Category: Free Essays

Margaret Thatcher’s legacy towers over modern day British Politics and History. She earned her place in the history books as the longest serving PM of the 20th century with three back to back election wins under her belt and since, emerging politicians have been said to have been ‘creations of the Thatcher era’ with both William Hague and Tony Blaire being hailed as ‘sons of Thatcherism by journalist Andrew Rawnsley.

1.1.2 Aims

This report investigates and concludes as to how the Iron Ladies resignation and downfall was reported in the UK and Welsh newspapers, and pays particular attention and focus as to how this shaped the nations views at the time and now, looking back retrospectively.

This report researches as to why Margaret Thatcher was a ‘Marmite’ politician who evoked such strong responses, in both past and present throughout society and also looks into how the events of the past and media reaction has shaped her legacy left in Britain today.

1.1.3 Method

Through both primary and secondary research, this report acts as a historical study into the events surrounding the resignation of Margaret Thatcher and the public response to it by examining how her resignation was reported in the Newspapers and other media resources at the time.

1.1.4 Results & Conclusions

Conclusions have also been obtained through oral interviews with people who were alive at the time and remember the events to obtain first hand public opinion and to analyse the impact of the transition from Thatcher to the Blaire era on people at the time. In addition to this I collected and collated public opinion about the popularity of Margaret Thatcher throughout her time as Prime Minister resulting in a conclusion as to what her legacy is in Britain today.

2. Introduction
2.1.1 Background and Context for the Study

Many people remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Margaret Thatcher had stepped down as Prime Minister and what their reaction and feeling toward the news was. Margaret Thatcher always sparks a diverse, sometimes controversial opinion – whether it is an expression of fondness or one of extreme aversion which is why her legacy is highly disputed.

Media interest on the 10th anniversary of her demise from power was high, so much so that many newspapers ran opinion polls and features allowing people to comment about their reaction to her fall from power and resignation, and such polls were concrete evidence as to Mrs Thatcher’s ability to continue to evoke strong opinions even a decade after she had ceased to be Prime Minister. These polls are examined later on in the report and help to draw a conclusion of the legacy that she has left on Britain today.

This report analyses the Origins of Thatcher’s departure from number 10 and gauges public opinion on what has now become widely known as the Thatcher era and as a result of it ‘Thatcherism’.

2.2.1 Outline of aims and methodology

This study explores and discus’s the reasons that led to the seismic political moment when Margaret Thatcher’s resigned as Prime Minister on 22nd November, 1990. This historical report looks into both the media’s and public opinion, which has been examined through interviews and media archive footage, both at the time and reflective articles and discussions that have been recorded to date.

2.3.1 Primary research undertaken

I have conducted the research through both primary and secondary resources including interviews with people who were alive and remember the resignation first hand, newspaper articles, podcasts, opinion polls and internet sites.

Through formulating central questions relating to key topics I have conducted oral interviews with people who were both alive and have strong memories and opinions regarding Thatcher’s demise. I conducted the interviews this way and asked specific questions to enable me to systematically collate opinions of living people’s testimony about their own experiences.

3.1.1 Literature Review

When studying the events of November 1990, it is clear that there is no one origin to the fall of Thatcher from power. In Kevin Jeffries book, Finest and darkest Hours, he says that

‘For the Historian, the events of November 1990 present something of a mystery. A PM with a strong parliamentary majority and in good health, enjoying the considerable advantages of patronage and access to the media, was virtually impregnable’. (Jeffries, Atlantic Books, 2002)

To her supporters, she was a ground-breaking Prime Minister who positively re-shaped Britain’s economy and tamed the trade unions. In alliance with US presidents Reagan and Bush, she helped bring about the end of the Cold War. But her 11-year stint in office was also a time tainted by social unrest, industrial trouble and rising unemployment and her critics claim British society is still feeling the effect of her divisive economic policies and the culture of greed and selfishness they allegedly promoted.

Existing accounts have noted that there was no single, overriding cause of Thatcher’s downfall and that various factors played their part in November’s events.

3.1.1 Key Themes

Seeing as there is no one clear reason to her downfall and resignation, there are several key themes and topics which must be addressed when discussing Margaret Thatcher. I have investigated these within both historical and narrative fictional texts in which I have then cross referenced with my own research to enable me to come up with a balanced and well supported conclusion.

Below, I have highlighted key themes that are explored in recognized academic discussion of the resignation of Margaret Thatcher by leading authors and commentators of the field.

3.1.2 Divisions over Europe

Iconic of the Thatcher years, was the ever running saga as to whether Britain should join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

Mrs Thatcher relentlessly rejected any steps toward stronger political links which she believed would lead to “an identikit European personality”, and weaken nationality and tradition of member states.

***

Therefore it is fair to say that Europe, ultimately, played a part in ending the Thatcher premiership.

3.1.3 ‘Poll Tax’

Margaret Thatcher had always been a long standing critic of the British Taxation system which is proven in her memoirs, where shy says that she ‘always disliked rates intensely’ (Jefferys, Atlantic Books, 2002).

The conservative government, under Thatcher then bought in the community charge to replace the long standing tax system that dated back nearly 100 years -‘Rates’ – which resulted in every adult paying a flat rate charge.

The introduction of the Community Charge was met with great unrest and discontent for Thatcherism and opposition groups formed.

One Journalist, quoted in the Economist dubbed the system as a ‘A fatheaded, boneheaded, dunderheaded, blunderheaded, muttonheaded, knuckleheaded, chuckleheaded, puddingheaded, jobernowled wash- out of a cock-up.’ (The Economist, 3 Dec 1994) which could be seen as a representation of the peoples views at the time of it’s introduction due to the March and Riot of 1990 in opposition to the new system.

The riot was a fatal blow for not only the poll tax but also the Margaret Thatcher and before the new year, Thatcher had stepped down as Britain’s Prime Minister.

3.1.4 Thatcherite Economics

Thatcher’s market-led policies saw the sale of 20 state-owned companies including British Telecom. She did haul the country out of the economic doldrums where the UK was known as the ‘sick man of Europe’ but at what cost? Her deregulation of the banking industry ultimately led to this current recession via the ‘credit crunch’

Monetarism came to be used to describe what people thought of as ‘Thatcherism’. In simple terms, it is the recognition of the importance of money and money supply in an economy.

The belief in free markets and individual wealth creation undermined the fabric of society encouraging selfishness and an increase in inequality. Thatcherite beliefs include a support for a form of ‘trickle down economics’ the idea if the rich get richer everyone benefits.

3.1.5 Trade Unions

Strikes were a regular occurrence and crippled the country. The three-day week was introduced under Edward Heath. And Callaghan’s Labour government in 1978 oversaw the strikes of the Winter of Discontent. On election, Thatcher used the situation as an excuse to crush the unions. She simply refused to listen to the workers’ representatives. Her economic policies helped weaken the unions.

Methodology

The reason in which I conducted research through

The methodology section should provide a rationale for the method of research employed and for choice of sources used, together with an explanation of any tools (e.g. questionnaires; SPSS) involved and the respective criteria of evaluation applied to these. Samples of such tools (in blank form or with consolidated data) will probably need to be included in an appendix. It is not necessary to include a narrative description of the research process, although case studies (e.g. observation sessions) need to be well documented.

Results

As predicted, my results show the expected diversity of opinion.

The results and conclusions sections should describe, explain and discuss what the research undertaken has revealed and why it is significant. This is best achieved by comparison with the ideas of opinion leaders previously presented. These ideas will be variously supported, illustrated, qualified and challenged by what you have discovered.

Discussion/Conclusions

With public opinion turning decisively against her, she was forced to resign from office in November 1990 after a struggle for leadership within the Conservative Party

Many United Kingdom citizens remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Margaret Thatcher had resigned and what their reaction was. She brings out strong responses in people. Some people credit her with rescuing the British economy from the stagnation of the 1970s and admire her committed radicalism on social issues; others see her as authoritarian, egotistical and responsible for the dismantling of the Welfare State. Britain was widely seen as the sick man of Europe in the 1970s, and some argued that it would be the first developed nation to return to the status of a developing country. In the 1990s, Britain emerged with a comparatively healthy economy, at least by previous standards.

A clear illustration of the divisions of opinion over Thatcher’s leadership can be found in recent television polls: Thatcher appears at Number 16 in the 2002 List of “100 Greatest Britons” (sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public), she also appears at Number 3 in the 2003 List of “100 Worst Britons” (sponsored by Channel Four and also voted for by the public), narrowly missing out on the top spot, which went to Tony Blair.

Recommendations

It might be appropriate to end with recommendations, suggesting how the present study could be extended or repeated in a different format, or how related fields might be explored from a similar standpoint. This section, though, cannot be used to excuse failings in the study which should have been avoided.

Transcripts or summaries of interviews, copies of original documents, tables of statistics, maps, etc. should be included in separate appendices at the end. The reader can be referred to these in the text, which may also include extracts from the same (e.g. an exchange from an interview)

Bibliography & References

Evans, EJ (2004). Thatcher and Thatcherism (Making of the Contemporary World) . London: Routledge

Holmes, M (1989). Thatcherism: Scope and Limits: Palgrave Macmillan. 1-182

Jeffery’s, K (2002). Finest and Darkest Hours: The Decisive Events in British Politics, from Churchill to Blair. London: Atlantic Books. p233-258

Marwick, A (2003). British Society Since 1945: The Penguin Social History of Britain : Penguin

Morgan, K (2002). Britain since 1945: The People’s Peace. UK: Oxford University Press.

BBC.. 1990: Thatcher quits as prime minister. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm. Last accessed 21 April 2010.

BBC. 1990: Tearful farewell from Iron Lady. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/28/newsid_2527000/2527953.stm. Last accessed 21 April 2010.

Essential Margaret Thatcher. Available: http://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/default.asp. Last accessed 16 April 2010

BBC News. (1990). BBC News: Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTDS23DY670. Last accessed 18 March 2010.

Racism is one cause of conflict the world over. In order to try to limit the negative effects of racism the matter must be addressed with the adults of tomorrow. As the UK continues to become one of the most cosmopolitan global societies a more multicultural view of race must surely be adopted for a harmonious society to flourish. The aim of this literary review is to critically analyse documentation surrounding the evaluation of young children on the topic of racism. It has been claimed that, ‘child morality throws light on adult morality. If we want to form men and women, nothing will fit us so will for the task as to study the laws that govern their formation.’ (Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child.)

The literature discussed will be looking at the role in which society plays in the formation of racist ideals. Whether these opinions are present from birth or whether their emergence begins during the child’s early development. Can children exclude another simply due to race or is this a notion created by adults?

Definitions

Before going any further it is important to define what Racism actually is. The word itself has various connotations and thus a single definition is hard to arrive at. It would be fair to suggest that the majority of the definitions point to the social superiority of some individuals over other groups of people due to inalterable factors such as race, culture or ethnicity. John Rex (1986) described his described his theory of racism stating, ‘It doesn’t really matter whether this is because of men’s genes, because of the history to which their ancestors have been exposed, because of the nature of their culture or because of divine decree. Whichever is the case it might be argued that this man is an X and that, being an X, he is bound to have particular undesirable qualities.’ He also differentiates between racism and racialism, which he describes as ‘unequal treatment of various racial groups.’ while racism is a ‘belief about a racial group’. It is the Rex idea of racialism which leads to the formation of prejudice and ultimately leads to discrimination. (All cited from Haralambos p169)

With these definitions in mind it would appear that Racialism is to hold someone in contempt due to their creed, colour or ethnic background while to racism is more of a lived experience. The earliest division of society through race was the scientific categorisation of people within the Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid divisions. The obvious differences in the groups could not be ignored although this collective terminology has become less popular through the years and is considered a more racialist viewpoint. Scientific differences in the categories have been used by extremists throughout history to support ideals of the superiority of one group over another with Nazism being a prime example.

Theory

The idea that racism is an experience that an individual may live through is proposed by Albert Memmi (2000). It must be the case for many children that their experiences of racism are first hand and that they are on the receiving end of someone else’s racist views. While the Early Years Foundation Stage (2007) curriculum looks to address provision for equality and equal opportunities it has to be the case that some children’s earliest acquaintance with racism is at school. Memmi would advocate that every time a human being meets an individual or group of people who is different or not understood that it would be the natural reaction to form, could be conceived as, a racist opinion. His sociological research has looked into negating notions of racial prejudice and understanding how they are formed with a view to counteracting racism. This is a notion which is reflected in the EYFS who ensure that providers of early child care should have positive attitudes towards diversity and difference in order that the children should value diversity. Memmi, unlike some other social scientists (name some) does not support the angle which suggests that everybody has racist views however he does acknowledge that ‘racism is the most commonly shared thing in the world’ (p129) and goes on to state that irrespective of race, ethnicity or religion the potential for racism exists in all social groups. Evidence would suggest that racism is a natural occurrence and although grouping occurs as part of the developmental curve it does not always have to lead to the formation of prejudice (Memmi). While scientific grouping has been partially accredited to the advancement of the Social Darwinsim theory the theory itself was latterly applied to race.

Memmi and Piaget are both of the opinion that racism is a topic which, if addressed at an early enough stage in a child’s development, can be taught and to a point controlled so that as the child becomes a young adult it will have a wide understanding of diversity and will be able to contribute positively to society. These views are also mirrored in the EYFS. The denial of obvious racial differences would be naA?ve and acknowledgement of them is not racist and supports the childhood developmental norm of grouping to enhance cognitive development. Piaget’s cognitive development theory leads us to believe that children, during the preoperational stage, do label things in once they have experience of them and will so it follows that children will group people according to the colour of their skin. The theory would also state that children are not able to seriously understand the implications of ethnic grouping during the early, egocentric stages of development. This ‘colour blindness’ has been viewed by some as a progressive way to counter the growth of racism within children.

But how do children become racist? It has been acknowledged that a large part of the development of a child is taken up with developing one’s own identity. If this is the case then it is conceivable that a child cannot form prejudice against others as they are egocentric. Not the case according to ausdale & feagin, the 1st R. The assumption that children are unaware of racial difference and that they do not divide society into cultural groups has been referred to as ‘colour blindness’ however Derman-Sparks et al carried out research which drew the conclusion that ‘children are very much aware of racial differences’ and even went as far as to state that ‘many are also aware of racism’. Their paper questions children from a multitude of cultural backgrounds, all of them within Piaget’s preoperational stage and the findings highlight the different view points of race posed by children from oppressed racial or cultural backgrounds to those held by white children. The research reflects the Memmi proposal that racism is a lived experience. Children from a ‘third world’ background asked questions about whites and racism while white children showed interest in people of colour however their comments reflected stereotypes and, in some, a negative attitude. This result conflicts Piaget (1932) and Kohlberg (1969) who both import that children below the age of seven do not have the cognitive development to unfold the social and moral reasoning behind their groupings. As a result the children are not displaying the notion of superiority necessary to become classed as racist. The work of Denman-Sparks highlighted the early signs of grouping although it is hard to gauge how reliable their findings were. When trying to gauge the children’s behaviour as the presence of a researcher has been proven to change a child’s reaction (Agar, 1980; Murphy 1985) (How young children perceive race p17). It has been recognised that the kind of questions asked can alter the type of answer received. Where children have been asked specifically about an individual the answers received contain attributes of the person in question. Questions about groups often get answers loaded more by ethnicity. (Holmes (How young children perceive race p18).

If the Law in the UK would not make children accountable for their actions in a criminal sense then it would stand to reason that, by the same logic, children could not be accountable for any racist views which they may utter.

Conclusion

While many have researched the topic of racism amongst children there seems to be little, if anything, written to suggest that researchers have struggled to gather data due to barriers created by their own ethnic background and criticism persists on the reliability of data which has been harvested by adults. It would be interesting, therefore, to collate responses on and around the topic of race from children if the information appeared to be collected by a child. It has been proved that children do not act normally when there is an adult in the room whether a bond exists or not. If a child could be primed to ask questions on the topic or maybe even observations carried out on children in their familiar surroundings when confronted with racial or ethnical differences whether reactions would be different. This is criticism which has been levelled at Piaget among others by Van Ausedale (p7) who has also question whether, ultimately, Piaget’s cognitive development theory can be applied to children’s understanding of racial/ethnic difference.

Qualitative research can be defined as, ‘A multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials case study, personal experience, introspective, life story interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts-that describe routine and problematic moments and meaning in individuals’ lives’ (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). Qualitative research emphasizes qualities of entities – the processes and meanings that occur naturally (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000).

Qualitative research methods have for many years made a significant contribution to management research. In this essay, I critically evaluate Gephart’s paper on qualitative research, where he writes pertaining to traditional research methods such as positivism and post positivism, interpretive research and critical postmodernism. In the second part of the essay, I evaluate David Silverman’s “On Finding and Manufacturing Qualitative Data” from the book “A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research” where his methodology merges with the two methods highlighted in Gephart’s paper.

Gephart in his paper brings to light three main research traditions used in management research. They are positivism and postpositivism, interpretive research and critical post modernism, which have evolved from the behaviourist and cognitive perspectives of qualitative research. In this part of the essay I shall give an overview about the three research traditions and the distinctions between them.

Positivist and post positivist research traditions arise from the behaviourist perspective of qualitative research which is based on the knowledge of consistent relationships. The term “positivism” was first introduced by Auguste Comte, “Our doctrine is one which renders hypocrisy and oppression alike impossible. And it now stands forward as the result of all the efforts of the past, for the regeneration of order, which, whether considered individually or socially, is so deeply compromised by the anarchy of the present time. It establishes a fundamental principle by which true philosophy and sound polity are brought into correlation; a principle which can be felt as well as proved, and which is at once the keystone of a system and a basis of government.” (Auguste Comte, 1798-1857).

A major tenet of logical positivism is its “thesis of the unity of science” (Hempel, 1969 & Kolakowski, 1968). In its broadest sense, positivism is a position that holds the goal of knowledge. In a positivist view of the world, science is seen as the way to get at truth, to understand the world well enough to predict and control it. In other words, Positivism assumes an a priori (truth) which is discoverable through methodical, rigorous, careful observation that can be proven through testable and repeatable methodologies.

A post-positivist might begin by recognizing that the way scientists think and work and the way people think in their everyday life are not distinctly different. It can be defined as, non-foundational approach to human knowledge that rejects the view that knowledge is erected on absolutely secure foundation” for there are not such things; Post-positivists accept fallibilism (the philosophical doctrine that absolute knowledge is impossible) as an unavoidable fact of life (Phillips & Burbules, 2000). It is characterized by a more nuanced belief in an ontologically realist “out there” reality that can only be known within some level of probability (Groat & Wang, 2002). Additionally, Post-positivists concede that the “experimental methodologies employed in the natural sciences are often inappropriate for research involving people” (Groat & Wang, 2002). Within Post-positivist methodologies, the researcher is autonomous from the subject of inquiry, objectivity is important, and the inquirer manipulates and observes in a dispassionate, objective manner. This perspective assumes modified experimental, manipulative methodologies that can include both qualitative and quantitative practices (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). Positivism and post-positivism are almost similar, the only difference is, Post-positivism takes into account the criticisms against and weakness of the rigidity of positivism, and now informs much contemporary social science research, including reality-oriented qualitative inquiry (Patton, 1990).

Interpretive research tradition arises from the cognitive perspective of qualitative research which is based on shared understanding and awareness of multiple social and organisational realities. The foundation assumption for interpretive research is that knowledge is gained or at least filtered, through social constructions such as language, consciousness, and shared meanings (Klein & Myers, 1999). In addition to the emphasis on the socially constructed nature of reality, interpretive research acknowledges the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is being explored, and the situational constraints shaping this process. Interpretive research traditions take the position that humans are social animals that live in societies and as such investigate and interpret lived experience and their inter subjective realities (Bruce H. Rowlands, 2005). Interpretive researchers thus attempt to understand phenomena through accessing the meanings participants assign to them (Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991). Unlike atoms, molecules and electrons, people create and attach their own meanings to the world around them and to the behaviour that they manifest in that world (Schutz, 1973). Interpretive studies assume that people create and associate their own subjective and inter-subjective meanings as they interact with the world around them.

Positivism and Interpretive research can be distinguished as objective versus subjective (Burrell & Morgan, 1979), nomothetic versus idiographic (Luthans & Davis, 1982), quantitative versus qualitative (Van Maanen, 1979), outsider versus insider (Evered & Louis, 1981), and etic versus emic (Morey & Luthans, 1984).

Critical postmodernism transcends mere description or reconstructs reality and derives meaning from situations through its critical approach. Critical postmodern theory is about the play of differences of micro political movements and impulses of ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, and spirituality without any unifying demand for theoretical integration or methodological consistency (Boje, Fitzgibbons & Steingard, 1996). Critical postmodern is definable as the nexus of critical theory, post colonialism, critical pedagogy and postmodern theory (Boje, 2001). Critical postmodern theory is a way to get a clearer understanding of the relation between modern and postmodern, and take a Deleuzian journey into the middle of the hybridity of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern (Boje, 1995). Critical postmodern spatial theory privileges the lived spatialities of left-margined communities as sites of socio-spatial critique. A postmodern identity politics enacts critical postmodern spatial theory by nurturing the development of, and solidarity between, ‘counter publics’, which are subaltern community spaces where private spatialities of alienation are brought to public discourse (Allen, 1999).This tradition is focused on how meanings and reality are shaped over time and seeks to uncover and understand the historical evolution of these meanings, practices, contradictions and expose hidden inequalities in societies.

The five distinguishing characteristics of the three research traditions (i) positivism and post positivism (ii) interpretive research and (iii) critical postmodernism, are as follows.

First is in terms of the underlying assumptions about reality. Positivism and postpositivism adheres to realism and rely on the assumption of an objective world external to the mind that is mirrored by scientific data and theories; interpretive approach proceeds through the advocacy of relativism with investigation proceeding with data derived from interlinking contextual realities so that data holds both objective and subjective characters; while critical postmodernism adheres to historical realism or the assumption that material or symbolic reality comprised by multidimensional values that crystallizes over time so that the investigation involves the collection of objective and subjective data.

Second is in terms of the goal of the investigation. Positivism and post-positivism proceeds with the goal of discovering truths, interpretive research is in line with the goal of describing and understanding of meanings, and critical postmodernism is guided by the goal to uncover hidden interests and contradictions in order to arrive at criticisms that in turn facilitate change.

Third is in terms of the tasks involved in the investigation. Positivism and postpositivism involves the identification, explanation and control of variables directed towards the verification of hypothesis or non-falsified hypotheses, interpretive research applies through producing descriptions of members’ meaning and definitions of situation in order to have a clear understanding of the manner that reality is constructed, while critical postmodernism involves the task of determining insights from the structures of relationships and historical changes that reveal contradictions.

Fourth is in relation to the unit of analysis of the research traditions. Positivism and postpositivism utilises variables as the core unit of analysis, interpretive research focuses on verbal and non verbal actions, while critical postmodernism centres on contradictions, criticism, signs and symbolism as key elements of the research. Variables become the core unit of analyses because of their objective reality. Verbal and non verbal are the units of analyses in interpretive research because of their subjective nature. Conflict, criticism and symbolism are the core unit of analyses of postmodernism because these elements appropriately capture historical realism.

Fifth is with regard to the focus of the methods. Positivism and postpositivism involves the discovery of facts and the comparison of these facts with predefined hypothesis or propositions, ‘interpretive research does not predefine dependent or independent variables, does not set out to test hypotheses, but aims to produce an understanding of the social context of the phenomenon and the process whereby the phenomenon influences and is influenced by the social context’ (Walsham, 1995), while critical postmodernism involves the derivation and understanding of historical evolution of meanings, conflicts and inequities evolving through time as the method of data gathering and analyses.

Since positivism and post positivism involve objective reality, the methods that apply in these research are those useful in gathering facts while methods able to derive meaning appropriately applies to interpretive research and critical postmodernism because these should be able to capture subjective realities in order to derive meaning.

Over the last generation there has been a shift in qualitative methods, from a scientist-oriented research, toward a more dynamic representational strategy .Beginning in the late 19th century, Antipositivism was perhaps the first movement to challenge the rigid nature of dominant Positivism. Early Antipositivists like Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), Heinrich Rickert (1863-1936) and later, Max Weber (1864-1920), addresses the Positivist failure to “appreciate the fundamental experience of life, and instead favour physical and mental regularities, neglecting the meaningful experience that was really the defining characteristic of human phenomena”. Adorno, 1969 (cited in Fuchs. C & Sandoval. M., ‘Positivism, Postmodernism, or Critical Theory? : A Case Study of Communications Students’ Understanding of Criticism) stresses that positivism is only oriented on appearance, whereas critical theory stresses the difference between essence and appearance. Above all, critical theory, poststructuralism, and postmodernism are effective as critiques of positivism, interrogating taken-for-granted assumptions about the ways in which people write and read science (Stockman, 1984). Such opinions against positivism lead to a breakthrough from positivism to other research traditions such as interpretive research and critical postmodernism which meet the needs of current researchers.

In contradiction to Gephart, Silverman takes a rather interpretive and critical postmodernist stance when writing his piece about manufactured data and found data. Silverman in his paper uses Sack’s insights to support the positive things that can be learnt through observations (found data) and the critique view on the use of interview data (manufactured data). He also states that researchers prefer to manufacture data using artificial research settings such as interviews and focus group which use pre-determined research questions. Manufacture of data to answer a specified research problem is precisely the method which quantitative or positivist researchers prefer as explained by Gephart. Alternatively, naturally occurring (found) data arises from being aware that the research situation is not straight forward as eliciting data from interviews. Indeed collecting data through reading, looking, listening, facial expressions, sights, sounds, smells etc are taken into account. It provides a broader perspective of the research problem in hand when compared to manufactured data.

Data manufactured through interview talk is approached with very different expectations, this can be explained by, The meaning of an answer is not a straightforward matter of external or internal reference, but also depends on the local and broader discursive system in which the utterance is embedded (Wetherell & Potter, 1988). Positivist might interpret interviews in a different manner when compared to interpretive and critical postmodernist.

Positivist researchers believe that their research methods and data mirror reality. The positivist researcher might strive to discover objectively the truth hidden in the subject’s mind, ‘Rather than an interviewee providing prepared/manufactured responses to standard questions designed to be unbiased and neutral, we strive to engage in social construction of a narrative with our participants. In this way we hope to activate the respondent’s ‘stock of knowledge”. (Richie and Rigano, 2001: 744, cited in ‘Post-Positivist Approaches To Research : Anne B Ryan). ‘We regard ourselves as people who conduct research among other people, learning with them, rather than conducting research on them (Wolcott, 1990). ‘Researchers don’t ask themselves ‘is this the truth?’ Rather, we talk about the issues raised during the interviews, the participants’ reactions, and our interpretations of these interwoven ideas. In this context, it seems right to open up the interpretive discussions [to our respondents], not for them to confirm or disconfirm them, but to share our thinking and how the ideas might be used.’ (Richie and Rigano, 2001: 752, cited in ‘Post-Positivist Approaches To Research : Anne B Ryan)

Use of manufactured data in qualitative research might make the respondent bias his result, as stated by Crotty (1998) Leading to the epistemological idea that the very act of observation causes a particle to behave differently. Sacks states that, we can treat what people say as an account which positions itself in a particular context. Here the researcher is viewing what people say as an activity awaiting analysis, thus the researcher’s interpretations play a key role in manufacturing data. Bringing “such subjectivity to the fore, backed with quality arguments rather than statistical exactness” (Garcia & Quek, 1997).

Many researchers have criticized the use of manufactured data in qualitative research, which is the positivist view as stated by Gephart and the greater use of naturally occurring data or found data which is the interpretivistic approach. The Dead Social Scientist Test describes manufactured data as, ‘The test is whether the interaction would have taken place in the form that it did had the researcher not been born or if the researcher had got run over on the way to the university that morning'(Potter, 1996). In all research, the choice of data depends on the research problem. “Equally, there is no question that all polarities should be investigated – particularly where, as here, they involve an appeal to ‘nature” (Speer 2002). As Kuhn (1964) stated in his publication ‘The structure of Scientific Knowledge’, scientists work withinaa‚¬”and are constrained byaa‚¬”prevailing “paradigms” while questioning the “alleged objectivity and value-free neutrality of scientific discovery”.

Interpretive approach is synonymous with ethnography. “Doing ethnography” is doing an interpretation of the behaviour of human subjects in their local settings. Interpretivistic do not reject the concept of a “real world” out there but presented the “reality” which mattered most and they try to understand the respondents response in their own terms. Researchers are the measuring instruments and their understanding will derive from personal experience rather than manipulation of variables, as Hirschman(1986) puts it, personally experienced knowledge serves as scientific data. Reality has to be constructed through the researcher’s interpretation and ability to communicate the respondent’s reality; hence the researcher has to be a part of the research to conduct a successful research. Qualitative researchers can access naturally occurring data by finding everyday features in extraordinary settings, this is an interpretive approach.

Naturally occurring data can serve as a wonderful basis for theorizing about things that the researcher would never imagine. What ordinarily happens in the world around us means ‘we can start with things that are not currently imaginable, by showing that they happened’ (Sacks, 1992). Sanday (1979) states that, empathy and identification with the observed people are needed to go about the understanding held by the human subjects. Geertz says that, the trick is not to get yourself into some inner correspondence with your informants. The researcher uses ethnography and manages to interpret an individual behaviour in such a way that it no longer appears to be absurd but appears rational. A successful interpretation is one which makes clear the meaning originally present in a confused, fragmented, cloudy form.. what is initially strange, mystifying, puzzling, contradictory (for the researcher) is no longer so, is accounted for (Taylor, 1979).

As stated by Potter (2002), naturally occurring data opens up a wide variety of novel issues that are outside the prior expectations embedded in interview questions. In addition to the interpretive approach through the critical approach, the researcher is able to delve into the determination of differential characteristics, nature of conflict, aspects underlying differences and conflicts, and consequences of differences and conflict which help to address the issues that arise in naturally occurring data. With these types of information derived through the application of critical postmodernist tradition, the investigative approach is able to assess data and explain reasons for these differences and conflicts that in turn catalyses the determination of solutions that leads to eventual change.

It can be supported as with the following evidence. Critical postmodern theory is a way to get a clearer understanding of the relation between modern and postmodern, and take a Deleuzian journey into the middle of the hybridity of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern (Boje, 1995). A critical postmodern project can move us beyond exploitation, racism, sexism, and abuse by reframing and restoring organization theory away from its patriarchal lingo in order to reaffirm social justice, equality, democracy, and the wonders of multiplicity (Boje, 1995: 1004). In a critical postmodern theory, such as Tamara, we can explore the ‘micro-practices’ of organizational life, as well as contextualize the stories of the marginal Other, within the workings of a post-industrial supply and distribution chain addicted to sweatshops, and the cover-stories produced and distributed by the postmodern storytelling organizations that turn out consumer identities and spectacles for mass consumption (Boje, 1995: 998-2). On the plus side, there is always resistance to the forces of global and individual domination and exploitation that stem from the strange hybridity of premodern, modern, and postmodern organizing amalgams. Ultimately, the criticism provides insights into historical events to catalyse change that should be for the betterment of relationships and systems.

It can be summarised that good qualitative research is difficult and challenging to undertake. Data manufactured through artificial research settings such as interviews and focus groups restricts the information available to the researcher and it also leads to biased results since the respondent is aware of the researcher’s need. The positivist researcher might strive to manufacture data by discovering objectively the truth hidden in the subject’s mind; while interpretivist tries to collect naturally occurring data by understanding the respondent’s response in their own terms. Reality has to be constructed through the researcher’s interpretation and ability to communicate the respondent’s reality; hence as Silverman states the researcher has to be a part of the research to conduct a successful research.

Thus naturally occurring data (interpretivist) is more suitable for qualitative research than manufactured data (positivist) because,

Naturally occurring data does not flood the research setting with the researcher’s own categories (embedded in questions, probes, stimuli, vignette and so on)
It does not put people on the position of disinterested experts on their own and others’ practices and thoughts.
It does not leave the researcher does not leave the researcher to make a range of more or else problematic inferences from the data collection arena to topic as the topic itself is directly studied.
It opens a wide variety of novel issues that are outside the prior expectations embedded in, say, interview questions.
It is a rich record of peoples living their lives, pursuing goals, managing institutional tasks and so on. (Potter,2002)

Ultimately the type of data used in qualitative research depends on the research topic hence researchers prefer to combine and test their observations by asking questions from the research sample.

REFERENCES
Journal Articles:
Agger.B., 1991. Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism: Their Sociological Relevance. Annual Review Social, 17, pp.105-31.
Allen S. Lee.,1991. Integrating Positivist and Interpretive Approaches to Organizational Research, Organization Science, 2(4), pp.342-365.
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ONLINE ARTICLES:
Anne. B .R., Post- Positivist Approaches To Research. http://eprints.nuim.ie/874/1/post-positivist_approaches_to_research.pdf
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Trochim. W., Positivism & Post-Positivism www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positvsm.php

‘Marx believed that our society was in a state of continual conflict between the working class and upper class, evaluate the Marxist theory of social class using Functionalism, Weberian, and postmodern theories of class’.

Social Stratification is the way society puts people into certain categories based upon a system of hierarchy. This system has continued over generations, those who are born into a more wealthy family are believed to have more of a chance of receiving better health and education, having a head start, over society, that remains in the lower part of wealth. Inequality follows generation to generation.

Class system allocates a person by sex, colour, or by social background. Stratification is a form of meritocracy, how well one does relates to how one is rewarded. Do we necessarily need this form of division into day’s society, as today’s society provides equal opportunities? Some sociologist insists even in today’s society we need this division.

According to Marx believe that all of our history has always been a history of class struggle, this struggle they say came about at the end of the hunting and gathering society as industry began to evolve. Marxist theory is that that class struggle has shown through ancient stavey Feudalism and capitlism. Class is the product of the mode of production of a society. The mode of production is made up from the relationship between the means of production and that of social production. The means of production is that of landowners and machinery, [bourgeoisie] and that raw materials and labour belong to the poor the [proletariats].

The social relationship of Marxism refers to this as that of economics between rich and poor. This theory is based purely upon economics of wealth. The driving force in nearly all of society is the conflict between the rich and the poor. [Marx &Angles 1970]

Marx has been accused of being a determinist and a reductionist. Many things are not related purely on economics, his perception of the class system neglects to include the petty – bourgeoisie, those who own small businesses and only employ themselves. He did not foresee the improvements of living standards for all of society or the impact of the middle class. He did not include countries such as Russia and China who might revolt and denounce communism. He did not foresee the fact that our society is a democratic one and that all have the right to equality and farness. Nor did he predict nor could he have done that western society would become a very wealthy one.

Marx’s perception on Marxism was not what he wanted; he suggests that capitalism is the newest type of class and that it will also be the last. Eventually he says it will be replaced by a communist society in which the means of production will be communally owned. As the bourgeoisie use the superstructure of advertising and along with politics and education to suppress. The proletariats by creating false class consciousness the transmission to communism will not evolve until class consciousness develops.

Weberianisms [Weber 1947] Max Weber’s theory on class status sees this as separate but related source of power which in turn has separate but related affects on people’s life chances. He defines class in terms of market positions, in their positions and of their skills and qualifications he also recognises that the working class have a range of chances to better themselves. Webber’s theory indicates that a person’s inequality comes from class inequality.

This theory is based upon a person’s occupation and how high they are, in general a higher occupation gains a higher social standing. He also recognises that it is possible to achieve a higher status via other routes such as, race, gender, religion or through politics. He also indicates that some status was linked to consumption style in as much as designer clothes posh cars bigger houses. Unlike Marx, Webber recognises a three tier class structure

[1] class-economic relationship

[2] status-perceived status

[3] party-third dimension political power.

Webber defined social class into four clusters of occupation.

[1] privileged [property & education]

[2] Petty bourgeoisies [self-employed & managers]

[3] White collar workers &technicians [lwc]

[4] Manual workers [wc]

Webber did influence the way in which class is operationalised [Goldthorpe scale and the NS-SEC scale] He states that the differences in status prevents the different classes banding together for a revolution as they have no common identity. In Webbers theory he puts status above class.

Marx’s theory on the inevitability of class conflict determinant of inequality has some input into Weber’s theory as he states that class are economic categories organised around things such as homes and businesses. He does indicate that it should recognise occupations skills as there is a chance to make life chances among the working and middle classes. Weber however did influence the way in which class is operationalised in as much as the Goldthorpe scales and the NS.SEC scales, he states that the differences in status prevent different classes banding together for a revolution as they have no common identity. Weber puts status of groups above that of class status.

This is a census theory based upon each part is interrelated learning, leading to equilibrium. Individuals can fulfil their rightful occupations according to their education and skills. Functionalism believes that we live in a shared culture. Functionalism believes that this is a fair and just way. Their theory argues that stratification and inequality equal a positive function for society, and that stratification is a big contributor to our social order. All of society needs to ensure that the most senior positions are filled by those who have the education and skills knowledge and efficiency to perform these rolls

Davis & Moore: some principles of stratification [1945]

This theory started with observations that stratification exists in all human societies; therefore it is a universal picture of human society, just as much as religion and of crime. This they infer it must be functional.

“A device in which society ensures that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons”

Functionalist’s theory is based on meritocracy and that its function is:

[1] Income based.

[2] Occupation.

[3] High and low achievements.

[4] Education.

Functionalist says that we all have the opportunity to climb the ladder, based upon our achievements. As this theory is based on rewards higher jobs equal higher rewards, but it has been shown that not all jobs are based upon knowledge and labour intensive and the rewards are not just. Some would argue that gaining the extra education to fulfil many job criteria is an achievement and reward in its self. Employment can be inherited or bought, education and skill is not questioned.

Functionalists seemed to have misplaced those who gain a higher position without necessarily having the qualifications or skills need to perform efficiently, as they have either inherited the position from a family member, or they have bought into that position. There are dysfunctions of stratification that have been overlooked; these includes the elderly, the poor [unemployed] and those who have disability and health problems. All of whom have a right to be recognised and included in society. This theory seems to be in line with that of Marx’s and Weber’s theory and it benefits those who are already on the top of the ladder and puts obstacles in the way of others.

Post – Modernists sociologists take the view that with the decline of our manufacturing and engineering building it is the media and culture that is now our main economic consideration. As the media’s coverage is worldwide so they shape our relationship with society. [Baudrillard 1993] states that for him the world is incapable of truth, unable to see reality from fiction.

Towler [1996] identifies two issues that can be associated with postmodernism. He states that it’s a society that follows after modern societies, which he says is now information rich globally and we now have many sub=groups and cultures. His second issue is that it’s a way of knowing the world which questions the Nature of truth.

Strinatr [1992] Postmodernism works to come to terms with a media -saturated society

Kaplan [1987] identifies pop and rock videos as examples of post-modernist culture as they have no notion of narrative structure.

Paluski & Walters [1996] have argued that the class structure no longer exist as social change has evolved, such as globalisation. This they say means that class divisions have now become status divisions.

Post-modernist theory believes in a social order in which the importance and the strength of media and of culture govern and shape forms of social relationships. They suggest that media plays such an important role in our society that we are controlled by what we see and hear; we clothe ourselves accordingly and buy homes suggested by media interpretation.

This theory bases its ideas on the principle that society can no long be truthful, and that are unable to tell the difference of reality from fiction. We as societies are now conditioned to the point of doing what the media say are the norm. They say that capitalist or industrial societies have reached a new stage in our development that we have moved from being a modernist society to a post-modernist society. [Featherstone1991]. As this is a reasonably new theory there is not much information to really come to a formed conclusion.

This theory is relatively unfair and bias towards the rich, but because of false class consciousness taught at an early age and the media it is not looked upon as unfair. The lower end of society is taught that capitalism is a fair and natural cause to follow. This theory is based on a two tier system and capitalist so it’s know as a conflict theory, as it causes conflicts between master and slave relationship. This theory produces unequal social relations and that makes it also an exploited motion. This theory does not differentiate between gender, ethnicity, sexuality and age. The one good thing that did come from Marx was his theory was the communist revolution of countries like Russia and China, it’s been said that Carl Marx had a bigger impact on people than that of Christ or Mohammed.

Was Marx’s theory of per petulant conflict between the proletariats and of the bourgeoisies realistic? Was he as accused, a determinist and a reductionist? Is class stratification worked out purely by economics? This Assignment has looked at four different opinions of class stratification and their theories. Studies have shown that not all class is based upon wealth, and yes conflict does occur but not to the extent of Marx’s theory. Whether he was a reductionist or a determinist is not really this writers place to comment. However feels that Marx was only looking through tunnelled vision, as he did not recognise that even the poor have rights, have a place in society. The poor’s input into society is little agreed but they have to be considered as they need to live, need to eat, need to be cared for.

Max Weber does not include the unemployed or the elderly; he did however help considerably towards the new scales of class allowing for the working class to better themselves. Weber believes that as lower class has no identity with the middle class they will not come together for revolt, he was blinded to the fact that society is human and our first instinct is to survive, and if that means a coming together of different classes for a common cause, they would.

Functionalism recognises that the working class are as valuable as the middle class allowing for furthering and developing their skills. Their theory omits the people who inherit or buy or use politics to gain wealthy jobs, and again the old and infirm are missed out.

Post-modernist view is that we are mere machines and act dress and consume what the media determines is right for this society. That we have become so overwhelmed by music, TV and media that we are unable to think for ourselves. Have we really become so besotted with artificial items we can no longer tell what is truth or lies? Can we no longer tell the difference between make believe and reality. There is no solid evidence to show that all households have a television computer or radio.

Into days society where we have humanity and respect for others does class stratification come into it. Yes we need a tiered structure to enforce peace and law otherwise the world would polarise and collapse. Does economic wealth make you better person? Are the elderly and infirm the dregs of society?

However Post modernist might just be right in today’s society of no class stratification, as people tend to place wealth on branded items, the poorest of society could perceive to be wealthier that their class standing by wearing a pair of branded trainers. Marx maybe right in saying society needs to be a capitalist one. Functionalists seem bias towards the wealth along with Marx and Weber.Whoever may be right or wrong, to be able to improve on life chances in general it is necessary to have a class structure.

Sharon Finch Sociology 22nd10 2010
REFERENCESS:
[Anon](2010)Wikipedia [online].Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/Religious_stratification[Accessed:23rdjanuary2010]
[Anon](2010)moodle[online]from:http://moodle.northamptoncollege.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=16685
Allen, C. (2010) lecturers notes post modernist [Accessed on 21october 2010]
Allen, C. (2010) lecturers notes Weberian [Accessed on 13th October 2010]
Allen, C. (2010) lecturers notes Marxism: structural conflict theory [Accessed on 13th October 2010]
Allen, C. (2010) lecturers notes Functionalism [Accessed on 19th October 2010]
Moore, S. Et, al.2002sociology for A2. London: Harper Collins.

The principles of the Rukun Negara formulated by National Consultative Council with together headed by our second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak at 31 August 1970. The purpose of formation of this national principles are to created unity of various race in Malaysia after the riots of different races at May 13th 1969 in Malaysia. That riots happened had proven the Malaysian racial issues and stability had fragile.

The formation of “Rukun Negara” are one of the method to overcome the racial issues between different races in Malaysia after the May 13th incidents has happened which involved hundreds of people are death in that particular incident. It happened when after election at year 1969 where Parti Tindakan Rakyat (DAP) dan Gerakan get a very good respond from the result of the election. Procession was held by them purpose for incident of one youth Chinese was killed in battle with policemen before the election was held. UMNO was felt be challenged of the result of the election although them still win the majority seats in parliament.

Datuk Harun Idris led the riots happened. Purpose of this provocative procession happened was to set fire to the spirit of nationalism of every races in Malaysia. This riots happened until the police force was unable to control the situation. Army force had to be called to help police force to control the situations.

This incidents has made all the leaders in Malaysia has realized of importance of unity issues of various races in the country. In the official report, there are totals of 493 people was injured and 196 people are reported death of that incidents. Emergency in the country was declared by our Yang Dipertua Agong, with advices from our first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman based on article 150 in constitution of federal Malaysia.

The Rukun Negara can be related with several place that we visit in the trips. The first principle can related with Batu Caves and National Palaces. Batu Caves are rich with Hinduism cultural. The cultural still preserved until today that let us to enable to study and get to know the elements and everything cultural about Hinduism. National Palaces are rich with Islam religions and cultural. Inside the palaces, lot of architectures are follow Islam and mixed with Hinduism elements to build with it. Switch of the light and fans are made of gold plated, which represent the wealthy and higher class people in society.

National Museum represent the place to let all the people to access the past cultural and present cultural in Malaysia. In museum, we can access different races occupations, cultural, rituals and behavior being practice in past and until current today in Malaysia. It also show us how the life, ritual and cultural of Orang Asli in Malaysia.

Examine carefully the importance of Rukun Negara for our country; how it cultivate social structure and social organization in society.

We are admitting that Rukun Negara was important to our country in Malaysia. Rukun Negara was created to meet it’s purpose of unity of various race in Malaysia, and prevent the riots of races happened again within the country. Analysis of each elements of national principles

BELIEF IN GOD

Nation and the State was created based on a strong belief in God. It would make the sovereign country or nation thru these religions belief. The Federal Constitution declared that Islam is the official religion, but other religion and beliefs can be practiced in freedom and tranquility. Any actions discrimination against any citizen on grounds based on religion are prohibited. Pillars of the drafters of the committee recognize the importance of belief in God and religion in human life. This principle has been selected as the first principle of the Rukun Negara to recognize the importance of community members holding robustness against their teaching of religious

LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY

Malaysia practices a system of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy with head of state, His Majesty the King. This element means that every citizen should be devoted faithful, honest and sincere to His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. At the state level, the citizens are required to devote loyalty to the king who ruled the land where they reside without reducing allegiance to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION

This principle pressing need for people to accept, obey and defend the Constitution of the country or glory. Constitution is the highest legal source. Its function is to provide protection to every citizen of this country because of their privileges and rights as citizens in this country. The Malaysian citizens are required to respect, appreciate, and understand the history, contents and definitions of the Constitution. Constitution was drafted based on consensus of all parties and races within the country. Thus the social contract that people cannot be questioned about it and threatened by any individual or any party. Constitution of Malaysia made for determine the pattern of socio-economic and political position of the citizens in this country.

THE RULE OF LAW

Justice based on the rule of law where all citizens equal before the law in the country legally. State law based on the Constitution. Thus the need to be accepted and defended its sovereignty. Without the law, social and state life is not peaceful and stable. By the laws of the country are guaranteed by an independent judiciary and competent. Every country needs laws to regulate and create peaceful, prosperity and stability in society. The existence of the law will guarantee a life member of the community can move with freedom and orderly, without any disturbance which not threated the safety of other citizens in the country. All citizens has right to practice freely as long as no violation of the law as well as things as guaranteed by the Constitution. The freedoms right declared in the Constitution does not means citizens have the right to overthrow the current government.

COURTESY AND MORALITY

These five principles to emphasize the development of one’s personality and behavior of the people. The aim is to form citizens’ courtesy and manners in line with the campaign Courtesy and Noble Values aˆ‹aˆ‹conducted now. Individual nature of courtesy and manners are the most important and meaningful in the elements of relationships with other various races within the country. Attitude of courtesy and manners should be taught and practiced to develop the individual as well as high discipline and morality that will help create harmonious in the society. Conduct hate and condemn this behavior or act arrogant or offend any person or class. Polite behavior within the person are contains of high degree of morality in his / her life.

Importance of Rukun Negara are create unity among the different races, Chinese, Malay and Indians in Malaysia. In the national principles, it has avoid any racial issues happened between among the three main racial in the country. It was law binding for those go against with it will be arrested.

National Principles also create function as a guidance in the formation of one nation in the country regardless of religion and race. It has become important guidelines for government in Malaysia ruled the country. (Utusan Online, 2004)

National principles also creates the way of democracy life in the Malaysia nation. In the federal constitution, it was stated practice of democracy must in element for governing in nations of Malaysia. The constitution are almost same like United States. National principles also to serve purpose of the wealth in the nation shall be equitably shared among the nation. It also to ensure the liberal approach of diversity and rich of different cultural traditions within Malaysian nations. (Utusan Online, 2004)

In first elements of national principles, not one were racial, each citizens of Malaysia was respect each other cultural, traditions and religions been practice by different races. In today, we can see the effects created by the national principle in our country, Malaysia. Every races still manage to get mixed well by each other. (Utusan Online, 2004)

Different races mix well together

Second element in national principles are made the citizens in Malaysia have love and loyalty to their country and Kings. Not only that, they are expected to be love their leaders as well. In Today, although we can see Sultan are functionless in our country, but Malaysians are not going to oppose the Sultan but to love the Sultan more and respect them as there are one of the leaders in Malaysia. We can saw Malaysia are developing far behind than Singapore. But, we still love our country as we can see the specialty of Malaysia are united three races in one nation one country, which this reasons are attracted the foreign tourists come and visit to Malaysia. (Utusan Online, 2004)

Third elements in national principles enable the citizens in Malaysia live in democracy way in their country. There is freedom to practices their own rituals, cultural and also religious for each races. Every citizens have their right and own voice to protest the wrong doing in the society. Very good example are referring to “Bersih Campaign”. It is one of the democracy way for Malaysian citizens to voice out their dissatisfied with the wrong doing in past elections. (Utusan Online, 2004)

Bersih Campaign

The Law Binding were cultivate the society become more alert when they commit any illegal activity. One of the example, any drug trafficking was arrested and had been judged by court, it will received penalty as dead sentences in final.

The last principle has enabled all the citizens to build up better or superior personality which consist good moral and behavior. The superior of personality are the important elements of the development of the country. It also able to avoid any riots happened within the country among the different race. In opposite, it able to create harmony among the race for helping each other, complement each other which gave a fast lane for a country to become developed country. Crime rate also can be reduced at the same time. Hence, the Ultimate goal of Rukun Negara also can be achieved at the same time.

Different races of Bersih Activists help to save out the victim which hit by policemen car in Bersih Campaign. They eventually help policemen get out of the car after they save the victim of accident.

In my opinion, national principles have it’s importance and it have affect the Malaysian society to get united even better compared with time at post- independent. In today, we can see everyone can have different races of friend in their life. The freedom of Malaysian citizen to practice their cultural and rituals without anyone restrictions are amazing, it has attracted the different country tourists just to come and visit the Malaysia for experiencing this multiracial cultural in Malaysia. In today, we able to see even we from different races but they really help each other when we have difficulty in some situations. My personal experience, when there are a accidents occurs, i can see the Malays and Indians come and help out each other.

But, we still can see some group of people which have power in political and position which seen Rukun Negara as nothing. Here, i not wish to refer anyone in Malaysia, but we commonly know what is actually happened in our country. Death of Teoh Beng Hock was still became mystery until today, although court had given final judgment as he commit suicide. We still can see many corruptions happened around the country, which the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission cannot do anything on it because the excessive power involve which can overwrite everything and manage run away from judgments including legislative.

In conclusion, Rukun Negara are play very important roles in Malaysia. It gave peace among our country. It also born good personality of the citizens, which love their everything in their home country. Unity among the races are become the specialty of Malaysia toward other countries in all around the world.

Others discussion questions

Examine Malaysian crime rate and analysis the statistics based on Roberts Merton ‘s Typology of Deviance.

In Robert Merton theory of Deviance typology, there are five elements. There are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Basically, he explain about deviants behavior becomes crime when the crime too disruptive and uncontrollable through informal sanctions. All forms of deviance are related with crime. (Tepperman & Curtis, J., 2006)

Conformity are refer to achieved of societal goals by social ‘s means which both of them are accepted by society. Innovation is the attaining goals by using unacceptable way by the society. Innovators always think and take of creative ways to achieve their goals, which the creative ways are not accept by society at most of the times. Meanwhile, Ritualism is the means accepted by society but the loss of the goals. Although they has rejected the goals, but they still continue the means. Retreatism is the rejection of both the goals and means. They often find a way to escape from goals and means. Rebellion are same meaning with retreatism but they are with new goals and new means. Merton defined innovation and ritualism are the pure cases, it is because both cases there is a discontinue to implied and pursue between goals and means. (Tepperman & Curtis, J., 2006)

Based on Malaysia statistics related with crime and law, there are fourteen type of crimes. In concern of increase number of crimes are violent crimes, property crimes, commercial and serial commercial code crimes. Violent crimes are included case of murder, rape, fire armed gang robbery, gang robbery without firearms. Property crimes covered stealing of truck/van, car, snatch thefts and burglary. Commercial crimes covered those trick in business deal, criminal breach of trust, the fraudulent misuse of property and others related. (Statistical of Goverment Malaysia)

Relation between Malaysia crime rate and Robert Merton theory, He try to stated that deviances. There is an adaptation by the people to dominant the culture in the society. As the grows between the means and goals, the people will experienced the most internal conflict. Good example, a poor people desired middle class people goal, such as a new LCD television in the home. They find difficulty of means to achieve their goals, in result they felt stress. He argued that they use illegitimate way to accomplish a legitimate goal. Very good example, stealing are one of related element of crimes rate and Robert theory. Thief choose to use stealing ways to achieve their goal of acquire money to survive in this society. This term called as innovations, and the thief called as innovators.

Ritualism has some similarity problems with innovators’ experience. But, they choose to refuse for attaining the goal, and continue with their means (ways to achieve the goal). Example, some people know the way of they achieve the goal are not going to work, but they still practice the ways.

Best way to describe retreatism are referring to drug addicts. They did not choose the way to achieve the goal, they also refuse to achieve to goal. They choose to escape from everything.

Rebellion are referring group of people or individual who reject the norms, goals, and values of society, which they choose go for another new norms, goals, and values which do not exist in that particular society.

Sometime, it is a society itself led the crime happened. Examples, everyone was addicted with the New IPhone which cost very expensive in price. But, because of the society’s demand pressure, everyone essential has one by themselves. Some of them might be not afford, they choose perform deviance ways to achieve the cost which enables they to buy the phone, including steal, rob and involved in prostitutions.

Father and mother should play a very important role in teaching their children which are ethical ways to perform a decision. It same go with teachers and lecturers in study institutions. Morality values should focus by the teachers in school for their student. Father and mother should become of role to be teach their children should not fall into the trick of deviance typology.

In conclusion, everyone has the responsibility for judge whether the ethical decision has been made for majority benefit and agreement in the society.

Evaluate the status of women in terms of career and education in Malaysia compare with United States, Kuwait and Nigeria.

Status of women in different country has different answer of it. Example, women in Malaysia are far better than women in Middle East countries, which they are more pity, less educated and only play important role in family for caring the children in the home. There are heavy discrimination of women in Middle East countries. Generally, women in Malaysia are consider lucky. They able to receive education and handle certain higher position in several multi-national company. Although, there are small number of discriminations toward to the women, but the situation still consider small matter if compared with Nigeria and other Middle East countries. Malaysia government gave lot of supports for concert their rights to make decisions and advance, aspect of health, education, women in social welfare, and removal of legal obstacles. Formation of the Women’s Affairs Ministry in Malaysia at year 2001 to recognize the contributions and the roles of Malaysian women. Based on data of the world bank at year 2011, 47 % of labor force in Malaysia are women. In any study institutions, we able to see majority of students are consisted of female. (The World Bank Group, 2013)

Today, women in Kuwait generally consider most emancipated. They have right to drive, travel, and work without their fathers’ or husbands’ consent. They even hold senior positions in government department. They basically can work freely and can achieve positions of power and influence. (Women’s Voting Rights in Kuwait, n.d.)They also gain right to vote at last at election at year 2005. (BBC News, 2005) In year 2009, they able to get their own passport without his consent of his husband and father too. The change of the ruler in the country in result of election has change the destiny of women in that particular country. There even has women work in police force, special force and army force. Basically, women in Kuwait get equal opportunity of occupational. But, Women in Kuwait get some social discrimination. In Islamic law, Sunni Islamic women inherit only a portion of property from family. Women in Kuwait are receive enough education compared than women in Nigeria.

Women in Nigeria are pitiful. They did not enjoy their equal rights as like women in other country. Because of polygamy practice of male in Nigeria, women cannot expect faithful from their husbands. Women are expected to bear humiliation and suffer in silence. Women taken suffer from any venereal diseases, including HIV/AIDS without any words spoken from their mouth. Nigeria women get lower status in the family even had married with her husband. They often get violence from their husband. The economy pressure (higher poverty) led they work as prostitution in their home country. This also one of the reason they get inflection of STD and HIV virus. Nevertheless, majority of them are less educated. Most of the time, women in Nigeria are spend lot of time in house to do their household stuffs. They never have chance work in outside work as like men in Nigeria. (Women in Nigeria: Religion, Culture, and AIDS, 2003)

In today, women in United States are gain most freedom in all around the world. According to OECD report, 71% of men are in paid work, compared with 62% of women. In education aspect, This is truer of women than men, as 88% of men have successfully completed high-school compared with 90% of women. ( OECD, n.d.)

Across the economy, women now earn 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. According to Forbes (2013), Women are get best paying of wages in place number four of job of health care sectors. (Forbes, 2013) According to the David Alexander and Phil Stewart (2013), US remove lift ban of women involved in role of front line combat. It has release thousands of job opportunity to women in Unite States. (Alexander & Phil Stewart, 2013) Education status of women in unite state are far better than any women in Kuwait, Malaysia and Nigeria. According to the United States Census Bureau, there more women attained bachelor degree than men in education. It has shown women get more freedom and opportunity of education in United States. (United States Census Bureau, 2011)

In conclusion, my opinion about women toward career and education term should be equal same as male. Women should have the equal right same like male, because they also same like male. We should exploit and limited them to involve with the things as they like to be.

Introduction

In this assignment, we will first discuss about the differences between ethnicity and race, as well as between stereotype and prejudice. It will be followed by the general applications of sociological perspectives in ethnic relations and overview of ethnic groups in Malaysia. “Social forces that brought about ethnic stereotype and prejudice in Malaysia” will be the most important section for this assignment. Lastly, we will talk about the efforts made in improving ethnic relations in Malaysia.

1.1 Ethnicity and Race

Ethnicity refers to cultural factors which differentiate people by nationality, culture, ancestry, language and beliefs (Diffen LLC, 2012). The people in the same ethnic group share the same cultural practices and values that would distinct them from other ethnic groups. Cultural heritages are not inherited, but learned through the shared group history (CliffNotes.com, n.d.).

On the other hand, races are supposed to be related to physical characteristics such as eye color, hair color, skin color, average height, bone structure etc. However, studies show that the scientific basis of racial genetic differences is weak except in skin color, and skin color is considered as socially significant (Diffen LLC, 2012; CliffNotes.com, n.d.).

1.2 Stereotype and Prejudice

Stereotype means a preconceived perception (Ismail, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009). It is a neutral and oversimplified view to an object without an accurate understanding (Thio, 2009). When it is applied to ethnic groups, it is a mental image that everyone who belongs to the ethnic group will have the same characteristics and behaviors (Kreidler). In contrast, prejudice is a negative judgment against a group due to misunderstanding (Ferguson, 2004).

Ethnic Relations under Sociological Perspectives

2.1 Functionalist – Cohesive Relation

Under functionalist theory, the social functions of ethnicity can be divided into three main categories named assimilation, amalgamation and multiculturalism (Thio, 2009). Assimilation is “the process by which an outsider, immigrant or subordinate group becomes indistinguishably integrated into the dominant host society” (Marshall & Barthel, 1994). For instance, ‘Mamak’, or Indian Muslim in Malaysia adapted to Malay culture and religion. They lost their own culture after getting used to the culture of Malays (Merican, 2011). Conversely, amalgamation describes the situation when all minority ethnic groups blend their subcultures to form a new culture which is different to their original cultures (Thio, 2009). For example, Baba Nyonya is the fusion of Malay and Chinese cultures (Destination To Malaysia, n.d.). On the other hand, multiculturalism, which is also known as cultural pluralism, describes that “several different cultures can coexist peacefully and equitably in a single country” (The Free Dictionary, 2012; Thio, 2009). Malaysia will be the best example for this paradigm. All major and minority ethnic groups are practicing their own culture while living harmoniously in such a big family.

2.2 Conflict – Abusive Relation

According to Thio (2009), ethnic conflicts can be divided into segregation, expulsion and extermination. Segregation is the separation of dominant and minority groups in an area or a country. There are two types of segregation – de jure segregation which is allowed by law, and de facto segregation caused by traditions and customs. De jure is no longer practiced in most of the countries, while de facto can still be found, for example, in the housing cases for African Americans. Next, expulsion exists when the dominant group expels minority groups from certain areas or countries. Uganda expelling Asians and Vietnam forcing Chinese to leave the country are some of the examples. The third conflict, which is the most radical one, is extermination. The dominant group abuses the minority groups by killing all of them, like The Holocaust which was the massacre of Jews during World War II (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012).

2.3 Symbolic Interactionist – Perception and Interaction

If the dominant ethnic group sees minority groups as inferior and prefers to interact with people in the same group, the interaction between people from the dominant group and the minority groups will likely be superficial. Symbolic interactions can result in a positive or a negative way. The interaction could be cooperative when everyone is willing to work together to change negative perceptions to positive ones, but it could be negative as well if people do not make efforts to correct the stereotype and prejudice against each other (Thio, 2009).

General Overview of Ethnic Groups in Malaysia

According to Table 1 and Figure 1, Malay Bumiputera is the major ethnic groups in Malaysia, which makes up almost 50% of the total population in Malaysia. The next biggest ethnic group is Chinese, which accounts for 23% of the total population. It is followed by other Bumiputera in Sabah and Sarawak (12%), Indians (7%), and other minority ethnic groups (1%). Non-Malaysians takes up 8% of the total population in Malaysia (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2012).

4.0 Social Forces / Socialization Agents That Brought about Ethnic Stereotype and Prejudice in Malaysia

4.1 Family

Family acts as the primary socialization agent because it has the most essential influence in the socialization process of an individual (Bourne, 2006). According to most of the sociologists, the term “family” is referring to the persons who have blood connection, marriage, or adoption and share a common residence (Family, n.d.).

Family plays a crucial role in nurturing children. Children will first learn what is good or bad, as well as what is black or white, followed by norms, moral values and ideas of a society, from their families. Expectations, attitudes, values, beliefs and habits are instilled into children’s mind since they are young. Senior members of the family will pass the family culture to the younger generation and this cycle is repeating from time to time (Family, n.d.). “Human personality is a unique and relatively stable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions that are influenced by the family and the environment” (Baron, Byrne, & Branscombe, 2006). From here, we can conclude that the ways that parents socialize their children are vital because different ways of nurturing the children will produce different types of children.

Senior members play a big role in influencing the mindsets and behavior of the younger ones. If some negative stereotype and prejudice are passed down from the elderly to other family members especially children, the children tend to perceive that the certain stereotype and prejudice are true, and the beliefs will be difficult to be corrected in future. This is usually the main factor that causes ethnic segregation and the lack of amalgamation in Malaysia. For example, interethnic marriages, for instance, marriages between Chinese and Malays, rarely happen in Malaysia (Tyson, 2011), and are not well-accepted by most people in the society, especially the elderly.

4.2 Peer Group

Peer group is another important socialization agent that would influence ones throughout their lives, especially during childhood and adolescence, as those are times that will form their very own personalities (Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, 2012). A peer group is a group of people who have the same age, education or social class. While they usually share a mutual interest and background, they may also be very different in their races, cultures and economic backgrounds (IIT Roorkee, 2011).

Peer pressure is the main aspect of peer group influence. Peer pressure encourages one to change her or his behavior to conform the group norms. A peer group may have positive or negative influences. Academic motivation and social skill developments are the positive influences while drinking, drug addiction and vandalism are some negative cases. Conflicts will usually occur between parents and peer groups due to different values to practice in routine. The peer group influence would be more critical if the family relationship is not supportive (Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, 2012; IIT Roorkee, 2011; Thio, 2009).

Certainly, peer groups have a great contribution on the stereotype and prejudice against other ethnic groups. While a family is the one that implemented a certain stereotype or prejudice, peer groups will strengthen the belief as if it is factual when the peer groups have an identical thought. Stereotype and prejudice affect people and it leads to ethnic polarization, which is so common in Malaysia especially among university students (Tyson, 2011). Language barrier could be another reason that contributes to ethnic polarization, as a language is the most common communication medium, especially among people from different ethnic groups.

4.3 Mass Media

Mass media is defined as the channel of communication that transmits information to a large number of people (Sociology Central). The way and form of the information transmitted vary based on the media used. Mass media is easily accessible with the current technologies. Such availability has made mass media an agent in transmitting information that contains stereotypic and prejudiced elements embedded within it.

Due to the restriction enforced in Malaysian mass media, prejudice elements are usually filtered or removed while stereotypical elements are still acceptable in public through mass media especially in the film production. A very clear cut example would be Namewee, a notorious figure in Malaysia for his ethnic stereotyping or his prejudice over the mass media. His first film production “Nasi Lemak 2.0” and recent production “Hantu Gangster” had slotted in few scenes that contain stereotypical elements. For instance, he stereotyped that Indians usually hide behind the trees or flowers and they like to drink alcohol. Fortunately, such trivial stereotypes do not actually affect ethnic relations.

However, there are critical cases that put forth ethnic relations to a test. The prejudiced statement towards two ethnic groups – Chinese and Indians, which will be further mentioned in the politics session, had brought about serious aftermath upon revealed to the public. Upon influenced by the statement through mass media, the principal of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra in Kulai, Siti Inshah Mansor stated:

“Pelajar-pelajar Cina tidak diperlukan dan boleh balik ke China ataupun Sekolah Foon Yew. Bagi pelajar India, tali sembahyang yang diikat di pergelangan tangan dan leher pelajar nampak seakan anjing dan hanya anjing akan mengikat seperti itu.” (MalaysiaToday, 2010).

From the statement, it shows negative connotations towards the two ethnic groups mentioned. Conflict arises when Namewee showed his dissatisfaction through his song “Nah” that badmouthed another ethnic group, causing ethnic tension in 2009 over that issue (Hookway, 2011). Hence, we notice that how mass media can be an influential tool in spreading ethnic stereotypical and prejudiced elements in our social life. Conflict and symbolic interactionist are both applicable on the ethnic relations in Malaysia due to the influence of mass media in disclosing ethnic stereotype and prejudice publicly.

4.4 Politics

According to John R. Bowen, ethnic relations vary among states and territories depending on the history of interethnic tension, geographical distribution of ethnic groups, degree of differences and intra-ethnic group cohesion, and how the government is committed to resolve the conflict through appropriate policies. Moreover, the same policies may result in different outcomes depending on varying context and further affect the ethnic harmony (Haque, 2003).

During Malacca Sultanate era, the ethnic groups in Tanah Melayu mostly consisted of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Arabs. Most of them were maintaining contact with each other for the trading purpose. Subsequently this had indirectly resulted in a certain level of assimilation and amalgamation. When foreign traders came here for business, some of them got married and adapted to the local culture. Existence of Baba Nyonya community in Malacca is an example of amalgamation at that time. During the Portuguese Colonization, there were no related policies that brought effects on the ethnic relations. Most of the ethnic groups were free to practice their own culture and functionalist perspectives were analyzed (Ismail, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009). However, drastic changes had happened when British arrived in Tanah Melayu. First and foremost, British Labor Policy had brought in Chinese and Indian labors from their original countries and this had led to an increase in the number of people from these ethnic groups. Stimulated by the “divide and rule” policy, occupational segregation within ethnic groups had started due to the inequality in economic backgrounds. Such segregation had prevented solidarity among the ethnic groups and eventually led to a mindset that categorized them through their occupations. In addition, this had brought about ethnic stereotypes that Malays are lazy, Chinese are bold and Indians are docile (Brown, 1994). This marked a significant impact in Malaysian history as the policies implemented had brought about ethnic stereotype and prejudice during that era (Zainal, Abu, & Mohammad, 2009).

Stated clearly on the Malaysian Constitution Article 153, Malays are bestowed with special privileges in terms of education, economy and public welfare. However, these constitutionally guaranteed privileges became the major source of discontent among all ethnic groups (Haque, 2003). Malays are still dissatisfied especially in terms of economy that was controlled by other ethnic groups mainly Chinese and Europeans while non-Malays perceived it as discriminatory measures in terms of national language and Malays’ status as the rulers (Ketuanan Melayu). Even though 1969 Riots was considered as a sensitive issue that is hardly being disclosed to the public and media, but it was an important event that provided explicit reasoning on how it turned into an event that posts inevitable effects on ethnic relations. Both opposing perceptions had led to negative feelings towards each other among different ethnic groups and subsequently transformed into prejudice.

Secondly, the implementation of National Culture Policy in 1971 tried to assimilate other ethnic groups under cultural hegemony of Malay culture (Ahmad, 2011). Cultural hegemony defines the domination of ruling class in manipulating the cultures of other ethnic groups in terms of beliefs, values, perceptions and norms (Merriam-Webster). In other words, the national culture, which was the privileged Malay culture, had three principles applied on it. According to Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in 1971, the first principle was the national culture must be based on the origin of the culture of Malaysia. Secondly, suitable and acceptable elements from other cultures can be accepted as part of the national culture and the third principle stated that Islam is crucial in molding national culture (Ahmad, 2011). From these principles, the policy seemed to be questionable. In fact, “suitable elements” deemed to be a contradicting statement with what had happened in the past. For instance, Lion Dance was not taken into consideration to be the component of national culture at first and Ghazali Shafie, the Home Affair Minister during that time considered it as “foreign”. He suggested changing it to Tiger Dance with the playing of Malay music (Guan, 2000). From the example, we must now understand the rational on how an ethnic group’s culture was being challenged. Taking the general overview of this event had concerned the ethnic groups and such cultural conflict would have led to dissatisfaction, accompanied by prejudice towards other ethnic groups.

Besides government policies in the past, politicians are also important personnel in a society as they are the representatives of every ethnic group. Unfortunately, politicians can be the root in spreading ethnic stereotype and prejudice through their verbal and non-verbal messages. On 23 August 2008, Datuk Ahmad Ismail had voiced out that Chinese and Indians are “immigrant” or “squatter” (Dzulkifly, 2010). This issue had instilled a mentality on ethnic groups and ethnic prejudice bombardments like “Balik Cina” and “Balik India” were lurking in the society. This issue had its sequel when Zulkifli Nordin disclosed another similar statement that was reinforced by the word “haram”. On 2 February 2010, Nasir Safar, the prime minister’s former assistant stated that “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies” (Dzulkifly, 2010). These argumentative and controversial statements have challenged the existing ethnic relations, making ethnic stereotype and prejudice more viable among the ethnic groups. As long as these kinds of mindsets prevail, segregation of ethnic relations might be irreversible.

4.5 Economy

Other than politics, economy is said to be another most important influence on ethnic relations in Malaysia (Zainala, Abua, & Mohamada, 2010). Chronologically, there was an economic policy which was implemented even before the independence of Malaya by the British government that time – “divide and rule” policy. Under the policy, the economic development in Tanah Melayu was based on ethnic groups, where the Chinese were mostly involved in business field, Malays were doing farming activities and Indians were mostly the workers in the rubber and palm oil states (Ismail, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009). That was the social order when people did not oppose the policy. However, this policy had left a very crucial effect on Malaysian society, because it formed a multiethnic society in Malaysia, but a segregated one. This policy indirectly contributed to the current occupational segregation. For example, currently, the participation rate of non-Malays in public sector is still low. Out of 1.12 million new public sector job applications, almost 80% were by Malays, 3.3% were by Indians and Chinese only made up about 2% of the applications (The Malaysian Insider, 2012). It is also commonly said that Chinese are still actively participating in business sectors, while a lot of clinic doctors and surgeons are Indians.

Furthermore, New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced by ‘The Alliance’, which is Barisan Nasional nowadays, in 1970, with the objective of distributing country’s wealth among people equally. However, while NEP was said to be developed to eliminate the identification of ethnic groups with occupations, apparently it was just established to increase the economic shares of Malays, especially in certain more attractive jobs, which further led to discontentment among ethnic groups, and the dissatisfaction grew into a strong prejudice against the each other (Ahmad, 2011).

4.6 Education

This is another institution that plays an important role in determining ethnic relations in Malaysia. First and foremost, vernacular schools are thought to be the major contribution on ethnic conflicts in Malaysia. We have two types of vernacular schools, which are also known as national-type schools – national-type school (Chinese) or SJK(C) and national-type school (Tamil) or SJK(T). Vernacular schools are only available for primary education. Vernacular schools enable teaching and learning in one’s own mother tongue (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2012a; Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2012b).

The existence of vernacular schools often sparks debate among people. Interestingly, Tun Dr. Mahathir once said this: “if we recognize Chinese education and their certificates, we will have three different people, each talking in a different language. I think we will not be able to even live together if we don’t understand each other” (Kamal, 2010). However, statistics show that Malays make up 13% of 600,000 SJK(C) students nowadays. In some urban schools, non-Chinese can even make up a third of the student population in SJK(C). In contrast, according to most parents, majority of teaching professions in national schools are from a single ethnic group and it does not reflect a multiethnic composition of Malaysia (Nair, 2012). While people who want vernacular schools to be abolished accused that vernacular schools emphasize a single ethnicity, the fact is vernacular schools are getting more and more multiethnic these days, while national schools failed to achieve multiethnic interactions. It is too arbitrary to conclude that only Chinese study in SJK(C) and only Indians study in SJK(T). Furthermore, regardless of the types of schools, every Malaysian is required to learn Malay language as well as English (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2012c).

Secondly, ethnic quota system in higher education is certainly another main reason that caused ethnic conflicts in Malaysia. Ethnic quota system was implemented in 1973 by the Malaysian government and in effect, 55% of the university places were reserved for Malays, while the remaining 45% are for other ethnic groups. After displeasing non-Malays for years, this quota system was officially announced to be abolished, and replaced by meritocracy system, which the matriculation system was also introduced (Aihara, 2009). However, in reality, the discrimination toward minority ethnic groups is still there. Generally, most Chinese study STPM to prepare for tertiary education, as the matriculation system has still implemented another ethnic quota system. Other than negative impacts such as brain drain, ethnic quota system definitely intensified the ethnic relation tension (Aihara, 2009; Lyen, 2009).

Now, we have come to this crucial factor under education – medium of education. We will concentrate on the History textbooks used by secondary schools. History textbooks are so heavily influenced by politics, and most of the contents focused primarily on one ethnic group, Malays. Contradicting with the educational objective – to shape national unity, contents in History textbooks are so biased that Chinese and Indian’s major events such as immigrations are not even sufficiently mentioned. Indian’s involvement in the rubber industry was only cited in a three-sentence acknowledgement. Furthermore, there are major events which are omitted by the History textbooks, and among these, the most important event is 1969 Riots. This does not make sense to omit such an important incident in Malaysian history from a History textbook. Doubtlessly, 1969 Riots is the black dot in Malaysian history, but it does not mean it should be omitted from History textbook like it has never happened. Another common criticism is about the omission of Kapitan Yap Ah Loy’s contribution as the Kuala Lumpur founder. Interestingly, even our first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman was dissatisfied and he criticized that the textbooks used in schools are “obviously an attempt to put party politics above the historical facts” (Lim, 2011; Ong, 2012).

To conclude the influences of various social forces on ethnic relations in Malaysia, we will talk about the general effects caused by stereotype and prejudice shaped by the social forces mentioned. First off, “racism” is such a popular word in Malaysia, especially when certain events brought about tension among ethnic groups. Racism, in Malaysian context, is defined as the overprotective behavior of one’s own ethnic group until certain negative attitudes or behavior could be developed towards other ethnic groups when there is a conflict happened. On the other hand, ethnocentrism is the superior feeling of one’s own culture over another. The sense of superiority could make someone perceive other cultures, especially those which totally oppose their own culture, to be bad, wrong, negative or even dangerous (Ismail, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009). Racism and ethnocentrism will further result in unity contradiction. In other words, stereotype and prejudice might strengthen intra-ethnic relations as they share the same belief, however, it will seriously worsen interethnic relations, for example, ethnic polarization, which was discussed in peer group section.

5.0 Efforts and Conclusion

5.1 1Malaysia & Media Power

1Malaysia concept is an approach to strengthen ethnic relations in Malaysia and further achieve an identity of “Malaysian People” by challenging Malaysians from all different ethnic backgrounds to rise above the differences among each other and unite under one nation and flag. In order to achieve such an ideal vision and multiculturalism in Malaysia, efforts have been done. Our prime minister is not hesitated to set up 1Malaysia network. This main website has uploaded info about 1Malaysia concept. Furthermore, our prime minister’s “blogspot” allows permitted freedom of speech in commenting on government policies and initiatives. Those comments are monitored and there will be replies or answers to satisfy the needs of Malaysians (1Malaysia, 2012). Moreover, acceptance is one of the core values that emphasizes on how we should embrace the differences between ethnic groups and not merely tolerate with them. Hence, government usually promotes togetherness of multicultural ethnicity during the festive seasons through open house party to learn about an ethnic group’s culture and accept it as part of society (1Malaysia, 2009).

In order to improve ethnic relations in Malaysia, mass media is put to good use. Besides the social network, there are some movies and short films made to promote ethnic relations. In collaboration with the National Day, we can usually see such short films are aired publicly. For instance, 1Malaysia advertisement by Proton in 2010 showed a clear cut message that Malaysia is multiethnic and we should embrace the differences of each other. In those series of advertisements, the director was trying to correct the stereotype phenomena in Malaysia (YouTube, 2010). When it comes to film production, we definitely cannot forget the remarkable contribution of Yasmin Ahmad in incorporating ethnic unity elements into her movies. Moreover, she was daring to challenge the ethnic stereotypes in Malaysia by portraying the weaknesses of such stereotypes (Bergan, 2009). Last but not least, ethnic relations would be implemented to replace Malaysian Studies at the university level. All the efforts show how hard the government is trying to ensure multiculturalism in Malaysia.

5.2 National Service

National Service is definitely another effort made by the government to enhance social and ethnic integration. “To encourage national integration and ethnic unity” is one of the main objectives of National Service program (National Service Training Department, 2012). National Service is a type of resocialization, as it attempts to alter the values and roles of Malaysians in maintaining harmonious ethnic relations, as well as to correct negative perceptions or prejudices by allowing people from various ethnic groups to interact with each other. It is considered as a cooperative interaction under symbolic interactionist (Thio, 2009), and it fits into 1Malaysia concept.

5.3 Conclusion

“Many Malaysians still do not necessarily feel like Malaysians” (Chong, 2009). Even though our harmonious relationship among ethnic groups is always one of the featured characteristics that Malaysia is proud of, but in reality, according to a research, Malaysia at its best, is only able to achieve accommodative level (Ismail, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009), which is still not at the ideal stage – multiculturalism. Like other countries in the U.S. and Soviet Union which also have a lot of ethnic groups in the countries, we are lacking in true cultural pluralism (CliffNotes.com, n.d.; Thio, 2009). Anyways, we believe that all Malaysians who have the firsthand experiences of ethnic stereotype and prejudice sincerely hope that someday, Malaysia will be able to achieve the ideal and true cultural pluralism, which is not only about tolerance, but also acceptance of each other’s existence and culture.

3. Why, despite Race Discrimination, legislation do ethnic inequalities in the workplace persist?

There are a large number of problems including discrimination, human capital and social isolation that mean that ethnic inequalities in the workplace continue. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Black Caribbean’s suffer the most discrimination, have the least human capital and are most prone to social isolation. This can be seen in that these ethnic groups have the greatest unemployment rates and lowest incomes. Meanwhile the Chinese and Indians do better for themselves in comparison, however are still not on the same levels at Whites in Britain. Since the 1970’s Black Caribbean’s, Bangladeshis’ and Pakistanis have continued to have double the unemployed rates that whites do. This is shown in the fact that on average Black Caribbean’s earn around 15% less than whites (Hall & Carter, 2006). Meanwhile increasingly Indians and Chinese have managed to gain more or less the same levels of works at whites in Britain. Further more Indians, Chinese and Pakistanis have continued to have higher rates of self employment than whites or Black Caribbean’s since the 1960’s, meaning Black Caribbean’s do the worst in employment (Clark & Drinkwater, 1998). However there is some evidence to suggest the situation is improving in the workplace that will be explored nearer the end of the essay.

Discrimination, whether it be conscious or subconscious, is seen as a major factor in ethnic inequalities in the workplace in Britain. The general definition of discrimination is that it is prejudice treatment of a person based on their membership of a group. Often this discrimination is against a religious group or race, even simply due to skin color. A vast amount of research suggests that discrimination against ethnic minorities continues to be a problem when it comes to employers hiring. (Deitch, Barsky, Butz, Chan, Brief & Bradley, 2003). Further studies also suggest that prejudice against ethnic minorities has remained at a constant level over the past 40 years (Li & Heath, 2008). It is defiantly a valid point that different ethnic minorities experience different levels of discrimination by whites within Britain. Research shows that the British population overall believe there to be similar levels of prejudice against Blacks and as there are with Pakistanis (Verkuyten & Brug, 2002). There is a common underlying prejudice view with some employers that these ethnics groups are most prone to ‘laziness’ and crime. The view that racial discrimination is greater in manual labour such as building than it is in the non-manual labour such as office work is certainly a valid one, as it can be argued there are more social boundaries with an office environment than on a building site (Fraser, 2009). The higher an individual goes in the workplace hierarchy, the greater the rules and regulations set in place that prevents discrimination within that environment. Hence this means discrimination is likely to be greatest at the lower end of the manual labour hierarchy. It is fair to say Black Caribbean’s and Pakistanis are more likely to be discriminated against than Indians and Chinese as there is a clear education gap between them. Unfortunately due to the similarity in looks between Pakistanis and Indian they may well suffer equal discrimination. Black Caribbean’s in particular will feel obliged to apply for lower pay jobs (Verkuyten & Brug, 2002). It is hence easy to see how once you are bracketed into a certain ethnic group, depending on which group that is, an individual is either in a cycle of advantage or disadvantage. Whites would on average be considered to be in a cycle of advantage with regards to ethnicity and work in Britain.

The idea of human capital adds to the problem of ethnic inequality in the workplace. An employer will seek to asses how strong or weak an applicant’s human capital is (their value as worker). For example if you are a graduate from university experience you are far more likely to be employed than someone who dropped out of school at the age of 16. Ethnic discrimination in human capital can be seen clearly in that if a white individual has the same qualification as an individual from an ethnic minority, the white individual is more likely to get the job. This is a sad but true fact, although one would like to think it is becoming less common in this current age. However, ethnic groups are not discriminated against to the same degree as one another, with Indians and Chinese often coming close or surpassing whites in their human capitol. This is due to ethnic groups differing levels of human capital, subsequently created by differing education levels. On average Indians and Chinese have higher educational levels than Black Caribbean’s, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (Ratcliffe, 2004). This would help explain the pay gaps between the ethnic groups, with Indians and Chinese on average earning more than other ethnic minorities (through better jobs due to their better standard of education). Language is another vital part of human capital. In the first generation of migrants, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in particular lacked the English language one needs to work. This is less of an issue now, but unfortunately these prejudices carry on into the second generation. Education levels and language skills are therefore crucial to judging an individuals human capital. Unfortunately due to conscious or subconscious discrimination of an employer being white is often an addition to an individual’s human capital while often being a member of an ethnic group is seen as a subtraction to human capital.

Another reason for ethnic inequality within the workplace is social isolation. This is relevant in particular among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, as they are the most socially isolated of all the ethnic groups within Britain (Ratcliffe, 2004). Compared to other ethnic groups, in particular whites, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis lack the bridging social skills that are needed to gain work contacts within a predominantly white British society, which is almost essential to finding the jobs. Their social isolation may continue with their lack of good education and English language, which is again essential to networking for jobs. Further more ethnic minorities are often highly concentrated in certain urban areas, with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis having the highest level of geographical segregation from the white population (Solomon, 2003). Due to this they are less likely to mix with the white population of Britain, and therefore less likely to network for jobs. As a result there are very few examples of Pakistanis or Bangladeshis marrying into white families. Again, location is essential as to rates of pay or qualities of jobs. The first generation of migrants arrived in Britain with little knowledge and little money, hence they moved into lower class and lower income areas of cities. This is where cycles of advantage and disadvantage are relevant once more. Ethnic groups who live in areas of deprivation are in cycles of disadvantage. Classic examples include areas of Slough, East London and Bradford. Areas of deprivation will entail a poor quality education and poor job opportunities and therefore will in turn create individuals of poor human capital that are likely to be discriminated against due to their geographical location and prejudice opinions that come with living in that area. On top of this, if an individual is of an ethnic minority there is even more discrimination likely to be consciously or subconsciously directed their way. Due to this, an area may become less desirable, and therefore only attract more migrants or unemployed due to the cheap standard of living, adding further to the problems of the area.

While there is overwhelming evidence to suggest ethnic inequalities within the workplace persist, there is some evidence of the situation improving. Overall racial discrimination is becoming less common due to new rules and regulations, as well as it being frowned upon to the highest degree. In particular, Black Caribbean individuals are marrying white individuals hence bridging the gap between ethnic groups and creating more networking for employment (Hall & Carter, 2006). The second generation of migrants are generally doing better with jobs than the first generation due to their greater integration into the education system and greater use of the English language. In particular Indians and Chinese are acceleration in the economy, gaining high earning jobs in law or medicine.

In conclusion, there are a large number of problems including discrimination, human capital and social isolation that mean that ethnic inequalities in the workplace persist. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Black Caribbean’s suffer the most inequality in the workplace, while the Chinese and Indians do better for themselves in comparison, however are still not on the same levels at whites in Britain On average the whites in Britain do better overall in the workplace than the other ethnic groups due to the above problems. Having said this, the second generation of migrants have done better in the workplace than the first generation of migrants.

Each and every one of us on his way from childhood through adolescence to adulthood has to go through some major physical, emotional and social changes. Ideally step-by-step and through elaborate self-exploration we learn to understand ourselves better and accept ourselves just the way we are. comes to better understanding and accepting himself. as an individual as well as a member of a group. Identity is a very complex aspect of the personality development and has several dimensions, one of which is ethnic identity. Ethnic identity can be defined as a sense of belonging to an ethnic group. Many psychologists like Phinney, Nesdale and Mak note that “ethnic identity reflects not only membership in an ethnic group, but also attitudes and feelings including ethnic pride, the importance of one’s ethnicity relative to other parts of the self, and involvement in one’s ethnic heritage” (qtd. Marks et al. 501). For children of immigrants, the formation process of ethnic identity can be complicated by experiences of intense racial and cultural conflict (Rumbaut 752). Studies of American immigrant families conducted by Phinney et al. suggest that while these young people were raised by parents who are likely to retain the language, values, and customs from their country of origin, they are “educated in the American school system, which emphasizes English proficiency and American customs” (136). Hence, the exploration of the ethnic identity among these children is highly affected by their family ethnic practices as well as peer contacts from different ethnic groups. “The immigrant context provides family and community social environments that heighten” the importance of ethnic identity among children of immigrants (Marks et al. 502).

There is a complex psychological mechanism that underlies the formation of ethnic identity. Children growing up tend to compare themselves to different social groups looking for similarities or differences in such traits as race, nationality, religion, class, language and accent (Rumbaut 760). The more differences they find between them and other ethnic groups the higher level of their self-awareness. Moreover, Cross proposed a framework for ethnic identity development in which “individuals remain largely unaware of their racial identities until they encounter racism, which triggers active identity exploration” (Marks et al. 502). The young adolescents try to cope with the psychological pressure and seek to reduce the social conflict by assimilating (literally, becoming similar) within the certain social group. Whereas, “an alternative reaction may leadaˆ¦ to the rise and reaffirmation of ethnic solidarity and pride” (Rumbaut 767). Hence, there are multiply ways of ethnic identity resolution among second-generation immigrants. Psychologists, who devoted years of study to the problem of ethnic identification among American immigrants have agreed on the three major types of ethnic identity among their children:

This classification is based on the three main reaction to the dilemma of remaining within the sphere of nationality and the culture of the country of origin or breaking out of it altogether into the culture of the host country, described by Child: the “in-group” reaction of those who retain their ethnicity; the “marginal’ reaction of those who combine the traits of both worlds; and the “rebel’, who fully assimilate into American culture (qtd. Rumbaut 787). For some children, mostly of white European immigrants, the acculturation process is so successful, that it puts them at risk of estranging from their family.

Talking about family role in the ethnic identity formation, parents’ attitudes regarding cultural maintenance are one of the most significant influences on the process of adaptation among their children. The results of research with European American immigrants conducted by Alba in 1990 showed that parents who believed that ethnicity is important were more likely to pass these attitudes to their children and promote ethnic identity in them (qtd. Phinney et al. 138). The economic and social status of parents also has a great impact on their children ethnic identity. According to Rumbaut, immigrant parents who are higher-status professionals are more likely to influence their children’s selection of a national origin identity. “In such upper middle-class immigrant families the child may have more reason to associate social honor with and to feel pride in the national identity of the parents” (790). Parents’ involvement in their child social live, help with a school work, support to their interest contribute to his sense of ethnic pride. In comparison, children who reported feeling embarrassed by their parents are much more likely to identify themselves as Americans. A good example is a response of a Philippino immigrant girl to the Olsen’s survey: “Our parents don’t come [to school functions] because they don’t know any English. I don’t even tell them when they are supposed to come. They dress so different and I don’t want our parents to come because the others will laugh at them and tease us. We are ashamed” (qtd. Rumbaunt 753). Overall positive parent-child relationship allow a child to incorporate the culture of his origin to his identity and experience positive well-being, while the conflictual parent-child relationships are associated with difficulties in adaptation process and lower self-esteem among children.

Another highly influential factor in the ethnic identity formation process is language proficiency. Those children who choose to speak English over the language of their ethnic group are much more likely to identify themselves as Americans, and less likely to self-define by national origin. “Conversely, youths who do not prefer English and who report greater fluency in their parents’ native languages are most apt to identify by national origin” (Rumbaut 790). The knowledge of mother tongue may help to maintain the ethnic participation, which reinforces ethnic identity (Phinney et al. 138). So to speak, native language can be a tool of indirect parents’ influence on ethnic identity promotion among their children. Whereas, language spoken outside of family circle is equally important in self-defying process. Proficiency in English helps an immigrant child to assimilate into American society through the peer interaction, school achievements and exposure to American culture through media.

Another influential factor in the self-defying process which is also closely related to the two mentioned above is peer interaction. Although, findings on this matter are somewhat controversial. The amount of time spent with peers from the same ethnic group evidently has a positive effect on the ethnic identity. However the studies of Bakalian on Armenian families in America showed that even when the second generation immigrants broaden their social circle and limit friendship contacts inside their ethnic circle they still retain their already formed ethnic identity (Phinney et al. 139). So the peer interaction is only as important as it provides the means for exploration and expression of the ethnic identity. It also can indirectly reinforce it if the native language is used.

The role of discrimination in the process of ethnic identity formation among immigrant children also shouldn’t be underestimated. Quite predictably the Rumbaut’s research results showed that the respondents who have experienced discrimination in the United States are not likely to self-define as Americans. Even just the expectation of discrimination or rejection based on the race or ethnicity negatively affects the process of assimilation among immigrant children. “Respondents who expect that people will discriminate against them no matter the level of education they may achieve are aˆ¦ more likely to maintain a national-origin identity” (Rumbaut 787). On the other hand in the same survey the refugee groups who have been receiving public assistance from the government highly agreed with the statement that “There is no better country to live in than the United States.” Correlatively they scored highest on the American preferences scale.

Finally, obtaining the United States citizenship status can shift the already formed pattern of ethnic identity (for those children who weren’t born in the US, but who arrive with their parents). It was proven that the citizenship is superior to nativity. It is perceived by an immigrant as a sign of complete acceptance by American society and promotes the preference towards self-defying as American (Rumbaut 789).

Obviously, psychological well-being of immigrant children is highly wired to the process of assimilation and adaptation to the new culture. These children have to go through experience of “living in two worlds and not fully belonging to either” (Greenman and Xie 114). The feeling of alienation to either culture is unavoidable. As we tend to attribute certain values to the groups we belong to the sense of belonging and acceptance by this group are crucial to our self-esteem and self-acceptance. Therefore a healthy sense of ethnic identity is extremely important to the social development and well-being among the children of immigrants. Indeed, these children have tough decisions to make from which language to speak to customs of which culture to follow. While the already hard process of self-exploration can be even more complicated for the children thrown new culture it can also boost their self-awareness giving them better understanding of who they are, what their roots are and where they belong in the future.

Traditionally war has been viewed as an irrational act, brought about by misunderstanding and coordination failure. It has also been seen as something that occurs between nations. Today most armed conflicts occur between groups within the same nation state. And as a consequence, many of the conflicts or mass violence of recent decades have been characterised by the adjective “ethnic”. This means that the leading players were groups opposing one another on the basis of (or so it is assumed) identitarian, religious, linguistic or more generally cultural assertions. Since most armed conflicts occur between groups within the same nation state, once the interests of belligerents are taken into account, conflict may be the product of rational decisions (Boudon, 2003). For individuals, viewing from the outside, the costs of violence often appear to outweigh the benefits; and for society as a whole, violence, though costly, merely redistributes rather than creates resources (Bates, 1997). Violence / conflict is therefore destructive, and ethnic violence particularly so. For these and other reasons, ethnic conflict poses fundamental challenges to any theory based on the premise of rationality (Boudon, 2003). Thus, the recent reassertion of ethnic claims stands as a challenge to the recent rise of rational choice theory in the comparative study of politics.

What are conflicts? Conflicts are disputes about political, economic, social, cultural or territorial issues and they can occur at all levels of social interaction: between/within structures (alliances, states) or between/within agents (groups, individuals) (Avruch, 2004.) Ethnic conflicts are one particular kind of such disputes about political, economic, social, cultural or territorial issues between two or more actors in which at least one of them is an ethnic group that defines causes, consequences and potential solutions of the conflict along an actual or perceived discriminating or otherwise distinctive ethnic divide. Furthermore, ethnic conflicts are situations in which organised ethnic groups take recourse to the systematic use of violence for strategic purposes. There are many ways of classifying theories of ethnic conflict. One such classification entails the rational choice theory, which allows the costs of action to enter into the reckoning and further suggests that ethnic conflict is a product of rational insecurity, -opportunity, or -greed based on rational choice.

The term ethnicity is a relatively recent acquisition in the English language. The origins of the term ethnicity go back to the Greek word for nation-ethnos. In ancient Greek, the term was used to describe a community of common descent. In more contemporary times, according to Glazer and Moynihan, its first sociological use dates back to David Riesman’s work in 1953. Ethnic cognition can be explained and will be examined through the instrumentalist model, which is that individuals shift their identity-consciousness according to the situation. The shift involves employing differing aspects of their particular race/homeland territory; religious beliefs et cetera relevant to their situation. Contrary to instrumentalism is the primordial’s view which entails ethnocentric ways (the favouring of those who appear of similar religion, language, race or lifestyle).

Perceiving the world through an ethnic lens creates reality for many people. This reality is not a false reality; it is the reality on which people base their actions, thus creating patterns of understanding and corresponding institutions (Gil-White, 2008). The question that arises than, is ethnic conflict (in context) which follows from a particular ethnic identity based on an understanding of rational choice or is the concept of relational choice a fallacy in terms of the perceived ethnic identity and ethnic conflict? In other words, are ethnic groups’ rational associations of self-interested actors, or are they irrational ‘primordial’ groupings governed by emotional attachments? (Gil-White, 2008). If ethnic actors are instrumentalists, then new ethnic groups should follow shifting interests, arising and disappearing as suddenly as do purely political or territorial alliances; people should spontaneously switch ethnic identity when it becomes convenient; and it should be more common for new ethnicities to spring forth around changing material interests and concerns, than for ethnicities to persist in spite of costs to their members’ interests.

In order to answer this question it would be momentous to first establish exactly what ethnicity truly encompasses. The concept of identity has been employed to analyze non-instrumental, expressive modes of action that assumedly aid us in understanding participation in social movements (Melucci, 1994). Theorists have been aware for some time of the difficulty of coordinating individual incentives with group incentives. Scholars previously believed ethnic groups or ‘cultures’ to be ‘peoples’ in a unitary sense along various dimensions: ‘ascriptive’ (labelling) ‘moral’ (normative) and ‘cultural’ (linguistic and arti-factual) (Gil-White, 2008). An ethnic group therefore understood itself as such; it was defined by its boundaries (Avruch, 2004). And was labelled by ‘others’ in like fashion, had a particular and distinctive culture (including a dialect), and whose members preferred each other to non-members, in other words; endogamy, discrimination, in-group solidarity, et cetera (Gil-White, 2008). This over simplifies but still captures the more common ‘culture area’ view of ethnic groups.

Reactions against this view of over simplification began with Edmund Leach’s Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954), trailed later by Moerman’s work among the Lue in Thailand (Moerman 1965, 1968) and Fredick Barth’s 1969 introduction to Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Gil-White, 2008). These studies counter argued that ethnic identities did not map neatly to the distribution of cultural material, and proposed a shift from ‘objective’ indicators of togetherness (group), such as measurable discontinuities in the distribution of arti-factual or ideational culture, towards a more ‘subjective’ focus that relied heavily on the labelling processes of ethnic actors themselves (Gil-White, 2008). The argument entails; in order to have a social identity one must meet ‘the conditions for being referred to by the linguistic expression [the label] that names the identity’ (Goodenough 1965, in Gil-White, 2008). That is to say, the labelling processes are determined by the actors themselves and the [cultural] features that are taken into account are not the sum of “objective” differences, but only those which the actors themselves regard as significant’ (Barth 1969, in Gil-White, 2008). In order to provide evidence for this statement; it was reported that people in the Burma Kachin Hills sometimes switched ethnic identity, this illustrates that the view of ‘a society’ as a ‘thing’ (that is, a bounded whole) was wrong (Gil-White, 2008). Similarly was noted by Barth (1969) in Swat, Pakistan. Some individuals born into the Pathan ethnic group were, later in life, labelling themselves ‘Baluch’ as circumstances made this advantageous. Correspondingly, some Fur in Darfur, Sudan, were taking up nomadism and calling themselves ‘Baggara'(Gil-White, 2008).The evidence suggests that ethnic identity is self imposed and are coordinated with others ‘of a kind’ for reciprocal positive gain. Thus, if I am an A, but it is better for me to interface and network with B’s, I shall acquire a B identity together with B ways of being so as to tap into the B network (Gil-White, 2008).

The Rational Choice methodology consists of systematic evaluation of options through an analysis of the various consequences of the judgments made such as validity, rationality, value assessment and risk aversion (Masri, 2003). Rational Choice Theory provides a methodology for assessing decision-making by using empirical evidence to understand revision and choice, and thus rationalize the inferences and conclusions made (Masri, 2003). In other words, for a choice to be made, an individual must face a set of possible options (her feasible set). It is assumed that given her feasible set, the individual will choose the option that leads to – or she believes leads to- the best outcome. If she has full information about the outcome of her decisions, she will find herself in a situation of certainty and be able to maximize her utility (Masri, 2003). On the other hand, if the information is incomplete, however, she will only be able to maximize the expected utility in a context of risk and uncertainty. In this situation she will attribute an objective or subjective probability to the outcome of her action. This probability is the belief she has about the results of her action (Aguiar, 2002). In other words, If a person chooses X instead of Y it is because she believes that X best satisfies her desires. These internal beliefs and desires, which are subjective, prompt her action. As Boudon formulates it: “any action is caused by reasons in the mind of individuals (rationality)” (Boudon, 2003, emphasis added).Relaying the concept of Rational Choice Theory to ethnic identify or even ethnic conflict, Rational Choice amounts to saying that people who do not really believe themselves to share common descent will nevertheless participate in collective self-delusion because pretending to share such descent is conducive to their common mobilization, which is desirable as it serves common, objective interests, rationally identified. In other words, the rational choice theory perceives ethnic conflict as the result of individuals’ rational pursuit of universal interests such as wealth, power, and security (Mirzayev, 2007). Overall, Rational Choice considers identity as a key concept in explaining social action (Aguiar, 2002).

The basic distinctions between different schools of thought on ethnicity is brought forth by the primordialist school and the instrumentalist view. The primordialist school holds that ethnicity is so deeply ingrained in human history and experience that it cannot be denied that it exists, objectively and subjectively, and that it should therefore be considered a fact of life in the relations between individuals and groups who all have an ethnic identity. In other words, the primordialist view sees Ethnicity and race as deep-seated and relatively fixed. In contrast to this view, the instrumentalist school argues that ethnicity is by no means an undisputable historical fact. Rather, they suggest that ethnicity is influence by rational choice and is first and foremost a resource in the hands of leaders to mobilise and organise followers in the pursuit of other interests, such as physical security, economic gain or political power. In other words, Ethnicity is seen as a resource to be used in times of competition.

In conclusion, the debate between primordialists and instrumentalists are one of stale-mate, so to speak. Both provide truths to some degree. Since ethnicity can be viewed as a group’s culture, traditions, and historic experiences. However, the instrumentalist view validates the concept of rational theory that ethnicities is also dependent upon contemporary opportunities which can be a useful instrument for social, political or economic purposes that may or may not be related directly to their ethnic origins. Individuals identify with a group for many reasons (as was noted above), but one overarching key factor is that the members of a group are by definition participating in a positive-sum game (Basuchoudhary, 2007). Cooperation yields benefits in excess of costs which are shared according to some rule. In interacting with other groups, however, the game frequently is zero-sum – one group’s gains are secured at another groups’ expense. (Basuchoudhary,2007). Participation in positive-sum game is not accidental but a rational choice. Ethnies are collections of individuals sharing a common self-ascription, that common self-aspiration is by choice. Furthermore, Hardin (1995) makes the case that it is possible to align an individual’s interest with a group’s interest, but that such alignment usually is detrimental to the interests of the members of other groups. In other words, successful alignment of self-interest and group interest weakens incentives to cooperate with other groups, which may come to be seen as adversaries. Hardin’s view is consistent with that of a long line of rational choice theorists who have looked at the issue of group identity. Ethnicity follows from rational choice it is only partly based on culture, myths of descent, historical memories, religion, customs, traditions, language, a specific homeland or institutions, it is just as much based on what people believe, or are made to believe, or yearn to have in order to create a sense of solidarity among those who are members of a particular ethnic group, excluding, and at times directed against, those who are not.

In todays world we have one common phenomenon which can be found in everywhere because of some political and sociological situations that our world has. The phenomenon is called as an ethnicity or racism, and normally the problem that we have can be called as ethnic conflict. As we know that conflict refers to some form of friction, discord arising, or disagreement within one specific group or between two different sides. Normally in order to have a conflict, there has to be some relationships, and all kinds of relationships can create one or more conflict in a given society as a group. According to Ross ; “Conflict occurs in virtually all communities, but there are important cross-cultural differences in its levels and forms” (Marc Howard Ross 304). As how Ross pointed out the importance of cross-cultural differences related with conflict, we have to know more detail information about one specific conflict to understand how it started and what kinds of effects does it has. As we know that ethnic conflict also shows a lot of differences from culture to culture. Therefore, firstly we have to define what ethnic or race conflict is. According to Ross ; “The term race refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning that people treat other people differently because of them” (Ross 308). Defining one phenomenon is one of the most challenging things, because all experts explain ethnicity or race in different ways owing to their different perspectives and knowledge background. The ethnic conflict mostly can be found in America and Africa continent. According to Payne ; “While it is common to associate racial and ethnic discrimination with blacks in United States, it must be pointed out that there are other groups which have experienced some things as blacks. Such as Native, Mexican, Puerto Rican Americans” (Charles Payne 1). Most specifically I focus on the conflict that America has between blacks and whites as an ethnic conflict, because the historical background of ethnic conflict is very ancient in America. Owing to the conflict that American society had in the past, we can see some irrefutable and irrepressible effects on people who live in America, most importantly on black people. As we know that the problem did not solve since the time period of American Civil War. This is because as I mentioned that the socio-cultural differences and the relationships between blacks and whites have different variables. Since the time of problematic period which can be called as inequality between black and white people or seeing black people as secondary American citizens, nobody can find reliable solutions for this case. Because of this unsolved problem, black American citizens who are also called as African Americans have been suffering both morally, politically, educationally and economically. In this research, my main concern is education related with how African American students are affected by ethnicity and racism in schools. Briefly, black students can be humiliated because of some ethnic problems that they face in their schools and I believe that the successes of African American students are affected by ethnic conflict because of three reasons which are historical background of ethnicity in America, social identity problems that African American students have and the problem of educational utility which is related with how African American students are educated and does the education effective. With these three reasons, mostly I focus on the effects of ethnic conflict in America between black and whites and related with all these information I will try to find most reliable and successful solution way in education to protect African Americans.

First of all, as we know that the historical background of ethnicity in America includes a lot of variables, and related with these factors I believe in the African American can be humiliated. This is because tribes about black people in America which play crucial role in decision making processes which are done by mostly white American people. In America we have general tendency to see African American people as a weak owing to the historical knowledge, A±f we look the side of racist white American people. Firstly, we have to point out that some things have changed and some things have not related with ethnic conflict case in America. According to Jim Wallis ; “What has not changed is the systematic and pervasive character of racism in the United States and the condition of life for the majority of African Americans. In fact, those conditions have gotten worse” (Wallis 198). Basically we can understand that the situations of African American people are still bad and can be worse than how it is now. As I mentioned that the tribes which cause worse conditions of African American people come from the past which is the time period of 1400 and 1500, and the ethnicity / racism started with slavery in American continent. Wallis explains the historical background of slavery very clearly with these sentences; “In the United States, the original purpose of black racism was to justify slavery and its enormous economic benefit. The particular form of racism, inherited from the English to justify their own slave trade, was especially venal, for it defined the slave not merely as an unfortunate victim of bad circumstances, war, or social dislocation but rather as less than human, as a thing, an animal, a piece of property to be bought and sold, used and abused” (Wallis 198). The thing is clear without any doubt, as we can see from Wallis’s thoughts that the slaves in the past were seen as an animal, and they did not have any civil right as human beings. As I mentioned that some things have changed by the time, according to Wallis what has change is described in this way ; “The personal racial attitudes of many white Americans and the opportunities for some African Americans to enter the middle levels of society. The word “middle” is key here, in so far as African Americans have yet to be allowed into most of the upper echelons and decision-making positions of business, the professions, the media, or even the fields of sports and entertainment where black “progress” has so often been celebrated” (Willis 199 ). As how Willis asserts that we have some recoveries, however despite the improvement of black American’s conditions in society, we have one problematic area which is not solved yet. This is also again related with the historical background of ethnic conflict in America. This area is called as education. In brief, historical background of slavery and the tribes that American society has related with racism are two important key feature of racist conflict which can be found in education.

Secondly, as I mentioned that ethnic conflict can be found in education, most specifically ethnic conflict force student to select their sides as an identity and it creates identity problems related with African American students, and also this problem affects African American youths’ academic performance. According to writers; “Although African American youths’ academic performance has received a great deal of attention from both popular media and research scholars much of this attention has focused on how African Americans compare academically to other racial groups” (Ciara Smalls, Rhonda White, Tabbye Chavous and Robert Sellers 299). We always compare the successes of different ethnic groups, owing to this tendency we have little concern about the causes of academic success or failure related with African American students. Rather than compering how Afro-Americans are more successful than other groups or not, we have to focus on the primary causes of academic success which can also be called as academic engagement. According to researches about this case; “Academic engagement encompasses linking one’s personal identity to the roles of student and learner , showing sustained curiosity and interest in class, and displaying intense efforts in learning tasks” ( Sellers et al. 300). However the ethnicity problem sets indestructible borders in front of African American students, because of their beliefs about race and ethnicity. It is explained by writer in this way; “it is likely that African American adolescents’ levels of academic engagement are influenced, in part, by their beliefs about the meaning of race and their experiences with racial discrimination” ( Sellers et al. 300).

Thirdly, educational utility is also main problematic issue which is related to how African American students are educated and does the education effective on Afro-American students despite the ethnic problems that most schools have. According to Rowley; “Educational utility is defined as the value that student places on doing well in school and on getting a good education” (Rowley 4). However in most part of United States, African American students show tendency to lower academic success, and all experts and sociologists like Rowley have been trying to find main causes of this unsuccessfulness. Basically Rowley evolved Cluster Analysis to easily understand the relationship educational utility, African American’s performance and the ethnic conflict’s effects on these students’ academic performances. According to Rowley; “Utility as having two dimensions that are relevant to African American students. The first dimension, idealistic educational utility, is based on the Protestant work ethic-hard work in school is directly related to success and the second dimension of educational utility values, is context-specific educational utility, and reflects the idea that education does not always result in occupational success-that because of discrimination, education is less useful for African Americans than it is for members of other racial or ethnic groups” (Rowley 5). Normally we can understand that we have two different dimensions for African American students. Firstly, hard working in schools like schools which have protestant work ethic can bring success to Afro-American students. Therefore according to Rowley’s analysis, African American students can only be successful in this type of schools. However this analysis also gives counter argument by saying that the context-specific educational utility cannot always be the way of successful education for African American students, this is because of contextual factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status constrain the value of education. Basically, we can say that the context-specific educational utility is not suitable as much as others, because the context-specific educational utility component also refers specifically to race and education.

If I take all these point into consideration, I can say that without any doubt ethnic conflict is one of the greatest problem in American society. They have been trying to solve it by using different ways. For example, African American students’ families try to protect their children by providing some new ways against the racial things that occur in American education system by using homeschooling. However educational problems related with ethnic conflict unfortunately is not solved yet. African American students suffer so much. For instance, they cannot take adequate education as much as how White American students are educated. Huge conflicts can be found in America, most specifically in education because of the historical background of ethnic conflict, identity problems that African American students have and the education utility related with how African American students take education and how does education affect their social condition. To solve these conflicts between ethnic groups in America most specifically between blacks and whites in education, we have to know historical background of ethnicity and effects of its on American society very well to find most reliable solution ways.