Author: Andre Coleman

People from all parts of the world behave differently towards different situations and conditions. In today’s world of continuous internationalization and globalization, there is an increasing need for people to do business across cultures.

Many business experts and academicians have attempted to define frameworks within which individuals and organizations from different nationalities and backgrounds can do business without facing cultural challenges. One of the best known models for cross cultural comparative analysis in the business context is Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (Gouveia & Ros, 2000)

This research paper focuses on how to recognize and analyse dilemmas resulting from different business cultures. It attempts to apply this to real-life management and business issues in the cultural setting of two countries: Italy and Australia.

Culture

Culture is “the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (McCort & Malhotra, 1993).

Culture is seen as the body of information, character and traits that a person acquires as a member of a group. Although individuals are different in our perceptions and aspirations, there are some tendencies, inclinations and preference that individuals develop whilst they live amongst social groups. The sum total of these common traits that individuals share collectively in a group defines the culture of the group.

“Culture is a powerful factor in shaping how people think, communicate and behaveaˆ¦” (Salacuse, 1993, p. 199). Culture is a very strong and potent force that determines the lives of individuals who belong to a group.

Every human being has basic physiological needs – the needs to survive (Maslow, 1954). However, as the basic need to stay alive is attained, human beings desire to identify with a group or a society. This means that individuals would have to conform to certain values and norms that are shared by members of the group or society in question. These values form a framework for the formation of individual personalities in the group.

Hofstede (1997) argues that the values of a given culture affect the practices of the people in the culture. In other words, the norms and ethics of a group affect the way members behave. The main intervention points of the values of a given culture include rituals, heroes and symbols (Hofstede, 1997).

Values determine why a particular individual wants to follow a particular course of action over another. (Hofstede, 1997).

Shalom Schwartz identified ten value types that affect individuals (Schwartz, 1992). Schwartz conducted a survey of more than 60,000 people to ascertain the principles that direct their lives. He concluded by identifying these ten values that affects the lives of most people. These values define the core of the cultures of these people. They include:

Power: social status and prestige.

Achievement: Attaining goals and objectives.

Hedonism: Seeking pleasure ahead of all other things.

Stimulation: Seeking thrills and excitement

Self direction: Seeking independence and freedom from the control and manipulation of other people.

Universalism: Seeking social justice and progress for all people on earth.

Benevolence: Giving, the idea of seeking the general welfare of people.

Tradition: Honoring the customs of the society.

Conformity: seeking obedience of the rules and regulations of the society.

Security: seeking continuous health and safety.

The culture of a given society will affect and be affected by these ten values as identified by Schwartz. The culture of a given nation will determine the definition of these ten values. The values that the people uphold will on a collective level, determine the culture of the people.

The culture and values of the broader society affects the way organizations do their things. The values of the broader society influence various components of organizations and determine the lifestyles and traits of individual members of organizations.

Therefore in the business context, when one understands the values, rituals, heroes and symbols of a given society, he can transact business with organizations and individuals in the society efficiently and effectively. On the other hand, if a person is ignorant of the values and culture of a given people, it is likely that he would attempt to do business with the people based on the cultural setting he might be familiar with. Such a business transactions are prone to conflict and are likely to be unsuccessful.

Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture

Professor Geert Hofstede attempted to define a model for the analysis of the characteristics of a given culture (Soares et al, 2007). He measured the values of subjects in a given sample and made inferences on the cultural characteristics of the larger society based on the aggregation of the findings (Soares et al, 2007).

Hofstede defined five dimensions that determines the culture of a given group or society (Hofstede, 2001). These dimensions varied based on the uniqueness of a group of people or society. The elements of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions include:

Power Distance (PDI)

Individualism/Collectivism (IDV)

Masculinity/Femininity (MAS)

Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) &

Long-Term Orientation (LTO)

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions sets the framework for which communities can be assessed based on these five variables. In his assessments, he places groups on a scale of 0 to 120 based on these five variables, with zero being the lowest and 120 being the highest.

Power Distance Index (PDI)

Power distance (PDI) refers to “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 1991 p. 28)

Nations with low PDI tend to expect subordinates and their superiors to be treated somewhat equally. However cultures with high PDIs have authoritarian systems where people in authority must be distinguished from their subordinates. In the business context, one can use this index to determine the organizational structure, distribution of power in the organization and remuneration of employees in a given cultural setting.

Individualism/Collectivism (IDV)

Individualism/Collectivism (IDV) attempts to define the extent to which individuals are connected to social groups in a given culture. Individualism ” pertains to societies in which ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family” (Hofstede, 1991, p 51).

Collectivism on the other hand “pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioned loyalty” (Hofstede 1991, p 51).

The Individualism/Collectivism scale, tells us how people derive their identity in a given setting. It tells us how bargaining strengths, power and authority are acquired. In nations with low IDV, people acquire their identity, power and authority based on the social network they belong to. However, in nations with high IDV, people acquire their identity as individuals. In a high IDV environment, people’s progress increases their individual self worth, however in lower IDV communities, progress means moving from one society to a higher society.

In the business context, this dimension can affect the strategic plans of businesses mainly through the marketing plan. The marketing strategy and sales plan of an entity can utilize the IDV index of a community it operates in. This is because the IDV status of a group determines many of their tastes, preferences and demand trends.

Masculinity/Femininity (MAS)

“aˆ¦ masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct (ie men are supposed to be assertive, tough and focused on material success whereas women are supposed to be more modest, tender and concerned with quality of life): femininity pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlap (ie both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender and concerned with quality of life)” (Hofstede 1991 p. 82-83).

This variable of Hofstede’s cultural dimension examines the extent to which people in society are grouped based on their sex: the condition of being male or female mainly in relation to the quantity or quality of life. In groups with high MAS indices, people are seen primarily as being male or female. Males are defined by their role of being tough, focused and making enough money. Females in these societies are mainly tender, flexible and more concerned with the quality of life. These differences are distinct and spelt out in high MAS cultures.

However, in lower MAS cultures, males and females are considered to be equal. Each individual is expected to show a blend of masculine and feminine traits. Here, a person has inclinations towards caring for people and other social tendencies.

In business, the masculinity and femininity will affect the human resource strategy of firms. Also, it will affect the research and development department of businesses because there is the need to develop products and services that meet the masculine/feminine features of the society. The financial department of a business is influenced by the masculine index of the society. If a society is highly masculine and the people value money, the finance department must have strategies that would enable the business to expand by way of paying more to individuals by way of salaries and compensations. However, if the society is feminine, the finance department must have an outlook for payments that would ensure more quality for individuals like pecks and social responsibility.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)

This relates to how much people are willing to go to attain their goals without facing unexpected challenges. “Extreme uncertainty creates intolerable anxiety. Every human society has developed ways to alleviate this anxiety. These ways belong to the domain of technology, law and religion” (Hofstede, 1997 p. 110).

This measure tries to identify the extent to which people rely on human institution and interventions to avoid or ameliorate uncertainty. In societies with low UAIs, uncertainties are considered a normal part of life. There are few laws which are mainly general and there is greater tolerance. In nations with high UAIs, uncertainty is considered as a threat, there are precise laws and people are more conservative with risks.

In business, this can create a context within which one can negotiate or deal with other parties and organizations in different cultural settings.

Long Term Orientation (LTO)

This dimension, was included in Hofstede’s dimensions after his studies of Buddhist cultures in 2001. LTO “stands for the fostering of virtues oriented towards future rewards, in particular perseverance and thrift” (Buddhist 2001, p. 351).

It measures how people in a society consider the long-term over short-term. It tries to define how much effort a group of people are likely to forgo in order to reap benefits in the future.

Comparison of Italy & Australia Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Italy and Australia are two nations located on two different continents. Italy is a member of the European Union and it is predominantly Catholic. Australia is also a continent located in South of Asia. (Geert Hofstede.com)

The cultures of Italy and Australia can be compared using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. This can be used to assess to get an idea of how best the two nations can do business.

Based on the summary of Hofstede’s studies in the 2001 edition of his book, Culture’s Consequences, these are the rankings of Australia and Italy:

Variable

Australia

Italy

Power-Distance Index (PDI)

36

50

Individualism/Collectivism Index (IDV)

90

76

Masculinity/Feminism Index (MAS)

61

70

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)

51

75

Long-Term Orientation

31

N/A*

N/A* Hofstede’s study for LTO did not include Italy.

Power Distance Index

With Australia at 36 and Italy at 50, it suggests that Australia is a lower PDI country than Italy, which has a relatively higher PDI.

This suggests that the people of Australia are likely to see subordinates and superiors as more equal than Italy where people give credence to people in authority. In this case, it looks like in Australia, employees will expect participation in decision-making. Consumers would also expect to be given some preferences and greater care. In Italy, it can be inferred that the employees expect to be told what to do whilst their bosses expect complete obedience. Consumers would have lesser bargaining power and are more likely to accept what corporations sell to them.

These two countries can do business by varying the way they view superior-subordinate relationships. The Australians must accept the fact that Italians give more respect to people in authority and they believe that people in power have more control and thus ‘know better’. Any Australian business move in Italy should focus more in creating an authoritarian entity than an egalitarian one. On the other hand, any Italian business transaction in Australia must be more egalitarian; negotiated with some more concern for subordinates than it would normally be done in Italy.

Individualism/Collectivism (IDV)

At a scale of 90, Australia appears to be a very individualistic nation. People in Australia are encouraged to speak their minds. Independent media is the source of information to people and people are more interested in what they can do rather than who they are linked to. Italy has a relatively lower index of 76. This implies that in Italy, an individual is defined more by the social network he belongs to. Being a predominantly Catholic nation, people are expected to join the Catholic social system right at birth. Their achievement determines their social standing in the Catholic system. Australia, although a Christian nation, has links to Protestant movements and organizations (Geert-Hofstede.com) which promotes individualism.

For business to prevail in these two nations there is the need for each of the nations to understand the culture of the other nation. Australians must understand that in Italy, a person is defined by the social group he or she belongs to. Therefore, if they seek to establish businesses in Italy, they would have to draw a strategic plan that would recognize individuals as part of social groupings. This will enable them to build more successful marketing plans and research structures. Italian businesses also need to appreciate the fact that individuals are seen as independent entities in Australia. They should therefore draw strategies that would target individuals and not spend too many resources on reaching individuals through their social groupings.

Masculinity/Femininity (MAS)

Australia is seen as a marginally less masculine society than Italy. Both nations stand at 61 and 70 respectively on the MAS index. This suggests that the people of Australia expect people of both sexes to be equally concerned with quality of life and quantity of life. In other words, in Australia, people accept that men and women can play roles that are traditionally associated to the opposite sex. It is generally accepted for men to be concerned with the quality of their lives whilst women can easily become high wage earners.

In Italy, which is a more masculine culture, people are expected to stick to the roles generally played by their sexes. Men are expected to make money and stay tough whilst women concentrate on the quality of life and care for other people.

In business, the Australian who seeks to do business in Italy must organize things to be able to target one sex at a time. They should conceptualize and accept the fact that men are identified by masculine traits in Italy whilst women are identified by feminine traits. For Italians that seek to do business in Australia, they should position themselves to treat men and women equally. This kind of mindset will enable them to win the hearts and minds of consumers and other stakeholders in practice.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)

Australia stands at 51 whilst Italy stands at 75. This means that Italy is a very high UAI culture. This implies that the people of Italy do not perceive uncertainty to be a part of their culture. They make every effort to eliminate uncertainty. If ambiguous situations crop up, the average Italian shows aggression and emotions. They do more to ensure that unfamiliar risks are eliminated. They fall on religion, technology and law to ensure that uncertainties and unfamiliar risks are prevented.

On the other hand, an index of 51 indicates that the Australian business culture is more tolerant of uncertainty. People are not prone to showing aggression and emotions in ambiguous situations as is the case with the Italians. The laws are less precise and there are fewer rules (religious or legal) to keep out uncertainties.

In doing business, an organization from any of these settings should be mindful of what they do in another nation. First of all, it appears that Australian Legal, Technological and Religious organizations can do well in Italy if they decide to open branches in the country. Secondly, if any business wants to move from Australia to Italy, it needs to understand the need to be highly precise and fulfill promises they make. This is because any failures and ambiguities are not likely to be taken lightly in Italy as it would in Australia. An Italian business seeking to do business in Australia must be prepared to tolerate a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity and it must get an understanding of the Australia setting before drawing up its strategic plans.

Long Term Orientation (LTO)

Australia scores a point of 31 on this scale. This should suggest to the average Italian going to do business in Australia that the long-term orientation is quite low, especially if it is compared to Japan which has a high ranking of 80. This indicates that the Australian business climate favors a high level of short-termism and there is relatively less concerns for the next generation. However, it must be noted that because Hofstede made no ratings for Italy on the LTO scale, it is possible that Australia is more of a longer-term looking culture than Italy.

Limitations

Hofstede’s research studied samples of given nations and communities. It therefore lacks the general ability to predict the lifestyle of the whole of Australia or Italy.

Conclusion

It is evident that Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension sets the stage for analysis of various cultures around the globe. It gives individuals and organizations an understanding of areas of social lives that can vary across nations namely Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long Term Orientation. This set up can be used to predict and direct businesses in terms of formulating their strategies in foreign cultures. Since Hofstede’s model seeks to examine human behavior, it affects areas of businesses’ strategies like Management, Human Resource, Marketing, Finance, Operations and Research and Development. The model can be used to a high degree of certainty to assess the business cultures of two nations: Australia and Italy based on the indices they scored for the various variables in Hofstede’s studies. The limitation of the model is that it was carved based on surveys conducted on a small section of the nations around the globe. Thus generalizations might not be appropriate.

The Amish originated in Switzerland but is now culturally centered in the States and Canada. The Amish are called the Old Order Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch. The religion is strict in the teaching of separation from the world and a tightly knit community. The doctrine that the Amish follow teaches farming and simplicity. Because of this simplicity, the Amish are now allowed to have electricity, own cars, or go to war. What modern people see as necessities in today’s world, the Amish people live without in the Pennsylvania Dutch society.

The Amish originated in Switzerland around the time of 1525. In the 16th century, the act of baptizing an adult was considered a crime. The members were beaten and thrown into rivers and left to die painful deaths. The carnage in Europe led to the immigration of the Amish (Amish). A man named Jacob Ammann lead the Swiss Mennonites, now called the Amish, to the United States of America and Canada (Origins).

When the Amish settled in the United States the religion had its own ideas of how strict the religion should be. As groups of people began to split, different religious groups formed. The Old Order Amish are the strictest of the groups (Amish).

In the religion the services are done in the homes. These homes are designed to be able to have a large group of people in them. There are members of the religion that half a higher position than normal members. There is a deacon, a bishop, and two preachers. The church is held on Sundays and the members of the church take turns on who will host the next service (BBC).

The doctrine of the Amish teaches its members about farming and simplicity. The unwritten rules are called Ordnung. This unwritten set of rules is followed by everyone but if there is a question about them then the oldest members of the community will take up the position and make sure the rule is made clear. The religion teaches that individualism is not something important or to be proud of but that it’s better to be plain and simple. The Amish believe that God is happier when people take care of the world and remain pacifists. If anyone breaks these rules the person who is accused will be shunned until forgiveness has been offered (BBC).

The clothing of the women in the Amish society consists of long plain dresses and bonnets (Amish). The women can also wear long sleeves and a full skirt with plain shoes. The women do not wear make-up. The men’s clothing is of the same plainness as the women’s. The men wear dark colored pants or trousers, braces, and straight-cut coats. The men are often seen with a wide brimmed hat sometimes made of straw. The children wear closely to the same clothing that the adults wear with the exception that they often go barefoot (BBC).

The life of the Amish consists of no electrical uses in their homes. There are exceptions as dairy farmers have to comply to the religions. The electricity is only wired up to the barns and is not used but to continue as dairy farmers (BBC). Everything done by the Amish involved the help of the community as a whole. If a family needs a barn built the whole community comes together and helps build the barn and depending on the size, it can be put up in a few days or a few weeks (Origins).

As the Amish practice separation from the modern world, they practice different languages. At home the families use a German based language called Pennsylvania Dutch. At church the Amish use a high German dialect. When speaking to a person that isn’t Amish, or “English”, the use English (BBC).

As tourism of Amish communities grows, Amish people are starting businesses to help make money. It has been noted that Amish businesses do better than U.S. businesses. “Amish businessesaˆ¦ are growing, prospering, and thriving. The Amish have low business failure rate, 4 percent a decade compared to the 70 percent failure rate of new U.S. businesses within their first three years of operation.” This increase in business success rates could be the result of more tourism. “aˆ¦the Aurthur Vistor center recorded 29,114 visitsaˆ¦” (Turco). Many Amish people have shops that consist of wood shops, selling craft such as quilts, selling fruits and vegetables, bakeries, restaurants, gift shops, and an open farmer’s market (Mink). Most of the businesses have 10 or fewer employees who are Amish. In some business it is completely ran by family members (Tenner).

Most Amish families are farmers. They use horses, oxen, or mules to plow their fields. The machinery used cannot have rubber wheels but metal ones instead. Many of the Amish produce corn to feed the animals that they family will use for meat. Some of the meat may be sold at the markets and the hides of the animals are used to make leather goods. Some families may be smaller and that raise animals for their own consumption while other farms may be raising or growing the animals or crops to sell. The animals grown may be chickens, pork, beef, and lamb. Some major crops grown are corn and oats (BBC).

Some farmers use pesticides, herbicides, and may use seeds that have been altered genetically (Tenner).Other farmers rely on nature to benefit them in the way that nature does. Farmers that use more traditional ways rely on birds to take care of their insect problems. “the birds, you see, are our allies. Each year, the swallows kill thousands of insects over our fieldsaˆ¦” the Amish need the birds so they help them by building them nest and never tarring down the old nest. Some Amish believe by using horses rather than tractors, they are being closer to one with nature (Kline).

The families in the Amish communities usually have an average of seven to eight children. The families never divorce and only marry other Amish. The Amish do not marry a first cousin and would prefer not marrying the second cousin either (BBC). The husbands are usually the ones that are responsible for bringing in the most money. They are usually the farmers and do the harder labored work in the barns and in the fields. Some men many have a change of roles and may do more of the gardening and house roles that most women would do (Amish Studies).

The wives can be the bread winner in some cases because she may run a business. Most wives are stay at home moms that have the responsibilities of taking care of the children and doing task around the house. Most women do not have full time jobs because of their children. Women and men share the house hold decisions for the most part. The husband usually just makes religious decision and the wife is more active in nurturing the religion and making more household decisions (Amish Studies).

The wives aren’t always busy with house chores. The Amish sisters have gatherings that mix everyday chores up. The group of women may get together and make quilts or have fun while harvesting vegetables. In a time of an emergency the community will come together to help the families. The wives will care for the children and the men will focus on more labored work. The elderly also help the families. The grandmothers will help baby sit and the grandfathers will help the other men with outside chores (Amish Studies).

The children’s roles at home are chores around the farm such as feeding chickens and collecting the eggs and milking cows. The children go to school until 14 and 15 years old. A normal school has about 25 to 35 people in a one room schoolhouse. The material is taught in English and is usually taught by younger women (BBC).

In the Amish schools text books are used and the teacher has the same education as an eighth grader (Halvorsen). The teachers have been taught by older more experienced Amish teachers. “By the time an Amish girl is twelve years old she knows how to cook a meal for a whole crew of Amish workers, and a young man knows farm operations by the time he is a teenager.” The Amish limit the education because after school the children learn the vocational skills (BBC).

“After they leave school Amish boys learn work skills such as farming and carpentry on the job, while Amish girls concentrate on practical domestic matters” This remains true until the child turns 16 and goes through a period called Rumspringa. Rumspringa is when an Amish child is allowed to go out into the world to choose if he or she wants to go live there or wants to become a full Amish member. “90% decide to do so” (BBC).

The transportation of the Amish consists of simply horses and buggies. The Amish can take rides in someone else’s car. For long distances, this is a good way for getting around. The Amish can hire someone to drive them to places if need be (BBC). Most stores have made hitching post and accommodations for the Amish. “Amish friends, please clean up after your horse. A shovel and garbage can are provided” (Mink).

The life of the Amish is centered on their community, having strong family bonds, and living life with a simplicity that most modern people don’t have. The Amish remind people of how things used to be and because of this the tourism in the Amish communities are growing. This doesn’t change the roles of the people or their beliefs in their religion. The Amish live in peace and harmony with nature and themselves.

Riley 7

Defining health has always been relative; sometimes it is defined in terms of good health (feeling fit), bad health (free from pain and discomfort), and in terms of rang of task an individual is able to perform (functional). However, WHO (1948) “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. A resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities.” The medical dictionary define illness as “disease of body or mind; poor health; sickness.

Culture is the way of life of a group of people, society or community, it consist of beliefs, behavior, values, norms, customs, language, institutions etc common to the members of the group, society or community.

Culture can influence the definition of health and illness. Cultural approach explains that health differences can best be understood in terms of our way of life as society and as an individual and on the social class in which we find ourselves, the lower the social class the worse the health issues.

Cultural approach is of the opinion that poor health is due to our diet, habits & life style. In some non western culture, a big person is seen as healthy and the slim person is seen as ill, and is encouraged to eat more, where as in the western world, been fat is seen as a death warrant.

Some cultures do not believe in going to the doctors when they are ill, they rather use a local remedy. Cultural approach completely blame the individual for his /her health problems because they do not follow a healthy life style, the black report (1980) also accepted this explanation, but acknowledged the fact that even does that lead a healthy life, still suffer from same ill health as those that does the opposite e.g. non smokers at the risk of lung cancer. The report suggested that differences in social class factors only account for 25% of social class inequities in health and illness.

More so, the structural approach, accepts the behavioral explanation to health differences, but claims that the behavioral approach fail to look at the broader context of inequality. Thus, poor health is as a result of the working condition to which some people have no choice but to be subjected to given the present income distribution and access to opportunity.

In explaining the structural approach, the Marxist perspective of health and illness will be analyzed. The key assertion of Marxist is the relation of production (structure of the society) which brought about division of labor, which in turn reflect in the derivation of social classes. Marxist believes that health outcomes for any society are influenced by the economy system in two ways;

Level of production: industrial diseases and injuries, stress- related illness, environment pollution, processed food, chemical additives.

Income distribution: standard of living is measured by wealth and income-living condition, access to health care, diet, educational opportunities, and recreational opportunities.

The black report (1980) also agrees with this view, as finding continues to show that adverse social condition is significant to the social pattering of health and illness in the society.

Task 2
EVALUATION OF THE EVIDENCE OF REGIONAL VARIATIONS AND INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH AND ILLNESS

This essay will be outlining and evaluating the evidence of variation in health and illness. To evaluate these issues two material evidences from the Guardian News paper will be analysed. The first is LOCAL INEQUALITIES MARK MAP OF WELLBEING (24/09/2008) will be referred as APPENDIX A. This essay will also evaluate sociological explanations for health inequalities such as cultural, structural, functional perspectives. Reports produced by the government and independent research will be applied in evaluating these regional variations.

Appendix A covered the disparities in the health and behaviour of people in different parts of England. The findings made by the report regarding health disparities are:

Women in Blackpool are 8 times more likely to smokes during pregnancy than women from Richmond upon Thames.

Average 5year old in Blackburn suffers 7 times more tooth decay than 5year olds in Lichfield and Staffordshire.

Teenage pregnancy rate in Lambeth south London is more than 6 times that of Rutland.

Obesity rate among children starting school in Hackney, east London is 3 time the rate in Teedale.

The research was done using 30 key indicators, of which none was mentioned in the report. The report agreed that despite government effort to eradicate health inequalities, the gap in health between the social classes in society keep increasing. The report agrees with the structural perspective, which blames health inequalities on the economy system (capitalist state) of the society, as captured in paragraph 5 lines 4-6, addressing the issue of child poverty the tax system. This can be backed by the finding of the Black report (1980) which opined that health standard is directly linked to social class and social economics factors such as poor housing, education, income and environment.

The findings in Appendix A, was published and distributed to every local councils in the UK, so health worker in every region can devise solution to curbing their respective health issues.

Finding made by the report (APPENDIX A) regarding behaviour cannot be explained entirely by relative poverty. The findings on behaviour are:

Lambeth despite having the worst teenage pregnancy problem in England, it also has the best figure for breastfeeding. More than 90% of mothers’ breastfeed in Lambeth compared to 33% in Knowsley, Merseyside.

Malvern Hills, west Devon and south Shropshire, almost all children of school age engage with at least two hours of high quality PE /school sport a week compared to only 2/3 of children in Newcastle-under Lyme and Surrey Heath.

Kensington and Chelsea has the highest life expectancy, for both man and women compared to Manchester and Liverpool, they eat the highest proportion of fruit and vegetables and the lowest rate of premature death rate caused by cancer. But was in the bottom 10 in England for problems relating to substance abuse among people aged 15 to 64.

The above findings can be related to the cultural approach, which lay emphasis on the cultural choices of the individual / group such as; life style, diet, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. And partly in relation to the structural approach, for Lambeth, there was increase of awareness on the importance of breastfeeding, for Malvern Hills, there is also the increase of awareness of the importance of exercise as for Kensington and Chelsea abuse of substance might be due to life style and mostly because they are wealthy.

Task 3
MOST SIGNIFICANT FACTORS INFLUENCING THE HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN A COMMUNITY

Many factors influence health and general well being of a community. These range from individual factors, such as generic make up, age, gender and lifestyle, socio-economic, cultural and environment factors.

Despite the above factors, the once that are most significant influence on a community health and well being are referred to as “the wider determinant of health”. These are educational attainment, employment status, housing and the environment. Because these wider determinants interact with other factors it is difficult to evaluate the respective contribution of each determinant to eventual health outcomes.

Educational Attainment: From various perspective of sociology and the finding of the Black report (1980), it is evidence that educational attainment plays an important part in the overall well being of the society. According to the Black report (1980), while, the general health of the nation had improved, theses improvements have not been equal across all the various social classes. And the gap between the lower and higher social levels continue to widen. The report on Appendix A also highlighted this difference, when Knowsley borough found it difficult to educate mothers to on the importance of breastfeeding (paragraph 17). The situation in Knowsley can also be interpreted as a cultural trend within the women.

Employment Status: Cultural approach opined that those in social class four and five eat less nutritious diet than those in social class one and two, structural argues however, that, due to income inequality, those in lower classes cannot enjoy the lifestyle of the rich in society and suffer more illness as a result of their job. Appendix B indicates that unemployment brings about poverty and social exclusion. It also shows that Barnet borough unemployment rate increased from 68.7% in 2006 to 71.2% in 2007, but remained below England average.

Task 4

BALANCING HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN A COMMUNITY

Keeping the community well: Prevention they say is better than cure. Unhealthy habits are passed on from generation as indicated in Appendix A, paragraph 7, lines 4-5. Barnet council plans to support their community to live a healthy lifestyle, to stop them from getting avoidable

Health workers in the various county/ boroughs should work in preventing the particular health problems of their local population as indicated in Appendix A paragraph 3.

Government should embark, on health plans that are long term.

Tourism and hospitality turned out to be one of the very important industry all over the world. Even the governments also started to concentrate on this field as it became one of the major revenue source. The ministries of tourism development made lots of recreational work to attract tourist all over the world. For this work the research is very important to gather knowledge about what attracts the tourists, what need to be done for attract more tourists and it is important to get the statistics to keep tab on the growth rate to identify the impact of the improvement measures made.

There is lots of interaction between the peoples from different countries, communities, religions, regions, language, races. These interactions greatly boost up the tourism and hospitality around the world. Various new techniques and research methodologies are needed to identify and fulfill the requirements of the tourist and find out the customer satisfaction and make innovative steps to attract more number of them and to get a clear picture about the issues which affects tourism, and get proper solution for that.

The research is more important for this industry and various research theories evolved all around the world and researches, case studies and surveys on various aspect of tourism and hospitality.

ADVANTAGES OF TOURISM:-

Tourism is one of the world’s most rapidly growing industries. It is also one of the driving factor of the global economy of the 21st century. Much of its growth is due to increased leisure time, increased income, travelling cost. Due to technological development like computers and internet tourists can easily find the places and get information about the places which they want to visit, can find out best accommodation and hotels and it also able to compare the cost and decide which is best and made effective plans for their tours.

As for as the tours are concerned they must be made in the right time of the year especially the climate must be considered the internet makes it’s possible to decide which time of the year is best to visit the place, they can know about the climate, culture of the native people, the details about the foods and much more important information’s about the place where they are going to visit. It encouraged people to travel a lot and its made them feels confident because they know each and every step of their travel and can manage even some unexpected problem arises,

This new trend made the tourism jobs very challenging, the holiday makers want a good return for what the cost they pay. The increase in tourism made lots of changes in the life of the people globally it provide more employment opportunity, increases the income of the people, generates foreign exchange , builds on the existing infra structure, diversifies the economy and it also develops the local products and resources.

EVALUATION OF TOURISM RESEARCH:-

Research in the field of tourism and hospitality has been started in early 18th century the knowledge about the tourism and hospitality during the Middle Ages are mainly come from

The pope/priest who has act as the religious heads those who are the one who is very powerful and has control over the social life of the people also.

TRADITION the tradition of the people once people’s started to travel from one place to other place the tradition of the people’s are also started to spread around the world. The tradition of the tourists and native people started to mingle and the traditions started to modified and the changes automatically attracts the researchers who concentrated in the patterns on the social changes in the people’s life. The changes based on the number of tourist visit, their period of stay, their interaction and the relationship between the tourist and natives plays a vital role in the traditional change.

The traditions cannot be changed easily it will take a considerable period of time associated with other factors. Tourism plays an important role in intermingling the traditions and cultures of various country people’s around the world. The tourism not only affects the tradition of local people but also make considerable changes in the tradition of the tourist’s country also.

Tourism and hospitality are now one of the fast developing business sector of this century. In olden days it’s not easy to travel from one place to other place the mode of travelling, climate, language problem are major hurdles for the travel it takes long period of time to travel from one place to other place most of the travels are made either for the purpose of business or as pilgrimage rather than tourism.

Due to the development in the transport the invention of fast travelling vehicles made the travelling faster as well as easier and less costlier. This change made it possible for the people who is curious about other parts of the world and cultures of the people around the world.

The language, dressing, lifestyle and culture started to attract not only the common people it also started to attract the scholars like philosophers and researchers who is interested about the people’s around the world. This interest triggered them to make close communication with the foreigner’s and they started to record the culture and language of the visitors and started to compare the difference and uniqueness of the visitors culture, language and life style with their own and with other foreign visitors. These are the foundations of research’s in the field of tourism and hospitality.

The rational thinking by the philosophers and researchers based on the various notes and chronological record of events and detailed notes about the cultural, traditional practices and life style of the people’s of various places left by the priest who played an important role in day to day life of the local people and the personal diaries, notes and communication left behind by the people who travelled around the world which had lots of information about the travelling pattern, food, natural attractions and travelling modes helped researchers to widen the scope of research in the field of tourism and hospitality.

The researchers mainly focused on the social science, natural science, religious aspects palmistry and faith of the people and their traditional sharing and development based on the tourism and hospitality for coming to various assumptions and formed various theories

The researchers and philosophers formed various research theories based on the assumptions:-

1. Classical theory – The assumption in classical theory is people are working because of the

pay.

2. Systems theory – This theory slightly varied from the classical theory in this theory it is

assumed that the people are happily working because along with the

pay they get better treatment from the management also.

TOURISM RESEARCH OVERVIEW:-

The researchers help to find out the origin, age, education, income and spending habits and travel patterns, life style and activity preferences of the tourists and get the picture about what the tourist like and dislikes about the destination and the travel information’s importance, the impression of adverting and the overall satisfaction of the visitors.

Not only the private persons. But, the Governments is also started to concentrate on tourism development. It also initiated various researches to introduce several development programmes, to follow up the improvements, to rectify difficulties and made other necessary developments to attract the tourist for increase its revenue.

Research methodologies generally differentiate the research approaches in 3 different categories

Positivism and post positivism

Inter pretivism

Critical theory

The positivism is mainly focused and based on the positive data there are chances of falsification because of the nature of the data’s involved and to overcome the possibility of falsification, the scientific research method is used in the scientific or quantitative method the data’s used in this method is numerical data’s and surveys easily comparable and very reliable.

There are various approaches and dimensions for the research in tourism and hospitality industry

-? Theoretical research

-? Applied research

-? Empirical research

-? Non – Empirical research

-? Induction method

-? Deduction method

-? Descriptive research

-? Explanatory research

-? Positivist research

-? Interpretive research

-? Experimental research

-? Non – Experimental research

-? Qualitative research

-? Quantitative research

1. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH :-

This research method is the research on the great deal of information about the small number of people. It’s a research based on the sociological, Phenomenological, Observational research rather than the research based on figures, numbers, percentages if the various aspects of the subject.

The qualitative research method is based on interviews, observations, questionnaires, focus groups, reports and case studies. It not relied on the numerical data’s or statistics.

Furthermore qualitative research is the assumption

Qualitative research is a research method used to analysis the reasons why the tourists select one place over another, why one place attract more tourists than the other. This method used to understand, describe, and dissect the problems and find out the reason and the solution for the problem or complexity by way of using techniques like assumption, understanding and try to find out the solution.

This method is one of the alternative methodological approach which has been recognised in lots of fields and it is against the old positivism approach.

Generally qualitative research is starting from an inductive position, to build up the theoretical concept related framework because of the present literatures or theories may mislead.

However, Miles and Huberman (1994) stated that:

“Researchers usually have idea about the study, a provisional initial conceptual frame work and for the new , in experienced or time constrained researchers it is always better to have some basic idea about what they are looking for it may change over the time”.

Qualitative data are not based on the statistical report but it is basically a content based data. It balance the impersonal nature of fact with the statistics or personal information given by individuals for the research.

This methodology in tourism research is a collection of life stories of persons, interviews and participant observation. It also shows the group of person relevant to the research and why they are related to the research.

DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:-

Qualitative data’s are non – numerical. Hence, the term “empirical material” was used by Researchers to refer the term “data” in Qualitative Research.

The Interviews, observation, Focus groups, Non statistical methods.

Interviews:-

Interview is a technique used in qualitative research to get the in depth knowledge of the participant about the research theme. It is also used to describe the theme effectively and it mainly concentrate in the factual and meaning level.

It is mainly used in interviews concentrate in the sociological researches. Types of interviews used in qualitative research –

–? Unstructured interview – Unstructured interview are otherwise called life history interviews because they mainly concentrate on the facts about once personal and intimate information. This method allows the researcher to ask as many question as he needed to sort out the fact.

In this type of interview the researcher must alert because this interviews produce a great deal of information which is more difficult to analyse.

-? Semi structured interview – Semi structured interviews are generally used in the qualitative sociological research. This type of interviews must be conducted by schedule and need to prepare list of questions and topics because in this type interview the researched want to know the specific information and then compare it with the other information’s he gathered so, same questions need to be asked in all the interview on the same topic.

Observations:-

Observation is a technique that is not directly involves the questing of participants it’s merely the observation of what is happening and gathering the data by way of that observation. It is very useful for gathering data’s about certain categories like children and infants.

The researchers observes in two ways,

The direct observation and

The participant observation

The direct observation generally uses the one way mirrors and video camera technologies in certain circumstance to observe. Researches in field of health and psychology generally on the direct observation method.

The participation observation is viewed as a method as well as a methodology, in this method the observer become one of the participant, it is also a time consuming process this type generally used in anthropological and sociological researches.

Focus groups:-
Focus groups may be group discussion or the group interview. A particular issue discussed by number of people who gathered in one place. It helps to get qualitative feedback. The focus groups in the tourism and hospitality industries influences on the investment of the companies in this industry.

In this method it is possible to get more number of ideas in the same place and it is also possible to get a majority aspect of a particular theme easily rather than collecting the information’s individually and then come to a conclusion. In this type of group discussion its possible to analyse one view over others and question the others why they come to this conclusion. The technological advancements helps a lot in the group discussions by way of video conferencing, skype, webcams and all.

Customer feedback cards:

The customer feedback cards generally used to collect the comments about a particular product, a particular service or a particular place. It is very useful to get the majority view of the advantage and disadvantage about that service or product.

This method generally used in marketing, tourism and hospitality industries to gather the idea or to decide what improvements should be made to attract more number of people and know which is greatly preferred by the people and what should be done for the customer satisfaction.

In tourism and hospitality industry this technique is used by restaurants, hotels, travel agencies on other service providers in that industry

Non – statistical data’s :-

published and unpublished documents like company reports, memos, letters, email messages, reports, faxes and news paper articles are considered as written data sources also plays an important role in the qualitative research data collection.

DATA ANALYSIS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH:-

Analysing qualitative data is not a simple procedure, It’s a time consuming procedure and the researcher have to go through thousands of information’s he collected and sort out them before got a clear picture about what sort of result he got.

The draw back in analysing the qualitative data is it is associated with the social life the researcher carried out his research using various techniques to collect the data and the long period of time it consume makes a significant impact in the final conclusion because of the social change in the passing time. When the researcher analysing the collected data he has to consider the social circumstance at the time of its collection to come to a correct conclusion otherwise it leads the researcher in a wrong direction and make him come to a wrong conclusion.

The Subjective analysis and The Objective analysis are the data analysis method used in the qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The subjective analysis used is usually applied to analysis of qualitative data’s. For example analyse the impact of culture on tourism, analyse the aspects which affects the tourism, analyse the facts plays a role in perception of tourism place select.

LIMITATIONS

When it comes to qualitative research it varies from time to time along with the cultural changes, the hurdles by language difference and difference in the approaches that would affect the tourism participants.

2. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH:-

The quantitative research method is a research based on the data’s. It is the scientific approach of the problem and it is one of the traditional method of approach. This research generally held when we need the result in numerical form, it is useful to divide people into different category based on their interest. It is very useful to quantify the opinions. For example, the increase in middle clause peoples spending in tourism, find out the increase in international tourism. This method is very useful if any issue involve mass people’s opinion it is easy to use the quantitative research method rather than a qualitative method to find out the majority opinion.

This method analysis the theory deductively by comparing the relationship between the existing data’s and the proposed research results. According to Duffy (1985) – the Quantitative research is based on the random selection of sample from various study groups and collect data’s over a particular population.

As per the study of Backmon and riemans (1987) – the experimental and quasi experiments gives the essential data’s to the research to control and manipulate the independent variable to study the effects on the dependent variable. But this is not possible in the quantitative research because this research method dismisses the individual variable as unimportant.

The quantitative research is a research based on the numerical and figurative data’s of various aspect collected by the researcher. The researcher can come to a conclusion or get solutions to various problems by comparing and analysing statistics. The quantitative research method is used in tourism related researches also the year wise data’s of the tourist visit to a particular spot, finding out the reason for the increase or decrease of tourist visit to that area by taking interviews and surveys from the tourist as well as local people’s.

Further that this method is used to find out the success of various development measures taken by the government as well as the innovative improvement activities made out by the private entrepreneurs for the development of the area, how the improvements attracts more number of tourist around the world.

As per UNWTO’s World Tourism Barometer (volume – 10 , July,2012) :-

Based on the reports of 85 countries, UNWTO estimated that destinations worldwide recorded 285 million International tourist between January and April 2012, some 15 million more than the 270 million recorded in the same period in 2011.

Limitations:

But this method is not useful if we want in-depth research about a certain issue, it only give the broader and swallow detail and the details regarding facts alone and the simple issues.

DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:-

The data collection techniques of the quantitative research method are surveys, questionnaires, structured interviews, customer feed back

Surveys

Questioners

Structured interviews

Surveys:

Surveys are the best method of collecting the statistical data. It is one of the primary data collection techniques of quantitative data collection and it is also a non experimental method. This method especially very useful for the researches in the tourism and hospitality industries because this technique is very useful to get the direct and comparable data’s.

Cross sectional survey: survey taken in the same point of time basically the questionnaires is used. In tourism and hospitality industry it is used for the surveys like no of tourist visited u.k in 2011.

Longitudinal survey: This technique is the survey taken over a long period of time on the same aspect to compare whether the rate of tourist inflow increased, the increase in the per capita income of the native people. Comparing the no of visitors of Olympics 2007 and 2012.

There are many of surveys methods such as customer in person surveys like Electronic surveys like survey through telephone, online surveys. The technological development made the survey really easier, speedy and economic the electronic surveys like the survey through the telephone, mobile or the survey through online are very effective and made the surveys covering wider area and millions of people around the world.

Questionnaires:

A questionnaire is one of the important tool in collecting the quantitative data’s. It is useful only to gather the factual and straight forward information.

Generally questionnaires are paper – pencil methods or web based questioner, the paper – pencil methods made people more truthful because many people feel comfortable in this indirect method rather than respond in face to face direct methods. So often the paper pencil method is more useful.

There are 3 types of questionnaires:

Closed ended questionnaires

Open ended questionnaires

Combination of both

Closed ended questionnaires are generally yes or no type or optional type and in this type of questionnaire the answers already given and the participants only have to select the answers. This type used in survey methods.

Open ended questionnaires:

In the open ended questionnaires the answers are in descriptive type. In this method

the blank space provided below the question for the answer. It is used to know what the people think about the place or about the service.

Combination of both:

Now a days the Combination of both the open and closed end questionnaires are effective way used for research. In this method both the objective as well as descriptive type questions. The optional type questions are used to get the direct question and the descriptive type questions in the same questionnaires to get more details about the same issue for detailed and in depth knowledge.

Structured interviews:-

In Quantitative research structured interviews are often used to collect data’s. In this method it is very easy to get direct data’s rather than getting an indirect one but it’s a one of time consuming and expensive method.

In structured interview can be conducted Face to face, with help of computers and webcams and over the telephones. Face to face interview is the one of the best form of interview rather than the telephone interview or computer assisted personal interviews. In the face to face interview it is more possible to get the detailed and direct answers.

DATA ANALYSIS IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH:-

Analysing the quantitative data’s the researchers can able to get a clear picture of customer satisfaction and need of improvement, growth of the hospitality business, economic impact of tourism among the local community.

In analysing the data’s in quantitative research techniques the researchers uses various types of analysing methods such as Descriptive statistics, regression analysis, time -series regression and input – output method.

The objective method usually applied the analyse the quantitative data’s. It examines the data in scientific method in the prospect of other branches indicated by the methodology. For example analysing the impact of economy and ecology on tourism.

3. CRITICAL THEORY:-

Critical theory is the research developed by the Frankfurt school (horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and Habermas). This critical theory meaning referred by its difference from other research types and its roots traced to marx and Hegel. To some extent critical theory have some aspects of constructionism such as the cultural and historical knowledge and hat knowledge is specific it interlinks the social action and culture.

THE CONCEPT OF CRITICAL TOURISM:

There are many meanings for the word critical and we have to single out a particular meaning to use in tourism research. Critical is a special category of importance where the failure to understand and act may result in irretrievable loss.

The tourism research has the issues like critical incident analysis and critical success factors hence it is considered as critical research. There is another meaning for critical it is based on the notion that close scrutiny of the fact, identifying the weaknesses and wrongs and offering correct judgement for the considered issue. There are many examples of such research in tourism

Analysing consumer satisfaction and destination, quality to evaluation of sustainable

practices. Both of these usages of the term are familiar to those in the tourism and hospitality industry. But neither reflects the precise use of the term for the tourism research where discussion will engage in the more specialised and technical meaning of the term as deployed in the concept of critical theory. Critical theory shares the concepts of constructionism it clearly distinguishes itself from constructionism in lot of important ways.

Kincheloe and McLaren (2003) enumerate the major concerns of critical theory and these are illustrated in table one which organises them around eleven domains. These domains and their associated objectives are now discussed. A key distinguishing feature of critical theory.

Habermas’s (1978) contribution is very important in the critical theory, particularly his theory of knowledge-constitutive interests, where he concludes that there is no interest-free knowledge. For example in Knowledge and Human Interests he argues that knowledge derived from positivist methodology generally serves technical interests – in particular those of management and control and the finding of technical solutions to problems. Considering the importance of this technical

solutions takes the current ordering of things as given whereas for critical theory the deliberately fore grounded things by current ordering is considered as a possible problem.

The critical theory approach to tourism research is to conclude what interest the people, which interest is served and how the power operated in the particular formation of tourism research as well as int he process of tourism and hospitality.

Kincheloe and McLaren (2003:437) explains that:- the critical theory rejects the crude forms of economic determinism (domain two) and rather posits that there are “multiple forms of power.” The most relevant discourse and ideology for tourism over structuralist explanation based on simple economic determinism is the post structuralist concept of ideology and discourse.

The next goal of critical theory is its interest in emancipation. Grundy (1987:99) describes the critical theory – as leading to a “transformation in the way in which one perceives and acts in the world”. The result of the emancipation is must be the production and consumption of tourism. In other words critical theory entertains ideas about ideal place and the good life for tourism with a particular emphasis in unleashing human agency and autonomy.

A critique of technical rationality is formed it focused on means rather than ends and it demonstrates how in this respect critical theory differs from positivism. Positivism generally values the freedom, excluding the question of ethical and moral aspect which cannot be defined and concluded by the appeal to facts. It thereby rules out the consideration of what might or ought to be in favour of what is so that only means, facts and theory remain.

Young (1989:2) observes – “society which exists is only an imperfect representation of what it could be” as a key concern for the critical theorists.

Gibson (1986:37) explains that for critical theory: knowledge and interest in emancipation coincide and thus make for those unities which positivism severs – theory and practice, means and ends, thought and action, fact and value, reason and emotion.

A further aspect of critical theory is an understanding of the manifestation of the researcher and research theme and indeed an admission of first person reporting in research where positivism insists on third person distancing of the researcher in their reportage. In this way identity, sex and emotions are considered as part of a complex set of factors that can influence research and therefore deserve reflexive recognition in along with issues of rationality and power.

For one important reason the Critical theory sets itself apart from interpretivism. It does not necessary to believe the research result of the researcher to get a true reading of the world. It is wary of the possibility of their false or at the very least, not fully engaged consciousness and their inability to escape the knowledge – conventions of their period or culture. For example when witchcraft was an accepted explanation of human activity interpretivist research would have resulted in rich accounts of the phenomenon without necessarily challenging the concept.

Barnett (2003:56) describes false consciousness as the situation where “that which is contingent is seen as inevitable. That which is iniquitous is seen as just. That which is imposed is seen as natural.”

Ideology is considered as key to critical theory. Ideology has two unique meanings. The overarching network guidelines which has the ideas that frame, direct and inform the thinking.

Marx and Engels (1845:53) played an significant role in developing the concept of ideology and they identified the ruling ideology, that is the ideology of the dominant class.

The ideas of the ruling classes are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which act as a ruling material force of society, at the same time it acts as a counterpart of ruling intellectual force. The class which has the material production at its disposal at the same time have the control over the mental production, so generally speaking the idea of them whose don’t have control over the mental or intellectual production are subject to it.

Ideology also have a discrete and coherent belief systems. That systems have a long and ranging ideology such as political system for, e.g. Communism, Idea system e.g. Pantheism, Utilitarianism, liberalism and Confucianism to religious faiths such as Judaeo – Christianity, Mohammedism and Hinduism.

The work of critical theory is to identify the influence of ideology at research work and Habermas deployed ideology critique as a method of identification of ideology and a possible means of escape from ideology. Critiques encourages the self-understanding and the placing of representation of the world in the competition with other possible views of the world.

The Materialism is the ideology which concerns with the literature, research and the activities in the tourism as it suggests the underlying dominant common – sense view. The basic idea of tourism is it should bring profit or it should be organised for profit, it should not only concentrate on the profit it must also take the satisfaction of the paying tourist this is the common-sense back ground in which the tourism research operates

This common sense background ideology promotes the specific kind of knowledge which concentrates on the marketi

As feminist writer Starhawk said,” Only when we know how we have been shaped by the structures of power in which we live can we become shapers” (Staehawk, 1988) It is essential for every participant of social activity to know our own complex social locations, social position, and identities. By acknowledge how these factors are processed, we could understand what privilege we has hold and what oppression we are involve in order to improve our capacity for social work and practice anti-oppressively in our daily life.

Features of Social Locations

Our memberships are interactional, they are” come into existence in and through relation to one another”. (Ringrose, 2002) Knowing what futures of our social locations are and how they are consolidated and changed by each other could improve the depth of our self-awareness and warning us be critical.

People usually ask me questions about my nationality, location of hometown, and my occupation when we start a conversation. Therefore, most of time I am identified as a female student who comes from a developing country of Southeast Asia. Broadly speaking, the reason why these questions have been asked commonly during our communication is because of these social location have a same feature which has a huge impact on our behaviors, accents, appearances. In the other words, they are visible and audible for people to recognized and identify. However, compare with these social locations, my political affiliations, religion are more difficult for others to indentify due to the abstraction of these social locations that make them relatively invisible and inaudible. The influence of these social locations are ideological. They have constructed our ideology, social norm and even have shaped our identity. My social locations are various, I am an oppressor while I am oppressed by others. Understanding these features of my social locations could help me to aware the privileges, powers, and injustice that these social locations have been bought to me and to avoid these unfair privilege, “power over” and subjective feelings of injustice , in order to share power with others and practice anti-oppressively in daily life.

Message of Identity from Society

As Aristotle has pointed out in his book Politics, “Man is by nature a social animal”, (Stagiritis, 2000) human being always has demand to connect with others in order to gain a sense of belonging in society. They have been self-locating, identifying others and being identified base on their experience, education, religion, race, gender and more elements of society during their connection which means that our complex identity have been constructed by these elements.

As an individual with multi-dimensional identity, I have been received various societal message in my daily life. Some of these messages are relate to my cultural background while some messages relate to other elements. I moved to a capital city which named Kunming from Shilin (a small town of southwest China) when I was young, for the first few days in my new school I wear the traditional Yi costume as what I did in my previous school in Shilin as an Yi people. However, my new classmates gave me a hard time because of I wear a dress with embroidered totem instead of wearing a “normal” dress as they did; my teacher punished me to stand on a chair with arms extended upwards in front of the entire school because I refused to take off my bracelet on the weekly assembly. Although I spoke fluently Mandarin and had been raised in an urban intellectual family as majority had, most of students even teachers in my new school shown their unwillingness to communicate with me and used “your people” to separated me from them. In my understanding, the difficulty to” fell a sense of belonging and acceptance” (James, 1991) causes the feeling of being isolation, it was a societal message about my identity at that time. The message are conveyed to me by isolating me physically and psychologically from the majority. After receiving the message I started to refuse to wear any Yi clothes and accessories to school because the painfulness from being isolated from “normal” people was unbearable for me as a teenager. During that time, my identity had been adjusted by following the process which has been pointed out by Smith,” moving from unawareness and lack of differentiation to ethnic awareness and self-identification” (Smith, 1991).

Power and Privilege

Our society is diverse in many aspects, such as gender, religion, age etc. These differentiations “cause(s) fear, mistrust, and hatred” (Uvic, 2004 ) and bring us advantage and disadvantage in our life. What is more, these differentiations have been used as justification for holding “belief in the superiority of one way of being over another” (Uvic, 2004) . We need to understand what type of power has been embedded in our social locations in order to practice anti-oppressively when we face the inequality and unjustice.

Being a twenty-one year-old heterosexual female, I have been experienced power-from-within and power-with due to my complex social locations. As being defined as a “young people”, there are various resources and opportunities out there for me when I need them such as entertainment resources ,education opportunity etc. These elements provide me materially and emotionally supports to help me increase personal power in order to against the oppression from society. However, I should not feel happy with this unequal advantages because this institutionalized ageism does not provide equally opportunity for elder to take part in meaningful social activity or “exercise their capacities in socially defined and recognized ways” (Muallaly, 2002) . In order to resist privilege and unearned advantage, I have been participated in a volunteer group which works with elder and to power connect with them in order decrease the influences of institutionalized ageism on elder. Meanwhile, as being a heterosexual female I have holding many invisible and visible privileges. For example, I will not be judged by people if I hand in hand and walk on street with my boyfriend; my sexual orientation will not be treated as “immoral” or “abnormal”. There are many social constructions are built base on the assumption that every individual’s sexual attractions are to someone of opposite sex. Instead of seeing these privilege as advantage, we should not only see them as social resistances and avoid power-over in our practice, but also respect and “support all non-transitional forms of sexuality” (Uvic, 2004 ) by following Queer Theory. These unfair and unearned advantages will resist our society to develop comprehensively, humanely and justly and we definitely have the responsibility to be aware of diversity and never assume people around us.

Purpose of Social Work

It is essential for social worker to know the purposes of this profession because these purposes are the direction for us and provide clients with a constructive solution when we work with them.

When I began this course, in my understanding the purpose of social work was improving the physical environment of individual as in a micro level and promote the justice of society as in a macro level. As my learning about this profession has been processing, my ideas of social work purpose have expanded. According to purpose for this profession which is defined by The National Association of Social Workers, the mission is ” promote or restore a mutually beneficial interaction between individuals and society in order to improve the quality of life for everyone” (Dubois, 2004), this profession assists individuals to create a supportive social system that help clients to achieve their personal goals. Dubois and Krogsrud have mentioned about social work purpose in their book Social Work: An Empowering Profession, they said social workers strived to release human power in order to ensure the well performance for individual and to release social power in order to promote social injustice. (Dubois, 2004) More specifically, the purpose in Micro level is to enhance clients’ ability for social functioning and to match individuals with favorable resources. From a macro perspective, the purpose is to stimulate the development of social justice. These purposes are leading entire profession to strive to create an better society.

Social Justice

Social justice is a key point to promote the fairness and equity in our social environment. Depending on the concept of this course, there are some elements which are necessary for social justice to exist. These elements are: acknowledgment of the connections between social with politic and economy (Uvic, 2004 ), awareness of social injustice, action and movement, fairness of policy, and equality of social opportunity. In order to promote the justice of social construction, I have positioned myself as a participant of social activity who has desire to against injustice and have responsibility to think critically, act anti-oppressively with belief in that everyone has right to share equal physical resources and to be benefited from comprehensive policy. However, there are might resistances stand in my way when I involve activities to fight for political justice and economic redistribution. These resistances could be lack of resources and effect of bureaucratization. In order to avoid the resistance from these two dimensions, I should not be afraid to question the policy and speak out to let government know what is needed by people. Also think and act critically instead of working hidebound. Bridget used her action to examine that everyone has ability to make difference in our society. We shall never give up our goal for working to promote justice in social system. As American social critic James Baldwin said, “according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world.”

About This Profession

Social Work is a profession which attempts to “demonstrated the interconnectedness between individual changes and social changes” (Uvic,2004). To some extent, the primary purposes could include unpacking the complicity both in societal structure and individual life. This profession should not position itself as an “caring and help” institution and stay in this image, this profession should stand out to “reconnect the political with social” (Uvic, 2004 ) and involve the economic redistrubution in order to ensure that everyone has equal worth, opportunity, and dignity in society. There are two questions I need to be answered, first question is how to act anti-bureaucratically in workplace and the second one is what can I do when there is no matching resources for clients. To practice efficiency, I need to get spiritual and technical supports from myself and co-worker, and people around me to point out what I did wrong. This activity from Art Journal helps me to understand myself better and help me to know why I choose this profession, it also help me to know what is boundary when I work with clients.

Our society is not perfect, to some degree its awareness for diversity, injustice government policy and inequality distribution of physical resources are resisting the promotion of social justice. we have responsibility to understand clearly what our ideology perspective is and what power we have due to our social locations and identities. These could release human power and social power in order to enhance social functioning and social policy. Sometimes it is not easy to have the visible effect for promoting the quality of life to entire society, but it worth us to strive for and fight for. As a Chinese old saying goes: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

There is a difference between what theorists believe managers should do, what managers believe they should do and what managers actually end up doing (Grint, 1995). Applying critical theory to determine what is what and who has what.

Critical Theory

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory is the longest and most famous traditions of Marxism. This tradition is often referred as critical theory- meaning a special kind of social philosophy from its inception in 1923 by Felix Weil (Seiler, 2004). The critical theory of society of the Frankfurt School continues to excite interest and controversy (Kellner, 2001). A theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. A number of critical theories have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimension of the domination of human beings in modern societies (Gutting, 2003).

Thus, the term ‘critical theory’ was used as the symbol of a philosophy which questions the effective order of political and social modernity through an order of immanent critique. It was mainly an attempt to regain a critical potential that had been overrun by recent intellectual, social, cultural, economic and technological trends.

The term Critical theory has its origins in the 20th century Frankfurt School, and now is associated with scholars across a range of disciplines. Its purpose of inquiry is to confront injustices in society (Clark, 2004). Critical Theory has been deeply concerned with the fate of modernity, and has offered systematic and comprehensive theories of the trajectory of modernity. Critical theory began by putting Marxian political economy at the centre of analysis, and early critical theory was materialist and committed to socialism (Gingrich, 2000).

Critical theory has generally been committed to the idea of modernity and progress, while at the same time noting the ways that features of modernity can create problems for individuals and society (Kellner, 2000). This is much reflected on the 21st century, though there is progress in many things, but still issues like globalisation tends to pose important problems for the society.

According to Heilman (1998), being critical involves understanding the sets of historically contingent circumstances and contradictory power relationships that create the conditions in which we live. Theory helps us to organize the world, to sort out the details, to make some coherent sense out of a kaleidoscope of sensations (Ayers, 1992).

When theory is theorized, as stated by Heilman (1998), the imperatives of practice bring the theory down to the ground. Phenomena are observed and experienced; this experience informs theory; and then the theory is further modified as a result of additional practice. Rather like fiction writing, critical theorizing is a process of imagining and describing a non-real but possible world.

The critical theorists have deeply influenced contemporary social theory, communication theories, cultural theory and many more for a number of decades. According to Clark (2004), Critical theorists are committed to understand the relationship between societal structures (such as economic and political) and ideological patterns of thought that constrain the human imagination and thus limit opportunities for confronting and changing unjust social systems. Critical theorists emphasise that theory and research must serve emancipator interests, to create a world that satisfies the needs and powers of social actors (Sanghera, 2004).

According to critical theory, people are dominated by a false consciousness created and perpetuated by capitalism in order to preserve the hegemony of those in power (Meyer-Emerick, 2004). Due to this cause, one can assume that it prevents people from freely pursuing their own interests. This dissent is only dismissed if people begin to see the contradictions between the social construction of the world and their lived experience.

Critical Management Studies

Critical management studies also known as ‘CMS’ which is the known as the term that describes the a diverse group of people that has adopted the critical or questioning approaches to management, this term emerged of recent years.

The report outline

The above statement sets the mood for this report, as the report will be looking at how the critical management theory of yesterday applies to the modern western approaches of management today. Another key aspect will be on trying to articulate the connections between the management perspectives of contemporary society in the critical theory.

The focus will be on Karl Marx and Michael Foucault as critical theorists and how their perspectives affect the management and leadership in today modern western era. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, he believed socialism would, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism; Marx economic relationship between managers and the workers. Whilst Foucault argued that patterns in disciplinary behaviour found in management practices.

management and leadership
Scientific management

Scientific management (Taylor System) also known as Taylorism is a theory of management that analysis and manufactures workflows to improve employee (labour) productivity. The idea was developed by a Frederick Winslow Taylor between 1880 and 1890, and it was the first published ‘monograph’ (written documents). Frederick Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and the rules of the thumb should be replaced by accurate procedures that are developed after a study of an individual at work. This means that there is a high level of managerial control over employee work practices.

Scientific management is a distinction on the theme of ‘efficiency’; it developed in the 19th and 20th century were instance of large recurring theme in the human life of increasing efficiency, decreasing waste and using experiential methods to dictate what matters rather than accepting pre-existing ideas of what matters. Management today is the greatest use of scientific management is a form to contrast a new and improved way of doing business.

Leadership

Leadership is having the ability to give guidance to those that will follow. Those that follow will help to complete the mission. It is an immature science and the body of knowledge in the field has developed through a series of fits and starts. Leadership is a soft science, just as anthropology, sociology and psychology. It can not be proven exactly what it is. Leadership is an art; the skilful application of leadership behaviours beyond techniques is much the same as the skilful application of brushstrokes by a master painter. Leadership is both rational and emotional. It involves both sides of human experience. It includes actions and influences based on reason and logic as well those based on inspiration and passion. Leadership is a social process shared among all members of a group. (Yolk, 2002)

Leadership also involves in political activity as in power activity; conversely, it is much more like transformational leadership. Political processes involve efforts by members of the organization to increase their power or protect existing power sources (Pfeiffer, 1981). Although the ultimate source of political power is usually authority, control over resources, or control over information, political power involves influence processes that transform and magnify the initial basis of power in unique ways

Karl Marx

A Marxist’s thought is based on this lifestyle, a science of logic called Dialectics. Thus, Marxism is both a theory and a practice. The theories of Marxism are based on a scientific method of thought called dialectal materialism. Theory is based on a particular set of conditions that are always finite, and thus, any theory is necessarily limited. To test the validity of theory, Marxists rely on empirical evidence as the criteria of truth (Basgen, 2005).

Marxism embraces modernity and Marxists argue that one of the main problems is that capitalism puts fetters on the progressive forces. The forces of capitalism are viewed as progressive in sweeping away the traditional, religious, backward, and feudal forms of society, spreading industrialisation and urbanisation across societies (Moody, 2003).

Michel Foucault

His studies challenged the influence of German political philosopher Karl Marx and Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Foucault offered new concepts that challenged people’s assumptions about prisons, the police, insurance, care of the mentally ill, gay rights, and welfare (Ron, 2000).

The main influences on Foucault’s thought were German philosophers Frederick Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. The connect.net website, describe Foucault’s thought as explored the shifting patterns of power within a society and the ways in which power relates to the self. He investigated the changing rules governing the kind of claims that could be taken seriously as true or false at different times in history.

critical analysis
Marx critique of capitalisms

Capitalism is the system that upholds the relationship between the owners of the means of production and workers. The former comprise the bourgeois class and the latter the proletariat

Marx’s critique of capitalism was that while this system had incredible power and potential to transform human society positively, in actual fact it resulted in exploitation and ultimately limited the possibility for further improvement (Powell, 2001). Moody (2003), describe this environment as workers were emancipated from traditional limits but became slaves of the new factory system, monopolisation resulted in limits on trade and further progress, and the state acted in the interests of the bourgeoisie rather than society as a whole.

Commodity Fetishism

Labour Power

To be clear about is what the capitalist has bought. The worker has sold not his labour but his ability to work. This Marx calls his labour power. Also, as Marx defines, ‘labour power is the abstraction of human labour into something that can be exchanged for money. In addition, capitalism can purchases labour power as a commodity.

In other words, ‘Labour power is a commodity governed by the same laws as other commodities. Its value is determined by the labour-time necessary for its production. Labour power is the ability of the worker to work. It is “consumed” by the capitalist in the actual labour-process. (R.Sewell and A.Woods)

Marx explains, “I use the term labour power or capacity for labour, to denote the aggregate of those bodily and mental capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any kind”aˆ¦ “The value of labour power, like that of every other commodity, is determined by the labour time necessary for the production, and consequently for the reproduction as well, of this specific article as well.

Capitalism Power

As Campbell (1981:34) describes, ‘aˆ¦as in slavery, where the producers themselves are owned by the slavery owners; in feudalism where the land is owned by the landlords; or in capitalism where machinery and factories (capital) are owned by capitalists.’ In capitalism, the ‘machineries and factories’ is not the only thing owned by capitalists (or factory owners), also labours. For example, in a car making factory, all the machineries are fixed assets to the factory owner, machineries can not make profit for the factory owner if no one operates them, and so labourers who operate machineries are the main assets to the factory owners.

In addition, labour power is a commodity (which is bought and sold on the ‘labour’ market), (The Marxist critique of capitalism) because it has an exchange value. As Campbell (1981: 38) says ‘all commodities labour power has an exchange value, its price (the wage), yet again like all commodities, it also has use value to the purchaser.’ The purchaser here is any capitalism or any factory owners. It continues ‘one purchased, like any commodityaˆ¦ Labour power is owned therefore, like a machine, and is put to work’ (Campbell 1981:38) As the labour power is a commodity, so once it is purchases by factory owner, the owner has the power to either use it or exchange it to others. Also, in capitalism, once the owner purchases new labour power, he has the rights to make decision on how much he will pay to his new labourers, and how long the new labourers will work every week; also he can fire any of the labourers in his factory any time if he feels not satisfied with them.

‘aˆ¦ in a capitalist economy the vast majority of people have only their labour power to sell in order to gain income with which to purchase food, clothing, housing and other goods and services. The means of production are owned by the capitalist class and if they are unwilling to hire labour, or wish to reduce the numbers of workers they employ, this puts workers prosperity immediately at risk’ (Campbell 1981:111)

Marx’s argument was against capitalism, which he referred to as a stage at which every society must go through that can bring about the seed of its own destruction. He indicated that human essence was labour and physical effort needed in the production of the means of subsistence. Hence, some forms of production are needed for survival. The suggestion being that it is acceptable for oneself but not for others because some individuals may have all factors of production (capital, entrepreneurship, labour and land), while others may have nothing but just their own labour, which eventually will result in uneven distribution of wealth and income. Additionally, Marx argued that capitalism deprives the labour force of their ‘creative fulfilment’, and since they are portrayed to be the already planned part of the production process, they are unable to achieve self-actualisation.

Exploitation and Alienation

For Marx, this alienation works as a process, but it can be broken up into 3 different aspects for analysis. The first aspect of alienation under analysis is how workers are alienated from the product they produce. Under capitalism, the object the workers produce is surrendered for the wages they receive. The workers then loose any relation to the object they are producing because they are handing it over. This is of course is different from the system of self-sufficiency, where the workers have a much more direct relationship with the object that they produce. As the workers become more independent of their product, they transfer power to the employer. As mentioned with Marx’s critique on the political economy, the more objects the worker produces, then the more power the employer possesses which will lead to a greater weakness to the workers. Therefore under this system, the workers are only competing to be exploited. This is a form of alienation, because the object that the worker produces becomes an alien entity to him, independent of his control and ultimately controls the worker.

Another aspect of alienation that Marx examines is how “the self” becomes another alien entity to the worker. Under the mode of capitalism, the working conditions are established by the capitalists and not by the workers themselves. These conditions are established along the grounds of the capitalists drive for profits, rather than the workers need for self-fulfilment. Marx felt that self-fulfilment was a major aim of a person, and felt that under the system of capitalism, where your working conditions are created by your employer, it was impossible for the worker to gain this self-fulfilment. He also felt that the capitalist employers were victims of this problem too because if they didn’t drive for profits, then they would be put out of business. The labour itself is described by Marx as “exterior to the worker, that is, it does not belong to his essence. Therefore he does not confirm himself in his work, he denies himself, feels miserable instead of happy, deploys no free physical and intellectual energy, but mortifies his body and ruins his mind” (David McLellan 2000).

Explain Marx’s articulation of exploitation. The practice of mistreat of workers in an environment that is deliberately designed to maintain it, i.e. capitalism,

Marx’s conforming – the workers alienated by/owners of the means of production to gain profits at the expense of the workers (e.g. managers forcing employees to undertake tasks outside their job description in order to cut costs and maximise profits) because people are alienated they conform to the demands of their employers in order to keep jobs safe.

Foucault disciplinary Power

Moves away from the economics of Marx. Looks at power and reconceptualises it. Management as a representation of power relations in society. Specific rules maintain, regulate and institutionalize practices in a work environment (office, factory, school, etc),

Power- Disciplinary power – the panopticon as a illustration of society, the middle tower is all seeing yet prisoners always obey without knowing for certain whether they are being monitored, by whom or by how many. The result is the creation of self-regulating, obedient and disciplined prisoners (at least in theory). Relate this form of disciplinary power to management.

Power as the central driving force in a society within a group of people in a working environment. Manager doesn’t create a system the manager merely plays along with the rules, thus maintaining the relations of dominance and dominated.

Critical Analysis on Leadership

Over the influence process of leadership, it needs power. (Northhouse, 2007). Leaders are usually described as wielders of power in the discussion of leadership because they are individuals who dominate others. Power is the capacity or potential to influence another party (Mint berg, 1983; Pfeiffer, 1981, 1992). It is talked as the basis of leadership according to many political theorists like Machiavelli through academic political scientists such as Marx in the twentieth century. People have power when they have the ability to affect others’ beliefs, attitudes, and courses of action. Ministers, teachers, doctors, and coaches are examples of individuals using power to effect change in people. In commercial, there are two major types of power, position power and personal power (Bass, 1960; Etienne, 1991): Position power refers the power a person derives from a particular rank in a formal organization system, for example, department heads have more power than clerical staff in position. It includes potential influence derived from legitimate authority, control over resources and rewards, control over punishments, control over information, and control over the physical work environment. Personal power refers the power a leader derives from followers. It includes potential influence derived from task expertise and potential influence based on friendship and loyalty. Followers give leaders power when leaders act in ways that are important to them. Power is also inherent in a person’s position in the organization. (Bass, 1960; Etienne, 1991)

According to Northhouse (2007) the current dominant leadership paradigm is the transformation approaches which is a process that changes and transforms people. The elements at the heart of transformational leadership are: idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration.

Critical Analysis on Scientific management

The Marxist theory of capital sees labour as a cost of production resulting in the alienation of workers as the need for labour surfaces from the physical needs “defined by the fundamental relationship between humans and their physical environment” (Hatch, 1997, p.27). Taylor’s ideas on scientific management (1990) have similar economic themes to Marx and Adam Smith. By viewing management as a science, he broke down the managerial problem into stages of research, definition, analysis and implementation. His principles were inherently based on the assumption that people put in as little effort as possible into their work and were soldiering on in order to earn money. This shifted all the responsibility from the worker to the manager and scientific methods were used to determine the most efficient way of working. After selecting the best person capable of performing the task, they were trained to work efficiently and their performance was strictly monitored. In hindsight, though this may have appeared to be a good generic strategy for the success of a firm, it heavily depended on whether the optimal method of producing could be found and whether or not the strategy was implemented correctly.

conclusion

Critical theory dates back to the Enlightenment and is connected to the writings of Kant, Hegel and Marx. ‘However, in the 20th century, critical theory became closely associated with a distinct body of thought, known as the Frankfurt School’. It states Devetak in Burchill’s and Linklater’s ‘Theories of International Relations’. It is the work of Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, Marcuse, Fromm and more recently, Habermas that critical theory has acquired a renewed strength.

Thus, the term ‘critical theory’ was used as the symbol of a philosophy which questions the effective order of political and social modernity through an order of immanent critique. It was mainly an attempt to regain a critical potential that had been overrun by recent intellectual, social, cultural, economic and technological trends.

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory is the longest and most famous traditions of Marxism. This tradition is often referred as critical theory- meaning a special kind of social philosophy from its inception in 1923 by Felix Weil (Seiler, 2004). The critical theory of society of the Frankfurt School continues to excite interest and controversy (Kellner, 2001).

A theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. A number of critical theories have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimension of the domination of human beings in modern societies (Gutting, 2003).

The above statement sets the mood for this paper as I will be looking at how the critical management theory of yesterday applies to the modern western today. Another key aspect will be on trying to articulate the connections between the management perspectives of contemporary society in the critical theory. The focus will be on

The focus will be on as the location for cooperative, practical and transformative activity continues today. This attempt will be on determining the nature and limits of real democracy in complex, pluralistic, and globalised societies.

what is it, why is it applied to management)

Introduction part 2 (150): Marx and Foucault as critical theorists (an overview of their thought).

A Marxist’s thought is based on this lifestyle, a science of logic called Dialectics. Thus, Marxism is both a theory and a practice. The theories of Marxism are based on a scientific method of thought called dialectal materialism. Theory is based on a particular set of conditions that are always finite, and thus, any theory is necessarily limited. To test the validity of theory, Marxists rely on empirical evidence as the criteria of truth (Basgen, 2005).

Marxism embraces modernity and Marxists argue that one of the main problems is that capitalism puts fetters on the progressive forces. The forces of capitalism are viewed as progressive in sweeping away the traditional, religious, backward, and feudal forms of society, spreading industrialisation and urbanisation across societies (Moody, 2003).

Marx’s critique of capitalism was that while this system had incredible power and potential to transform human society positively, in actual fact it resulted in exploitation and ultimately limited the possibility for further improvement (Powell, 2001). Moody (2003), describe this environment as workers were emancipated from traditional limits but became slaves of the new factory system, monopolisation resulted in limits on trade and further progress, and the state acted in the interests of the bourgeoisie rather than society as a whole.

Followed by your argument (that they each offer a distinct analysis (Foucault as a critic of Marxism’s humanism, subjectivity and economic reductionism) but both are useful to evaluate management approaches – Marx for economic relationships between manager and worker and Foucault for patterns in disciplinary behaviour found in managerial practices.

CRITICAL THEORY

The term Critical theory has its origins in the 20th century Frankfurt School, and now is associated with scholars across a range of disciplines. Its purpose of inquiry is to confront injustices in society (Clark, 2004). Critical Theory has been deeply concerned with the fate of modernity, and has offered systematic and comprehensive theories of the trajectory of modernity. Critical theory began by putting Marxian political economy at the centre of analysis, and early critical theory was materialist and committed to socialism (Gingrich, 2000).

Critical theory has generally been committed to the idea of modernity and progress, while at the same time noting the ways that features of modernity can create problems for individuals and society (Kellner, 2000). This is much reflected on the 21st century, though there is progress in many things, but still issues like globalisation tends to pose important problems for the society.

According to Heilman (1998), being critical involves understanding the sets of historically contingent circumstances and contradictory power relationships that create the conditions in which we live. Theory helps us to organize the world, to sort out the details, to make some coherent sense out of a kaleidoscope of sensations (Ayers, 1992).

When theory is theorized, as stated by Heilman (1998), the imperatives of practice bring the theory down to the ground. Phenomena are observed and experienced; this experience informs theory; and then the theory is further modified as a result of additional practice. Rather like fiction writing, critical theorizing is a process of imagining and describing a nonreal but possible world.

The critical theorists have deeply influenced contemporary social theory, communication theories, cultural theory and many more for a number of decades. According to Clark (2004), Critical theorists are committed to understand the relationship between societal structures (such as economic and political) and ideological patterns of thought that constrain the human imagination and thus limit opportunities for confronting and changing unjust social systems. Critical theorists emphasise that theory and research must serve emancipatory interests, to create a world that satisfies the needs and powers of social actors (Sanghera, 2004).

According to critical theory, people are dominated by a false consciousness created and perpetuated by capitalism in order to preserve the hegemony of those in power (Meyer-Emerick, 2004). Due to this cause, one can assume that it prevents people from freely pursuing their own interests. This dissent is only dismissed if people begin to see the contradictions between the social construction of the world and their lived experience.

CRITICAL THEORY TODAY

The critical theorists analysed the integration of the working class into advanced capitalist societies and suggested the need for new agents of a social change. They seemed to provide more vivid descriptions of the present configurations of culture and society (Kellner, 2004).

According to my understanding, we look into the critical theory of the past to gain methodological insight and political inspiration to carry on the tasks of critical social theory in the present time. Critical theory is crucial for South Africa including the whole African continent, as we are undergoing vast transformations. Some of these transformations are promising to uplift our standard of living as the society, but others are threatening. Globalisation is one of the new transformations.

Revolutionary Marxists maintain that although change may arise as an unintended consequence of molecular acts of resistance, the importance of resistance is that it can generate collective agents capable of pursuing the conscious goal of social change (Hassard, 2001). This self-limiting resistance, orchestrated from above and aimed solely at affecting them as described by Hassard, is less likely to be successful in achieving even minor reforms than resistance that aims to effect a revolutionary transformation of society.

We have seen an interesting case here in South Africa opposed to what Marxists declared to be politically uninteresting which is labour process theory. Their argument is that it does not engage with the issues of political and trade union organization, which influence the consciousness and unity of workers (Hogan, 2001). COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Union) which is having close ties with the ANC (African National Congress) is making this labour process very interesting. Cosatu fights for the rights of workers while promoting the spirit of unity. They do this in a unified political activity.

Although the immediate interests of workers in production may diverge, their grievances and interests can be unified into a common political program, but that unification is a political achievement. This is more apparent on what happened recently with the case of Zimbabwe where Cosatu wanted to have talks with Zimbabwe’s congress of Trade Union. Cosatu believes that the unification of workers can have a huge impact on political changes as MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) is aiming at changing the political affairs of Zimbabwe ahead of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF (the ruling party).

Marx’s critique of capitalism

Capitalism is the system that upholds the relationship between the owners of the means of production and workers. The former comprise the bourgeois class and the latter the proletariat. (Bourgeois managers, proletariat workers). Marx’s analysis of the factory can be translated to the office environment, the relationship between the two classes remains, e.g. office workers do not own the company, equipment and materials the belong to the company. Counter agreement is that companies give share to employees, however, shares are small they don’t give power to the employees but it is a form of making them employees feel part of the company in order to gain more out of them .

The bourgeois (managers that have control)

Commodity fetishism

Culture of the commodity, or what a capitalist organisation produces, as containing a value dependant on market factors, rather than on the activity of labour. This produces an objective relationship between commodities and labourers are reduced to the condition and status of the commodities they produce. Implications for critical theory looking at management approaches:

Prices of commodity go up and down and so does the price of labour cost e.g. recession

Salary: paid no matter how much they produce

Bonus: to encourage production to increase profits

Marx: (800wrds) Exploitation as Alienation

Explain Marx’s articulation of exploitation. The practice of mistreat of workers in an environment that is deliberately designed to maintain it, i.e. capitalism,

Marx’s conforming – the workers alienated by/owners of the means of production to gain profits at the expense of the workers (e.g. managers forcing employees to undertake tasks outside their job description in order to cut costs and maximise profits) because people are alienated they conform to the demands of their employers in order to keep jobs safe.

Foucault bound to rules,

rule-bound individual,

Marx’s Humanism

Foucault

Strucralist, came after Marx

Moves away from the economics of Marx. Looks at power and reconceptualises it. Management as a representation of power relations in society. Specific rules maintain, regulate and institutionalize practices in a work environment (office, factory, school, etc),

Power- Disciplinary power – the panopticon as a illustration of society, the middle tower is all seeing yet prisoners always obey without knowing for certain whether they are being monitored, by whom or by how many. The result is the creation of self-regulating, obedient and disciplined prisoners (at least in theory). Relate this form of disciplinary power to management.

Power as the central driving force in a society within a group of people in a working environment. Manager doesn’t create a system the manager merely plays along with the rules, thus maintaining the relations of dominance and dominated.

Discourses (rules that we work within and obey) and all to do with power

Power-Knowledge, all power engenders power and (hanin essay). The rules that are emplace are their to maximise profits and to make the workforce obedient, docile subjects ; alternative view to commodity fetishism, marx says the worker turns in to a commodity that is commodity fetishism, Focault would say that the individual is merely the collective of the discourses they obey. The two concerns are that’s 1. Marx looks at the economy 2. Foucault looks at power.

3 objections to ideology (Marx)

1. requires an opposing concept of scientific truth

2. implies that we are subjects(agents of history to change it)

3. relative to economic superstructure

MICHEL FOUCALT (1926 – 1984)

His studies challenged the influence of German political philosopher Karl Marx and Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Foucault offered new concepts that challenged people’s assumptions about prisons, the police, insurance, care of the mentally ill, gay rights, and welfare (Ron, 2000).

The main influences on Foucault’s thought were German philosophers Frederick Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. The connect.net website, describe Foucault’s thought as explored the shifting patterns of power within a society and the ways in which power relates to the self. He investigated the changing rules governing the kind of claims that could be taken seriously as true or false at different times in history.

Marx Vs Foucault

Foucault would argue that power relations are the units of analysis, not the individual; in other words the individual is created by power-knowledge (power is above all creative, it creates subjects). Marx puts the individual at the centre, where the subject is conscious of his role in the historical process.

Humanism (placing the individual at the centre of events, man as the agent, as the creator of history (what Foucault critiques as a structuralist philosopher). Marx’s humanism can be defined as

Power-Knowledge, all power engenders power and (hanin essay). The rules that are emplace are their to maximise profits and to make the workforce obedient, docile subjects ; alternative view to commodity fetishism, marx says the worker turns in to a commodity that is commodity fetishism, Focault would say that the individual is merely the collective of the discourses they obey. The two concerns are that’s 1. Marx looks at the economy 2. Foucault looks at power.

600 word on whether Scientific management theory can better cope with analysis of management than Marx and Foucault

Scientific management (Taylor System) also known as Taylorism is a theory of management that analysis and manufactures workflows to improve employee (labour) productivity. The idea was developed by a Frederick Winslow Taylor between 1880 and 1890, and it was the first published ‘monograph’ (written documents). Frederick Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and the rules of the thumb should be replaced by accurate procedures that are developed after a study of an individual at work. This means that there is a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. Scientific management is a distinction on the theme of ‘efficiency’; it developed in the 19th and 20th century were instance of large recurring theme in the human life of increasing efficiency, decreasing waste and using experiential methods to dictate what matters rather than accepting pre-existing ideas of what matters. Management today is the greatest use of scientific management is a form to contrast a new and improved way of doing business.

The Marxist theory of capital sees labour as a cost of production resulting in the alienation of workers as the need for labour surfaces from the physical needs “defined by the fundamental relationship between humans and their physical environment” (Hatch, 1997, p.27). Taylor’s ideas on scientific management (1990) have similar economic themes to Marx and Adam Smith. By viewing management as a science, he broke down the managerial problem into stages of research, definition, analysis and implementation. His principles were inherently based on the assumption that people put in as little effort as possible into their work and were soldiering on in order to earn money. This shifted all the responsibility from the worker to the manager and scientific methods were used to determine the most efficient way of working. After selecting the best person capable of performing the task, they were trained to work efficiently and their performance was strictly monitored. In hindsight, though this may have appeared to be a good generic strategy for the success of a firm, it heavily depended on whether the optimal method of producing could be found and whether or not the strategy was implemented correctly.

Conclusion

“Great managers know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack” (Buckingham, 2005). Managers are only as good as their ideas, resources and workers. The way in which he deploys the resources at his disposal is essentially the making or breaking of a manager. Great managers are able to discover and develop what is different about each person who works for them. Strictly defining management and the role of managers can only be done after the managerial act has been observed in reality, the majority of the analysis is theoretical evaluation and speculation based on past examples. It is important to understand that the perception of what managers are supposed to do evolves with the industry and technology that runs parallel to the growth of a firm. Managers used to control by fear and use absolute power, however, a more humanistic approach is now used, in which the employee is valued in the decision making process undertaken by the manager.

Walt Whitman Rostow was an American economist who worked on growth and development. He was an economist who believes the growth and the development of the society is possible through the capitalist mode of production and the free market policy. He was a convinced liberal which he expressed in the commitment towards the development and his anti-communism (Simon 2006). Rostow presents his manifesto as the alternative to the Marxism (Gustafsson 1961). He has put forward the stages of economic growth through which every country passes for modernization of the developing countries. He also forwarded the transformation of the development from one country to another by transfer of technology and investment from developed north to the developing south which would help in development of south. Rostow believed that the Marxist was failed because he neglected agriculture and therefore the forces should be used to gain the stages of the economic growth that he has outlined (Simon 2006).

The stage of growth is the model Rostow has developed to show how the countries passes to modernization through different stages he has developed five stages through which each countries passes for the economic modernization of any nation. These five stages are

The traditional society

The precondition for take-off

Take-off

Drive to maturity

Age of high mass consumption

Rostow states that each country passes through these stages linearly and set out the conditions likely to occur in terms of investment, consumption and social trends at each state. However it is not certain that all the conditions are needed to be fulfilled to pass from one stage to another and the time it takes may vary countries to countries.

The traditional society

This is the primitive stage of growth. This period are marked by the pre Newtonian science and technology. The progress in any economic sector was limited. Though the progress was done with the improvement but the progress has the threshold limit to which it could not increase. It had a self sustained production. Because of low production of agriculture they had to devote high proportion of resources in it (Rostow 1960). During the period social and the political power as laid in few peoples who owned the land.

The precondition for take off

This is the transitional period or stage where society passes from traditional stage to the take off stage by the use of science and technology in the sector of agriculture and industry. The basic requirements or infra structure that are required for modernization of the country such as transportation, communication gets developed. The state has to play a vital role for the development of these sectors. The precondition for takeoff was largely dependent on creation of social overhead capital such as road, railway etc (Rostow 1960). Rostow argues for the transition from traditional society to take off period there is need of social change from regional social economic and political setting to the national level. The predominance in agriculture should shift towards industries and commerce, so that new entrepreneurs evolve and could take the risk.

Take off stage

This is the third stage that the Rostow explains is the period when the obstacles to development are completely removed and the productivity rises and expands. The development of the social overhead capital, technological, and political is the main focus in the takeoff stage. The main important factor is saving over the investment though the high investment in social overhead capital which could be invested. He assumes about 10% of saving over the Gross National Product (GNP) and reinvests them for the economic development.

The drive to maturity

When the takeoff stage continue with the sustainable economic growth for a long period of time then only this stage comes. In this stage the investment rate should be 10-20 % of national investment so that it could outstrip the population growth. In this stage investment should be done in all and produce every things needed for the society. The new industries are established that are capable of producing the goods that supports the agriculture and the other economic sectors for e.g. Fertilizer, agricultural machinery etc. The industrial sectors improve and produce the goods that are imported and also produce the goods for exporting it to the foreign countries.

The age of high mass consumption

The last stage age of high mass consumption is the period where the state moves to the welfare state. People have access to the goods and services beyond the basic fundamental requirement. The focus in this stage is on the production of goods and services. More investment flows on the security and social welfare of society.

Rostow in his book has explained the experience as a white man. It seems that he wants to impose the theory to rest of the world. He has taken western society as the model for his theory, and has not mentioned about the society with the different social and cultural background. The transformation of the development from these developed nations might not favor the social, cultural and geographical condition of the developing countries. He has not taken into account the cultural, environment, social differences between this developed north and the developing south. He also has mentioned about the countries with the sufficient labor force, natural resources can make the sustained growth. Many countries today seem to follow the random sequence of the stages which confuses that in which stage the state is, and some has skipped the stage to gain the highest economic growth. What I think this theory has the compatibility problem with the other countries and other countries has different constrain for development.

Critical discussion of Shiva’s views on western science as a patriarchal project. Discuss whether you agree with her or not and give reasons.

Shiva vandana, a philosopher, an eco feminist, on her book “Staying Alive” writes about the western development as a patriarchal project. She says development is a post colonial project which is taken as a model by the world for progress without knowing the subjugation and the exploitation the colonization brings (Shiva 1988). She works out on this book from the perspective of eco feminism and has linked the exploitation of woman and nature by the development activities in the name of progress and is reinforcing themself. She has also equated nature with feminism principle and argued women plays crucial role in maintaining of nature. The patriarchal policies are expanding throughout the developing nation inspite feminist movement.

Development is compared with the economic progress, in terms of need, of produce and of growth, which utilizes patriarchal tools to subjugate countries, cultures, people, and especially women. Development is possible by colonization and colonization helps in capital accumulation. This will not only create wealth but also create poverty and dispossession (Shiva 1988). So the people struggle for the freedom from colonization and development. The dominant stream of science is created by particular group with the particular response. Shiva has traced the creator of modern industrial science, Francis bacon’s experimental science as central to development of masculinities science(Shiva 1988). He dichotomized between male and female as mind and matter, subjective and objective, rational and emotional. Within these differences bacon associated woman with the weaker or more irrational part of these and male were compared as strong, mind and rational. Shiva so thinks that science should be viewed as sexist metaphor not a neutral, objective and science should be viewed as “the masculine mode of aggregation against nature and domination over women” (Shiva 1988). Shiva, with the words of bacon explains science as the form of patriarchal violence against nature and women. Bacons model of modern science conceptualizes the nature and its inquiry as means of rape and torture. The mechanical invention developed by the discipline of science can not only have effect on nature it can have a severe impact on nature and can change the course of nature. “aˆ¦They have a power to capture and subdue her to shake her foundations.” (Shiva 1988).

What do you understand by Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and counter hegemony? Discuss the idea of hegemony and counter hegemony in the context of globalization.

Gramsci was an Italian political leader of communist party and an activist who was sentenced twenty years imprisonment by the fascist in 1926. He is one who is closely related with the concept of hegemony which in 19th century was defined as “political predominance, usually of one state over another”. But Gramsci, here hegemony means the domination of ruling class over the working class. Hegemony utilizes the legislative and executive power to maintain the ascendance of dominant elite. According to Gramsci, the intellectual first sustain dominant either by creating or popularizing themselves and then convincing the oppressed that they will favor and will not oppose or the subordination of the oppressor. And make them feel that their servitude is inevitable, suitable and just. Like this a social form is obtained with a few people in power and practicing power to keep other in influence of these people the people. Gramsci explains that the hegemony is not intentionally developed by people it was gradually developed by institutionalization and was practiced with the everyday experience. So then by the development of consciousness among the ruling class they then developed hegemonic idea which the masses accepts the existing political situation and the oppression from the ruling class. According to Gramsci, hegemony was popularized by the old traditional intellectuals through their control over the institution as in church, state (Amoore 2005).

The concept of hegemony that Gramsci explains can never be complete because it needs the participation of subordinate group and while implementing, defending and maintaining hegemony there develops intellectual who challenges it (Amoore 2005). There develops another kind of intellectual with a revolutionary thoughts from among the subordinate class. These groups of people gather and convince mass of people to develop a force to against the hegemony. They develop consciousness among the general population who are oppressed and then they are conscious about the oppression from the elite they would revolt against the existing hegemony. They would uproot the existing hegemony and they will create a new environment ruled by the worker. The counter hegemonic ideology developed against the hegemonic of traditional intellectual with the capitalist system will then brought to an end.

Gramsci with his concept of hegemony has provided four main apparatus that are useful for current days for defending Marxism today and also to organize and develop the movement today to fight the crisis today. These four main elements that we can draw with the Gramsci’s concept of hegemony are

Centrality of politics

Hegemony or leadership is always in even or implicitly unstated form is political, this means there should be one to take the leadership and take the position politically to lead the people. And these people in the political leadership should be act responsibly towards the people and the working class of the society. They should be able to provide leadership to the broader aspect of the society.

Necessity of the leadership of the working class movement

Gramsci is aware of that the modern economy is based on the exploitation of the labour. Therefore with the organization of those who involve in the productive labour force then they would be able to organize the genuine transformation of the society.

Necessity for clear political program

This does not only mean to the political programs to oppose the political resistance of the working class but also a positive policies and programs that would give an alternative to the working class people by the ruling class.

Necessity of building concrete institution

This is necessary to expand the capacity available to the members of working class for democratic participation. He is not only simply concern with hegemony led In abstract he is also concern with building the institution enable people to participate in own emancipation.

Amoore, L. (2005). The global resistance reader, Routledge.

Gustafsson, B. (1961). “Rostow, Marx and the Theory of Economic Growth.” Science & Society: 229-244.

Rostow, W. (1960). The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 4-7.

Shiva, V. (1988). Staying alive: Women, ecology, and development, Zed books.

Simon, D. (2006). Fifty key thinkers on development, Taylor & Francis.

It is obvious that research is an important element of our everyday life. Research is everywhere we go; it is background of everything we face in our present time like for example management, marketing or finance. There are two main streams of performing a particular research; it is qualitative method which is based mostly of words and statements or quantitative which involves statistics and empirical evidence. Two out of three most frequently discussed qualitative approaches which are grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology would be discussed in this paper (Avis, 2003).

In the first part of this paper I am about to discuss the main idea of ethnography. I am going to discover what is it and I would talk about the methods of research ethnographers use in order to get information they need, for making a relative conclusion. In addition, in this research paper I would to talk about what are the problems the researchers face in obtaining and evaluating obtained observations. This part would present several example of how this method could be applied in everyday life.

Second part would show the differences between two approaches ethnography and positivism approach. The purpose of this part is to show the understanding of ethnographic research method from positivist perspective.

Third part of this research paper would debate about second most frequently discussed qualitative approach, grounded theory. What is it, what are main notions of this research method? Moreover, I would discuss main methods and techniques of this research and the areas where it is usually applied. In addition I would pay attention on the methods of hypothesis formation and testing.

In fourth part I would discuss grounded theory method from positivist point of view. I would argue why this research method would not suit positivist’s requirements. My argument would present the examples of how certain grounded theory research could be performed from positivist point of view.

Last but not least, this research paper would present differences between two most frequent qualitative research methods, grounded theory and ethnography.

Ethnography

In general ethnography is a qualitative research method that recognized as a participant observation, it is the method where researcher contributes his or her time examining, communicating or cooperating with a social group. By observing and communicating with a social group researcher could understand how a particular group ties their relationships among each other, how a particular culture was built and maintained in order to keep social group together (Brown-Saracino, Thurk, & Fine, 2008). Making research ethnographers mostly focused on actions and intentions of the social group. Researcher observing the social group on daily bases tries to understand what idea is behind of a particular deed or objective (Herbert, 2000). By getting new information about the group, understanding what they take for granted, ethnographer could identify structure of their actions. Detailed examination of the group’s behavior on daily basis separates ethnography from other qualitative researches, like interviews (Power, 2002).

“Any group of persons – prisoners, primitives, pilots or patients – develops a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable, and normal once you get close to it, and a good way to learn about any of these worlds is to submit oneself in the company of the members to the daily round of petty contingencies to which they are subject” (Goffman, 1961, pp. 9-10).

There are various methods which researchers use in order to get a data about a particular group. One of the best examples of how ethnographer could participate in a group’s activities is research made by Burawoy (1979), he worked as a machine operator for ten months in a Chicago factory in order to answer the question, why workers of the factory do not work harder. Some researchers were trying to achieve more close relationships with the groups of study; however, some relationships are unchangeable. Ethnographers usually balance between being insider and outsider, they are trying to see everything through the eyes of the social group ethnographers trying to analyze and in the same time trying to see whole picture in general applying theories (Taber, 2010). According to Power (2002) ethnographer has to maintain two positions at the same time. One, he or she has to be a good actor, who can engage obtained information in ongoing interaction. Second, has to be rational and logical scientist to correctly interpret obtained information.

Interviews, surveys and questioners are completely different from ethnography because rather than to examine what people say, ethnographers examine both what people say and do. There is huge gap between described relationships and reality. The fact that ethnographer can differentiate between deeds and words make ethnography more informative methodology (Liebow, 1967).

Furthermore, ethnography involves more emotions and feelings. By getting inside of the social group researchers has to change his or her habits, sights and tastes. It is also an important factor in evaluation of observations (Dennison, Wintrob, & Brunt, 1972). The research made by Herbert (2000) in Los Angeles Police Department involved emotional responds because witnessing of suicide had a huge impact on him and this changed the observation results. Because of emotional effect, policeman’s job appeared to him very tough and only for people with strong heart.

Ethnography from positivist’s perspective.

Looking on ethnographic methodology from positivist point of view, we can agree and disagree in certain extent with ethnographers’ epistemology. First of all, both of them, ethnographers and positivists, make some kind of observations in order to get information. However, the information ethnographers get is completely different from what positivists trying to achieve in their research. As it was mentioned before ethnography uses observations and involvement methods in order to understand what is the culture and behavior of the social group. Taking as example the experience of Burawoy (1979), ethnographer who entered society of factory workers to obtain information about why workers do not work harder. The idea of research made by Burawoy was to see the world through the eyes of those workers he was working with, understand their feelings and emotions. Whereas, positivist researcher would not try to put him or herself in “shoes” of another person he or she would rather employ empirical analysis in this case and for example would pay attention on such factors as what is the duration of working day, how often workers have to stay overtime, how often workers go out to smoke or everything that affects workers’ productivity. According to Trochim (2006) the idea of positivism is to focus on what we could examine and evaluate, everything that goes outside of this scope is considered as impossible. Also Silverman (1998) stated that “there is no agreed doctrine underlying all qualitative social research”. Ethnographers do not have certain rule to perform their analysis, while positivists follow certain set of rules during analysis (Avis, 2003).

Date collection is general aspect of qualitative research mostly in form of words and statements, and the method of analysis they use do not involve statistics or empirical analysis (Cepeda & Martine, 2005).

In above paragraph I was giving the example of research made by Herbert (2000) who went to analyze policemen’s job. He was saying that case of suicide terrified him so much that his emotions affected his conclusion about his research. In case of positivism this is not acceptable; positivism states that this is only one truth (Somers, 1998). In case of positivism there cannot be to different interpretation of same results.

Moreover, if pay attention on the speed of research performance, positivists would say that ethnography is not efficient methodology. In order to get information ethnographer has to go inside of the company and spend ten, like in case of (Burawoy, 1979), or more month in order to obtain observations from a group of people. Whereas, positivists could obtain information of the whole company roughly in same period of time. Positivism covers bigger sample size rather than ethnography (Amaratunga, Baldry, Sarshar, & Newton, 2002).

Grounded theory

Originally, grounded theory was introduced by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967 (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).Grounded theory was developed by leaning on the experience which they had in one of the Chicago school and also by taking into account the criticism; they developed their own strategy of data analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Design of the research frequently relies on the reviewing literature which leads to formation of hypothesis. After this, hypothesis would be tested in the real world. Whereas grounded theory examines the realities and analyses the data without any hypothesis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In the qualitative research the analysis of data can be described differently as the result of an interpretivist point of view on a certain event or action. In grounded theory the analysis of data includes searching for concepts which are behind the reality, by searching for codes, concepts and categories. Creation of the grounded theory passes three stages – induction, deduction and verification (Strauss, 1987), each of them are absolutely important to formation of the new theory. Also it is important to notice that all three stages, according to Strauss, will be involved in research not consistently, and to some extent are present at each stage of research.

To make the construction of theory more systematized, Glazer and Strauss offer several necessary strategies of the analysis in qualitative research. Firstly, analytical process must alternate with process of gathering information or even to go in parallel with it. Secondly, observance of this principle allows to create theoretical sampling in the process of research, purpose of which, is to represent not the investigated group of people (object of research), but the aspects, properties of characteristic or quality of the investigated phenomenon (subject of research). “Theoretical sample is a process of data gathering for theory generating by means of which the analyst collects, unites, codes, analyzes the data and decide, what of them to collect at a following stage and where to search for them to develop the theory in process of occurrence. “This process of data gathering is supervised by the appearing theory” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Thirdly, to make a continuous comparative analysis, this could be used at different stages of analytical process. Defining the place of the comparative analysis, in the developed methodological field, authors place it between two basic strategies, the approaches of the analysis. The first approach is the content-analysis at first the coding model must be set, and then data must be gathered regularly, estimated and analyzed on in advance certain, invariable and uniform scales for all of them which allow to give to the qualitative data, quantitative form. On the basis of the new structured data file by means of numerical model are proved preliminary put forward hypotheses (are accepted or denied). Glazer and Strauss connect second approach with a situation when it is necessary to develop some preliminary ideas or hypotheses. In this case operation of detailed coding can slow down the achievement of the objective, therefore “the analyst only looks through the data for a finding of new properties of theoretical categories and writes memos about these properties” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Such approach describes more likely an initial stage of coding and for theory construction is insufficient, as constant transformation and reintegration of the data in process of accumulation and the material review in the latter case is required. And the third corresponds to this problem, offered by authors, the approach. It connects in analytical procedures of constant comparison procedure of the developed coding the first and style of development of the theory of the second. The purpose of a method of constant comparison in which coding and the analysis, theory generating are united more regularly, than is supposed in the second approach, by means of use of the developed coding and analytical procedures. Being more systematized, than the second approach, a method of constant comparisons at the same time is not connected and with the first which is developed for preliminary testing, instead of theory opening.

Grounded theory from positivist’s perspective.

In my opinion from positivism point of view grounded theory is not quite correct decision for theory deducing. Strauss mentioned that in some cases it is better to start the research with an initial hypothesis which can be changed or evaluate during the research (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In this case I think that the initial idea can be lost which has been introduced originally in the research. Whereas from the positivists point of view the theory or hypothesis must be suggested and only then it must be tested, without changing its initially idea (Trochim, 2006). The result of this test should confirm or deny this theory or hypothesis. Use of grounded theory is useful in area as medicine; many researchers use the given approach for research of this area. For instance grounded theory was used in order to understand how Medical Family Therapy helps patients to “deal with complex family dynamics” that usually happens after hospitalization, also the therapy was directed to help people to avoid next hospitalization (Anderson, Huff, & Hodgson, 2008). In addition, as it was mentioned by (Trochim, 2006) positivist seeking to find one single truth, whereas one of the parts of the grounded theory research is coding the possible answers of participant, this is a certain type of interpretation due to the fact that every single researcher codes information in a unique way which is not acceptable by positivist researcher (Allan, 2003).

Similarities and Differences of Grounded Theory and Ethnography.

Grounded theory and ethnography can be very compatible; as ethnographic studies may give the wide explanation which can be extremely valuable data, for grounded theory analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Some of these compatibilities came from the similarities in the characteristics of these two approaches. Ethnography is observing and analyzing behavior in natural conditions and the grounded theory makes collecting of data in the natural conditions too. Also there are similarities in backgrounds, both grounded theory and ethnography came from sociology, but in addition to ethnography it has also anthropological background. The main focus of this approaches are different where grounded theory stands for developing the theory whereas ethnography describing and interpreting a culture. In data collection both approaches gather information through different kinds of interviews, but ethnography moved beyond using observations of other (Creswell, 2006).

Conclusion

In this coursework I talk about two qualitative approaches ethnography and grounded theory. These two approaches are used in many areas of our life. They help us to justify some undiscovered phenomena’s that we face. They both have similarities and differences which makes them unique in certain areas. As it was mentions above ethnography focuses on describing and interpretation of culture of the certain group of people. Whereas, grounded theory is used to “grounding the theory in the view of people” (Creswell, 2006).

I looked on these two qualitative approaches from the perspective of positivist. I found that mostly positivism do not support both of them. In my opinion both of this approaches are time consuming in discovering certain hypothesis or theory. Also, as it was mentioned above positivists are seeking for single truth, whereas in both qualitative approaches, grounded theory and ethnography, could be found multiple truths depending on research emotions, feelings and understandings. In addition, I mentioned that one more criteria that is used by positivists comparing to grounded theory and ethnography which is statistical or empirical data analysis. Only because both qualitative approaches use mostly words and statements positivists could reject such evidence.

There is a great deal of work within many disciplines, such as history, psychology and anthropology, on family studies, available to researchers. This undoubtedly serves to inform our awareness of the interdisciplinary, varied, and at times controversial, nature and lack of stability around the idea of family. Much of this research highlights a number of major perceived problematics: the related characteristic political discourses, social policies and cultural narratives, which differ dramatically from contemporary family relationships and formations of the 21st century.

In view of this, this essay critically explores the concept of the nuclear family. It discusses the political contexts and social discourse in which understanding of family has been set. It explores how and why understandings of what make family have changed, paying attention to how it is lived within contemporary society. It reflects on the practices that equate to family.

Section 1
Critical debate on nuclear family

Many early functionalist sociologists’ perspectives on the family (Murdock, 1949; Talcott Parsons, 1960) focus heavily on the idea of the nuclear family, which consists of a married couple (male and female) and their biological offspring.

There are many issues with the functionalist nuclear family model. For example, it assumes the family to be composed of a heterosexual couple, and that specific structures and practices exist which define this type of family (Widner & Jallinoja, 2008). Further to this, the nuclear family model makes assumptions about gender roles within these specific structures (OINONEN, 2008). It is heterosexist (Stacey & Davenport, 2002; Pothan, 1992), based on traditional historic ideas of what family should be (Richardson, 2001). For example, the man is the provider and the woman is the nurturer. It promotes hierarchies within the family, with the man situated at the top in relation to the woman, but also as adults in relation to the children (Taylor, 1998). This model can also be seen as ‘western’, and assumes a universal model rather than thinking through the historical and cultural specificity of family formations.

As a functionalist construct, some researchers (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001) highlight the heterosexual functions and practices that families have assumed, such as the socialisation of children, where children and young people learn social roles and morals, what is right or wrong: the ‘norms’. Donavan (2013) notes this as the heterosexual assumption; similarly, Rich (2007) discusses this in terms of compulsory heterosexuality, assuming this is how gendered roles are transmitted and important for the development of sexualities.

The functionalist nuclear family model makes the assumption that specific family formation is not neutral, often with a privileging of heterosexuality (Donavan. 2013). This, however, is a certain form of heterosexuality, as not all heterosexuals are privileged in the same way, for example, if they live outside of the normative ways of living associated with the nuclear family model, such as single or gay parents. Therefore, it could be argued that the nuclear family model is heterosexualised, classed and racialised against these ‘none-normative ways of living’ (single and gay parents) and their forms of ‘inappropriate’ heterosexuality.

It could be claimed that the functionalist nuclear family model suggests that there is a particular form of living within a heterosexual way that becomes the pinnacle of how we should live, look up to and aspire to do or be. That is not just in terms of how we live with our ‘families’, but also the practices within and outside of society: the public and private, for example how we believe ‘authentic’ love happens.

To conclude, many early functionalist sociologists’ perspectives on the nuclear family (Murdock, 1949; Talcott Parsons, 1960) are now heavily criticised and outdated. However, what we do have are cultural, political and ideological discourses that equate the family to being a specific shape, structure and set of roles.

Section 2
Political and social contexts

Before discussing and evaluating the new terms and theories within and around family, it is important to reflect on the political contexts and social discourse in which understandings of family and specifically the nuclear family have been set.

The late 80s and early 90s were noted as the start of a neo-liberalist society, yet ideologically this era also promoted a particular way of living: a neo-conservative family life.

After reading up on some of the literature around government policy and practices from this period, I can see a real contradiction as to whether the state had any involvement in personal / private family lives or not. It tended to step away, detach and disengage in one sense, yet normalise, regulate and control in another.

For example, Thatcher’s views on family and what family was were simple: traditional Victorian family values and the nuclear family. Thatcher and the Conservative government argued that the 60s had started to tear apart this ideal of the family and promote inappropriate promiscuity and sexual freedom. Thatcher’s also disliked the fact that there were many social movements developing, such as the Hippy Movement, Civil Rights Movement and Peace Movement, and in the late 70s and early 80s, the conservative government felt like their ideal of the family was under attack (Holborn & Steel, 2012). Thatcher argued that this was “potentially the end of society and the nuclear family” and that she will “fight hard to regain the traditional family values”. It could be claimed that her neo-conservative intentions were to reinforce traditional Victorian family values in society, and re-establish the importance of the traditional heterosexual nuclear family.

There was a great deal of legislation created on the basis of Thatcherism, a new hegemonic politics in which the Left was increasingly marginalized. For example, Section 28 (also known as Claus 28) of the local government act 1988 was a controversial amendment to the UK’s local government act 1986. Enacted on the 24th May 1998, the amendment stated that local education authorities “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

After Section 28 was passed, there was a lot of debate as to whether it actually applied in schools or whether it applied only to local education authorities. Most teachers acted extra cautious due to not knowing what they were actually permitted to do. Some sociologists (Weeks, 2007) believed that Section 28 enlisted teachers to stigmatise part of our society; and this then caused schools to fail to engage in basic social justices.

In relation to these concerns; and a call for further explanation by numerous professionals working in the pedagogic environment, the National Union of Teachers published a statement, remarking that:

whilst section 28 applies to local authorities and not to schools, many teachers believe, albeit wrongly, that it imposes constraints in respect of the advice and counselling they give to pupils. Professional judgement is therefore influenced by the perceived prospect of prosecution.

Similarly, the Department for Education and Science (1988) made the following statement regarding Section 28:

Section 28 does not affect the activities of the school governors, nor the teachers. It will not prevent the objective discussion of homosexuality in the classroom, nor the counselling of pupils concerned about their sexuality

Many Conservative backbenchers disagreed with the above statements, and supporters such as Baroness Knight of Collingtree (then Conservative MP Jill Knight) who introduced Section 28, and wanted to back up her initial justification for the act, discussed the history behind initially setting up Section 28. She was the chairman of her local Child and Family Protection Group, and was contacted by numerous concerned parents who strongly objected to the fact that their children were being taught about homosexuality through specific literature that was being used to teach their 5 and 6 year olds. For example, a book called The Playbook for Kids about Sex, in which brightly coloured stick men showed all about homosexuality, and how it was done. Another book called The Milkman’s on his Way explicitly described homosexual intercourse.

In retrospect, the above statements seem to suggest something of an internal problem: a problem with the literature that was being produced for the pedagogic environments.

This was also brought to light in 1983, when the Daily Mail reported that a copy of a book entitled Jenny lives with Eric and Martin, portraying a little girl who lives with her father and his gay partner, was provided in a school library run by a London Education Authority.

There was a large political response towards Clause 28; and this served to galvanise the disparate British gay rights movement into action; and the resulting protests saw the rise of now famous groups like Stonewall, started by, amongst other people, Ian McKellen and OutRage!, subsequently led by Peter Tatchell, who is still now an iconic gay activist (Tatchell, 1993; LGF, 2008).

Although Section 28 has been repealed on the 18th November 2003 by section (122) of the local government act 2003, there are still a number of complex issues to be tackled with regards to the teaching of homosexuality, gay marriage and contemporary family life. Faith school are a major problem (LGF, 2008), and as Waller (2009) suggests religious views need to be addressed more. More debate is needed on love, respect and diversity within and outside of contemporary family life for faith schools, as this would then avoid the so called promotion’ of homosexuality and pretend family relationships, and focus more on the diversity of sexuality and family life. Gay rights activists, such as Tatchel (2001), discuss their concern for the lack of progress within this area, and mentioned that there is going to be more of a battle to beat the last acceptable prejudice within our education system (LGF, 2008).

In contrast, Waller (2009) suggested that as sex education in England and Wales has been regulated solely by the Secretary of State for Education since the Learning and Skills Act (2000) and the Education Act (1996), it could be argued that Section 28, before its repeal, was already largely redundant. Local education authorities, such as Manchester, continued to deliver training to their staff on how to deliver their services without discrimination against lesbians and gay men; and these pioneering works were never once challenged by the act (Waller, 2009).

There is, however, one case of Section 28 being used to bring a case to the courts against a council. In May, 2000, the Christian Institute unsuccessfully took Glasgow City Council to court for funding an AIDS support charity which the Institute alleged promoted homosexuality and disrespectful family relationships.

It could be suggested that in order to create change, we must consider the psychology (Hanley, 1993): mapping the information against the general certificate of secondary education (GCSE) curriculum, and making it accessible to the children. Training the teachers so that they are confident in delivering it correctly, as at present, many teachers are not equipped to discuss the complexities of the human sexuality and contemporary family life. Cookson et al, (2009) suggests that this personal and professional development should be a priority for any local education authority.

Schools should be encouraged to expressively forbid discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation within their codes of conduct, whether the school has a religious character or not (Cookson et al, 2009). Then, at an appropriate stage of the national curriculum, students should be encouraged to examine the variety of views on human sexuality and family life, and as Waller (2009) suggests, this will then allow them to develop their own position within their understanding of and within these complex areas.

However, despite the controversy around Section 28, it should be noted that Thatcher supported legalising homosexuality in the 1960s, and in the face of severe opposition from Tory traditionalists, in 1967, she voted in favour of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

The Conservative government still however caused much uproar, as although the hegemonic legislation was in force, to ostracise; to an extent it did the opposite. It made people fight. Fight for their right to have equality, to be a family, or at least have that choice. Although many gay communities had been decimated by the AIDS epidemic, something extraordinary happened. People joined together, from within and outside of their communities, as a family, setting up support groups, lobbying parliament, fighting for their right as a community, and as a family. Not blood-related though, but as families of choice (Donavan, 2012; Weeks, 2001). They had connectedness, cared for each other, and were loyal: and not the “drug-taking, promiscuous loons” as described by one Tory MP at the time (Briggs, 1987).

Over the following years, many of the HIV positive men died, and during this period further inequalities became stark. Partners, who had supported, cared for and loved their partner for many years were not recognised legally, for example, during the sale of a house. Blood family members of the deceased or dying would deny same sex partner’s access to their dying partner’s bedside or attendance at the funeral. These harsh inequalities highlighted through these challenging times, but also politicised a generation (Donavan, 2013).

Weeks (2007: 2) support this notion of politicisation, and suggests that the

longer term perspective tells us something different as despite the setbacks, pain and loss of the 1980s and early 1990s we can now see that under the surface of events, dramatic changes in sexual and intimate life were taking place, a sort of grass roots revolution, that have transformed the possibilities of LGBTQ lives

In view of Weeks (2007) quote, it should therefore be argued that the battle for legislative reform is about a formalisation of a right to exist in the public sphere, and a public declaration of, for example, love, marriage, equal opportunities and family.

Weeks (2007) supports this critique and proposes that this shake up also started to deconstruct the idea of a family unit, and so destabilise specific social norms and boundaries, which existed between the public and the private. This political and social shift is important, as when public and private start to collide, the old school family unit that is ideologically engrained within society and culture is challenged (Richardson, 2000). This is a powerful, and much needed shake up, which has had considerable consequences further down the line, and has attacked many discriminative social forces and factors underpinned within many forms of discrimination. It is also important to acknowledge the processes and changes underpinned within the wider political, economic and cultural realities, and how these may have been challenged. In de constructing the idea of the family, we can then start to challenge the tradition behind it, which takes away its power, its right to dominance, govern and lead. This idea of tradition is still however problematic, as Weeks (2007) notes, due to the fact that the evidence is limited when looking at tradition beyond specific recent time frames and histories, and that due to this lack of ’empiricability’, can we be certain people always follow tradition, and by tradition I mean as how we see it. It could be argued that this was not the case, and tradition, as we see it, has shifted over time, context and reality. What we see now as tradition may have at specific points in history been its opposite, with the normal of our tradition shifting to the abnormal of our non-traditional realities. Therefore, it could be argued that tradition and its underpinnings are by no means monochrome, in any historical, political and / or cultural reality.

Williams (2004) conceptualises this well and terms this ‘re-traditionalisation’, yet Weeks (2007) still argues for more of a ‘de-traditionalisation’. Whatever the term used, it could be argued that either or suggest that back in the 80s during the birth of Stonewall and other political and social equality movements, and also now, as we were (and still are) searching for an individualism, or a framework that supports this. It could be maintained that if people were allowed to manage their own lives, their own way of living, without fear or discrimination, different forms of community and / or individual arrangements would develop, assisting life in its creative, problem-solving, innovatory way.

This process of social restructuring (or as Williams (2004) terms ‘re-traditionalisation’ and Weeks (2007) terms ‘de-tradionalisation’) is important to consider with my research when thinking about my research, and the participants (also my own) political, cultural and social histories and contexts, and how these have been changed, adapted and developed within and outside of tradition as we see it now in this specific context and reality, during their specific coming-out process.

Section 3
Why / how family has changed and how it is now lived + reflections on family practices.

These previously discussed political and social developments highlight the fact that ways of living have changed, causing major variations in the compositions and practices of families and intimate relationships. At the core of the debate sociologists such as Finch (2007), Smart (2007), Donavan (2013) and Stacey (2004) emphasise that the old concepts no longer capture the realities of contemporary family living and that new definitions, concepts, ideas, ideologies, terms and legislation are needed.

Smart (2007: 84), a feminist sociologist and academic, defines the family as:

a set of personal relationships that are forged together to create dynamic and multidimensional connections held together through shared histories and memories.

Smart’s (2007) quote suggests that individuals live in a diverse array of living conditions and relationship formations, within and throughout a major social institution and a locus of much of an individual’s social activity. It also highlights the importance of shared histories and memories, not just blood ties or relations.

Smart’s (2007) definition recognises that this new conceptualisation of family highlights the significance of ‘dependencies’, ‘interdependencies’, ‘connectedness’ and ‘relationalism’ as central features within social grouping identified as family.

All the above suggests there are many factors that shape the experience of family life, for example, social class, race, sexuality (lesbian or heterosexual couples) and family structure, for example, nuclear family, extended family and single-parent families. This adds a new dimension to the study of family as it links family experiences to other influences in society, signifying that the family is not an isolated entity but rather an integral part of the wider social system with society.

Calvin (2011), on the other hand, disagrees with much of Smart (2007) observations and defines the family as:

a social unit created by blood, marriage, or adoption, which can be described as nuclear (parents and children) or extended (encompassing other relatives).

There remains many obvious problematics within the Calvin (2011) definition. For example, extended family may not be relatives, but could be friends, neighbours, work colleagues, and / or ex or current partners. The nuclear family concept has also been critiqued by many (Finch, 2007, Smart, 2007 and Donavan, 2013) (also see section 1) and holds many perceived problematics: westernised, heterosexist, gendered, and assuming a universal model which alludes to the historical and cultural specificity of contemporary family formations. It could be argued that in contemporary society, many individuals now live in households that are single-parent, gay, lesbian, interfaith, international, interracial, intergenerational, and increasingly single-person, not to mention families of long-term companions, adopted children, or half-siblings. Calvins (2011) definition does not seem to take this specificity and multidimensionality into consideration.

Fields, Jason and Casper (2001:67) support my critique of Calvin’s (2011) definition, and suggest that it is generally assumed today that the modern family has “undergone significant transformations in its structure”, and that societal changes have contributed to a “harsh reduction in the percentage of classical typical families, predominantly nuclear families”. Replacing these are “childless families, one parent families, other family formations, and quasi-family units based on non-marital cohabitation” (Fields, Jason and Casper, 2001:69), which includes (and will include more so after the recent legalisation of gay marriage in the UK) gay parents and families.

Sociologists such as Finch (2007) and Smart (2007) have clearly highlighted the many diverse arrays of living as a family, and how this must be recognised within the literature. However, there are also many terms that underpin these theories, for example, families of choice (Weeks, Donavan, and Heaphy), postmodern families, and families of origin (Morgan (2007). There has been much debate as to whether these sit alongside the idea of the nuclear family or in opposition. There has also been much debate around a shifting postmodern nuclear family.

This section of this essay will therefore discuss and evaluate some of these terms, critiquing the literature.

Donavan et al (2001) incorporated the term ‘families of choice’ (also known as ‘families we choose’ coined by Kath Western, 1998) which means literally asking the participants for names of people they see as family. For example, if I decided to use this term within my research and one of my participants stated that 2 of his friends, his step brother and his second aunt were the people he recognised as family this would be fine. Similarly, if another participant involved no blood relatives this would also be fine. Families of choice literally mean people choose their families. Donavan (2001) does however express some concerns with this method and notes that within her 2001 study with Weeks and Heaply, two well-known social constructionists, as many of the heterosexual participants named blood family when ask to discuss family; whereas many of the non-heterosexual participants named mainly friends and (ex) lovers as family. Although this does not suggest an obvious issue, it does suggest a lack of closeness, or ‘connectness’ with the LGBT participant’s and their blood family compared to that of their heterosexual counterparts. Although this term sits well for my research, the same issue could occur. A way around this could be to break the question down further. For example, ask the participants to name 5 people who they feel are most important to them in their life. And once a list has been put together, ask them to decide who they see as family. This 2 staged question may be a way of getting around this issue around participants misunderstanding the term family. Not including the term family would be helpful until I understood who they classed as family. On the other hand, by using the term families of choice, I am giving the participants a choice to choose whoever as their family members, and this open-ended approach is enabling them to decide. Therefore, would it really be an issue if they did not include any blood relatives, or included all blood relative?

Modern policy (Children and Adoption Act, 2006; Equal Marriage Bill, 2013; Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, 2008) has noted a shift to two parents of any gender (but still a demonization of single parent families due to an underlying stigmatization mainly but not exclusively enhanced by stereotypical negative Media perceptions). The question is could we call the 2 parent family of the same gender a nuclear family and would we want too? Donavan (2013) suggests it is not, although structurally it looks the same, i.e. two parents, 2 children, a household, but if you look at the social roles within it, it is very different. For example, there may be no men or no women involved, and usually there is at least one parent who has no biological relation to the child.

It could therefore be argued that the term postmodern family sits better here (and also potentially within my research). This term suggests it can be what it is, in this specific moment in time, through the specific structures and practices it has/uses. This concept also recognises that what you describe as your family now may not be family in 5 years’ time for example. Although it could be argued that the term postmodern family is doing nothing apart from saying meaning of family can change historically. On the other hand, terms that help to destabilise gendered and heterosexist terms like that nuclear family model are a welcome addition.

There are many different ways of theorizing family and the practices within it, but in reality, when it comes to gay youth and my intended area of study, many of these individuals will come from heterosexual family set ups and have been exposed unconditionally to heterosexual family practices. Therefore, using the a term like families of origin (Morgan, 2007) could be beneficial as it describes the setup of your life at that point in time, whether it be step families, friends, blood mother or adopted father. This again gives the participant flexibility in their choices. The term origin however may be confusing as origin suggests where you have come from, which then suggests blood or adopted family, with the exclusion of friends, (ex) partners, and work colleagues.

It could also be beneficial to ask my participants about their understanding of families i.e. where they see their families being, or who is classed as their family, as during Weeks, Heaply and Donavan’s (2001) study, many of their LGBT participants failed to recognise blood family as family members. This would suggest that they may have disconnected from their ‘families’ of origin and that it did not occur to them to speak or include them into their LGBT sphere, or private world. However, this study is now 12 years old, and many changes have occurred since then, potentially highlighting a shift in generational understandings and acceptance of how, who and why we consider certain people to be classed as our family.

In view of the above, Finch (2007: 71) notes that the way in which we consider our family is “qualitatively orientated”. By this she means decided by a number of internal and external factors including, location, relationships, love, employment, religion, sexuality and friendship. In view of Finch’s (2007) consideration, it could be argued that this ‘process’ of qualitative orientation demands considerable creativity when initiating the “design, composition and practices” of the family, and how these “intimate networks are constructed, perceived and maintained” (Stacey, 2004: 359). It could also be argued that as Stacey (2004) has identified this as a ‘process’, this then suggests a considerable shift from the previous definition of family and the nuclear family, through the household or through kinship: set and defined, to a more holistic way of thinking, friendly and accepting to the diversity and variation of modern family formations.

Gabb (2008: 22), who is an interdisciplinary sociologist, terms this the “extended family”. Her research consists of a combination of autobiographical, anecdotal and empirical methods and methodologies, which re-situate emotions at the centre of ‘family’ studies. She suggests that the ‘process’ of ‘family’ selection mentioned by Stacy (2004) requires “an extended approach; a wide angle research lens that can record the evolving matrix of intimacy” (Gabb, 2008:17). I agree with Gabbs (2008) comments on the “matrix or intimacy” and argue that this idea places much emphasis on relationship formation, which in turn constitutes and creates family life. Contemporary psycho-sociologists Mcload and Thomson (2009) support this critique, and suggest that Gabb’s (2008) idea of the “extended family” places increasing importance on the way in which relationships are built, with ideas of social change at the forefront of this ‘process’.

The contemporary research above highlights the importance of recognises fluidity within the composition of the family unit and also highlights briefly how we select family; however, it is also important to discuss how contemporary family life is defined more by ‘doing’ family things rather than ‘being’ a family.

For example, Morgan (1996) is one of the most influential sociologist who initially highlighted the importance to shift sociological analysis away from “family as a structure to which individuals in some sense belong”, towards understanding families as “sets of activities which take on a particular meaning”, associated with family, at any a given point in time (Finch, 2007:66).

Morgan (1996) defines these ‘family’ practices as:

a set of practices which deal in some way with ideas of parenting, kinship and marriage and the ‘expectedness’ and obligation which are associated with these practices.

The key features of the practices approach in general are as follows:

aˆ? An attempt to link the perspectives of the observers and the social actors;

aˆ? An emphasis on the active or ‘doing’;

aˆ? A sense of the everyday;

aˆ? A sense of the regular;

aˆ? A sense of fluidity or fuzziness;

aˆ? A linking of history and biography.

Morgan (2011) uses the term family practices as an illustration of wider currents of thought in sociology engaged with understanding how social relations are enacted and represented as symbols, combining a number of key concepts that other scholars have used to analyse contemporary families. These include ‘fluidity’, ‘diversity’, and ‘multi-facetedness’, by rooting our understanding of ‘doing family’ in the everyday and the routine. These everyday routines are where individuals constitute certain actions and activities as family practices, as family (defined by Morgan and Finch) “is a facet of social life, not a social institution; it represents a quality not a thing”.

A good example of this routine that constitutes family practices was in Finch (2007) where she discusses 2 examples of her own family practices: the weekly phone call which she makes to her sister; and her care in assuring that a step child gets Christmas presents as valuable as those she gives to her own children. These are actions that allow her to regard these people as part of her family. Finch (2007:55) also quotes “from my perspective these are family practices”.

When discussing these practices, Morgan (1996: 190) recognises that these

practices are often little fragments of daily life which are part of the normal taken for granted existence of practitioners. Their significance derives from their location in a wider system of meaning.

Finch (2007:66) supports Morgan (1996) quote and suggest that “the emphasis is on social actors creatively constituting their own social world”. It could therefore be argued that an individual’s understanding of family is subject to change over time and locations, deeply rooted in individual biographies and realities. This is something I need to