participants…were at least as likely to come from economically advantaged families and to have a relatively high level of education as they were to come from impoverished families without educational opportunities (Krueger & Maleckova 2002 p. 9).

Numerous studies have established that overall, suicide terrorists do not suffer from personality disorders or mental illnesses which would explain their participation in suicide terrorism (Berko & Erez, 2005). As Wintrobe 2003 argued, it is possible to explain suicide terrorist acts “in rational choice terms, and that, while such acts are indeed extreme, they are merely an extreme example of a general class of behaviour in which all of us engage” (Wintrobe 2003 p. 2). Explaining that, suicide terrorist is not necessarily irrational. A third theory of suicide terrorism focuses on the influence of culture, especially religious culture, on suicide terrorists (Brym & Araj, 2006). These explanations have often been used to explain suicide terrorism among Shia Muslims, based on the tradition of the “cult of sacrifice” (Hafez, 2006; Bloom, 2005). Although this fails to explain the existence of suicide terrorism among cultures and religions with no established “cult of sacrifice” and it cannot sufficiently explain suicide terrorism among secular, nationalist groups (Pape, 2005; Hoffman, 2003). Furthermore, as Brym & Araj 2006 point to, while such cultural resources likely increase the probability that some groups will engage in suicide attacks, one must be careful not to exaggerate their significance. One difficulty with the ‘clash of civilizations’ argument is that public opinion polls show that Arabs in the Middle East hold strongly favourable attitudes toward American science and technology, freedom and democracy, education, movies and television, and largely favourable attitudes toward the American people. They hold strongly negative attitudes only toward American Middle East policy. This is less evident of a clash of civilizations than a deep political disagreement (Brym & Araj 2006 p. 1973).

A more recent theory of suicide terrorism has been offered by Robert Pape (2003, 2005). Based on his analysis of suicide terrorism from 1980 through 2004, Pape presented a three-part model describing the causal logic of suicide terrorism. Pape’s theory de-emphasizes the role of religion including Islamic fundamentalism and focuses on the role of terrorist organization strategy and secular nationalist objectives. Pape argues that suicide terrorism follows a strategic logic aimed at political coercion (Pape, 2005, p. 21). Pape argues that suicide terrorism is part of an organization’s broader campaign to achieve political objectives, usually in response to a foreign occupation. Pape goes on to argue that suicide terrorism also follows a social logic since terrorist organizations “often command broad social support within the national communities from which they recruit” (Pape, 2005, p. 22).

A number of analysts, including Bruce Hoffman (1998, 2003) have advanced explanations of suicide terrorism which propose rationale-choice models emphasizing the role of organizational factors that support Pape’s theory. Theorists have argued that Pape’s theory is overly simplistic (Atran, 2006; Bloom, 2005; Brym & Araj, 2006). Brym & Araj 2006 argues that “strategic thinking is only one element that may combine with others in the creation of a suicide bomber” (Brym & Araj 2006 p. 1972). Atran has recently challenged Pape’s theory on a number of points, including Pape’s sampling methods which completely discount the explosion of suicide terrorism in Iraq (Pape 2005, p. 130). Atran calls into question Pape’s dismissal of the role of ideology and religious fundamentalism as well as his assessments of the effectiveness of suicide terrorism (Atran, 2006, p. 132). Other recently emerging theories of suicide terrorism include Pedahzur & Perlinger’s 2006 social network perspective explaining suicide terrorism in terms of social motivations and Bloom’s multi-factor model of suicide terrorism (2005). There is a development towards more complex models of suicide terrorism accounting for the role of individual, social, cultural, strategic, ideological, and organizational motivations and factors in suicide terrorism (Smith, 2004).

Defining terrorism especially the suicide terrorism will never be an easy task, as Dershowitz (2002, p.4) observes, there is difficulty in a definition that everyone can agree upon is illustrated by the catchphrase, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. Dershowitz (2002, pp. 4-5) breaks down most definitions of terrorism into three main elements: 1) the nature of the targeted victims; 2) the nature of those who commit the violence; and 3) the method by which the terrorist seeks to influence their audiences. Atran (2003, p.1535) observes that “the concept of ‘terror’ as systematic use of violence to attain political ends was first codified by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution”. Robespierre saw terror as an “emanation of virtue” that delivered swift justice (Atran, 2003, p. 1535). Another major difficulty occurs in separating the concepts of “terror” and “terrorism”. Pape (2005, p. 9) explains that “terrorism involves the use of violence by an organization other than a national government to intimidate or frighten a target audience”. Pape (2005, p. 9) explains further that most terrorist strikes or campaigns have two general purposes: “to gain supporters and to coerce opponents”. While Pape’s (2005) definition excludes the possibility of state-sponsored terrorism, numerous other definitions are wide enough to include terrorist acts conducted by or on behalf of a nation state as well as those conducted by private organizations or individuals (Dershowitz, 2005; Winkates, 2006).

Winkates (2006,pp. 88-99) defines terrorism as “the premeditated threat or use of violence against persons or property, designed to intimidate non combatant victims, the object of which is to change or to stabilize private or public policy”. Definitions of suicide terrorism combine the concepts of terrorism and suicide. As with definitions of “terrorism”, the definitions of suicide terrorism found in the literature vary. Hafez notes, one problem in defining suicidal terrorism concerns the various possible perspectives on the act:

…how one describes acts of self-immolation committed in order to kill others is a task fraught with controversy. Those whose support these acts of violence prefer to call them ‘martyrdom operations,” and their perpetrators ‘heroes’ and ‘freedom fighters.’ Those who oppose them prefer to call them ‘homicide bombers,’ ‘suicide terrorists,’ or ‘suicidal murderers’ (Hafez, 2006, p.4).

Hafez’s own definition of suicide terrorism relies on the more descriptive term of “suicide bomber” or “human bomb” which is defined as “an individual who willingly uses his or her body to carry or deliver explosives or explosive materials to attack, kill or main others” (Hafez, 2006,p. 4). Bloom’s definition of suicide terrorism is defined as “a violent, politically motivated attack, carried out in a deliberate state of awareness by a person who blows himself or herself up together with a chosen target. The premeditated certain death of the perpetrator is the precondition for the success of the attack” (2005, p. 76). In terms of the objectives of suicide terrorism, Bloom describes this as, although a suicide attack aims to physically destroy an initial target, its primary use is typically as a weapon of psychological warfare intended to affect a larger public audience. The primary target is not those actually killed or injured in the attack, but those made to witness it…Through indoctrination and training and under charismatic leaders, self contained suicide cells canalize disparate religious or political sentiments of individuals into an emotionally bonded group (Bloom, 2005, p. 77). Pedahzur states that “suicide terrorism includes a diversity of violent actions perpetrated by people who are aware that the odds they will return alive are close to zero” (2005, p. 8). Pape agrees in that , What distinguishes a suicide terrorist is that the attacker does not expect to survive the mission and often employees a method of attack such as a car bomb, suicide vest, or ramming an airplane into a building that requires his or her death in order to succeed. In essence, suicide terrorists kill others at the same time that they kill themselves (2005, p. 10). Pape further argues that a broad definition of suicide terrorism “could include any operation that is designed in such a way that the terrorist does not expect to survive it, even if he or she is actually killed by police or other defenders”. Pape also argues that “We might call such operations suicide missions instead of suicide attacks” (2005, p. 10). Winkates argues that “the best litmus test for definitive suicide terrorism is the intentional and successful sacrifice of a human life to achieve a terrorist objective” (2006, p. 89).

Hoffman (2003) argues that two key characteristics of suicide terrorism explain its growing popularity with terrorists groups around the world: “suicide bombings are inexpensive and effective” (p. 2). While coordinated multi-target attacks such as the 9-11 attacks and the London bombings may require extensive planning and considerable investment, even these types of suicide terrorist attacks are less expensive than many conventional terrorist attacks and definitely less expensive than funding an army. The majority of suicide attacks are carried out by individuals, minimizing the amount of investment and administrative overhead. The reliance on “human bombs” provides terrorists with “the ultimate smart bomb” (Hoffman, 2003, p. 2). Such smart bombs can be extremely efficient and effective. One of the characteristics of suicide terrorism is its effectiveness against the selected target. As of 2003, suicide terrorism accounted for just three percent of all worldwide terrorist acts, but for 50% of all terrorism-related deaths (Clayton, 2003, p. 18). This is another factor contributing to its effectiveness. The high-kill rate of suicide terrorism increases the amount of terror such attacks instigate in target populations. As Furedi 2007 notes, “The threat represented by mass-casualty terrorism is not confined to its capacity for destruction. Public dread of this phenomenon is underpinned by the assumption that this is a treat that is unpredictable and random and its effect incalculable” (Furedi, 2007, p .7) adding further to the overall result; suicide terrorism becomes effective in producing fear, justifying its deployment in conflict, by highlighting the unpredictable ability of the act, to produce more fear than the actual act. The act of suicide terrorism highlights an important asymmetry; terrorist need to be successful only once to kill Americans and demonstrate the inherent vulnerabilities they face, (US Congress, 2002). The asymmetry of suicide terrorism is not only the causation destruction, but to seize the attention of Governments and the population of the nation it targets, as Laqueur (1999) notes;”Terrorism has been with us for centuries, and it has always attracted inordinate attention because of its dramatic character and its sudden, often wholly unexpected, occurrence.” (Laqueur, 1999: p, 3)

Asymmetric terrorism reaches out not merely through the use of physical violence but through the symbolic transgression of social morality and national security. Terrorism, as Townshend, (2000); Laqueur, (1999); Chomsky, (2001) have suggested, goes right to heart of what makes us safe; it forces us to pay attention to it whether we want to nor not. The proliferation of video taped messages from leaders of suspected terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda is a testament to the symbol over the actual act of physical violent; there is nothing violent in the images of Osama bin Laden addressing the world through the Aljazeera television networks but it has symbolic presence – in a world that is dominated by media and communication technology, as Van der Veer and Munshi (2004) suggest, one of the major successes of modern terrorist organisations is their ability to use the resources of their enemies: the Internet, satellite television, mobile phones and the mass media. Even the condemnation of terrorists in the media, can aid the cause of terrorist organizations; by describing physical acts of violence through the duality of good and evil or right and wrong, the Western media merely serve to elevate and obfuscate the real nature of terrorism which, as research has shown[1], is far more fractured and complex. In this sense, much of the terrorist organizations’ aim, of seizing attention, is actually carried out by the opposing media; eager for a story and for a simple answer. Suicide terrorism has become a relatively successful military and political strategy; the 9/11 attackers commanded the attention of the world not only through their own efforts but through their target’s media; the American television companies, the European press and the global media conglomerates all shared in the process of captivating the public’s imagination that, as Towshend(2000) notes; “dramatically amplifies the anxiety about security which is never far from the surface of society.” (Townshend, 2000: 8), the communication of the message and the success of this are inextricably linked to the terrorist organisation itself. A highly ordered group with distinct political aims is likely to be more successful in delivering its message than a disparate, non-focused organisation whose aim is to spread confusion and fear. Douglass McFerran(1997) details that many of the IRA campaigns of the 1970s and 80s had distinct short term as well as long term political aims, very often terrorist attacks on mainland Britain were specifically concerned with achieving a specific political target such as protesting over the widespread imprisonment of suspected terrorists or the treatment of those all ready in prison.

As Townshend details this is not the case in every terrorist act; the PanAm flight 103 attacks for instance that saw a plane explode over town of Lockerbie in 1988 had no prior demands or message attached to them and very little admission of guilt after (Just, Kern and Norris, 2003: 285).The nature of the attack is likely to influence the success of the communication of demands; Dobkin (1992) details that in 1970 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked three airliners in order to not only secure the attention of the world’s media in which they were successful, but to demand the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners in British military jails. Their demands were largely met and most of their hostages were released; however when compared to the contemporary Munich terrorist kidnapping where members of the Black September group killed eleven Israeli athletes in an attempt to secure the release of 236 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.Hoffman (1998) details that the Munich kidnappings were not only failures in terms of communicating and achieving recognisable demands but also in media manipulation: “The Palestinians had not only failed to obtain their principal, stated demand — the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israel and West Germany — but, to many observers, had hopelessly tarnished the morality of their cause in the eyes of the world. Indeed, international opinion was virtually unanimous in its condemnation of the terrorists’ operation.” (Hoffman, 1998: p, 72). But, again, this can often have the opposite to the desired effect. Robert Singh (2003) suggests that the 9/11 attacks merely served to strengthen the socio-political position of the American people, the very group that came under attack; he also suggests that the security systems around the globe became more vigilant and aware of any gaps in their processes: “Rather than initiating a transformation, 9/11 accelerated trends, policies and approaches that were well established. If the attacks’ most immediate political effects were certainly dramatic – the Bush administration’s approval ratings soared and public confidence in the federal government attained levels unseen since the early 1960s” (Singh, 2003: p,52).

Al-Qaeda, built upon this position when coalition forces invaded Iraq and later Afghanistan, the fear that is produced by asymmetric warfare attacks is sometimes seen as the main outcome, Somali “rebels” succeeded in influencing the American public, after pictures of dead American soldiers where broadcast on CNN, in the same way as the Madrid Suicide bombings had on the Spanish public, directly influencing government policy and leading to the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, the American government forced by the public outcry pulled troops out of Somalia. With limited resources and limited damage to western societies al-Qaeda, has managed to change the very ideals for which it is said the war on terror is conducted. It has become a norm in Europe that after a terrorist attack, new security legislation and other measures are established to combat the threat of terrorism; however most of these policies seem to neglected the human rights of the citizens. These changes are highlighted by Arce (et,al 2009) the traditional treatment of terrorism-as-asymmetric-conflict in terms of the relative resource disparity between terrorists and their ultimate targets, an additional asymmetry exists through the definition of success. For the target government, success is defined in terms of security against all possible attacks; whereas for terrorists one success is often enough to alter the political landscape, airways, etc. If one target is successfully attacked, then counter terror policy and the competency of the government itself

can be subject to public scrutiny.(Arce, et,al, 2009). Thinking and organizing in a different manor than an opponent in order to amplify advantages and by doing so also exploit an opponent’s weakness. Changes to asymmetrical warfare have been greatly affected by the digital age, no matter the policy initiatives in trying to undermine the terrorist’s propaganda and promote its own; the forum of the internet allows suicide attacks to be displayed to a world audience. The filming of “Martyr videos” and attacks can serve both as a recruitment campaign reaching to all corners of the world and a forewarning to those who oppose terrorism. Understanding and defining suicide terrorism is open to debate; there have been a number of successes in terms of securing specific demands in the past – not least of all the 1970 ‘skyjacking’ operation by the PFLP. However, we have also seen how terrorism can be divisive, how it can engender the very opposite of what it sets out to do. As we saw with the London bombings, a post 9/11 society is one that treats the threat of terrorism as a consequence of modern city living. This is perhaps the one main reason why terrorism may become considered a strong military strategy: today the more terrorist activity there is, the more political value it has, yet the less it affects every day individual life. However, of course, terrorism is perhaps the only strategy that many disenfranchised groups have which may account for its constant presence on the global political stage. Ultimately, however, terrorism is a symbolic act, an act that depends upon fear for its meaning; as the public becomes more and more exposed to images and symbols of terror they also become more and more immune. As Baudrillard suggests (2003) the violence of the terrorist is likely to become merely just another image in the media and the terrorist themselves just another face on the television screen and it is this, ironically, that provides its greatest counter measure.

In this essay the difficulty in defining, theorising and understanding has been discussed. The asymmetries involved within terrorism have also been discussed, showing that with the use of digital media and little resources the ability of the target to respond to attack within its own borders can become limited to the change of political policy, which in turn may undermine the authority of the government within its own borders. The September 11 attacks and during the post Cold war era, the world has seen no greater power than the United States. International Relations have seen the control and dominance of the United States over the world’s structure. However, after the Twin Tower attacks, the world started realizing the role of others inside the international arena, these others preferably labeled terrorists; questioned the validity of several theories that were formulated as soon as the end of the Cold War was announced, these theories were trying to predict the shape and attitude of the world as it entered a new era. It has always been known that every era in history adapts an indication that will mark it as distinctive, and therefore all of those theories were simple speculations on the nature of what could be such an indication. Theories valid, some predicted the rise of democracy and liberalism, others feared the return of barbarism and anarchy. Also, other theories predicted a clash that will divide the borders of the world according to culture, civilization, ethnicity, and most importantly religion. The world has dramatically changed with terrorism as the key player. It is also very clear that the asymmetries involved in terrorism are very powerful, as it was able to question the strength of the United States, and was able to reform the political policies of many world countries. Terrorism is the world’s most fearful enemy, an enemy that is powerful, aggressive, and most importantly ambiguous. There is no concession within society on terrorism, for many it is not a problem and life continues, for others it has change their view of world order and politics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2008 National Defense Authorization Act (Section 1230, Public Law 110-181) http://www.defense.gov/pubs/OCTOBER_1230_FINAL.pdf Accessed 06/04/2010,
Arce, Daniel G; Kovenock, Dan; Robertson,B, Suicide Terrorism and the Weakest Link, CESIFO WORKING PAPER NO. 2753,CATEGORY 2: PUBLIC CHOIC

World Health Organization Assistant Director-General Catherine Le Gals-Camus finds that more people around the world die from suicide than other causes. 1. According to Dr Anuradha Bose, associate professor in pediatrics who also works for the CMC’s department of community health, suicide is the third largest single cause of death among Indian youth between the ages of 15-19. One in every three cases of suicide in India is committed by people due to academic pressure.

2. A suicide is reported in India every 15 minutes and it is believed that there are many more cases of suicides that are not reported, so the actual number is very high.

3. Kerala, the state with the highest literacy rate in all of India also has the highest suicide rate which is an alarming factor for academic pressure.

4. The average suicide rate in India is 103 per 100,000 people compared with the worldwide average of 14.5 suicides per 100,000 people.

6. More than 100,000 people commit suicide in India every year and 3 people a day take their own lives in Mumbai.

The rate of suicide among females in India is close to three times that of males. The average rate for suicide among males in India is 58 for every 100,000 and 148 for every 100,000 women. This is contradicting to the situation in other parts of the world where the rate of suicides is high among men rather than women.

Females, in contrast to males, characteristically are more open to ask for medical help and to communicate their anxieties and fears to significant others. Males tend to be acutely aware of feelings of sexual inadequacy or inadequacy of masculinity and believe it shameful to communicate such feelings. This seems to hold true for college-age males and females as well as adolescents.

POSSIBLE REASONS

Although the reasons for suicide in students are likely as varied as the people who commit them, there are some primary reasons for the high suicide rate in India. Here are some of the most common reasons for committing suicide in India.

1. Pressure to perform: In this modern age, from the moment the child is born, he’s brought up in a very competitive fashion. They are under tremendous pressure to deliver at schools well as sports and for competitive examinations.” Parents and society expect a lot from the children and the pressure to perform is high. A lot of students contemplate suicide because they could not achieve the good scores expected by their parents.

2. Family conflict, including domestic violence: India is losing the support that has traditionally come from the joint family system, as many couples now opt to live on their own, away from the rest of the family. There is less bonding and interaction with the family members and the feeling of neglect make the children feel unwanted and they get depressed.

3. Ragging: In few cases, ragging in colleges has been found reason for suicide in their first year. The emotional and humiliating treatment that the seniors give the juniors, make them want to forget everything by ending their lives.

4. Copy-Cat: Another explanation for the high teenage suicide rate was “copy-cat suicides” where children read about suicides in newspapers and decide to do the same thing themselves. There have been many incidents where children try to imitate suicides scenes from movies for fun and end up getting killed

5. Virtual Lifestyle: These days children are hooked to videogames and computer. The internet can be considered as boon or bane. Children have been sucked into the virtual world and they have been so addicted to it that they find it hard to live in the real world. This has led to many suicides as they have not been able to become normal again

The factors responsible behind the student suicide are quite different from other suicides like found in elders. The few trends have been observed in a survey in educational institutes across in US. Out of 2402 students, 1078 (45.8%) had psychological problems, half (1201 students) perceived problems in their role as students, 930 (45%) reported academic decline, 180 (8.82%) students reported that life was a burden, 122 (6%) reported suicidal ideas and 8 (0.39%) students reported suicidal attempt. There was significant correlation between student’s perception of life as a burden and class they were studying, mother’s working status, psychological problems and problems students experienced in relation to study, peers, future planning and with parents.

Risk Factors

Biological Clues: Family history of mental illness including depression, puberty, cognitive impairments, disability, chronic illness, substance abuse, anxiety, mood disorders and conduct disorder

Sociological: Contagion, peer pressure, family conflicts, drug and alcohol abuse, other abuse, academic pressures; expectations of school, family and self; break-up in a relationship, interpersonal losses, legal or disciplinary issues, bullying/harassment, negative social environment, victimization experiences

Psychological: Negative self-talk like “I’m no good” or ” I am not worthy”; poor distress tolerance, poor resiliency, poor interpersonal problem-solving, black and white thinking, previous suicide attempt

Existential: failure to see the good in the world, hopelessness: “What’s the point – it’s not going to change”

Communication

The addressing of this social problem can be divided in two types-

Proactive- Raising awareness among the students community at large at not to feel depressed and communicating that suicide is not an end to problems.

Reactive – This communication for those who need help right at the moment. As suicide tendency is very ephemeral tendencies quite some time. If the patient can be counseled right at the moment than suicide can be avoided.

I would propose an integrated communication plan across the channels as they have different reach and richness.

Before going deeper we have to select the central communication idea for the campaign. As the basic problem is depression due to some failure , the value of life should be shown in all the campaign.

The central idea can be

Life is to live and not to end.

You can end you life, not problems.

The creative brief can be framed around what the chetan bhagat has mentioned in a address to students to a university-

Don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing every day. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

Mass communication-

This can be divided further in different execution ideas-

Movies: – Few movies and documentary can be made which showcases the people who sometimes were depressed and thought of doing suicide have fought against the problem and become successful. The recently released film “3 idiots” portrays such a character in which a brilliant student commits suicide due to failure in the exams.

Textbooks:- Last page of text books can be devoted to such na motivationall stories about the people who did not do well in studies but able to make the histories in their field. People like Sachin Tendulkar , Bill gates , Mark Zukerberg who are college drop outs can be cited to make sure that text book and exams are not the end in itself.

Newspapers:- The stories of committing suicide should not be given prime importance as it may promote the copycat to further to take the path. Society should not sympathize with the people who commit suicide as it gives a signal to potential person to reach that destination.

Counseling:

Every college should have time to time personal interaction with their students and family members on their academic performance and behavioral changes if any. Research shows that timely personal counseling is the most successful factor in preventing suicide cases. If needed, a professional psychologist can be sought for effective counseling.

The counseling should be extended to parents and teachers. They also have to be educated that not every child can be best at everything and they have to find out their child’s interest. Recently released movie “Taree Zameen Par” showcases this that every child is good at something and we have to nurture their interest rather than imposing their will on the students. Some psychologist suggests that parents drives the things which they were not able to do during their times through their child an in this process they go beyond the capabilities of the child.

The overall personality of a student should be other parameter like sports and art also in students morale boosting.

Help Line-

Various help line is set up across the world who help the person who are depressed and counseling.

Few of the most popular one are as below-

http://www.samaritansofboston.org/ You are not alone.

http://www.befrienders.org/

A helpline in Mumbai, called Aasra, has been operating for several years to tackle the problem.

Connect to Young kids-

Face book page – Fight Against Growing Teenage SUICIDES having 768 likes

In January Samaritans hosts an annual memorial service open to all suicide survivors.

Dr. Anuradha Bose has begun a program of family life education, which includes information on sex and relationship for high school students which he hopes will help, but he admits it’s a small start to a big problem.

Maharastra, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bombay Psychiatry Society (BPS) have launched an intitiative ‘Life is Beautiftul’ to locate syndromes of depression in child. They recently roped in Amir Khan as a Brand Ambassador fot hits.

Campaign

Motivation –

Parent Counseling

Help line-