Author: Andre Coleman

Childhood representations are derived from media as well as policies and laws, the two being interrelated. Media images produce influential perceptions about children that may be translated into ideologies and through the same laws and policies influence children’s well being and material needs. Media also highlights that the identity of childhood as a social construction is very different to adulthood. It is depicted as marginalised and incapable. With the introduction of many forms of technology in the past 20 years it is not surprising that media now plays an even greater integral role in shaping childhoods, mine being no exception. All this power exerted by media calls for some form of analysis.

In other instances, the childhood figure is overlapped with that of animals, which is evident in the film, ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’ (1969), where Victoire, the wild boy, adapted himself to an uncivilised situation (Mills, 2000).

The notion of innocence of children is commonly portrayed in children’s books and films such as ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’, where Cedric symbolises innocence and beauty. Children are deemed to be protected from ‘secret knowledges’, namely sexuality and death. In fact, until recently, girls were portrayed as asexual and ignorant of sex (Humphries, Mack & Perks, 1988). In contrast, the premature exhibition and sexualisation of young girls and the need of protection of their innocence is highlighted in the film ‘Painted Babies’ (1993), a film about young girls in beauty pageants (Robinson & Davies, 2008).

The notion ‘children as vulnerable and in need of protection’, is outlined in Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’, where Nancy saves Oliver from Bill Sykes’ physical abuse. The abduction and consequent murder of the young James Bulger is another shocking example vulnerability of children.

On the other hand, children are also characterised as being autonomous. In ‘Harry Potter’, Harry epitomises this perception in literature in his fight against evil. The feisty independent character Anne Shirley in ‘Anne of Green Gables’ is another example. Girl power was more related to popular music with phenomena such as the ‘Spice Girls’ who promoted this neo-liberal feminist identity in teenage girls in the 90s.

The novel ‘Coral Island’ depicts children as apprentices where they develop skills, realise their dreams, and move on to adulthood. However, contemporary Prose fiction works portray children as a distinct group from adults. These works are realistic, sometimes dark, and child-centred exemplified by by Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ and Anne Finne’s ‘Madame Doubtfire’.

The images of children presented by the media are multi-faceted and sometimes contrasting, evident in the film ‘Leon’, where Mathilda, is portrayed as mature and independent but still perceived as a vulnerable child in need of protection in Leon’s eyes (ICS, 2010).

It should be questioned as to how accurate cultural artefacts actually are. In children’s literature, Hunt implies that authors depict childhood as they perceive it, and therefore not a true reflection. ‘Children’s books are therefore likely to portray attitudes to childhood rather than any individual or culturally agreed childhood’ (Hunt, 2009). Its power was in the image it left behind, imitated by some children in real life. Nowadays, children are not as influenced by contemporary literature. They have become more knowledgeable and sceptical, the ‘so-called active reader’. ‘Texts for these children have lost their power’ (Hunt, 2009). Readers and viewers may interpret messages in different ways according to their identities and divisions such as age, gender, social class and ethnicity. Globalization of media brings about a certain degree of standardization whereby children in different parts of the world are being exposed to the same stimulus and subsequently start showing some common traits. Moreover, media itself exercises a degree of control on how messages it delivers are interpreted. This is called the hypodermic syringe model. Messages are not only delivered but new meanings are produced bringing about the double hermeneutic phenomenon.

Representational practices play a crucial role in influencing the material lives of children. Prominent music artists have used media to promote the awareness of different races, The most well-known event was ‘Live Aid’ in 1985 highlighting the plight of starving children in Africa.

Media can be a strong influence on health issues in children, evident in the recent significant increase of the illness anorexia nervosa in girls may have been as a result of T.V. and magazines portraying a very slim figure to be the accepted image as well as the explosion of obesity in children. It is estimated that 20 % of children in UK are overweight (James & James, 2004). Consequently there is now a drive from all concerned to promote more healthy-eating programme such as Jamie Oliver’s T.V. series.

The film ‘scum’ by Alan Clarice 1979 portrays how a borstal in UK further brutalises young offenders. Its huge cultural impact was a contributory factor in the 1982 reform that replaced borstals to youth custody centres This is an example how the media can influence the institutions of the State (Mills, 2000).

Today’s children are more independent, inquisitive, creative, and can use media effectively, forming part of the ‘net’ generation of childhood. In fact Katz (1997) regards these children able to ‘create their own cultures and communities’ (Buckingham, 2009: 126). The use of internet is invaluable for these children in the field of education and research. Also, through the introduction of social networks, they are able to communicate freely with one another. There are also some concerns, as children are at risk of exposure to pornography, violence and cyber-stalking. Also, it is argued that they tend to spend more time confined to their room resulting in less family integration. A study between children’s everyday activities and the media showed that among media, television was the prime mover in families’ lives. This was done through quantitative and qualitative methods using questionnaires, interviews, as well as new methods (Tufte, 2003). Media technology is also influenced by gender and class identities. This is highlighted by the fact that the majority of computer games are played by boys and also that, middle class children have more access to computers than their working class peers.

Over the years, different media has shaped my childhood, such as television programmes, magazines, music, the internet, pamphlets, books and billboards. As a young child, ‘Care Bears’ and ‘Barney’, were amongst my favourite programmes. These were education and instilled in me the values of caring and tolerance. Other films include ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Cinderella’, by providing images of princesses and happy endings which have caused me to dream as a child. Another character worth quoting is ‘Miss Honey’ in the book ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl who presented as a role model. In fact, at seventeen years of age, I decided to become a teacher, and have always strived to be kind and gentle just like ‘Miss Honey’. A Maltese media campaign to keep the environment clean, symbolised by a small hedgehog, ‘Xummiemu’, was set up, when I was growing up. These billboards, posters and magazines influenced me in respecting the environment. Messages on billboards such as the advert ‘Smoking kills’, on our main roads, had put me off smoking completely and never smoked a single cigarette in my life. As a teenager, the internet was used as a useful source of information in my school assignments. Through ‘MSN Messenger’ and ‘Skype’, I have stayed in touch with my friends and relatives who live abroad.

The internet is unique in that it is an interactive form of media allowing children’s global communication and the promotion of their creativity and spontaneity. I feel close to this culture which is critical of what media portrays even when the same media seems to have taken over our lives.

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References

Buckingham, D. (2009). New media, new childhoods? Children’s changing cultural environment in the age of digital technology in M. J. Kehily (Ed.), An introduction to Childhood Studies (2nd Edition) (pp. 124-138). Berkshire: Open University Press.

Humphries, S., Mack, J. & Perks, R. (1988). A Century of Childhood, London: Sidgwick & Jackson.

Hunt, P. (2009). Children’s literature and childhood in M. J. Kehily (Ed.), An introduction to Childhood Studies (2nd Edition) (pp. 50-69). Berkshire: Open University Press.

ICS (2010). Sociology of Childhood, Study Guide 1. Glasgow: ICS.

James, A. & James, A. L. (2004). Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Katz, J. (1997). Virtuous Reality: How America Surrendered Discussion of Moral Values to Opportunists, Nitwits and Blockheads like William Bennett. New York: Random House.

Mills, J. & Mills, R. (2000) Childhood Studies: A Reader in perspectives of childhood, Routledge, New York.

Mills, R. (2000). Perspectives of Childhood in J. Mills & R. Mills (Eds.), Childhood Studies: A Reader in perspectives of childhood (pp. 7-37). London: Routledge.

Robinson, K. H. & Davies, C. (2008). SHE’S KICKIN’ ASS, THAT’S WHAT SHE’S DOING! Deconstructing Childhood ‘Innocence’ in Media Representations. Australian Feminist Studies, 23, 343- 358.

Tufte, B. (2003). Children, media and consumption. Advertising & Marketing to Children, October-December, 69-76.

Discuss the role ‘family’ plays in shaping childhood. Give examples of cultures within a family structure and reflect on your own culture.

There is general consensus that family does shape childhood ‘from the first minute its parent(s) start to interact with it in the context of a wider culture.’ (Gittens, 2009: 36). The family is the foundation of social stability and the primary means of social reproduction. This institution moulds the child through education, morals, values & beliefs (James & James, 2004). ‘Family’ besides the traditional ‘nuclear family’ also includes lone parent, gay/lesbian, extended families, and cohabitation. Indeed, the family is instrumental in shaping the child to become an integral part of society (ICS, 2010b).

Childhoods are dependent on the identities and positions of the child’s family, as these will have different structures, resulting in different experiences (ICS, 2010a). In recent years delayed child bearing means that children are less likely to share the companionship of siblings or wider kin. Single parent families are the second highest risk factor, after unemployment, for children to live in poverty (Clarke, 1996). Lower social class, unemployment, alcoholism, and drug abuse have serious consequences on children’s well-being in the shape of poverty, poor social conditions, mental health problems and physical abuse. Children from minor ethnic families may be disadvantaged as a result of poorer housing conditions and lower pay as well as an increased prevalence of chronic diseases such as rickets and T.B (James & James, 2004).

Also, parents’ lifestyles may affect children’s lives directly. Smoking in families is detrimental to children’s health, significantly increasing asthma in their children. Nowadays, most parents work leaving less time to prepare meals, which may result in children eating more ‘junk food’. Armstrong, Hill and Secker (2000) argue the beneficial effects of parental affection on the child’s well-being. In comparison family breakdowns, increasing in number, are a cause of stress and mental problems in children (James & James, 2004; Armstrong et al., 2000).

Children’s identity is seen as a passive experience of ‘being parented’. Children possess a ‘Double Status’; the kinship status as ‘the child’ and the age-based status as ‘the minor’. The link between womanhood and childhood is focused on children’s needs discourses (Lawler, 2000). According to research, the function of the family is specific to the fulfilment of gender-based roles, where females are a source of care and expression, and males the main source of income (ICS, 2010a: 15; MacNaughton & Smith, 2009). Parents act as role models by setting examples which are crucial in shaping childhood. Children also learn gender roles from the family. For example, if cooking is done only by the mother they might associate it exclusively with females (MacNaughton & Smith, 2009).

State laws and policies use the family to implement and control children. The state also uses the family ‘as an ally in the battle for social control’ (James & James, 2004: 191)) and increasingly regulates children’s lives (James & James, 2004). Development of ‘family friendly’ employment practice through social benefits, results in more stable families, better support of children during their education, and reduced levels of delinquency (James & James, 2004).

The child is regarded as the object of legal rulings with children’s rights generally overruled by their parents claiming to act ‘in the best interest of the child’, thus their agency being denied (James & James, 2004: 201). The effective voice of children in family proceedings is well documented, both in the Children Act and the UNCRC. However, the implementation to date is another matter, even welfare professionals view children both as ‘carefree and powerless’ (ICS, 2010b: 45). In fact, family law in England and Wales classifies a child as ‘a person with a disability’ (James & James, 2004: 200).

In every culture lies ‘marriage, residence, family size and composition, family status and role, family power and authority, family communication that are quite universal. These elements of family structure in vary from one society to another (Uddin, 2009: 438).

The representation of the family structure in Western culture is usually portrayed as a nuclear family composed of two siblings. This model is still portrayed as ‘ideal’ according to mainstream parents’ websites such as bounty.com. Media has always portrayed an image of the Western family. Nowadays, it brings us a variety of different family structures including gay couples and single parents.

In Muslim cultures, there are clearer gender demarcations where all family affairs are decided by the senior male member, leaving other family members fully dependent on their decisions without any say (Uddin, 2009). The male is usually the bread winner whilst women take on the ’emotional role’ such as child rearing and household chores (Uddin, 2007). Another feature of this community is the large family size, thus an extended family structure is adopted to ensure adequate family support. Family structures in Muslim Western communities vary from those in more traditional societies as the former face lifestyle choices which are not available to the latter. Middle-class, though not working-class, Muslims have expectations and a level of education comparable to non-Muslims (Abbas, 2003; Ahmad, 2001). Muslims regard their Islamic faith as fundamental to their identity. However, Sikhs and Hindus consider education to be their main priority, allowing greater occupational opportunities, class mobility, integration and acceptance (Abbas, 2003).

On a more personal note, I grew up in a traditional Maltese Roman Catholic nuclear family consisting of four members; my parents, my older sister and myself. This is the most common structure in Malta. My father is a doctor and my mother is a housewife who gave up her job as a secretary to raise us. My parents raised us striking a balance between being open to change but holding onto the strong values of Maltese culture and Roman Catholic beliefs. These beliefs form an integral role in our way of life and shape our views on family. Family authority has always been shared between my parents. However, they have always valued our opinions, even as children. This has created an open communicative relationship between us.

The family has influenced many aspects of my life. Due to my large extended family, I grew up surrounded by younger children, playing with and teaching them. This sparked my interest in teaching Early Years. The short distances facilitated the formation of strong family bonds. We live in a typical neighbourhood where people lend a helping hand when needed, though can be nosy. Despite Malta being a small island, we are not insular as we are influenced by other cultures, namely British and Italian. We are multi-lingual and have a Western outlook. We are also influenced by foreign family ties, my grandmother being British. Our culture motivates us to maximise our potential by pursuing a higher education, particularly a University degree. Opportunities are few and competition is high. Ambition is instilled from an early age, and expectations are high. I form part of a very close- knit family which is dependable and supportive. We consider this to be our role and responsibility to each other. I enjoy the security and stability of our family whilst still enjoying my independence and autonomy.

All the aforementioned aspects are crucial as the resources and environment of the family have a direct influence on how children and adolescents deal with emotions, relationships as well as their potential for future success (Wen, 2008). Nonetheless, it is fundamental to perceive the child as an individual actor whose needs must be considered in the context of their own childhood and not merely as an extension of the needs of all of those who share the status of being ‘children’.

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Walter Lipman (1992) applied the word “stereotyping” to perception. Stereotyping refers to the generalization of the characteristics of all members belonging to a certain group. In other words Stereotyping can be defined as “the tendency to perceive another person as belonging to a single class or category.”

Stereotype: Generalizing people based on similar characteristics in one group is called stereotyping. Stereotypes are standardized conceptions of groups. Such as, all females are talkative.

Prejudice: This is the attitude displayed towards the members of some group just because they belong to that group. The main difference is that the attitude is showed by the person who is prejudiced whereas stereotype is just generalizing.

Discrimination: It involves the actual behaviors towards a group; for instance, stopping a female to work, just because she is a female. If she actually gets fired or does not get a job based on the gender, then it is discrimination. (Friedman, 2007)

Stereotypes can be either positive (e.g. “Black men are good at basketball”) or negative (“women are bad drivers”). But most stereotypes tend to make us feel superior in some way to the person or group being stereotyped. Stereotypes ignore the uniqueness of individuals by painting all members of a group with the same brush. Some stereotypes include Gender, race, ethnicity, race etc. (Friedman, 2007)

Gender Stereotypes: A gender stereotype consists of beliefs about the psychological traits and characteristics of men or women. Gender roles are defined by behaviors, but gender stereotypes are beliefs and attitudes about masculinity and femininity. The concepts of gender role and gender stereotype tend to be related. When people associate a pattern of behavior with either women or men, they may overlook individual variations and exceptions and come to believe that the behavior is inevitably associated with one gender but not the other. Therefore, gender roles furnish the material for gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are very influential; they affect conceptualizations of women and men and establish social categories for gender. These categories represent what people think, and even when beliefs vary from reality, the beliefs can be very powerful forces in judgments of self and others, as the headline story for this chapter showed. Therefore, the history, structure, and function of stereotypes are important topics in understanding the impact of gender on people’s lives.

Organization

The company selected for the research is Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), which was created under an Ordinance in 1961, to undertake comprehensive exploratory program and promote Pakistan’s oil and gas prospects. In 1997, it was converted into a Public Limited Company and is now governed by the Companies Ordinance Act 1984. OGDCL’s head office is in Islamabad. The promotion criterion in every department of OGDCL is as follows:

There should be a vacant post in the channel of hierarchy

There should be no disciplinary action against the individual

There should be no case pending on the individual

The individual should have spent 3-5 years in his existing grade

Performance rating should be ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, individual having rating below ‘Good’ will not be eligible for promotion.

The individual should meet the required qualification and experience for that job.

The percentage evaluation of basic promotion criteria has been shown in Table 1.0 in Appendix – A. The promotion within any department is processed through certain steps. The flow chart for promotional process has been shown in Appendix – B.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The purpose of this study is to determine whether gender stereotype effects promotion of female employees in organizations. To test the hypothesis, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited is chosen. This study is conducted to find the reasons women being promoted less as compared to men. It will also highlight the reasons behind gender discrimination in organizations.

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Heilman, (2001) proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. Research has shown that despite producing the identical work product, a woman’s work is often regarded as inferior. In fact, there have been many investigations in organizational psychology that attest to the fact that unless the quality of the work product is incontrovertible, women’s accomplishments are undervalued as compared to those of men.

Stereotypes form an image of a certain type of people due to conventional image in society, their opinions, beliefs or appearances. Due to this conception, stereotype treats all those who fit the criteria in the same way. Gender stereotype treats people according to his/her image of that gender. A stereotype that obstructs women’s career advancement in the workplace are of the opinion that women’s role is to supplement man’s work. Women are supposed to take care whereas men take the charge (Dodds, 2006).

Gender identity theory:

Gender identity theory was presented by Sigmund Freud (Bland, 2003) believing that gender identity develops during phallic stage of development, a person’s inner feeling of being male or female, usually developed during early childhood as a result of parental rearing practices and social influences and strengthened during puberty (Hetherington, 1965). Gender role is defined as the behaviors, expectations and general functions defined by society as masculine or feminine, which are embodied in the behavior of the individual male or female and culturally regarded as appropriate male and female.

Theories about gender identity:

Psycho dynamic theories

Psychoanalytic: emphasizes inner psychic conflict of children instead of external pressure e.g. Freudian concept of Oedipal conflict (Mitchell & Black, 1995)

Cognitive-developmental: emphasizes stages of mental development. E.g. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory states that “children are almost inevitably led by their own cognitive processing to choose gender as an organizing principle of social rule that governs their own and their peers’ behavior (McManus, 1999).

External theories: emphasizes on what culture does to individuals

Socialization or social learning theory: emphasizes the difference of different learning environment especially of children but sometimes adults as well

Imitation of models and examples they see in society

Response to rewards for gender appropriate behavior and criticism or punishment for gender inappropriate behavior(from peers as well as adults) (McManus, 1999)

Gender-schema theory: merges cognitive- development and social learning theory. Schema are internal cognitive networks (shaped by socialization) that organize and guide individual social perception, gender schema are cognitive networks associated with concept of masculine and feminine. High gender schema individual tend to organize many of their thoughts, perceptions and evaluation according to gender stereotype and symbols.

Research shows that three years old child have already begun figurative or metaphorical meaning of gender (McManus, 1999)

Social – structural or situational theories; emphasizes structural constraint on children and adults (fact that men and women are different and unequal positions in social structures)

Conscious discrimination

Unconscious discrimination: people may not be aware that they are discriminating or being discriminated against- it is quite difficult to approve discrimination has occurred (McManus, 1999).

Identity construction theory: emphasizes individual personal and conscious commitment to a self-image of self. Cassell (1996) says that women generally lack traits of leader, as they endorse values like relentless, cooperative, and dependent. According to Loden (1985) they lack the need for control. Due to the kind and selfless nature of women, they are unable to make a good manager.

Ornstein (1997) talks about two major modes of consciousness: analytical and holistic. Analytical is to view each aspect of the situation. All parts of the situation are considered in sequence, whereas, holistic means seeing the whole situation at once. Analytical suits men better and holistic suits women better.

Any female co-worker is left alone in the business network as well as social network. It is difficult to overcome this ‘old-boy network’. However, since globalization is at its peak now so, businesses who adapt global leadership theory are able to break the ‘old-boy network’.

As the “Doctrine of two spheres” by Lewin says that men and women diverge in interests. Men have their separate areas of interest and women there. Men are supposed to do manly outside works and women stay at home and manage it.

Deficit theory

Deficit theory says that female deficit characteristics disallow them to play traditional masculine roles. Changing global scenario has also influenced the acceptance of females as economic partners but still they have largely been forgotten as associates of the economic decision making process.

Their work recognition is negligible while their participation is encouraged in the labor force as females are considered more suitable for supporting staff.

In Developing countries like Pakistan male managers perceive females as weak creature, less capacitated to handle stress at workplace (Akram, Padda, Khan, & Husnain, 2011).

Stereotypes are said to have a traditional image toward a certain object, person or phenomenon etc. and these beliefs, about characteristics of man and women are permanent and are proved to be resistant to change.

According to Dodge, Gilroy & Fenzel, 1995; Leutow, Garovich, & Leutow, 1995) Male and females are thought to be different both in terms of achievement-oriented traits referred as agentic and in terms of social-and-service oriented traits referred as communal.

Bakan (1966) said males are characterized by aggressive, forceful, Independent and decisive traits whereas females are characterized as kind, helpful, sympathetic and concerned for others

Heilman, Block, & Martell, (1995) during study they found female managers efficient and more decisive than general females but still they were rated lower than their counterparts. It was only when female mangers were considered as highly successful that this gender difference in trait characterization was found to abate. But, increased presence of female in the workforce and their assumptions of new roles do not appear to preclude gender-stereotype perceptions.

According to Medline E. Heilman (2001) Gender stereotype can hinder females from going up the ladder as the executive level jobs are always considered to be masculine. It means these jobs are considered for people who are tough, authoritative with more decisive powers and more achievement oriented which are considered male characteristics. So the top level job description is invariably defined as masculine based upon factors like work domain and specific area of management. Certain findings and research indicate that a description of a good manager is attributed by Masculinity.

Queen bee syndrome: designed by G.L Staives in 1973 describes women in position authority who views and treats subordinates more critically if they are female. This has been documented by several studies. In another study scientist from university of Toronto speculate that queen bee syndrome maybe the reason women find it more stressful to work with a women manger. No difference was found in stress level of male workers

Women carving out a career in a male-dominated environment might expect there is one thing guaranteed to work in their favor – a female boss. But surprisingly it is more likely to wreck a woman’s promotion prospects. Instead, women who do break through the glass ceiling are more likely to help out their male subordinates than female ones. Research shows men who report to a female manager get much more mentoring and support than their female colleagues.

In business environment a queen bee may also refer to women in upper management who advanced in ranks without the help of any type of affirmative action plans. Many of these women tend to be politically conservative. They chose not to publicly identify with feminism. They often see others usually young women as competitors and will refuse to help them advance within the company preferring to mentor a male instead of a female employee. Some queen bees may actively take steps in hindering women’s advancement as they see her as a direct competitor.

The findings, published in the journal Social Science Research, add to previous evidence that the so-called Queen Bee syndrome can be a major obstacle to women climbing the managerial ladder (Weiss, 2009).

Hiring and promotion decisions in an organization are based on test scores, credentials and seniority. However, in some cases it is based on subjective criteria such as an interviewer’s impression that the employee is fit for job or not and manager’s/ supervisor’s recommendation. Objective criteria show less gender discrimination. If selection is based on validated tests of cognitive abilities then it shows that usually men and women are hired at the same ratio. Subjective criteria show a significant difference in the ratio of male promotion against female promotions. (Cleveland, Stockdale, Murphy, & Gutek, 2000).

The most common stereotype about women are that they are less efficient and have inferior negotiation ability. Stereotypes in organizations disregard omen and do not consider them worthy of a higher position in the organizational hierarchy (Galinsky & Thompson, 2002).

Managing diversity in workplaces requires middle and top management to create an environment where all employees can succeed and grow. Even if the organization succeeds in hiring non-prejudiced managers, stereotype in the broader society will still exist. Every job and employee are ranked by others. If it is judged by a stereotype, the evaluation will be clouded by gender discrimination. As a result, women will not be given certain type of tasks such as related to Mathematics because they are thought to perform poorly in Mathematics. Stereotypes are unwilling to rethink their attitude towards others,. They justify their prejudice and prevent people of stereotyped groups from succeeding in activities and fields (Roberson & Kulik, 2007).

RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

The research study aims to find the how gender stereotype effect promotions in an organization. This effect of gender stereotype has only been observed for the female employees working in the organization. Generally, it is perceived that women are more affected by the gender stereotypes in any organization.

In order to understand the relationship of gender stereotype and promotion, variables have been defined. Variables are qualitative. Variables are categorized into independent and dependent variables (Kumar, 2005).

Promotions

(Dependent Variable)

Gender Stereotype

(Independent Variable)

Gender Stereotype is the independent variable and promotion is dependent variable. However independent factor is not completely independent, there are many sub factors that affect gender stereotype. Similarly promotion of employees is not solely dependent on stereotyping.

Gender stereotyping reflects behaviors and beliefs, gender role attitude and judgment of abilities. Several factors considered as a stereotype in typical organizations have been observed. For example, people especially males in the organizations think that women are not capable of making effective decisions so that’s why they are not promoted to higher levels of management. Similarly, women are not considered good in team-work, analytical skills, openness, etc.

The hypotheses have been developed as follows:

H0: Gender Stereotype effect promotion of women in organizations.

H1: Gender Stereotypes don’t effect promotion of women in organizations.

Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Purpose of Study:

Both dependent and Independent variables are known, and the purpose of research is to explain the factors which affect the dependent variable. The research is thus descriptive in nature.

Research Approach:

There are approaches for the research; one is deductive (testing theory) and inductive (building theory). This research is based on deductive approach in which reasoning is processed through general statement. A theory is confirmed through hypothesis; which is proved true through observations. The theory is proven by statistical estimation made by outcome-oriented questioned asked from sample population.

Type of Investigation:

As the purpose is identification of the relationship between dependent and independent variables, this a correlation study which attempts to describe the relationship between variables.

Extent of Interference

The research study is correlation and has been conducted in natural environment. The researcher interference has been minimal.

Unit of Analysis:

The study is based on gender stereotype among organizational employees. For this purpose the units of analysis are “Individual females” working in OGDCL regardless of the gender.

Time Horizon:

As the data have been collected just for one time, this is a cross-sectional study.

Sampling & Sampling Procedure

The research has been conducted in “OGDCL” head office. Respondents under the main focus of research were employees from different cadres of the organization which can represent the whole organization. Thus, Non-Probability “Convenience” Sampling has been adopted for the sample selection. Convenient sampling was used to identify the sample easily available to provide relevant information. Number of employees selected are 18.

Data Collection:

The methodology used for collection of data from giving sample was through “semi-structured interviews”. Saunders et al., (2009) explain that in Semi-structured interviews the research will have a list of themes and questions to be covered, although these may vary from interview to interview. The order of questions may be varied depending on the flow of the conversation. During the interviews for research, along with changing the sequence of questions based on conversation, additional questions were also asked to probe further into the issue. These interview conversations were recorded and then narrated for analysis. A copy of the interview questions has been attached in the appendix-c.

Questionnaire development

The questionnaire was developed on the basis of topic of research. First and foremost, the questions revolve around gender discrimination. They were designed in such a way that they can provide substantial and meaningful data. The questions were not general, they were company specific.

Data collection procedure

Data was collected by using interviews and questionnaires. Interviews were scheduled with the selected sample of employees from different departments. The employees were selected from seven different departments and designations to collect a reliable data. Questionnaires were distributed among employees of different departments. Purpose of the study was also explained to them.

Chapter 4

DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS & RESULTS

Most employees of OGDCL find the working environment of the organization to be comfortable and non-threatening. 38.8% employees find the working environment to be very comfortable to work. According to the analysis, 72.2% employees agree that they have equal chance of career development in OGDCL regardless of their gender. But, 27.7% are of the opinion that male and female staff does not have equal chance for the growth of their career due to discrimination.

This might be due to dissatisfaction of employees about their performance evaluation. Only 61.11% employees from sample population were familiar with the criteria on the basis of which their performance is measure. Whereas, only 16.6% are of the opinion that they are satisfied with the performance evaluation criteria of their organization. However, 77.7% employees of sample population responded that promotions id OGDCL is based on test scores, seniority and credentials. Trainings play a very essential role in the progress of any employee’s career. 50% of the sample population agreed that OGDCL provide equal training opportunities to both male and female whereas 27.7% employees said that they neither agree nor disagree to this statement and 22.2% employees disagreed.

Motivation is very essential for efficient performance of the employees. When employees their feedback, they try to improve performance because feedback tells them what they did right and what went wrong. According to the research, 44.4% sample population said that feedback of their perforce is shared with them to increase motivation but 38.9% say that no feedback is provided.

Due to absence of feedback, employees do not believe that the employee who is promoted is promoted on the basis of his or her performance. Survey also shows that 38.8% employee say that male employees openly show their disliking for female employees who promoted. Also, 38.8% employees believe that male employees do not behave in this manner. Though, significant percentage (22.2%) of employees neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement.

In this male-dominated society, it is seems very difficult for male employees to work with female employees as their superiors or boss. Research shows that 33.3% employees believe that rate of promotion of women in their company is as compared to men whereas 55.5% employees think otherwise.

83.3% employees believe that OGDCL provide a very favorable environment for female employees to progress in their field of work. Half of sample population also says that managers support female employees who are competent and promote on the basis of their capability and skills. Research also shows that 38.8% employees agree and the same percentage disagree to the statement the men do not hesitate to show their disliking if a female employee is promoted instead of male employee.

50% employees showed neutral response when asked about employees refusing to take orders from a female boss. On the contrary, 61.15% of the sample population says that female boss or supervisor is more respected by her employees than the male supervisor. They also believe OGDCL does not have gender discrimination issues.

aˆ?

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

The gender gap exists in the corporate world and women suffer from gender-based stereotypes. Based the theoretical framework, research and analysis we conclude that gender stereotype regarding females does exist to some extent. It’s due to implicit stereotypes that employees step in the work force with a mindset that a man is always the one who leads. (For instance, a child learns from childhood that father is the head of the house, or elder brother does most of the decision) The interview session and observation concludes that females do fall victim to gender stereotyping in regards to promotion. Although such cases are not on the record, however, many facts were collected through research that males are promoted more vs. females because they are thought to be more analytical and task oriented as opposed to females who are considered to be intuitive, communal, and collaborative. Due to the male dominated work environment, females face hurdles in their promotion. They need to be prominent and break into the old-boy network, in order to take a step closer to their promotion.

Recommendations:

In order to have a positive productive environment at workplace, there must be an equal status for women and men. Therefore, they both work towards achieving goals of the company rather than focusing on how not to be stereotyped. Following are the suggestions:

Device a fair performance analysis method for employees

Encourage female employees with supportive environment

Take action against complains of gender discrimination

Provide feedback to employees after performance evaluation

Supportive Environment for females

Diversity training is precisely the type of intervention and conscious effort needed to promote changes in gender stereotypes. Not only did diversity education lead to a decrease in directly reported, explicit stereotypes are thought to be more stable and enduring associations because they have been learned through years of environmental influences (kawakami & Dovidio, 2001). If such associations can be unlearned through diversity training then it is possible that gender stereotypes may be changing as a result of direct interventions.

In 1990’s the corporate world started using diversity training in order for a better acceptance of women and minorities in the work place. (Erick Erickson). It basically includes lectures, videos, role-playing games, etc. Diversity training should be a permanent part of the corporation. OGDCL should also implement such measures through which stereotyping against women is eradicated. The top management needs to be the part of these activities and training so the the employees take this matter seriously.

Training and Development sessions:

Training and Development sessions should be held regardless of any managerial responsibilities. These sessions could be helpful for OGDCL’s staff in changing perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors that are learned through prior learning or through external cultural aspects.

T&D sessions are collaborative, thus it involves team tasks. Working in teams would make employees learn how not to be biased towards women. Employees would acknowledge females and their knowledge of staff in their field of work. These sessions do not only discuss gender stereotyping, but additional tools are also discussed so that employees learn about overall a positive work environment. Additional tools could be communication skills, listening skills, etc.

It is imperative for the host of T&D sessions to create a positive first impression of the sessions. According to a study, the initial impact of the first five minutes will tend to remain throughout the training session. The whole session will go positively if the first five minutes turned out be a positive influence and vice versa. (Michael Moskowits). First impressions are created the first time, thus there is no second chance to it, and thus OGDCL must choose a trainee thoughtfully and wisely.

Breaking the ice between employees

We really need to educate employees that a woman can be a better leader. All the employees who were interviewed, at different levels at different designations, shared the view that they would prefer to have a male boss. This would fall under “breaking the ice”. Breaking the ice implies getting to know each other in a better way. The focus is to give the opportunity to the employees to get to know each other and to break down interpersonal communication barriers, and eventually accept each other on the designations or to-be designations. This could be enhanced by describing each other’s qualities and positive traits that each employee carries. Hopefully, this leads to a positive outcome and employees learn that technical skills can place men and women on an equal footing

Women need to display an attitude of ‘I don’t care’. Women need to realize that being women it is strength. They should go with a ‘go to hell’ attitude. Women should take it as a war if needed in situations of stereotypes. They should learn how to be daring enough to take a step for themselves. But then, the argument arises as this is east and priorities are set forth based on culture, religion, prior learning etc. in order to incorporate that attitude we have got to do tutorials on women too so they should know how to stand up for themselves. Thus, career oriented women should be daring enough to fight when they fall victim to gender stereotyping.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

There should be adequate gender-disaggregated monitoring and evaluation. This implies that employees should practically apply all the learned behaviors, through sessions and tutorials, to the corporate world. In order to be sure that they are incorporating the positive attitude there should be a proper monitoring and evaluation. For instance, employees could be evaluated through tests. A sample test could be if a picture of women is shown then do employees click the ‘strong’ button or the ‘weak’ button vs. if a picture of a man is shown then do they click the ‘strong’ button or the ‘weak’ button? Usually people tend to hit a weak button when shown a picture of a female.

Furthermore, there should be an evaluation as well on regular basis after some time intervals to see if there has been improvement in the attitude, behavior, and perceptions.

“When a man finds a job, his problems end. When a woman finds a job, her problems start”

Many countries have experienced very significant changes in patterns of family formation and family structure. Great Britain is one of the countries where these changes have been particularly marked with the result that British families have become less stable . The roles of women and men with the parents or within the family have also changed. The last 100 years have seen changes in attitudes and expectations. Bruner, J. (1985) Vygotsk, the last 100 years have been seen in the structure of technology, attitudes and expectations. Families are mix of cohabiting parents, stepfamilies, single parent families, those living apart together and civil partnerships, as well as the traditional family. it was necessary to prove that in one of five ways such as unreasonable behaviour, desertion, adultery, two years separation with consent, five years separation without consent.

J. (1985) Vygotsky, the public are divided into their views in which relaxation of societal attitudes towards marriage means it is no longer seen as unusual to be involved in a ‘complicated’ family structure. Families are no longer just made up of married parents living with their children. Although seven in ten households are still headed up by married couples, this proportion has been declining for some time. Families are now a mix of cohabiting parents, stepfamilies, single parent families, those living apart together and civil partnerships, as well as the traditional nuclear family.

The changes in marriage, divorce and cohabitation have contributed to the growing number of new types of family. Two in five of all marriages are now remarriages, which makes stepfamilies one of the fastest growing family forms in Britain. In the decade to 2006, the number of single parent families also increased to 2.3 million, making up 14% of all families. Consequently more and more children are now growing up in single parent families, and in stepfamilies. A growing number of couples are also now living apart together, often following failed marriages or cohabitations. Initial estimates suggest that around two million people have regular partners in other households excluding full-time students and people who live with their parents. In most cases this is due to working in a different location to the family home or because the relationship is still in the early stages . However, women’s focus on their career may also be a factor. As women choose to focus on their career before settling into a committed relationship, they are getting married and having children later in life. Finally civil partnerships between same sex couples have created a new type of family. By the end of 2007 there had been 26,787 civil partnerships since the law was introduced in December 2005.

Teenage motherhood is one of the most distinctive features of British Demography. Without teenage pregnancies, Britain’s rate would fall from 1.8 to 1.68 (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2; also Coleman 1997). Teenagers throughout Europe both East and West now engage in sexual intercourse at earlier ages than their parents or grand-parents. In disapproval pre-marital

sex . Marriage was broken, little remained to prevent young people who are physically ready to have sex from doing so. The analysis of European social attitudes data (Chapter 3; also Scott, Alwin, and Braun 1996) provides information about attitudes to pre-marital sex in various countries in 1994. In these information ,52 per cent were opposed to men, and 63 per cent opposed to women, having any pre-marital sex. Only a small number believed that pre-marital sex was ‘natural’ (McKibbin 1998: 296)

For teenage men and women in Britain today, the average age at i¬?rst intercourse is 17. But whereas in most of Western Europe, rates of teenage motherhood have fallen as teenage sexual activity has risen. Demographically, Britain more closely resembles to Eastern Europe, where a tradition of marriage has long meant high teenage fertility rates (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2; also Coleman 1996b: 23).Almost all of the East European births are inside marriage while all of the Western are outside marriage with a large number being outside partnership as well. In Britain, teenage births account for just over one-i¬?fth of all non-marital births 21 per cent while 80-90 per cent of teenage births are outside legal marriage.

In 1996, there were 44,700 babies born to women aged 15-19. Although this represents a rise over the previous year. However, it is also the case that the number of teenage girls in the population was falling from the early 1980s onwards and that the rate at which 15-19 year olds become pregnant and remain pregnant .The conception rate and the abortion rate was stable or rising throughout the period and into the late 1990s (ONS 1997d: 62). Figure shows changes in the abortion rates for selected years since 1974.There was a large drop from 1974-84 when teenage births fell steadily. From 1984 onwards, however, conceptions have i¬‚uctuated around 60 and abortions around 35, per 1000 women aged 15-19. The stability of both the conception and abortion rates gives few grounds for thinking that in the short term at least . British teenagers will behave different than they have in the past. And as their numbers in the population are set to rise over the next decade and number of babies born to teenagers (Craig 1997).

Britain is also distinctive for its high divorce rate. Thirty years ago, there were two divorces for every 1,000 marriages. Liberalization of the divorce laws in the 1970s was sharp rise in divorce and by the mid-1980s about 1,000 marriages ended in divorce a rate (Pullinger 1998). The rate of increase is slower now than in the 1970s and early 1980s largely because the married population contains fewer of those at high risk (Murphy and Wang, Chapter 4). Nonetheless, 40 per cent of marriages will end in divorce measures of divorce per 1,000 marriages or per 1,000 population. Moreover, people are divorcing after shorter periods of marriage. One in ten marriages which took place in 1981 ended in divorce within 4.5 years, compared with one in ten divorcing within 6 years in 1971 and after 25 years in 1951 (Roberts 1996: 2). Early marriage have long been understood to be strongly associated with marital breakdown. The younger the age at marriage, the greater the likelihood of the marriage ending (Kiernan and Mueller, Chapter 16). Between 1971 and 1996, people under age 25 experienced the greatest growth in divorce rates with rates increasing for men and women (Pullinger 1998).

The problem of lone motherhood is poverty. Research suggests that, as a group, lone mothers have few chances of obtaining other than low-paid work, often because they enter the labour market disadvantaged by their low level of qualii¬?cations (Bryson, Ford, and White 1998). The majority, however, have young children to care for and thus need jobs which provide enough income to meet the costs of child care. Consequently, lone mothers in Britain are less likely to be employed than in most other case countries and in the 1970s and their employment rate has declined. The difference in economic activity between married and lone mothers is particularly sharp between women with children under age 5. In the 1970s, lone mothers with preschool children were more likely to be in work than married mothers This changed during the1980s, and during the 1990s married mothers with young children have been twice as likely as lone mothers to be economically active. During the1990s one in two married mothers with pre-school children have been in employment compared with fewer than one in four comparable lone mothers (Kiernan, Land, and Lewis1998: 128). Most of the fall in employment among lone mothers has come in full-time work while the full-time employment of married women has risen with part-time work remaining stable. People live alone for a variety of reasons. For example, living alone may be a permanent choice and for others , it may be a temporary. While there are more people living alone at all ages and the largest increases since 1971 have come among men and women under retirement age, particularly those aged under 40 (Hall and Ogden 1997). The increase in solo living among people under pension age rejects the way in which household change is some-times linked to economic change.

Since 1970s ,the number of lone-parent families has been increased in Britain and also the proportion of children raised in such families (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2). In the late 1990s, 1.6million families in Britain with dependent children. During the 1960s, divorce overtook death as the primary source of lone-parent families while in the 1970s and 1980s, sharply rising divorce rates and falling remarriage rates furthered their growth (Kiernan, Land, and Lewis 1998; Murphy and Wang,Chapter4). From the mid-1980s, however, most of the growth in lone-parent families has come from never-married mothers as changing attitudes towards pre-marital sex. Nonetheless, there has been a substantial increase in the number of single women who become mothers while not living with a partner (Berthoud, McKay, and Rowlingson, Chapter 15).

Since in 1990s, women who had never married before becoming mothers (Pullinger 1998).

The parents who were working and busy of whole day to day responsibilities, grandparents could spend more time with their grandchildren and develop a special bond (Weissvourd, 1998). Children and their grandparents each were close to each other and were able to offer mutual support for each other. There were lot of facilities on the parents to teach their children even that grand parents played important role in this situation. This gave scope for reciprocal social relationships and joint interaction in learning and contrasts with the role of the parents as well as grand parents in learning (Bruner, 1985). In the context of the family, mutual trust and respect for each member’s perspective (Rommetveit, 1974, 1979) was a important to this process.

Government has moved away from financial support for marriage towards families. Legislative changes have given families more flexibility to maintain their home and work lives and have a degree of choice in their options. The public would like to see support made available to families and delivered to the service provider and providing additional cash. In recent years the amount of money spent by government to support families has increased significantly but it has also been dramatically re-targeted which has the effect of shifting support from one type of family form to others. Up until 1999 the three key family benefits were Child Benefit (which began in 1975), Family Credit for low-income working families, ‘Married Man’s Allowance’ (it became the Married Couples’ Allowance in 1990). Family benefit as it is available to all those in employment with a low income including single people with no dependants. However, couples and single parents do get additional credit and there is a childcare element for those that have children.

“We are what we consume.” To what extent does consumption contribute to the construction of identity in contemporary British society?

In order to understand the extent to which consumption contributes to the construction of identity in contemporary British society, and thus be in a position to comment on whether or not “we are what we consume” is a valid statement or simply hyperbole, it is important to first understand the sociological concepts behind the question being asked.

“Consumption” in sociological terms does not simply mean the buying and consuming of goods and services. In particular, sociologists are interested in consumption as a means of conveying meaning. “Conspicuous consumption” is a term that was originally coined by Thorstein Veblen and it refers to the ways in which people convey the extent of their wealth to others in a society in which the traditional means of conveying meaning have largely disappeared. Veblen argued that in society, a person’s standing was directly related to their wealth. The manner in which this wealth had been accumulated was also important, with old wealth being more highly esteemed then new wealth. The wealthy individual had two ways in which to proclaim their social standing; conspicuous leisure and/or conspicuous consumption.^[1]

It is important to understand the historical background that has led to the current consumption patterns in contemporary Britain. The industrial revolution was a time of massive social upheavals. Historical bonds of servitude and deference were shattered and millions of people streamed into the UK’s cities. A consequence of this mass upheaval was that wealth creation was no longer tied to the land. Suddenly a person who owned a factory could potentially have the same amount of wealth as someone who considered themselves to be part of the upper classes and whose wealth came with status. Wealth, by itself, was no longer a sufficient means of separating the upper classes from the pretenders. This was especially so in the large towns that had been created in which people were constantly interacting with strangers who were unaware of a person’s social status. As such, conspicuous consumption came to be an increasingly important means of differentiating oneself from others.^[2]

The aspirational dreams unleashed during the industrial revolution meant that, in general terms, people belonging to a lower class could now potentially overcome the wealth divide simply through hard work. Overcoming the class divide was a little more difficult and it was achieved by essentially copying the consumption habits of that class to which a person aspired. Whether consumption drove the industrial revolution or whether the industrial revolution drove consumption may never be answered. The one thing that is certain is that each fuelled the other. The more people consumed the greater the flames of industry. The more exotic and fashionable the items produced, the greater the frenzy of consumption.

However, what is clear is that traditional attitudes to work and consumption had to be overcome. Weber gives a interesting example that illustrates this point;

“a man… who at the rate of 1 mark per acre mowed 2.5 acres per day and earned 2.5 marks when the rate was raised to 1.25 marks per acre mowed, not 3 acres, as he might easily have done, thus earning 3.75 marks, but only 2 acres, so that he could still earn the 2.5 marks to which he was accustomed. The opportunity of earning more was less attractive to than that or working less. He did not ask: how much can I earn in a day if I work as much as possible? But: how much must I work in order to earn the wage, 2.5 marks, which I earned before and which takes care of my traditional needs?”^[3]

In the above example Weber seems to be lampooning this simple person who fails to understand that by working longer hours they can earn more money. In contemporary British society, it almost seems as though leisure time cannot be enjoyed without having first purchased the means of enjoying that time. Thus wide screen televisions, games consoles, international holidays, books, dvds, etc are all things without which people are made to believe they could not enjoy their leisure time. This should be contrasted to the person in Weber’s example who believed that simply being away from work was enough of a reward in itself.

One suggested definition of a consumer culture, put forward in order to encompass conspicuous consumption in Third World countries, but also useful as a general starting point, is one, “in which the majority of consumers avidly desire (and some noticeable portion pursue, acquire, and display) goods and services that are valued for non-utilitarian reasons, such as status seeking, envy provocation, and novelty seeking.”^[4] As such, any society in which consumption involves more than simply subsistence living (ie living to survive) will involve to some extent a degree of conspicuous consumption.

Likewise, the concept of “identity” in contemporary sociological terms has developed beyond simply looking at a person’s occupation and class.^[5] This move away from employment constituting the main source of a person’s identity splintered sociological thought. Whereas previously a person’s identity fell into several reasonably clear sociological categories and sociological theorists could hypothesis on the “macro” topics of relations between these groups, the shattering of the nexus between work and identity meant that sociologists now had to turn their attention to areas which had to that point been somewhat overlooked.

The study of consumption by sociologists has relatively recent origins. While Marx and Veblen touched on consumption, their focus remained on class and occupational identities. That said, their early work in this area should not be discounted. Marx argued that by separating workers from ownership of the goods they produced and the means of that production, they were essentially being “estranged from their labour.”^[6] As we will see below, this estrangement can lead to disillusionment in employees. However, it should be noted that consumption, being aspirational, actually thrives on feelings of disillusionment. As Weber’s example above illustrates, it is difficult to sell a person who is content an illusion.

In their pioneering text on consumption, “The World of Goods”, Douglas and Isherwood noted with incredulity that, “it is extraordinary to discover that no one knows why people want goods.”^[7] They went on to put forward the argument that “consumers use goods to construct an intelligible universe and to make and maintain social relationships.”^[8]

One could perhaps argue that in contemporary British society identity and consumption have become one and the same. As the wealth of society as a whole has increased and family bonds have slowly eroded, people look to advertisements, their peer group and celebrities to assist them in identifying themselves. However, by creating an identity which is outside of themselves and which relies on imported meanings, they run the risk of the identity they present to the world being itself an illusion. When such an illusion is shattered, it can have serious consequences for that person and those around them.

Historically, British society has always been extremely class segregated. However, in modern British society, class wars have been to a large extent been replaced by battles of consumption. A particularly good example of this was the recent news that the Labour minister Ruth Kelly had made a decision to send her child to an expensive private school when a suitable state alternative existed. The arguments surrounding her decision clearly illustrate the extent to which choices about consumption can clash with a person’s public identity. The fact that Mrs Kelly is a Labour minister and former Education Secretary means to some people that she should not make decisions about her consumption of services which are contrary to party lines.

A clear example of this thinking is set out in Simon Jenkins recent article in the Guardian.^[9] He argues that:

“To remove a child from the state school system is rarely an educational choice, whatever euphemism is customarily applied. It is a social statement. Across class-bound Britain, the exclusive school, whether state or private, reinforces the great divide.”^[10]

Other commentators from within the Labour party went on record to state^[11]:

“I think it goes against the principles of the Labour Party. I am saddened by this and it makes me wonder about the sort of people who achieve high office who are in New Labour” (Birmingham Selly Oak MP Lynne Jones).

“I think we should expect Labour ministers to put their children through the state system. I deplore others transferring their children out of the system to go private” (Austin Mitchell, MP for Great Grimsby).

What underpins these statements is the underlying belief that a person’s true identity is revealed by their consumption decisions. Furthermore, if one believes in a certain cause, not to support that cause through consumption decisions is akin to betray. While the Labour party may no longer be the “worker’s party”, it is still the party that most fervently advocates the role of public services and those less well off. The difficulty then for Labour ministers is that with their own increasing affluence, they are more likely to want to make consumption decisions which are more akin to the upper middle classes as opposed to their traditional support base. This naturally causes friction and inevitably calls of hypocrisy when the illusion is discovered.

It should be noted that conspicuous consumption crosses divides of culture, race, age and religion. An interesting case in point is the Muslim Hijab which some women wear. These have now become “hot fashion items” for young Muslim women branded with for instance, Calvin Klein, Burberry, L’Oreal and Chanel logos. In this way, a Muslim woman can make the statment that while her religion is Muslim, her identity is Western.

Likewise, Fulla dolls have replaced Barbie dolls in many Middle Eastern countries where the doll is a best seller.^[12] The fact that Fulla’s popularity is about identity is clear in Mr Abidin’s (the brand manager behind the doll) statement:

“This isn’t just about putting the hijab on a Barbie doll. You have to create a character that parents and children will want to relate to. Our advertising is full of positive messages about Fulla’s character. She’s honest, loving, and caring, and she respects her father and mother.”

While one may question what relevance the sale of a doll in the Middle East might have in contemporary Britain, the point is that in a global, inter-dependant marketplace, the West no longer dictates the consumption agenda as it once did. And as new ideas and aspirations emerge, these then filter back into the consumption patterns of British society as people in Britain seek to communicate those aspirations through their consumption. The interesting irony is the way in which a consumer society has managed to incorporate all these conflicting and competing ideas, some which even argue against consumerism, into nice, consumable packages. This is perhaps what is at the heart of the statement “we are what we consume”; that even if we identify ourselves as being anti-consumer, the only way to communicate that message to others is through consumption itself.

Ritzer^[13] suggests four changes that have occurred within society as a result of the process of consumption. These changes are first, that people no longer have to go to different shops to obtain the goods they wish to purchase but can instead go to supermarkets or shopping centres which cater for all their needs under one roof. While this does on doubt create a more convenient shopping experience, it also creates a more sterile one as everything is controlled and there is little chance of anything out of the ordinary occurring.^[14]

Second, many of what he calls the “cathederals of consumption” such as Disney Land and Las Vegas, have become destinations in their own right. People are just as likely to go there to enjoy the sites for what they are/represent as they are to go there to consume the goods and services offered by them.^[15]

Third, customers are more likely to do more of the things employees previously did for them, for themselves for no pay. Clear examples of this are the checkouts at supermarkets, with many British supermarkets now having some type of self-checkout service, self-service petrol stations, and cash points.^[16]

Finally, the process of consumption has altered social interaction to such an extent that a consumer is more likely to interact with the sites as opposed to any other people.^[17]

In many cases, the people with whom a consumer is interacting during the consumption process are so scripted in their role that interaction on a human level is close to impossible. To a certain extent, those employers are trying to break down the roles that their employees perform to such an extent that they can eventually be replaced by machines. In circumstances such as these, it is hardly surprising that many workers feel disillusioned and seek, in their leisure time, to escape from the monotony of their unfulfilled lives through consumption. In this case, perhaps consumption isn’t conspicuous but rather innocuous.

Ratneshwar^[18] looks under the illusion created by many of these “cathedrals of consumption” and in a scathing indictment argues that the “underlying rationality and sheer manipulativeness of these places are more likely to remain hidden from consumers.” However, people who work in these places quickly become disillusioned and come to see them as places “largely devoid of meaningful content.” ^[19]

The interesting thing about modern consumption is that a person’s presence is never permanent. At the end of every day, everything is put back the way it was and when the shop/amusement park/cinema reopens the next day it is almost as if the previous day never happened. These places of consumption lack any historical or human dimension. They rely on people to give them meaning and yet, perhaps ironically, they themselves claim to be the givers of meaning. One could perhaps say that they sell back the meaning they have stolen from their customers (no doubt this would be Marx’s view).

That said, it would be difficult to argue that a middle class person living in Britain today is worse off, or would willing trade places, with a person living in the middle ages. Even though that person in the middle ages may have had a clear identity about themselves and their position in the world, that certainty constrains them in a way in which a modern person would not be willing to be constrained (although it is arguable that this is slowly changing and that people are becoming more constrained). The fundamental feature in a society of consumption is that we are all complicit in the illusion taking place. As Ruth Kelly has shown, our consumption habits make hypocrites of us all.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bourdieu, P. (1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Belk, R. W. (1988), Third World Consumer Culture, in Goodwin, N. R., Ackerman, F. & Kiron, D. (1997), The Consumer Society, Island Press, Washington DC, pp.311-314

Bocock, R. (2001), Consumption, Routledge, London

Corrigan, P. (2006), The Sociology of Consumption: An Introduction, Sage Publications, London

The Daily Mail, Ruth Kelly named as Labour minister sending a child to private school, 8th January 2007, taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=427179&in_page_id=1770

Douglas, M. & Isherwood, B. (2005), The World of Goods, Routledge, London

Goodwin, N. R., Ackerman, F. & Kiron, D. (1997), The Consumer Society, Island Press, Washington DC

Jenkins, S., Introducing the minister of no faith in communities, in Guardian Unlimited, 10th January 2007, taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1986631,00.html

The New York Times, Bestseller in Mideast: Barbie With a Prayer Mat, 22nd September 2005, taken from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/international/middleeast/22doll.html?ex=1285041600&en=72bb8cc089bf9435&ei=5090

Ransome, P. (2005), Work, Consumption and Culture: Affluence and Social Change in the Twenty-first Century, Sage Publications, London

Ratneshwar, S. & Mick, D. G. ed. (2005), Inside Consumption: Perspectives on Consumer Motives, Goals and Desires, Routledge, New York

Ritzer, G. (2005), Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, Pine Forge Press

Smart, B. & Ritzer, G. ed. (2003), Handbook of Social Theory, Sage Publications Ltd, London

Storey, J. (1999), Cultural Consumption and Everyday Life, Arnold Publishing, London

Veblen, T. (1994), The Theory of the Leisure Class, Dover Publications, Ontario

Woodward, K. (2003), Social Sciences: The Big Issues, Routledge, London

1

It appears that educational success generally rises with family income, many sociologists see material deprivation as the major cause of inequality in educational success. Halsey, Heath and Ridge (1980) examined the education careers of males, and found that those from higher social backgrounds were much more likely to stay in education past the minimum leaving age than those from working class backgrounds. They pointed out that a major reason for this was the cost of staying in education, and this denied many working class people from gaining higher-level educational qualifications. Douglas (1967) also believed that poor living conditions in the home were major factors in educational failure. In a survey, he divided his sample into two groups: those who had sole use of household facilities, such as bathrooms, and those who did not. He found that the children living in ‘unsatisfactory’ condition scored much more poorly on tests that those in ‘satisfactory? conditions. Reason suggested for this include poor housing conditions and diet leading to ill health, leading to absence from school, and underperformance while there

Of course, sociologists from different schools of thought have very different opinions on such divisions within schools. Functionalists would argue that the inequalities that exist within the education system do so for positive reasons. Talcott Parsons argued that schools take over from the family as the primary source of socialisation, transmitting society’s norms and values and preparing children for their role in adult life. School provides the future workforce with the basic skills required to “enable them to respond toaˆ¦constantly changing occupational requirements” (Bilton, Bonnet, Jones, Stanworth,

Sheard & Webster, ‘Introductory Sociology’, 1987, Pg.308). Parsons believed that school is a meritocracy and, regardless of class, those with the ability to do well will flourish, entering the workforce at a more specialised level and those without that ability will do less well, entering the workforce at a more menial level. Thus, both will be prepared for their future role in society and the appropriate places within the labour market will be filled.

The functionalists view is a narrow one, and in this and other cases it has been accused of painting too rosy a picture of inequality – functionalists may argue that it is necessity for the success of society, that not everyone can achieve in school, go on to University

and consequently higher paid employment, but this offers little consolation to those who feel they are being or have been kept down by the education system. Parsons in particular has been criticised for failing to give “consideration to the possibility that the values

transmitted by the educational system may be those of a ruling minority rather than of society as whole” (Haralambos and Holborn, ‘Sociology Themes and Perspectives’, 1995, Pg.729). The fact that teachers are generally middle class themselves could mean that the

values being taught in school right away contradict those being taught at home, possibly leaving the child feel confused and unable to live up to conflicting standards.

Marxist Pierre Bourdieu argued that the role of the education system is to reinforce class differences. This, he believed, is achieved by promoting the ‘dominant cultureA? of the ruling classes in the classroom through the use of language, ensuring that working class

students will be less likely to understand and be understood. This disadvantages working class pupils, and by creating educational success and failure, reinforces class. Basil Bernstein expounded this theory with the notion that the different speech codes used by the middle and working classes causes divisions in itself. The ‘restricted codeA?, which is context bound and requires previous common knowledge between users, and the ‘elaborated code? which is not context-bound, and does not require previous common knowledge. He believed that middle class children are fluent in both codes, but that working class children are confined to the restricted code, and are therefore placed at a distinct disadvantage, because teachers use the elaborated code. Middle class children are therefore more likely to understand the teacher, and be understood themselves and consequently achieve more in school.

Marxists would generally argue that equality is impossible in a class-based society. As with functionalists, there is a belief in the link between education and the economy however, unlike functionalists – who see the link as a positive one, which serves to benefit industrial society – for Marxists, the education system exists in order to mould children into their class-defined roles in order to benefit capitalist society, thus it serves the bourgeoisie well and keeps the proletariat down.

Other factors inside the classroom can also determine educational success or failure. For example, concepts of labeling theory and self-fulfilling prophecy. These rely on the notion that if someone is labeled in a particular way, others will respond to their behavior in terms of that label, and the person will act in terms of that label, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy. This was illustrated in a study by Rosenthal & Jacobson, who selected a random sample of 20 pupils to take an IQ test and told the pupils’ teachers that they could be expected to show a significant intellectual development. After a year, the same pupils were re-tested and generally gained higher IQ scores. Rosenthal and Jacobson said that this improvement had occurred not just due to intellectual development, but because the children had been labelled in such a way that the teachers would have higher expectations of them, which they believed influenced pupils

performance – a self-fulfilling prophecy took place – pupils were expected to achieve more, so they did.

Similarly, in a study by R.C. Rist of kindergarten children, it appeared that teachers are more likely to perceive middle class children as being of higher ability than working class children (their class being judged by their appearance, use of language and previous

encounters the teachers may have had with the child’s parents), and treats them as such. He was also able to show, in keeping with Rosenthal & Jacobson’s study, that the children classified as being of higher ability performed better throughout their time in education. This suggests that because of labeling by teachers, working class

children may be placed at a distinct disadvantage.

In separate studies, Lacey and Hargreves examined the effects of streaming in schools, as was used in the tri-partite system in Britain in the post war period, and found that children from working class backgrounds were more likely to be placed in lower ability streams. They also found that in these classes, the children were denied high-quality teaching and knowledge, and that the teachers spent more time controlling behavior than teaching the class. This works to disadvantage those in the lower ability streams, thus, disadvantaging those from working class backgrounds.

It is worth pointing out, however, that none of these studies examined why teachers labeled working class students in this manner. As previously mentioned, the fact that most teachers are from middle class backgrounds themselves would seem to influence their impression of working class children – such personal preconceptions are unavoidably brought to the classroom, instantly putting working class children at an unfavorable disadvantage to their middle class peers.

However, it should also be mentioned that the methodology used in these studies has been brought into question. The afore mentioned study by Rosenthal & Jacobson in particular was criticized. Neither researcher had been present in the period that they suggested the teacher would have reacted more encouragingly towards the pupils, said

to culminate in the self fulfilling prophecy, meaning that the behavior of the teachers was mere speculation on the part of Rosenthal & Jacobson. Also, the quality of the tests they used was doubted, suggestions being made that their tests “were of dubious quality and were improperly administered.” (Haralambos and Holborn, ‘Sociology Themes and Perspectives’, 1995, Pg.764).

Unfortunately such accusations are often unavoidable in sociological research. Restrictions on funding, time etc. can often mean that lengthy research cannot be carried out in depth, resulting in, as in the case of the Rosenthal & Jacobson experiment, the researchers perhaps returning after a period to do further examinations, often having to choice but to make inferences about certain behaviors or actions. Ethical problems also place restrictions on some sociological research – again, in the case of Rosenthal & Jacobson, it could be said to be unethical to tamper with such an important thing as a

child’s education. It may have had positive results for the children in this case, but what if researchers wanted to prove that self fulfilling prophesies are also applicable in reverse – that if a child is though of badly, then they will behave badly? Such experiments undoubtedly have ethical implications yet the experiments themselves are important in sociology. How can society be studied without interaction with society? There are other ways in which research can be carried out – participants can be made aware of all aspects and implications of the experiment. However, this can cause an altered reaction in participants – they can become too aware of observations being carried out and modify their behavior accordingly. The sociological researcher must be aware of the possible difficulties and make a decision on whether or not the research should be carried out.

Through the studies and perspectives we have considered, it is undoubtedly the case that class division exists within the education system and even functionalists would not disagree that schools serve to reinforce such inequalities. It is in what harm or good these

damages do to society that sociologists must be concerned with. From what we have discussed here, it seems that there are many different explanations of class-based differences in educational success – the factors attributed to causing inequality in other areas can also be applied here. The reasons for class-based differences in education are

undoubtedly complex, as we have looked at here, and so it is difficult to determine a root cause.

Education is a significant institution in our society as it serves to fulfil many functions and provide opportunities for children. One important role that education plays is carrying out the process of secondary socialization where the education system teaches children the norms and values of society in a way that the family cannot. Education performs certain functions such as providing children with skills needed for work, learning about religious and moral beliefs, national languages and also about the history of the nation. Therefore it can be seen that education performs an important role in children’s lives by socializing them into the future members of society and teaching them about the values of success and achievement which enables them to be open to many opportunities in society (Fulcher & Scott, 2007).

However education combined with social class can create inequalities for children in their lives and this study of inequality within education remains a key area of study in the sociology of education and is also of great importance in shaping educational policies in Britain. Research has shown that inequalities in the education system do still exist in Britain where it has been shown that the higher a person’s social class the higher the levels of achievement an individual is more likely to achieve. It is these types of findings which have led to a large array of study about educational inequalities and why they still persist in Britain’s education system. These inequalities can affect children from lower classes and their life chances through a variety of ways such as through micro and macro causes in society which will be analysed in turn (Haralambos & Holborn, 2007)

Macro Causes

We will first look at the various macro causes in the wider structures of society which causes educational inequalities for children. These include material deprivation.

1. Material Deprivation

This theory highlights the importance of material goods and resources needed for educational achievement. Material deprivation has been defined as including ‘poverty, overcrowding, ill health in parents,child neglect and lack of basic amenities in the home and neighbourhood’ (Silver,1980,p40). It is these factors which seem to affect children from working class backgrounds due to low incomes in the family which prevents them from achieving at school as they lack the basic resources such as books, correct diet and study space in the home needed to succeed in their studies. Also as many of these lower working class families are seen to be in poverty as evidence shows that a high percentage of children participate in part time employment after school hours to improve their situation at home and to relieve some of the financial pressure off their parents . This leads to children aiming to cope with earning money through paid work but also finding the time to study for their school work and gain qualifications (Heaton & Lawson,1996).

Furthermore Halsey Heath and Ridge (1980)examined reasons for inequalities existing in education for the working class and found that middle class children were more likely to go to school and continue on to higher education than the working class and this was partly due to lack of money and income in these households causing differential educational achievement compared to children from affluent backgrounds. However they did argue that material factors was not the only primary factor causing underachievement as children from materially deprived backgrounds have succeeded, they believed that cultural factors such as parental attitudes and encouragement played a key role in children’s educational attainment at school ( Abercombie, Warde & Deem,2001).

We will now look at how cultural factors can have an impact in creating inequalities for children.

2. Cultural Deprivation

Cultural deprivation has been defined ‘as a situation in which parents provide a child with little in the way of linguistic stimulation and take minimal interest in their education and when they have limited opportunity for play or other experiences which are helpful to their intellectual development- in short when their environment is barren and unstimulating ( Silver,1980,p40). This theory recognises that instead of material factors causing inequalities it is the cultural factors in fact that causes working class children to perform differently in schools compared to their middle class peers. It is argued that working class children are disadvantaged because working class subculture fails to transmit the correct norms, values and skills needed for high achievement in education (Fulcher & Scott,2007,p323).

Also low value is placed is placed on educational achievement and working class subculture focuses on immediate gratification where they are encouraged to leave school early and earn money rather than opting for deferred gratification which middle class adopt where education is seen as a path for success later on in life where they can enjoy the benefits of having a high paid job and high statuses (Henslin, 1996,p 190).

J W B Douglas study of ‘ The home and the school’ (1962) supports the cultural deprivation theory. Douglas conducted a longitudinal study in 1962 of 5,362 British children and followed their educational careers up to the age of 16. He divided the students into different social class groupings and found that there was different variations in educational achievement between students who had similar academic ability but came from different social classes. He found that within the ‘high ability group’ the majority of the lower working class children left school in the fifth year compared to only 10 percent from the upper middle class. Douglas argued that the single most important factor causing these differences in achievement between middle and working class children is the level of parental interest and encouragement for their children’s education. He argues that working class parents showed little interest in childrens progress at school whereas middleclass parents encouraged children to do well at school, continue in further education and also paid more attention to their childrens progress through frequent meeting s with teachers.

However overall although we can see that parental interest can effect childrens attainment it cannot be viewed as the only factor in explaining class differences in educational achievement. Blackstone & Mortimore (1994) argued that working class parents were unable to attend parents meetings due to demands of their manual jobs and also working class parents try to encourage their children in education but they lack the certain social skills that middle class parents occupy in order for their children to gain advantages from the school system. So therefore it is important to note that many other factors play a role in creating inequalities for working class children and also that many culturally deprived behaviours could also be due to a lack of money (Haralambos & Holborn, 2006, p737-739).

Economic mobility essentially describes what most people in the US would call the American dream. The ability to make it to the top as long as a person puts in the work is a dearly held American ideal. But is it true? American folklore glorifies the Lois and Clarks, the pioneers, those who forge their own way. But, does 21st century America provide the same opportunities to set out and make it if one puts in the work? Research and statistics show that the American dream, rags to riches, still happens for some but not everyone has an equal chance of bettering their economic positions and their lives.

Economic mobility can be described in several different ways. One can talk about a person’s economic mobility in terms of absolute dollars – how much they were able to surpass or fall behind the income of the generation before them – or in relative terms. Often, economists divide the population into quintiles based on income ranges. Economic mobility then is used to describe the likelihood of a child born in one quintile to move up or down into another quintile in their life. The Brookings institute explained economic mobility as, “The ability of people to move up or down the economic ladder within a lifetime or from one generation to the next.”

A person’s economic mobility is often seen as an indicator of the fairness of a society. It seems fair that people should not be determined by their economic situation at birth, the standard of living that they will have the rest of their life. Americans in very large numbers believe that a person’s economic outlook is determined by the choices they make and the work the put in. When discussing economic mobility it is also important to consider economic inequality in a society. High inequality is less worrisome if people are moving in and out of these classes. However, if you have a society that has increasing inequality and limited mobility, there are reasons for concern. This would mean that “the rungs of the ladder” of economic success are getting farther and farther apart and people have less of a chance to move up the ladder. Statistics show that the US may be in such a position. In the US inequality has been steadily growing since the 1960’s. The prizes for being successful in today’s economy are larger than ever before, but the likelihood of the average American attaining these rewards is decreasing. Income is increasingly focused at the top of the economy, and fewer opportunities exist for people to get there.

During this time of growing inequality a new force has transformed the US economy: globalization. Globalization is a term used to describe the interconnectedness of the world largely as a result of advancements in technology relating to telecommunications and travel. In the past 100 years, the world has changed from being a place where it takes weeks to travel overseas, to a place where even the farthest spot away on the globe could be reached within 24 hours. The world has changed from a place where communication could take weeks in the form of written letters, to a place where words can be written and words spoken and be heard or read instantaneously the world around.

The world suddenly thrust into an unprecedented age of connectedness. Never before had the world and everything in it – people, business, nations – been so interconnected. As we progress in an age of mobile internet access, the ability to travel anywhere in the world within 24 hours, and ever-increasing economic ties between nations, the effects of globalization are everywhere. Thomas Friedman described this new era saying “the world is flat.” As a result of advancements in technology, everyone is on a level playing field. A business in Anderson must compete with a business in China and a student in Carmel must compete with a student in India. This new global economy is and will shape the economic mobility of people in the US.

US mobility

Research has shown that nearly two-thirds of Americans are economically mobile in absolute terms, meaning they make more than their parents in absolute dollars. However, half of them remain on the same rung of the income ladder. Unfortunately, this is even more often true for children at the bottom of the ladder. For children born at the bottom, 80 percent will go on to make more than their parents in real dollars, but 42 percent stay at the bottom of the income ladder. For children born at the top, 39 percent remain there. If economic mobility had nothing to do with where a person is born in society, this number would be 20%. This is twice as high as would be expected by chance, so family income does have a significant effect on a child’s mobility in the US.

Gender

The rates of mobility are not equal across genders and races in the US Men tend to experience much higher rates of upward economic mobility than women do. For children who start out in the bottom quintile, 41 percent of women will stay there, while only 27 percent of men will. The mobility outlook for black people is also less “American Dream” like. Blacks in the United States experience dramatically less upward economic mobility than whites. 44 percent of blacks will remain in the bottom income quintile in adulthood compared with only 25 percent of whites who will remain stuck at the bottom. The majority of blacks in the bottom half of the income distribution will still exceed their parent’s place in the distribution, but their movement is much less than is typical of their white peers. Research by Mazumbder found that rates of upward economic mobility are highest for white men, followed by white women, black men and, finally, black women.

Other research found that not only are black children less mobile than white children, but that the majority of black children born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s have been downwardly mobile, meaning that they have less family income than their parents did. At that same time, only 16 percent of white children fell down the economic ladder. Some might attribute the lesser economic mobility of blacks to differences in family structure. Black children are more likely to be raised in single parent homes than their white peers. However, when controlling for single and two-parent families, the gap in mobility between the races still remains.

There is also a significant difference in the extent to which black and white parents pass their economic advantages onto their children. Isaacs found that white children are more likely to surpass their parents’ income than black children at a similar point in the income distribution, but they are also more likely to move up the ladder, while black children are more susceptible to falling down. In the 1960’s almost half of black children whose parents were middle class ended up falling to the bottom of the income distribution. Only 16 percent of white children in the same situation fell to the bottom. Black children from poorer families also are more likely to stay at the bottom. 54 percent of black children born in the bottom income quintile stayed there, but only 31 percent of white children remained stuck.

Factors influencing mobility

Even though gender and race are strong predictors of a child’s economic mobility, there are other factors that greatly impact a child’s chances at moving up. Studies have found that both black and white children who score higher on academic tests are more likely to move up and out of the bottom quintile. Both black and white children at the bottom who achieve average academic test scores are two times as likely to move up and out of the bottom quintile than children who score in the bottom percentiles on academic tests.

Many other studies have placed education at the top of the list in terms of what determines a person’s mobility. Haskins found that attaining a college degree quadruples the likelihood that a child born to parents at the bottom of the income ladder will make it to the top. Because of this, many people point to education as the most effective tool our nation has for improving the upward mobility of those at the bottom of the economic ladder. The problem is that those who would most benefit from receiving a college degree, are the ones least likely to receive it. Only one-third of children from families at the bottom quintile of the income ladder enroll in college, and of those students, only a small portion will go on to graduate.pg2 Pg 12 Children from this background have only a 34 percent chance of enrolling in college, compared to an 80 percent chance of enrolling for children from the top quintile. Children who start out at the bottom are only 20 percent as likely to earn a college degree as children from the top quintile.14

There are various reasons why children from poor families are less likely to enroll in and graduate from college. Financial reasons, obviously, are a major obstacle. Even though there are Pell grants and various opportunities for financial aid, a person who has not come from a family whose parent’s went to college, may not have the information they need to access these resources. Haskins argues that improving the equality of educational opportunity-a traditional American value-is one key to promoting economic mobility for disadvantaged students.

The impact on education on a person’s earning potential clearly demonstrate the importance of education for moving up the economic ladder. Over the last four decades, adults who have degrees from either two or four year colleges have much higher family incomes than other adults who only completed high school, or who dropped out. During this time, the income of those with degrees has been growing steadily, while the income for those without a college degree has become stagnant or declined. The impact of having a college degree on the mobility of a person at the bottom is huge. Adult children from families in the bottom fifth of the income distributionare four times as likely to reach the top fifth if they achieve a four-year college degree, increasing their likelihood of doing so from 5 to 19 percent. Pg. 3 Nearly half the adult children with parents in the bottom quintile stay in the bottom unless they get a college degree. 10

Every poor and low-income child who achieves a four-year college degree can dramatically increase her chances of moving into the middle class. This is also likely true of those who get a two-year degree, since the rates of return per year of education are roughly the same for two-year and four-year colleges Importance of finding the right fitaˆ¦ finishing.

12

Regardless of a person’s family background, getting a college boosts that person’s prospects of being upwardly mobile. However, this does not erase the impact of the family situation a person is born into. Children from low-income families with a college education are in fact no more likely to reach the top of the income ladder than children from high income families without a college education. Education is critical to success in today’s economy and an important explanation of why some groups get ahead while others are left behind, but it cannot completely erase the effects of family background on one’s ultimate success.

Children born to parents in the top quintile have the highest likelihood of attaining the top, and children born to parents in the bottom quintile have the highest likelihood of being in the bottom themselves.

This phenomenon is referred to as “stickiness” at the ends of the income distribution. As shown in Figure 4, it is fairly hard for children born in the bottom fifth to escape from the bottom: 42 percent remain there and another 42 percent end up in either the lower-middle or middle fifth.

Only 17 percent of those born to parents in the bottom quintile climb to one of the top two income groups. At the other end of the distribution, 39 percent of children born to parents in the top fifth attain the top themselves with an additional 23 percent landing in the fourth highest quintile. Surprisingly, American children from low-income families appear to have less relative mobility than their counterparts in five northern European countries, according to a recent international study of earnings of fathers and sons. Whereas 42 percent of American sons whose fathers had earnings in the bottom quintile had low earningsthemselves, the comparable percentages ranged from 25 to 30 percent in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom (see Chapter III, “International Comparisons of Economic Mobility”).

One measure of “stickiness” is the measure intergenerational income elasticity. This figure would be 0.0 in a hypothetical society where a parent’s income has no effect on a child’s economic prospects and 1.0 where there is a one-to-one correspondence between parental income and adult child income. Recent estimates of the intergenerational income elasticity in the United States range from about 0.4 to 0.6, meaning that about half of the difference in income between families in one generation persists into the next generation.

Discussion of globalization

Globalization is a very broad term, so it can be hard to discuss how it affects economic mobility in the US, because has changed our world so much in a short time. However, a globalized economy in the US has led to significant changes in the demands of our economy that will shape the US’s economic mobility for years to come. The Hoosier economy has been the most heavily manufacturing based economy in the United States. The five US states that depend most on manufacturing are all in the Midwest.( Loc. 353) This statewide and even regional dependence on manufacturing has impacted the state’s culture and commitment to education.

Richard Longworth in his book “Caught in the Middle” describes the way that manufacturing enriched the region, but is now hampering their ability to adapt to a global world. He states that Indiana in particular is in denial about globalization, and instead of pursuing ways to reshape the economy, is pursuing losing efforts to keep businesses from moving out of the country.

Indiana held the crown as the state with the largest percent of jobs in the manufacturing sector. This led to significant growth and wealth in the past century, but it is apparent it will not have the same effects now that we are living in a globalized world. More and more manufacturing jobs are being shipped overseas, where labor can be had for a fraction of the cost. In the 20 years manufacturing output in the Midwest soared by 50 percent or more. But the number of jobs in manufacturing fell by about 20 percent. Over that same time, the unemployment rate in the state has grown from _ percent to over _ percent. Globalization is leading to a loss of jobs in Indiana, and the state has not kept up in creating jobs that are sustainable and profitable in a global economy. At least part of this is due to a mismatch in the skills employers have, and the skills possessed by Hoosiers. Indiana ranks _ in the number of adults with a bachelor’s degree or more. As technology and global labor competition continue to shape the way manufacturing is done, there will be less and less demand for unskilled, high wage labor that Indiana has a supply of and has lived off of in decades past.

It is apparent that for Hoosiers to get good jobs they must have the education and skills that make them competitive. Unfortunately, for many Midwest residents, there is not a strong commitment to education. Longworth linked this to the region’s past where high school drop outs could get a job in a factory and live well. This is obviously not the case now in a globalized Indiana, but many families continue to place little value on education. (loc 930)

In order to “move up the ladder” or be more well off than someone is raised, the single biggest factor is whether or not that person gets a good education. Unemployment rates by education level in the US make clear the impact that education can have (see figure b). As expected, states that depend heavily on manufacturing (which is demanding less labor, and often does not require college education) are suffering high unemployment rates during the current recession/recovery.

Unfortunately, even though education is so key to getting employed and being upwardly mobile, the current state of education has been found to reinforce family economic status more than to encourage upward movement. Figure b.

http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm

Globalization may be challenging Indiana to redefine its economy in order for Hoosier to be upwardly mobile, but it also allows us an opportunity to learn from other countries. Globalization has not only changed our economies, but has also changed our knowledge base. We now have the ability to look at other countries and see how they have dealt with or are dealing with similar situations that the IS is facing.

Economic mobility is essentially the American Dream, so it would be reasonable to assume that the US is a world leader in that respect. But reasonable assumptions aren’t always true, as in this case. Even though economic mobility characterizes the American dream, other countries do better at making it a reality for their residents. Studies routinely show that the US lags behind other nations in the economic mobility of its population. Again, there are differences in relative and absolute mobility. The US has led the pack in terms of absolute mobility due to rapid economic growth this century. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. As mentioned before, however, this tide is increasingly unevenly distributed, leading to tidal waves for some and droughts for others.

In terms of relative mobility the US lags behind many European nations, and our neighbor to the North Canada. Canada in particular is an interesting comparison because of how much it and the US share in common. According to research by Corak, Curtis, and Phipps; both the US and Canada value the ideal of equality of opportunity and define it in terms of individual freedoms but also individual responsibilities. One difference, however, was that Americans were more likely to view the government an obstacle to equality of opportunity rather than helpful in promoting it. Even though Americans were more reluctant to government intervention, residents of both countries recognized the need for public policy to contribute to reaching this ideal. Somewhat counter-intuitively, this study found that Americans believe more than Canadians that a host of interventions would be effective in improving the prospects for economic mobility. The authors of this study interpreted that as a possible sign that this need is going unmet in the US.

The study found that (4)On average Canada is up to three times more mobile than the United States. Stated another way, US citizens pass along three times as much inequality than do Canadians. They also found that not only does less mobility occur in the US, but that it is more heavily concentrated at the top and bottom of the economic ladder. Some of the reasons the authors point to as to why this may be the case are differences in health care, parental work leave laws, and tax transfer programs for poor families in Canada. The authors concluded that Mental and physical health, school readiness, and some education outcomes are all more developed in Canada, leading to better outcomes for children and increased economic mobility.

Despite American’s lesser likelihood of reaching the top compared to their counterparts in Canada and some European nations, Americans are far more optimistic about their ability to control their own economic destiny. They are far more likely to believe that people get rewarded for intelligence, skill, and effort and far less likely to believe that it’s the government’s responsibility to reduce differences in income. 4

In a comparison of mobility in the United States with mobility in several developed European nations, Miles Corak concluded that America is a low-mobility country in which about half of parental earnings advantages are passed onto sons. Canada, Norway, Finland, and Denmark are considered high-mobility countries, where less than 20 percent of income advantages are passed onto children. This would mean that in the US about half of parental earnings advantages are passed onto sons. If this trend holds steady, it would take an average of six generations for family economic advantage to disappear in the United States. While American’s seem to strongly believe that everyone has a shot to make it to the top, it is clear that people’s ability to do so is greatly shaped by the family they are born into. In the high mobility countries the effects of being born into a wealthy family would wear off in half the time – three generations instead of six. Contrary to American beliefs about equality of opportunity, a child’s economic position is heavily influenced by that of his or her parents. Forty-two percent of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution remain in the bottom, while 39 percent born to parents in the top fifth remain at the top. Children of middle-income parents have a near-equal likelihood of ending up in any other quintile, presenting equal promise and peril for those born to middle-class parents. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top.

In another study,Markus Jantii looked at how the relationship between the earnings of parents and children varies for individuals who are on different rungs of the economic ladder. They find that starting at the bottom of the earnings ladder is more of a handicap in the United States than in other countries. Again, finding greater amounts of stickiness at the bottom of the economic ladder in America.

If it is obvious that education has great potential to boost the economic mobility of the less fortunate, it is important to ask whether the nation’s schools do enough to promote economic mobility. An examination of preschool, K-12, and undergraduate and graduate education in the United States reveals that the average effect of education at all levels is to reinforce rather than compensate for the differences associated with family background and the many home-based advantages and disadvantages that children and adolescents bring with them into the classroom. This may be due to achievement gaps that US continues to struggle with in education. The poor and minorities on average perform less well in school and are less likely to graduate. There is a cycle at play in the US – the poor and minorities are on average born to lower income families and as a result receive a poor education. These same students then are not able to move up the economic ladder, and pass the disadvantage onto their children who will be poor, likely receive a poor education, struggle with finding employment and repeat the cycle.

Compared to other nations, the US is falling behind academically. The most recent results from the PISA test released in December of 2010 show that the US continues to trail other countries in education. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, said the findings show that “the United States needs to urgently accelerate student learning to remain competitive in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. The education American students are receiving would have been fine a few decades ago when low-skill manufacturing jobs were abundant. Today, however, these jobs continue to disappear or move overseas. Living in a global economy means that our students now must compete with students all over the world for employment. And in a knowledge economy where education is the essential component to getting a job, the US is failing its students.

The PISA results showed that US students are not among top performing OECD nations in any subject that was tested. However, US students did express the most self-confidence in their academic skills than did students in nearly all other OECD nations.

Trends in US education do not bode well for the economic mobility of children growing up in a globalized world. Perhaps even more worrisome are the achievement gaps for Latinos and Blacks in the US education system. In 2008, McKinsey & Company released a study on the economic costs of achievement gaps in US education, and found them to be the equivalent of “a permanent national recession.”

To fix education, and to improve economic mobility of those who are most likely to be at the bottom, the US must make some changes. The OECD found that “socioeconomic disadvantage leads more directly to poor educational performance in the United States than is the case in many other countries.” The US prides itself on being the land of opportunity, but with poor educational outcomes in a globalized world, there will be very little opportunity for this and future generations.

Seeing that other countries are more successful in education, we have the opportunity to learn from what they are doing that works. This opportunity seems to be ignored though. The US, Israel, and Turkey are the only OECD nations that do not devote as much or more funding for schools facing the biggest socioeconomic challenges as they do to schools with more privileged students. Directing resources towards youth who need it the most seems like a no-brainer, but due to the way schools are funded in the US, it doesn’t happen. Much of the debate around education-reform in the US and Indiana has revolved around teacher accountability. Proponents say that rewarding teachers based on student performance is the best way to improve educational outcomes. However, this is not what the top performing education countries do. Outside of the US, most high-performing educational countries prioritize high teacher salaries over small class sizes, and they professionalize the teaching profession. Compare this to the current education debate in Indiana where the Governor is essentially demonizing teachers as free-loaders. The US and Indiana don’t seem to be taking advantage of the global insight available for shaping education, and this will likely have consequences for the education and mobility of the nation’s youth.

Combatting economic immobility in the US in a globalized world

Research seems to pretty clearly state that education is the key for improving economic mobility in the US. However, studies also find that education currently is not helping students become mobile adults, but rather reinforcing their family background. Poor kids are more likely to go to poor schools which are more likely to produce poor, immobile adults. Reforming education and closing achievement gaps in education will likely be the action that can have the greatest effects on Hoosier economic mobility.

Conclusion

Economic mobility is essentially the American Dream. The idea that someone can be born without a dime to their name, but through hard work can reach the top, being limited by nothing. Globalization is making this more of a dream and less of a reality in Indiana each day.

Much has been said about the cycle of poverty, and how the lifestyle, ethics, and decay of poverty are passed on from one generation to the next. With globalization, Americans face an ever more urgent task of helping people escape this cycle. Globalization has no need for the uneducated and unskilled labor that has been the basis of American manufacturing. For every unskilled American worker there are hundreds in the developing world willing to do the same job at a fraction of the pay.

The poor in the US stand ready to conceivably be some of globalization’s biggest losers. The US, the most wealthy country in the world that prides itself on the rags to riches story of people rising up to reach the top, has failed to take the steps needed to close achievement gaps and give the poor the opportunities to better themselves that we as a nation misguidedly pride ourselves on so doing.

Globalization will likely decrease economic mobility in the US unless the US begins to better educate the nation’s youth. The US would be wise to take advantage of something else globalization provides – insight into other cultures and the opportunity to learn from other nations – in shaping its policies on education and efforts to improve mobility.

Once in a few hours we think of food and chances are that we at least eat once per day. In the family setting food is easily accessible and for others it may be scarce because of the economy or the geography (Fieldhouse, 2008). At least, a large portion of families can afford what they want whenever they want while others must carefully plan on what they purchase. Nonetheless, no one can escape the biological need of food. This is to say that, everyone must eat at regular intervals whether the food is more or less nutritious. It is true that eating is a necessity of life itself but food also forms a crucial part of the cultural rituals and social relationships. Most importantly this paper addresses the family meal tradition as a symbol and material means of bringing family members together (Fieldhouse, 2008). Across different cultures and time, the aspect of food sharing is a universal medium that expresses fellowship in regards to the values of duty, sacrifice, hospitality and compassion. Food sharing is a gesture of friendship also symbolizing trust and interdependency.

My family in particular views the Friday night dinner as a window into social bonding and relationship. As my father has always said, “people you eat with define the members of your social group and the kind of food you share is a clear indication of the closeness of the relationships”. For instance, there are coffee-breaks with colleagues, casual lunch or dinner with acquaintances, and of course informal dinner around the family table for family and friends. Perhaps a common picture that comes in our mind when it comes to the aspect of family dinner is a happy nuclear family with a mom, dad, and kids sitting in a nicely laid table. This is an image that perpetually describes my family’s Friday night dinner. This is a tradition that my great grandparents firmly inspired as a cultural idea to be emulated as ultimate symbol of family stability and unity. This paper will look at the different roles of family members in the sustainability of Friday night family dinner examining the tradition using the Freudian theory, the family theory, and ecological system theory. The paper also takes special considerations on the reflection of this tradition in regard to the influence on the future and its influence on the family.

Family Dinner And Family Members
The Purpose

As a tradition, the family meal symbolizes a shared family life. Family dinner on Friday’s in our family organizes the family bringing us together. This heavily contributes to our social well-being while providing predictable structure to our Fridays which is often psychologically reassuring. The success of family dinners depends on a number of factors such as the skills for preparing the food and food-buying (Fieldhouse, 2008). The appearance of the family table requires a lot of time and skilled activities that calls for both physical and mental decision making. In our family, everyone is involved in this activity; that applies to the food buying, preparations, laying the table, and serving. With our participation, it not surprising that the provision of this family meal is a symbolic demonstration that we care for our family unity and stability. This veers more on love, obedience, respect, and gratitude. From the shopping to table clearing, each family member participates in a responsible exercise that promotes solidarity in the family. For the longest time we haven’t experienced a family tension because we share a lot in our conversations at the dinner table.

To The Parents

During our family dinners my parents focuses on teaching us the way forward on behaviour and in particular civilized behaviour such as saying ‘thank you’ and ‘please’. Excusing yourself before you the table, placing your elbows on the table, and talking on mouth full is normally discouraged. At this time, my parents taught us developmental skills such as manipulating chopsticks, literacy skills through family conversations when exchanging stories. This may seem sheepish but these are the basic fundamentals toward life and social interactions. During conversations, my parents learn more on our interests and attitudes. From these meals, my mother in particular gauges our moods and needs in the end help us solve our problems. My parents monitor the family and ensure that everyone attends to maintain the stability and unity in the family.

To The children (Me)

For the children the dinner table is crucial place for socialization (Fieldhouse, 2008). This is a prime setting for socialization concerning the norms and rules on family values, accepted behaviour, and expectations. From a nutritional perspective, the children learn what is considered acceptable; basically the foods and non-food. From the family dinners my siblings and I have learned manners and restraints on behaviour that the wider world requires. Through family conversations we learned of our parents’ attitudes and interests in relations to the world. We always help our mother prepare for the family dinner. As the eldest, I helped my mother prepare the foods and especially the vegetables and desert while my younger siblings have always prepared the table.

Though a happy family, we have our setbacks. At the end of the day family members who are already tired after a busy day at work or school and probably maybe irritable meet for a family meal. Discord may arise perceived at the table maybe because of the unacceptable behaviour and injustices. Refusal to eat, complaint on bad cooking or lack of gratitude on what was served on the table are some of the things that can lead to these discord at the dining table. This can turn the peaceful mealtime into battlegrounds were verbal arguments are used as weapons which leads to a resentful silence. Therefore, family dinners have many positive virtues that are occasionally fought with difficulties and negative outcomes which greatly depend on the parenting styles.

The Examination
Freudian Theory Of Defense Mechanisms

In psychology, Freud’s input cannot be discredited in the psychodynamic theory. Even though people are no longer believing and utilizing many theories and conclusions, the basis of psychodynamic theory still form a role in theories in psychology. Fraud’s ‘ego defense’ is one of the last remaining theories. This is also known as ‘defense mechanism’ said to actively operate without the consent of the person. These defenses are significantly important when dealing with individuals’ inter threats. Typically, the ego defense pacts with the thoughts that are unconsciously threatening.

Denial. This is perhaps the best known defense mechanism that describes situations where individuals are unable to acknowledge the obvious or face reality. This is the outright refusal to recognize what had happened or what is currently occurring. There was a time my brother and I boycotted the Friday family night dinner and we were hit the movies instead. This started bothering us as we kept thinking of the freshly made lasagne and the family conversations. We were defending ourselves from the happening of our family tradition but the realty soon checked in and we were unable to hold it anymore.

Repression. On its basic form, this mechanism is self explanatory. The mechanism acts to keep the information away from the conscious awareness. Keep in mind that memories do not just disappear but they tend to continue influencing our behaviour in the future. For instance, my family and I have repressed memories of shared meals since my childhood which I intend to pass on to my kids.

Fixation. This is the stunted movement that individuals feel between psychosexual stages when they experience excessive anxiety and frustration in regards to the next stage of progression. The individual remains fixed on a particular stage. My family and I are fixed to our Friday night dinner and the values it carries. This is a legacy that has been there since the times of my great grandparents.

Displacement. This involves taking out the feelings, frustrations, and impulses on less threatening people and objects such as the spouse, pets, and children. A good example to this form of defense mechanism is displaced aggressive that would otherwise lead negative consequences such as urging with the supervisor and instead expressing the anger to people who are less threatening. I remember there was a time that my father had a bad day at work possibly from the pressures from the upper management passing this bitterness to us at the family table.

The Theories
Ecological Systems Theory (Human Ecology Theory)

This theory states that the development of the human beings is inclined to the various types of ecological systems. Urie Bronfenbrenner formulated this theory to explain why we normally behave differently comparatively to how we behave in the presence of our family, work or at school. The human ecology theory accounts that throughout our lifespan we encounter dissimilar environments therefore influencing the way we behave in degrees that vary. These environments are:

Micro system. This is the environment setting that we directly have in life such as the parents, friends, teachers, neighbours, and people who surrounds us. We directly have social interaction with these social agents in this setting. In this system, individuals are not passive recipients in regard to experiences, but interactive in the establishments of the social settings. In the course of the family dinner we interact with each other in the establishment of a harmonious family setting.

Mesosystem. This involves the interaction of Microsystems in an individual’s life. In other words, a work-related experience can be connected to the family experience. For instance, from the family dinners, my parents have taught me civilized manners and respect for others which have helped me establish positive attitude toward by siblings, peers, and teachers. This has also made me feel wanted by people who are actively involved in my life.

The exosystem

In this system there exists a link where an individual does not have any actively involving role and the context where he or she can actively participate. I am attached to my father than my mother and a few ago my father got a promotion and here and then he was travelling to Africa for a few months for work for several months. We all missed our father and during our Friday night dinner my mother spearheaded and listened to mealtime conversations sometimes she was supportive and sometimes she was not. In the end this made my bond with my even tighter because she was always there when my father was away.

The macrosystem

This is the actual culture of a person that involves the socioeconomic status of the individual, race, ethnicity, and most importantly the family. Being born in middle class family makes us hard workers and thus the reason why we meet as a family once in a week for dinner- Friday nights.

The chronosystem

This environment entails the shifts and transitions throughout our lifetime. This engages the socio-historical context influencing an individual. For instance, my great grandparents emphasized on family meals and culture that been passed over in different generations which has positively affected our lives, relationships and how we view the world.

The family system’s theory

This is a theory that considers family as an emotional unit integrating systems thinking when describing complex interaction. For instance if there is anxiety among family members, the anxiety may escalate infectiously affecting all of them. And if this anxiety goes up, the connectedness of the members become stressful than comforting eventually making them feel isolated, out of control, and overwhelmed.

Triangles

`These are the basic units of stable relationships. These are a system that entails three-person relationships which is seen as the smallest building block of a larger emotional pool. There is no stability in a two-person system and therefore calls for a third party. This is because the tension keeps on shifting between two people is higher than the one involving a third person. When there is too much tension to be contained in one triangle it spreads to a series of interlocking triangles. This is what happens in our family dinner conversations.

Sibling position

In every family each sibling has a certain position which defines how the children will interact. This influences the child’s behaviour and development which predictably have common characteristics. For instance, as the first born in my family i tend to gravitate the leadership position which makes my siblings the followers. During the family dinner meal, my siblings look at me to tell them what to do if i am the one preparing the meal.- who to prepare what or even shop.

Differencing

This is the capability of separating thinking and feelings. Undifferentiated individuals can separate the way of thinking and the feelings because their intellect is controlled by the way they feel. Thinks makes them not to think rationally while at the same time they are unable to differentiate their feelings form others. Therefore, differentiation is the abily to free yourself from the family, the realization of your involvement in a conflict and not blaming others, and being able to relate with others at emotionally. At times during our dinner times conflicts may arise but we have always solved it before it escalates. We admit to our faults and forgive each other which make us differential.

The Reflection On The Tradition (1 page)
Is it positive or negative?

As a socially integrative function, a share meal brings people together in a web of reciprocal obligations and shared social relationships. Well, we suppose can say that one important aspect that brings people together is a family meal and if people do not gather for this family meal then the crucial weft of the family is sent to abyss (Fieldhouse, 2008). As a routine tradition, Friday family dinner has been most frequent planned ritual in our family which normally take place in our family house.

The understanding over time

The family meal and dinner in particular has come to represent the dynamics of the family and overtime generations are lamenting on its demise. As early as the 1920’s, people were expressing worries on how the leisure activities such as the invention of the car came undermine the value of the family meals (Fieldhouse, 2008). In the times of change, family meals represented stability and perhaps the lament of the lost family may actually be the reactions to feared change in the arrangements and structures of families.

The influence and the future

In the olden days, dinner was seldom as a ceremonial event (Nancy, Carolina, & Time, 2006).

Durkheim was a sociologist of French origin born in year 1958 and died on the November of 1917. He instituted various academic disciplines and is considered as the current social science principal architect. He actually maintained dominancy in the field of social sciences until the time of his death. Durkheim also presented several sociological knowledge papers alongside religion. His studies such as the suicide study have actually picked a popular discourse. Most of Durkheim’s work involved social facts’ study, term which he developed so as to depict phenomena that is self-existent and which cannot be affected by individuals’ actions (Lukes, 1985).

Durkheim considered social facts to possess sui generis, which is a self-sufficient existence which is greater as well as more objective when compared to the individuals’ actions which make up the society (Martin & Lee, 1994). Contrary to the facts covered under natural sciences, “social” facts thereby refer to particular phenomena category and they as well exist independently, free from individual manifestations (Durkheim, 1951). Social facts of this kind are actually endowed with coercion power due to their capability to take control of personal behaviors (Martin & Lee, 1994). In accordance to Durkheim, these types of phenomena should neither be condensed to psychological nor biological grounds (Martin & Lee, 1994). Therefore, the phenomena which is considered as most “individualistic”, for instance suicide, would end up been classified as a fact which is socially objective. Durkheim further argued that the persons who compose the society do not cause suicide directly (Ritzer, 1992). He based his argument on the fact that suicide being a social fact, its presence in the society is independent in spite of the prevailing desires of the individuals forming the society (Ritzer, 1992). Consequently, the departure of any individual from the society will have no effect on the suicide fact as the society which the individual leaves behind still contains suicide. Sociological tasks entail the discovery of various social facts characteristics which can only be revealed by the means of either experimental or quantitative approach (Hassard, 1995). For the case of the suicide study conducted by Durkheim, he particularly depended on statistics (Bellah, 1973).

Durkheim is considered to be amongst the initial structural functionalism founders. In general, Durkheim discarded reductionist arguments (Durkheim, 1951). Instead, he focused on the cultural values and norms, social structures alongside social facts; which he considered as being external to every human being. Durkheim’s study classified suicide into four categories and provided evidence to one of his theories which states that suicide rate differences are as a resultant of changes in the immaterial social facts (Thompson, 2002). Durkheim is famous due to his social reality macro-level views and its relationship at individual level. Actually, Durkheim managed to make major contribution on the structural functionalism development alongside sociology in general (Durkheim, 1951).

Basically, Durkheim explored the various suicide rates amongst different religious groups and specifically between the Catholics alongside the Protestants. He discovered that the suicide rates were lower amongst the Catholics when compared to the Protestants (Stark & William, 1996). Durkheim believed that the low rates of suicide among the Catholic were a result of the religion’s vibrant social control mechanisms (Stark &William, 1996). Consequently, he attributed the escalated suicide frequencies among the Protestants to the region’s big freedom space. In Durkheim’s perspective, the catholic society integration level was normal but the Protestant’s integration levels were low (Stark &William, 1996). However, this interpretation was faced by two major problems. First, Durkheim had relied on earlier researchers’ data, specifically Wagner, A. and Morselli, H (Stark &William, 1996) who had basically generalized their individual data. Secondly, succeeding researchers discovered that the suicide rates differences amongst the Protestants and Catholics tended to be prominent in the German-Speaking European part and thereby may only have been other factors’ spurious reflection (Pope & Danigelis, 1981). In spite of its limitations, Durkheim’s suicide study has really influenced the control theory proponents (Pope & Danigelis, 1981).

Durkheim came up with four categories of suicide which included Egoist suicide, Fatalistic suicides, Altruist suicide alongside Anomic suicide (Thompson, 2002). Durkheim considered Egoistic suicides as those that result from the weakening of individual bonds that naturally integrate collectivity (Thompson, 2002). In different words, Egoistic suicides are caused by the social integration breakdown or even decrease. Durkheim associated this suicide type to “excessive individuation” implying that most victims initially become more detached from the other community members (Thompson, 2002). Generally, the individuals who are insufficiently committed to specific social groups: – end up with minimal social support and hence the likelihood of them committing suicide is high (Thompson, 2002). For instance, Durkheim revealed that the unmarried people, specifically males, committed suicide more often than their married counterparts due to their less bondage with the established social norms’ goals. Apparently, similar problems affected the widows. Among 1Million widows aged 65 years, 628 of them committed suicide while amongst I million men aged 65 years, only 461 did commit suicide (Lukes, 1985). The sample composition was appropriate as the age bracket comprised of married men to the large extend (Almost 90%) (Lukes, 1985). Durkheim’s analysis however indicated that despite the fact that the widows had a higher likelihood of committing suicide than married persons, their suicide rate was lower when compared to that of single individuals (Ritzer, 1992). Durkheim linked the figures to the family factor as he was of the view that a simpler conclusion would turn out as problematic (Ritzer, 1992). It would be problematic due to the changes in the marriages numbers that occurred during this period as the suicide rates tripled. Significantly, Durkheim was quick to note that the factor was not simply marriage but a marriage that had children (Ritzer, 1992). This is because marriages with children had lower suicide rates when compared to infertile families (Thompson, 2002). Thus, the main factor was considering family like a basic social unit but not marriage. Additionally, Durkheim further studied the wars and crises roles on suicide rates. He discovered during the course of social crises (for instance, revolutions) alongside wars; the suicide rates dropped remarkably (Bellah, 1973). In overall, he found out a more religious society had lower suicide rates and also the strength of family relationships determined the magnitude of suicide rate (Thompson, 2002).

Moreover, the society integration greatly affected the suicide rate.

On the other hand, Durkheim classified Altruistic suicides as those which occur in highly integrated societies in which the whole society’s needs are more prioritized than individual needs (Thompson, 2002). Altruistic suicides therefore come about on a integration scale which is contrary to that of egoistic suicide (Thompson, 2002). Durkheim stated that the suicide rate in altruistic societies was generally low as personal interests were not viewed as important (Thompson, 2002). Durkheim viewed the armed forces with this perspective and was really surprising to find out that suicide rates occurred at a high rate within the military service (Thompson, 2002). It was startling due to the fact that the military, just like religions as well as cohesive societies should exhibit strong solidarity and moreover the people in the military are usually the most physically fit in the society (Durkheim, 1951).Besides, it was not right to attribute the suicide causes to either the military service hatred or even the failure to get used to military service routines (Durkheim, 1951).This was because it was evident that suicide rates were directly proportional to the military service length (Durkheim, 1951). Additionally, senior officers committed suicide at a higher rate than their juniors (Bellah, 1973). Moreover, the elite units were affected by higher suicide rates than the normal units (Bellah, 1973). Finally, the suicide rate was low in the units which demonstrated weaker military spirit (Bellah, 1973). Therefore, Durkheim stated that the senior military officers had to abandon the personal individuality to cope with the service requirements as it increased their risk of committing suicide (Lukes, 1985).

Durkheim classified Anomic suicides as those which arise due to moral deregulation alongside the absence of legitimate aspirations definition through restrictive social ethic, which has the potential of imposing a different individual conscience meaning as well as order (Ritzer, 1992). This is indicative of economic development failure as well as the labor division to result to the organic solidarity of Durkheim (Ritzer, 1992). In this situation, people fail to recognize their appropriate positions in the society. Durkheim explained this moral disorder state as that which the desires of the individuals are limitless, thereby resulting to personal infinite disappointments (Ritzer, 1992).

Lastly, Durkheim suggested that Fatalistic suicides mainly occur in the exceedingly oppressive societies which make people to opt for death other than continue living in such societies (Durkheim, 1951). Generally, this is one of the rarest reasons which can push an individual to committing suicide (Durkheim, 1951). However, fatalistic suicides are common features in prisons as individuals choose to die other than going on with the abusive, excessively regulated prison life which denies them the opportunity to fulfill their desires (Durkheim, 1951).

The Durkheim’s suicide types had their basis on the twin social forces imbalance degrees which are the moral regulation alongside the social integration. Durkheim revealed how impacts on the social aggregate aspects such as; war can lead to increased altruism, booms in economy or catastrophe contribute to anomie. Durkheim’s suicide analysis indicates the way in which social facts on the contrary to biological as well as psychological facts can be stressed upon, and bring about constructive methods of examining individuals’ actions. Besides, suicide rates are considered as social facts as they express social currents that affect people and the society as whole. Despite the fact that psychology study is also essential in resolving individual motives and the process through which certain circumstances push people to committing suicide; it is equally important to undertake circumstances analysis within the prevailing individual’s social currents (Durkheim, 1951).

Durkheim as a matter of fact established that the suicide rates in males were higher than in females; the singles had a higher rate of committing suicide than the married; suicide rates were also higher in the infertile couples than the fertile ones; protestants committed more suicide incidences as compared to the Catholics alongside Jews; Soldiers were more vulnerable to suicide than Civilians; there were more suicide incidences in the peaceful times than in war periods; Scandinavian countries exhibited higher suicide rates and lastly the people who had accomplished higher education level were at a higher risk of committing suicide.

However, the Durkheim suicide study has received a wide range of criticism from various sources. It has actually been criticized as the perfect example of logical error which is commonly termed as ecological fallacy (Freedman, 2002). Durkheim’s conclusions on personal behavior on the basis of aggregate statistics have been termed as misleading (Freedman, 2002). This is because the Simpson’s (1987) paradox has revealed how erroneous it is to analyze micro events in macro properties terms. Nevertheless, diverging views have arisen on whether Durkheim’s work should actually be classified as ecological fallacy. Researchers such as Van Poppel (1996) alongside Day (1996) have proposed that suicide rates differences between different religious groups (such as the Catholics alongside the Protestants) could be entirely explained in terms of how the social groups categorized deaths. For example, while the protestants recorded “sudden deaths” alongside “deaths resulting from unspecified causes” as suicides, this was not the case on the Catholics side (Thompson, 2002). Thereby, Durkheim error would be considered as empirical other than logical. Other researchers such as Gibbs, Inkeles, alongside Johnson have alleged that the main intention of Durkheim was to socially analyze suicide on the holistic perspective with the intention of expounding social environments variation within suicide incidences but not specific individuals’ suicides. In addition, researchers of the recent times like Berk (2006) have also queried the Durkheim’s work micro-macro linkages. Berk (2006) particularly noted that Durkheim spoke of “collective current” reflecting the joint inclination going down the social organization channels (Freedman, 2002). However, the current intensity is the determinant factor of the suicides’ volume thereby bringing about psychological variables like depression which could be viewed as independent or non-social suicide cause (Freedman, 2002). This thereby, ignores Durkheim’s conception of considering these variables as the mostly influenced by the wider social forces and the notion that suicide can not affect such individuals in the absence of these forces (Martin & Lee, 1994).

Apparently, Durkheim brings out issues that affect people directly. In addition, he tends to possess vibrant structural society view, as well as the mode in which everyone within the society is affected by various social facts and how it is a must for each to comply with them. Durkheim indeed tried to have the situation where the social roles are distinguished from psychological, economical alongside biological roles. This is actually be observed within his social influences view on the rate of suicides, in which he studies several factors and determines their effect on the propensity to commit suicide (Ritzer, 1992).

Durkheim’s notion of the movement from mechanical to organic solidarity more accurately describes the nature of different forms of social order than does Weber’s description of different types of authority (Discuss).

Introduction:

Emile Durkheim has none other than been recognised by many great philosophers to be truly one of the fore fathers of Sociology. As well as being one of the first great theorists to discover the science of society within the field SociologyLaw. In some of Durkheim’s work his greatest concerns evolves around the concept of ‘social solidarity’. His work involved trying to answer the theory of what ‘social solidarity’ actually is and how it holds society together? Durkheim’s discovery consisted of two main key stages of focus in order to be able to characterise society. The stages consisted of recognising the importance of appreciating a terminology he called ‘social facts’. “Durkheim defined social facts as things external to, and coercive of, the actor. These are created from collective forces and do not derive from the individual. While they may not seem to be observable, social facts are things, and are to be studied empirically, not philosophically” (Ritzer, 1992: p.78). This consisted in the ways of thinking and acting, as well as being external too, but constraining on the individual that reflects social reality. This Second stage consisted on how he managed to utilise law as an external index, which ultimately lead him to believe that it was the dominant social fact; in order to explain the character as well as the properties of modern society.

Within his newly discovered methodology, Durkheim was able to explain how modern western societies had surfaced by solely discovering the development of social solidarity from a mechanical to an organic state. With his theory consisting of law as the external index, he provided the understanding that social development is reflected in the legal development from repressive to restitutive law. Durkheim regards both criminal and civil law as the core of each field, thought his concept of discovering society. Further down the line of his theories he discovers the real place and function for the two types of law.

Where as Max Weber’s study of bureaucracy looks for developing a historical and sociological account of the rise of modern organizations. (Linstead, Fulop & Lilley, 2004: p130). He used an ideal type to analysis the appearance of the bureaucracy form of organization. The ideal type, according to Weber, is a tool used to identify the characteristics of social phenomena such as bureaucracies. Weber used the term ‘ideal type’ in order to make a distinction from other forms of organization (Linstead, Fulop & Lilley, 2004: p130). Weber defined the Prussian Church, Army and Civil Services as all being examples of this bureaucratic form. He also saw a powerful instrument of the first order, and considered bureaucracy as embodying a powerful combination of knowledgeable calculable basis, and the power case would dare the bases of democracy (Nicos, 1975: p38). It is definitely a great idea to explore Weber’s theories; in conjunction to Durkheim’s as this essays main purpose is to investigate why Durkheim’s theory more accurately describes the nature of different forms of social order, more so over than Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.

This comparative analysis of both sociologists will help to describe the principal characteristics of the Weber “Ideal Type” bureaucracy, by discussing Weber’s concept and ideas about the roles of power and authority within the bureaucratic form of organization. In order to achieve this within the topic of discussion, certain objectives need to be addressed. Firstly, by giving a brief introduction to what Weber believed to be the ideal type of bureaucracy. Secondly, by understanding the relationship between power and authority, Weber believed in a theory that consisted of three major kinds of different authorities within power that need to be studied correctly to understand the module of Bureaucracy.

Max Webber made excellent contributions to the field of sociology by his ability to witness and analyse various patterns which were quickly altering the standard way of life. His ability to find hidden patterns which the general person could not discover through observation, gave him the ability to discover new theories. These involved the ability of understanding new markets and businesses evolving worldwide by observing them in action. In his main observations and analysis he noticed the markets and businesses were actually unifying people together. His theories and concepts through observation described the way he witnessed how modern science was becoming the new method of conducting business. Through his observations he compared the different societies he witnessed, which gave him the ability to analyse how the forms of government were beginning to evolve. As one of his main theories he believed sociology had to apply scientific methods that would elevate sociology to level of social science instead of just a being another branch of philosophy (Hughes & Kroehler & Vander Zanden, 2002).

Discussion:

According to the fact of Durkheim’s distinctive approach in explaining the theory of social solidarity and the reason why society has been made possible. Has ultimately given, Durkheim the recognition as being regarded as the first social theorists to truly discover the meaning of society. His persistence involved scientifically studying society through the means of observation and measurement rather than the general approach of focusing on one individual at a time. As introduced above, the concept of social facts play an important role in Durkheim’s analysis as they epitomise an impartial account of the beliefs and values of society taken cooperatively. The mere theory that ‘social fact’ is irrepressible to alteration makes it an exceptional tool to clarify the concept of social solidarity.

Within Durkheim’s work he identifies two types of solidarity, mechanical and organic. He claims that mechanical solidarity will ‘progressively loses ground’ as society develops and becomes more complex such that organic solidarity will emerge as the preponderant form of solidarity. Hence in order to be able to understand how modern western societies have evolved over the years, we need to appreciate this advancement of mechanical to organic solidarity, as well as the characteristics and in addition the properties associated among each state.

Mechanical solidarity was discovered by Durkheim to exist in more primitive, pre-industrial societies, where division of labour is largely undifferentiated and there is little interdependence between its members (Clarke, 1976: pp. 246-255). The ‘social glue’ that holds society together is the homogeneity between its members, which Durkheim termed as the ‘horde’ (Emirbayer & Cohen, 2003). This is generally characterised by the dominant concept of the ‘collective consciousness’, which is a form of social fact that represents ‘the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society’ (Horowitz, 1982). This collective consciousness provides the moral basis for which members within society must be judged upon according to their actions and beliefs. Individualism is virtually non-existent and not tolerated as it represents a stray from the common bond.

However, Organic solidarity has still been proclaimed by Durkheim’s theory to exist in more progressive and industrial societies that happen to have an extensive and highly distinguished division of labour. Organic solidarity is classed as the best form of solidarity that characterises the western modern society. The collective realisation under mechanical solidarity weakens due to the reason that greater emphasis is placed on individualism as portrayed by society being viewed as ‘a system of different organs each of which has a special role, and which are themselves formed of differentiated parts’ (Barnes, 1966). This type of solidarity has the characteristic ability of increasing interdependence between members as a result of the phenomenon of complementary differentiation. This refers to the need for members to ‘depend more upon one another’ as each have differentiated roles from the division of labour, which if separated will result in the crumble of society. Therefore it is clearly visible that interdependence is the key that forms the ‘social glue’ in an organic society.

The decisive factor which implements the movement from mechanical to organic solidarity is principally the concept of social density. This refers to the increased amount of interaction, an in turn interdependence, between members of society as a result of changes within an organisational structure of societies in a longer period of time. This is according to an increase in population growth, advancement in technology, the rapid developments of towns and their growth in geographical concentration. It is this ‘condensation of the social mass’ which characterises modern western societies and enables them to surface.

Despite being able to identify the two types of solidarities, Durkheim finds himself faced with the most difficult obstacles to his science of ethics that is, since social solidarity is a ‘wholly moral phenomenon’ , it is not capable of being exactly observed and measured (Barnes, 1966) . Therefore Durkheim substitutes law as the external index, a ‘visible symbol’, to measure and reflect ‘all the essential varieties of social solidarity’ (Elwell & Frank, 2003). Carrying with it the characteristics of being coercive, real, objective and observable, while also being the most stable and precise element in society, the law is the pre-eminent choice for an external index (Barnes, 1966).

Max Weber’s concept and ideal theory to make bureaucratic control work relied on the focus that managers must have complete authority to dominate control of power over the organization, as well as being the centre focal point of the larger society. Weber summarized three main types of authority which in-depth explain the management and control in a large organization.

The first type was known as Charismatic authority, which applied to organisation whose foundation is the dedication to the worthy character or the courageous of an individual and the command which defined by her or he. Political leaders have been able to get this kind of response too. For example, former US President Bill Clinton has often referred to as having charisma and charisma can be often found in revolutionary military organizations. The most advantage of charisma is its great power, which is rest on the intensity and strength of the force which lie absent-minded in the goal of every human (Kieran 2004 p55). On the other hand, charisma, in order to transform the environment of social life, thus in this way changing people’s attitudes toward them, then the greatest change of central views and directions of individual action would appear which with completely new intentional and controversial bias of the whole attitudes toward diverse problems of the “world” (Weber 1968 p977).

The second type is Traditional authority; this is based on the cases that occurred before, also means the precedent or custom. It is always more or less mixed with magical elements, Weber persist in that authority involves legitimacy in the sense of duty to obey indicates that we are dealing with an aspect of superego functioning. Church can be example of this kind authority, in this circumstance, managers cannot be impertinent to their members or break the images expected of them.

Finally, the third type of authority being Rational-legal, this is based on followers’ belief in ‘the legality of rules and the right to those who have a position of authority in order to issue commands’ (Daft, 2004: pp.294). The role of this authority can be described as it is the foundation for both management and creation of most government organizations. As well as the most common fundamental of control in organizations worldwide, worth to detail, ration-legal authority is the form which is most widely used to govern internal work activities and decision making, especially in the large organizations.

Evaluation:

Essentially for Durkheim, one only has ‘to classify the different types of law to find therefrom the different types of social solidarity which corresponds to it’ (Spitzer, 1975). This is where in fact the whole study of criminal and civil law falls into place. As mentioned in the beginning of the introduction above, each of these laws acts as the essence of repressive and restitutive law respectively. Despite the claim that Durkheim makes on the evolution of mechanical to organic solidarity (and in turn the evolution from repressive to restitutive law) as society progresses, the discussion below demonstrates that ‘modern western societies regardless still preserve a combination of these two types of law’ (Adair, 2008: pp.97-120). The remaining discussion within this essay will focus on the rules and function of criminal and civil law within modern western societies. In addition to proclaiming whether Durkheim’s theory’s and ideas haves truly made him to be recognised as a discoverer of ‘society’ or not.

Weber declares his feelings of believing that the power of a class is not really a very important issue. Weber claims that when there happens to be a struggle for power, only then classes are considered important. Only then when declared they as a part of their class in their actions. Classes alongside with status groups are just unreceptive members in society. Only when a political party solely considers to addresses the class it becomes declared as active. This insignificance of classes dictates Weber’s direct concept that the economic issues within capitalism do not in fact affect the outcome of authority or the struggle for power (Barnes, 1996).

In Weber’s thoughts he declared that imperialism is not merely a matter of economics. He mainly justified that imperialism was more in fact a political tool. He defined it as a tool of esteem, to be used for the privileged and ways to address nationalism among the masses. Weber was right when stating that imperialism had not been created by capitalism, as imperialism was introduced way in time before the concept of capitalism was discovered. Imperialism however did in fact make an appeal towards all the members of ruling classes. It appealed to the esteem of the old leaders as well as it was declared as the source of money for the new leaders. But the appeal of prestige was by far the more important factor to Weber. Weber’s views on the concepts and theory of imperialism are an extension of expressing the struggle for power. This led him to being exploited with criticism, for restricting the impact of the economic aspects focus of imperialism during the power struggle. Weber directly declared the incomplete functioning of bureaucracy among the impact in created upon individuals. Its prime advantage resulted in efficiently accomplishing goals, which made it awkward in dealing with individual cases. The impersonality which happened to be crucial in attaining efficiency of the organization resulted in it degrading. However the major concern over bureaucracy’s threat to members of a particular organization had assisted to overshadow its effects on the larger society (Barnes, 1966). Weber became exceptionally troubled about the impact that rationalization and bureaucratization had on sociocultural systems (Elwell & Frank, 1996). According to its true nature bureaucracy generates a vast amount of unregulated alongside an unperceived social power. Due to the nature of bureaucracy’s superiority over other various forms of organization, they have thrived and have now dominated modern societies. Within Weber’s concepts he warned us of those individuals who control these organizations, also control the quality of our life, as they are primarily self-appointed leaders (Elwell & Frank, 1996). ‘Bureaucracy traditionally tends to result in oligarchy’ (Elwell & Frank, 1996) or the rules placed by the few officials in the hierarchy of the organization. The Larger formal organisations that dominate society always produce a potential threat that social, political and economic power may in fact become rigorous in the hands of those few individuals who have superiority in high positions as well as the ability of being the most influential personnel within these organisations (Elwell & Frank, 1996).

Weber’s end accomplishment for society involved the creation of a plebiscatory democracy which had the capabilities of being able to transform capitalism. He believed this change in society would eventually change individual power into a power to be utilised for the greater good for society. Weber disregarded the Junkers in Germany due to their egoist engagements (Norkus, 2004: pp.389-418). He claimed Junkers had only certain set tariffs as well as only following the rules that would benefit themselves instead of Germany as a whole. Although it relied on the individuality of one superiority, Weber was still highly interested in democracy not just for main the reason that consisted of the idea that masses could share the power to rule, but for mainly for the simple fact that it allowed the ability of potential new charismatic leaders to come into power (Kalyvas, 2008). Weber’s ideal democracy is one that consists of leaders that are recognised through masses, but even then the ‘masses still stay clear of the government involvement in letting the leaders rule with superiority’ (Kalyvas, 2008). Social stratification, according to Weber, was more based on three different ideas: economics, status and power. Further elaboration of his ideas of what constitutes a class, Weber states that “a class is not a community; rather, a class is a group of people who share situation is a possible, and sometimes frequent basis for action by the group” (Hughe, Kroehler & Vander Zanden, 2002). This basically means that just because people may live in the same town or city they are not automatically equal, but they are considered equal when their economic status is compared. Weber suggests that social order can be maintained by separating classes using determining factors such as the three aforementioned: class, status, and social power.

Durkheim on the contrary strongly believed a mechanical society operates in a different way than does an organic society. In a mechanical society, the term best suited to describe is “jack-of-all-trades.” This is because in that type of society, rather than assigning each person one particular duty to perform, most people were able to perform a multitude of tasks and responsibilities (Ritzer, 1992: pp140). Dynamic density, according to Durkheim, refers to the people of a certain society and their role they play in that society. A major problem that arises in dynamic density in a mechanical society is that when a society grows in numbers, conflict arises due to the fact that people will be competing against one another. As a result of the competition, people are given no other choice but to begin specializing in certain areas and only doing certain tasks, thus starting the transformation from a mechanical to an organic society (Ritzer, 1992: pp.190). The collective conscience of a society is the general feelings of the group. In a mechanical society the majority of a group thinks strongly about an idea or belief (Barnes, 1966). Therefore, it goes without saying that in a mechanical society, where there is little individuation in labour, there is also little individuation of the way that society thinks. Also, in an organic society, where there is diversity in labour, there, too, is diversity in the conscience of the society. People in organic societies tend to have differing opinions and feelings on certain issues (Ritzer, 1992: pp.193).

Durkheim proposed that the key to maintaining social order in a society is to have that society, if not already one, be transformed into a modern, or organic, society (Barnes, 1966). His reasoning for this is because, in a modern society, there is no competition between the inhabitants because there is a wide selection of areas readily available for each individual to specialize in. He also collaborated with two various types of laws that in fact helped his theory progress, in resolving how to maintain social order. Under a mechanical society, where repressive law is used, a crime usually results in a sever repercussion. An example of this is theft; stealing something of importance may result in the loss of a hand. However, it is much easier to achieve and maintain social order in an organic society because the consequences are less severe and harsh. Using the same example of theft, the punishment may be jail or simply repaying the cost of what was stolen. This is acknowledged as the term ‘restitutive law’ it helps to maintain order while preventing less fear in the people. Basically, under a modern society there is more freedom of the people and that allows for less disorder. When people are given more opportunities, and are allowed more freedom they are more likely to conform to society’s rules because it benefits them greater than if they didn’t.

Conclusion:

Durkheim’s social theory is unique for the fact that it analyses society through the observation and measurement of scientific concepts and evidence. Viewing in this stance, Durkheim’s methodology indeed makes him the first major social theorist to truly discover the real meaning of ‘society’. As he, unlike many sociologists in his era, he in fact distinguishes himself away from the study of natural and human science in finding the answers for societal existence. Modern western societies, for Durkheim, has come a long way as reflected in the social and corresponding legal evolution, as discussed above. The characteristics and properties of organic solidarity best illustrate the situation of modern western societies, which include the rising emphasis on private individuals and the increase of interdependence between them as a consequence of the division of labour due to social density. In turn Durkheim has recognised a similar development of the function of law, which he sees as a moving target for sociological observation. The above discussion has demonstrated that modern western societies have retained elements of repressive (criminal law) as well as resitutive laws (contract law). Which both share the important function of coordinating growing interdependence by giving their utmost respect for the cult of the individual. The proliferation of regulatory law highlights that notion that social solidarity is not static and confirms Durkheim’s view on law as the ‘sociological equivalent of a thermometer’ to continuously reflect reasons for social cohesion. Thus it is important to realise that while Durkheim’s methodology (i.e the use of law as an index) has managed to provide a tool to truly discover society, one needs to be able tp continuously monitor this index to ensure that modern western societies are duly and truly discovered as well.

Weber’s theory of the bureaucratic form organization is regarded as a representation of a normal process of explanation in society as a whole, punctuating the value of mean-ends relations. An ideal type is constituted by the bureaucratic form of organization. There are many characteristics of this form such as obvious division of labour, higher formalization, and separation of organizational and personal lives, employment decisions are based on merit. Weber suggested that authority can be seen as critical to understanding power, but exercise of authority is different from the power. The power of position within a complete bureaucracy is always considered as exceptional, under the normal conditions of overpowering; due to bureaucracy’s political rulers face it as dilettantes of an expert. The most advantage of charismatic authority is its great power, which is rest on the intensity and strength of the force which lie unconscious in every human goal. A Church can be example of traditional authority, in this circumstance; managers cannot be saucy to their members or break the images expected to them. The role of rational-legal authority can be described as it is the foundation for both management and creation of most government organizations as well as the most common basis of control in organizations worldwide, worth to detail, ration-legal authority is the most widely used form to govern internal work activities and decision making, especially in the large organizations.