Category: Free Essays

THE NATURE OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

OKUMAGBA, OGHENERO PAUL, FAYEYE, J.O. & EJECHI, EUCHARIA

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

DEFINITION AND MEANINGS

Different people see Sociological & theory in different ways. Different people have regarded different aspects of sociology as theory and students are also involved because their works are based on theories.

How do we define a theory? In other to give an answer to this question, we must have some definition which must help us in this task.

Mennell, S. (1972) distinguished what a theory should be and what by convention is named Sociological theory. He started by saying that sociology theory in some cases is not sociological theory. What this means is that, it deals in most cases with a body of ideas attached to theory, and this is not always their in the strict Sense of it.

For Mennel a real sociological theory is formalized and ultimately testable explanations which are accumulated to a large extent in the ordinary process of Sociology Research i.e. sociological theory must be related to Sociological Research. Our theories may only try to explain limited and specific properties of reality. They may belong to some or all area of sociology such as Urban sociology, Sociology of the Family, Political sociology etc. i.e. they may only cover an aspect of sociology and not all. They may be what R.K. Merton calls MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES, i.e. theories that are interested in specific or limited areas e.g Social roles.

Mennel goes on to ask the question, what is social theory in the customary sense. Sociological theory is a general collection to topics. it also tends to include the discussion of Some Epistemological issues such as what is science, what is sociological theory. Is it a science? Etc. this is what Stephen Mennel refers to as META THEORY. There is another category which Mennel calls PARA-THEORY. He got this from the works of Ralph Dorhendorf. He defines it as all statement before, around and after Sociological theory which are capable of empirical test themselves but are geared towards theories, We also wasn’t to distinguish this type of theory from what is known a s BASK THEORY. It does not necessary have to be scientifically validated, i.e. it does not contain empirical components as it basis. Although most of the great Sociologists may have developed theory without going on to test them. They ore more or less based on their experience or from reading.

Some writers have called the above type GRAND THEORY. This theory is concerned with providing a scheme that can be used to explain the empirical data of research. This type of theory depends on interrelated construct, concepts, prepositions, scientific statements etc. that presents a systematic view of phenomenon by specifying relationship among variables with the purpose of explaining and predicting phenomenon. This type of their is based on data collected from society and it is usually used in explaining certain segments of social reality. We may s ay that Grand theory is based on abstractive ideologies, patterns and principles which undering given nature and social world order i.e. it is global scheme. Ware as empirically based theory concentrates on formulating, generalizing from specific data in other to explain phenomenon. We may say at this point, that the two seems necessary in order to provide a concueate analysis of social reality. However, they may not be isolated from each. other.

Grand theory tends to be constructed on abstract terms and we may question what process of abstraction does it given to the understanding of the whole social process. Empirically. based theory is derived solely from the data collected from social processes.

For Goode and Hatt:…. a theory states a logical relationship between facts. From this theory other prepositions can be deduced that should be true, if the first relationship holds. These d educed propositions are hypotheses. To them, and to many others as well, a hypothesis is a minor theory. it “states what” were looking for” and “Leads to an empiritical test”. It is a proposition capable to empirical verification but not yet verified.

It is apparent at there is more then a semblance of circularity in the reasoning of those who discuss the relationship between a theory and a hypothesis. It is commonly claimed that all “scientific” hypotheses arc- derivations from empirically supportable theory. It is also typically asserted that every theory had its beginnings in on hypothesis. Hence, one mans hypothesis may be another’s theory. It all depends on the aim and ingenuity of the investigator.

Scientific theories are logical systems of propositions which attempt to account for why phenomena ore the way they are and predict their behaviour. Theories are built of data generated, for example Mertonian paradigms and sociological perspectives are synonymous. The direct data generation and theorizing efforts to some aspects of the social world. Thus one can produce specific theories from a particular perspectives e.g. the theory of segmenting opposition and Merton’s social structure and anomie theory fall within the functional perspective. A theory can also be seen as a logically consistent statement of causal laws. Causal laws ore statements of regularities in concomitant occurrences between antecedents and events. The question we should be asking ourselves is, Are we limited by the process of data collection? We have to have a facilitating relationship between the two. Theories which are based on empirical footing helps to direct the grand theory and provides concrete data for the grand theory and helps the researcher develop a conceptual framework.

The word ‘theory’ derives its meanings and usage from the user. To call a statement a theory is sometimes intended to increase its value by suggesting that it goes beyond ‘mere facts’ e.g when a person says I hove a theory about James he means that he cannot be deceived by him. But sometimes, the word theory as clearly used to reduce the value of a speculative idea by denying it a close connection with reality. In this sense it is often asserted “tings are all right in theory” but not in practice.

Theories would have no value if they did not go beyond facts. Facts are nothing more than statements which we believe to bear truth about particular events which have occurred.

Theories ore not meant to be about particular events but about the whole categories of events, it is generally said that Theories or some theories are nothing but general facts.

A statement general fact would be either a shorthand or number of statements of the same kind or type, a general statements of the characteristics of a type of events.

It is true that all theories go beyond facts; however not all statement which go beyond facts are theories. For example if say that, the colonial masters colonized Nigeria, and established a foreign culture that would otherwise not have developed. I am going beyond facts, but no one can know what culture would have developed if there had been no Colonization in the first instance.

However, one can guess, and ones guess is an hypothesis. This guess is not a theory; because it stated something about particular events or particular complexes or events but it states nothing in general about the characteristics of colonial domination.

To be testable this theory would have to state the kind of evidence that could be treated as refuting it. Instances of species which have survived being w c-Il adapted to particular environment or instances of Species which were well adapted to a particular environment but which had not survived.

In the final analysis, the criterion of a adaptability is the capacity for survival 1.e. One does not really know how adoptable a species is until one has already observed its Capacity for survival. The fact that such a theory is not strictly testable does no mean that it has little value. Its values lies in directing inquiries of the students of evolution In conjunction other theories, some of which are highly testable it has helped evolutionary biologists to explain a great deal.

Its own role is programmatic, it says if you are making enquires of this kind, makes a species more or less adaptable table in a particular environment This has proved useful. This example removed the assumption that if is only the social sciences attempt to be satisfied or utilize theories which ore not strictly testable.

TYPES OF THEORY

Cohen; (1968) in his book Modern Social Theory out lined four broad types of theories and they are as follows: –

Analytical Theory
Normative Theory
Metaphysical theory
Scientific theory
ANALYTICAL THEORY

These are like theories of mathematics or logic which may state nothing about the real world but consist of some sets of axiomatic statements which are true by definition and from which other statements ore derived for example Adam Smith’s their on human economy which stress that people tend to maximize their gains while minimizing their losses.

NORMATIVE THEORY

These theory elaborates a set of ideal state of which one may aspire for example, ideologist fall within this category Normative theories are subjective in the sense that they deal with the ideal or what ought to be rather than what is.

METAPHYSICCAL THEORY

These are theories which are beyond the senses in other words, they have no empirical foundation. A good example is Darwin’s theory on Evolution of man and Malthusian’s theory of population.

SCIENTIFIC THEORIES

This is ideally a universal empirical statement which exacts a causal connection between two or more variables (or types of events). At this simplest, it has this form e.g. whenever x occurs they Y occur X = Y.

Scientific theories are universal because it state something about the condition under which some events or types of events always occur

If theories go beyond facts, they must have a connection with reality. Hence no experience of reality is worth recording, or could be recorded if it is not for theories.

The most elementary theories, which we use a re embedded in our language. All language must use certain universal, categories; and to use a universal category is in effect to use a theory. If for example It says’ that ‘James is a deviant presume certain universal characteristics associated with deviance, as opposed to conformity.

Without universal categories there will he no communication, without communication there will be no culture, no society, no science, no technology, no shored experience of die world of reality. Theoretical consideration end theoretical concepts, implicit or explicit have an essential rule in shaping the direction of research, in direction observation an and in guiding description itself,

For a theory to be used wisely with sharp awareness, awareness users must have the knowledge of its nature and of its varieties. We need to know its concepts and diverse terminological forms they take.

We should be familiar with the history of sociological theoretical endeavours with its changing emphasis, its successes and failure, and its promise for the future, These in themselves constitute the subject matter of the studying of sociological theories.

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORYAND SOCIAL ORDER

Theory is a set of prepositions complying ideally with the following conditions;

The propositions must be put in terms of exactly defined concepts.
They must be consistent with one another.
They must be such that from them the existing generalization could be deductively derived.
They must be fruitful i.e. show the way to further observation and generalizations were increasing the scope of knowledge.

From the foregoing, sociological theory can be understood in the sense in which the word theory is used in other sciences. Hence it is;

‘a structure of systematically organized law like propositions about society that con be supported by evidence.

The aim a sociological theory from the foregoing is explanation that goes beyond description and systematic definition (or taxonomy). Some characteristics of sociological theory. It is needful to odd that many sociological theories do not meet the ideal criteria of science (i.e. universality, empruism, and causality).

CHARACTERIST1C OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Theories are thoughts and ideas used to explain particular Social phenomenon or situations in society. It is a set of systematically relatered propositions a imed at explaining a particular situation. They are thoughts, ideas, or conceptual schemes used to solve societal problems. A theory is good and useful when it is able to solve problems successfully.

Sociological theories attempts to explain and investigate problems, issues or events within the context of observable social phenomenon, they attempt to offer scientific and theoretical explanation which on the basis of the past have immediate applicability and are also capable of application to similar problems in the future. All theories attempt more than anything also the question “Why”.
All contemporary sociological theories are selective in their analysis of social phenomenon. No one theory con interest or explain a total social phenomenon (such as the Grand Theory by TALCOTT PARSONS and middle range theories by ROBERT K. MERTON) for example, DEMOGRAPHISM as a sociological perspective is concerned with man’s various responses caused by increase in population. Then TECHNOLOG1SM emphasizes the effect of technology on man and social organization, while ECOLOGISM emphasizes the influence of non human environmental on human behaviour.
Contemporary sociological theories must be empirically grounded. They are not merely thoughts or speculations. They are not “armed chair theories” but are based on observable facts that can be subjected to scientific observation and analysis. They are thoughts backed by verified fact or knowledge.
Sociological theories tends to state scietific and observable relationships between variables usually between the dependent and independent variables.

independent Variable -independent Variable

X Y

All sociological theories attempts to solve the problem of order in the society,
All contemporary sociological theories deal with social phenomenon that are either imposed or generated by the individuals and these imposed or generated phenomena must either be subjective or objective.

Finally, any sociological theory that does not fall into these set of categories is not qualified to be called a sociological theory.

FUNCTIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

Theories in any discipline have certain function which they perform in investigation info societal problems,

It extends the Scope of the original empirical findings by showing the interrelationship between various variables.
It provides facts for the accumulation of both theory and research findings.
If increase the fruitfulness of research through the successive exploration of the implicajiohs of research findings.
lt introduces a ground for the predictions.
It entails precision which is derivable from test-ability or verification The importance of precision in theory was stated by R.K, Merton when he wrote those theories which admits a precise precision confirmed by observation taken on strategic importance since they provide an initial basis for choice between competing hypothesis.

THE CENTRAL PROBLEMS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY AND SOCIAL ORDER

The Problems of Order

To take the position that sociological theory centers around the problem of social order may result into laying criticism of conservation ideological bias. To those who sees conflict, they will assume that the position presents or emphasizes order and affirms its desirability.

It is certain that people in most societies desire order, they may not accept any kind of order at all cost. The fact that order is desired by many does not justify its central position in sociological theory.

When order is presented as being at the centre of sociological theory it is done so because of the following

Order is itself something positive, and its opposites only conceivable in terms of it.
The very idea of human society presupposes order.
The existence of social order is problematic and cannot be taken for grated.
The investigation of the problem of order illuminates (or shows) the nature of disorder in its various aspects.

Prejudice has been around since the seventeenth century this behavior still exists and continues to surround us all in each population. In many countries today prejudice is still a big issue among different cultures people always tend to stereotype others just because of race,sex,color or whatever the case may be I fell this is unfair because people lives are at jeopardy in so many ways because of the negative thinking. Prejudices are opinions formed beforehand without any reason knowledge or thought. I have been taught about the history of prejudice and how serious it had been in the past. So many people and great leaders lost their lives because of stereotyping.

The nature and power of prejudice

There are so many prejudices in the world today from racial, gender, and culture. I have experienced all three in some way or other gender being one I have a family member that prefers the same sex and I have watched my own family tear him apart. it upsets me because he is family have heard these same people sit around and talk about how other people are prejudice and they are doing the same thing to a loved one. I have witnessed him being told that he needs to stop acting and straighten up or he will be disowned from the family now that they have made him feel out cast he has not come to a family gathering in three years. I know that in the bible it says you must not commit this sin but people are only human and they are going to choose to live how they want. I feel that people can live their lives how they choose they will suffer their own consequences when the time comes.

However, racial and culture prejudice is the most despicable and ignorant people should not be judged for the color of their skin these days all colors have some kind of racial slur about all cultures. On the other hand, many people have moved away from being prejudice. For example, people of different races now share many of the same attitudes and aspirations (Etzioni1999). For instance, where I work there are blacks, white, Hispanics and when Obama was being elected in to office only a few where upset and out of that few they were black majority of the white were agreeing that we need a black president in office. I feel that racial prejudice may be disappearing many people attitudes are changing with time from how it has been in the past. I am a very neutral person even when I am hearing my friends or family say negative things about Caucasians’, I pretty much get along with everybody it really just depends on that persons attitude you should do unto others as you wish them to do unto you the world would be a much better place.

Social sources of prejudice

Social sources of prejudice starts from family influences there are so many children raised to be prejudice. Prejudice springs from unequal status and from other social sources, including our acquired values and attitudes (Castelli&others2007). Sinclair stated that children implicit racial attitudes reflect their parents explicit prejudice (Sinclair&others). When raised in these types of homes puts society at risk, many children hold a lot of anger depending on what they were taught by their family.

One example being, I watched this movie called bowling for columbine and he talked about a lot of prejudice issues and people who have the authoritarian attitude. He talked about how the KKK still lives and showed clips of how they live and train their children. Many of the clips were disturbing they showed how they taught children to shoot guns and a lot of negativity towards African Americans. He also discussed how those boys killed many students at columbine high school. I remember one clip showing the boys talking about whom they were going to shoot and one of them had stated we are going to get the black boy just because he is black. “The insecurity of authoritarian children seemed to predispose them toward an excessive concern with power and status and a flexible right-wrong way of thinking that made ambiguity difficult to tolerate. Such people therefore tended to be submissive to those with power over them and aggressive or punitive toward those whom they consider beneath them.” (Myers 2010) I fear for society if people are out here teaching their children to hate, I am almost afraid to send my children out in the world when we have people out here with these negative thoughts.

Religion and prejudice

However, religion and prejudice stated by William James those who benefit from social inequalities while avowing, “All are created equal “need to justify keeping things they way they are (Myers2010). I agree with this statement there are so many hypocritical people that attend church they are the most judgmental and stereotypical people I have ever seen. So many churches lead people to support their prejudices. I have an uncle and aunt whom are very deep off into church.

They are always quick to judge, I remember when I was a little girl they would call my father the devil. Because he drank, instead of trying to help him, they would talk about him and he would constantly talk about how he hated lesbians and gays. Sometimes you have to be careful of what you say now their children have grown up and they are now doing those devilish things like drinking, and relationships with the opposite sex. The church that I attend is not bad when it comes to judging people. This church is a come as you are there are different races, cultures and people with the opposite sex whom attend church. My pastor teaches us to love one another and not to be so judgmental towards people. He always says each of us will have our judgment day when that time comes. I feel that people should live their lives how they want they are the only ones whom have to answerer to god.

Social institutions support racial prejudice these people use their superiority to justify their beliefs. This was most common in the 1960s. For example segregation in schools and banks whom would not offer opportunities to unmarried women and African Americans. I do remember a couple of years back reading an article about how a school down south wanted to segregate the prom and how parents were protesting not to segregate the prom. I feel racism still exists in many communities in America.

Sources that motivate prejudice

Frustration and anger has a lot to do with issues of being prejudice when people are competing for things that may be scare to society. Now that we are in recession, many people feel that Caucasians’ have a better chance at job opportunities than African Americans. I feel that in some ways it is true because how society is so judgmental these days and this is why many people have so much hate towards each other. Things will never get better it just seems like everything just keeps going around in a circle. For example, my Caucasian friend and I conducted an experiment to see who would really get the job I had all the qualifications for the position and she did not have any skills for that position. At the end of our interviews, she had been the one chosen to fill the position. This is what keeps society frustrated and anger and this is what showed us how I had been stereotyped just that quick.

Social identity and feeling superior to others was one way that our ancestors lived to protect themselves by living in groups. People will do whatever they have to do to protect their groups in most countries. For example, over in Iraq when the war first started how these people are so willing to kill themselves to protect their country. When lacking self-esteem this is what causes people with social identities to become confused. Many disadvantage people find security in groups and this is what makes them so willing to do anything in their power for their group. Many feel that by being in groups this is a need for status and feeling superior over others.

I have noticed that we do tend to still group when you look at different communities you can see how we segregate ourselves there are many communities where there are all African Americans. Hispanics and Caucasians’ where as some communities have a mixture of all races that live and get along in the same communities with no problems. I feel that in some way or another we all have some kind of issue with prejudice even if you do not feel like you are it is somewhere deep down inside and that is why we segregate our selves. I have heard some people say that neighbor hoods were blacks live are terrible I could never live there. I have heard people talk about communities saying that the police are prejudice where there are majority whites. That is why they choose to live elsewhere. Nevertheless, these are the same people that are quick to call someone else prejudice and not willing to admit to their own.

However, we must learn to avoid prejudices by suppressing unwanted thoughts this can be very hard for people that have phobias about homosexuals and elderly people. This would be because this is all that that have known all of their lives. I can remember when I use to work in a retirement home in dietary their were a lot of elderly people and they use to always make racial comments when I waited on their tables I would just look at them and ignore the ignorant slurs. I had to deal with this for six years I use to feel so much anger towards Caucasian people. I then started to realize that I could not hate all Caucasians’ because of what a couple of elderly people were saying. This is the way that they had been raised all of their lives and they were from the segregation days and times are changing now. Not all Caucasians’ have this same racial attitude. I am proud of myself by going through that experience it had brought me to break the prejudice habits that I may have had.

Cognitive sources of prejudice

Cognitive sources of prejudice are in categories by classifying and grouping people from what we perceive. We as people are always quick to put people in two categories by their appearance. “Jim Blascovich stated it is necessary for prejudice social identity theory implies that those who feel their social identity keenly will concern themselves with correctly categorizing people as us or them”(Jim Blascovich1997). For example, when I first moved in to my home my neighbors are Caucasian I had lived here for a couple of months she and I had never spoken so I instantly categorized her thinking she was prejudiced as she had already assumed the same for me.

Until one particular night, someone was trying to break into my home while I was here asleep and she sent her son out to scare him away. The next morning she came over knocked on the door and told me what had happened. I then realized she was not what I had thought about her all along she is a very nice person and every since that day we speak on a daily basis and we always keep each other informed on what is going on in the neighborhood. Sometimes we have to be careful on how we judge people because you may actually miss having a good friendship with someone.

I feel that black men in society today or categorized, as dangerous gang members, and drug dealers. This is why when a crime has been committed black men are the first to be accused. I have always heard statements like was he black or white. The main thing that gets me is that they ask if he was black first as if they had already been assumed that he is black. I remember a couple of years back when a Caucasian woman drowned her own children she blamed a black man of kidnapping her children and stealing her car the police and media were on this big man hunt for this black man just because they are assumed as criminals every time something happens.

I feel that because of all of our negative perceptions of people we all tend to categorize on another. For instance, how men use to categorize women as only being able to stay home and bear children and not being intelligent enough to work. These perceptions also feel that all blacks are uneducated hoodlums, and the same is for how homosexuals are a disgrace to the world. These errors occur because most of us focus on the person and not on their situations. The more we continue to have these types of stereotypical attitudes it is a lesser chance that the world will be willing to accept one another as equal human beings.

Consequences of being prejudice

There are have been many problems in society because of the ignorance of prejudice. When society tends to label, it can sometimes lead to dangerous activity. I can remember learning in school about all of our civil rights leaders and how many of them had lost their lives, how people acted out with violence in the sixties. There were billions of dollars lost, because of riots due to the violence in society. They were only trying to bring people together in harmony, so that we can all treat each other’s as equals to put an end to stereotyping. There were so many people at this time that were angry that they felt there should not be equal rights between each human being and this is what lead them to take the lives of these very heroic men. So many innocent people have been targeted by prejudice actions, and affect the behavior of the person holding the prejudice issues as well. For example, for most homosexuals find it hard to tell their families that they are living this life style, because they feel they will not be accepted, so in order to avoid the rejection they end up committing suicide. the person whom holds all the anger with prejudice issues will eventually one day act out in society with some kind of violent act and this is how innocent people always end up getting killed for instance the 9/11 attack there were thousands of people who had died for nothing just because of the ignorance of prejudice.

In conclusion, Prejudice has been around since the seventeenth century this behavior still exists and continues to surround us all in each population. In many countries today prejudice is still a big issue among different cultures people always tend to stereotype others just because of race,sex,color or whatever the case may be I fell this is unfair because people lives are at jeopardy in so many ways because of the negative thinking. The world would be a better place if everyone would just stop being so judgmental towards each other.

Mongolias population of 2.8 million is growing annually by 1.5 percent. One-third of Mongolians live in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Approximately one-fourth live in smaller cities, especially Darhan, Erdenet, and Choybalsan. The rest of the population is spread throughout rural Mongolia. Most of these inhabitants are nomadic herders. With rural conditions increasingly harsh, more people are moving to cities-a trend that threatens the survival of traditional nomadic society.

Reform has allowed freedom of religion, and more than one hundred monasteries have reopened. Many young Mongolians are receiving an education through these traditional centers of learning, and people are once again able to practice cherished traditions. Boys are increasingly applying to become monks, and Buddhism is rapidly regaining its popularity. Kazakh Muslims (about 4 percent) are free to practice Islam. Christianity is gaining influence.

Urban wedding ceremonies take place in “wedding palaces.” Afterward, many couples now go to a Buddhist monk to receive a blessing or have their future predicted. A large feast treats as many relatives and friends as the new couple’s families can afford to feed. In rural areas, common-law marriages are typical. Rural couples receive a ger from the husband’s family. Mongolian families traditionally exchange gifts in conjunction with a wedding. The groom’s family usually gives livestock, while the bride’s family offers jewelry and clothing.

(Culture Grams)

National culture-including societal organization, governance, land management, cultural customs, and material culture-was largely shaped by the nomadic pastoral lifestyle. The legacy of Genghis Khan’s empire is a rallying point for Mongol nationalist pride today.

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

Lamaism, the Tibetan form of Buddhism, entered the Mongolian society in the sixteenth century. It had a strong impact on the Mongolian culture for centuries. Mongols sought the counsel and help of the lama (priest or monk) for every aspect of their life: migration, marriage, childbirth, disease, and death. Since 1949, Lamaist beliefs and practices have decreased drastically.

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

After the fall of communism, Mongolia witnessed a religious revival and more and more people sought comfort from spiritual activities. Despite being unfamiliar with religious ceremonies and prayers, people flocked to temples for religious services and many families began to send one of their children to join the monkhood.

The devout also contribute money to the temples and invite the Lamas to their homes for lavish feasts.

(REL)

Due to Mongolia’s small population, women are a vitally important part of the workforce. Men and women have an equal place in the Mongolian economy and this equality carries over into the home. Women still tend to do more than half the housework and play the primary role in supporting the family, but the role of the Mongolian woman is undergoing rapid change.

(WIC)
People
Mongolia

Top of Page

Population:

2,832,224 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 27.9% (male 402,448/female 387,059)

15-64 years: 68.4% (male 967,546/female 969,389)

65 years and over: 3.7% (male 45,859/female 59,923) (2006 est.)

Median age:

total: 24.6 years

male: 24.3 years

female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:

21.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:

6.95 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female

total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 52.12 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 55.51 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 48.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 64.89 years

male: 62.64 years

female: 67.25 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:

2.25 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate:

less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS – people living with HIV/AIDS:

less than 500 (2003 est)

HIV/AIDS – deaths:

less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:

noun: Mongolian(s)

adjective: Mongolian

Ethnic groups:

Mongol (mostly Khalkha) 94.9%, Turkic (mostly Kazakh) 5%, other (including Chinese and Russian) 0.1% (2000)

Religions:

Buddhist Lamaist 50%, none 40%, Shamanist and Christian 6%, Muslim 4% (2004)

Languages:

Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian (1999)

Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 97.8%

male: 98%

female: 97.5% (2002)

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mg.html#People

Birth

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://www.birthdaycelebrations.net/traditions.htm (Birthday Celebration)

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ (Birth – % of Skilled attendant at Delivery)

http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/global_monitoring/data.html (Birth – % of Skilled attendant at Delivery)

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm (Abortion)

How is birth viewed in the culture?

Fertility is important in Mongolian society, so childless women usually experience social stigma.

(WIC)

Are there any customs regarding the way newborns should be swaddled, whether they stay in the house, carried around in public, etc.?

Are babies normally birthed in hospitals or at home?

Is there a preference for doctors or midwives?

Skilled attendant at delivery (%), 1997-2005*

97

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mongolia_statistics.html

More than 95 percent of all pregnant Mongolian women receive ante-natal care. As of 2004, the maternal mortality rate was 98 deaths per 100,000 live births. Estimated infant mortality rates for 2006 are 52 per 1,000.

(WIC)

Are there any formalities/celebrations in the culture regarding newborns?

Among Buddhists there are many naming ceremonies. In some traditions, children are named between the ages of three and eight. After children are born, their parents have their Kika’s drawn up. The Kika is a very specific horoscope which many Buddhists believe determines all aspects of a person’s life including marriage and death. At the naming ceremony, a rimpoche, or Buddhist holy person, looks carefully at the child’s Kika and selects a name which reflects the traits and predictions described in the Kika. After cutting a strand of the child’s hair, the rimpoche announces the child’s name.

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:ybpfeaiYiCUJ:rainbowwarrior.coa.edu/laura/ceremony/religiuosceremony.htm+Buddhist+naming+ceremonies&hl=en&gl=in&ct=clnk&cd=1

How are birthdays celebrated in the culture? Are they important events?

How does the culture view abortion?

Abortions are legal in Mongolia and available on request.

(WIC)
ABORTION POLICY
Grounds on which abortion is permitted:

To save the life of the woman Yes

To preserve physical health Yes

To preserve mental health Yes

Rape or incest Yes

Foetal impairment Yes

Economic or social reasons Yes

Available on request Yes

Additional requirements:

An abortion can be performed during the first three months of pregnancy and later if the pregnant woman suffers from an illness seriously threatening her health. Approval of the family or of the spouse is required.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT

Government view on fertility level: No official position

Government intervention concerning fertility level: No intervention

Government policy on contraceptive use: Direct support provided

Percentage of currently married women using

modern contraception (15-49*,1994): 25

Total fertility rate (1995-2000): 2.6

Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000): 47

Government has expressed particular concern about:

Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion No

Complications of childbearing and childbirth Yes

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):

National 65

Eastern Asia 95

Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000): 67.3

For all women of ages specified.

BACKGROUND

Under the Mongolian Criminal Code of 6 July 1960, abortion was generally illegal. If it was performed by a physician, it was punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. If it was performed by a person lacking the highest medical qualifications, or if performed under unsanitary conditions, the punishment was increased to up to five years’ imprisonment. Nonetheless, under general criminal law principles of necessity, an abortion could be performed to save the life of the pregnant woman.

In 1986, the abortion provisions of the Code were amended. Although abortion is in general still considered a serious offence, the Code authorized medical authorities to establish the conditions for the performance of legal abortions. Three years later in 1989, the health law was amended to reflect this change. Paragraph 56 of the Code was modified to provide that becoming a mother was a matter of a woman’s own decision. During the first three months of pregnancy she could obtain an abortion on request and, later in pregnancy, when necessary due to illness. Abortions were to be performed by physicians under hospital conditions, and the Ministry of Health was to approve a list of illnesses justifying the performance of an abortion on medical grounds.

The health law was revised in 1998 but its provisions on abortion remained the same. The 1996 National Population Policy of Mongolia adopted by Parliament stated that abortion should not be promoted as a means of family planning. The Government considers the abortion rate to be too high. The Government also reiterated in 1999 that abortion is generally permitted if a pregnant woman requests it and that abortion is publicly subsidized.

Prior to these amendments to the law enacted in the late 1980s, legal provisions governing abortion in Mongolia echoed the pronatalist population policy of the Government. In responding to the Eighth United Nations Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development, the Government indicated no position on the fertility level and no policy to modify it. The Government remains seriously concerned over the high levels of infant, child and maternal mortality.

The Government has attributed the relatively high abortion rate, 25.9 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, to shortages of modern contraceptives, as well as to a lack of knowledge concerning contraceptive use. Many women choose to have abortions carried out illegally by private physicians because of cheaper costs. Induced abortion accounts for a large percentage of maternal mortality in Mongolia, causing at least 850 maternal deaths each year.

The Government seeks to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate to more than 50 per cent by 2001. The National Reproductive Health Programme was adopted in 1997. The Government reports that, since the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1984, successful steps have been undertaken to ensure access of women to reproductive health-care services. Each provincial centre and some district cities have established reproductive health cabinets attached to the local public health centres. These cabinets provide services such as counselling, and pregnancy monitoring and evaluation. A National Adolescent Health Programme was adopted in 1997.

http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm

Childhood

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://www.right-to-education.org/content/age/armenia.html

http://www.cohre.org/get_attachment.php?attachment_id=3069 (Sub-Saharan Africa – Rights of Women

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

What is a normal childhood in the culture?

Are children raised by their parents or grandparents?

What role do grandparents and extended family members play in the raising of a child?

Attitudes about child rearing are generally quite relaxed and all family members participate in the supervision and moral education of children.

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

What are normal childhood activities in the culture?

Are children revered or just another piece of the population?

Are male children valued more?

At what age do children begin school?

Offices are generally open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 6 p.m. Shops are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Grocery stores have the same hours as shops but often are open on Sunday. A large open market featuring consumer goods, rural crafts, and assorted items operates several days a week on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar.

(Culture Grams)

Are children expected to contribute to household income?

How is child labor viewed in the society?

Coming of Age

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

What marks a child’s coming of age in this culture?

At what age do children normally “come of age?”

Are there certain rites or celebrations that mark coming of age?

What is expected of youth in this phase of life?

Are there certain difficulties experienced by this age group?

At what age are children expected to work & contribute to the maintenance of the family?

Dating & Courtship

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://kinseyinstitute.org/ccies/ (Sexuality )

http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/ (Sexuality)

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

What are the general attitudes about dating in the culture?

Dating is fairly common.

(WIC)

Dating between schoolmates and coworkers commonly leads to marriage.

(Culture Grams)

Is there are distinction between courtship and dating in the culture?

At what age do people generally start dating?

How do men and women meet each other?

Mongolian women usually meet men at schools, in the workplace, and at social gatherings.

(WIC)

If dating is not customary, describe how people get together for marriage? Is it arranged?

If marriages are arranged, talk about how. What are the rituals around it (classified ads, matchmakers, astrology, etc.). If marriages are arranged, what are the factors in finding a suitable mate?

Are chaperones customary? If so, who serves as the chaperone?

Are there popular venues for dating?

Does a man or woman pay for dating expenses?

Describe a typical dating experience.

How long do people generally date before they get married?

Generally speaking in the culture, what are considered desirable attributes in a man?

Generally speaking in the culture, what are considered desirable attributes in a woman?

Does religion play a role in dating?

What are taboos of dating in the culture?

Is sex in dating common or taboo? What is the view of pre-marital sex?

If premarital sex is common, is birth control promoted, practiced, or taboo?

Is cross-cultural dating or cross-religious dating allowed or encouraged? Do people date outside their social, economic, education, religious, and ethnic categories?

How important are parents’/family approval for dating?

How does a proposal for marriage occur?

Arranged marriages are traditional in Mongolia, but for the last century, young Mongolians have become increasingly free to choose their own partners with minimal parental involvement. They normally marry within their own tribes.

(WIC)
Marriage

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/locations/asian_traditions.html

(Wedding Celebration)

http://www.myhappylove.com/lyrics/wedding-traditions.html (Wedding Celebration)

http://www.right-to-education.org/content/age/armenia.html

(Minimum Schooling / Marriage / Employment Age )

http://www.coe.int/t/e/social_cohesion/population/demographic_year_book/2003_edition/04%20country%20data/ ( Population/Marriage/ Divorce/ Fertility)

http://www.cohre.org/get_attachment.php?attachment_id=3069 (Sub-Saharan Africa – Rights of Women

http://kinseyinstitute.org/ccies/ (Sexuality)

http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/ (Sexuality)

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reports.htm (For the status of women rights)

http://www.international-divorce.com/ (Divorce & Custody)

http://www.aupairinamerica.com/hostfamilies/culturequest_index.htm

Is marriage considered a sacred/spiritual act or simply a legal act in the culture?

At what age do people normally get married?

The legal marriage age for Mongolian women is 18, but most women marry in their early to mid twenties.

(WIC)

Mongolians usually marry between the ages of 18 and 25.

(Culture Grams)

Does hierarchy in the family play a role in who is able to get married or who gets married first?

How are marriages celebrated? What are the rituals associated with the marriage ceremony?

A custom of “denying entrance on marrying” has been common among the nomadic and seminomadic Mongols. The bridegroom, accompanied by relatives, rides to the bride’s yurt (house). He finds the door slammed in his face. After repeated requests, the door is finally opened. He presents a hada (ceremonial silk scarf) to his parents-in-law on entering and is given a banquet with a whole lamb. After the meal, the bride sits with her back to the others. The bridegroom kneels behind her and asks what her nickname was in childhood. He drinks at her house all night long. The following day, the bride leaves the yurt first. She circles the yurt on horseback three times, then speeds along to the bride-groom’s house. The bridegroom and his relatives ride after her. The door is also slammed in her face and is only opened after repeated requests.

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

Urban wedding ceremonies take place in “wedding palaces.” Afterward, many couples now go to a Buddhist monk to receive a blessing or have their future predicted. A large feast treats as many relatives and friends as the new couple’s families can afford to feed. In rural areas, common-law marriages are typical. Rural couples receive a ger from the husband’s family. Mongolian families traditionally exchange gifts in conjunction with a wedding. The groom’s family usually gives livestock, while the bride’s family offers jewelry and clothing.

(Culture Grams)

The wedding day is begun at a local temple where the couple separately asks for the blessings of Buddha. Both bride and groom are then dressed in outfits traditional to their region.

At the mutually auspicious astrologically designated wedding time, the bride and groom are individually taken to the shrine room of their local temple or a hall hired for the occasion. Here, the couple sees each other for the first time on that day.

Spiritual Buddhist wedding traditions don’t necessarily require the presence of monks or the use of a temple’s shrine room. For these traditions, the wedding location would be equipped with a shrine to Buddha featuring candles, flowers, incense and a statue or image of Buddha.

The ceremony begins as the entire assembly recites the Vandana, Tisarana and Pancasila readings. The couple then lights the candles and incense sticks surrounding Buddha’s image and offers him the flowers within the shrine. Because of the secularity of Buddhist weddings, there is no assigned set of marriage vows. However, the bride and groom will recite their expected undertakings using the Sigilovdda Sutta as a guide. The Sigiloydda Sutta says:

“In five ways should a wife, as Western quarter, be ministered to by her husband: by respect, by courtesy, by faithfulness, by handing over authority to her, by providing her with ornaments. In these five ways does the wife minister to by her husband as the Western quarter, love him: her duties are well-performed by hospitality to kin of both, by faithfulness, by watching over the goods he brings and by skill and industry in discharging all business.”

After these vows are spoken, the bride and groom can exchange rings. If monks are present, the marriage vows will be both preceded and proceeded by their chanting.

After the Wedding

Once officially married, the couple receives their guests with the huge feast and decorations prepared in the previous days to the wedding.

http://www.urbandharma.org/udnl2/nl021004.html

Finally, the assembly or perhaps the parents only, should recite the Mangala Sutta and Jayamangala Gatha as a blessing.

http://www.buddhanet.net/funeral.htm

What are the cultural expectations of marriage?

Do men and women have equal say in their marriages?

What are the typical roles of the man and woman in marriage?

How much do parents or in-laws have to say about their offspring’s marriage? What degree of involvement do they generally have?

Where do couples normally reside–in their own place, with parents, etc.?

The sons, after marrying, move out of their parents’ home. However, they live nearby and may travel with their parents in search of new pastures. In seminomadic districts, families often include parents, sons, and daughters-in-law.

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

Are affairs common? Are they culturally accepted?

Are men or women allowed to have multiple spouses?

Mongolian traditional society allowed polygamy as long as the husband could provide for each wife. However, polygamy was legally banned some time ago and is no longer practiced.

(WIC)

Do laws equally protect the rights of individuals in a marriage?

How are anniversaries celebrated in the culture?

Is divorce legal or acceptable in the culture? Under what circumstances is it acceptable to divorce?

What is the process in the event of a divorce?

Mongolian women could initiate divorce and remarry afterwards. In such cases the new husbands usually accepted a divorced woman along with her children, as acquiring a “ready-made” family was believed to indicate an existing spiritual connection.

(WIC)

Do women retain any rights?

What happens to children of a divorce?

A Mongolian woman can initiate divorce. In most divorce cases, the mothers get custody of minor children.

(WIC)

Is remarriage for widows condoned in the society?

Family & Parenting

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

http://www.cohre.org/get_attachment.php?attachment_id=3069 (Sub-Saharan Africa – Rights of Women

http://map.sscs.org.au/Documents/cultural_dictionary.pdf (Similar to Cultural Grams)

Culture Grams which is in our WTP Folder —– Birth, Dating, Marriage, Family, Recreation, Death/After Life

http://www.unece.org/stats/trend/ (Population/ Families & households/ Employment/ Housing)

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/country-profiles.html (Family)

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reports.htm (For the status of women rights)

http://www.international-divorce.com/ (Divorce & Custody)

What does the family unit in a home look like? (i.e. 2 parents, children? Parents, children, all relatives?, etc.)

Is there an imposed or cultural idea about how many children are the right amount for a family?

What is the typical family size?

Nomadic extended families often live in a camp of several gers. Husbands take care of herding and slaughtering, while wives handle milking and food preparation. Older children care for younger siblings.

Urban families live either in high-rise apartments or in a ger, with its surrounding fence and storage shed. A ger in or near a city will have electricity but not heat or water. Due to a housing shortage, three generations must often share a small apartment; parents sleep in the living room and children and grandparents in the bedrooms. Urban families have one or two children. Both parents generally work outside the home. Networks of family reciprocity are an important means of support. For example, rural relatives may supply their city relatives with meat and dairy products, and the urban dwellers may reciprocate by taking one or more of the rural family’s children to live with them in the city so they may receive a better education.

(Culture Grams)

Traditionally, families were the main unit of production in this herding society. The kinship system was patrilineal and sons generally established households in a common camp with their fathers.

Several generations of families customarily live together in a nomadic camp known as a khot ail (“group of tents”) and share herding tasks. This camp, generally consisting of two to seven households, serves as a way of pooling labor for herding and has numerous social and ritual functions.

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

A Mongolian family generally consists of a husband, a wife, and their young children.

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

How central are children to the family?

What are the general reasons for having children?

Children have always been treasured in Mongolian culture, and large families were historically the norm. Large families were considered desirable because many children ensured extra help and security in old age. Although family size is changing today, the country is still so sparsely populated that some people still believe it is advantageous to have “as many Mongolians as possible.”

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mongolia.html

How important is birth or gender order?

Is there a family hierarchy or cultural custom in terms of childbearing (i.e. the youngest child of a family may not have children until the eldest has had them, etc.)

What is the expectation or role of each parent after the birth of the child?

Who is the “head” of the household?

Mongolian women traditionally held a higher social status than women in many Asian cultures. Still, a woman’s primary role was as a homemaker.

(WIC)

The father is head of the family, but the mother is responsible for household affairs.

(Culture Grams)

Who makes the chief decisions for the family?

The Mongols are monogamous. The family is dominated by the man, but herders usually consult their wives about major decisions.

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html

Traditionally, Mongolia has always been a patriarchal society. Mongolian proverbs such as “If a husband does not beat his wife once a month, he is not a man”

Today, Mongolian men often maintain the appearance that they are the family decision-makers, even if their wives actually make the decisions. However, the number of single-parent families headed by women is growing in Mongolia.

(WIC)

Who earns the income?

Who customarily manages the household? (Mother, Father, Grandparent?)

Describe typical family life? (daily routines)

What are the roles of the children (up to 10 yrs.)?

What are the roles of adolescents (11 and up)?

What are typical/favorite family activities?

Urban wedding ceremonies take place in “wedding palaces.” Afterward, many couples now go to a Buddhist monk to receive a blessing or have their future predicted. A large feast treats as many relatives and friends as the new couple’s families can afford to feed. In rural areas, common-law marriages are typical. Rural couples receive a ger from the husband’s family. Mongolian families traditionally exchange gifts in conjunction with a wedding. The groom’s family usually gives livestock, while the bride’s family offers jewelry and clothing.

(Culture Grams)

Is meal sharing with the family typical/mandatory?

Dinner is considered the main meal of the day. The whole family generally eats dinner together.

(Culture Grams)

Is divorce common?

Today, divorce is relatively rare in Mongolia. In most divorces, mothers receive the custody of children and are entitled to child support and alimony.

(WIC)

With whom to the children go if there is a divorce?

What cultural expectations are there in terms of “duty” to parents?. What or how much do children “owe” their parents in adulthood? Does hierarchy/economics/education/or other play a role in terms of which child has more “responsibilities” or “duty requirements”? (i.e. in Japan/Korea, etc.)

Most Mongolians live in nuclear families, tho

There are various types of works and with each type there is a different type of work orientation attached, for example in a regular manual labour one would not expect the worker to bring on high commitment to work as this worker will be working in order to meet ends with taking care of the family as his main goal. On the other hand in a skilled laboratory, for example, the scientist will be expected to work and bring along a good quality of work orientations so that the work goes on smoothly and the other research counterpart benefits due to a workers high quality work. Here the worker has the science related work as the main goal, and family and other criteria comes secondary.

Initial studies have concentrated in generalising the work force and the work orientations they bring about at a work place. Though this was not very wrong at their times but in modern times this has changed as there is a lot of division in a similar type of work itself. For example, in a production company, there are people who are working at a manufacturing level, there are people who are working at R&D level, and there are people who are working at business level. At the business level there are further divisions including HR, sales, marketing etc. At each level there are different types of orientations expected out of the worker. A skilled labourer working at a plant will have different expectations and future goals as compared to the ‘big boss’ sitting at the executive level.

The main issue here is that the old studies have concentrated on generalising the work orientations. In these new times there are new requirements to consider in order to make the work a better place which is beneficial for both the worker and the employee. Though we can learn a lot from old researches, newer studies are still required as the times have changed in a major ways. Therefore specific studies are required in order to understand what is beneficial for both.

The meaning of work

There are many definitions of work. In theology work can be the Karma or “deed”, in “physics” it happens when and where a certain amount of energy moves a body of specific weight through a specific distance and at the level of ‘human labour’ it may involve employment or house work.

In economic term labour is the amount of work done by humans and can include ‘manual labour’ (which is the physical work done by someone or a group of people), ‘waged labour’ (where a worker sells his labour and an employer buys it for hourly/pre-decided payment), or ‘project management’ (where the main aim is to finish a task).

“Work is a social duty and contributes to social order in any society, it is also there to promote moral worth in the individual” (Anthony 1977) The Ideology of Work (International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library), Even religion has paid emphasis to work like in Islam, work ethic argues that life without work has no meaning and engagement in economic activities is an obligation (Yousef 2001:153) even Buddha singled out laziness as a cause of downfall of men and nations and urged that everyone should put forth effort (Niles 1999:858).

The basic reason for a person to work is for economic gains. Working to survive, to gain food, shelter, etc. a person wants to work to gain self- respect. But is it all about money? This is a question mostly asked to people who wants to associate career success to the amount of money they earn. Work is not always about money, this is because there are certain other terms involved including job satisfaction and career growth. Gallie, D and White, M (1993) Employee Commitment and the Skills Revolution, London: Policy Studies Institute. At the level of nations, every nation wants its people to work in order to contribute to the society. In certain countries it is an obligation where everyone must work to the best of their ability and contribute to society (Britain, Japan, USA) in others it is an entitlement where everyone has the right to a meaningful and interesting job with proper training (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany) [Status and type of job (Baruch, 2004)]

The ‘modern’ work ethic and introducing orientations to work

According to Watson, work is the essential prerequisite of personal and social advancement and of self-fulfilment (Watson 1995:115). It is the meaning that working individuals attach to their work, which predisposes them to think and act in particular ways and with regard to work it is very important (Watson 2002).

There are two types of works (Watson 1995), one which gives intrinsic satisfaction is enriching, provides any kind of a challenge, enables development and self-fulfilment, so here the work has an expressive meaning. On other hand, work which gives extrinsic satisfactions yields no value and is only a mean to meet the ends. Here, satisfaction or fulfilment is sought outside of work like in a hobby of some sort. Here the work has an instrumental meaning

Work orientation basically Refers to the ethics, expectations, and state of mind that any worker brings to an establishment. This topic has been of concern to many people. There have been studies which have revealed that “work orientation” influence the experience of job. Work orientation is related to motivation but is not motivation, it is associated with commitment but is not commitment.

In the year 1960, studies were carried out in a car plant in Luton by Goldthorpe, Lockwood et al. Here he concluded his study with a paradox which was that workers were neither satisfied nor dis-satisfied with their work. They did not appear to be deriving any intrinsic or social satisfaction from job but did not express dissatisfaction with their work. [Goldthorpe J, Lockwood D, Bechhofer F and Platt J, 1968, The Affluent Worker: industrial attitudes and Behaviour, Cambridge Univ. Press.] Here he showed that an instrumental worker works to meet an end , has a calculative involvement, i.e. is not too indulgent or job oriented, and there is a clear separation within job and non-job related activities. Therefore the worker brought a only a limited amount of work orientation into the work organisation. Though in conclusion Goldthorpe says that the worker has a choice to leave the job and go elsewhere where he can have a better job satisfaction.

This work by Goldthorpe has been criticized by many including Devine Grieco, Daniel Beynon and Blackburn. They said that all the work in industrial societies has an instrumental basis or nature, i.e. the worker joins the work knowing that this will be only to meet the end not to gain other things (Devine 1992; Grieco 1987). The ‘instrumental worker’ does not have much choice as concluded by Goldthorpe (Beynon and Blackburn 1972) because either he is unskilled in other kind of work or he is limited in initial resources to start a work of a specific kind. Also Daniel said that Work orientation is not static (Daniel 1973).

According to these critiques, Goldthorpe was overly simplistic with focus on money or as they said ‘fulfilment’ because he chose a problematic group for managers to work upon, also he forgot to understand that manual labour was a lot more accessible to investigation which in the first place is not liked by workers who are doing this kind of job.

Also his studies, did not had a control comparison with professionally orientation to work which includes qualifications, feeling of success, values placed on ‘hard work’, extent of control over destiny and feeling good about current job and attachment to organisation. His studies also did not include gender which is an important part to study at a society level because of many families now a days have both members working.

Introducing gender

There have been many studies done including by Hakim in which there is introduction of women and men at a same level in the work force and their studies. Since Goldthorpe et al’s study ignores gender, Hakim’s (1991) talks about women ‘grateful slaves’ and self-made women and men and compare them. Hakim’s (1995) polarity thesis: work-centred women, home-centred women and ‘drifters’ / Hakim’s (1998, 2001) preference theory

He put forwards a ‘preference theory’ in which there are 3 kinds of women;

Work-centred women which constitutes of (25%) of the total population surveyed. These women were childless and were committed to work, investment in training, qualifications etc.

His second group consisted of Home-centred women which constituted of 28% of the surveyed population who had family as their main priority. They did not prefer to work as they believed in qualifications as only for intellectual dowry.

The third category of working women were adaptives’ which were a mix of both (47%) and combined a balance between raising children and reaching career goals despite of not totally being highly committed to career. According to them qualifications obtained for working was there to help them gain promotions etc.

His work challenges the traditional feminist ‘myths’ and shows that women were aware of individual differences (preferences). Though his work was survey based there were no dialogs with the women themselves (Procter and Padfield 1998; Caven 1999; Fagan 2001). He also assumed that orientation to work is static and predetermined (Fagan 2001). According to many critiques he Overemphasised choices and preferences and totally ignored structural and economic factors involved.

Bringing men back in

“It is notable that there is in practice only one ‘choice’ of work history for men, compared to three for women. Feminists who emphasise that women’s choices are constrained and not ‘completely free’ overlook the fact that women have more choices than men” (Hakim 1996:134,

But is this really the case? According to Nolan this is not the case as many men fits the ‘adaptives’ category (Nolan, 2009). Fagan shows this by talking about how Men’s commitment to work declines around time of childbirth (Fagan, 2001). Also Structural demands prevent men from spending time with family (Pleck, 1985) which makes them prefer to be adaptive rather than being totally work oriented.

Work orientation and gender relation:

Work orientation basically Refers to the values, anticipations, and feelings that any worker brings to an organisation. This topic has been of interest to many people. There have been researches which have shown that “work orientation” effect the experience of job. Work orientation is Related to motivation but is not motivation, it is associated with commitment but ISN’T commitment and it links with effort bargain and implicit contract

Men mostly prefer to work in order to have a personal satisfaction and job related satisfaction i.e. their orientations to work are similar (Caven, 2009). More related research is needed in this area as this is a topic which integrates many other things including salary related rewards, career growth, time spent in job compared to time spent at home balance (Hakim, 2008; Raiden and Caven, forthcoming). There is also a need to show how and why a person’s orientation towards a particular job or from a particular job changes.

Conclusions

The further research is indeed needed because initial studies have concentrated more upon general way of obtaining data. Also there has been a generalization of groups and initial researchers thinks that they can generalise people from all sorts of work in a specific category, this is not true as various types of jobs have their own requirements and faults which can attract a person or repel a person from that job, for example, a manual labour job given to a student during his time at the university will help him financially and keep him busy but the same job to the same student after his graduation will have no reason for the student to continue to work upon unless he is not getting a job in his specified field.

Also original studies focussed on men and manufacturing and from that time there has been a lot of changes in the types of jobs available in the market today, there are jobs in various kinds of fields including science, arts, skilled labour, etc, also there have been sub division of work and thus there are different requirements at different levels. Further research in required to find out different orientations to work and the specified areas related to different aspects of work.

Just like there are various definitions of work, there are many types of works done in a society. When a worker goes to an office there are certain things accepted out of him like work ethics, good practice, better outcome at highest level of quality, similarly the worker also expects certain things out of the employee.

This essay will attempt a brief review of the history of the concept ‘culture’ and its relationship with the concept ‘civilization’, in order to understand the two concepts, without making any claims towards offering anything new in the analysis of the chronological account of how the definition of culture changed over time. [1] Instead, the essay will attempt to explore the harmonies and dis-harmonies in the utilization of the two concepts, as a way of coming to terms with immanent ruptures and continuities which were explicated in various ways in which the logic and lexicon of these concepts were deployed in the different anthropological traditions over the years.

From the outset, I would like to mention that I almost abandoned this particular topic because of the difficulties I encountered in finding a concise definition of, mainly the concept of ‘culture’. When, after several weeks of reading, it finally dawned on me that actually there was none, it all started to make sense – that the subject of defining the concept of ‘culture’ has never been closed and was never intended for foreclosure. This meant that understanding how the concept was variously deployed was as important as appreciating the manner of its deployment, especially in ways in which this was always associated with the concept of civilization, whose definition was more straightforward.

The notion of Culture:

Following a very unsuccessful search for a concise definition of the concept ‘culture’, it dawned on me that Terry Eagleton and several others was after all correct when he said that ‘culture’ was one of the few very complicated concepts to have ever graced the English language (Armstrong, 2010: 1; Eagleton, 2006: 1; Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952). Culture was a very difficult concept to define because the evolution of its etymology and its deployment varied in different contexts and anthropological traditions, both contemporary and classical. Its meaning in one setting was often contested in another.

The word ‘culture’ was first used in America [2] , and in etymological terms, its contemporary usage has its origin in attempts to describe man’s relationship with nature, through which resources were extracted. It depicted the outcomes of extraction of resources from nature through a process of labor, for example, through crop farming and livestock production (Eagleton, 2006: 1). It was in this sense that the concept was first formally deployed in the 19th century in Germany, where the word used was ‘Kultur’, which in German referred to cultivation. [3] The early German usage of the word culture was heavily influenced by Kant, who, like his followers, spelled the word as culture, and used it repeatedly to mean ‘cultivation’ or ‘becoming cultured’, which subsequently became the initial meaning of civilization (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 10). The way the concept was first used in modern English borrowed from the usage first made of the word by Walter Taylor, which dates back to 1871, although according to Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952: 9), Taylor’s use of the word culture, which was borrowed from German, was similar to the way the word civilization was used in Germany.

The above sense in which the concept culture was for long deployed depicted it as an activity or occupation that entailed a materialist dimension related to the extraction of resources from nature. Coming from Walter Taylor, the modern scientific sense of the word culture no longer refers primarily to the process of cultivation, but more generally as a manifestation of customs, beliefs and forms of government (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 10). The latter sense signifies some abstraction to the transcendent and divine realm of spiritualism. Over time, the concept was also deployed in other ways that depicted it as an entity (Eagleton, 2006: 1). There was also a sense in which the concept of culture also depicted the transformation that took place in society’s experiences with changing technologies of production as capitalism developed, although this understanding was quite often deployed in racist terms to differentiate between less industrialized nations of the non-west from the more industrialized European societies.

It is true, as observed by Eagleton that the relationship between nature and culture was such that ‘nature produces culture which changes nature’ (Eagleton, 2006: 3). In this sense, there is a part of nature that is cultural, and another that is not. The part of nature which is cultural is that part which labor transforms, for example, into works of art, monuments, skyscrapers (or building structures) or cities. Such products of culture are as ‘natural as rural idylls are cultural’ (Eagleton, 2006: 4). Because culture originally meant ‘cultivation’, or managing the growth of crops, which means ‘husbandry’, the cultural therefore would imply that which was within ones means to change. As pointed out by Eagleton (2006: 4), ‘the stuff to be altered has its own autonomous existence, which then lends it something of the recalcitrance of nature’ in much the same way as the extent to which culture transforms nature and also influences the rigorous limits nature imposes on the cultural project.

To this extent, I am in agreement with Eagleton (2006: 4-5) that the idea of culture signified a double rejection, of, on the one hand, the representation of culture as an organic (biological) determinism; and, on the other, as an interpretation of culture as an embodiment of autonomous spiritualism. To this extent therefore, culture rebuffs naturalism and idealism founded in biological determinism by insisting that from the point of view of culture, there was also a representation within nature which exceeded and dismantled nature. It also represented a refusal of idealism because even the highest-minded human agency had its humble roots in our biology and natural environment.

The resulting contradiction from this rejection of naturalism (emanating from organic determinism) and idealism (as a result of autonomy of spirit) led to a contest between what had actually evolved and what ought to, which transfigured into what Eagleton described as ‘a tension between making and being made, between rationality and spontaneity’ (Eagleton, 2006: 5).

Consequently, although the relation between humans and nature was important to an understanding culture, in this paper, I consider the social relations between humans and nature in the course of extracting from nature, through which humans change nature to be the most important. This is what is central to understanding the concept of culture, which makes it possible to view it as a systematic way of life and living, that humans consciously develop that is transferred from the past to the present and into the future. It depicts some semblance of historically assembled normative values and principles internal to social organizations through which a diversity of relationships are ordered. In this way, it is possible to see how culture becomes an abstraction of itself, in its own right, which does not reify culture as a thing as this essentializes culture. I am inclined to agree with Armstrong (2010: 2) in her definition, which presents culture more as a process of meaning making which informs our sense of who we are, how we want to be perceived and how others perceive us.

The above said, we also need to recognize that while culture is important, it is also not the only factor that shapes social relations between humans in the course of impacting on nature in ways that change it. Several other social, economic, political, geographical, historical and physical factors come into play. It is necessary to recognize that culture, which embodies as much as it conceals its specific history, politics and economics; is, as also pointed out by Franz Boaz [4] , not inert. It is an inherently Boasian conception to view culture as extremely dynamic; as having life, and existing in a continuous state of flux, as new notions of and about culture continues to emerge. This means that cultures cannot be expected to be static and homogenous. As new cultures emerge, tensions are usually generated. The totality of any culture and its individual trait cannot be understood if taken out of its general setting. Likewise, culture cannot also be conceived as controlled by a single set of conditions (Benedict, 1934: xv).

It is also Franz Boaz [5] who noted that culture is some form of standardized or normative behavior. An individual lives in his/her specific culture, in as much the same way as culture is lived by an individual. Culture has a materiality that makes it manifest in diverse patterns implying that it meaningless to try and generalize or homogenize about cultural patterns (Benedict, 1934: xvi). Thinking of culture as socially constructed networks of meaning that distinguish one group from another implies not only a rejection of social evolution but also an endorsement of ‘cultural relativism’, which is also a Boasian tradition. [6] Boaz [7] rightly argued that perspectives that view culture in evolutionary terms tend to end with the construction of a unified picture of the history of culture and civilization, which is misleading. Tendencies which view culture as a single and homogenous unit, and as an individual historical problem is extremely problematic (Benedict, 1934: xv). I consider the distinctive life-ways of different people as the most basic understanding of the notion of culture. ‘Cultural relativity’ is a recognition that different people have cultures and life-ways that are distinct from those of others.

The notion of civilization:

The concept of civilization, like culture, also has a complex etymology. By 1694, the French were already using the verb civiliser, and referred to the polishing of manners, rendering sociable, or becoming urbane as a result of city life (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 11). The French notion of civilization referred to the achievement of human advancement manifest in certain customs and standards of living. The French considered civilization as the end point of a process of cultivation that took place over centuries (Elliot, 2002). The English lagged behind the French. [8] In 1773, Samuel Johnson still excluded civilization from his dictionary, preferring civility, and yet civilization (from the word civilize) captured better the opposite of ‘barbarity’ than civility. The English subsequently adopted the concept of civilization deriving it from the verb to civilize and associated it with the notion of civilizing others. The 1933 Oxford Dictionary defined civilization as: “A developed or advanced state of human society; a particular stage or type of this” (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 12). By the 18th century, the word civilization in German was associated with the spread by the state of political developments akin to the German state to peoples of other nations. It was somewhat similar to the English verb to civilize (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 11). For the Germans and English, the concept of civilization invoked an imperial political agenda that was apparent in the way they deployed the concept.

The harmony and dis-harmonies in deployment of concepts of culture and civilization:

The evolutionary thinking about culture and civilization in the philosophy of Durkheim:

Among the scholars who attempted a very rigorous narrative intended to distinguish between culture and civilization was Emile Durkheim, whose writings were first published in 1893. In trying to come to terms with the complex division of labor and associated behavioral changes that occurred with the industrial revolution in England, Durkheim, argued that inside modern industry, jobs were demarcated and extremely specialized, and while each product was a specialty, it entailed the existence of others in form of the labor they input into its production. As society evolved from agriculture to industry, so did culture of the pre-industrial era give way to civilization associated with the conditions of progress in human societies. Durkheim extended the concept of division of labor from Economics to organisms and society, from which its association with culture was derived, arguing that the more specialized an organism’s functions were, the more exalted a place it occupied in the animal hierarchy. For Durkheim, the extent of division of labor in society influenced the direction of the development of the evolution of mankind from culture to civilization (Durkheim, 1984: 3).

Durkheim used division of labor to make the distinction between culture as a preserve of the pre-modern mediaeval society and civilization as belonging to the modern industrial society. Durkheim argued that all societies are usually held together by social solidarity. In the pre-industrial societies, where social bonds were based on customs and norms, this solidarity was mechanical while in the industrial societies, which were highly individualistic, the solidarity was organic, and social bonds were maintained by contracts which regulated relations between highly individualistic beings. To Durkheim, societies transition from relatively simple pre-modern societies to relatively more complex industrial societies (Durkheim, 1984: 3).

Durkheim argued that division of labor influenced the moral constitution of societies by creating moral rules for human conduct that influenced social order in ways that made industrial societies distinct from the pre-industrial ones. It created a civilized, individual man, capable of being interested in everything but attaching himself exclusively to nothing, able to savor everything and understand everything, found the means to combine and epitomize within himself the finest aspects of civilization. For Durkheim, tradition and custom, collectively defined as culture were the basis of distinction of the simpler societies which defined their mechanical form of solidarity that they exhibit. The modern societies, according to Durkheim, were characterized civilization (Durkheim, 1984: 3-4).

Durkheim advanced an essentially Darwinian argument. In the biological determinism of Durkheim, it is argued that the shift from mechanical to organic solidarity was comparable to the changes that appeared on the evolutionary scale. Relatively simple organisms showing only minimal degrees of internal differentiation ceded place to more highly differentiated organisms whose functional specialization allowed them to exploit more efficiently the resources of the ecological niche in which they happened to be placed. The more specialized the functions of an organism, the higher its level on the evolutionary scale, and the higher its survival value. In similar ways, the more differentiated a society, the higher its chances to exploit the maximum of available resources, and hence the higher its efficiency in procuring indispensable means of subsistence in a given territory (Durkheim, 1984: xvi).

There were fundamental contradictions in the perspectives of Durkheim. If Durkheim denigrated culture to the pre-modern, and viewed society as developing in evolutionary terms to the industrial, it could be assumed that he also believed that the solidarity which was associated with the industrial society was better. What then explains the fact that Durkheim was deeply convinced of and concerned about the pathology of acquisitiveness in modern capitalist society? Durkheim did not believe that the pathological features of the industrial society were caused by an inherent flaw in systems built on organic solidarity. Rather, he thought that the malaise and anomie were caused by transitional difficulties that could be overcome through the emergence of new norms and values in the institutional setting of a new corporate organization of industrial affairs (Durkheim, 1984: xxi).

For Durkheim, the flaws in industrial and class relations did not mean that the pre-modern characterized by culture was better. That the class conflicts which were inherent in the industrial society and were associated with the structure of capitalist society would be overcome by the emergence of a new corporate society in which relations between employers and employees were harmonized. Beholden to none of the political and social orientations of his day, Durkheim always attempted to look for a balanced middle way (Durkheim, 1984: xxii).

The contemporary play of relationships between culture and civilization has, to say the least, rendered wanting, the ideas which were advanced by Durkheim. For example, if culture is a preserve of the pre-modern, what explains the pervasiveness of barbarism within civilized formations of the industrialized world? Can we have culture in societies that are characterized as civilized or with civilization? Or are societies that are said to possess culture devoid of civilization?

The contradictions in the etymology and deployment of concepts of culture and civilization:

The usage of ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ in various languages has been confusing. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary for English defined both ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ in terms of the other. ‘Culture’ was a particular state or stage of advancement in civilization. ‘Civilization’ was called advancement or a state of social culture. In both popular and literary English, they were often treated as near synonyms, though ‘civilization’ was sometimes restricted to ‘advanced’ or ‘high’ cultures (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 13). As early as the 1950’s, there were some writers who were inclined to regard civilization as the culture of urbanized societies characterized by cities. Often, civilization was considered a preserve for literate cultures, for instance, while the Chinese had civilization, the Eskimo were seen as in possession of culture (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 13).

The English language distinction between civilization and culture made in the past was different from that made in the German language. In German, civilization was confined to the material conditions, while the English expression sometimes included psychic, moral, and spiritual phenomena (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 13). The German Kultur also referred to material civilization, while culture in English over time came to mean something entirely different, which corresponded to the humanities. The German Kultur also related to the arts of savages and barbaric peoples, which were not included in any use of civilization since the term civilization denoted a stage of advancement higher than savagery or barbarism. These stages in advancement in civilization were even popularly known as stages of culture; implying that the word culture was used synonymous with the German Kultur (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 13). In English, ‘culture’ was a condition or achievement possessed by society. It was not individual. The English phrase ‘a cultured person’ did not employ the term in the German sense. There was a sense of non-specificity in the way in which the concept ‘culture’ (‘Kultur’) was deployed in the German sense (Krober & Kluckhorn, 1952: 13).

From its etymological roots in rural labor, the word culture was first deployed in reference to ‘civility’; then in the 18th century, it became more or less synonymous with ‘civilization’, in the sense of a general process of intellectual, spiritual and material progress. In Europe, civilization as an idea was equated to manners and morals. To be civilized included not spitting on the carpet as well as not decapitating one’s prisoners of war. The very word implied a dubious correlation between mannerly conduct and ethical behavior, which in England was equated to the word ‘gentleman’. As a synonym of ‘civilization’, ‘culture’ belonged to the general spirit of Enlightenment, with its cult of secular, progressive self-development (Eagleton, 2006: 9).

Form my reading of the literature on this subject, it was not clear at what point culture and civilization begun to be deployed interchangeably. Suffice to mention, however, that in English, as in French, the word culture was not unconditionally interchangeable with civilization. While it was not entirely clear, between the two concepts of culture and civilization, which predated the other, they both shared a transcendental association with the notion of cultivation, as something which is done to (or changes in) humans in the course of exacting labor upon nature to change it, that leads to the development of human qualities to suit the needs of collective humanity. Culture, which emerged in German from the notion of Kultur, which meant cultivation, appeared as a form of universal subjectivity at work within the particularistic realm of our separate individualities. For Eagleton (2006: 8), it was a view of culture as a component of civilization which was neither dissociated from society nor wholly at one with it.

This kind of focus also portrayed an essentially Kantian notion of man as becoming cultivated through art and science, and becoming civilized by attaining a variety of social graces and refinements (or decencies), in which the state had a role to play. This Kantian conception therefore distinguished between being cultivated and being civilized. Being cultivated referred to intrinsic improvement of the person, while being civilized referred to improvements of social interrelations (interpersonal relations), some kind of ethical pedagogy which served to liberate the collective self buried in every individual into a political citizen (Eagleton, 2006: 7; Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952: 11).

There was a sense in which the concept of civilization had an overwhelming French connection (coming from the concept civilizer), in the same way culture was associated with the Germans (from the concept Kultur). To be described as civilized was associated by the French with finesse with regards to social, political, economic and technical aspects life. For the Germans, ‘culture’ had a more narrowly religious, artistic and intellectual reference. From this point of view, Eagleton (2006: 9) was right when he observed that: (i) ‘civilization’ was deployed in a manner that played down national differences, while ‘culture’ highlighted them; and, (ii) the tension between ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ had much to do with the rivalry between Germany and France. I am reminded here of Eagleton’s famous phrase that: ‘civilization was formulaically French, while culture was stereotypically German’ (Eagleton, 2006: 10-11).

Towards the end of the 19th century civilization and culture were invariably viewed as antonyms. If, however, the description by Eagleton (2006: 9) of French notion of civilization as a form of social refinement is acceptable, then one can also accept Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952: 14) description of civilization as a process of ennobling (or ‘creating nobility’) of humanity through the exercise by society of increased control of the elementary human impulses. This makes civilization a form of politics. In the same light, I also agree with Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952: 14) that culture’s German connections link it with the control of nature through science and art, which means culture embodies technology (including equipment) as well as knowledge systems (including skills) relevant for subduing and employing nature.

The implications of the above are two-fold: (a) culture and civilization, can not be looked at as antonyms or binary opposites, in the sense in which evolution theorists would want us to view the relationship between these two concepts – with culture as being akin to an inferior status while civilization is ascribed to the superior; (b) both tend to depict not only elements of normativity in advance in life-forms, but also constantly improving internal conditions of the internal elements of these concepts that define humanity which they embody. There is a way in which the elements embodied by these concepts depict superiority in their respective life-forms. Even when there are tendencies for overlaps in the elements depicted by these two concepts, for example, their association with politics, art, technology and urban living, there is a sense in which both concepts cannot be viewed as stages of development one from the other.

It appears to me that Eagleton viewed civilization as a value-judgmental concept that pre-supposed an improvement on what went before, to whatever was not only right, but a great deal better than what was (Eagleton, 2006: 10). Eagleton was also non-presumptive when he pointed out that historically, the deployment of the term put it within the lexicon of a pre-industrial European middle class, which used the concept to justify imperial ambitions of mercantile and early industrial European capitalism towards those they categorized as of inferior civilization (Eagleton, 2006: 10). This fact has to be borne in mind if the concept when the concept is deployed today.

Culture on the other hand, required certain social conditions that bring men into complex relationships with natural resources. The state becomes a necessity. Cultivation was a matter of the harmonious, all-round development of the personality. Because there was overwhelming recognition that nobody could do this in isolation, this helped to shift culture from its individual to its social meaning. Culture had a social dimension (Eagleton, 2006: 10).

Whichever was, between culture and civilization, the progenitor of the other, there is a dual sense in which these concepts appear linked by their enlightenment era roots; and also not linked at the same time. I agree with Eagleton that “civilization sounds abstract, alienated, fragmented, mechanistic, utilitarian, in thrall to a crass faith in material progress; while culture seems holistic, organic, sensuous, autotelic and recollective”. However, I have reservations with Eagleton’s postulation of, first, a conflict between culture and civilization, and secondly, presentation of this conflict as a manifestation of a quarrel between tradition and modernity (Eagleton, 2006: 11).

One of the greatest exports from the Enlightenment era was its universalism. Post-enlightenment political philosophy contributed significantly to critiques of enlightenment’s grand unilineal narratives regarding the evolution of universal humanity. We can look at the discourse of culture as a contribution to understanding the diversity inherent in different life-forms with their specific drivers of growth. Increasingly, it had become extremely perilous to relativize non-European cultures, which some thinkers of the time idealized as ‘primitive’ (Eagleton, 2006: 12).

In the 20th century in the primitivist features of modernism, a primitivism which goes hand-in-hand with the growth of modern cultural anthropology emerged, this time in postmodern guise, in form of a romanticizing of popular culture, which now plays the expressive, spontaneous, quasi-utopian role which ‘primitive’ cultures had played previously (Eagleton, 2006: 12).

While todate the concepts ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ continue to be used interchangeably, there is also still a sense in which culture is still deployed almost as the opposite of civility (Eagleton, 2006: 13). It is not uncommon to encounter culture being used in reference to that which is tribal as opposed to the cosmopolitan. Culture continues to be closed to rational criticism; and a way of describing the life-forms of ‘savages’ rather than a term for the civilized. If we accept the fact that ‘the savages’ have culture, then the primitives can be depicted as cultured and the civilized as uncultured. In this sense, a reversal means that civilization can also be idealized (Eagleton, 2006: 13). If the imperial Modern states plundered the preA­-modern ones, for whatever reasons, is it not a statement of both being uncultured and lack of civility, quite antithetical to what one could consider as civilization of the west. What sense doe it therefore make to posture as civilized and yet act in an uncultured manner?

Can viewing culture as civilization, on one hand, and civilization as culture, on the other hand, help to resolve the impasse in the contemporary deployment of these concepts? One fact is clear, either way; it has potential to breed ‘postmodern’ ambiguities of cultural relativism (Eagleton, 2006: 14). Alternatively, if culture is viewed, not as civilization, but as a way of life, it simply becomes an affirmation of sheer existence of life-forms in their pluralities (Eagleton, 2006: 13).

Pluralizing the concept of culture comes at a price – the idea of culture begins to entertain cultural non-normativities or ‘queer’ cultures, in the name of diversity of cultural forms. Rather than dissolving discrete identities, it multiplies them rather than hybridization, which as we know, and as Edward Said observed, all cultures are involved in one another; none is single and pure, all are hybrid, heterogeneous, extraordinarily differentiated, and non-monolithic (Eagleton, 2006: 15).

Attempts to valorize culture as a representation of particular life-forms associated with civility can also be perilous. There is a post-modern sense in which culture can be considered as an intellectual activity (science, philosophy and scholarship), as well as an ‘imaginative’ pursuit of such exploits as music, painting and literature. This is the sense in which ‘cultured’ people are considered to have culture. This sense suggests that science, philosophy, politics and economics can no longer be regarded as creative or imaginative. This also suggests that ‘civilized’ values are to be found only in fantasy. And this is clearly a caustic comment on social reality. Culture comes to mean learning and the arts, activities confined to a tiny proportion of humanity, and it at once becomes impoverished as a concept (Eagleton, 2006: 16).

Concluding Remarks:

From the foregoing analyses, it is clear that understanding the relationship between culture and civilization is impossible until we cease to view the world in binaries in which the West (Europe) was constructed as advanced and developed with the non-West perceived as primitive, barbarous and pagan. Historically, the West’s claim of supremacy was always predicated on their provincialization of the non-west, whose behavioral patterns were judged from the experience of the West, and characterized in generalized terms as traditional customs and therefore culture. I agree with Benedict, that the West did all it could to universalize its experience to the rest of the world, even when this experience was different from that of those from the non-west (Benedict, 1934: 5).

Assumptions of the mutual exclusivity of culture and civilization in society are premised on perceived irreconcilability of values and beliefs. Religion was always used in the West to posit a generalized provincialism of the non-west. It was the basis of prejudices around which superiority was justified. No ideas or institutions that held in the one were valid in the other. Rather all institutions were seen in opposing terms according as they belonged to one or the other of the very often slightly differentiated religions.

In this contemporary era of highly globalized populations of footloose movements an

The Millennium Development Goals are an integrated set of eight goals and 18 time-bound targets for extending the benefits of globalization to the world’s poorest citizens. The goals aim to stimulate real progress by 2015 in tackling the most pressing issues facing developing countries – poverty, hunger, inadequate education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation. UNDP helps countries formulate national development plans focused on the MDGs and chart national progress towards them through the MDG reporting process (Wacc, 2006).

In most developing countries, gender inequality is a major obstacle to meeting the MDG targets. In fact, achieving the goals will be impossible without closing the gaps between women and men in terms of capacities, access to resources and opportunities, and vulnerability to violence and conflict.

Millennium Development Goal 3 is ‘to promote gender equality and empower women’. The goal has one target: ‘to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015’. Four indicators are used to measure progress towards the goal: the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; the ratio of literate women to men in the 15-to 24-year-old age group; the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector; and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments.

The existence of a separate goal on gender equality is the result of decades of advocacy, research and coalition-building by the international women’s movement. Its very existence demonstrates that the global community has accepted the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment to the development paradigm- at least at the rhetorical level.

“Gender inequality means inequality between men and women in accessing the existing resources” (Saroukhani 1991:673). In the view of Krammara & Treicehr “any kind of behavior, policy, languages, and other actions that represents a fixed, comprehensive, and institutionalized view in regard to women as inferior beings, means gender inequality”. (1985:185). Therefore, gender inequality refers to the differences between men and women in receiving social and economic advantages which is often to the benfit of men at the expense of women, which means men take superiority over women.

Men and women experience the world of work quite differently. Wage disparities, occupational sex segregation, and gender differences in authority, for example, are well recognized (e.g., Padavic and Reskin 2002). Despite distinguished changes in work, meaningful differences in these areas remain persistent features of contemporary society (England 2006, 2010).

While there are certainly other factors at play, this paper focuses on discrimination in a variety forms, including in hiring (Gorman 2005; Goldin and Rouse 2000), promotions (Olson and Becker 1983), wages (Meitzen 1986), glass ceiling, and as well as sexual harassment (Welsh 1999).Of course, documenting the contemporary occurrence of gender discrimination in employment is only a first step. As Reskin (2000, 320) argues, “We need to move beyond demonstrating that employment discrimination exists, and investigate why it persists in work organizations.” We must look at processes that lead to unequal outcomes for women and men. The real challenge is to uncover how discrimination unfolds in actual work settings.

The issue of gender inequality can be considered as a universal feature of developing countries.One of the areas of disparity between males and females is related to the difference in their employment status which is present through occupational segregation, gender-based wage gaps, and women’s unequal image in informal employment, unpaid work and higher unemployment rates (UNFPA, 2005). As women in developing countries have low status in the community, the activities they perform tend to be valued less; and women’s low status is also perpetuated through the low value placed on their activities (March et al., 1999).

In the case of Mauritius, even though there has been a rapid change in the society where women have reached a high level and hold status such as Judges, Directors, Engineers which were unconceivable to be the fields where women could emerged; there are still some occupation where women are entangled in the culture norms and could not take the lead. For example, there are some sectors such as Fire Men at the Fire Services where there are no female officers.

There are less women who work as Electrician, Plumber or even Carpenter, as these occupations do not allow women to perform well due to their physical strength. Besides there is no doubt that there are organisations which are gender biased. Most of the organisations are entirely rules by male managerial culture as when organisations were first performed; only males were in the paid workforce.

Despite there has been an increased in the education field at all level and the increase of women in the workforce, there has been a minor change to the men dominated culture in the workplace where women are still treated as inferior agents. Our study focused on how gender inequality still has an impact on the Mauritian female within the workplace.

General context
An Overview of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries

The issue of gender inequality can be considered as a universal aspect of developing countries. Unlike women in developed countries who are, in relative terms, economically empowered and have a powerful voice that demands an audience and positive action, women in developing countries are generally silent and their voice has been stifled by economic and cultural factors.

Economic and cultural factors, together with institutional factors state the gender-based division of labour, rights, responsibilities, opportunities, and access to and control over resources. Education, literacy, access to media, employment, decision making, among other things, are some of the areas of gender disparity.

One of the areas of disparity between males and females is related to the difference in their employment status which is distinct by occupational segregation, wage inequality, and women’s unequal representation in informal occupation, unpaid work and higher unemployment rates (UNFPA, 2005). As women in developing countries have low status in the community, the activities they perform tend to be valued less; and women’s low status is also perpetuated through the low value placed on their activities (March et al., 1999).

In-depth analysis of DHS by Hindin (2005) showed that only 17% of women in Zimbabwe, 12% in Zambia and 4% in Malawi have higher status job than their partners. The respective percentages of women whose partners have higher status jobs are 52, 43 and 53.

Women are also overrepresented in the informal sector. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 84% of women’s non-agricultural employment is informal compared to 63% of men’s. The figure is found to be 58% and 48% for women and men, respectively in Latin America (UNFPA, 2005). Studies generally show that women are more likely to be engaged in work which is for longer hours than men. For instance, in 18 of the 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, greater than 50% of women were employed and even in six of these countries the percentage of employed women was greater than 75% (Mukuria et al.,2005).

However, as most of the employed women work in agricultural and other activities which are mostly considered to be having limited or no financial returns, their employment does not contribute much to their status in the workplace. Thus, women in those countries are dependent on their partners in most aspects of their life. In spite of its importance in enabling women to get access to information about personal health behaviours and practices, household, and community, the percentage of women exposed to different types of media is limited in most developing countries.

Women’s limited access to education, employment opportunity, and media, attached with cultural factors, reduces their decision making power in the society in general and in a household in particular. Regarding their participation in decision making at national level, though the number of women in national parliaments has been increasing, no country in the world has yet achieved gender parity.

According to the millennium indicators data base of the United Nations, cited in the UNFPA (2005), the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women in 2005 was 16% at world level, 21% in developed countries, and 14% in developing countries. This low representation of women in national parliaments could be due, among others, to type of electoral systems in

different countries, women’s social, economic status and beliefs about women’s place in the family and society, and women’s double responsibilities for work and family (UNFPA, 2005).

Women are underrepresented in the formal sector of employment. The survey conducted by the Central Statistical Authority (CSA, 2004) showed that women account for less than half (43%) of the total employees in the country. Considering the percentage of female employees from the total number of employees by employment type, the highest was in domestic activities (78%) and followed by unpaid activities (59.3%). In other types of formal employment (e.g. government, NGOs, private organizations), the percentage of female workers is less than 35.

On the other hand, the survey showed overrepresentation of female workers in the informal sector. About 58% of working women work in the informal sector whereas the percentage of working men in the informal sector was 37.7 % (ibid).The breakdown of the federal government employees by occupational groups also indicated gender disparity. From federal government employees found in the clerical and fiscal type of jobs 71.3 % were female, while the percentage of females was slightly more than half (51%) in custodial and manual type of jobs.

Women make up 25% and 18% of the administrative and professional and scientific job categories, respectively, indicating that upper and middle level positions are overwhelmingly dominated by men (Federal Civil Service Commission, 2005). This concentration of women in the informal sector and low level positions has implication on their earnings. In this regard, the survey showed four out of ten women civil servants earn Birr 300 a month compared to two out of ten for men (Federal Civil Service Commission, 2005).Ethiopian women’s access to mass media is one of the lowest. In their DHS comparative report, Mukuria et al. (2005) show that, among 25 Sub-Saharan African countries.

Chapter 2
Component of gender inequality-horizontal and vertical segregation

Jonung (1984, p. 45) defines the presence of occupational gender segregation as when women and men are given different occupations that is reliable with their overall shares of employment, irrespective of the nature of job that they have. Gender segregation mean when the percentage of one gender is higher than that of males and females in an occupation. It reflects the gender differences in employment opportunity. The number of occupation with segregation against women is far greater than the number of occupations with segregation against men. Occupational gender segregation consists of two main component dimensions known as horizontal and vertical segregation (Blackburn et al, 2000).

Horizontal segregation is known as under or over representation of certain group in the workplace which is not ordered by any criterion (Bettio and Verashchagina, 2009). According to Anker (1998) horizontal segregation is an absolute and universal characteristic of contemporary socio-economic systems.

It focuses mainly when men and women possess different physical, emotional and mental capabilities. Such discrimination occurs when women are categorized as less intelligent, hormonal and sensitive (Acker 1990). Women are labeled as unreliable and dependent workers when they are pregnant. They are less competent as they will not work as long and hard as others. They become more stressful and sensible to tiny issues happen in the workplace. Martin (1994) declared that in masculine management style, most of the time women possess ‘soft skills’ and men possess ‘hard skills’. It is this concept which creates gender segregation in the workplace.

Vertical segregation referred to the under or over representation of a clearly identifiable group of workers in the workplace at the top of an ordering based on ‘desirable’ attributes such as income, prestige, authority and power.

Huffman (1995) finds that women do not possess enough supervisory authority at work, in education, occupational experience and prestige. One reason that women lack authority is because most women are more concentrated in female-dominated occupations which comprise fever position of authority than male-dominated occupations. Moreover, it is viewed that men’s have greater status value, that is men’s personality are more valuable than women’s and they are much more skilled. (Broverman et al. 1972; Deaux and Kite 1987; Eagly 1987).

Men possess more powerful position in the workplace (Bridges & Nelson 1989). Women’s wage rates are lower than men’s even if their qualifications are similar. As women enter in the workplace, this reduces the level of prestige related with the task and men leave these occupations.

Sex discrimination-discrimination, harassment and glass ceiling

In many parts of the world, women have experienced breakthroughs in their rights in employment. Despite these advances, women from every country and culture continue to face sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. The international community has recognized both discrimination based on sex in the terms and conditions of employment and sexual harassment as violations of the fundamental human rights of women (Gudrun and Danya, 1998).

Although sex discrimination is prohibited by law, it continues to be a widespread problem for working women. There are three forms of sex discrimination that have an effect on women in organizations: overt discrimination, sexual harassment and the glass ceiling. Each has negative effects on women’s status and ability to perform well at work.

Overt discrimination

Overt discrimination is defined to make gender as a decisive factor for employment-related decisions. This type of discrimination was targeted by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited making decisions based on sex in employment-related matters such as hiring, firing, and promotions. It consist such behaviours as to refuse to hire women, to pay them inequitably or even to steer them to “women’s jobs”. Overt discrimination also led to occupational sex segregation where jobs are classified by low pay, low status and short career ladders (Reskin, 1997).

Sexual Harassment

MacKinnon (1979:1) defined sexual harassment as “the unwanted imposition of sexual requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power”. As in overt discrimination, sexual harassment is a persistent gendered problem for women in the workplace around the world. Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination, but one manifestation of the larger problem of employment-related discrimination against women. It now appears obvious that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination.

There are three psychological dimensions of sexual harassment that continued to persist worldwide: sexual coercion, gender harassment and useless sexual attention ((Fitzgerald et al., 1995; Gelfand et al., 1995). The case of sexual harassment in the workplace is mainly due to obtain more power and status than the opposite sex (e.g., Baugh, 1997; McKinney, 1992; Piotrkowski, 1998; Riger, 1991; Welsh, 1999)

Statistical discrimination is another form of sex discrimination in the workplace, it consists of sex-typed job assignment (i.e. “error discrimination”-Aigner & Cain 1977, England & McCreary 1987, Bielby & Baron 1986a). For example, employers put men into jobs which consist physical demands and women into jobs demanding social skills (Bielby & Baron 1984, Farkas et al 1991). However, employers introduce gender segregation in job assignments exceeds technical or economic justifications: within the “mixed-sex” occupations that either sex could presumably perform, small differences in job requirements were accompanied by large differences in sex composition (Bielby & Baron 1986a:782).

The Glass ceiling

The term ‘the glass ceiling’ was coined in a 1986 Wall Street Journal report on corporate women. The glass ceiling is a concept that most frequently refers to invisible or artificial barriers that do not allow women from advancing past a certain level in corporations, government, education and nonprofit organization (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission -FGCC, 1997; Morrison and von Glinow, 1990). These barriers reflect “discrimination … a deep line of demarcation between those who prosper and those left behind.” The glass ceiling is the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission 1995b:4; emphasis added). This official description suggests that the definition of glass ceiling must know that it reflects job inequality that is unexplained by a person’s past “qualifications or achievements”; it reflects labor market discrimination, not just labor market inequality. For the purpose of this study, the glass ceiling concept is discussed regarding women who suffer from discrimination in the workplace.

The usual method to know where there is discrimination is to look for inequalities that are unexplained by prior personality of the employees. Inequalities that originate from past discrimination in education or training or from choices that people make to pursue nonmarket goals such as family, volunteer work or leisure are not generally measured as part of a glass ceiling. Therefore, glass ceiling inequality represents a gender or racial difference that is not explained by other job-relevant characteristics of the employee.

The glass ceiling is a third type of discrimination that affects women in the workplace and it is an important factor for women who do not get enough access to power and status in organizations. It also includes gender stereotypes, lack of opportunities for women to get promotion and prevent women to get higher income than men.

Nowadays many of the people immigrate to other countries. To some extent, there maybe exist five factors which cause people to leave their motherland and immigrate to other countries. The factors are living conditions, natural disasters, higher education chances, religious persecution, and escape of the punishment of law. These factors motivate them to leave their motherland to immigrate to other countries. Maybe some of them are forced to leave their motherland while others may voluntarily immigrate. Before beginning this thesis, two definitions must be made clearly. One is “migrants” and the other is “Permanently”. Migrant is someone who goes to live in another country or area, especially in order to find a good job (LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English). “Permanently” means lasting or remaining without essential change or on expected to change in status, condition or place (The Free Dictionary).

The first factor is the living conditions. In many regions of the world today people live in tragic situations of instability and uncertainty. It does not come as a surprise that in such contexts the poor and the destitute make plans to escape, to seek a new land that can offer them bread, dignity and peace ( U.S. Catholic Bishops, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, Nov. 15, 2000). So if a person lives in a country which is poorer than their target countries or where unemployment rates are higher, he may immigrate to the latter. Take America and Mexico for example, a survey shows that at 4.25 an hour, the U.S. minimum wage is approximately six times the prevailing one in Mexico(why do people immigrate,2005). That is to say, Americans lead a wealthier life than Mexicans. Therefore, undoubtly a great many Mexicans move to America. When they move to America, they will receive a higher wage for the same job than they can get in their own country. At the same time, the developed countries with high-cost employees want to attract people to go to their countries.

The second factor is the natural disasters. On many occasions, the natural disasters can not be predicted, so human beings always suffer a lot from them. Although people can not predict them, they can evade them. People who come across a natural disaster in their own countries will move to other countries. Take Ireland for example, a majority of Irish people had moved to other countries because of their country’s starvation. Because of this disaster, more than one million of its people were died of starvation and more than two million people immigrated to other countries, so today Irish people can be found in many developed countries such as Australia, Canada, America, Great Britain and some other developed countries (The Society and Cultural of Major English-Speaking Countries, 2005). The above example shows that the natural disasters are also a very important reason for the people emigrating from their own countries.

The third factor is that many developing countries’ students want to have an overseas study, so they may move to another country. When they finish their studies, a number of them will choose to settle down at the foreign countries to find a job.

The forth factor is religious persecution. From some aspects this is the main reason which leads a huge number of people immigrating to other countries. In the Middle Ages Antisemitism in Europe was religious. Though not part of Roman Cathelic dogma, many Christians, including members of the clergy, have held the Jewish people collectively responsible for killing Jesus, a practice originated by Melito of Sardis. As stated in the bostom college Guide to Passion Plays, “Over the course of time, Christians began to accept that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for killing Jesus. According to this interpretation, both the Jews present at Jesus Christ’s death and the Jewish people collectively and for all time, have committed the sin of deicide, or God-killing. For 1900 years of Christian-Jewish history, the charge of deicide has led to hatred, violence against and murder of Jews in Europe and America. (A View’s Guide to Contemporary Passion Plays, 2003). The above example shows that religious persecution is also a factor which leads to the people move to other countries.

The last but not the least, the fifth factor is the escape of law punishment. Many people who violate the law of a country may escape to other countries. This kind of phenomenon is more and more ordinary in today’s world, because there is not a common law validating to every countries. And the law in this country may not have the same validity in other countries. So the people who violate his own country’s law can flee to other countries. Take the millionaire Lai Changxing for example; he is a businessman and entrepreneur from Jinjiang, Fujian, people’ Republic of china and he is also the master of the lucrative Yanhua Group. He violated Chinese law of anticorruption in 1999, and then he fled to Canada. So he can not be punishment by Chinese law. (Accused Chinese Smuggler Gets Canada Work Permit, 2009).

Conclusion

As the world changes all the time, there are maybe other more factors. But from the factors mentioned above which lead the people emigrate from their motherland to other countries can draw a conclusion that people will not immigrate to other countries without reasons. There do exist some reasons which motivate them to emigrate. Some immigrators are voluntary to immigrate to others while some immigrators are not voluntary to immigrate to other countries, and they have no choice. However, when most people get old; they may still want to go back to their own countries. Just as the proverb says, “east, west, home is best.”

Reference

Accused Chinese Smuggler Gets Canada Work Permit, (2009). Reuters

Stephen, (1887).Longman Dictionary of ContemporaryEnglish.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Paper.

Smith, T., (2006). The Root Causes of Immigration. Available at: http://www.ccky.org/Pastoral%20Resources/Immigration%20Series/7%20-%20Root%20Causes%20of%20Immigration.pdf. Retrieved on 2010-04-01

Susan Paley M.A. and Adrian Gibbons Koesters, (2003). A View’s Guide to Contemporary Passion Plays. Available at: http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/ViewersGuide.pdf. Retrieved on 2010-04-06

Thomas, (2005). Welcomingthe Stranger among Us: Unity in Diversity.Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Zhu Yongtao, (2005). The Society and Cultural of Major English-Speaking Countries. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

According to Ritzer, the Mcdonaldization of society has standardized the consumer experience. Critically discuss.

‘The McDonaldization of society’ was originally published in 1993 and has since been revised and republished several times. In this text Ritzer argues that a process of ‘McDonaldization’ has taken place in which ‘the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 1). This process has revolutionized the principles of business and transformed our experiences of production and consumption. Ritzer’s concept is based on the work of Weber and his theory of rationalization (Weber, 1964). Weber argues that modernity is characterised by instrumental reason, with an increased emphasis on efficiency, control and the use of technology. This was initiated by a decline in traditional authority and the influence of charismatic leaders. The authority of rationality is based on rules and the application of science, logic and reason. These rules are carried out by bureaucratic structures in which groups of peoples are organised into hierarchies, each having individual responsibilities. They must follow the rules and regulations set by those who occupy a higher level in the hierarchy (Ritzer, 2004). Ritzer uses his McDonaldization model to demonstrate this rationalization process. The bureaucratic characteristics of the fast food restaurant include a complex division of labour in which food is prepared elsewhere and delivered frozen. A crew of labourers then perform a specific role repeatedly, such as cooking food and serving customers. For Ritzer, the fast food restaurant has come to represent the growth of rationalization in the twentieth century and its increasing influence on everyday human interaction and personal identities.

Ritzer identifies four aspects of McDonaldization, one of which is ‘predictability’ and relates most closely with this essay title. This aspect of McDonaldization implies that all products and services are standardized, that is they are identical at any time and in any place (Aldridge, 2003). To standardize means it is free from any irregularities, all the products are made to conform to one another. Shlosser (2001) refers to this characteristic as ‘uniformity’ (pg. 5). This is the key to the success of any business franchise he argues. ‘Customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown. A brand offers a feeling of reassurance when its products are always and everywhere the same’ (Schlosser, 2001, pg 5). Both Schlosser and Ritzer argue that the success of the fast food industry, through the production and consumption of standardized products, have encouraged other types of industry to adopt these methods of business. This has meant that identical copies of various stores are now spread across the world, leaving smaller businesses unable to compete (Schlosser, 2001 and Ritzer, 2004). For example, Subway now has 27,000 outlets in 85 countries and Starbucks opens an average of 6 new coffee shops per day (Ritzer, 2004). Standardization has made its roads in areas like education, healthcare, shopping, leisure and sport.

It is worth concluding my introduction by outlining the other three characteristics of Ritzer’s McDonaldization theory. Then I will proceed to discuss the question of whether the McDonaldization of society has standardized the consumer experience. The first dimension is efficiency ‘the optimum method for getting from one point to another’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 13). By following predetermined steps, businesses can function efficiently as every stage is carried out quickly and easily. This idea of efficiency is promoted by businesses as beneficial to consumers, but in reality serves their business interests as customers are increasingly providing their own labour while paying additional charges for the privilege. Ritzer offers many examples, such as salad bars, ATM machines and drive throughs. ‘A few years ago, the fast food chain McDonalds came up with the slogan “We do it all for you.” In reality, at McDonalds, we do it all for them. We stand in line, take the food to the table, dispose of the waste, and stack our trays. As labour costs rise and technology develops, the consumer often does more and more of the work’ (Ide and Cordell cited in Ritzer, 2004, pg 61). The second aspect is calculability, Ritzer argues that McDonaldization involves ‘calculating, quantifying. Quality tends to become a surrogate for quality’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 66). Mcdonaldized products and services are quantified, tasks are done within a certain time and products are a specific size, numerical standards are applied to almost everything. The size of a Big Mac never changes (Aldridge, 2003). Microwaves in the home mean that meals can now be prepared in minutes, saving time for other activities. News broadcasts are condensed into minute snippets of information so we are not bogged down with detail and useless information. Ritzer argues that although an emphasis on calculability means that we can pay very little for large sizes, the quality of these goods are becoming ever more substandard. The final dimension of the McDonaldization paradigm is ‘control’. This involves the use of nonhuman technology to remove the uncertainties caused by human agency and to ensure that both employees and customers are ‘pliant participants in the McDonaldizing process’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 132). Employees are not required to think for themselves or apply human logic to their work. They must follow instructions, push buttons on tills and scan barcodes. The skill and potential of human actors has become insignificant in a McDonaldizing world. Our everyday interactions are now based on the use of machines. Ritzer’s critique of these four dimensions is discussed in his chapter on the ‘irrationality of rationality’ where he acknowledges the benefits of the McDonaldization of society, such as increased variety, the availability of 24 hour shopping and increased speed of service. But despite the obvious benefits he argues that rationalization produces unreasonable systems in which human reason is undermined. His arguments mirror those of Marx and his discussion of alienation (1844).

Ritzer’s analysis of McDonaldiztion can be extended to many fields of consumption which have become increasingly standardized. For example, many argue that higher education has become McDonaldized. Previously, academics who teach in higher education were able to control their methods of teaching and dictate the nature of its content. This diversity in teaching styles and approaches has been reduced to a homogenized, product orientated system in which the student is now thought of as a customer. The quality of education is now highly controlled and regulated, teaching and research is bureaucratic and rationalized to serve economic interests. Evidence of this can be found in the emphasis on skills and employability placed on students as well as the use of postgraduate students and other low wage teaching assistants to lead classes. Higher education institutions are forced to compete with one another for funding and rank positions for the quality of teaching and research. Students opinions are now recorded by way of course evaluations which amount to surveys on customer satisfaction (Poynter, 2002). Lecturers and tutors are often required to develop and update new skills in technology in their teaching, this includes the use of power point and blackboard. Students also use technology in their studies in order to prepare them for their careers and the world of business. Although there is no national curriculum in place for higher education, this may change in the future and a national standard may be put in place (Hartley, 1993). This mass production of education is likely to cause a decline in its quality. Ritzer argues that we have seen ‘the ultimate step in the dehumanization of education, the elimination of a human teacher and of human interaction between teacher and student’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 155). It is interesting that Ritzer suggests not only that university education has become McDonaldized, but that the subject of sociology has too. He discusses the McDonaldization of sociology textbooks and sociological theory or ‘standardized theory’ (Ritzer, 1998, pg 37) but does not consider his own contribution to this phenomenon in writing the McDonaldization thesis. Many argue that his books have made social theory more palatable for students (Smart, 2006).

There are many other examples of standardized consumer experiences. Ritzer identifies fie aspects of this standardization or ‘predictability’. Each can be related to specific areas of consumption. Hotel chains are a perfect example of ‘predictable settings’ the growth of these chains has changed the way we experience hotel stays, while previously they were very diverse and owned by individuals who ran them in different ways and offered varying services and amenities. Now customers know what to expect from well known chains as each establishment is identical to the next (Ritzer, 2004,). The existence of individually run guesthouses and bed and breakfast is not a thing of the past as Ritzer seems to imply. These types of hotels are still hugely popular by consumers who wish for a more traditional, less standardized experience.

The use of ‘scripted interaction’ has created a more routinized experience for the consumer, we encounter this form of pseudo-interaction on almost a daily basis in fast food restaurants and supermarkets as well as other places. Many supermarkets require their staff to follow a number of compulsory ‘steps’ when serving customers, such as great the customer, offer to pack, promote certain products, say goodbye etc. Ritzer argues that consumers are subjected to inauthentic, insincere, treatment. I would argue however that although workers are required to ask certain questions, it is not as scripted as Ritzer claims, many businesses encourage their staff to engage in natural conversation with them.

Ritzer highlights that employee behaviour has become set to a specific standard. Workers must dress and act in a certain way. Detailed employee manuals are often distributed containing the do’s and don’ts of the job. Disney is a good illustration of this, Bryman (2004) discusses the emotional labour of employees working in Disney theme parks in which they must act as characters when delivering service, they are required to present the idea that they are taking part in the fun and not simply working. They internalise the culture of Disney by using a specific vocabulary and adopting a Disneyized persona in their work.

The standardized nature of products, as well as the processes involved in their production, is another aspect of Ritzer’s ‘predictability’ theory. In McDonalds, the food is easy to prepare and pre-cut to look identical to one another. The methods of preparation are the same in every restaurant, as is the packaging in which it is served. Ritzer argues that simple menus ensure predictability and uncomfortable seating (which is often in short supply) ensures that customers eat and leave quickly. It is important to note however, that McDonald’s restaurant has changed in recent times, the menu has grown and now includes more healthy options and alternatives to the classic items like hamburgers and milkshakes. The decor and seating have also changed and is now much more vibrant, creating a dining experience in which customers are not forced to leave quickly but relax and take their time. This is something Ritzer may have to factor into the next edition of his book. He also argues that ‘regional and ethnic distinctions are disappearing from American cooking’ (Ritzer, 2004, pg 99). The predictability of food in a McDonaldized society means that the food consumed in one city, is the same as any other. The standardized nature of the food served in fast food restaurants means that we can purchase the very same product in most parts of the world he argues. This can be disputed in that there are always cultural variations in the food served in different countries, such as the meat used and sauces supplied the restaurant. Religious and cultural beliefs have an impact on the type of food on offer. The menus are certainly not as standardized and uniform as Ritzer claims. Turner (2006) identifies this as a major criticism of Ritzer and argues that ‘the extent and uniformity of McDonalds is not an illustration of cultural standardization’ (pg 82). He goes on to cite ethnographic studies which prove that McDonaldization is not a straight forward process.

Standardized consumer experiences also involve keenness by businesses to ‘minimize danger and unpleasantness’ (pg 102). Again, Disney theme parks are a useful illustration of this as they are extremely controlled environments free from crime and disorder. Shopping malls are another good example as they protect the shopper from the dangers of the outside world and provide a relaxed, upbeat environment.

Ritzer discusses and documents an extensive number of areas of consumption which are characteristically rationalized and standardized. At this point, the argument that McDonaldization of society has standardized the consumer experience’ is quite convincing. However, many writers have criticised Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis and I would like now to outline a few of the critiques that have been put forward, some have already been mentioned. I will then summarise and conclude the essay.

Kellner (1999) points out firstly that Ritzer manages to cover a diverse number of areas simply because his thesis is ‘so broad as to conceptually grasp and interpret a wealth of data’ (pg. 186). Kellner argues that Ritzer’s theory relies too heavily on Weber’s work on rationalization. This generates a one-sided and limited optic that needs to be expanded by further critical perspectives ‘ (pg. 187). Ritzer’s methods of research are also quite limiting and can be described simply as journalistic, he uses every day, observable illustrations which are easy to relate to and discuss. Therefore he is heavily reliant on media articles to exemplify his arguments. Absent from his theory is a consideration of the subjective aspects of McDonaldization and the role of human agents. How do we as individuals view the McDonaldization process and how does it serve our interests? There seems to be too much focus on production, with a disregard for the diverse experiences and practices of consumption. Kellner suggests that cultural studies be included in the McDonaldiztion thesis. The McDonalds experience today for example, has arguably entered the post-modern realm, where McDonalds advertising has come to represent ‘ a quasi- mythical, hyper real world of Americana, family fun and good times’ (Kellner, 1999, pg 191). Kellner proposes that a multiperspective approach would be more valuable and the incorporation of the work of theorists such as Marx and Baudrillard would be useful.

O’Neill (1999) is also extremely critical of Ritzer and questions whether ‘McDonaldization’ is a sufficient theory to explain the changes to our experiences of consumption in recent times. He describes Ritzer’s books as ‘theory burgers’ only suitable for the ‘lay population’ (O’Neill, 1999, pg 53).he concludes his chapter with the statement ‘only you can stop teaching/reading Ritzer!’ (pg. 55).

To conclude, Ritzer has claimed that the fast food restaurant has standardized everything related to the production and consumption of goods. From the shape and size of fries to the scripting of human interaction. This revolutionary system is indicative of changes in other areas of social life today, and marks the beginning of future changes to come. Ritzer convincingly backs up his claims with an analysis of other phenomena such as education and leisure. By utilizing Weber’s classic work on rationalization and the iron cage of bureaucracy (1964) Ritzer applies and extends it to present day experiences of production and consumption. It is probably reasonable to say that the McDonaldization of society has standardized the consumer experience. But with his overly pessimistic analysis, Ritzer fails to offer any insight into the deeper social and cultural reasons and ramifications for this process. His theory is overly descriptive and presents a simplistic view of contemporary consumer culture. What is needed is, as Kellner argues, a theory which offers more than a one dimensional perspective and takes into account the subjective experiences and symbolic value of our practices.

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Weber, M (1964) The theory of economic and social organizations. New York: The free press.

The problem of abandonment of babies that has become more serious over the years with more and more babies is being abandoned in our country. According to Syed Zahar, 2010, on Valentine’s Day, charred remains of a baby, believed to be a few days old, and was found in a rubbish bin in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. On March 21, a newborn baby girl was found abandoned in the rubbish dump of a shopping mall in Ipoh, Perak. Then on March 26,A a day-old infant was found dead in Kampung Melayu Subang. The latest data from the police showed that 65 babies have been dumped this year alone, 26 of them boys, 25 girls and the other 14 being foetuses. This brings the total to 472 cases since 2005, in more than half of which, or 258, the babies were found dead in our country and a total of 79 cases were reported on last year (The Star online, 2010). Official statistics reveal an average of 100 cases annually but these figures do not include abandoned babies who died after being abandoned or those babies that disposed off without a trace. So, this issue deserves urgent attention by everyone before it goes out of hand.

In our opinion, government should play an important role as to reduce the cases of abandoned babies by classify the abandoned baby cases as murder and attempted murder or enforced the law in our country. Those responsible for babies who die would be investigated for murder while abandoned babies found alive would be classified and investigated as attempted murder. Police should investigate and use modern technique such as the DNA test to identify the parents of the abandoned baby. Besides, police should also set up a special squad if they need to probe cases of abandoned newborn babies so as to track down the suspects swiftly. According to The Star on 17 August 2010, there is an 18-year-old factory worker and his 17-year-old girlfriend in Malacca became the first couple in the country to be charged under the Penal Code for baby dumping. The couple pleaded guilty to the offence, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years’ jail, a fine or both. This is the only way to bring those responsible for the death of a baby to justice. Many cases involving baby-dumping could not be resolved fast because of lack of information and expressed the need for public cooperation to help police to solve the cases. So, as a citizen in our country, it is now the time for the society had to be a “busybody”, especially in matters pertaining to social problems.

An NGO in Malaysia has opened the country’s first “baby hatch” for rescuing unwanted newborns as authorities’ battle increasing cases of abandoned babies (VR Sreeraman, 2010). A “BABY hatch” is a place where an unwanted child might be left anonymously by parents. The hatch has a small door which a mother can open and place her baby on an incubator bed. Once the door is closed an alarm bell will alert the NGO’s staff to the baby’s presence, after the mother has left. Although the “baby hatch” helps to avoid newborn babies being abandoned at the roadside or in a rubbish dump, but many people feel that it seems to encourage pre-marital sex. However, the aim of the “baby hatch” is to discourage women, especially young unwed mothers, from abandoning their newborn and instead have them placed with caring parents. According The Star newspaper, the baby boy abandoned at the baby hatch on 27 June 2010 has been adopted. The baby hatch, set up on May 29 by OrphanCARE, received its first baby on June 27 when an unmarried couple in their early 20s left the newborn there. With the establishment of the baby hatch, government hoped there would be a reduction in the number of babies being dumped. Besides that, NGO plans to place baby cots where mothers can leave their unwanted babies anonymously to save abandoned babies. Unlike the baby hatch, that the baby cots, which would be located at the premises of NGOs, were merely a place for women to place their unwanted babies. The baby cots would most likely be made of wood and designed with an umbrella-like shade to keep out crows and protect the child from the blistering heat. Once a baby is dropped in a cot, the NGO concerned would alert and contact the police and the welfare department. This objective is to protect the abandoned babies’ lives.

Nowadays, cases of baby abandonment usually results from unwanted pregnancies. So, educating youths on the risk of having sex, especially unprotected sex are needed. Sex education should include in our school syllabus, not just implemented as a brief part of other subject like biology, moral and physical education, but as a subject on its own. From the many cases as we know, it was found that many youths did not know their own bodies. Some did not even know that they will get pregnant if they have sex. So, these provide the authorities with a good reason that it is time we had sex education in our schools as one of the subject. Knowledge is power and sex education is not about free sex. Sex education is about giving our children informed choices. Sex education will teach the child about his or her body, changes to the body at puberty, hormones, how to form stable meaningful relationships, responsible relationships, unprotected sex, consequences of having sex and how to say ‘no'(Mariam Mokhtar, 2010). Awareness and education on sexual health will play a vital role in helping to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and cases of abandoned babies.

Besides, Government or non-governmental organization should provide shelter homes for pregnant unwed girls and unwed mothers to solve the problem of abandoned of babies that has become more serious in our country. Basically a young mother would abandon her baby because she is afraid. She does not wantA to keep her baby and she just wants someone to take it, keep it safe, and make sure it gets a good home because she might be unmarried. Because of this, the welfare department officers will be on 24-hours standby to help those having such problems and give them counselling. They should also take the initiatives to identify cases of unwanted pregnancies in their respective areas and provide assistance to the mothers to prevent them from abandoning their babies. While caution need to be taken in implementing any measure as not to encourage young girls to be involved in sexual relationship before marriage, it is equally important to ensure that those who have already crossed the line do not shy away from seeking help and doing the right thing.

Most cases of abandoned babies were due to weak family institutions and where the responsibility of bringing up a child was left to other parties. So, parents and family members are actually also playing an important role to prevent the unwanted pregnancies so that it will not becoming rampant in our country. Most of the parents in our country are full time workers that force them to spend about 10 hours out of their house per day. As a result, most of their children are abandoning of love and time by their parents. Their parents are too busy with their work and career development. This situation can cause lack of time between the family members. In relation to that their children tend to find others affection among their peers. It can contribute to their feeling in trying new things such as find someone who loves them or having sex with their partner. When parents come to know of their children are pregnant before they had married they will blame the whole world instead of helping them and providing the necessary support to them. Parents or family members should not blaming others if their children became pregnant or gave birth to babies conceived out of wedlock but take the necessary steps to support them in times of distress. As you all know, raising a baby as a young teenager is already tough but dealing with the stigma will let the parents and the child feel more pressure. This is why counselling from social agencies do their big part in helping these women deal with the discrimination.

In our point of view, teacher should teach young people commit to abstaining from sex until marriage to avoid unwanted pregnancies through education because people also believe that it is morally wrong for the people to have sex before they are married. Since sex is one of the natural force that one cannot resist, as human being we can resist having sex at the wrong time or we should use the effective contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancies. The use of effective contraception, such as the oral contraceptive pill and condom not only reduce the risk of getting unwanted pregnancies but also reduced the rate of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome) infection. We may not be able to stop our teenagers from having sex before marriage, but we can at least tell them about responsibilities and consequences of having unprotected sex before married.

Government and non-governmental organization should also set up a special school for pregnant teenagers to let them complete their education to ensure a better future for them. They should not be alienated and left feeling as if they have been excluded from the society when they got pregnant. The school will also take care of the needs of pregnant teens and this, indirectly, will rid of negative perception against them. Arguments that say setting up such school or the baby hatch would encourage teenagers to be involved in premarital sexual activities should be considered, but we should look at this by taking into consideration that it is already happening, baby dumping has already happened. So what is wrong with setting up the school to give them a venue, a place for them to seek help and save themselves from being trapped in the cycle further. I think we have to give them a second chance, which is more important. The reality is that it is already happening and we need to take action to address the problem, otherwise we will lose young individuals who could contribute to our country.

Last but not least, another way to overcome abandoned babies is to create awareness through media. Every country should have a common reminder to their citizen by advertising through any sorts of media whether it is newspaper, television, radio and etc. The citizen will also be educated not only through school but also through media. Media plays a huge part in creating awareness and by doing so it could help to minimize the rate of abandoned babies in the future. People who are not educated are the main problem to this cause because they don’t know the value of a new born life and abandoned the baby for the sake of themselves. Through media can also promote ways to handle unwanted babies rather than abandoned them on valleys or dustbins. The role of media is essential because it can deliver a message throughout the nation in a split second and at the same time a lot of people will receive their message at once. Media is the best and fastest way to promote or create awareness among other roles. Media serve as a constant reminder to people about how to react and prevent abandoned babies happening and to also promote alternative to donate the babies rather than to leave at somewhere and let the baby die off. In other ways of it is cruel to deal with the issue that way and the babies is paying the price for the mistake their adult are making. That is wrong because there are still so many ways to handle things and people prefer to handle things the wrong way to protect their dignity and to cover the shameful things that has happen to them. There is no dignity left for those who their abandoned babies in dark alleys so why care to protect them?

Baby dumping has become a hot topic with newspapers highlighting new cases almost every day. We think that, in solving the issue of abandoned babies, the main goal should be towards creatingA awareness among youths that abandoning of babies is not the easiest way out. We have to let them know there are places and people that can provide help and it’s also these NGO’s duty to reach out to those going through unwanted pregnancies.

Society too should play their part by understanding the problem and not discriminate unwed mothers. Accidents happen and human make mistakes are no way to redress an initial oversight. In conclusion, let’s hope morals of the people in this country not deteriorate as we take this road towards achieving the status of a developed nation. After all, it’s not much use in having a first-world infrastructure and system when the citizens are still in a third-world state of mind.

Iranian women have fought for the equal rights throughout the 20th century. In this paper I intend to argue about feminism in the present urban communities in Iran. Iran is a vast country and discussing women situation in the rural areas makes this essay totally different. The women’s movement in Iran has both expanded and transformed since the revolution. Before the revolution the liberation of women was connected to the process of secularisation. Under the Islamic Republic, however, women are increasingly making arguments for the expansion of their rights by pointing to protections under the constitution, while others are reinterpreting Shari’ah law. Some scholars have referred to the emergence of ‘Islamic feminism,’ a term that highlights the difference of approaches that coexist within the women’s movement in Iran. As a result, the terrain of women’s rights is one of unprecedented cooperation among disparate groups on the one hand and severe ideological and political struggles on the other.

In discussing these approaches in present urban areas of Iran, it is of vital importance to distinguish between three groups of women who I will talk about them. The first group is women who identify themselves as Secular feminists and are under the influence of women movement in western societies. The second group are women who try to reach equal rights for men and women but as they try to do so under the guidance of Islam and national identity, they make a distinction between themselves and western feminism which they believe will lead to corruption as there is now in the West. They can be named state feminists or Islamist feminists in Islamic Republic of Iran. Minoo Moallem writes about one of these women, Zahra Rahnavard who is one of the equal rights activists and the wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi in the recent demonstrations against government after the 2009 presidential election in Iran:

Zahra Rahnavard … charged the West with being a system where women are made into “decorative objects.” She calls upon her Muslim sisters to question what the “sham civilizations” have made of women, not to act like dolls, and not to display a debilitated will. She asks women to refuse to be part of the harems of the rulers and the communal harems of the streets. Her allusion to the collective appropriation of women in the streets and her rejection of unveiling have made it possible for her to think of contractual structure of the Muslim family and veiling as sites of women’s agency. For Rahnavard, it is through unveiling and Westernization that Muslim women have been turned into objects to be possessed by all men in the public sphere. To resist capitalist rulers and challenge sexual objectification, she asks women to return to veiling and the Muslim family, where women are considered subjects rather than objects of the marriage contract. (2005; 185)

The third group includes mostly secular educated women who are not familiar with the notions of western feminism but as a result of modernisation in Iran and under the influence of global mass Media are aware of women situation in other countries and try to simulate a modern life like the ideal type of a western woman for themselves. They have combined some traditional values of an Iranian woman and some modern values of a western woman. As Reza Ghasemi in his acclaimed novel, The Nocturnal Harmony of the Wood Orchestra, describes Iranian women in their transition to modernity:

The history of invention of Modern Iranian women is like the invention of car. The difference is that the car was first a carriage with changed content (They removed the horses and replaced the engine) and then slowly the appearance changed but the modern Iranian women first changed the appearance and then when they had been looking for appropriate content, they faced the trouble… So everyone as to their personal tastes and their mental demands made a combination of traditional female with modern woman which can be stand in a range of a woman wearing Chador to miniskirt. This woman asks to share in all decisions, but asks all the responsibilities from man…She asks man to work equally in home but at the same time considers the man who works in home of poor character and weakness. (1996; 86)

Considering the distinction between these groups, I will argue about feminism as a political movement to gain equality and to free women from oppression in Islamic republic of Iran and the role that each group plays in obtaining this goal.

Liberal Feminism:

Actually in today’s Iran, liberal feminism is the only perspective that can hardly breathe under the pressure of the Islamic government. This feminism always has two aspects which are against the government’s will in Islamic republic of Iran. Abdee Kalantari believes that in a political theology that divides the political sphere into good and evil and sees the west as enemy (evil), feminism as a modern western movement is a threat to the whole existence of this theology (2007). In other hand, fighting for the equal rights in law usually opposes Islamic rules which are not easy to face. Hence, women movement not only has to fight with the deep traditions of Islam in the society but also to protect itself against the fundamentalist government which obtains its legitimacy from these traditions.

The Islamist ideology denies women individuality, autonomy and independence and this is inside this Ideology that the key objective of Iranian’s women’s rights activists, both secular and Islamic, became the modernization of family law and women’s equal rights in matters of marriage, divorce, and child custody. Other concerned issue is domestic violence, with many articles in the feminist press describing domestic violence as both a social problem and a violation of women’s rights. A third concern was women’s under-representation in formal politics and the need for greater participation in parliament, the local councils, and the highest political offices. These are the reforms that both Islamist and Secular activists are still fighting to reach them.

The Islamist feminist do not seek to deny the rules of law and they insist on the preservation of Islam, family and marriage even when it comes in opposition of equal rights. Their aim is to suggest a more flexible interpretation of Islam rather than the one that the government presents. This group can be criticized in the same way that Zillah R. Eisenstein’s has criticized the liberalism because of feminizing the private sphere and the separation they make between public and private spheres. She argues that this separation could be the basis to liberalism’s downfall. As it becomes clear that liberalism is incompatible with equal rights for women, feminism will search for alternative grounds to build its agenda. This gendered separation of spheres will lead liberalism to a lack of concern with the forms of oppression that take place in the private sphere(1981) and that is the same concern that secular feminist in have in Iran.

In contrast, the secular feminists work through small-scale Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) and try to develop some analyses of women’s collective interests and their oppression in private as well as public life. They have noticed the issues that have been argued in the history of feminism in the west. They write about equal rights as well as body, sexuality, power, homosexuality, violence, pornography and so forth. The problem is that they cannot publish their ideas and normally internet is the only media they can use to raise their voice to be heard. There are many feminist websites that represent this group and they keep working despite the filtering of the government. (e.g. http://www.irwomen.com, http://www.meydaan.com, http://www.feministschool.com ) .Hence, the middle class urban women are the most common audiences of these activists, since the other groups access to the internet is limited. This lack of audience urges this question that whether there is a feminist women movement in Iran? If there is, will it stand against Repression, censorship and attacks of the fundamentalist government and even the traditions of a religious based society? As Ahmadi argues that secular feminism faces two barriers in its way, first is the framework of an Islamic republic where fundamentalists hold absolute power over certain state institutions and the other is an “inside force,” a “from within” perspective which has been needed to alter the dominant fundamentalist discourse”(2006). Hence, in obtaining liberal demands of women movement in Iran is of vital importance for secular feminism to keep its unity with the Islamist feminists, since as Ahmadi elaborates it is the group that not only can expand the domain of dialogue with clerical scholars, but also are able to overcome long-term hatred toward western feminism in Cultural context of Iran (2006)

These activists could has been labelled as a group of urban middle class ladies who could not be regarded as speaking for all women in Iran until the August 27th of 2006, when they launched a campaign named “One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws”. The aim was to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country, but what made this effort important and even a danger for the government, though the organizers of the campaign considered that its demands conform to Islamic principles, was the way they used to collect these signatures. The concept is simple and revolutionary, melding education, consciousness-raising and peaceful protest. Starting last year, women armed with petitions began to go to wherever other women gathered: schools, hair salons, doctors’ offices and private homes. Every woman is asked to sign. But whatever a woman decides, she receives a leaflet explaining how Iran’s interpretation of Islamic law denies women full rights. The material explains how Iran’s divorce law makes it easy for men, and incredibly difficult for women, to leave a marriage, and how custody laws give divorced fathers sole rights to children above the age of 7. [i]

The One Million Signatures Campaign is a new and innovative movement because it has not taken shape around one progressive and famous central figure, rather it is a broad movement, where activists visit with other women, engage in face to face discussions with them, they go home to home, and explain to each woman about women’s rights. Any signature is equal to conscious these activists tried to make for women from any background and any class. Their main goal is to create a dialogue among citizens and educate them about their rights and it makes women to become sensitive to their status under the law and in society. It seems that the Consciousness raising groups are the inspiring idea of this campaign. The Idea that women should gather in small groups and give accounts of their own lives and how they ‘became’ a ‘woman’ and then they will understand to which extent, they share similar problems with other women with different backgrounds and ages and these problems produce by social relations and institutions. As Pilcher and Whelehan argue we can consider the main success of these groups in inspiring many women to turn to feminism (2004) and that is the same success that Iranian secular feminists try to reach. They hope to involve women, not all of whom were actively involved in feminism, but all caught up in the debates of the time and seized by the urge to fight for their equal rights in law and make the process of one woman’s coming out of false consciousness into enlightenment, possible.

The campaign success in changing the laws is comparable with NOW, (National Organization for Women) founded by betty Friedan in 1966, as both expressed not as a self-conscious political theory, but as a ‘common sense’ application of pre-existing values to women’s situation. As Bryson argues NOW’s campaigns gained some early legal victories changing laws and could amend the United States constitution to give women equal rights which very nearly succeeded, and it has been a major force in changing attitudes to women in education, employment and the media. Despite the criticisms that later feminists made about equal rights campaigns such as NOW for focusing narrowly on formal legal and political rights which ignores economic (2003), cultural and sexual exploitation and oppression of women, I think that such campaigns are the basic steps of opening debates about other forms of oppression in the traditional and religious society and fundamentalist government of Iran that will take a position against such debates in that level.

Marxism Feminism vs. Post Feminism:

Since Russia has been the most powerful neighbour of Iran in the contemporary history, this country has had a great influence on the history of Iran. That is why Marxism as an ideology has the greatest effect on the history of modern Iran after Islam. Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, Classical Marxists worked within the conceptual notions laid out by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other nineteenth-century thinkers and dreamed of a society without classes as they believed that existed in USSR. These groups were an undeniable factor in the triumph of revolution, but due to vast suppressions and executions of the new Islamic government in 80s, these groups lost their power and prevalence within the society, but the Marxism discourse has still an inevitable impact on the Iranian intellectual prospect.

The secular feminist as a part of Iranian intellectual discourse are not an exception. This group besides the equal rights movements has always tried to theorize the roots of patriarchy in Iran and Marxism feminism has been one of the most useful perspectives for them to do this work. Many of these theories regard classism and capitalism as a key factor which work parallel with patriarchy in women’s oppression (Look at Afshar; 1983). This analysis suggests women to fight with all the displays of capitalism to free them from oppression. They criticize the new Iranian woman in her support of capitalism and the way that Iranian women present their bodies which is one of the most important areas they see as capitalism system uses to oppress woman. As Shahidi states a practical consequence of this approach to the “woman question” was the de-sexing of woman, clearly visible in the baggy clothes and absence of cosmetics among female activists. These women oppose the compulsory veil but believe that with or without a scarf, a woman-doll will remain the same (1994).

In the contemporary history of Iran, the woman body has been the main indication of political change. [ii] It is an interesting point that the binary of mind/body which is traceable in western thought, present itself in Iran with the beginning of the project of modernization. Reza shah saw unveiling as one of the most important markers of Westernizing and the Islamic republic made veiling compulsory in order to make an anti-western society and in all these fundamental changes women’s body has been the object of change. If the Reza shah project made many women to stay in home and even quit going to school [iii] the veiling did not make the modern Iranian woman who I recognized them as the third group of women who make efforts having equality with men, to leave the public sphere. They continued to work and study alongside men and they used their body especially their faces to object compulsory veiling which had tried to ignore their body. Young and older, the Iranian women defy the Islamic hijab publicly, and confront the state’s Islamic body politics with a body politics of their own. The youth mock the Islamic hijab, deconstruct it, reform it, and make it succumb to their modern desires. They reveal their hair in public by pushing back their mandated headscarf, transforming it into a garment used for their beautification. Against all cultural mandates of the Islamic state, they reveal their body curves under their remodeled and modernized “Islamic” garb. They wear loud makeup, walk elegantly, and bring their sexuality to the public. They reject the control of their body by the state, and celebrate their womanhood by defying the Islamic hijab. Since eyes, nose and hands are the only features on show, eye make-up is applied with scientific precision and Tehran has become the nose-job capital of the world. Iranian women spend one million dollar in make-up industry every year [iv]

Oppressing by the government and morality police, these women have been always criticised by a large group of secular feminists who believe that wearing make-up and presenting the sexual body are the representation of objectifying woman by capitalism. Ezzat Goushegir in his praise of Ariel Levy’s book; Female Chauvinist Pigs, writes in his personal weblog [v] that this is the same raunch culture in Iran that in the universal capitalist system, uses the ideas of feminism about equality and emerge women to appear as a face of capitalism in the society and by this way marginalizes the true demands of women movement. He considers Marxism as a perspective that challenges this objectification and Commodification [vi] . (2007)

Marxist feminists believe that cosmetic surgeries and make-up industry are two effective instruments of capitalism which not only objectify women, but also make them to pay money for correcting their body image into the Ideal body of Capitalist society. They deny these things as Levy denies them to be liberating and rebellious. Levy argues that how women decide to give meaning to sex industry by producing the fake idea that presenting their sexuality would empower them (2006). I am not going to criticize this book and even I agree with Levy to some extent. The problem is that how Iranian feminists use the book and translate western feminists’ ideas to apply them on the totally different context. Levy in this book refer to sexist TV shows which distribute the illusion of liberation among women, shows that means the pornoization of culture for Levy (2006). It is the culture that benefits Capitalism, but how about Iran? As I mentioned the history of Iran is not the history of capitalism, it is the history of religious ideology. In Iran power is not within the bourgeois’ class but at least in contemporary Iran in the hands of clerics (Mullahs) who do not necessarily own economical capital. The most obvious reason for this claim is that the opposition in Iran never could blame the leaders of Islamic republic for having wealth. This is religious capital that structures the power in Iran and ironically this power agrees with secular feminists in the issue of objectification of women and two different thoughts leads to same consequences in the cultural context of Islamic Iran.

If Levy talks about shows such as Girls Gone Wild in America, Iranian Women appearing in television programs will not be allowed to wear make-up because it is against Islamic law, “repulsive jokes” between men and women on television or radio is also prohibited [vii] No Magazine has the right to publish a woman’s face on the cover and using plastic woman models with head (even with hijab) in clothing shops is forbidden. In this cultural context a new reality has emerged in Iran, a reality created by women. The Iranian women are playing an instrumental role in the grassroots challenge to the Islamic Republic through their deconstruction of the hijab and their direct challenge of the state’s body politics. Challenging the Islamic dress code, they use the everyday life as the site for gaining rights and respect from the society and the state. They demand the right to live as free women. Humiliated, assaulted, and arrested randomly for being women, they have gained resilience, lost their fears of confronting the state, and battled the repressive social and cultural Islamic codes of conduct. Using deviance as a weapon, they are creating a reality unimagined by the architects of the Islamic Republic.

Naomi Wolf in her book beauty myth has the similar idea as Levi and argues that Women should be able to adorn themselves with pretty objects when there is no question that we are not objects. She believes that they cannot be free of the beauty myth unless they can choose to use their faces and clothes and bodies as one form of self-expression out of a full range of others. She claims that public interest in a woman’s virginity has been replaced by public interest in the shape of her body (1991). We cannot ignore that Iranian women still live in a society that virginity is more than a public interest; it is a religious and legal rule. The rule that has been ignored by these women using solutions such as Hymenoplasty [viii] and this is a surprisingly hot topic in Iran. It is of vital importance to consider if any great theory which we believe in is applicable in other contexts. Wearing make-up and cosmetic surgery is kind of self-expression for Iranian woman, a self who express itself standing against the fundamental laws of ignoring her. It is a kind of resistance against the discourse of fundamentalism.

Hence, Body and sexuality is the battlefield of first and third groups. Two secular groups which must be united in opposition with fundamentalism that does not believe in basic rights for women, while both these groups to some extent believe in equal rights for men and women. The ironic side of this battle is that how secular Marxist feminism and Islamist feminism with two different approaches to women issue; blame the third group which is the main potential force of fighting patriarchy, to objectification of women or in their word for acting like dolls. It is true that strong roots of tradition still exist in the third group. They do not identify themselves as feminist because what they have learnt about feminism is women who try to work and wear like men; women who make them misunderstand feminism when there is not a long history of feminism in Iran to make the idea clear for them. Although they do not identify themselves as feminists they have almost same ideas with the new generation of feminists in west: the third generation or wave, which its life powerfully has shaped by popular culture, particularly music, television, film and literature as they believe to fight with women oppression. Media figures represent third wave icons in their tendency to refuse to adhere to a feminist party line, but also in their resistance to comply with the types of ‘feminine’ behaviour deemed compatible with media and mainstream success. (Pilcher& Whelehan; 2004) In other words these women as Genz and Brabon reveal are merging notions of personal empowerment with the visual display of sexuality. These women does not manipulate their appearance ‘to get a man on the old terms’ but ‘has ideas about her life and being in control which clearly come from feminism’ (2009; 93). Although these Iranian women do not identify themselves as feminist but their notions of sexual freedom come directly from the Iranian feminism that has fought for women freedom and equality during the last 100 years. [ix]

Secular feminism has two ways to walk in. The first is to stand against this group and blame them of objectifying their femininity and the other is to stand beside them to fight against fundamentalism which is the greater force of oppression for both groups than patriarchy. In the second solution I believe that Secular feminism should try to make other women familiar with basic notions of feminism such as economical independence and equal payments’ and other non-radical ideas that is bearable for a society in transition to modernity and not completely modern. Secular feminist must notice that Islam as an ideaology has a great power in the life of even most of secular women. Mohanty in her article on the problem of western feminism on theorizing women issues in developing coutries, referring to Modares, criticizes feminist writings which treat Islam as an ideology separate from and outside social relations and practices, rather than a discourse which includes rules for economic, social and power relations within society (1988; 70). Hence secular feminism which is affected by the west must look over the feminism history and experiences in the west and try to match them with the cultural context of Iran. I do not believe that feminism in Iran and west has to go to the same way. Although the third wave feminism is an idea that comes after the long history of first and second wave feminism in west, the Idea of sexual power that this generation emerge is the fact that young women in Iran practice against the government every day. This practice’s influence is obvious by the number of morality polices that the government use to control these women. Hence, post feminism is a perspective that worth applying not only imagined as a chronological distinction between second and third wave feminism in the cultural context of Iran. This attitude in Iran must not consider as backlash but as a conjunct to the first group to be influent in Iran. Secular feminism has to satisfy these women who object feminist theories which failed to address their problems.

Conclusion:

In this essay I distinguished three groups of women who can be helpful to reach equality and freedom from oppression in the current cultural context of urban middle class women in Iran. The conjunction between secular feminists and Islamist feminists who try to find liberation through the organized movement for constitution amendment and consciousness rising is traceable. I see this trend as the most relevant perspective for Iranian society that benefits both urban and rural communities in Iran. In the second part I tried to criticize the orthodox Marxism that has a deep root in the history of Iranian intellectualism and its influence on secular feminism in Iran as well. I think that this trend will lead to a separation between secular feminist and secular women who both are fighting against the fundamentalism in Iran. Secular feminism, using the postfeminist notion of sexual power can analyze the practice of these women instead of blaming them to objectifying their sexuality. If feminists look at postfeminism as a turn to cultural differences and not as a chronological event in the west, they can move on faster and easier in the way of freedom from fundamentalism and patriarchy as well.

Notes: