Critical Theory in Sociology

The critical theory is a social theory, which is known to criticise and trying to change society as a whole. The traditional theory only described and explained society. Theorists such as Max Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal and Reich Fromm, were the main theorists who took part in the Frankfurt School, In Germany in the late 1920’s at the institute fur Sozialforschung. The Frankfurt’s school’s theory of society is very negative about how society runs, reasons for this is the increase in capitalism, and that societies social structure has been separated, (Swingewood 200, p. 130). Throughout the essay, there shall be more information about the Frankfurt school, and what they believed and wanted to change in society, also more information about what is critical theory and what it is critical of in society, also more information about the traditional theory. The work of Frankfurt school become very influential in the social sciences in the 1960s. Culture industry worked to put together the role of social struggles in the production and reproduction of society. Culture industry worked like an ‘apparatus’ which brought together individuals and got them doing and thinking the same.

The critical theory may be defined as a theory of setting humans free of human enslavement, and manipulation. Both Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno argued that critical theory is the theory of human emancipation based on free capitalist society, the bourgeoisies controlled the working class through manipulation of interests of politics, media, culture etcaˆ¦as a silent dominant force. The critical theory argues that there are various types of manipulation, such as; Ideological, this consists of justifying decisions made by enforcing one’s thoughts onto another, secondly, Cultural, this consists of the attempt to commercialise to maintain the status quo of the working class. Finally the psychological manipulation which means that we are more interested in other people’s life and this is because of the decline of the father figure in many families. Horkheimer argued that a capitalist society can only be changed if it becomes more democratic is it could be that “all conditions of social life that are controllable by human beings depend on real consensus” in a rational society (Horkheimer 1982, 249-250). Horkheimer argued that the only way in which we could fix problems in society, was by introducing the critical theory.

There are four main points for the Critical theory these are; Reflective, this refers to that facts can be revised separately from other things that we may have to learn such as values. Dialectical; this refers to human’s understanding of the world changing as the world changes too. Critical; which refers to stating what is wrong with the current society, and coming up with reasonable ideas on how to change it. Immanent critique is the main support for critical theory.(Adorno, 1991)

Critical theorists argued that Marx did not foresee some key developments on capitalist society. Especially, centralisation and various mechanisms of ideological, cultural and psychological domination, associated in particular with the development of a commercialised mass media. Critical theorists conclude that the working class was no longer the revolutionary agent foreseen by Marx. The only way in which theorists could change the way society was is by firstly stating what is wrong with the current society, has to identify the actors to change it and finally it has to provide achievable goals for social transformation. Any truly critical theory of society, “Has as its object human beings as producers of their own historical form of life” (Horkheimer, 1992, 21).

Critical theorists have argued that humans need to become more aware of how science and other type of facts and knowledge work together in creating oppression.Critical theory identifies facts and everyday life as the foundation for human beings, in waiting that people will realise the power and their influences on their lives and be able to overcome them. Fredrick Taylor introduced science in the 19th century, Henry Ford among many other people was influenced by Fredrick Taylor by his ideas on how to improve and raise production. By being influenced by Fredrick, Henry Ford creating an assembly line. By doing this Ford was able to reduce hours and save money, at the same time produce more. This idea became very popular, companies were able to produce much more with less work due to the right machinery.

Instrumental reason refers to the opening up of reliable modes of organisations, the critical theory criticises the instrumental reason. The reason which why critical theory is critical of instrumental reason is because it raises action, which means this would be a means to an end. The instrumental reason sees individuals as ‘instruments’ instead of humans this was introduced by positivistic science. As mentioned before, in the concentration camps humans were not seen as humans, but they were seen as objects. (Swingewood, 2000). Another example of this could be the rise in tuition fees in 2010, this change would benefit large institutions, especially the government, however it does not benefit the people who would mostly experience the change of this such as students.

Critical theory is also critical of mass culture, mass culture refers to individuals following and believing what the media say. An example of this can be such as girls believe it is always best to be slim. Culture industry refers to anything that gets in the way of freedom. The Frankfurt school gives us useful information about the process of how society changed from traditional culture and modernism in the arts to a mass produced media orientated society. Society has become much more media orientated as technology has become much more advanced,

The traditional theory was originally known as the ‘positivism’ theory, however, Horkheimer labelled the traditional theory. The traditional theory was based more on facts, the more facts we had about everything, the more knowledge we have. The traditional theory did not see people as ‘humans’, instead humans were looked at as ‘things’ for example in the concentration camps individuals who died, were not looked at as humans dying, but a specimen. Unlike the critical theory, the traditional theory only explains how society is in the present time, where as the critical theory looks at society, what is wrong with it and aims to change it. Positivism functions ideologically, this is done by promoting passive behaviour. Habermas argued that a free society should let people communicate freely without anything getting in the way, when people can do so, this would be known as a free society. Positivists ignore the roles of humans in society, they tend to treat society as a natural process.

Habermas did not agree with Adorno and Horkheimer views that they can identify what is wrong with society and change it, also change the whole technological interaction with nature (Habermas, 1971). Horkheimer continued to argue that critical theory should focus on society being complete, e.g. how society became how it is in the present time. He argued this could be done by bringing together major social sciences such as geography, economics, sociology, history, science etc (Bohman, 1996). Adorno and Horkheimer’s book Dialectic of Enlightenment, which is a text about critical theory, which explains what the Frankfurt School considered as the failure of Enlightenment, the book was published in 1944 in New York. It is one of the main core texts about Critical theory. In the book we can see how Enlightenment norms had turned into their opposite, how democracy had produced fascism and reason had produced unreason.

In conclusion to the above, we can see that there are many different views on how society runs, and as we can see is whether society is fine the way it is, or what should be changed if it’s not. The critical theory is obviously critical of society as it is now, The critical theory is mainly critical of how society is in terms of exploitation of humans., especially jobs such as labour work. However, the critical theory can be negatively criticised as it always looks upon society negatively. Horkheimer argued that the a theory can only be critical if it is explanatory, therefore critical theory should successfully explain what is wrong with the current society and what is needed to make it right, (Bohman, 1996). As we can see, there are many factors that affect society, also we can how society ‘brain washes’ individuals to thinking that they live in an equal society system.

What is the concept of nationalism

Nationalism is a concept that is not easily defined. There are numerous definitions and forms of what is nationalism, and many of these definitions even overlap. However, there is no one definition that is more adequate than another. Keeping in mind that these definitions are constantly evolving, with thorough analysis and the juxtaposition of arguments set out by eight prominent scholars, a clearer definition of nationalism can be attained.

To begin with, the most well know definition today is from Professor Anthony Smith. He states that nationalism is simply ‘an ideological movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity for a population which some of its members deem to constitute an actual or potential “nation” (Anthony Smith, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History, 2001, p.9). In this definition, Smith reveals what he believes the three main goals of nationalism are: autonomy, national unity, and national identity. Even Smith’s profound definition has not been available for very long considering he was born in 1933. Although there is much argument on the definition of nationalism, Smith agrees that there is one main point of agreement and that is that the term nationalism is a modern phenomenon (Smith, Anthony 2001). Civic nationalism is basically defined as a group of people which have a certain loyalty to civic rights or laws and pledge to abide by these laws. Ethnic nationalism is basically a group that possess a common culture, language, land, etc. It is more specific in terms of who can be in it (McGregor 2010). Smith (1991) writes that “every nationalism contains civic and ethnic elements in varying degrees and different forms. Sometimes civic and territorial elements predominate; at other times it is the ethnic and vernacular components that are emphasized” (Smith, Anthony 2001). Smith’s most important argument features civic and ethnic types of nationalism as opposed to eastern and western types. . Even more specifically, Smith makes the distinction between both civic and ethnic nationalisms. He also believes that “Many modern nations are formed around pre-existing, and often pre-modern, ethnic cores” (Theories of Nationalism Smith). Smith is claiming that nations had pre-existing-origins prior to their ‘new origins’ of their new nation. One of the most popular arguments by critics is that the civic and ethnic viewpoint of nationalism collapses too much on the ethnic category. (http://cps.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/5/554). Smith’s definition seems to be the foundation for nationalism. Other scholars go in to more detail on certain elements of the definition, but most relate back to Smith’s original definition.

On the contrary to Anthony Smith’s definition of nationalism pertaining to the civic and ethnic type, Hans Kohn has argued that the two main types of nationalism are eastern and western. His definition is, “Nationalism is a state of mind, in which the supreme loyalty of the individual is felt to be due to the nation-state.” (Hans Kohn, Nationalism, 1965) His argument includes both eastern and western types of nationalism which refer to eastern and western Europe. “Eastern nationalism conceived the nation as an organic community, united by culture, language and descent (McGregor 2010).” This could possibly be related to Smith’s ethnic type of nationalism. “Western nationalism conceived the nation as a political and civic community, held together by voluntary adherence to democratic norms (McGregor 2010).” Again, western nationalism could be perceived as a civic type of nationalism. This can be recognized as two similar classifications on two unfamiliar grounds. Kohn believes that nationalism relates directly with the eastern and western Europe and that it is also where the ‘state of mind’ of nationalism originated. The main criticism of Kohn’s classification of nationalism is him being over simplistic. He certainly does not go into as much detail as Smith on the definition and relates only towards Europe which most likely is why he is being identified as over simplistic.

Carlton J. H. Hayes’ definition of nationalism states, “Loyalty and attachment to the interior of the group (namely the nation and homeland) are the basis of nationalism.” In this definition, a common cultural background and common cultural group are considered the main factors in forming a nation. That remains true with most of the definitions of nationalism. Hayes definition of nationalism seems to be more specific to the ‘ethnic’ ties toward nationalism. (http://www.al-islam.org/islamandnationalism/5.htm). Hayes is basically saying that land, language, and blood are the basis of nationalism. . He is saying that nation is something to be proud of. Hayes also believe that these ‘ethnic’ qualities are the most important; even religion does not compare. “It is attachment to nationality that gives direction to one’s individual and social postures, not attachment to religion and ideology. A human being takes pride in his national achievements and feels dependent on its cultural heritage, not on the history of religion and his faith (http://www.al-islam.org/islamandnationalism/5.htm).” This quote further proves Hayes view on nationalism and how it relates to one’s culture and past, and specifically not related to religion at all. The reason Hayes definition is unique from others, is his emphasis that religion is not a factor in forming a nation. To further specify Hayes definition on nationalism he says, “What distinguishes one human being from another are not their beliefs, but their birth-place, homeland, language and race. Those who are within the four walls of the homeland and nation, belong to it, and those who are outside it, are aliens. It is on the basis of these factors that the people have a feeling of sharing a single destiny and a common past.” (http://www.al-islam.org/islamandnationalism/5.htm). This quote goes hand in hand with Hayes’s definition of nationalism and just further explains it.

According to scholar Benedict Anderson nationalism is, “a new emerging nation imagines itself to be antique.” This is similar to how Anthony Smith and Hayes defined nationalism. It is mostly like the Smith’s ethnic nationalism, which focuses more on the origin of the nation. Anderson focuses more on modern Nationalism and suggests that it forms its attachment through language, especially through literature. Of particular importance to Anderson’s theory is his stress on the role of printed literature. In Anderson’s mind, the development of nationalism is linked with printed literature and the growth of these printed works. People were able to read about nationalism in a common dialect and that caused nationalism to mature. (CITE). Anderson’s definition of nationalism and nation differ greatly from other scholars. He defines nation as “an imagined political community.” He believes this because “the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.” Not only is Anderson’s theory distinctive because of the printed literature theory, but also the “imagined political community.”

Peter Alter states,” Nationalism is a political force which has been more important in shaping the history of Europe and the world over the last two centuries than the ideas of freedom and parliamentary democracy or, let alone, of communism.” His argument is similar to John Breuilly in the sense that there is a strong emphasis on nationalism being a “political force.” Alter is saying that it has everything to do with being a political movement instead of the idea of freedom. In reference to nationalism, Alter states, “It can be associated with forces striving for political, social, economic and cultural emancipation, as well as with those whose goal oppression.” His outlook on nationalism seems much broader than other scholars. This particular reference virtually sums up many scholars definitions together. Alter does not seem to have a specific argument on nationalism, as in civic vs. ethnic or western vs. eastern but just an acceptance that nationalism could be based on all of these arguments. Again, Alter says, “It can mean emancipation, and it can mean oppressionaˆ¦ dangers as well as opportunities.” There is no precise argument when he tries to define nationalism even though he does have the idea that nationalism is directly related to a political force. Alter also states that nationalism was important to shaping Europe, but most scholars agree with that statement to begin with.

Scholar Ernest Gellner states that, “nationalism is primarily a political principle that holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent”. Gellner has been considered the “father of nationalism studies” and was a teacher of Anthony Smith. Although most scholars would agree that nationalism appeared after the French Revolution, Gellner further argues that nationalism became a “sociological necessity in the modern world.” His argument is similar to the uniqueness of Benedict Anderson’s “printed literature” theory, but Gellner focuses more on the industrialization of work and cultural modernization to explain how nationalism expanded. Gellner believes that “states only exist where there is division of labour, therefore the state comes before nationalism (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~plam/irnotes07/Gellner1983.pdf).” Like other scholars, Gellner believes that nationalism is a political force. There are many criticisms to Ernest Gellner’s theory, including Anthony Smith saying, “It misreads the relationship between nationalism and industrialization (Smith 1998).”

Historian John Breuilly defends a more modern theory of nationalism. He concludes, “The rise of the modern state system provides the institutional context within which an ideology of nationalism is necessary.” Breuilly argues that the process of “state modernization provides an important factor in understanding historical signs of nationalism (http://www.cjsonline.ca/reviews/nationalism.html).” Breuilly argues that nationalism does not have much to do with ethnicity or ethnic background, rather more to do with political motivation. This is not the first scholar who believed that ethnic background had nothing to do with nationalism. In fact, Breuilly’s definition relates well to Gellner in the sense that they both argue for political motivation. “Nationalists are seen to create their own ideology out of their own subjective sense of national culture. “(John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1982). This particular quote is quite similar to Anderson’s “imagined political community” theory. Breuilly does not support the ethnic side of nationalism nearly as much as others and, like Benedict Anderson favors nationalism as just a political force. Breuilly criticizes most scholars due to the fact that they believe in national culture because he believes there is no such thing. He believes that the political component of nationalism is by far the most important.

Michael Hechter defines nationalism as a, “collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit (M. Hechter, Containing Nationalism, 2000).” He further explains, “Nation and governance can be made congruent by enacting exclusive policies that limit full membership in the polity to individuals from on one more favoured nations.” In Hechter’s book, Containing Nationalism, he expresses his belief that the reason nationalism occurs is because of “self-determination.” Hechter explains how there are two different types of nationalism. The first one is sort of the ideology of freedom and he gives the example of the French Revolution. The second form is “xenophobic or even goes as far as genocide” (Hechter, Containing Nationalism, 2000). This explains where the different views of nationalism come in; civic vs. ethnic or eastern vs. western. Most importantly, Hechter defines many specific forms of nationalism to go beyond his original definition. These definitions include: state-building nationalism, peripheral nationalism, irredentist nationalism, and unification nationalism. (Hechter, Michael. Containing Nationalism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Each scholar’s definition seems to have it’s own uniqueness to it; from Anthony Smith’s ethnic nationalism. SIMILARTIES AND DIFFERENCES

Political, cultural, ethnic, civic, eastern, western

Summary Vast diversity of aims and aspirations, including unification, separation, cultural/linguistic preservation, territorial expansion, protection of external co-nationals, overthrow of foreign domination, establishment of national homeland

Vast diversity of forms and styles, from aggressive and militaristic to peaceable and inward-looking

Nationalism is inherently particularistic, but at the same time constitutes an ideology of general application

People can not agree on the definitionaˆ¦.

What Is Symbolic Interactionism Sociology Essay

The increased interest to the problem of communication in sociology of the 20 century actualized, in particular, importance of understanding each other at differing positions, defining own views to the opposite. Gradually in the sociology was formed an integrationists branch, that studied the integrity of the human “I” and his personal self-determination in microsocial environment.

The term “symbolic” means that there is an emphasis on the sense which individuals put in their actions when they come into interactions with each other, and in this theory the society is considered from the standpoint of behavior of individuals involved in the interaction. In other words, society can only be explained by considering the principles of human behavior, because only here can be found a significant symbol that defines the act of behavior. Defining of a meaningful symbol takes place in the human consciousness, which is filled with meaning and knowledge from the outside world.

General Principles

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the analysis of the symbolic aspects of social interactions. The basic principle of interactionism is that an individual perceives (estimates) behave in accordance with attitudes of other people, that is, a person is for himself the one, whom he presents to others in the social world. Symbolic interactionists are united by not a rigorous theory, but a common vision of social process, defined as a process of development and changing social values, a constant definition and redefinition of situations, the interaction of their participants. In the process of this redefinition is changing the objective (from the view points of interacting individuals)of the medium of social activities, because the world, according to interactionists, has a completely social origin. Different groups develop different worlds, which change in the process of changing the values in the course of social interaction.

Symbolic interactionism is based on three basic premises:

– First that people react to the environment based on those values – symbols, that they have in the environment.

– Second, these values (means of connection of events and characters) are the product of the social everyday interpersonal relations – interactions.

– And finally, the socio-cultural values are subject to change as a result of individual perception within such interactions. (West, 2010)

That is why “I” and “others” form a unified whole, like society, which is the sum of the behaviors of its constituent members, but which imposes social restrictions on individual behavior. Although theoretically it is possible to separate “I” from the society, interactionism comes from the fact that the first understanding is connected with an equally deep understanding of the second – in terms of their interdependent relationship.

Representatives of symbolic interactionism emphasizes that people are social creatures. However, unlike ants, bees, termites and other insects leading a public life, people almost do not have the innate models of behaviors, that connect them with each other. If we have essentially no inherent nature of the mechanisms of social behavior, how can society be? Representatives of symbolic interactionism find the answer in the ability of people to communicate through symbols. (West, 2010)

In the theory of symbolic interactionism a sign is any element of the medium, which is another element in this environment. The signs are of two types: firstly, it is natural signs (such as discoloration of leaves), which represent something else (like the arrival of autumn); second are artificial signs, elements that were created (such as a flag) to represent something else in the social world, for example, patriotism and duty. These artificial signs are only effective if people agree on their meaning, so that they are “interactive”: two or more people must agree to continue to react to this sign in relatively constant manner.

It is also necessary to distinguish signals from symbols: signals are artificial marks, providing a predictable reaction (such as traffic signals); and symbols are artificial marks that have no definite reactions (a flag). Thus, the signals are used for regulatory policy of normative behavior in the society, and symbols are used to facilitate communicative behavior.

Historical development of the Theory

As a broad theory, symbolic interactionism appeared in the 20-s of XX century, in the Chicago school, its founder was an American sociologist George Mead.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is an American sociologist and social psychologist, who is considered a true founder of symbolic interactionism. Mead was known in his lifetime as a gifted lecturer, and author of numerous articles, publication and republication of his lectures and articles, as well as the fundamental work “Mind, Self and Society” (1934) brought him international fame. He has developed a theory that explains the essence of the individual’s perception of other individuals, and developed the concept of “generalized other” that is to some extent complementary to the theory of “specular I”.

In accordance with the concept of “I”, Mead believed that the emergence of human self as a holistic mental phenomena, in essence, is nothing else but social process inside the individual, in which he first pointed by “I – conscious” and “I-like-object”. Further, Mead suggested that through the assimilation of culture (as a complex set of characters that share common values for all members of society,) the person is able to predict the behavior of another person and how this other person is predicting own behavior.

According to Mead, “I”-as-object is something that people can call their own. In this area, James identifies four components and arranges them in order of importance: the spiritual self, material self, social self and physical self.

Another American philosopher and psychologist, who first began to develop a responsive self-concept was William James (1842-1910). James has made the first and very profound concept of personal “I”, considered in the context of self-knowledge, and he conjectured that the dual nature of the integral “I”, with many of his statements concerning the descriptive, and emotional evaluation of categorical “I”, anticipated the later developments of the idea of “I”-concept. (Meltzer 1975)

As for other concepts of symbolic interactionism, we can name an American sociologist and social psychologist Herbert Blumer, who was a representative of the Chicago school of interactionism, referring to the second generation of symbolic interactionism, founded by J. Mead. He further developed the original framework of symbolic interactionism. Bloomer was the first who interested in the problem of mass society. According to Blumer Symbolic interactionism rests on three basic premises:

– People are more likely to act according to the values that they attach to objects and events, rather than just react to external stimuli, such as social forces. Symbolic interactionism suggests determinism of values.

– Values are not just fixed and formulated in advance, but more often are created and change in interactive situations.

– Values are the result of interpretations that took place in interactive contexts. (Nelson 1998)

Significant attention in his works Blumer paid to collective behavior of people. Basis of collective behavior are common values, expectations, which are separated by a group of individuals. However, it often can be observed a spontaneous collective behavior, like overflowing passion, panic, etc. This behavior occurs in violation of established values, habitual forms of existence. Blumer distinguishes those forms of spontaneous behavior (such as Pounding, Collective excitation, Social Infection), which under certain conditions can lead to new forms of group and institutional behavior:

– Acting crowd (a spontaneously formed group, without common values and expectations, there is no recognized leadership)

– Expressive crowd (emotional groups – carnivals, ritual dance)

– Mass crowd (spontaneous collective grouping of people who are excited with some event)

– Public (spontaneous collective group, but in public individuals interact with each other, demonstrate the rational, critical action). (Nelson 1998)

Although Mead has first formulated his ideas in 1930, symbolic interactionism has become an important part of the study equations of mass communication only in 1970, 1980. Since Meade made emphasis on interpersonal interaction and not interested in media, it is not surprising that theorists of mass communication rather slow realized the relevance of his ideas in their research.

Symbolic interactionism as the direction is not uniform, as it is possible to distinguish at least two schools. The first is the so-called “Chicago School” led by one of the prominent scientists Cove J., Mead H., Bloomer. This school continues to socio-psychological tradition of Mead in the most orthodox way. It is opposed to the another “Iowa school” of symbolic interaction-mechanism, headed by M. Kuhn – professor at the University of Iowa. This school is trying to modify several individual Mead’s concepts in the spirit of neo-positivism. The main difference between these schools are in methodological issues, primarily in the definition of concepts and relationships to various methods of socio-psycho-logical investigation.

Among other representatives of the theory we can name Becker and Strauss – members of the Chicago School of symbolic interactionism, who were interested in the procedural aspects of interaction. Kuhn and Partlend are representatives of Iowa schools, and were more interested in “stable” symbolic structures. To this generation also belongs K. Burke and Goffman, who explained social life as the realization of the metaphor of drama by analyzing the interaction in such terms as “actor”, “mask”, “scene”, “script” and so on. Moreover, Burke used the term “theater”, almost literally, while Hoffman was using “theater” and “drama” as metaspheres of society while preserving its spirit, but developing its own conceptual line.

The modern theory of symbolic interactionism, as a direct expression of concepts of J. Mead, has practically the same advantages, shortcomings and contradictions of the J. Mead concept. On the one hand, it is important to point interactionists effort to isolate “the specific human” traits in human behavior, the view on the individual as a social phenomenon, to find a socio-psychological mechanisms of identity formation in interaction with others in society, to stress active creative personal traits of the individual.

However, the subjective idealist position of interactionists lead to the fact that all the social connections they see only in interpersonal communication, and while the analysis of communication they ignore the contents and the substantive work of individuals, not seeing that “the process of formation of the personality includes not only the exchange of views, but more importantly, the exchange of activities.” (Reynolds 1993)

theory importance and Application

The advantage of this approach is that it introduces “people” in the field of sociological research. It directs attention to the activities of individuals in their daily lives and sees that people are not robots, mechanically carrying out the requirements of social rules and institutional norms, but leading the public life of beings with the ability to feel and think. In the interaction they operate with symbols and values which enable them to evaluate and interpret situations of social life, assess the advantages and disadvantages of certain actions and then choose one of them. Thus, representatives of symbolic interactionism suggest the image of man as an individual, actively forming his behavior, rather than passively reacting to external environment and structural constraints.

However, the approach of symbolic interactionism has its weaknesses. In everyday life people do not have complete freedom in forming and changing their actions. Although representatives of symbolic interactionism recognize that many human actions are guided by the established systems of symbols and meanings, including culture and social system. Critics argue that the theory of social interaction based on the symbols makes an excessive emphasis on short-term situations and exaggerates attention to transient, episodic and temporary”. (Reynolds 1993)

Thus, the theory is applied to describe and analyze human behavior, as through the process of socialization people can more or less consciously interpret stimuli and expected responses.

Conclusion

From the perspective of interactionists, human society is composed of individuals with personal “I”, who themselves form norms and values. Individual action is a construction, not just a commission, as it is carried by the individual using the estimation and interpretation of the situation in the social environment. Personal “I am” can serve as a person’s target for his actions. Formation of values is presented as a set of actions in which the individual sees the object, gives it value, and decides to act on this matter. Interpretation of the actions of another is a definition of the value of certain actions of others. From the perspective of interactionists, an object is not just external stimulus, but something that distinguishes man from the outside world, giving him certain value.

This theory explains how individuals interact with the environment and how behave in the process of socialization.

What Is A Sexual Revolution?

Answer: Sexual revolution is a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationship throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s. At the end of the Second World War, Wilhelm Reich introduced American readers to some of his earlier writings under the title The Sexual Revolution (1945). Explaining that this revolution went to the “roots” of human emotional, social, and economic existence, he presented himself as a radical (from Latin radix: root), i.e. as a man who examines these roots and who then fearlessly speaks the truth that sets humanity free.

The truth, according to Reich, was that Western civilization had made people sick by imposing on them an unnatural, destructive sexual morality. However, thanks to various modern social and scientific upheavals, the natural human life functions were finally awakening after a sleep of thousands of years. The future would restore sexual health and, for the first time, bring full human autonomy.

In 19th-century France and Germany several new “small” revolutions tried to speed up the process of modernization and to expand individual rights, but they failed. Repressive marriage and family laws and the denial of suffrage kept women “in their place”. Literary censorship hampered the free flow of ideas and kept the public sexually ignorant. Nevertheless, when technological progress made the mass production of condoms possible, many men and women began to plan the size of their families and thus quietly started a “contraceptive revolution”. As a result, they gained at least some measure of sexual self-determination, even if it remained unrecognized by the state. Eventually, however, the gap between traditional ideology and practical reality grew so wide that a drastic readjustment was all but inevitable. This readjustment was brought about by the First World War which announced the collapse of the rigid old political order. In 1917, when the revolution came to Russia, it expressly included equal rights for women and universal sexual freedom in its program. Thus, for the first time, a “sexual revolution” became official government policy.

By the same token, in the bourgeois, capitalist societies of the West which are dedicated to individual freedom, the sexual revolution continues. The right to sexual self-determination is considered as important as ever, and, indeed, various sexual liberation groups are working hard to extend it. In the United States, the struggle for an Equal Rights Amendment, legal abortion, the repeal of sodomy, prostitution and obscenity laws, and an end to discrimination against homosexuals are perhaps the best known current examples. At the same time, more and more people also take advantage of those sexual rights that have already been granted. Thus, the movement toward sexual emancipation is still gaining in strength.

It is this change in attitude, more than anything else, that amounts to a revolution. Instead of blindly following inherited customs, we now decide for ourselves what sexual activity is proper. Therefore, even if our overt behavior remains the same, it now has a different meaning. We have learned that there are alternatives, that there is nothing eternal or sacred about our sexual morality. We no longer submit to blanket taboos or suspend our judgment. In short, we have become used to questioning the legitimacy of our traditions.

At least in this sense, the talk about a “sexual revolution” is fully justified. We have to remember that significant social changes occur not only when people change what they do. It may be enough that they change the way they think about it. It may be enough that different behaviors become defensible, that moral options develop which did not exist before. The old sexual standards seemed unassailable as long as they were taken for granted. However, today radical changes of all sorts have become conceivable and even plausible to many formerly uncritical men and women. Thus, past and present are no longer reliable guides to the future. Religious dogmas have been replaced by scientific hypotheses, certainties by doubts. At the same time, our choices and responsibilities have increased. There is cause for great joy as well as for great anxiety, in the area of sex, as in so many other areas of life, virtually anything seems to have become possible.

b) Why do societies control people’s sexual behavior?

Answer: Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons. Sexual activity normally results in sexual arousal and physiological changes in the aroused person, some of which are pronounced while others are more subtle. Sexual activity also includes conduct and activities which are intended to arouse the sexual interest of another, such as strategies to find or attract partners (mating and display behavior), and personal interactions between individuals, such as flirting and foreplay. Human sexual activity has psychological, biological, physical and emotional aspects. Biologically, it refers to the reproductive mechanism as well as the basic biological drive that exists in all species and can encompass sexual intercourse and sexual contact in all its forms. Emotional aspects deal with the intense personal bonds and emotions generated between sexual partners by a sexual activity. Physical issues around sexuality range from purely medical considerations to concerns about the physiological or even psychological and sociological aspects of sexual behavior. In some cultures sexual activity is considered acceptable only within marriage, although premarital and extramarital sex are also common. Some sexual activities are illegal either universally or in some countries, and some are considered against the norms of a society. For example, sexual activity with a person below some age of consent and sexual assault in general are criminal offenses in many jurisdictions.

c) How does sexuality play a part in social inequality?

Answer: sexuality play an important part in the social inequality such as interpersonal behavior. Day-to-day interaction between women and men perpetuates male dominance. Gender differences in conversational patterns reflect differences in power. Women’s speech is more polite than men’s. Women end statements with tag questions (“don’t you agree?” “you know?”). Men are more direct, interrupt more, and talk more, notwithstanding the stereotype that women are more talkative. Males typically initiate interaction with women; they pursue, while females wait to be asked out (Eitzen, 2000:260).

Of the issues discussed in this chapter (prostitution, teen pregnancy, pornography, sexual violence and abortion) which do you think is the most important for Malaysian society today? Why?

Answer: From the sex video created by Umno to topple Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim right down to the MACC officer caught watching smut in office, Malaysian news now only have one major point to highlight: sex and pornography The production and distribution of pornographic movies are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it plays in political circles are matters of controversy. In many countries it is legal to both produce and distribute pornography featuring performers age 18 or older; however there are often restrictions placed upon such material.

If we were to stop for a moment and take the time to properly assess the community impact of internet pornography, it would soon become clear that internet pornography is not the height of evil which do-gooder parliamentarians and parental groups profess. Indeed, it is probably one of the main factors contributing to a Professor D’amato suggests there are two predominant reasons why an increase in the availability of pornography has led to a reduction in rape. First, using pornographic material provides an easy avenue for the sexually desirous to “get it out of their system”.

Second, D’amato points to the so-called “Victorian effect”. This dates back to the old Victorian era where people covered up their bodies with an immense amount of clothing, generating a greater mystery as to what they looked like naked. D’amato suggests that the free availability of pornography since the 1970s, and the recent bombardment of internet pornography, has de-mystified sex, thus satisfying the sexually curious.

You may well ask while this positive correlation between an increase in pornography (specifically internet pornography) and a reduction in rape has been demonstrated in the United States, do the statistics in Australia present a similar positive correlation?

What is Scotland’s problem with sectarianism?

Sectarianism is a complicated concept – this will be examined more in Chapter Two of this dissertation – but can broadly be defined as ‘a movement of religious protest against the social order be it state, institution or society or established religious organisation – which results in voluntary separation from such environment to demonstrate the dissonance between what the group perceives as normative in matters of faith and practice and what it experiences as dominant in the social order’ (Hamm, 1987, p11). Even this definition may seem overly complicated at first glance, but it serves as a good starting point within the context of this dissertation and also succeeds in highlighting the precise nature of the term that will be discussed more in the following chapter. In Scotland, sectarianism has been a problem since Protestantism emerged as a religion in the fifteenth century and was later adopted by Scotland – at the time a predominantly Catholic country – as its national religion in 1560. Since then there has been tensions between the two religions which has often resulted in sectarian attitudes. Today, sectarianism is currently described by the mainstream media as ‘shameful fact of Scottish life for generations’ (Millie, 2009, p224). In 1999, at the Edinburgh festival the problem and its extent were exposed by Scottish composer James Macmillan during a widely reported speech in which he stated:

‘In many walks of life – in the workplace, in the professions, in academia, in the media, in politics and in sport – anti-Catholicism, even when it is not particularly malign, is as endemic as it is second nature’ (From Bruce, 2004, p1)

Sectarianism and the problems associated with have also been intrinsically linked with one of the biggest football rivalries in the country – in its biggest city Glasgow between opposing fans of the two teams Rangers and Celtic. Andrew Millie (p227) reinforces this opinion, stating that:

‘Football in Scotland, and particularly the Old Firm institutions of Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers and the matches between them are inherently defined within the sectarianism problem in Scottish society, mirroring the connection between urban disorder and largely white working class populations that characterises the discourses around the Respect and anti-social behaviour agendas’

However, despite the writings of authors such as Mille and the claims of Macmillan and other notable and respected sources – such as award winning BBC documentary series Panorama -there has been a significant backlash to the idea that sectarianism dominates Scottish society as the media has portrayed it, pioneered largely by Steve Bruce in direct reaction to Macmillan’s speech. Bruce (pvii) prefaces his seminal text ‘Sectarianism in Scotland’ with the following message confirming this attitude:

‘This book was born out of the frustration with the dreadful quality of public debate over the importance of religious identity in modern Scotland. James Macmillan is a Catholic and he may be an excellent composer but neither of these facts mean that his views about the salience of sectarianism are well founded; yet, when he delivered his famous August 1999 speech, his claims that Catholics were still victims of serious discrimination were given enormous prominence in the mass media’

This dissertation aims to investigate the importance of sectarianism in modern Scotland – examining differing viewpoints such as those presented by Bruce and Macmillan – with particular focus on its importance in the footballing rivalry between Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic (which from now on will simply be referred to as Rangers and Celtic respectively). The dissertation will attempt to answer the following research questions:

– Would the Old Firm have the support that they do if it were not for an element of sectarianism between the two clubs?

– How important is the rivalry between the Old Firm to both sets of fans?

– Is sectarianism in Scotland a result of the Old Firm? Or is the rivalry between the Old Firm simply an outlet for tensions that run deeper through Scottish society?

– Is age a factor in sectarianism in football? i.e. do younger people (ages 16-20 for example) understand the religious overtones of the rivalry or do they just sing songs and repeat slurs they have heard elsewhere (usually from relatives) to fit in with older supporters who they admire?

– What is the psychology behind the prominence of sectarianism within the Old Firm? Is it the desire to belong to something, and similar to gang mentality in that respect?

In order to answer these questions, the dissertation will undertake a variety of different research from primary and secondary sources. Following Macmillan’s infamous 1999 speech, the topic of sectarianism has come under intense scrutiny from a variety of academic disciplines such as politics, psychology, theology, and sociology and aspects from each of these fields will be utilised in order to help answer the research questions posed by this dissertation. Key to the dissertation will be writings from authors such as Bruce, Millie, Hamm and McDougal and their theories, thoughts and discourse will underline the basis for the development of research techniques, and these writings will be discussed at length in the literature review chapter which follows this one. The ideas will also establish the theoretical framework in which the investigation will be conducted. Both primary sources – such as James Macmillan’s speech, government documents and the Panorama documentary on the topic – and secondary sources – such as the texts of Bruce and Millie – will be used to establish the

The main primary data collected for the investigation in order to answer the research question will be obtained from questionnaires submitted to and semi-structured interviews undertaken with members of each section of the Old Firm’s rivals. The questionnaires will be designed with the intention of obtaining a large amount of data from each of its subjects e.g. ethnic backgrounds, genders, religious practices and nationalities and therefore hopefully determine the characteristics of those more likely to hold sectarian values than others and the extent that it is prevalent within the two sets of supporters. It is also hoped that other Scottish football fans of different teams may be interviewed in order to gauge their feelings on the subject of the Old Firm and to see if the sectarian feelings are prevalent in football in other areas of the country or whether it is solely consigned to the city of Glasgow. Specifically another huge local derby – a local derby is defined by Llamas and Watt (p224) as ‘a fiercely contested match between local derbies’ which ‘calls forth deep emotions within supporters of both clubs’ (Ross, 1999, p42) – between Hearts and Hibernian in Edinburgh will be examined to determine if sectarian attitudes dominate that fixture in addition to the Glasgow derby games. Finally, it may be useful to interview a psychologist to determine the characteristics associated with those people who may be associated with organisations such as the Glasgow Old Firm, in order to compare this ‘model sectarian’ with the data collected from the questionnaires in an attempt to determine the true characteristics of sectarianism in modern Scotland.

The dissertation will consist of six chapters. The first chapter (this one) will present an overview and introduction to the subject and propose the research questions which will be investigated during the course of the dissertation; the second chapter will consist of a literature review which will examine important theories regarding the subject; the third chapter will discuss the methodology utilised in order to attempt to answer the research questions posed in the first chapter; the fourth chapter will present the results of the of the research methodology; the fifth chapter will analyse and discuss the implications of the results and seek to determine the answers to the proposed research questions whilst the sixth and final chapter will serve the role of a conclusion chapter, discussing the results, conclusions and methodology incorporated in the dissertation, as well as any potential limitations, improvements and ideas for further study that could perhaps be investigated in the future to further corroborate the results.

The next chapter will present a literature review of the topics associated with the dissertation from which the investigation will develop its theoretical framework. It seeks to examine what previous authors and academics have written about the subject and apply this knowledge to this study.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims to examine what previous authors have had to say on the subject of sectarianism within Scotland and the Old Firm rivalry with the aim of basing the research model employed in this dissertation within the work on the subject that has already been completed. Research is built on the foundations of the work and findings of earlier researchers and writers in the field, so it is critical to the success of this dissertation that the theories and conventions surrounding the subject matter are fully understood and utilised to create a framework for this dissertation to work within. The general concept of sectarianism will be examined and defined briefly and then the general history of the social movement within Scotland will be looked at, before finally the more specific nature of the movement within football rivalries and the Glaswegian Old Firm mentality will be studied. This final section will form the bulk of the literature review. The majority of the literature review will focus on secondary sources i.e. texts written about the subject from prominent authors associated with it, but primary sources, such as James Macmillan’s speech and government documents from organisations such as the Scottish Executive, will also be referred to. It is hoped that this review will enable the dissertation to begin its data collection with a complete understanding of the problem and the concepts associated with it.

It is first essential to obtain a good grasp of the term sectarianism and to understand the complications associated with it and to develop a definition for use in this dissertation. Hamm (1987, p11) argues that sectarianism has two separate meanings dependent upon whether the term is being used in a sociological or non-sociological discussion. He argues that in a non-sociological context, the term can have ‘pejorative overtones which adherents of such a religious group do not find complimentary’ and can also ‘denote a type of warfare among religious groups because of their differences.’ It also refers to ‘esoteric religious beliefs that the established religion would frown upon’ whilst implying ‘a querulous attitude of intolerance resulting in secession from a larger religious body.’ Hamm continues (p12) by explaining that the term has a slightly different meaning when used in the sociological sense and that in this context it refers to ‘a particular type of religious organisation that stands in protest’ with the ‘idea of dissent as its main notion.’ He finishes his discussion of the term by offering his definition of it – which begins this dissertation and will not be repeated here due to its length – which even in its finality still displays the complicated nature of the term. As our study is clearly viewing the term from a sociological standpoint due to the analysis of the footballing rivalry, it is perhaps better to use the ideas from this definition as the basis for the one used in our study. This can be combined with the definitions of other thinkers on and organisations concerned with the subject to devise a suitable term explanation.

The Scottish Executive (2006, p5) defines a sectarian in alignment with the Oxford English dictionary (and also notes that it is a very complicated idea) as someone who ‘adheres in a bigoted or narrow minded fashion to a sect or body of persons who have agreed upon particular religious doctrines or practices.’ Bruce (p4) defines sectarianism as ‘a widespread culture of improperly treating people because of their religion’ and also states (p5) that within the local context of Britain it normally refers to relations between Protestants and Catholics. A government study on the issue of sectarianism in Glasgow (NFO Social Research, 2003, p5) stated that the term is ‘a pejorative term to describe division bigotry, and discrimination based upon religion, which within the context of Glasgow refers to the conflict between Catholics and Protestants.’ These are all recent definitions of the term associated with the problem discussed in this dissertation so it makes sense to utilise the definition provided by the NFO Social Research which amalgamates the main points from the other two and is very relevant to this study. It is important to remember though, as per Hamm’s description of the term, that the reality of the concept is not as simple as this basic definition and its connotations can be a lot more far reaching than those definitions discussed here pertaining specifically to Scotland and the problems surrounding the issue within the country.

The problem has been particularly huge in Scotland and in particular Glasgow, with the national television programme Panorama casually stating in 2005 that ‘sectarianism and religious bigotry have long been accepted as part of a way of life in Scotland.’ The fact that the issue is covered on the national media’s flagship documentary programme illustrates the extent of the problem and how large it has become. Before examining the specifics of how sectarianism is rooted in the footballing rivalry of the city, it is first important to understand its origins and development; this will then hopefully aid in discovering an explanation for why it has become so entrenched in and associated with the Old Firm.

As mentioned in the introduction, the problem has its origins in the sixteenth century and Scotland’s adoption of Protestantism as its national religion despite the majority of the population being of the Catholic persuasion. Sectarian tensions really developed in the 19th century though ‘as a result of the immigration of those who fled Ireland (a traditionally Catholic country) and sought to live and work in Ireland’ (History of Sectarianism, 2010). Growing urban cities and industries in Scotland offered those Irish with few prospects in wake of the famine a chance to work and provide money for their family and so there was a mass influx during this period. As occurs with many mass displacements of population from a homeland into a new environment, social tensions between the now dominant Protestant demographic and the incoming Irish Catholic population began to emerge and this resulted in the emergence of ‘pockets’ of Irish populated area. Of particular importance to this study was the manifestation of an Irish diaspora in the poor East End of Glasgow. This led to increased tensions within the city as the Irish and Scottish clashed over job and housing opportunities and it was these pressures that led to the initial development of sectarian attitudes in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland, albeit mainly concentrated in Glasgow.

Tensions were at their worst during the inter-war years of 1918 – 1939 and were exemplified by the existence of a national depression with ‘huge levels of unemployment and fierce competition inflaming an already volatile situation’ (20th Century Scotland, 2001). This led to ruthless discrimination with sectarian overtones in the labour market, with Orange and Masonic lodges often discriminating against Catholic workers in favour of their Protestant counterparts. This was actively encouraged by the Protestant church within Scotland too. The divide between the two religions spread to become apparent in all aspects of life, with children often attending separate schools based upon religion, different religions lived in different parts of the city, and of course the emergence of the two separate football teams within the city and the great rivalry associated with this. Although the sectarian element has declined since this peak period, it is still perceived as having a major influence on Scottish society, as can be seen by the impact of James Macmillan’s speech and the discourse on the subject it has spurred.

Now that a basic understanding of the sectarian problem in Scotland has been achieved it is now necessary to look at the specifics of the concept within the framework of the Old Firm rivalry. Celtic football club was founded in 1888 as a direct focal point for the Irish Catholic immigrant community that had established itself in Glasgow’s east end (History of Sectarianism) by Brother Walfrid, and even at this early point the rivalry was intense with Walfrid stating his main intention with the foundation of the club was ‘to keep the poor free from the temptations of Protestant soup kitchens and to provide a leisure activity that would save them from apostasy’ (Armstrong & Giullianotti, 2001, p24). Following this declaration of religious intent from the newly formed club and its rapid success in the league – Celtic won four league championships over the period 1893-8 – Rangers took it upon themselves to ‘become the home grown team to challenge most keenly and successfully the Irishmen of Celtic. Home grown meant Protestant just as Irish was synonymous with Catholic’ (Armstrong and Giullianotti, p24). From this point the rivalry between the two clubs progressed alongside their successes and failures, as did the sectarian attitudes associated with both sets of supporters. In the early 1900’s, Catholic players began to be asked to leave Rangers upon disclosing their religion, and it was around 1912 that the famous Rangers club policy of not signing Catholic players began to be enforced. Bad blood between the two clubs as a result of sectarian attitudes was registered as early as 1896, but Armstrong and Giullianotti (p25) argue that it was encouraged by management as ‘sectarianism and its accompanying violence was a crowd puller.’ The anti-Catholic policy was enforced up until the 1980’s and meant that Rangers missed out on great players such as Kenny Dalglish and Jim Leighton because of their stubbornness, although they finally relented on the policy when signing Mo Johnston in 1989. Tensions between the two sets of supporters – and Protestants and Catholics in general – had cooled since their peak during the inter war years too. However, there is still some element of sectarianism present in the support of both teams.

It is often cited that sectarian attitudes within the Old Firm are not as extreme as they once were but Callum G. Brown (1997 p196) observes that ‘Scottish national identity has never fully integrated Catholic and Protestant, even in the late twentieth century there is evidence of a religious based ethnic division which confounds a common identity.’ Brown continues (p198) by stating that ‘Rangers fans tend to identify with Britain and its symbols (such as the union flag) as an act of solidarity with Northern Ireland loyalists; whereas Celtic supporters associate poorly with British symbols of identity and relate strongly with the Irish Republic.’ This is illustrative of the divide that exists between the two sets of supporters and that there is still a problem between the two. Horne (1995, p10) back this view up, questioning ‘how much meaning there is to the term sectarian in a society with widespread social and cultural interaction and a great deal of intermarriage.’ However, he does importantly note that ‘Sectarianism is ritualistically conveyed in some football fanzines and football fans still sing sectarian songs and display different symbols of allegiance, but without it being of major significance to the rest of Scotland. It is further reinforced by the history of sectarianism which states that ‘the historical links of some clubs and the traditional ethnic and religious makeup of their supporters have led to them being held as symbols of religious, cultural and political beliefs. Supporters often use chants, songs or banners on match days to express abuse or support towards the Catholic or Protestant faiths or to promote their support for Northern Irish based terrorist groups such as the IRA and UVF.’ This clearly adds an extra sectarian dimension to the nature of the rivalry that exists between the two sides of the Old Firm; even despite comments that it is not now as fierce as it has been in the past there is clearly still an element of sectarianism involved in the support of each club. The question this dissertation needs to answer though is how inherent and important this is to the supporters of each club. Recent research into the subject is available, due in part to James Macmillan’s recent speech which served to draw attention to these divisions and provoke discourse on it amongst academic communities.

A NFO social research study commissioned in 2003 as a direct result of James Macmillan’s comments at the Edinburgh festival over the issue of sectarianism within football is perhaps a good starting point for examining the facts regarding the issue in modern Scotland. Essentially, the study found (NFO Social Research, 2003, p57) that the residents of Glasgow felt that sectarianism was still relatively common within the city, and that this mainly took the form of ‘making sectarian jokes with friends, using sectarian terms to describe people, sectarian vandalism, violence, threats and intimidation or harassment were either very or quite common in Glasgow with 66% stating that they felt that sectarian violence occurred regularly within the city.’ However, interestingly, when questioned about whether they had been a victim of a sectarian attack in the past five years, less than 1% of respondents claimed that they had. The difference between the perception and the reality of the situation can clearly be seen here. This is a viewpoint that is backed up by Bruce (pvii) who states that a number of violent attacks in Glasgow are misreported as sectarian violence due to the media’s current obsession with it. Again, this brings into debate the question of how serious the sectarian problem is in Glasgow, and also what specifically defines sectarianism and whether or not it needs to be extreme in its nature to be classified as sectarianism. The Scottish Executive (p5) expands upon this question by stating that within football, it is ‘the actions and words of individuals rather than their beliefs as such’ that people should be concerned with. This is an important sentence, as it exemplifies the fact that perhaps people who participate in sectarianism within football are not always serious sectarians themselves but are often simply caught up in the atmosphere and ‘gang mentality’ of the supporters and footballing legacy that they find themselves immersed in as a supporter. The history of sectarianism reinforces this view and the dangers that can be associated with the allowance of so-called ‘casual racism’ by stating that ‘offensive sectarian language is still used in Scotland on a daily basis with abusive terms such as “Hun” and “Orange bastard” being used negatively against Protestants (or those perceived to be) and others such as “Fenian” and “Tim” used negatively against Catholics (or those perceived to be). This reinforces religious and racial stereotypes as well as fuelling the divisions and conflict between the denominations and people of no religious denomination. Children commonly use words without any knowledge of their meaning, but with an understanding that these words are a means by which to insult others.’ The dissertation will attempt to determine the extent of this ‘actual sectarianism’ during the data collection section of the dissertation and the questionnaire will be designed specifically with this as one of the goals in mind.

Liam McDougal (2006) highlights the problems that are associated with defining sectarianism and how this can be applied to the Glaswegian example of the Old Firm in his 2006 article which challenges many of the assumptions made by First Minister at the time Jack McConnell in his high profile attempt to eradicate ‘Scotland’s shame’ of bigotry through an extended awareness campaign. In his article, he states that many supporters of both Rangers and Celtic feel that sectarianism has been all but eradicated within the rivalry and that language highlighted by the government as bigoted is often used regularly in the workplace or other areas of socialising and that it was merely seen as ‘a joke, banter or harmless fun.’ McDougal cites the example of ‘being called a Fernian or Proddy bastard by colleagues or using the terms themselves was accepted as simply being a Rangers or Celtic fan.’ He expands upon this by stating that fans view songs such as Billy Boys, the Fields of Athenry and the Sash – songs traditionally sung by Rangers fans that have been criticised by UEFA and the Scottish Executive for being sectarian – are not viewed by either set of supporters as sectarian: ‘people are not bigots because they are singing a certain song – they are simply singing along to the song.’

Critically, McDougal explains that the Executive and UEFA were not being specific enough in their criticism of sectarianism and essentially allowing fans to make their own minds up as to what constituted being sectarian or not – hence their decision to decide that many of their songs were not actually sectarian. This highlights the confusion associated with the term again, and this is a factor that the dissertation needs to be aware of when conducting and constructing its questionnaires and analysis, as one person’s sectarianism can quite clearly be labelled another man’s harmless fun. This can perhaps be accounted for by the inclusion of questionnaires to other football fans asking their feelings on the Old Firm, and through semi structured interviews with psychologist and members of the Old Firm and other football supporters associations. This will be discussed more during the methodology chapter of the dissertation. Another important aspect of his article that is particularly important to this dissertation is the idea that sectarianism is actually not that prevalent in the Old Firm rivalry anymore – again this is an idea that will need to be implemented in the design of the questionnaires that will be distributed during the course of this investigation. Promisingly though, McDougal’s findings were from a study similar to this dissertation – in which fans from both sides of the Old Firm were questioned about their views towards sectarianism by University of Edinburgh fellow Dr. Chris McVittie – and the success of that research and the NFO social research paper implies that there will be hopefully be similar level of achievement from this study as it will be based on a similar methodology.

The insights into footballing mentality and the statistics associated with both sets of supporters are probably the most useful and interesting part of the NFO social research paper in relation to this dissertation though. The statistics (p10) reinforce the stereotypes about each group of supporters, with 74% of those who support Celtic claiming to be Catholic and 67% of those that support Rangers claiming to be Protestant. Again, even if sectarianism is not as prevalent as it once was, these statistics clearly encapsulate that religion still plays a huge part in the Old Firm derby. However, more interesting are some of the comments that emerged from semi-structured interviews with those questioned such as: ‘A lot of violence kicks off because of sectarianism yet a lot of people don’t even know what it’s about! They are just into it for Celtic,Rangers’ (p11), and ‘It has nothing to do with Catholics and Protestants, it’s the new religion of Celtic and Rangers’ (p10). This was later summarised in the studies closing arguments by the line: ‘for some the role of football has become so significant that it was actually felt to have replaced religion as the source and focus of sectarian attitudes and behaviour’ (p56). This idea is further exemplified by the Scottish Executive (p5) who state that the problems of sectarianism exist within ‘the divide between club supporters claiming to be attached to the Protestant and Catholic groups.’ Again, the use of the word ‘claiming’ suggests that the sectarianism aspect of the divide is often only implemented as an excuse by those supporters who seek to participate in violence and/or slurs. This is an important aspect of this dissertation and one that will attempt to be examined thoroughly through its course. Importantly, the NFO survey also found that there was no consensus on whether football violence is essentially sectarian in nature, or just simply reminiscent of mindless football hooliganism that exists everywhere. Another important interview quote was that ‘the real problem is not sectarianism, but drink.’ These are both important ideas that need to be examined and discussed during the course of this dissertation.

This literature review has enabled the study to gain an insight into the history and complications of the term sectarianism, the application of it in Scotland and to the Old Firm, the complications of the term and its application to the Old Firm in modern Scotland and most importantly to lay the foundations for its own data collection methodology through the examination of previous studies and key theories regarding the topic. The next chapter will now discuss the methodology employed for this dissertation’s data collection.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter seeks to discuss and explain the research and data collection methods employed in this dissertation in order to answer the research questions posed in the introductory chapter. It also attempts to provide justification for the methodology used – this is important as it gives the findings and recommendations of the dissertation validity and reliability, which are necessary for it be taken seriously in the academic domain. The chapter also discusses the sampling techniques used in the research, the research instruments that were used, the research process, the administration of questionnaires, how data was analysed and what was done to ensure its validity and reliability. The chapter also presents the limitations of the study.

First, it is necessary to decide upon a course of research design. Research design illustrates how the data collection has been planned. Essentially, there are two types of research: qualitative and quantitative.

This dissertation intends to utilise the questionnaire as the main form of investigative technique in its methodology. The literature review previously conducted in the last chapter will serve as the basis of knowledge relating to the data collection and construction of the questionnaire and the areas of sectarianism that need to be investigated. The questionnaire was chosen as the method of data collection as it was decided that

Social Stratification and Class

Discuss what is meant by social stratification and evaluate the different ways that social class has been defined and measured.

The term social stratification refers to the grouping of social classes within a society. This is a specific form of inequality, and the effect of this is that certain groups in society are seen as having a higher status or rank than others based on power and wealth. Social stratification works by society ranking which is based in four sections. Social stratification can be passed from one generation to the next, i.e. royalty, it is universal but varies over time and place, it is a trait of society not individual differences and lastly social stratification also goes on beliefs and not just inequality (Wikipedia, 2014). Sociologists argue that some form of social stratification occurs in every society in the world despite that everyone claims to want an equal society (Burton, 2013). Sociologists consider there to be three main systems of stratification in today’s societies. These are slavery, the caste system and the class system.

Slavery has legally been abolished in many countries but there is still evidence of at least 400 million people living under conditions that amount to slavery. For those living in Sudan, Ghana, India, Pakistan, and many other countries with similar ideals, slavery is a common thing to happen and in certain parts of Asia sex slavery is also common. A caste system is a social system built on ascribed status. This is a status based on characteristics a person is born with, such as race, gender, religion, age etc. In a caste system there is no chance to change from one caste to another and marriage outside of a person’s caste is not generally permitted. Often in a caste system the marriages are pre-arranged between parents rather than a choice of the individual. A class system is a social system built on achieved status. This is status that a person either earns or chooses so is not dependent on where a person was born or a person’s parentage. Those born in a class system can choose their education, career and partner. A person in a class system may also start off in one class but can move between classes (Spark Notes, n.d). For many sociologists the focus is on the caste and class systems of stratification and the amount of social mobility within that system. This social mobility is the ease of which a person can move up or down the class system and will be based on a person’s wealth or power.

In modern western societies, stratification is organised by class and divided into three main layers, upper class, middle class and lower class. Each of these classes can then be broken down into further categories determined by things such as housing locations (Wikipedia, 2014). A person’s social class will depend on where they are from, what they do for a living, where they achieved their education, who they are connected to and how powerful them people may be, how much wealth they have and their position in society. When a person’s social class is being considered their education will not generally be considered, unless of course they attended a high ranking education facility. This person will also need to have some high connections to be considered for upper class status. If a person is lacking any of these factors they will be considered as middle or even lower class, depending on their postcode or bank balance, within a western society. In modern western societies there are different categories for social stratification such as age, race, gender, class, race or disability and in some places there will be even more categories (Wikipedia, 2014).

Social classification has taken place long before the modern form of classifying people began. Social stratification has been measured in different forms; from asking people which class they feel they belong in to using a person’s postcode. The two most used measures are both based on occupation. The Registrar General’s Standard Occupation Classification (SC) and the Socio-Economic Groups (SEG). The SC began in has been in the census since 1901 and is based on a person’s occupation which will fall into one of six categories: Professional, Intermediate, Skilled (Non-Manual/Manual), Partly Skilled and Unskilled. This is an ordinal measure that ranks occupation, by skill and social standing. The SEG is made up of 17 different categories and would in fact cover all eventualities of employment, house worker, student etc. This is a nominal measure that ranks occupation by employment status (Anon, n.d).

The SC has strengths as well as weaknesses with its use. It is a simple system with easily generalizable categories. This system is also useful when wanting to compare the changes in occupations held over a period of time. However, this system does not appear to group people it focuses more on the occupation. Another problem with this system is that the categories do not consider the differences in income between certain occupations. The SEC also has some strengths and weaknesses to its reliability in measuring class. Its main strength is that it does have a wider range of categories for people to consider, however its biggest weakness is that is still fails to acknowledge certain people, such as women, students and the unemployed (Sociology Org, 2013).

Having more than one way of measuring social class has caused many problems. As occupations have changed dramatically over the years there are many problems with the way the SC and the SEG measures class. The biggest of the problems is that they are not designed to measure the occupations of women, housewives, students or even the unemployed adequately. Although this will generally be the most reliable as people will accept what is told to them by a government body such as the Registrar General. In 1994 a government review of social classifications took place with the aim to review the reliability of using occupation to measure social class, to review the social class categories and to assess the effectiveness of the changes made. These changes took place in 1998 and a new classification system, NS-SEC, was introduced beginning in the 2001 census (Anon, n.d).

This change made to the way occupation is measured comes in eight categories to include the differences in set locations. The categories of the NS-SEC are: higher managerial and professionals, lower managerial and professionals, intermediate occupations (clerical, sales and services), small employers and own account workers, lower supervisory and technical occupations, semi-routine occupations, routine occupations and never worked or long term unemployed (Wikipedia, 2013).

References

Anon. (n.d) Definition and Measurement of Social Class [online]. Available from: http://www.uwic.ac.uk/shss/dom/newweb/classdefinition/Difficulties.htm [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Anon. (n.d) Social stratification [online]. Available from: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQkA4oADAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwordnetweb.princeton.edu%2Fperl%2Fwebwn%3Fs%3Dsocial%2520stratification&ei=TIw5U6OlM6viywP42III&usg=AFQjCNFPiQoB3wnfTRpv0MM_X4Pr_XWEMw&sig2=f2pVumGz7bpiGO8bUQIBnQ [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Burton, J. (2013) Class and Stratification [class hand-out]. Access to Social Science: Class and Stratification, Northampton College. Nov 2013.

Sociology Org. (2013) Measuring Social Class [online]. Available from: http://www.sociology.org.uk/s3a.pdf [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Spark Notes. (n.d) Social Stratification and Inequality [online]. Available from: http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/social-stratification-and-inequality/section3.rhtml [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Wikipedia. (2013) National Statistics Socio-economic Classification [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Statistics_Socio-economic_Classification [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Wikipedia. (2014) Social Stratification [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stratification [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Bibliography

Anon. (2010) What does “Social Stratification” mean? [Online]. Available from: https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100529054226AAF1wY9 [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Boundless. (n.d) Social Stratification [online]. Available from: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/definition/social-stratification/ [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Iiser (n.d) NSSEC [online]. Available from: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/archives/nssec [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Rose, D. & Pevalin, D. (2010) Re-basing the NS-SEC on SOC2010 [online]. Available from: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Fguide-method%2Fclassifications%2Fcurrent-standard-classifications%2Fsoc2010%2Frebasing-the-ns-sec-on-soc2010.pdf&ei=MNI5U7nYCujOygO0-4Jo&usg=AFQjCNGQRPlUIA8sgVVcnseWNnreDM-o-A&sig2=gpMzKE9XFYtaHKlPa4trYg&cad=rja [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

Sociology Guide. (n.d) Questions on Social Stratification [online]. Available from: http://www.sociologyguide.com/questions/social-stratification.php [Last Accessed Jan 2014].

What Is Gender Equality Sociology Essay

Gender refers to both female and male, and also the relations between them. Gender equality, do we really put into practice? Yes, we have achieved the concept of gender equality in the contemporary society. Now the governments are always talking about the fair treatment for everyone. There is no difference in gender roles because now the society is more focus on gender equality. It is important to emphasize the concept of gender. Therefore, the concept of gender needs to be understood clearly because everyone should be respected, expected, allowed and valued in every aspect. Promotion of gender equality are concerned and engaged male as well as female. Implementing the gender equality will be required the equal representation and the participation of female and male in the category of decision-making, economy, job opportunities and civil life.

In the past, gender equality hardly to be achieved and both genders, female and male cannot reach their full potential in the society. It is because there are a lot of wrong concepts, wrong statements, and wrong judgements for the both genders. They form the wrong judgement and shape the attributes which influences the thinking on both genders and also the way we perceive depressed people. Gender stereotypes are generated in the past. They are always being stereotypes towards female and male as in male are more on decision-making, dealing the major issues whereas female should always stay at home and settle the minor things. Prejudice exists everywhere, with a prejudice comes a stereotype. Gender stereotypes are representing a bad message and tend to convey a negative impression to a person. It affects the judgement we form to the both genders. Everyone is unique, they has their own characteristics. It is extremely unfair if we are being stereotyped to a person because of their genders. Therefore, stereotype reflects the truths about the realities like not only male are always with courage and strong body to work, on the contrary, female even can perform better than male in every aspects.

Are there any difference in gender between female and male in the past if compare to the society now? Yes, there is a big difference as in denotes an element of interpretation of social justice. It is usually based on custom, tradition, culture and also religion, which is most often to the detriment to women. In the past, the equity in relation to the advancement of female is unacceptable. Their choices, opportunities and participations are restricted. Their restrictions have been considered as unimportant and non-exixtent. It is preventing women from fully realizing their rights to reproductive health and equality. In fact, the reality is extremely cruel to women as in their lives has been invisible to the world. There is a limitation on women to access to the basic resources such as education and health care. Everyone has to be educated to gain important knowledge in our lives because with a good education makes a big difference where we end up in life. On the contrary, education becomes a gender-imbalanced to a female because it seems to be pointless to send a female to school to get education. There are a large number of female’s issues that with instances of girls are not given the opportunity to get a proper education on studies. Discrimination in the field of education is always held on women. The status of women in the past has a direct effect on their lives. Women are considered as a strain in the field of resources in a family and therefore, they are not educated. Without education, women are hardly to voice out their own opinion, stand up for themselves monetarily as well we emotionally, and also hard to battle against the discrimination.

Besides, the illness of a woman is not regarded as equally demanding of professional help and they are hardly to seek out for health services for themselves because they have been conditioned in this way. Ironically, women produce food to the newborn but they can only receive a little of agricultural assistance. Women should know sewing? Women should know cooking? Women should do all the housework? In the past, the career of a woman is being a housewife and taking good care of the house. They are not supposed to know this and that. Therefore, they can only stay at home and finish all the housework without knowing what is happening in the world.

For men, they are more important than women in the past because they are an actor in developing countries and also patriarchal structures where husband or a leader of a team on decision-making. They are always being a leader as in controlling access to a large variety of resources such as health, educational services, finances and transportations. Engineer, miner, soldier, builder, all these are for male only. It is because they are expected to be strong and always with courage, bravery to work and perform better than female. Male are always emphasize traits such as toughness and strength in solving problems. They are not supposed to have weaknesses or vulnerabilities and conceal any emotional fragility as in they should not show feelings as these would make them appear weak or vulnerable.

On the contrary, gender equality had been achieved in the contemporary society as to compare to the past. Today, we all are accelerating efforts on advancing the gender equality and promoting women’s achievement by ensuring all our strategies and programs contribute so that the gender gaps will be reduced and will not slow down the development. Now the governments promote the gender equality in many aspects as in education, employment and emphasizing the fair treatment to both genders, female and male. It has reduced persistent on gender inequalities like giving fairness, equity and also the economic necessity for everyone. Everyone is also giving full cooperation and participation to achieve gender equality to ensure the fairness, strategies and measures between women and men. Now the society gives a lot of efforts on the process of being fair to both genders and also makes a big step on changing to compensate for women’s historical and social disadvantages on them to ensure that women can receive the same status and level as to compare to men. Equity leads to equality. Therefore, now the women are having the equal enjoyment like men of socially-valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards since gender equality had been achieved. Before the achievement of gender equality, women are generally excluded on participating in relation to decision-making and access to economic and social resources. Therefore, there is a critical aspect of promoting the gender equality on the empowerment of women, more focus on redressing and identifying power imbalances to give women more autonomy so that they can manage their own lives in the contemporary society. The empowerment of women concerns women building self-confidence, expansion of choices, gaining power and have the ability to control their own lives. Now, women have more chances to control over resources and actions to transform the structures and the institutions which reinforce and perpetuate the gender discriminations and all the inequalities. They have the freedom to participate, to love, to protect more fully and equally in the society now.

Gender equality can be divided into categories of the participation, attainment and the entitlement of obtaining education. All these had been achieved successfully as in women and men are treated equally. First, educational attainments are the most common issue in the past while women do not have the opportunities to study. Education is very important to everyone regardless of gender. It is essential to promote equality of job opportunities and strengthen the economic growth by investing the formal education. Therefore, now the female enrolment in education has been increased because people realise that education is not only for men but women too. Women had improved the productivity and they have a greater ability to further develop their knowledge and skills throughout their lives. When women have the opportunity to obtain education, there will be a better balance in the gender composition of teachers and the endorsement of female role models in professions in the future.

Many of us think of the traditional gender roles for both genders as in only men have the power and ability to be a leader or more job opportunities and women are always associated with child or caring professions. The segregation of jobs is linked with traditions and stereotypes. Only men can be a leader? Only men have the strong body to work? No, women can also do anything that men can do. Everyone has the equal responsibilities and abilities to gain the opportunities to participate in every aspect, in the economy and society. Therefore, nowadays women are more independent than the men as to compare with the olden days. Women have more freedom like releasing out from prison because now they are given the opportunity to lead to an independent life, free to choose what they want, free to choose the jobs and also free to participate in decision-making. That is what they have been freed from discrimination.

In the contemporary society, many of the traditional behaviours expected of men are becoming less emphasized. Men are expected to be strong and should not express the emotional fragility. That is the old concept and untrue statement. Now men are more willingly to share their feelings, express their fears and crying is not a shame for men because everyone has emotions, happy and sad. Throughout the history, men have the responsibility to provide for the family. They are not only providing for the family but also protect them from poverty and take care of their needs. Men are always assume as being the main provider and the main protector of a family as in the head of household. On the contrary, the world has developed rapidly and brought a lot of changes into the traditional roles of men. Now the men are expected to take over the duties of a housewife. They are also taking more responsibility for their children’s care, which includes managing child care arrangements to have an equal share of child care responsibilities with women. It has clearly became more socially acceptable for men to involve in child care, cooking and doing all the house chores as to compare to the past.

In the conclusion, equality between female and male is a matter of human rights and social justice. The perceptions, interests and priorities of both genders have to be taken into consideration because all these are necessary to enrich development processes. Everything is not “only male” and “only female” because both genders have the equal potential to be valuable. Now, we have balanced up our mind, generations and judgements as to compare to the olden days. We believe that more gender diversity would help to promote innovation and a fairer growth in the future. Therefore, gender equality had been achieved in the contemporary society because nowadays we are more focus on gender equality, the fair treatment for everyone, male and female as in the society has changed the old concept, old thinking, old system and started to approach to a new concept of living style.

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Name : Yip Kar Yan
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What is emotional management and labour

In recent years, there has been a significant growth in the range of activities involving emotion work, also known as emotional labour. From the sales associate who is trained to make a good first impression to the physician who is coached on bedside manner, every one in some way or the other, learn how to manage their feelings in the workplace. This interest in emotion has inspired Hochschild to write about emotion management in her book The Managed Heart, which has also introduced the term “emotional labour”. More and more organisations have the belief that valuing employees’ spirituality and the emotional benefits that this brings can also provide a powerful impetus to workplace productivity (Konz and Ryan 1999; Neck and Milliman 1994). The table below shows some definitions of emotional labour:

Emotion acts as something of a pivot between the individual and the structural or the personal and the social, (Freund, 1990). In other words, emotions centrally concern an individual’s feelings; nevertheless, at the workplace, not all emotions or feelings are acceptable. Emotion is now thought as a key to business success and the definitions of emotion work or emotional labour are closely related in practice. Employees are required to agree to particular sets of ’emotion rules’, whereby they are given in details which emotions to publicly display, and which to suppress, in the performance of their job. Emotions at the workplace are divided into good emotions and bad emotions. Good emotions are those that are contributing to the goals of the enterprise and bad emotions which are perceived as destructive. Putting it another way, employees are faking their emotions in exchange of wage.

Emotion2, which was once considered as “inappropriate” for organisational life, is now seen as unavoidable and unchallengeable in organisations. Indeed, with the emergence of the service sector, and the constant focus on quality of service, it is no longer sufficient to limit oneself only to deliver the service. This service has to performed ‘with a smile’, a friendly greeting, gaining eye contact and a cheery farewell. However, the growth in the service sector do not only accounts for the growing importance of emotional labour. Another reason for this emphasis is that nowadays, interactions have become more numerous and that those interactions are occurring in an increasingly competitive environment. Moreover, since the customer’s overall opinion of the service has been increasingly recognized by management, therefore, greater emphasis is being given to customer service or ‘customer care’, so that the customer return to that particular service provider when a repeat service is sought.

2. Refer to Appendix 3

The evolution of emotional labour is also due to the growth in the customer care philosophy. Customers form lasting judgements about the organisation as a whole from their interactions with the organisation members. Furthermore, they are increasingly influenced by the quality of the emotional labour that is performed on them. Therefore, employees have to match with customer wants and feelings by being able to provide both the behaviours and the emotional displays. It should be noted that those who perform emotional labour are mostly low skilled and low wage workers. Management set rules about how to feel and how to express feelings, and by abiding to these display norms, employees have to pay a price, which is the impoverishment of their emotional lives.

Emotion management or ’emotional labour’, as coined initially by Hochschild (1979, 1983, 1990), refers to the commoditisation of emotions within the labour process. In The Managed Heart, Hochschild (1983) pointed out a major distinction between two ways of managing emotions; namely, emotion work and emotion labour. Even though these two concepts might appear to be the same, this is not the case; as she puts it,

by ’emotion work’ I refer to the emotion management we do in private life; by ’emotional labour’ I refer to the emotion management we do for a wage (Hochschild, 1990, p.118)

Emotion work refers to the attempt to change an emotion and how this emotion is being displayed in everyday life. According to Hochschild, managing one’s feelings to what is appropriate in any given situation can be termed as ‘feeling rules’, that is, ‘a set of shared albeit often latent, rules’ (Hochschild 1983, p.268). In other words, the efforts that one attributes to complying to these rules is referred to as emotion work. An example of emotion work would be laughing at someone’s unfunny gift, expressing appreciation for an unwanted gift. Emotional labour is what happens when a profit drive strengthens the performance of emotion work within the labour process. When one manages one’s own emotion and those of others in exchange of wage, this is what can be described by emotional labour.

According to Hochschild, emotional labour ‘requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others’ (1983, p.7). As part of their job, employees are required to demonstrate feelings they may not share in order to produce a positive frame of mind in the customers. Thus, drawing on sociologist Erving Goffman (1957), Hochschild argues that in order to produce that ‘proper state of mind in others’; two techniques are involved, namely ‘surface’ acting and ‘deep’ acting. Surface acting involves faking one’s emotions and pretending to experience emotions that are not real. Deep acting involves changing what or rather, how we feel. However, managing feelings has a hidden cost, which can be termed as ’emotional dissonance’3.

One limitation of employing emotions as part of the work process is that when emotions are faked, this might lead to emotional dissonance and burnout. Emotional dissonance is a feeling of unease that occurs when someone evaluated an emotional experience as a threat to his or her identity. This emotional dissonance can have extensive implications on the individuals and the organisations. From air hostess or salesperson who need to suppress their irritation and show pleasantness with irate customer, to transformational leader who needs to suppress his uncertainty and show enthusiasm in order to keep his employees motivated; emotion management in everywhere and is used as tools in the business environment.

3. Refer to Appendix 4

A number of sociologists and psychologists have considered social life, as well as life within the work organisations, from a performance or ‘dramaturgical’ perspective. This perspective envisages individuals performing different scripts in different social situations. That is, in jobs which involve emotional labour, employees perform a particular script, similar to individuals who perform other emotional displays. Ekman (1973) and Ashforth and Humphrey (1993:89), termed the emotional displays that an employee have to perform as part of his job as ‘display rules’. However, sometimes employees may be required to perform ‘unacceptable’ level of emotional display, with potentially detrimental effects on the individuals involved.

Selection and training play an important role in inspiring particular ‘feeling rules’ into the recruits. From the physical attributes and overall appearance, to “the ability to ‘project a warm personality’ and display enthusiasm, friendliness and sociability” (Hochschild, 1983: 97), recruits are being instructed on almost every emotional aspect of the work. But most emphasis is being laid upon the employee’s smile and accompanying pleasant and helpful manner. For instance, in a study on telephone sales agents (mainly female) carried out by Taylor and Tyler (2000: 84), so as they do not get angry with offensive (often male) customers, a trainer commented:

If a man’s having a go at youaˆ¦ he might even be embarrassing youaˆ¦ don’t get ruffled, you’ve got to keep your cool. Remember that you are trying to offer him something and get him to pay for the privilege. He can talk to you how he wants. Your job is to deal with itaˆ¦ just take a few deep breaths and let your irritation cool downaˆ¦ think to yourself he’s not worth it.

Emotional labours are required to suppress any feelings of anger or frustration and to respond in a manner prescribed by management. An important training device for dealing with such customers, are to re-conceptualise them as people having a problem, who needed sympathy and understanding; and therefore to respond positively to such customers.

Even though people are paid to be nice, it is hard to be nice at all times. Employees indulge in either ‘surface’ acting or ‘deep’ acting in order to manage their emotions. Surface acting involves a behavioural conformity with the display rules (facial expression, verbal comments, and so on) with no effort to internalise these rules. In other words, the emotion are feigned or faked. Deep acting, on the other hand, involves employees internalising their role more thoroughly in an attempt to ‘experience’ the required emotions. That is, employees match the emotion expressions the organization requires. Emotion at work, specially when dealing with customers is very important, since if a customer notice that the emotions are fake, he may feel cheated and take it badly.

In The Managed Heart, Hoschild questions what happens when deep gestures of exchange enter the market sector; when people are no longer free to negotiate their own rate of exchange because it becomes another aspect of saleable labour power where feelings become commoditised. Moreover, Hochschild talks about ways that the flight attendants adopt in order to deal with irate passengers. There is the living-room analogy, whereby, flight attendants view the passengers as guests in their living room. And therefore, they are required to make their best to attend to their guests. Somehow, there are unresponsive passengers who kill the analogy unwittingly, and these passengers are termed as “teenage execs” by Hochschild. Another way which is adopted is by viewing the passengers as potential friends, even though this reciprocity of real friendship is not part of the if friendship. Flight attendants are furthermore advised not to take the passengers’ misbehaviour personally, but rather to view them as “just like children” who need attention.

Deep acting, as described by Hochschild has been encouraged by management, so that their employees behave ‘naturally’ rather than by simply sticking to the prescribed rules. In attempting to do so, many organisations are giving the employees the freedom to ‘be themselves’, to be ‘more natural’ and ‘more authentic’ in their interactions with customers. As long as it served the organisation’s objectives, acting natural was fine to management.

In the book “The Regulation of Emotion”, written by the author Pierre Philippot and Stephen Feldman, the authors talk about the most up-to-date, most contemporary perspectives on emotion regulation. According to them, the general conclusion that one can reach on emotional labour is that the flourishing performance of particular professional tasks requires the display of some emotions and the suppression of others. Indeed, in almost all service industries, one is explicitly trained to suppress negative emotions and to display smiles, even though it contravenes with what one really feels. Moreover, the display of smiles should look genuine so as to produce the desired effects. As such, people working in the service sector are required to engage in what Hochschild termed as “deep acting”, which involves the managing of feelings at the feeling level as well as the expressive level.

Furthermore, Philippot and Feldman also stated that there are professions whereby the reverse pattern of emotion management is required. For instance, prison guards, bill collectors, or police officers; are required to “act angry” in circumstances where the clients refuse to cooperate. Additionally soldiers, firemen, or policemen are trained not to feel afraid, and if they do, they are required to hide it. In the same way, construction workers who have to work on tall buildings are asked not to show any fear and never to lose control; and medical students learn the importance to maintain a stance of affective neutrality toward their patients (Thoits, in press). Many professions require the management of one’s emotions, however, generally, negative feelings, other than anger, are supposed to be suppressed at work4.

4. Refer to Appendix 5

Besides, the book on “The Regulation of Emotion” also pays particular consideration to issues such as “emotional dissonance” and authenticity. Various studies have revealed that employees do not feel motivated to regulate their emotions in the required direction if these required expressions conflict with their actual feelings, or if they fell they are no longer being genuine (e.g., Ashforth & Tomiuk, 2000; Jansz & Timmers, 2002). These negative feelings, such as unease, dissonance, or tension, can result in job dissatisfaction and increased employee turnover. In a study of Ashforth and Tomiuk (2000), whereby a range of service agents were interviewed on whether they felt authentic, and what made them feel that way; most respondents asserted that despite the fact that they had to “act” in their role as service agent, they also thought that they were still being themselves. However this was not the case concerning the display of negative emotions. This paradox can be explained in terms of identity.

In recent years, there has been a growing importance attached to emotion and emotional labour; causing management to eventually putting extensive efforts in order to control not only its experience, but also its expression. As Leidner (1993, p.18) pointed out in her research on McDonald and Combined Insurance, organisations paid ‘close attention to how their workers looked, spoke, and felt, rather than limiting standardization to the performance of physical tasks’. Management writers Ashforth and Humphrey (1995, p.104) had come up with four overlapping means for the management of emotions; namely neutralising, buffering, prescribing and normalising emotion. ‘Neutralising’ is utilised in order to avoid socially unacceptable emotions, and the other means are utilised to regulate emotions that are either inevitable or innate in role performance.

In her study conducted on various organisations in the US following the terrorists’ attacks on 11 September 2001, Michaela Driver (2003) found that all the four mechanisms of Ashforth and Humphrey were set up as behavioural controls governing the expression of emotion.

The diagram above shows the reaction obtained with respect to the type of control which is exerted on one’s behaviour. Hence, buffering resulted in a more positive reaction than normalising; as well as prescriptive controls which entailed in positive reactions. On the contrary, neutralising was found to result in a negative reaction. It is very important for management to know the type of reaction to expect from their employees when exercising control. In order to legitimate their activities, management mainly uses scripts, surveillance and culture as control mechanisms. Scripts are designed to create a particular ‘tone’ for the interaction and a particular ‘end’. Besides, it also allows for dealing with a high volume of customers with a minimum of delay.

Similar to Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon5, surveillance helps make the employees visible and knowable. Hence, according to Foucault, the more visible employees get, the more controllable they become. So far as emotional labour is concerned, there is close supervision, so that the employees are rendered visible. However, through this visibility, employees are alienated from themselves. They do not have any control over their own feelings, that is, their “self”. Putting it another way, the employees’ self is no longer their “self”.

5. Refer to Appendix 6

The manipulation through culture is attained though designing workplace activities, which may range from daily communications to corporate meetings, training sessions, and peer gatherings. Team values are being instilled in employees through socialisation with others, since then, there would not be the need for managerial control as employees would already discipline themselves in teams. Nevertheless corporate culture6 is not as perfect as it has generally been imagined as a form of control. Indeed, despite fostering team spirit in organisations, members also have to face intense peer pressure among themselves. Members are not only under constant supervisions but at the same time, they are also required to monitor their own team performance as well. According to Kunda (1992) and Casey (1995), team members do not gain a sense of empowerment, ownership, and participation, but rather they often experience negative emotions such as uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and pressure. Employees’ resistance to managerial pratices of team building is a common phenomenon in the contemporary workplace and the intensity of this resistance can range from a simple tactic of indifference to an active endeavour of manipulating critical information (Collinson, 1994). Hence, these issues raise doubts about the effectiveness of team culture as a form of control.

In the past 15 years or so, the study of “emotions at work” has become a real industry among management, sociology, and organisation studies researchers. “Emotion work” represents perhaps the last boundary of influence over which managers and workers struggle. The increasing focus on the connections between the employees influence and corporate profitability is mainly due to the increasing shift from a production to a service economy. Many studies have been carried out in order to show the relationship between emotion work and profit; and critiques have deconstructed that management efforts are directed towards controlling employees’ emotions as a way to “commercialize feeling” and improve the bottom line.

6. Refer to Appendix 7

The author Aviad E. Raz, examines the multifaceted interconnections among work, culture, emotion and organisational control through a comparative analysis of Japanese and US companies. Raz’s identified a number of entangled threads in his argument. First, he pointed out that since the Japanese and the US workplace as well as its cultures differ, therefore, the alternatives for managing that workplace will differ as well. Secondly, the interest of Raz was not on analysing the psychological effects of emotion management on employees, but rather to analyse “the roles of emotion as a structure for action and as a discursive element in the order of things” (p.11).

Raz’s work is not a Foucauldian study, and this can be seen by the general tone of the book, which is a critical attempt to understand how the managerial discourse of emotion serves to discipline and normalise worker subjectivities. Moreover, Raz refuse to make any general declaration about the relations among emotion, organisation, and control, but instead, he contended in exploring how emotion as both ideology and practice can be analysed within specific cultural contexts. In his book, Raz demonstrated how the relationships between emotion management and individual identity contrasts across the Japanese and the US organisational cultures, thus requiring different responses from management at normative control. In this way, he contradicts some sociologists of workplace emotion, such as Arlie Hochschild, who made general claims about the commercialisation of feeling and emotion labour in contemporary service industries. On the other hand, Raz argues that “authentic” and “false” self made little sense in a Japanese control context. In sum, Raz’s book is a hybrid text, which makes a combination of excellent overviews of extent theory and research on workplace emotion with data from his own research on emotion management in several large Japanese organisations, including Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Dome. But his overall thesis is an important one, since he contributed through this study is the understanding of emotion management as a powerful discourse that attempts to shape the very identities of organisation members. Even though emotion management is an institutionalised, common feature of the global workplace, its ideological foundations and practical manifestations vary from culture to culture; and Raz portrayed the Japanese and the US workplaces to illustrate this idea.

Traditional approach to personnel has taken the individual as a self-evident phenomenon, an observable reality, a unit possessing an essential personnel identity to be recruited, appraised and remunerated. Foucault analyses how individuals come to see and understand in a particular way. He offers a relational and dynamic model of identity. The individual is the “given” which the observer takes for granted and is continuously constituted and constructed through social relationships, discourse and practices. Sometimes discourse shape people. People become subject in two ways:

Technologies of the self are whereby people constitute themselves as objects. That is they situate and define themselves by subject of discourse by becoming tied to an identity. People become docile bodies in technologies of the self. Organisations assume that individuals have fixed identity; but then identity is not fixed because relationships are unrealistic. There is a possibility of challenge and reposition. Hence one may say that individuals are both the sight and subjects of discursive struggle for their identity.

According to Foucault, one can govern the soul. Human has become the focus of organisations, and even though humans are dependable but disposable, organisations need them. In order to get the best of the individual, one must unleash the potential beneath the self. Therefore workers should be rendered visible through the process of examination. Examination is a system of marking and classification through the simple device of questions and answers; which furthermore provides with basis for judgement and measurement. Your self is no longer your self. Organisations want the individual to have an identity which is beneficial to the organisation.

The examination for example can be seen as both a system of knowledge and power, which Foucault characterised as power/knowledge. It combines into a unified whole “the deployment of force and the establishment of truth” (184). In other words, it both draws out the truth about those who go through the examination and controls their behaviour. Examination gets individuals to be known according to their marks or scores they achieve, and thus in case they scored less, they could be forced to study or directed to a course treatment. The process of examination turns the individual into a “case”, that is, both a scientific example and an object of care. Moreover Foucault emphasises that “the goals of power and the goals of knowledge cannot be separated: in knowing we control and in controlling we know”.

The body is directly involved in a political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it, they invest in it, trade it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks to perform ceremonies to emit signs.

[Michel Foucault (1987)]

Hence, it can be said that employees as human beings become manipulated objects as their very soul is becoming open to management scrutiny, interrogation and manipulation.

As Hochschild mentions in her book ‘The Managed Heart’, “Feeling – whether at the time, or as it is recalled, or as it is later evoked in acting – is an object. It may be a valuable object in a worthy pursuit, but it is an object nonetheless.” In order to legitimate managerial activities, management has not only rendered employees as manipulable objects, but they have also started manipulating their feelings. Employees have become as ‘assembly lines in the head’, and are therefore also subject to alienation and exploitation. It should furthermore be emphasised that even though there has been a radical departure from Fordism, there is still a new form of exploitation which prevails in organisations. Employees are not valued as human beings by management, but rather as objects, which are visible, and therefore manipulable. At the end of the day, albeit emotion is a human feeling, it has been become a commodity which is being continuously commercialised in the market.

What Is Animal Abuse?

What is animal abuse. Animal abuse is a behavior that harming animals for other purposes and reasons other than self-protection and survival. This kind of cases is increasing year by year throughout the world every year. There are several factors that contribute to this cruel act.

One of the factors that led to animal abuse is neglect. Nowadays, many people want to keep a pet just because the animals are cute. People see those cute animals such as puppy, kitten and rabbit through mass media. The mass media include advertisements and some TV shows. After they saw those cute and adorable animals they want to keep it as pet, so they go to the pet shop to buy. They never think twice before they bring those animals back to their home. They never think that they don’t have time to take care their pets. This will causes harms to their pets. In this 21st century most of the peoples and families are busy with their work, and they don’t have time feed and play with their pets. When their pet is sick, they don’t even notice and do not have time to bring their pet to the veterinarians. As a result, this will lead to animal cruelty.

Besides that, some of the TV shows and game shows also will lead to animal abuses. Some of the game shows will use animal as their selling point to attract viewers in order to boost up their viewership rating for the particular shows. Some of game shows even torture and hurt the animals in order to get good ratings for the show. For example, an American game show known as Fear Factor often uses animal to in their shows as a challenge to their game show’s participants. In one of the episodes, the participants are required to use their mouth to move the snakes from one box to another box. This action will cause harm to the snakes and this is a very foolish and very unethical action done by human being.

Another factor that will lead to animal abuse or animal cruelty is the science research. In this century, science is very important for human being. Science is important to human beings in term of medications, technologies and others. In order to make humans life easier a lots of researches and experiments need to be carry out. Some of these experiments will involve animals. For example, in order to produce or invent new medicines animal will be the first one who test the drugs for the side effects. Besides, for education purpose in school or university, students are required to dissect animals such as rats and frogs in biology class in order to understand more about the system and facts about those animals. Animal abuse happens in this case indirectly.

In additions, stress and anger will is also one of the factors that will contribute to animal abuse. This phenomenon happens when someone got too stress from his work or studies and they have no way to release it, they will release it on their pets. Those people will torture their pets by not feeding their pet or even uses brutal strength such ass kick and hit their pets. Anger will also cause animal cruelty happens. When some weak people such as students got bullied and humiliate at school and they have no strength or power to protect and defend them self, they will get their revenge on animals by torturing them. They do this because they think those small animals like puppies and kittens are small and defenseless against them.

Another factor that will lead to animal abuse is the psychological factor. Some people out there have psychology and mental problem. They want the power to control people and dominate people, but they are not capable enough. So, they try to dominate the animals and control the animals by giving order and punishment as they want. Another type of psychology problem some people like to see animal being torture or they personally like to torture animal themselves for personal satisfaction. This is a kind of disease or mental disorder. People with this kind of mental disorder are mostly having trauma during their childhood time. These people are most likely being abuse by their parents or being bullied in school time. These people need medication to control their condition or else they will get worse. Another psychology problem that led to animal cruelty is the people who bully the animal to seek for public attention. These people are those who are commonly neglect by the society. They feel that they do not existence in the society and they feel that they are ignored. So they want to do something to let the public know about their existence. Some of these people will abuse and torture the animals to prove their existence in the society.

Some of the parents will buy pets to accompany their children. Parents nowadays are busy with their works and do not have time to play with their children. So they buy a pet for them to accompany them to play with them and make them happy. But they never thought that their children do not how to take care the animals. Sometimes is not they want to abuse the animals, but the will they treat the animals like feeding them too much will indirectly causes harm to the animals.

Another factor that will contribute to animal abuse is culture. Some of the culture will contribute to animal abuse. Those cultures are like a traditional festival for them and they must carry it out. For example Spain’s bulls fight festival. This festival is a very cruel and unethical festival. This festival is actually a festival that kills a bull to entertain audiences. Besides that, some of the people will even kill those animals just for the skin of the animal. For example, human being kills those snakes, crocodiles and bulls just for their skin to make wallets and handbags.

Besides that, some human will also kill the animal for gaining personal profit. Shark fin is a very good example of animal cruelty. In order to get the shark fin, they will just cut off the fin of the shark and throw them back into the sea. The shark without the fin will hardly swim and eventually the sharks will die in the sea. Another example of this point is eating puppy or dogs. In China, they will slaughter the dogs and puppy in their shop and cook it for the customers. Eating dog is an unethical behavior to do.

In addition, animal training may also lead to animal abuse. To train an animal to obey to a command is not an easy task or more precise is a very hard task. All animals are different. Some of the people may eventually hurt the animal without noticing when they are training the animals. Some of the training needs punishment to let the animals know or remember the move the people teach them. For example, in a circus, animal such as tiger, lion, and elephant need training before they can perform in front of the audience, during the training the people may hurt them without noticing because animals cant express themselves well.

http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_cruelty/why.php

http://voices.yahoo.com/animal-abuse-leading-causes-stop-it-6289042.html?cat=48

http://www.nhes.org/sections/view/330

http://tcr.sagepub.com/content/2/2/177.abstract

http://www.sunbearsquad.org/risks.shtml

Durkheim Modernity Theory

Durkheim saw Modernity as a new form of thinking that would change the way individuals functioned in society. It took away the overarching order in which humanity, nature and God were interlinked and functioned as the higher power and order of life in traditional societies. The Enlightenment bought about values of questioning, it began to examine the relationship and function that traditional institutions, customs and morals had on the individual and society. Science and rationality began to take the place of stability and order.

“The modernity of these modes of thought lay in the innovative way in which the philosophes sought to demolish and replace established forms of knowledge dependent of religious authority, such as the biblical account of the creation of the world, with those new forms of knowledge which depended upon experience, experiment and reason – quintessentially science.” (Hamilton 1992, p. 29).

This founding of individualism and new thought is what most worried Durkheim. He felt that strong bonds had to be maintained to keep solidarity which was what he felt society needed to function best. He questioned the place the individual now had in this modern society.

To Durkheim, social solidarity is the key to society, “Without these ‘social links,’ he stated, individuals would be separate and unrelated” (Morrison P. 128). It brings integration, social bonds and interchanges that he feels are key to a functioning society which cooperates together to achieve goals. After all, we are all fundamentally social where our life at home, work or worship is what defines us and gives us meaning and purpose. Without solidarity Durkheim felt, there would be poor cohesion which linked individuals to social groups. Durkheim’s The Division of Labour in Society (1893) puts forth the two diverse types of solidarity – mechanical and organic.

Mechanical solidarity saw society as a whole, with collective opinions and thoughts. The higher power of mechanical societies was held within religion. The stability and order of the Church gave continual reinforcement of the way to live your life and the population were bought together as a whole under this chain of being. This meant all individuals were directly linked and a part of society which carried with it strong social rules and moral values with little individual autonomy. At this time there was a strong collective conscience. “The conscience collective exists over and above individuals and becomes implanted in them. It is a society in which the division of labour remains at a very basic level” (Craib. I. 1997 p.65).

Due to Industrialism, society took a major turn and organic solidarity came into place. Industrialism bought about specialisation in the division of labour. As labour developed individuals became reliant on each other to perform separate functions and individual bonds grew rather than loyalties to society. Durkheim’s concern of organic solidarity was that he felt it took away the social rules which became paramount in mechanical,

“Durkheim asserted that the tendency exhibited by utilitarian’s to reduce society to individuals led them to ignore the larger system of social rules which acted as restraints on individual action”. (Morrison P. 125).

Individuals now had become a product of society. Urbanisation developed so people moved from rural areas into the cities for better work and job opportunities. This created a growing social mass and intensified social interaction. Durkheim was worried that in this form of modernity created selfish individuals which would exist and focus on their own economic gain even at the expense of others. Here, the conscience collective has decreased in importance and now concentrates on the individual. The enlightenment bought about the significance of science. This new knowledge embraced reason and logic which were very important to Durkheim as he was a positivist. People now questioned what was happening instead of leaving it to fate or divine will like in traditional societies. Challenging ideas created differences in opinion which eventually lead to the secularisation of society and threatened values, all contributing to individualism.

Industrialisation created a new way of work and lifestyle where labour became highly organised by the market and state and replaced the legitimisation of traditional authority. People began to become specialised in a particular form of labour which was then sold on or traded. Now, people were dependent on each other not reliant on society,

“The force of social bonds integrates individuals in their economic occupational functions, and the ties to society become indirect and operate through the division of labour” (Morrison, P. 130).

Durkheim felt there always had to be a higher power for society to function. Society can’t be reduced to just individuals, it was bigger than that and needed a higher power. In mechanical, God took the place whereas in organic solidarity it was traded with the formulation of the individual’s aim of reaching aspirations set by ourselves.

The low conscience collective in organic solidarity concerned Durkheim in the way that without the clear boundaries and reinforcement that the traditional societies set, common ideas would be lost and societies would become unsystematic and disorganised and the level of behaviour expected would break down. Durkheim described this state in his book Suicide (1897) to be ‘anomie’. The anomic state was a type of suicide which reasoned that aloneness or estrangement occurred when a relationship between the individual and society is shattered. Durkheim felt that, “Suicide is a result of society’s strength or weakness of control over the individual” (Shneidman p.24). They emerge from the collective but result in the individual belief. He saw this type of suicide as a social fact which ran through various societies not connected to each other.

We see the reason for anomic suicide to be that society has in some way failed that individual. In some ways the individuals committing suicide haven’t been able to create social cohesion and solidarity with their surrounding community. The isolation from this malfunction is the reason for their act of suicide.

To conclude, Durkheim felt that if we live our lives this way we will move away and deviate from a functioning society where working for the common good and living by shared norms was principal to the life that we should live. In some cases this may be true, with profit proving everything and exploitation of recourses and skills. Individuals are now placed and classified into society by their occupation and wealth. Durkheim hoped that in the future the importance of status from birth and inheritance would disappear. If everyone started from the same background and standing then societies would be equal and function best, “Consensus is possible” (Hawthorn p. 123). I feel that the disintegration of the conscience collective has affected the modern society we now live in. However, to say that the norms and values of traditional societies have disappeared is an exaggerated opinion of Durkheim’s. However, we do see that in today’s society the impacts of industrialism and individualism has created strong inequalities which Durkheim was afraid of happening and simply hopes that we can cooperate in such divisions of labour together.