Author: admin

Introduction

According to Ian McIntosh (1997), Marx and Weber are on converse edges on the topic of capitalism. Weber considers developed capitalism, the essence of rationality since capitalists chase earnings in eminently reasonable ways therefore reasonable demeanour carries the expansion of capitalism. Whilst Marx assertions that it failed to rendezvous the rudimentary need of most people; that is utilizing goods/services to make a earnings at the end of the enterprise period. For Weber, capitalism is equal to the pursuit of earnings via “continuous reasonable capitalistic enterprises.”

Weber thus sees up to date capitalism as being distinguished by the buying into and re-investment of little capital back into the output method and not by unlimited greed. His recount of the bureaucracy, nearly parallels Marx’s notions of capitalist humanity in that, its structure was a hierarchical one much like the bourgeoisie at the peak with the proletariats at the bottom. Macionis states that Industrial capitalism appeared as the legacy of Calvinism (Macionis, 1998). Weber accepts as factual that Calvinist outlook on a predestined eternity provoked Calvinists to understand experienced prosperity as a signal of God’s grace. Anxious to come by this reassurance, Calvinists chucked themselves into a quest of achievement, applying rationality, control and esteem and hard work to their tasks. As they reinvested their earnings for larger achievement, Calvinists constructed the bases of capitalism (Macionis, 1998).

According to Macionis, Weber utilised these traits to differentiate Calvinism from other world religions. Catholicism, the customary belief in most European nations provided increase to other worldview of life, with wish of larger pay in the life to come. For Catholics, material riches had no one of the religious implication that inspired Calvinists, and so it was Weber who resolved that developed capitalism became established mainly in localities of Europe where Calvinism had ? powerful hold.

Whilst there was unending argument between these two academic ideas, it is apparent thatboth examined capitalism as been important, and better yet its reality pattern part of the key component on which their sociological paradigms are based. Evidently, capitalism’s implication and likewise its effect on humanity is debatable, but its significance is unquestionably clear. Durkheim too, another of the academic theorist, had his outlook on the notion of capitalism. In detail he did not use the period capitalism, but rather, ‘organic solidarity’. (Wheelwright 1978)

Overview

Durkheim glimpsed the connection between the one-by-one and humanity as ? dynamic one. Society, he said, “has ? communal truth of its own it’s not easily the addition total of the one-by-one and their actions.” Beliefs, lesson ciphers and ways of portraying are passed from one lifetime to the next, and are discovered by new constituents of the society. The individual’s activity is guarded by these wise patterns, which Durkheim calls “social facts” (Durkheim, 1984)

Durkheim (1984) differentiated between two kinds of communal facts; material and non-material. His major aim was on non-material communal details, exemplified by heritage and communal organisation rather than material communal details, which encompasses bureaucracy and laws. In his soonest foremost works he concentrated on ? relative investigation of what held humanity simultaneously, in primitive and up to date situations (Durkheim, 1984). He resolved that previous societies were held simultaneously mainly by non-material communal details, expressly, ? powerfully held widespread ethics, or what he called powerful “collective conscience”. However, because of the complexities of up to date humanity, there had been ? down turn in the power of collective conscience (Ritzer, 1992). According to Durkheim, persons internalized the “collective conscience”; to the span it could be said, “Society is present in the persons who furthermore came to recognize their dependence on humanity and identify that they have obligations to sustain the communal order.” (Durkheim1984). Durkheim, though cognizant of confrontation and change in humanity, considered it could be managed.

In his publication, ‘The Division of Labour in Society’, he investigates the consequences industrialization had on communal integration and its connections between the one-by-one and the assembly furthermore scheme integrations connection between the diverse components of the society. In this he recognised two “principles” of “solidarity,” “similarity” and “difference.” Depending on the superior values in humanity, it could be categorized as mechanical” or “organic.” In “mechanical” societies, cohesion was founded on widespread or collective conscience, while “organic” societies are founded on integration of exceptional purposes and roles. (Leone 1978)

According to Durkheim the penalty meted out to certain actions (e.g. criminals) shows the power of the collective ‘conscience’. In (Giddens, 1973) ? alike outlook is held, that is; “repressive sanctions are clues of ? humanity with ? well-defined collective conscience and restitutive sanctions are more usual of organic kind societies.” Durkheim’s consideration of solidarity and sanctions is one of his most influential works, his claim that there is no such thing as an inherently lawless individual act: as it is the communal reactions to the proceed, which characterises it as such, has been influential in criminology and the sociology of deviance to designated day (Giddens, 1973).

Discussion

Durkheim sees “organic” or up to date humanity as financial in environment, functioning interdependent inside the partition of labour. Under the force of community diversity and affray for scarce assets the structure of societies becomes more complicated and ? communal partition of work results. Old parts shatter down and new parts and flats are formed, some accomplishing rather distinct focused tasks. Durkheim recounts this humanity as “organic” as he compares it to organism. “High grades of life outcome from the reality of focused flats or ‘organs’ accomplishing distinct jobs or purposes, which assists to the survival of ? unit.” Likewise these jobs assist to the general achievement of the scheme, (Durkheim, 1984).

Durkheim (1984) said, when ? humanity alterations from mechanistic to organic, it has to change all its institutional arrangements to bypass confrontation and confusion. Ideally, people’s places become founded on natural gifts other than on inherited characteristics pertaining to family, belief and prestige. As humanity moves in the direction of meritocracy, regulatory bodies are formed to significantly coordinate members. People became inter-dependent because of the environment of focused work. ? mesh of solidarity arises out of this interdependence, and new set of standards arises, concentrated on the individual. (Wheelwright 1978)

Durkheim admits that though each humanity make types of integrating undertaking needed for the grade of its partition of work, humanity might display difficulties of integration if it’s in transition. A convoluted up to date humanity, even in usual times, would display some propensity for breaks and “social disasters” due to convoluted and highly differentiated partition of work, need of guideline and the exterior of egoism. As such development was glimpsed as ? method of ever-increasing partition of work and institutional changes so as to double-check society’s solidarity (Durkheim, 1984)

According to Durkheim the annals of France is ? testimony that foremost communal change is conveyed about by political revolution. Class confrontation, he said, outcomes when the transitional stage between mechanical and organic solidarity has not been completed. (Koslowski 1996) Herbert Spencer the English Sociologist furthermore taken up organism, but in his sociology it coexisted awkwardly with ? utilitarian philosophy. Although his organism directed him to gaze at communal wholes and the assistance of components to the entire, his utilitarianism directed him to aim on self-seeking actors. Despite the thoughtful difficulties, Spencer’s organisms were influential in the development of Structural functionalism (Ritzer, 1992).

All four of the foremost academic theorists sophisticated ? teleological viewpoint in their discussion of communal change. Although they held distinct outlooks on how capitalism began, each theorist had utilised alike groups of assumptions about worth agreement, integration and conflict. As proposed by Bottomore, they administered with capitalism as ? distinct pattern of humanity in which there are interrelations and interactions between the finances, political and other communal institution. Both Weber and Marx glimpsed capitalism as ? “stepping stone” to the supreme kind of humanity, while Durkheim and Spence glimpsed the capitalist humanity as the ultimate. (Went 2002)

Perhaps the function of Marx, Weber and Durkheim as theorists of modernity is the mystery of their enduring influence. As Marx put it, in ‘classically’ amazing periods “exploitation veiled by devout and political illusions has exchanged nude, shameless direct brutal exploitations.’ Marx overhead all may be glimpsed as ? revolutionary, who different other theorists suggested ? ‘way out’, ? revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and ? socialist future (Weber, 1930). Durkheim interrogated about how it was likely for humanity to be held simultaneously and for persons not to be entangled in an anarchic free for all; granted the intensification of the partition of work inside up to date societies. Durkheim’s answer lay in ? kind of solidarity and ethics that bond persons simultaneously and types recognizable and scientifically ‘observable’ communal world. (Leone 1978)

Analysis

Marxism assists us to realise humanity and the way in which persons inside humanity act and the reasoning behind this behaviour. Marx clarified how employers can exploit and alienate their workers; this is recounted in more minutias and is renowned as ‘the work idea of value’. Marx furthermore proceeds on to interpret how in an enterprise dropping rate of earnings can lead to an inescapable urgent position, revolutions can appear and then eventually premier to the socialist state. Marx furthermore proceeds on to interpret that if employees start to profit from more cash and gain more riches then he becomes poorer in standards and the more his output rises in power and variety of materialistic substances. One of Marx’s sayings to support this idea was “The employee becomes an ever lower product the more products he creates”. (Koslowski 1996)

Karl Marx was mostly disregarded by his scholars throughout his lifetime; although his ideas and ideologies came to exterior after his death throughout the work movement. Now his ideas considering capitalist finances, chronicled materialism, class labour and surplus are utilised as the cornerstone of the socialist doctrine. Therefore it can be said that Karl Marx by evolving Marxism has granted us ? much deeper comprehending of humanity and socialism. (Westra 2001)

Marxism interprets how the most basic part in any humanity is the financial part of that society. It is due to the financial part of humanity that all the other parts the communal, heritage and political parts of humanity function. All of these parts are propelled by the financial relatives inside society. It displays how all societies should make their own means of subsistence and that the connections present here are of the utmost importance. The relatives between persons engaged in output and sustaining subsistence are the most basic inside ? society. Marxism recounts how these connections of output mention to the connections that human beings evolve and set up in alignment to persuade the financial means of ? society. It can be glimpsed now that, capital is the most significant component in today’s society. Marx utilised the phrase Capitalism to recount this ‘economic output system’. (Leone 1978)

Capital does not just mention to money. Modern day output methods engage buying into in items, services and persons this is furthermore mentioned to as the capital. Wealth is furthermore utilised in other ways than in the pre-capitalistic society. For demonstration, ? grower after having made for his own desires and that of his family will deal any of ? surpluses in alignment to purchase the products they could not produce. (Westra 2001)

Which characteristics have held constant, and which been transformed

Most of the riches conceived went to a little percentage of the community; it conceived an even larger split up between wealthy and poor. As markets were set free up they became more unstable. In the United Kingdom there was commotion in the economic markets which culminated in disintegrate of the bash on Black Wednesday in 1992. In USA too, the late 80’s and early 90’s were assessed by economic scandals which assisted to a full-scale slump. And what of capitalism’s chronicled rival? The drop of the Berlin partition demonstrated the end of the freezing war. It shortly became clear that the persons of the previous Soviet Bloc liked the identical opening to develop riches and prosperity that we relish in the west. Communalism, it would appear, could not hang about the course either.

However in capitalism what occurs is that this cash is bought into in alignment to make more cash, and to make ? profit. Capitalist persons will invest in products for example structures, devices and workers. For ? grower this may be ? buying into in ? manufacturer and new tools. The capitalist’s workers are furthermore taken into account as products simultaneously with the business. According to Marxism, the capitalist one-by-one will invest in those persons who will be of an advantage to him and will make ? profit. (Went 2002)

These products are essential as they are the capitalist’s means of output which will finally supply ? means of matter for the society. Marxism interprets how; the employees are alienated because they are easily ? buying into on the part of the capitalist and are not glimpsed as one-by-one persons with their own insights and opinions. This assembly of workers are highly subject to exploitation to the fullest extent. (Koslowski 1996) This assembly of employees will make ? surplus worth that will be supplemented to the capitalist’s profits. It will be the earnings and not the desires of the one-by-one employees which will work out the products that are made as well as the kind in which persons will be engaged by the business. Only those will be engaged who will double-check greatest output and thus ? boost in profit. (Leone 1978)

One of the ideas in Marxism was that the function of the state in ? capitalist humanity is to sustain the capitalist finances and to extend its reality by constantly re-establishing the capitalist relative of production. In alignment to do this the norms and standards of capitalist ideologies can be utilised in alignment to convince people. This in turn rises and sustains production. (Wheelwright 1978) The heritage, political and communal facets of humanity rest upon the financial base. Therefore it can be said that in ? capitalist humanity the state, heritage and communal organisations are furthermore considered as capitalist. (Koslowski 1996)

Therefore Marxism interprets and it can be glimpsed that in ? capitalist humanity there will be two assemblies of persons with differing interests. The one-by-one who are engaged as employees or ‘wage earners’. The employees will desire to boost their salaries and will work harder at their occupations to double-check higher wages; the assembly of capitalists are the second assembly who will desire to boost profits. These two assemblies are engaged in ? class-conflict or class-struggle, whereas they both count on each other for the enterprise to run easily and double-check greatest production. (Went 2002)

Conclusion

Marxism emphasises how capitalism will lead to confrontation and would make growing misery for employees as affray for earnings directs capitalists to take up labour-saving mechanism and in effect conceiving an armed detachment of redundant or booked jobless workers. These employees would finally increase up and grab the means of output, thereby conceiving employees revolutions. Karl Marx went on to forecast that capitalism would be finally decimated by its own inherent contradictions and means of output, all of which would be self-inflicted. (Wheelwright 1978)

Marx has assisted us to realise how we all reside in ? world which has been formed by the financial and communal forces he identified. Now his work has furthermore to ? large span the political forces of today all of which his work inspired. In my issue of outlook it is no exaggeration to state thatof all theorists of humanity Karl Marx is ? revolutionary and has profoundly affected and influenced all our lives. Our up to date political area reflects his ideologies and is under much of his influence. (Went 2002) For demonstration the Labour Party and the Conservative Party were both deeply influenced by the dispute of Marxist movements. It can be said that as the political countryside undergoes farther alterations, Marxism will indefinitely be conferred to help form humanity for the better.

References
Bottomore, Tom. (1988). Theories of Modern Capitalism. London, Boston: G. Allen & Unwin.
Collins, Randall. (Eds.). (1994). Four sociological traditions: selected readings. New York: Oxford University Press.
Durkheim, Emile. (1984). The division of labor in society. New York: Free Press.
Giddens, Anthony. (1973) Capitalism and modern social theory; an analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge, England: University Press.
Macionis, J., & Plummer, Ken. (1998). Sociology. New York: Prentice Hall.
McIntosh, Ian. (Eds.). (1997). Classical sociological theory: a reader. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press.
Ritzer, George. (1992). Contemporary sociological theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Stones, Rob. (Eds.). (1998). Key sociological thinkers. Hampshire: Macmillan Press.
Taylor, Orville. (2003). IDEAZ. Kingston: Arawak Publishers
Webber, Max. (1930). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of Capitalism. London: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Koslowski, P. (1996). Ethics of Capitalism and Critique of Socio-biology. Berlin Springer
Leone, B. (1978). Capitalism: opposing viewpoints. Minnesota: Greenhaven Press Inc.
Wheelwright, E.L. (1978). Capitalism, Socialism or Barbarism? The Australian predicament. NSW: Australian and New Zealand book company Pty Ltd.
Went, Robert. 2002-03. “Globalization in the Perspective of Imperialism.” Science & Society, 66:4, 473-497.
Westra, Richard. 2001. “Phases of Capitalism and Post-Capitalist Social Change.” Pp. 301-317 in Albritton, et al.

Title: What social, economic or cultural characteristics define a society as capitalist? Which characteristics have held constant, and which been transformed, in the period since the late 18th century?

According to sources, it was William Makepeace Thackeray who initially applied the notion of ‘capitalism’ in 1854 to define the ownership of capital. Throughout the history, the term capitalism has been closely associated with other related notions, including: market capitalism, laissez-faire (pure capitalism), economic liberalism, private enterprise etc^[1]. Capitalism transformed feudalism in the Western world, namely Britain, from where it had flourished throughout Europe predetermining economic, cultural and political developments of the then society. Later, over the 19^th and 20^th centuries, capitalism formed the grounds of industrialization^[2]. Nevertheless, namely the eighteenth century became crucial in the foundation of capitalism concept after the first economic school was established in Britain. The school has produced much of the fundamental thought in the field of classical political economy supported by the invaluable contributions of David Ricardo, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Jean-Baptiste Say et al who thoroughly researched various ways goods were produced, distributed and exchanged under market conditions. Namely, those classical thoughts have set the foundations of the contemporary perception of capitalism^[3].

During the 18th century the concept of capitalism was much commercialized and dominated by merchants. Consequently, by the end of 18th century, mercantilism was in dire straits since mercantile activity could not longer provide sufficient resources to maintain military expenditures of those states that depended on commerce. The subsequent industrial revolution was another driving force that had intensified the crisis since the new industrializing countries were questioning the true value of mercantilist practices. In the course of the industrial revolution, merchants were replaced by industrialists to dominate the capitalist system and diminish the roles of conventional handicraft labourers, including guilds, artisans and journeymen. Other effects involved the advancement of bourgeoisie as a dominant social class as well as immense mechanization of agriculture. Being the center of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, Great Britain made a considerable influence on the new perception of traditional mercantilist doctrines through the works of economic theorists who claimed that the global wealth was constant and only states were able to increase their own wealth at the account of other (weaker) states. According to Marx, since the last third of the 18th century industrial capitalism should be associated with the following factors: (1) development of the factory system wherein manufacturing was based on the complex division and exploitation of labor within work processes; (2) routine designation of work duties; and (3) the overall dominance of the capitalist mode of production^[4].

In the mid-18th century, French physiocrat David Hume much contributed to the promotion of free trade as well as the concept of land as the main source of wealth. Later on, in 1759 Francois Quesnay outlined further features of capitalism in his Tableau Economique, wherein he provided the first ever analytical description of the economy, having predetermined the grounds for the economic theory forwarded by physiocrats. These critical views were strongly supported by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot who advocated free trade in contrast to customs duties and tariff. More precisely, Richard Cantillon featured the notion of long-run equilibrium being the balance of income flows, pointed out the dependence between land and prices, and the impact supply and demand had on short-term prices^[5].

1776 marked the appearance of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations wherein the economist defended his standpoint regarding natural liberty system and fiercely opposed mercantilism. At this point, according to economic theorists, the roots of classical political economy were put down. Specifically, the economist forwarded a couple of capitalism-related concepts that are of great theoretical and empirical importance today. For instance, Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ theory of the market indicates that individual interest is a core prerequisite of collective social good (wealth). While forwarding his liberal economic concepts favoring free markets, Smith was vehemently opposed by the sentiments of then domineering mercantilist society^[6]. In particular, Smith severely criticized all forms of state intervention in the economy, as well as restrictions imposed by a state including duties and tariffs, and monopolies, on the other hand. At that he held a strong view that market alone was able to fairly redistribute all the available resources. More than that, Smith advocated retaliatory tariffs as indispensable part of free trade, wherein patents and copyrights encouraged innovation^[7]. In a while, Smith’s views were supported by David Ricardo the author of the economic law of comparative advantage forwarded in 1817 in The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, explaining mutual benefits of trade between the parties, regardless all possible economic differences between them. Thus, the notion of free trade was proven. Guided by the Say’s Law, Ricardo emphasized on the significance of full employment enabling a competitive economy with normal equilibrium^[8]. Furthermore, Ricardo advocated strong interrelation between the changes in credit and monetary quantities and inflation, and emphasized on the diminishing returns highlighting the interdependence of additional inputs and outputs^[9].

Following Smith’s ideas, Karl Marx clearly differentiated the use and exchange value of commodities in the market. Hence, Marx perceived capital as the value created through the purchase of commodities in order to create new commodities which exchange value would exceed the amount of initial purchases. Moreover, Marx considered the use of labor force featured by certain exchange value (i.e. wage) as a sufficient commodity in the capitalist society. Though, according to Marx, the value of labour force has always been less compared to the value potentially gained by the capitalist out of its use. Such principle difference, as Marx argues, creates surplus value extracted and accumulated in the capitalist society. Marx’s fundamental work is named Capital, where he clearly distinguished the capitalist mode of production. Precisely, to provide a relevant evidence Marx explained how the surplus was extracted by the capital owners from workers through the sale-value of produced commodities^[10]. In due respect, Marx claimed that namely surplus value extraction laid the grounds for a struggle between the classes. Thus, Marx considered labour as the primary source of profit. In addition to this, Marx held a strong opinion regarding an exploited labor as the driving force that could revolutionize socialist-style economies. Herewith, the analysis of Marxian thinking assumes that centrally-planned economies mainly established in the former communist societies to a great extent reflected the features of state capitalism through the exploitation of labor force. Subsequently, in 1916 Vladimir Lenin transformed the notion of Marxian capitalism into imperialism claiming monopoly capitalism as the highest stage of capitalism society in his Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism^[11].

The German Historical School provided fresh insight into the perception of capitalism as the efficient system that supplied markets with production. In such a way, this approach highlighted the core difference between capitalism and previous modes of economic activity since capitalism assumed principal shift from medieval restrictions imposed on money and credit to the monetary economy emphasizing on the profit. Another prominent thinker that influenced the understanding of distinguishing characteristics of capitalism in the 19th century was Max Weber, German social theorist. Weber mainly concentrated on market exchange conversely to production, as the main distinguishing characteristic of capitalism. At that, he pointed out that within the capitalist mode enterprises focused on the rationalization of production by maximizing productivity and efficiency^[12]. In his fundamental work 1904-1905 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber traced the way capitalism transformed previous economic systems. For this purpose, the theorist highlighted the ‘spirit of capitalism’ particular to Puritan comprehension of human laboring. Weber deemed that a devotion to God helped the Puritans to lay the foundations of the then economic mode. Compared to Marx, Weber regarded capitalism in a broader perspective rather than merely a result caused by the alterations in the means of production^[13]. Therefore, capitalism, from Weber’s viewpoint, was the advanced economic system that had ever been developed throughout human evolution. In particular, Weber identified the following distinguishing characteristics particular to capitalism: public credit, corporate business, and expansion of bureaucracy. Being opposed to socialist remarks against capitalism, Weber himself criticized the very economic system as one that posed threat to the conventional cultural values shared by the society as well as the one that constrained human freedom. Namely, Weber much criticized ‘spiritless specialists’ and ‘heartless hedonists’ who had nothing in common with the genuine Puritan spirit particular to capitalism^[14].

During 1930-s, John Maynard Keynes had a tremendous influence on the notion of capitalism and the role of monetary policy. The British economist emphasized on the important functions of monetary policy within economic policy. In his The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money 1937 he argued that capitalism was not able to fully recover from the slowdowns in investment. At that, Keynes claimed that the economic mode particular to the capitalist society could sustain its indefinite equilibrium even in spite of high unemployment. At that, during the 1930s Keynesian approach to economics assumed that laissez-faire capitalist economics was self-sufficient and did not need any intervention from a state to cut down unemployment or boost aggregate demand. Furthermore, Keynes suggested ‘pump-priming’ approach to save the economy from recession in the period of economic down-turn, which involved increase in government borrowing and spending as well as cutting-down taxes. In such a way, Keynes put forward his idea of cutting real wages through the system of their control from the state and deterring from holding money during inflation^[15]. This indicates that Keynes much favored state regulation as an effective tool to eliminate economic slowdown. Actually, Keynesian policies enabled the capitalism recovery afterwards the state of the Great Depression^[16].

The contemporary academic research on the concept of capitalism is largely grounded on neoclassical economics and the relevant approaches developed by the Chicago School. The modern perception of capitalism therefore favors neutral government regulation and coordination of markets with the focus being placed on property rights’ maintenance; deregulation of labor markets; promotion of corporate governance by private owners; development of transparent financial systems with capital market-based financing in their core. According to Milton Friedman, active follower of Adam Smith’s thinking, under the conditions of free competition social responsibility makes up an indispensable part of any business activity and profit-making. In such a way, Friedman shows how self-interest can benefit the entire society in the modern economic conditions^[17].

The major distinctive features of capitalist society were pointed out throughout the 20^th century while experts compared and contrasted due system with the centrally planned economic system. In due respect, capitalism has always enabled consumers with free choice, while producers were able to satisfy a consumer demand. By contrast, in the planned economies the production was entirely controlled and directed by a hierarchically-led state policy. Thus, capitalism alone has achieved sufficient delivery of goods and services through the privatization of previously state-owned means of production and infrastructural objects.

In addition to this, the notion of capitalism is closely associated with the abolishment of subsidies and free trade wherein capitalist society is prone to perform both rational and irrational actions that are often unpredictable. Namely the last quarter of the 20th century clearly indicated the increasing ability of people and capital to mobilize. Globalization alone has opened a new avenue for the development of both capitalist and non-capitalist models.

Today, capitalism is regarded by many as world system featured by all the peculiarities of capitalist trade. Analysts state that such perception of capitalism dates back to the early 20th century imperialism. Following the same fashion, imperialistic policies emphasized on the promotion of capitalistic principles of free trade among countries. Taking the abovementioned features of the contemporary capitalism into account, it is noteworthy that along with many positive effects global capitalism has caused the state of global inequality in income rates, social security, access to strategic resources, and redistribution of world capital. In due respect, since the times of the Industrial Revolution there have been considerable changes boosted by economic growth in such areas as life expectancy, access to educational resources and information and communication technologies, literacy, infant mortality, child labor etc. By and large, global capitalist economy has been dramatically shifted by the invention and fast application of telecommunications within the last thirty years. Information and communication technologies such as computers, Internet and cell phones have enabled most of the business transactions in virtually any part of the globe^[18].

Overall, capitalism promotes economic growth and social standard of living measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to Adam Smith, free market alone allocates necessary resources and controls production and price, which is particular to the contemporary world capitalist system. Furthermore, capitalist economy, if compared to conventional economic systems and feudal or socialist societies, provides vast opportunities to raise individual income while engaging in new professions or launching private business ventures, for example. As Milton Friedman puts it, competitive capitalism leads to economic freedom and subsequently to the political one where there is no place for the centralized control of economic activity or political repression from the state. Conversely, the variety of market economy transactions causes wide diversity of activities and/or their free choice. In accordance with John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek, capitalism is a reflection of economic freedom which is essential for social survival and development^[19]. Thus, many capitalism supporters claim that namely the decentralized system of coordination is the most powerful feature of capitalism. Particularly, the decentralization of economic processes leads to free competition and optimal solutions to the arising challenges. Even the slightest control from then state, according to the Austrian School thinkers, can potentially cause serious inefficiencies since economy then becomes unpredictable in the long-term perspective. One of the major causes of the Great Depression, for instance, was the immense interventionist policy led by the Federal Reserve.

Despite such positive views on capitalism, throughout its long evolution this economic concept was fiercely criticized by namely left-oriented proponents. 19th century conservatives, for instance, regarded particular characteristics of capitalism such as commodity production and free market exchange as potential threats to religious and cultural traditions. Other critics associated capitalism with the spread of negligence, corruption, and many other socio-economic problems. Socialists, for example, strived for the state regulation of capitalism rather than its abolishment. Throughout centuries, much of criticism has been received from religious leaders who fiercely opposed the materialist side of capitalism. From a religious viewpoint, it would rather be mixed economy that could meet the demands of society and ensure economic justice. For the most part, critics point out at negative features of capitalism including: inefficient and unfair distribution of power and wealth; monopolistic tendencies of businesses and corporations; signs of cultural and economic exploitation of cheap and unskilled labour force (including children and/or old people); social alienation, unemployment, economic instability, and inequality to name a few.

Nowadays, however, we understand capitalism as an economic system that assumes private ownership and control of wealth and the means of its production. In due respect, state ownership bears limited relation to the essence of capitalism. Both private individuals (entrepreneurs) and companies (corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises) own, operate, and trade capital and labor, as well as other resources for the sake of profit-making. In the contemporary conditions, capitalism is an indispensable component of market economy which entirely excludes any government intervention in the transactions that involve investments, income, distribution, production, pricing and supply of goods and services etc. Furthermore, labour as such is a distinguishing feature that characterizes capitalism in the contemporary conditions of fierce competition. Based on appropriate knowledge and skills, human resources are viewed as the most valuable asset by the majority of employers. Herewith, market rules make up a regulatory framework that determines economic developments in the contemporary capitalist state. In most instances, the role of a state is limited to the provision of relevant infrastructure and public goods. This indicates that economic developments are predominantly grounded on the so-called ‘laissez-faire’ principle envisaging a minimum state intervention into the economy. Consequently, the contemporary notion of capitalism highlights the ultimate importance of the control over the means of production by private owners wherein the state role is mainly limited to the protection of property rights. However, such conclusion would be correct only from the pure capitalism viewpoint. By and large, the well-developed contemporary economies present a mixture of public and private ownership and therefore are reasonably referred to as the capitalist mixed economies, where both private capital and state serve their particular roles. In its essence, classical political economy has been strongly interrelated with classical liberal doctrine assuming minimum economic intervention on the part of government. At that economic and social realms were clearly distinguished, wherein state could provide necessary public goods and services^[20].

Reference list

Bellamy, R. 2003, The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. Cambridge University Press

Burnham, P. 2003, Capitalism: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Oxford University Press.

Calhoun, C. 2002. Capitalism: Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press.

Edgell, S. 2006, The Sociology of Work: Continuity and Change in Paid and Unpaid Work. London: Sage, Ch 1.

Erhardt, E. History of Economic Development, Lindner Center Auditorium, Cincinnati.

Evans, P. 1997, The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization. World Politics 50 (1): 62–87.

Friedman, M. 1970, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, The New York Times Magazine.

Hunt, E. 2002, History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. M.E. Sharpe

Kumar, K. 1978, Prophecy and Progress, London Penguin. Ch. 3.

Lane J. & Ersson, S. 2002, Government and the Economy: A Global Perspective. Continuum International Publishing Group.

Saunders, P. 1995, Capitalism. University of Minnesota Press.

Skousen, M, 2001, The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers. M.E. Sharpe

Wheen, F. 2006, Books That Shook the World: Marx’s Das Kapital1st ed. London: Atlantic Books

1

The interaction of individuals belonging to a social comunity tends to produce many patterns of behaviour and actions and reactions. These patterns reflects the presence of a social order and a set of rules of conduct that organises the thinking structure of this group. Researchers in many social disciplines such as sociology, political science and anthropology have attempted to understand many individual and common aspects of a group of people in order to infer about their cultures, attitudes, perceptions, behaviour, meanings and surroundings. Such goals have been set for achievements using many quantitative and qualitative methodological approach that meet the objectives and allow for producing a richly analysis. One approach that has been widely used in the social and human field is the approach of Ethnomethodological ethnography.

In this essay, I will write about ethnomethodological ethnography and the steps involved in conducting such method. I will also describe the main characteristics of ethnomethodological ethnography. In the final section, I will cite and review a number of previous studies that have used such method in reaching their conclusions about social groups.

Definition of Ethnomethodological ethnography

According to Helman (2007), two traditions have influenced the evolution of ethnomethodological ethnography: ethnography and ethnomethodology.

First, ethnography is an approach that focuses on the prolonged observation and profound exploration of a specific group of people to understand how they organise their everyday activities and how they view their surroundings. In sociology, ethnography is concerned with in-depth exploration an individual’s or group’s intentions within a culture (Helman, 2007). As a qualitative research, ethnography supplies a comprehensive descriptive analysis of an individual’s endeavours, perceptions, meanings, attitudes and interpretations of different events and surroundings in the world they live (Hakim, 2000). Therefore, ethnography offers a number of methodological steps that allows the interested researchers to gain an understanding of the enses and meanings of their cultural behaviour and how this influences cultural attitudes (Spradley, 1979, Parahoo, 2006).

Second, According to Garper (1984), ethnomethodology evolved in the 1960s following the publication of “Studies in Ethnomethodology” by Garfinkel (1967). Garfinkel (1984) defines Ethnomethodology as an approach that can be used to explore and find out how members of a group generate sufficient meanings, concerning their immersion in normal daily activities within their common culture. In other words, this ethnomethodology examines activities of group members to discover how they make sense of their surroundings. It specifically examines how individuals give sense to and accomplish their daily activities, regardless what they are doing.

Harper (2008) defines ethnomethodological ethnography as a research method that primarily consists of describing how individuals of a group perceive, define and group the ways that they execute their everyday activities, what senses and reaasinings they assign to these activities, and how they particpate in producing sufficient social order, which consists of patterns of behaviour and interactions among the group.

The main characteristics of ethnomethodological ethnography

In this section, we describe the main characteristics of ethnomethodological ethnography. These characteristics are summarised by Harper (2007).

Taken for granted assumptions

The ordinary and daily activities exreciced by members of a group are referred to as “taken-for-granted assumptions”. This set of assumptions includes all the anticipations prevailing within a specific cultural group about it happens in a normal day and how members anticipate others to act.

Common-sense knowledge and procedures

Common sense knowledge and procedures in ethnomethodological ethnographic setting are related to the collective knowledge that is widely acquired by the members in the group. It describes the stock of knowledge used by individuals within of a social group to make sense of their surroundings.

Typification

Typification is related to the methods that the members of a group use to classify their experiences, objects and occurings. All these classified elements are variant according to the situations people find themselves. The process of typification allows for classifying the impressions made by the members of a group into categories that globally structure their experiences.

Indexicality

Indexicality relates to the actions and expressions which their sense is dependent on the circumstances under which they occur. It simply the process of assigning dissimilar meanings to dissimilar occaions. For example, asking how somebody is when you meet them in an informal meeting has a different connotation to when a the same person asks the same question in a more professional setting.

Accounting

Accounting refers to the different mental and explicit activities that are used in sense-making by the individuals in a social group. The accounting process describes how these individuals use their possessed taken-for-granted assumptions and common-sense knowledge to justify their interpretations of other members’ actions.

Reflexivity

Reflexivity refers to the the process whereby knowledge of a social world prevailing within a group explains social events. Each of the members of a group possesses own descriptions of what the events themselves.

Steps of Ethnomethodological ethnography

As a qualitative research method, ethnomethodological ethnography uses the standard research prpaoches used in human and social sciences. I used the literature reviewed in the final section of this essay to summarise these steps.

Defining the objectives of the study

The first step in conducting an ethnomethodological ethnographic study is to clearly define the objectives and the goals of the analysis. This can be done by designing a set of appropriate questions that work as guiding questions which are answerable using a ethnomethodological ethnographic research. The basic question for all such studies concentrates on the basic ground of ethnography, which is gaining an understanding of how a members of a community see their social world.

Fieldworks, fieldnotes and documents

The second step in conducting an ethnomethodological ethnographic study is fieldwroks, which represent the step where data of the study are collected. After having defined the research questions, researchers locate the fieldsite (a specific group or community) which is the subject of the research. Data are collected by direct and indirect observation and interaction with the members of the community. While participants’ observation provides information about behaviour, direct interaction using interviews for example, lends information that helps gaining an insider’s perspective and understand how the members reflect directly on behaviour, circumstances and events.

Fieldnotes, which can be written or oral, represent the main part of the data collected from the fieldworks. Researchers write down the content of their direct and indirect observation and interaction of the members of a group regarding their in-depth details of their lives within the context of the research questions. These notes will serve as the main content of the research context and the ground upon which conclusions are made. Fieldnotes may contain describing a specific observation of behaviour or analysing and linking the contents of various observations with each other in such interrelated way, reflecting on the experience of observing the group

The fieldwork (observation and interviews) can be supplemented by documents that can help answer the research questions. The use of these documents may help gain extra insights to the group within the research contexts. These documents can be produced by the members of the group under observation or by an third party that has an interest in the same group.

Data analysis

When the fieldwork is completed, the next step is to analyse the data using the appropriate quantitative and qualitative analysis tools. ethnomethodological ethnographic studies used two main tools which are conversation analysis and Membership categorisation appraoch.

First, conversation Analysis provides the means of isolating particular practices, therefore allowing to show in detail which aspects of those practices should be altered, and how they could be altered. It concentrates on the structure and content of conversations including the procedures involved and the participant’s expectations. Ethnomethodological ethnography focuses on the content of the conversations and aims to describe how members recognise, describe and explain the order of their everyday lives.

Second, membership categorisation appraoch consists of exploring the knowledge possessed by members of a community about the the community itself. This approach allows to examine members’ categorisations of themselves and other membersof the groups and caaptures how cultural and moral knowledge and themes about social life are emerged.

Review of selected previous literature

The principles of ethnomethodological ethnography are applied to nursing practice and have been used by many researchers to explore many related questions. Harper (2007) reviewed many studies that used ethnomethodological ethnography in nursing practice, which covered several topics such as how nurses build different concepts, such as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ patients and how these are influenced by the attitudes and beliefs held by their cultural group (Kelly and May, 1994), nurses’ definitions of medication errors (Baker, 1997), the use of seclusion in psychiatric practice (Mason, 1997) and feeding demented residents in long-term care (Pierson, 1999). These studies show how nurses provide justifications for the decisions that reach in their everyday activities and how they use explicitly or tacitly their knowledge (Baker, 1997, Mason, 1997, p. 783) to make these decisions.

Harper (2007) applied ethnomethodological ethnography to military nursing practice in the UK to explore the concept of post-operative pain evaluation in military nursing practice. This analysis specifically focuses on studying how the assessment process of post-operative pain in military hospitals is influenced and constructed within military culture. Within this context, military culture refers to the socialisation into the armed forces through military training, the wearing of uniforms and the development of military ethos, such as, integrity and honour, military professionalism, loyalty, commitment and cohesion. One result of this socialisation in relation to pain behaviour is the expectation that military personnel will be indifferent to pain to the point of not expressing pain. The study takes into account the phase of restructuring the British military medical services in the 1990s, when military hospital units were integrated within National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in the UK. This restructuring process has made military healthcare personnel including nurses, socialise into the civilian healthcare culture. As a consequence, nurses in military hospital units have increasingly been socialising with civilian health professionals where they are exposed to the prevailing NHS attitudes including those associated with post-operative pain assessment. Harper (2007) observed that nurses should believe what patients say about their pain and they can identify patients’ pain levels by using their previous knowledge and experience, autonomic changes and non-verbal behaviours. Data of this study were collected from face to face interviews with twenty-nine military nurses working in acute surgical or orthopaedic environments within NHS hospitals in the UK. The participants were required to describe how they assessed post-operative pain in order to obtain information rich data. Harper (2007) used, among others, the conversation analysis to examine the content of the narrative description of the nurses (from the interviews) and arrive at the appropriate conclusions. The main result of this study is that the socialisation process for military nurses follows the general principles that are present in the civilian health culture.

In another study, Stokoe (2003) used the ethnomethodological approach of “Membership Categorization Analysis” to explore the links between neighbour relationships, gender and morality. Specifically, this study focuses on understanding and interpreting how neighbours as members of a common cultural stock, show their understanding of, and explaning about, their identities and practices. Data, which consist of talk between neighbours and neighbours dispute relationships are collected from two sources: neighbour mediation and televised disputes. First, the mediation data were collected from two centres in the UK (London and East Midlands region). In this mediation process, a mediator, supported by tape recorders, interviews the individuals involved in the conflict one by one to get accounts of the conflict as understood by each of them. The disputants are then brought together in a location where the mediator attempts to find a solution to the argument and conflict. Mediators were provided with. Final data were colelcted from five single-party interviews and two multi-party mediations. Second, the televised data came from UK chat-shows, such as Kilroy and Esther (broadcast between 1995 and 2001) and documentary programmes about neighbour conflicts, such as Neighboursat War (broadcast between 1995 and 1999). Twenty programmes were video-recorded, each a time duration between thirty and sixty minutes, with a total of thirtheen hours of data. Data were transcribed and subsequently analysed using used the ethnomethodological approaches of “Membership Categorization Analysis” and “conversation analysis”. It was found that neighbours’ complaints and defences were gendered in terms of categorisations of and about women. The disputants have repeatedly mentioned gender when legitimating complaints about their neighbours and in making defences against such complaints. More specifically, complaints regularly turned on moral categorisations of women’s activities and characteristics. The rsults of theis study are quite interesting. Stokoe (2003) found that conflicts as a form of neighbour relations generate three interconencted themes. The first theme is related to ‘motherhood’ and its role in warranting complaints about women neighbours and defences against their complaints. The second these is related to the women’s relationship status. The categorisation of ‘single woman’ appears in the interviews and shows as a source of complaint or defence against a complaint. The third theme describes how neighbours tend to link certain activities and practices to the category of woman.

In an ethnomethodological ethnographic study, Jimerson and Oware (2006) attempted to understand how the code of the street affects the conduct of black male basketball players and how those players explicate their behaviour by telling the code. Jimerson and Oware (2006) built upon the idea that good people are turned into “bad” as a result of “the code of the street”. People residing in “dangerous areas” are forced to act dangerous to survive in such climate and nautralise danger. Within the context of black male basketball players, this study observed that “the code of the street” is in practice. Jimerson and Oware (2006) used ethnography to explain the contents of their talk and actions of the participants of the group, supplemented with ethnomethodological analyses of their activities. Data used by Jimerson and Oware (2006) came from filedwork which was performed between 1991 and 1993 in a basktetball court in a high school in Illinois, US. Filednotes were conducted on a group of 10 black male players and compiled using tape and video recorders. It found that members of this group tend to be influenced by the code in how they speak about race and gender, and how they interact in stereotypical ways. Furthermore, the results of this study show that the code of the street defines the parameters of interactions and the terms of the conversations that occur between many black people. Jimerson and Oware (2006) argued that by telling the code of the street, black men may do race and gender in stereotypical, enabling, and also enfeebling ways: stereotypical in that any code is an exaggerated abstraction of the means by which people interact, which often overemphasises certain aspects of how people behave at the expense of overlooking other facets of their behaviour. Much like funhouse mirrors, codes display distorted images of reality, but they still reflect reality.

Conclusion

Ethnography involves the prolonged examination of a group of people. It generally consists of studying the daily lives of this group of people in order to explore and uncover how and what they think about themselves, about their immersion in common activities, and about the objectives of their doings. The accomplishment of an ethnographic examination, many involve methodologies.

Ethnomethodology seeks to understand the common-sense knowledge and procedures used by members in their everyday encounters to make sense of their cultural group so that they can act appropriately and in accordance with the circumstances that they are in.

Harper (2008) defines ethnomethodological ethnography as a research method that primarily consists of describing how individuals of a group perceive, define and group the ways that they execute their everyday activities, what senses and reaasinings they assign to these activities, and how they particpate in producing sufficient social order, which consists of patterns of behaviour and interactions among the group. The main characteristics of ethnomethodological ethnography consist of the presence of Taken for granted assumptions, Common-sense knowledge and procedures, Typification, Indexicality, Accounting, Reflexivity

Gender inequality, or in other words, gender discrimination refers to unfair rights between male and female based on different gender roles which leads to unequal treatment in life. The concept: gender inequality has been widely known in human history but not until the beginning the 20th century has the transformation of gender relations become ” one of the most rapid, profound social changes” ( Wrigth & Rogers 2009). And at the same time, the position of men and women were generally set.

The growth of this situation has been obviously seen. According to a survey in America female’s salary at work is 75% as low as male’s. Coming back to last century, at work, when men were paid 1 dollar, the amount that women received was just 58 cents, in accordance with the law in 1963(Tran 2012) . And in Vietnam, gender inequality is shown in the difference between two genders in the number of babies. Statistics of Ministry of Planning & Investment in 2010 reported that there were 110.6 new-born boys out of 100 new-born girls which was much higher than the standard rate.

However, as a matter of fact, gender discrimination has made a big argument in society about whether the equality among genders should be encouraged or not. Regarding to this problem, American people seem to appreciate the position of women, meanwhile, the Chinese tend to think of higher power of men in life.

Thus, this paper, with the purpose of reporting the current state of gender inequality, its impacts as well as the opposing sentiments toward this problem, will give you another look at this controversial problem.

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%2015%20–%20Gender%20inequality%20–%20Norton%20August.pdf

http://tiengnoitre.blogspot.com/2012/12/su-that-ve-nhan-quyen-o-mi.html

Wright, E.O. & Rogers, J. 2009, American Society: How it really works, viewed 20 February 2013, http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%2015%20–%20Gender%20inequality%20–%20Norton%20August.pdf

Tran, P. 2012, Sa»± tha?­t va»? nhan quya»?n a»Y MA©, viewed 15 February 2013, http://tiengnoitre.blogspot.com/2012/12/su-that-ve-nhan-quyen-o-mi.html

Statistics of Ministry of Planning & Investment in 2010, the 2009 Vietnam population and housing census, http://vietnam.unfpa.org/webdav/site/vietnam/shared/Census%20publications/3_Completed-Results.pdf

Right, role, freedom for women and changing role between men and women was questioned in today society. Especially in Australia – a very multicultural nation where one in four of its 22 million people were born overseas, have a parent who was and four million speak a language other than English. This essay will point out shifting roles of men and women by examining women’s rights in different aspects of that multicultural society such as Health, Work, Politics, Popular culture, Home – family and Education.

Let go back to the 1930s. At that time, the men worked and earned money. The fathers were usually far away from their children. Whereas, the women just stayed at home and took care of home and children. It was generally accepted that women’s roles were as Kindergartener and home-keeper. In the other words their destiny were getting married, having Childs and dedicating their lives to the requests of their husbands and children. This was part of the culture that men and women understood their places in society and accepted it. Furthermore, it was believed that if women work after the marriage, they were slack in their responsibility to their husbands and children. It also could be seen as being lax their obligation to the nation. This is because at those days evolving the number of the nation’s population was one of the most important problems. Therefore, people believed that settling the country’s population was women’s duty. For these reasons just unmarried women often had good jobs. A working married woman was considered to be taking a man’s job, however they were paid less than men. In addition to, Marriage and divorce laws favored men in terms of custody of children and rights to property. All of those were these sorts of inequalities.

In the Second World War shortages of labour caused by so many men joining the armed forces opened the door for many more women to work. That was the beginning of change. Many women took up jobs that had previouslydominated by males such as Politics, military affairs, scientific research. Moreover standards of living changed. Technology has developed and it was reforming people’s lifestyles and domestic roles were altered by the invention of washing machines, vacuum cleaners and electricity. For many women this helped to save a lot of time in housework. Therefore since they have more great opportunities to study and contribute for society and following their interest. Many women have now reached higher situations within politics, the occupations and even business in Australia. Further more the introduction of the contraceptive tablet allowed people to more easily plan their families and decide to space their children. That brought a decrease in the number of children in each family. It also allowed married women to pursue careers without the worry of pregnancy interfering with their plans. In addition, much laws has been put in place that purpose to make equal opportunities for women in the workspace, such as good pay, childcare, anti-discrimination and rules against sexual harassment.

For example “during the 1980s women took leading roles in the nation’s affairs. In 1981 Senator Janine Haines became the first woman leader of a major political party-the Australia democrats. In 1986 Justice marry Gaudron was the first women to become a judge of the High court and 1989 Rosemary Follett became the first female chief minister of the ACT ” (Bereson 2001, p.3). And recently Julia was first sworn as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on 24 June 2010. She was not born in Australia but she is a migrant. This event does not only mean but also confirms the great role of women in Australian society. As a results Australia has become one of the first nations in the world giving women the rights to vote and to be seated in parliament. From that the women in Australia now achieved higher positions within politics. It is no longer considered that these opportunities are not available to women.

Indeed Besides politics, women also more successful in many different fields such as art and culture, sports, even in business. For example “Louise Sauvage won a gold medal in Sydney Olympic Games 2000” (Costain 2003, P.4). “Robin Archer-a woman of many talented she is a singer, writer and a director. She was artistic Director at Melbourne festival art in 2003” (Costain 2003, P.12). Even very traditional organizations such as religion, churches have changed their attitudes towards women, for example the Anglican Church in the mid-1980s in Melbourne accepted women to be ordained as ministers. Today in secondary schools and universities more women than men educated, and more women than men advanced in bachelor degrees in university. “In 2006, women make up for 54.8 per cent of all tertiary education students and 47.5 per cent of all students enrolled in training courses and vocational education. The common were joined in society and culture, management and commerce, hospitality, food industries, and personal services courses. Also there are more than 30 per cent of small business operators in Australia are women. Women hold 57 per cent the Australian public service workforce and 36 per cent of senior executive situations”. (Women-towards equality)

The changing roles of women and greater participation in all levels of society, has led to the role of men to change. Men are now expected to be part of a household management team. In the other word they are ready to share domestic work with their wife. That never ever happened in 1930s. This has caused anxiety in men with traditional backgrounds. They are not sure of their roles any more.

However In fact, women are still in a tougher situation than men when it approaches to vocations and work in general. Child care can be difficult to secure and is often too costly. For example if a child is ill it is usually the mother who will be likely to take their time off work to take care them. The greater responsibilities of teaching children, which are still considered women’s responsibilities, mean that it is so tough for women to get full-time work – especially in jobs requiring overtime. Because of this, instead of full time women usually have to do casual jobs or part-time. Most of these works are not ‘career-orientated’ positions, so it is not realizable for women to reach higher positions in their work. Furthermore women’s attendance is especially strong throughout common culture. Women’s image in film clips, movies, magazines, television shows, newspapers and even news programmers is often as a sexualized decoration. There for Women have often been discriminated against, especially on sexual harassment, even at work.

Ultimately, any change also has two sides. Although the position of women in Australia society has been confirmed, it also means their responsibility is heavier. Especially in some fields that require physical strengths, superior skills and health. These things women are inferior to men. However all string of success mentioned above helped to break down traditional ideas about what women could or could not do. It made women more visible in public society and enabled them to lead lives that were much nearer to men’s lives in standings of liberty and selection.

Women have been and are playing a vital role in developing their families for a long time. During the times of pre-historic periods, women have played an important role as bread owners and hence they assumed a definite cultural role. Evidences say that in the periods of Hunter-gatherer, women used to collect food while men used to go hunting.

During the recent history, the role of women has changed to a great extent. Due to the modern changes like the economic reforms, feminist movements and the demands for equal opportunities, women in many parts of the world have right of entry to careers apart from the role of traditional homemaker. In these modern days, women started to gain power equivalent to men which was not there in the past days. In spite of this, a few people could not recognize women as a power and as an agent, who brings change in the society, may be due to the traditional beliefs or due to the fear of loss of power and authority over women. Not only do men have a fear of women empowerment, but studies say that women at work places are less encouraging towards their gendered (women). Apart from this, in many parts of the world, including the developed countries, women are paid less when compared to their peers in the male gender. This critical role of women in every field they are in is due to the fact that they are capable of multi-tasking i.e. doing more than one job at a time with more care and accuracy which men can hardly do.

Background/Context

Many believe that nonexistence of gender socialization would not exist at all. The list of top ten world’s most powerful people would contain the name of at least a woman personality constantly through years. Many renowned awards were designed and were won by the women in UAE which indicates the growing awareness about women’s role for the society.

History says that the role of women have been of utmost importance in the society. As men used to go out doing their jobs in the fishing and pearling industries for months, women used to take care of the needs of family besides raising their children, which cannot be denied to be an easy task in the hot desert weather. But, due to difference in the work done and a few other aspects, women were rarely treated at par with men. (Wilson)

Issue

Nowadays, with the recognition of women as a key person in the development, this face has changed to completely opposite. Women are making a significant progress towards better participation in events at both national level and also at local levels. A most significant achievement was during the time of elections in 2007 in which 22% of the seats were occupied by women. Presently, nine women among them are the members of the body of 40-members. Also, half of this strength is appointed which gives UAE a far superior degree of representation of women in the legislature than any other nations in the Gulf.

Pre-Arguments

Women of the Emirates have performed a key role in the modernizations processes through their participation in the women’s associations throughout the country. These associations have laid stones to train the women in vocational courses, welfare assistance, placements and also in health care sector. Women of the Emirates are found in significant number in the five detailed economic industries, some details; females make up 20% of the public segment. Women outstandingly hold positions in the Education sector and also in the government with 30% women playing key decision-making roles.

Not just in the field of job market, but UAE women also seem to have entered the education sector with the fact that the total enrollment of the female students in the higher education has grown to 40%.

Apart from the above discussed facts about women in UAE which portray a growing trend of female empowerment in different aspects, there are areas in which women lag behind men which are to be concentrated upon. The healthy trend observed in education doesn’t seem to be visible in the participation of women in the economy which stands at a mere 7%. A study at the global level on entrepreneurs proved that the participation of female entrepreneurs in the economy of UAE is extremely low when compared to men and women in other countries; let it be a startup company or an established firm. The women in UAE comprise of only a mere 4% in the private sector and they are mostly in the private financial companies. The female established industries contain of only 16.2% of the total net GDP in the Non-oil sector. (Women in United Arab Emirates, 2010)

If the number of unemployed women is compared to the number of unemployed men, women stand at a higher figure of 71% and men are at 29. Efforts should be done to improve these numbers in order to see complete development in every field. Women also are active in the military establishment. Specially trained women cops would provide security to the female VIPs and also take part in the military activities.

Discussion
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVESS TO IMPROVE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT:

The government of United Arab Emirates has tried to improve the roles played by women in the recent past. This made the UAE a leader for rights of women in the Arabian Countries. Before the discovery of oil in 1960, there were a very less number of opportunities for women in the country outside their home and family. As per the constitution, equality for women on par with men is guaranteed including the areas like legal status, title claims and even in access to the education. The stepping stones for women empowerment were laid by the then President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahvan’s wife Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak. She was the founder of General Women’s Union (GWU) which still stands as a powerful component of State and in participation in the various initiatives of the organization. (Salama, 2008)

The leaders of Emirates have keenly tried to promote the complete participation of the women in society activities, aligned with the objectives of optimizing the human resources. Not only did the government take steps to improve the condition of women in the UAE but also, there were associations formed which work autonomously for the improvement of life of women. Not only operating in their circles, but the six existing women associations were joined together to expand their reach to the public more and more and to provide more services to women.

The government has launched a new statute of law under which, new laws would be incorporated on issues related to protecting women and also to provide family guidance, divorce issues and compensation, etc. The UAE government has also signed agreements internationally to specific issues related to the women and children welfare. United Arab Emirates was the first country to establish a college for women army recruits among the Gulf countries. The Dubai Women and Children Shelter started by the government to protect women and children from domestic violence the face every day. Under this project, support and emotional care would be provided to the sufferers of abuse and crimes such as human trafficking. The government has launched many projects and awards for women to encourage them and make their role known to everyone. Example can be taken about the Intelaq project which aims at increasing the participation of women in the government departments. Because of these new initiatives, the government has offered women, the jobs that are reserved for men like the appointment of Fatima Saeed Obaid Al Awani as the country’s first female marriage registrar. (Salama, 2008)

As a result of all the initiatives and projects, United Arab Emirates was ranked at 29th position among the 177 countries for Gender Empowerment Measures which is the best rating any country in the Arab World has received. Along with this, the Chairperson of the GWU, Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak was awarded with the Mohammad Medal, the highest honor given by the UN. (Women in the UAE, 2010)

CHALLENGES WOMEN EMPOWERMENT FACES:

Even after witnessing such a progress regarding the women empowerment and their participation in different activities related to development of the society, still they face discrimination and there are forces which try to stop this progress of women. The major rejection is from the male folks who cannot see women going ahead of them. Even as UAE has the highest number of women representation in the parliament, there are issues and challenges to be dealt with to completely eradicate the evil against women development. The government has taken appreciable steps and established applauding projects; progress of women is still facing problems in the private sector. The employment representation of women in the private sector is very less when compared to the strength of the male employees.

Tradition and culture is another threat to the women development. The cultural and traditional factors impact every aspect related to the society. People with more traditional beliefs perceive that the development of women would trade-off the values and ethics being followed for many centuries and this would halt the progress of women. Women are meant to be good decision makers and can handle multiple tasks at a time where as men cannot. Women are known for their patience, strong analytical skills and dedication towards work which would bring them far ahead of the male employees. This fear of overpower and dominance by a female is a main cause why women cannot progress in the society. (Ioannidis)

Harassment of women at the work place is another factor due to which the progress stops at the beginning that is women fear to enter into the male dominated world fearing harassment.

Lack of funds and support is another reason why women entrepreneurs cannot do well in the market. Even after having a good idea and plan to start up the business, women can rarely progress in the market due to lack of available funds or due to lack of support from their colleagues. According to a recent research, the progress of a woman can be endangered by another woman if not by a male peer. Women employers rarely encourage their female subordinates to progress fearing dominance by their subordinates at some point and this clearly is another main obstruction to the women empowerment.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:

From the discussion above, it is clearly evidential that the women are progressing in the path of empowerment and also it is made clear that the government has recognized the role of women in improving the society and her family. Women are known for making decisions in the right way at times of stake. The UAE has also been seeing a great amount of progress in this area: The women literacy rate has gone up to 90% in 2007; Increased number of women enrolled for the higher education when compared to men (24% more than men); Every five students have three female children in higher education; Women are 66% consisted in the government sector jobs; Women entering into crucial areas like the military, air force and police are a few important achievements apart from many others made in the UAE towards women empowerment. This process of empowering women is a continuous and never ending path in which every step taken towards attaining women empowerment would certainly earn the country and the society a lot.

While the above discussion states that women empowerment is a necessary for development of any country, there are also few factors that bar the progress of women and hence that of the country. Those are to be dealt with utmost focus and attention. The government should try to launch more programs in order to encourage female participation in the arts, culture and other social activities. It is also beneficial if the government provides all kind of monetary or mental support needed for female entrepreneurs which would benefit in attaining more development. Women in UAE are into the fields of army, police and air-force which were perceived as only male oriented areas earlier. This shows that with proper amount of training and guidance, women can perform well even in shop-floor related jobs. Women can be provided coaching in work related issues and also they can be educated regarding the traditions and culture so that the culture which is being followed from centuries would not get affected and also there would be development.

From all the discussion above, it can be concluded that women are key role players in the development of any economy and an economy which gives a considerable amount of importance to this would definitely see progress towards success and development of the society as a whole. Also, it can be said that with proper care and education methods, the traditions wouldn’t get disturbed and so is the progress of a country.

The album of the modern world is portrayed by class and caste systems, the mere reflections of social inequality in human society. Class and caste are the form of the social stratification. The division of society into classes or strata, which form a hierarchy of prestige and power, is an universal feature of social structure. In this paper mainly focus on the basic concept of caste and class of society and in Indian context the changing trend of the caste system.

What is Caste:

‘Caste’ is the name of an ancient social institution that has been part of Indian history and culture for thousands of years. Wikipedia states that, “A caste is a combined social system of, endogamy, culture, social class, and political power.”

“Any of the hereditary, endogamous social classes or subclasses of traditional Hindu society, stratified according to Hindu ritual purity, especially the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra castes”.

The nature and function of the caste system:

The statutory commission report in 1930 stated about the nature and function of the caste in India as,

“Every Hindu necessarily belongs to the caste of his parents and in that caste he inevitably remains. No accumulation of wealth and no exercise of talents can alter his caste status and marriage outside his caste is prohibited or severely discouraged”.

Renowned scholar Paul H. Landis has remarked as,

“No ambitious young Indian of a lower class can ever hope to be a Brahmin. Here the class differences are strong that the lowest class, the untouchables are not allowed even to touch the garments of the highest or Brahmin class. They (untouchables) die in the hope that they will be reborn into a better class”.

From the various statements it becomes clear that caste continue to be an overpowering influence in the social, economical and political life of the country. The Indian village system is tied up with caste hierarchy.

Origin of caste: some views

Caste or more precisely ‘varna’ for which the former a Portuguese synonyms, has come into wide use in comparative literature in recent years. It has been an invariable dimension of the social evolution in india during the last 3500years. During the Rigvedic period the Aryan community had started splitting into classes – Brahma, Kashata and visa. It is only in one of the later hymns ‘purushasuktha’ that a reference has been made to the four classes of Indian society. The names of the four classes were given in the sukta as Brahma, Rajanya, vaisya and sudra. The earlier division into these groups or section or varnas represented division of labour and division of social product. The original in habitants, portrayed as blackish people were called as ‘Dasas’ by the Aryans, the invaders. These Dasas were over powered by the Aryans and when the conquered class were transformed into a service class, new relations of production came into being. The Dasas were known as the ‘Sudras’ the fifth caste in the Aryan fold of the Indian society.

Phule’s theory of the caste system was that it was created by the Aryans or Iranis Bhats or Brahmins. Before the coming of Irani Brahmins, Indian society was a casteless or classless agricultural community. The Grammarian Patanjali (Bc.200) commenting on panninis rule classified the countries of his times as ‘Abrahmaniko Desah'(non-Brahmin countries) and ‘vrshalak desah'(Brahmin countries). Dr. B.R. Ambedkar attempted to prove that the sudras originally constituted the solar Kshatriya caste of the vedic Aryan society, but that since the Brahmins refused to perform ‘upanayana’ for them they were pushed down to the fourth caste.

Definitions of caste:

The word caste is derived from the Spanish word “caste”, meaning breed, race, strain or heredity. The Portuguese, when they came to India used the term to identify the caste divisions.

In the words of Madan and Majumdar, “caste is a closed group”.

To C.H Cooley, “When a class is some what strictly hereditary, we may call it a caste”.

The most commonly cited defining features of caste are the following:

Caste is determined by birth – a child is “born into” the caste of its parents. Caste is never a matter of choice. One can never change one’s caste, leave it, or choose not to join it, although there are instances where a person may be expelled from their caste.

Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage. Caste groups are “endogamous”, i.e. marriage is restricted to members of the group.

Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing. What kinds of food may or may not be eaten is prescribed and who one may share food with is also specified.

Caste involves a system consisting of many castes arranged in a hierarchy of rank and status. In theory, every person has a caste, and every caste has a specified place in the hierarchy of all castes. While the hierarchical position of many castes, particularly in the middle ranks, may vary from region to region, there is always a hierarchy.

Castes also involve sub-divisions within themselves, i.e., castes almost always have sub-castes and sometimes sub-castes may also have sub-sub-castes. This is referred to as a segmental organisation.

Castes were traditionally linked to occupations. A person born into a caste could only practice the occupation associated with that caste, so that occupations were hereditary, i.e. passed on from generation to generation. On the other hand, a particular occupation could only be pursued by the caste associated with it -members of other castes could not enter the occupation.

Social structure and cultural aspects of the caste system:

The nature of caste system in India can be studied as a social structural system and as a cultural system representing the unique feature of Indian cultures:

Social Structural Aspects:

The caste system is a hierarchy of values in terms of the concept of purity and impurity.

It is organized as a characteristic hereditary division of labour.

It is committed to organic coordination with the larger communities.

Dumont, the French sociologist used the term ‘homo-hierarchy’ meant for the minority opposition and mutual repulsion in the inter-caste relationship.

There is a lot of cooperation especially in the socio-religious lines between various castes.

Cultural Aspects :

The cultural or symbolic system of caste has the following important things:

A hierarchy of values in terms of the concept of purity and impurity.

Hereditary transmission of psychological traits with in caste groups.

The concepts of karma and punarjanma giving one’s attitudes and ways of life.

Commitment to caste occupation of caste style.

Tolerance of different styles of life of other castes.

What is Social Class?

A social class may be defined as a stratum of people of similar position in the social status continuum. The social position of the George is not the same as that of the college president; a student will not greet them in exactly the same manner. Most of us are deferential towards those whose social position we believe to be above our and are condescending to those whom we consider socially below us. The members of a social class view one another as social equals, while holding themselves to be socially superior to some and socially inferior to others. The members of a particular social class often have about the same amount of money, but what is more important is that they have much the same attitudes, values and ways of life. Social class is a very important from a social stratification. Class system is universal phenomena. Nowadays classes are in increasing and new classes are coming into being in various parts of the world. Class system in a society in determined by economic conditions, occupational conditions, abilities, hereditary factors, educational factors etc. Every society is gradated into various social classes and each class has its status in society. To understand more about social class one has to depend on some definitions given by social scientists.

Definition of Social Class:

T.H. Marshal defined by stating that “A system or structure of social class involves first, a hierarchy of status groups and secondly the recognition of the superior-inferior stratification and finally some degree of permanency of the structure”.

In the word of Ogburn and Nimcoff, “By a social class we mean one or two or more broad groups of individuals who are ranked by the members of the community in socially superior and inferior positions”.

To Lapiere, “a social class is a culturally defined group that is accorded a particular position or status within the population as a whole”.

Characteristics of the Class:

Social class is a very important from of social stratification in the modern times. Following are the main features of class:

Hierarchy of status groups:

In the class system , everyone has its own status. In other words social class is a status group. Based on their features and resources, some people occupy high status, some middle status and yet some others rest at the lowest position. In modern complex society each class feels that they belong to a specific group.

Class- Consciousness:

In the class system every social class develops class consciousness and the status consciousness results in psychological separation.

Open system:

Social class system is an open one in society. The social position of one individual is based up on the factors like his profession, personal merits, dignity and wealth. The more an individual develops his abilities so as to be useful to society better he is placed in the social hierarchy. In the class system a person can move upward or downward, depending upon his personal attainments, merits and demerits, abilities and disabilities.

Objective Factors:

Economic condition, profession position, education, health, race etc are objectives factors of the social class system. Class consciousness resulting from the feeling of superiority and inferiority are to the called as subjective factors. When these subjective factors integrated into the objective ones, class organization occurs.

Class is not only an economic division:

Karl Max and Engels have the opinion that class division and economic inequalities alone lead to class difference. According to them social classes originate only from economic conditions. But our sociologists like Mac Iver mention that economic factor is only one of the factors for the origin of class system.

Class is not only an occupational division:

It is wrong to consider social class is an occupational division. It is restricting the scope of the social class. The criteria of high and low, superior and inferior cannot be specifically applied to professions.

Social mobility:

Class system involves greater scope for social mobility. According to A. Sorokin, social mobility is of two kinds; Horizontal and Vertical. Horizontal social mobility is movement from one social status to another social status of the same level. E.g. An engineer who is working in the Ford motor company goes to general motors co. as an engineers of the same grade. Vertical social mobility is the movement upward or downward e.g. A Director moves down to the position of an Assistant Director.

Social Class: Marxian View

The basic frame work for the dynamic of social change was laid down by Karl Marx through his materialistic interpretation of history and theory of class struggle. Opening the first chapter of their communist manifesto, Karl Marx and Engels stated:

“The history of all hitherto existing society(i.e. all written history) is the history of class struggle”.

Marxian theory, materialistic and economically oriented, views class attitudes and class consciousness as fundamentally a reflection of economic conditions. Under the Marxian concept there are only two classes namely petty Bourgeois capitalists and the proletariats or the working class. Marx’s distribution of the classes was mainly on economic basis that had comes as a subject of criticisms to sociologist like Mac Iver. Karl Marx conceived the relation between these two classes essentially based on the means of production, followed by the exploitation of the Bourgeoisie class up on the working class. Regarding classes and their relation with each other Marx has set three assumption in ‘selected correspondence’.

Classes are bound up with particular historical phases in the development of production.

Classes are bound to lead a struggle between two classes namely Petty Bourgeois capitalists and the working class.

The class struggle between those two classes necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariats by over throwing the ruling capitalist from power.

Marx and Engles have described classes as economic conflict groups that are divided on the basis of the possession of the various instruments of production. Thus it is believed that an industrial society is connected with two classes- petty Bourgeoisie capitalist and proletarate workers. Before the industrial revolution there were only two classes, ‘Landlords’ and the ‘Agriculturists’.

Class system in India:

In village India, where nearly 74 percent of the population resides, caste and class affiliations overlap. According to anthropologist Miriam Sharma, “Large landholders who employ hired labour are overwhelmingly from the upper castes, while the agricultural workers themselves come from the ranks of the lowest–predominantly Untouchable–castes.” She also points out that household-labor-using proprietors come from the ranks of the middle agricultural castes. Distribution of other resources and access to political control follow the same pattern of caste-cum-class distinctions. Although this congruence is strong, there is a tendency for class formation to occur despite the importance of caste, especially in the cities, but also in rural areas.

In an analysis of class formation in India, anthropologist Harold A. Gould points out that a three-level system of stratification is taking shape across rural India. He calls the three levels Forward Classes (higher castes), Backward Classes (middle and lower castes), and Harijans (very low castes). Members of these groups share common concerns because they stand in approximately the same relationship to land and production–that is, they are large-scale farmers, small-scale farmers, and landless laborers. Some of these groups are drawing together within regions across caste lines in order to work for political power and access to desirable resources. For example, since the late 1960s, some of the middle-ranking cultivating castes of northern India have increasingly cooperated in the political arena in order to advance their common agrarian and market-oriented interests. Their efforts have been spurred by competition with higher-caste landed elites.

In cities other groups have vested interests that crosscut caste boundaries, suggesting the possibility of forming classes in the future. These groups include prosperous industrialists and entrepreneurs, who have made successful efforts to push the central government toward a pro-business stance; bureaucrats, who depend upon higher education rather than land to preserve their positions as civil servants; political officeholders, who enjoy good salaries and perquisites of all kinds; and the military, who constitute one of the most powerful armed forces in the developing world.

Economically far below such groups are members of the menial underclass, which is taking shape in both villages and urban areas. As the privileged elites move ahead, low-ranking menial workers remain economically insecure. Were they to join together to mobilize politically across lines of class and religion in recognition of their common interests, Gould observes, they might find power in their sheer numbers.

India’s rapidly expanding economy has provided the basis for a fundamental change–the emergence of what eminent journalist Suman Dubey calls a “new vanguard” increasingly dictating India’s political and economic direction. This group is India’s new middle class–mobile, driven, consumer-oriented, and, to some extent, forward-looking. Hard to define precisely, it is not a single stratum of society, but straddles town and countryside, making its voice heard everywhere. It encompasses prosperous farmers, white-collar workers, business people, military personnel, and myriad others, all actively working toward a prosperous life. Ownership of cars, televisions, and other consumer goods, reasonable earnings, substantial savings, and educated children (often fluent in English) typify this diverse group. Many have ties to kinsmen living abroad who have done very well.

The new middle class is booming, at least partially in response to a doubling of the salaries of some 4 million central government employees in 1986, followed by similar increases for state and district officers. Unprecedented liberalization and opening up of the economy in the 1980s and 1990s have been part of the picture.

There is no single set of criteria defining the middle class, and estimates of its numbers vary widely. The mid-range of figures presented in a 1992 survey article by analyst Suman Dubey is approximately 150 to 175 million–some 20 percent of the population–although other observers suggest alternative figures. The middle class appears to be increasing rapidly. Once primarily urban and largely Hindu, the phenomenon of the consuming middle class is burgeoning among Muslims and prosperous villagers as well. According to V.A. Pai Panandikar, director of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, cited by Dubey, by the end of the twentieth century 30 percent–some 300 million–of India’s population will be middle class.

The middle class is bracketed on either side by the upper and lower echelons. Members of the upper class–around 1 percent of the population–are owners of large properties, members of exclusive clubs, and vacationers in foreign lands, and include industrialists, former maharajas, and top executives. Below the middle class is perhaps a third of the population–ordinary farmers, tradespeople, artisans, and workers. At the bottom of the economic scale are the poor–estimated at 320 million, some 45 percent of the population in 1988–who live in inadequate homes without adequate food, work for pittances, have undereducated and often sickly children, and are the victims of numerous social inequities.

Changing Pattern of Caste system in India:

Despite many problems, the caste system has operated successfully for centuries, providing goods and services to India’s many millions of citizens. The system continues to operate, but changes are occurring. India’s constitution guarantees basic rights to all its citizens, including the right to equality and equal protection before the law. The practice of untouchability, as well as discrimination on the basis of caste, race, sex, or religion, has been legally abolished. All citizens have the right to vote, and political competition is lively. Voters from every stratum of society have formed interest groups, overlapping and crosscutting castes, creating an evolving new style of integrating Indian society.

Castes themselves, however, far from being abolished, have certain rights under Indian law. As described by anthropologist Owen M. Lynch and other scholars, in the expanding political arena caste groups are becoming more politicized and forced to compete with other interest groups for social and economic benefits. In the growing cities, traditional intercaste interdependencies are negligible.

Independent India has built on earlier British efforts to remedy problems suffered by Dalits by granting them some benefits of protective discrimination. Scheduled Castes are entitled to reserved electoral offices, reserved jobs in central and state governments, and special educational benefits. The constitution mandates that one-seventh of state and national legislative seats be reserved for members of Scheduled Castes in order to guarantee their voice in government. Reserving seats has proven useful because few, if any, Scheduled Caste candidates have ever been elected in non-reserved constituencies.

Educationally, Dalit students have benefited from scholarships, and Scheduled Caste literacy increased (from 10.3 percent in 1961 to 21.4 percent in 1981, the last year for which such figures are available), although not as rapidly as among the general population. Improved access to education has resulted in the emergence of a substantial group of educated Dalits able to take up white-collar occupations and fight for their rights.

There has been tremendous resistance among non-Dalits to this protective discrimination for the Scheduled Castes, who constitute some 16 percent of the total population, and efforts have been made to provide similar advantages to the so-called Backward Classes (see Glossary), who constitute an estimated 52 percent of the population. In August 1990, Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap (V.P.) Singh announced his intention to enforce the recommendations of the Backward Classes Commission (Mandal Commission–see Glossary), issued in December 1980 and largely ignored for a decade. The report, which urged special advantages for obtaining civil service positions and admission to higher education for the Backward Classes, resulted in riots and self-immolations and contributed to the fall of the prime minister. The upper castes have been particularly adamant against these policies because unemployment is a major problem in India, and many feel that they are being unjustly excluded from posts for which they are better qualified than lower-caste applicants.

As an act of protest, many Dalits have rejected Hinduism with its rigid ranking system. Following the example of their revered leader, Dr. Ambedkar, who converted to Buddhism four years before his death in 1956, millions of Dalits have embraced the faith of the Buddha. Over the past few centuries, many Dalits have also converted to Christianity and have often by this means raised their socioeconomic status. However, Christians of Dalit origin still often suffer from discrimination by Christians–and others–of higher caste backgrounds.

Despite improvements in some aspects of Dalit status, 90 percent of them live in rural areas in the mid-1990s, where an increasing proportion–more than 50 percent–work as landless agricultural laborers. State and national governments have attempted to secure more just distribution of land by creating land ceilings and abolishing absentee landlordism, but evasive tactics by landowners have successfully prevented more than minimal redistribution of land to tenant farmers and laborers. In contemporary India, field hands face increased competition from tractors and harvesting machines. Similarly, artisans are being challenged by expanding commercial markets in mass-produced factory goods, undercutting traditional mutual obligations between patrons and clients. The spread of the Green Revolution has tended to increase the gap between the prosperous and the poor–most of whom are low-caste.

The growth of urbanization (an estimated 26 percent of the population now lives in cities) is having a far-reaching effect on caste practices, not only in cities but in villages. Among anonymous crowds in urban public spaces and on public transportation, caste affiliations are unknown, and observance of purity and pollution rules is negligible. Distinctive caste costumes have all but vanished, and low-caste names have been modified, although castes remain endogamous, and access to employment often occurs through intracaste connections. Restrictions on interactions with other castes are becoming more relaxed, and, at the same time, observance of other pollution rules is declining–especially those concerning birth, death, and menstruation. Several growing Hindu sects draw members from many castes and regions, and communication between cities and villages is expanding dramatically. Kin in town and country visit one another frequently, and television programs available to huge numbers of villagers vividly portray new lifestyles. As new occupations open up in urban areas, the correlation of caste with occupation is declining.

Caste associations have expanded their areas of concern beyond traditional elite emulation and local politics into the wider political arenas of state and national politics. Finding power in numbers within India’s democratic system, caste groups are pulling together closely allied subcastes in their quest for political influence. In efforts to solidify caste bonds, some caste associations have organized marriage fairs where families can make matches for their children. Traditional hierarchical concerns are being minimized in favor of strengthening horizontal unity. Thus, while pollution observances are declining, caste consciousness is not.

Education and election to political office have advanced the status of many Dalits, but the overall picture remains one of great inequity. In recent decades, Dalit anger has been expressed in writings, demonstrations, strikes, and the activities of such groups as the Dalit Panthers, a radical political party demanding revolutionary change. A wider Dalit movement, including political parties, educational activities, self-help centers, and labor organizations, has spread to many areas of the country.

In a 1982 Dalit publication, Dilip Hiro wrote, “It is one of the great modern Indian tragedies and dangers that even well meaning Indians still find it so difficult to accept Untouchable mobility as being legitimate in fact as well as in theory. . . .” Still, against all odds, a small intelligentsia has worked for many years toward the goal of freeing India of caste consciousness.

Factor contributing to caste change:

The main factors responsible for the changes of caste system are:

Modern education:

Modern education is one of the major factors for weakening of the caste. It has gone to make negative impacts upon casteism. As modern education is deeply ingrained into the values such as liberty, equality and fraternity, it gives no place for hoary social evils and practices like casteism. Education also encouraged inter-caste marriage. The feeling of untouchability and prejudices are being gradually eliminated from the mind of the children of all caste.

Industrialization:

With the advent of industrialization people of all castes were forced to find out employment in factories in big cities. In the industrial centers members of different castes came into mutual contact, made harmonious relationship with other and forgot the caste barriers.

Urbanization:

Industrialization, transportation and widened communication are the main facors responsible to decrease the sentiment of the caste from the people to a greater extent. Higher caste members who moved to urban areas for pursuing employment found it difficult to retain their caste ideas and practice.

Significance of wealth:

In the past power of money was not much dominating factor in the society. Today wealth is replacing caste as the basis of social prestige. In other words money has become a deciding factor for influencing human life at present.

Rise of Nationalism:

Nationalism bound up with the concept of ‘universal brotherhood’ has opened up new volumes in inter-caste relations. It seems to have helped to a considerable extent in shortening the prejudices of casteism from the mind of people in rural areas.

Effect of social reforms:

Social reform movement had also gone to a wider extent in diminishing caste prejudices from the upper caste minds. Social reformer like Babasaheb, Ambedkar, Balgangadhar Tilak, Ranade had done a lot for removing caste distinction and prejudice from the mind of Indians.

Conclusion:

The strength of caste themselves, of the individual’s attachment to his own caste, it may be claimed that the traditional caste system has been profoundly altered. In that system each individual caste had its ascribed place and co-operated with each other castes in a traditional economy and in ritual. No doubt there was always some competition between castes and there were changes in position in the hierarchy of prestige; but there was no generalized competition. It is quit otherwise with the modern caste associations, which exist in order to compete for wealth, educational opportunities and social prestige in a much more open society. The class interests and demands of the toiling people, the poor and the oppressed, has largely been expressed in the form of caste politics. Articulated within the structures of India’s democracy, this caste based politics has succeeded in providing significant relief to the lower castes, who form the overwhelming majority of India’s toiling masses. Next week, this column will look at the consequences of lower caste politics in contemporary India.

Introduction

This essay consists of debates from three different social science perspectives analysing the issue of the changing nature of the family.The main argument of the essay is that the ,what reasons lead phenomenon of lone parent families and how it affects to society with focus on the Economics ,Sociology and Anthropology .

This study will examine the long term effects of family divorce on children from lone parent families in comparison to the intact families. The major objective of this essay is to ascertain the extent to which the life experiences of children who experienced parental marital disruption differ from those whose parents remained together.

Main body

Despite the fact that what our society as a whole focuses people on family creation ,the single parent lifestyle becomes more and more popular. However singles are not monolithic social group as among them is dissolved, widowers and widows, and also those who even never married.

Economic perspectives:

Firstly ,from the economic perspectives it will explain :

The number of single parent double increased since the 1970s and It means is par of wider patterns of change in family structure. (Jane Millar 1991.p247) .According to Jane Millar, these changes in family structure represent, some problems for social policy, especially such problems as state financial support of families. The British system of social protection of families it has been based on three important points, the most important form of family support was – with man’s wages which help the state replace under certain conditions. (For example in such cases as unemployment ,illnesses , inability or death.)

Besides laws in Great Britain have been based on the idea and they meant that when the woman will marry, their husbands would care of them. (Jane Lewis 1997, p.52) Actually, anything above is not correct more because of revolutionary changes in a role, the status and fundamental understanding of principles of marriage and expectations of a way of life.

The increasing number of lonely parental families mentions and causes the basic problems about balance between a family and the state and separate financial duties and about roles of men and women as the parent and as workers. In 1991, it was the certificate of the Birth grant which has been carried out since 1993, represents attempt to change this balance, entering the new mechanism for settlement and the instruction of payment of service for children. (Kahn and Kamerman,1988 p248)

Sociology perspectives:

Secondly the most appreciable phenomenon characterising infringements of unity of a family are divorces. They promote comprehension by the person as imperfections of a family, and its social importance, it simultaneously all members of the family will get strong stress or even may cause illness and the valuable knowledge connected with the nature of the individual.

Divorces in modern societies became the mass phenomenon. Their growth confirms the theory of the known philosopher of (M.Heidegger) about loss by the modern person of roots [216, with. 106]. Nevertheless both parents in destroyed family exercise less supervision over their child than parents exercise in intact families.(Jan Pryor and bryan Rodgers 2001,p 101). When parent divorce, often brings big changing life on children. For example there may be some changes like moving to a new place, house or moving to a new school . Loss of friendship and other familiar environment can switch on such changes in a family in itself (Sandler, Tein and the West, 1994) .For which it’s the potential factor, a source of numerous psihologo-pedagogical, mediko-social, socially-legal, is material-household and other problems suffer.

Growth of number of the terminated marriages so, and children in the dissolved families in UK it is imposed on the processes accompanying an economic crisis (socially-legal vulnerability, poverty, unemployment and so forth) In this connection the problems generated by divorce, are perceived more sharply. Unfortunately, in the domestic family-demographic policy and social practice there was no concept of protection of children in a divorce situation, the complex and system approach to the decision of their problems is not developed, possibilities of minimisation of destructive consequences of divorces are a little used. The steady tendency of increase in number of the dissolved families does not allow to hope for fast elimination of the phenomenon and compels, along with measures on reduction of number of divorces, to bring an attention to the question on search of ways of optimisation of process of socialisation of minors within the limits of the broken most up family, that is about preventive maintenance and indemnification of negative consequences of parental rupture for children. These circumstances do actual a theme of the given work.

Despite the fact that lone parents have more skills on growing of children, single parents arise often difficulties with discipline and behavior of child problems. Single parents usually appears stirred up by children or teenagers with difficult character and it is simple not in a condition to support the same level of discipline which can be in a family with both parents. Children of single parent family appear in problem situations and child have usually less parental control, than children who lives with both parents.

Moreover Single- parents can be both fathers, and mothers, they can not possess skills on education. When the father contains a family, it should be sensitive to female problems, as well as to problems of boys if father has a daughter. Usually fathers are considered as those who brings home money and no more. In case of lone parents, the father should be able all gradually and replace a role of mum in a family.

Even, when there are both parents, who transfer there back the child every week, should try to create the uniform environment for the child without dependence how they concern to each other. Everyone parents, actually, single parents should remain within certain parametres so that the child did not feel as if it or it can “press” on one or other parent. The discipline should be uniform and it is impossible to allow for the child to divide parents, simply.

Final referencing

1 ) ??? Nowadays men and women, have no limits of choosing work any more, both become are equal. As a consequence they can be now less confident the partner of a male and not the dependent in general. (Jane Lewis, 1997, p.104) ???

2 ) nado ili nenado ?Field(1989) argues that one of the main divisions currently emerging is that between lone mothers locked into long-term dependency on welfare benefits and others who pass through lone parenthood for brief periods .

The stigma connected with single parents and children of single parents, is saved. Scientists continue to find the consent by the nature and size of family effects of structure on children. Some believed that the family structure negatively affects on the development of the child while others have accepted the fact what even with single parents there are some evidences that children have completely developed emotionally and intellectually despite their circumstances agree (Hawkins and 1991 Eggebeen), unlike a stereotypic kind of single parental house economy as is integral imperfect, the majority of single parents provides structure, values and nurturance which their children require despite problems and critical remarks which they face. Their houses are not broken, their lives are not unfortunate, and their children can have problems, but most finally to prosper. (Walsh, 2003, p123) it is similar Petterson (2001) also asserted that successful single parental house economy throw down a challenge to concept that the most healthy structure demands two parents.

The death process is permanent and predictable and it is known as the personal event that the person can never think. The history of deaths has been looked upon events of social importance and each and every culture has defined some rules and regulations to define death as an extraordinary passage and the way to deal with the outcomes. At the time of twentieth century, the terminology death along with its social definition has transformed and prepared extraordinary opportunities for the purpose of getting sociological inquiry. The decline in the mortality rate has been identified as most common feature within the social histories. Life expectancy rate the time of birth has increased from last 30 years in 1900 to 50 years. It has been stated that almost two third part of longevity from ancient times to the present times has occurred in the short period from 1900 (Preston, 1976).

Death has been an inevitable event since the inception of mankind in this universe. There is always the worry among individuals towards the life and well being. The individuals are worried at one or the other instance for living their lives. Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand what are the exact factors related to death and dying of humanity. An individual, if not dies, can result in disturbance of life cycle of this globe. This is not under the control of anyone to make amendments in this life cycle.

The report here titled as, “Death and dying: Changing attitudes through the ages”; discusses about various factors that are affecting the lives of individuals. Report begins here with a clear focus laid on the aims of the report followed by research questions to understand the topic thoroughly. Various factors had been found of importance to be studied. There has always been a question in mind whether and how an individual behaves towards death and is it considered a positive aspect or not. How the individuals are are fear of death and what the right time of death is. These all aspects are explored in the report in below sections to have a thorough control over the research topic.

2 Aims and Research Question

The research report here aims to understand the struggle that human being is facing since centuries. The change in philosophy associated with life is the main cause of change in attitude of human beings towards death. One can explore further this death on relating it with the time period in the life of human history. The western world has increasingly shifted towards change in conception for death due to rise in Christianity and the way it has affected lives (Aries, 1974). Therefore, the below are few stated research questions to explore further the concept of death and dying and the changing attitude:-

Is death good or bad?

How the attitude of individuals has changed towards death and dying?

Is the man of today more worried against death?

What is the right time of death?

The discussion in this report would analyze various associated concepts to explore further the concept of death and dying in today’s life.

3 Discussion

Most of the deaths have occurred among the old aged ones but not among young generation people. The studies in United States reveal that people at the age of 85 years and above has accounted for almost one percent of entire population and they account for 17% of death (J. Brody, 1983). So the deaths have taken new meanings for the society and individual both. Death is not known as an adventitious part of life (Parson, 1963). Smaller number of lives has cut before completing education, work and social life (Preston, 1977). Fatalism provides a higher degree of control as well as predictability (Cf. Lofland, 1978). The delay in the death process has come up with the speed. The social institutions and norms have delayed it. It is not much surprising that death and its social meaning has gone off and the proper understanding of death has been reassessed by sociologists. From past two decades, a considerable literature as a quasi popular and scholarly type has been generated by number of people such as journalists, nurses, psychologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, ethicists, sociologists, social critics and thanatologists (cf. Fulton 1976, 1981; Pollak 1979-80).

The word dying is called as the ultimate shortage of time by Moore (1963) and it has taken a most important point that it has the power to threaten an individual self. A famous person has given his view on the sociological study of death that death always asks for an identity of an individual (Robert Fulton, 1976a). Dying is known as the social process that focuses on the sociological issues that are concerned with the process of dying and self. Researches have not clearly shown the actual conditions of dying. But one British study has talked about the dying among the patients who are living in this world and among the people who are known of their own attitude (Cartwright, Hockey & Anderson, 1973). The attitude of people towards death varies according to the ages and stages of life. Most of the people are living into later years and they have their own predicted on time deaths. A growing number of people are present at the position to consider the sense of their own deaths. Some sociologists have identified themselves engaged in the questions which are related to the death and its social meaning and its relation with the process of dying that how the topic of death is of great importance. What type of attitudes about death people have in their mind? What type of preparations they make for anticipating death (Riley, 1968)?

The first survey in United States have found the attitude of people towards death and that survey was conducted in 1960s (Riley, 1970). That study has assessed the thought about deaths that most of the people at the all ages have non-threatening images of death in their mind. It has found that death is a blessing and it is not dreadful event for the person who dies but it is very sad for the survivors. The study also has revealed that death comes very quickly and few people have argued that death means the people have to suffer a lot. There was significant increase found in the degree to which the deaths process imposed upon the everyday lives of people. People were asked about an uncertainty of deaths or their lives. It has been found that death as a part of thoughts increased among the person at all ages and it increased in the later years of the lives of people. The researchers have found that people are unwilling meet with these realities. In 1970s, people agreed that each person die with the dignity and if the person has died, then the person has to tell it to doctors. Some studies have also taken place within the topic of anticipation of death. There was one question asked that do the people feel good to avoid the deaths and not try to make plans for anticipating deaths? Do they feel to make plans for death?

3.1 Self destruction

The case of the sociological relationships of the person to the death which is known as suicide was taken. There were some sociological studies conducted on the topic dying and death (Cavan 1928; Halbwachs 1930; Henry & Short 1954; Dublin 1963; Gibbs & Martin 1964; Douglas 1967). Several studies have taken place on the social factors that are related with the rates of suicide. Several measures were taken such as industrialization which was identified by the gross national product and the status of integration. It has been founds that status integration was negatively correlated with the suicide rates. Other study revealed about the suicide rates which were related with the family and their marital status and it was based on Durkheim’ theory.

3.2 Self management of death time

It has been stated by several studies that people who are concerned with the relationship of themselves to the society are self motivated for managing the time of their deaths. It has assumed that the determination to live the life without identifying any biological linkages. It must b involved within thistopic (Marshall, 1980). The people who are separated from the society always commit suicide and the people who are attached with it, delay the death or try to observe the time of getting social significance (Kalish, 1970). It has been proposed that deaths can be expected at the time of social occasions such as the Jewish day of compensation (Yom Kippur; Phillips & Feldman, 1973). From the year 1904-1968, researcher had found the difference between the deaths in non election as well as election years. They found that there was significant difference in the mortality rates of US people before electing US president. Some researchers have shown the fact about the low mortality rates just before to ceremonial occasions and the researcher found strong relationships between the death and the birthdays. The theory was that the people at their birthdays receive attention from the people (Philips, 1972).

3.3 Social Stressors and the Self

Several sociological studies have talked about the social outcome for the lives of people along with fundamental changes during the period of industrial relocations, retirement, and institutionalization and at the time of economic depression. The mortality rates depend on these variables. It has been predicted that retirement is known as a stressful event which lead the higher rates of death for retirees as compared to the people who works. Life long work is considered as the stressor and retirement variable acts as the moderator that increases longevity. It has been revealed by the studies that mortality rate among the early and normal retirees within the major industries are different. The mortality rate of early retiree was higher than the predicted rates. The mortality rate in case of normal retirees was no different between the normal and expected rates. Some data was taken out from the companies such as pension, medical records, personnel etc.

4 Findings
4.1 Death is good?

If you are born to this world, you are probable completely to experience death at one time or the other because death is inevitable. The point is whether death is a good thing to experience or is it a bad one? Everyone living in this society faces death at one or the other instance. No one is born eternal. An individual dies and ends his or her life at certain age due to natural or accidental death (Lynch, 1997). There are thousands of ways in which a human being can die. This death adds to the fear in mind of humanity. Human beings fear of this uneven cause at one or the other time.

Death is acceptable for some people, while others fear against death (Nagel, 1970). The pain and fear of death can be dangerous. At such an instance, it becomes important to result in an approach to ensure that a person lives for long; however, the human beings have no control over this mandatory part of life that results into end of life. A human being feels comfortable considering death is for all and there is no loss of it if anyone faces it. All the human beings have to face death one or the other day. The human beings shall live their days and take complete enjoyment of it. One shall not be worried for his death at the entire instance, but shall be aware of comfort and enjoyment throughout his life. Humanity has to take due interest of this and live his life.

While on looking at other side, people consider life as most important asset for them. Life is of supreme importance and there is the life is priceless. Therefore, it brings into attention whether life is most important for one? Yes it is as per the point that life is everything for a human being and the loss of life means the greatest loss that can be in one’s life. There is no positive or negative aspect associated with it though. Human beings give away everything for the sake of life. This brings into attention the importance of life. Shall we live our life without any tension or shall we keep on worrying because of no importance of life? It is true that all the human beings want to live more and more. But, can one live for eternity? None of the human beings is here to be here. The life cycle keeps on rotating and the human beings die.

Thus, from the above discussion it can be noted that the point whether death is good is a complex point to be cleared. It is not easy to find the right way in which we can consider whether death is good for a person or if it is not. There comes the need to assist in the way to come up to know whether death is good or not (Nagel, 1970). If the age has gone for an individual to live, the death could be a favourable point for him. However, it is still tough to say that death can be ‘good’. On the other hand, in case someone dies due to an accident or any uncertain reason, it is an unfavourable act for him.

4.2 Death- A change in Perception

Death has been a point of sorrow since long when the conceptual designs by Holbein demonstrated the paintings of dead Christ with a sorrowful act (Julia, 1989). The perception of individual towards the death changes with the passage of time. For a child, death is not defined. However, in the adulthood, it becomes a fear factor for most of the human beings. The human beings consider it as the real cause of danger at their stage when the love to live. Therefore, individual’s perception is quite conservative at this stage. However, the old aged people are not usually worried of death due to the reason that they already lived their life.

Nagel (1970) has argued that people do not fear for death because of non existence for long term because of this. One does not consider life as suspended for a short period of time because this is considered as a misfortune. It can be a pity for those who get out of the circulation of life. One is not conceived, but is born for once. The point always exists in mind for the fear of death in humanity. Being dead is not an event but a curse as per the humanity. The consideration is laid on living for the whole life without any risk. However, the risks are always related with the life. One cannot be at a state of complete risk free life. The time does not demonstrate whether the state of life would be at complete risk free state. Therefore, the need exists at such an instance to life for the society. As per the interviews conducted by Barnes (2008), responses were collected with regard to existence of God. These provided the details of self reflection along with clarifying important themes of writings. Barnes (2008) says that he does not trust for existence of God, but he misses God.

4.3 Man of today- Worried of death

The man in today’s life is more worried of death (Julian, 2008). On looking at the past records of Renaissance and mediaeval times, it can be noted that death was amongst the community events. The family members band together with each other to share the moments of sorrow at such an instance. This helps them be with each other at typical instances. This was considered as the reason for being together. However, the concept has changed into a religion in today’s time. None of the character is rigid in itself right from the beginning to the end, as there are continuous changes in thought process (Troyer, 2007). Today, it is usual to share the moments of sorrow with each other at hospital to share the tough times with each other. This helps in confining the complex situation with each other to give some support in these times. However, the fear of death is one and the same on comparing time of past and that of present.

The death is such an instance which gets out of the scope of an understanding of human being. This even can occur anytime and anywhere with anyone, no matter what the situation and setting is with the surrounding. An individual conceives death as a complex phenomenon. The death has been a point of worry right from the time it was recorded long- long ago when the humanity started. It is a simple concept in everyone’s mind that life is the cause of joys and death is the cause of sorrows. There is a paradigm shift in the concept associated with death. This was the concept quite personal in historic times, but has become individualistic at present instance. This raises the need for higher degree of need for maintaining and regulating the tough situations to assure that the mankind is out of danger. If an individual gets ready to face the time of death, he can do so. The human psychology is the main factor that can result in death or life of a human being (Michel, 2003).

The perception of an individual depends on his life and profession with regard to death. Doctors and nurses who are operating surrounded by death of people all around one or the other day, consider this as the normal phenomenon at usual instance, while others take it as a tough one. The main factor is the relatedness of death with the person who is suffering from it. This characteristic affects the humanity in one or the other way.

4.4 Dreadful act- Is there right time for it

There has always been a conception in mind, what is the right age for death? One considers life as an important part right from his birth to the time the human being leaves his life (Nagel, 1970). Therefore, the life of humanity is always a good opt for individuals. But, one looking at the real life, we can note a number of events when the individual wishes to leave his life due to some or the other reason. This acts against the humanity and the living being gives up against his life. This may be at early stages of life or might take place at later stages. When an individual feels uncomfortable of his body and physique, the chances are there for taking an interest of ending one’s life. However, these chances even increases more when the human being is not comfortable mentally due to some or the other reason. This acts quite badly against the humanity and the life is at risk.

The death is an imminent part of one’s life as one cannot survive always. The most common components associated with life are death, vision, and premonitions (Crissman, 1994). The situation of promotions are not easy to be faced as it is the time when one knows that he is going to die within short span. This is the main factor that acts against the life and well being. The person gets worried due to this factor. This knowing of the situation can be due to some magical reason, or be supernatural, or through the natural sign or inner conviction (Crissman, 1994). The condition rises to take due care of such an instance; else the chances are there for risk against life and well being. Thereon, the humanity survives only due to the situational success (Bryant, 2003). However, historic people were during the Appalachian culture focused more depending on superstition.

5 Conclusion

For the topic titled as, “Death and dying: Changing attitudes through the age”, the topic was noted to be highly complex in actual sense. It was found that the researchers are contributing well to the research topic since the last century. This demonstrates high degree of interest among the individuals towards this concept. The death is always under the consideration to postpone because of increasing awareness and interest among individuals to live their lives. There is always the moral dilemma related to the euthanasia among individuals.

However, the case of fear is increasingly getting over the lives. Increasingly individuals get involved in wrongful act. This has raised the accidents of suicides to a higher degree. The death in today’s time has shifted towards being more and more deadly. Individuals take more interest in being attracted towards enlarged life. However, the change in attitude of man is still not much different as compared to that of historic times. There is still the importance laid on lives and humanity. This raised the attention among individuals to live for longer duration. On the other hand, the complex lives in today’s time has resulted in increased the complexity of humanity. This further adds to the pressure on the mind of individuals leading them to depression and thus resulting in wrongful acts.

There is no time for death until the end of hope of an individual. This point out increasing interest among individuals to live and enjoy their lives with not much interest laid on the other factors. The fear against death is therefore a phenomenon which does not seem to decrease even after decades. Individuals would be keeping living their lives for more and more years, in spite of this being an uncontrollable variable for individuals.

How has the structure of the family changed in Britain over the last hundred years? Indicate the implications of the changes for the education system.

I am going to start by defining what a family is from a social science dictionary. “A group of individuals related to one another by blood ties, marriage and adoption”. (www.socialsciencedictionary.com/family).

In the nineteenth century the family structure was shaped by the industrial revolution. It spread throughout Britain, and there was a massive increase in the number of factories. As the number of factories grew, people moved from the countryside into towns looking for better paid work. The towns were not ready for this great increase of people and housing was very overcrowded. Rooms were rented to whole families. Family size at this time was between six to twelve children and they all slept and fed in a single room. Muncie, et al (1993) cited that Smith (1986:pg 18) showed that in 1860 the average marriage produced seven children. Also part of the family living in one room were the grandparents, this is known as an extended family. They lived and were looked after by the family because they were a valuable resource, as a childminder. “Kin were an important source of aid in ‘critical life situations’ for example, aging parents, who lived with and were supported by their married children, provided a child-minding service which allowed the mother to work”. (Elliot 1986:p46).

At the beginning of the nineteenth century schools were not very common and none were provided by the state. Children, in the working-class, were seen as benefits to the family as they were sent to work in the factories to help bring in money for the family. There was no compulsory education but Burnett (1982 ) explains that expansion of the Sunday school movement was of a great importance. It brought education opportunities to those who worked 6 days a week. Burnett (1982) also explains that sometimes even the very poor children could not attend Sunday school as they did not have suitable clothes or shoes, and the rich attended much better Sunday schools. Even before state education was around the class divide was great, the rich had better education and the poor couldn’t even attend due to being so poor. England was introduced to universal, free education by these Sunday schools and this developed the system of day-schooling.

As the types of work became more diverse, the machinery in the factories became more technical and needed skilled workers to operate them. This meant there was a need for more educated workers and the state accepted that it needed to provide education for the working class. David (1980:pg33) acknowledges this “The arguments for the state to provide education for the working classes only won acceptance as the economy became more diversified, the need for skilled and trained labour became more critical”. Another reason why education was needed for the working class was the change in women’s employment. Children had no care and needed somewhere to go while their parents were at work. From 1893 all working-class children had to attend school for at least six years, from five years old to the age of eleven. After this children were allowed to be exempt from school as long as they had proof they were going into employment. Sunderland (1971) explained that this lead to most children being exempt from school at the age of eleven as the family needed them to work to provide an income. “Only 14% of the children on the registers of inspected schools were aged twelve and over” Sunderland (1971:pg44)

The First World War brought new opportunities for women. The men were sent to war and the women were able to fill many different roles in the workforce. This was quickly withdrawn after the war and women were expected to withdraw from working and return to full-time care of the house and children. Unfortunately due to recession money had been withdrawn from providing school meals and nursery care for their children had been forced to close and this made it harder for women to be able to work. “Parents were once more forced to rely on their own resources for the care of their children” David (1980:pg58). Women campaigned for more equal rights and in 1918 women over the age of thirty were able to vote and in 1928 the age was lowered to twenty-one. This gave females more rights and freedom in their choices. Unfortunately there was a great depression and unemployment was high so women were unable to work and therefore stayed at home to look after the family.

After World War Two, education in Britain changed, due to the 1944 Education Act. This act made secondary education compulsory and until the age of fifteen. At this time there was a recognition that Britain’s economy needed to be rebuilt and Britain called for immigrant workers. “It attracted for the first time large numbers of workers and families from the Caribbean, Indian and Pakistan” www.nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 14/03/11). This meant that Britain’s non-white population rapidly increased. This influx was not very well received by the British people and the government repeatedly discussed how to try and restrict the immigration from these countries. In schools racism and divide in social class was very high and unless you were white, middle class and non-handicapped; your time at school was seen as a time of prejudice, frustration and lost opportunity. Factors that contributed to this exclusion were the different language and culture the families brought with them. This contributed to them being unable to mix with the British society it was greatly due to people being uneducated in other cultures and religions. Sidney Webb (1894) wrote that we need to generate a body of systematic political thought as a prime task of those who hoped to teach others how practically to transform England into a Social Democratic Commonwealth. “In 1976 the Race Relations Act was introduced and it became lawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour and nationality (including citizenship)” (Hope 2011). This has lead to a change in education which has only recently come into schools; Citizenship classes.

An unawareness of these cultures and languages and the differences between the pupils led to citizenship classes being introduced to the curriculum in September 2002. The national framework introduces citizenship as a subject to develop sound principles of freedom, equality, justice and peace. It allows the students to engage with each other and their community. However not everyone agreed to the significance of citizenship classes and parents wanted to know why Muslims and Jehovah witnesses were allowed to take their children out of the school prayers and they weren’t allowed, as non-believers, to remove their children from the citizenship classes. On 20th January 2011, there was a major review of the national curriculum by the education secretary Michael Gove and he wanted to “demote citizenship to an optional subject” (Shepherd 2011). Teachers argued that this would work against aims of the ‘big society’ and Chris Waller (Head of the Association of Citizenship Teaching) said it would set England back 15 years to when it was the “least politically literate country in the developed world”. In schools, the difference between the pupils in their abilities is seen as being due to their socioeconomic status and linguistic diversity. Bernstein (1971) suggested that there is a difference between working-class and middle class children due to the working class children being linguistically deprived. Because of the child’s different tone, accents and languages spoken, this is seen as not Standard English therefore they are misunderstood in schools. Whereas Labov (1977) suggested that there is a difference not a deficit therefore we should be more accepting and willing to understand these differences. The citizenship classes should help to close this divide and allow not only pupils but teachers to have a greater understanding and allowing them to be educated in the same way as middle class students. Staying with the present time I’m going to look at the family in modern society.

There has been a disappearance of the traditional ‘nuclear’ family and now there are many different types of the family. These include gay and lesbian relationships, adoption and fostering, separation and divorce, re-marriage and single-parents. Many factors have changed in order to create these different types.

“Age at motherhood and first motherhood has risen, family size has fallen and childlessness has increased. Cohabitation has become common, both before marriage and between marriage; rising divorce rates and a near-trebling in the number of lone-parent families”. (Mcrae S, 1999:pg5)

An increase of divorce since the Divorce Law Reform Act 1969 and an increase of births outside of marriage have led to an increase in single-parent families. Usually the single parent in the single-parent families is the mother living on her own with her children; she does the greater share of caring for her children both financially and emotionally. Being able to provide for your family as a lone-parent has become easier with the help of state benefits and social or subsidized housing: but in many cases the mother is usually forced to work in a manual job or be unemployed. There is a concern if children are at an educational disadvantage in these homes. Spencer (2004) of the school of health and social studies reports that lone parenthood is associated with educational problems and that these families are significantly disadvantaged compared with couple families. In the lone-parent homes it is suggested that there is a material disadvantage and a low maternal education. Maternal education is the inequality in a child’s home which does not allow a child to learn things from their mother that will help them develop in life such as what is right and wrong and experiencing affection. This can be due to many factors such as the mother having to work to provide for the family and cannot spend much time at home with her children.

It has been reported by Carneiro, Meghir & Parey (2007) that educated mothers tend to delay in starting a family and when they do they are more likely to be married and have a very good income. The report also shows that the educated mothers are more likely to invest in their children through books and extra tuition; also providing an availability of a computer. In these families it is reported by Caneiro, Meghir & Parey (2007) that the maternal education persists into adolescence which reduces the number of children born to young adults and the number of criminal convictions. On the other hand reports have proven that children’s education is not affected if they come from a lone-parent family. It just depends on what happens in the home; whether the time and interest is taken in the child’s education. If a single parent sets up good morals and standards and lives by example then the children will automatically grow up according to the values set before them. Desai, Chase-Landslade & Michael (1989) have researched into lone-parent mothers and believe their attitudes and ambitions can be changed and instead of accepting that their children will live to be un-educated and therefore not work; they have suggested ways to improve this; such as putting a limit on the number of years the mothers are in receipt of benefit and help them get back to work or even back into higher education to study for a profession. Classes at local community centres have also been introduced to educate mothers in health, education and general well-being to allow the mothers to increase their maternal education.

To conclude the family has taken many different forms over the last 100 years starting with the large families in the industrial revolution where there was not any education and children worked to earn money to support the family. The industrial revolution created a new form of education as factories had more skilled machines and needed experienced workers. Education for working class became universal and allowed every child to be educated and this created an opportunity for women to become more independent and able to work. The post war immigration brought a change to families in the sense of race, culture and language; this created a need for schools to educate children in citizenship. There was a need to understand each other’s cultures and to create a more multicultural society. This brought up disputes between cultures and religions but generally it was seen as a need to make citizenship classes compulsory. This allows not only the children to be educated in the differences in cultures and society but the teachers to understand their pupils too; and to make changes to be able to educate their pupils. Another change to the family structure was the changes in the different types of family in today’s modern society. The main one I focused on was lone-parent families. This has seen to affect education in the sense of these children from the lone-parent families tending to be uneducated maternally in morals and standards. This lead to show they tend to under achieve at school; but there is research and reports in trying to improve ways of educating the parents to help their children in their future and to be able to have a good career.