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Introduction

Despite widespread publication of a positive economic impact resulting from the Rugby World Cup in 2015, issues such as overspending, forecasting accuracy, and the focus of the reporting itself, suggests there are also factors which may materially reduce the overall impact. Because of this, it is possible the widely publicised outlook for this event is overly optimistic. This report will critically analyse the direct, indirect and induced economic impact of the Rugby World Cup 2015 for England. Beginning with a summary of the economic impact, issues will then be examined with reference to the stated impacts, relevant literature, and comparable events around the world such as previous Rugby World Cups. The analysis concludes that the economic impact of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, while sizeable, may not be as significant as predicted.

Summary of Economic Impacts

A report by Ernst & Young forecasts a number of economic benefits to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, including over $2 million in economic output, and a direct boost to GDP of $463 million (Arnold and Grice, 2015; summarised in Table 1). Media promoting these benefits is widespread, with the Ernst & Young report often cited to describe and support the positive impacts of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The many media examples include Bergson (2015), Menary (2015), and Wilson (2015). Due to the credibility of the financial services firm Ernst & Young (Aubin, 2012), as well as the wide-spread publication of these results, the economic impact by Arnold and Grice (2015) will be used as the basis for this analysis, as summarised in Table 1.

Contribution TypeImpact CategoryImpact SourceAmount (millions)
OutputDirect

Visitor Spend

Ticket revenue (international)

Infrastructure investment

Fanzone spend

Stadia spend

$869

$68

$85

$5

$13

Indirect and induced $1,165
GDPDirect

Visitor spend

Ticket revenue (international)

Infrastructure contribution

Fanzone spend

Stadia contribution

$391

$29

$35

$2

$6

Indirect and induced $518

Table 1. Summarised from Arnold and Grice (2015, pp18-20)

For the purpose of this analysis, direct impact is considered to be initial spending stimulus arising from the event, including infrastructure expenditure and ticket revenue. Indirect economic impacts result from transactions that occur as a result of the initial spending, such as additional tourism expenditure in other areas. Induced impacts are the result of increased consumer spending due to higher income, such as greater support for sports and health overall. These definitions are outlined by Saayman and Saayman (2012, p223) and are consistent with the examples provided in the report by Arnold and Grice (2015).

Support and improvements for the Forecasted Economic Impact
Financial Stimulus

The publicity of a major sporting event is said to improve the local brand overall, resulting in additional foreign investment, including business and tourism. While arguably temporary, this publicity can stimulate activity during a time of economic slowdown, which in turn creates indirect economic impacts such as increased demand for manufacturing, and induced effects such as higher overall employment, in particular in the hospitality industry (Arnold and Grice, 2015; Statistics New Zealand, 2012).

While purely financial transactions are not included as part of GDP increases (McConnell et. al, 2010), some GDP growth may occur on the back of a strong financial market, driven by the Rugby World Cup. Increased publicity for the host country, coupled with high consumer excitement and mass sponsorship exposure may explain why share prices tend to improve during mass sporting events.

For example, during the 2013 Wimbledon, the 10 largest listed companies in Scotland experienced a 7.5% increase in share price, while the FTSE100 increased by 5.1% (Thanapathy, 2015). In addition, the first trading week following the announcement of a significant sponsorship agreement saw sponsoring companies in the U.S.A. experience significant share price gains (Harrow and Swatek, 2011). While not mentioned in the report by Arnold and Grice (2015), an induced economic impact to the Rugby World Cup may be increasing investment in additional goods and services, as business confidence increases due to the strong financial market.

The Multiplier Effect and Social Good

An additional contributor to GDP and output is the result of the multiplier effect, that is, the increase in investment bringing about a disproportionate increase in GDP via spending and re-spending (Saayman and Saayman, 2012; McConnell et. al, 2010). The multiplier effect during an event such as the Rugby World Cup is likely to be significant, not only through increased consumer and business spending, but in areas such as an increased interest in sports, which in turn encourages a higher focus on public health overall.

The social benefits of large sporting events are evident in the Comrades Marathon, where induced economic impacts included the benefits of increased income and spending reaching the poor. Saayman and Saayman (2012) note that their findings regarding the social benefits of the Comrades Marathon are consistent with broader literature, which also finds the economic impact of large scale sporting events reaches both rich and poor. Thus the direct impact of increased output and income generated by the Rugby World Cup is likely to increase GDP more than the initial investment, creating indirect and induced impacts via the multiplier effect.

Including both Domestic and International spend

When measuring economic impact, Arnold and Grice (2015) exclude domestic spend on sporting events because, it is argued, this money would remain in the economy regardless, being spent elsewhere if not on the Rugby World Cup. However, domestic spend may also be relevant as this recreational income could easily be spent in a different economy, were it not for this event (Saayman and Saayman, 2012).

Given the proximity of England to European destinations, and the cultural relevance of Soccer in England and Europe (Gibbons, 2014), it is likely that English income would be spent in other countries if the Rugby World Cup was held elsewhere – either to another destination for a holiday, or to the country hosting the World Cup. During the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, the second most popular tourist origin was direct from the U.K.; a significant number of additional sports tourists from the U.K. arrived via Australia (Statistics New Zealand, 2011). Thus both domestic and international expenditure on the Rugby World Cup 2015 is significant.

Amending visitor and ticket revenue, and revenue derived from food and beverages, to include domestic consumers may be more accurate than focusing solely on additional international income. New Zealand, for example, note an increase in domestic household spending during the Rugby World Cup 2011, driven primarily by food and beverage, in addition to international spend (Statistics New Zealand, 2011). Similar to the Canadian analysis of Sports Tourism, domestic income may be included on a separate line for clarity and completeness (The Outspan Group Inc, 2009).

While this may serve to increase forecasted output by increasing overall predicted spend, as discussed under ‘Forecasting Ticket Sales’, it is also possible that international spend reduces the economic impact of domestic expenditure in some areas, as the two may net each other out.

Limitations and Challenges to the Forecasted Economic Impact
The tendency to over-estimate

Historically, the economic impacts of sporting events have been overestimated by host countries (Leeds and Von Allmen, 2008; Horrow and Swatek, 2011). For example, the economic impact of the 2002 World Cup fell significantly short of the estimated $31 billion (Leeds and Von Allmen, 2008). While GDP and consumption was affected during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, New Zealand reports that it “did not contribute to the New Zealand economy, as measured in the BoP and national accounts” (Statistics New Zealand, 2011).

The Super Bowl XL publicised an economic impact of $300million on the back of sports tourism exceeding expectations, however figures later released by the Michigan Department of Treasury suggest the actual economic impact was negligible (Horrow and Swatek, 2011). It is thus highly possible that the economic impact for England has been similarly over-estimated.

Economic Impact Intention

As a general rule, economic impact reports measure total, as opposed to net, activity or income (Saayman and Saayman, 2012), and for this reason may appear overly positive compared to more balanced analyses, such as cost-benefit, where expenditure as well as income is considered.

While economic impact is sometimes defined as net benefit (Crompton, 2006 in Saayman and Saayman, 2012), the more widely accepted definition is “monetary payments as they move through a regional economy” for the purpose of measuring the impact of an event as it relates to that economy (Tyrrrell and Johnston, 2006, p3).

While omitting additional costs is technically correct, it can seem misleading in journal articles written for the general public, who may be unaware of these definitions. The article by Menary (2015), for example, presents an unrealistically optimistic view of the financial viability of the Rugby World Cup, as the public is only made aware of gains. Direct economic impacts, such as the $68 million in ticket revenue noted in the report by Arnold and Grice (2015) may return a far lower figure once additional costs such as administration have been taken into account. It is possible that GDP and output will increase by the stated amounts, however for a complete picture, more than the standard economic impact should be considered.

Forecasting: Ticket Sales as Incremental Income

It is possible that locals would attend the Rugby World Cup in place of tourists, were it not for the “influx of football fans” (Leeds and Von Allmen, 2008, p233) – a possibility that nets out the impact of international spend on tickets to some degree, since the international income is replacing local income – not adding to it. Further understanding local activity – the propensity to travel and attend local events – is therefore vital in understanding the true economic impact of international spending during the Rugby World Cup in 2015. As noted by Saayman and Saayman (2012, p232): “in order to increase the economic benefit of the event, expanding both these markets might be worthwhile”.

Further, one way Arnold and Grice (2015, p8) forecast ticket revenue and consumer interest is by measuring the historic percentage of seats filled during World Cup Events. While these percentages have hovered around 95% for the past two events, it is not known how many of these tickets were paid for, given away, or scalped. In the 2000 Olympics, for example, questions were raised regarding the distribution of tickets to sponsors and hospitality companies, while in the 2012 Summer Olympics, London began distributing free tickets to fill stadiums during events (Freid et. al., 2013). Predicting public interest is not as simple as measuring seats filled, and it is possible that increased output as a result of tickets sales is overstated.

Timeframe: Impact of one-off vs repetitive events

A number of impact drivers for the 2015 Rugby World Cup are short-term, which may help explain why the estimated benefits, in particular the induced benefits and assumptions regarding the multiplier effect, may be overstated. While regular, local events use existing infrastructure, require lower levels of investment, and have ongoing effects (Higham in Ritchie and Adair, 2004, p135), it is possible that larger events experience more temporary economic impacts, as the related investment is for a unique, rather than an ongoing, event.

In Japan, for example, Saitama currently spends nearly $4 million per year maintaining a stadium built to host the 2002 Rugby World Cup, despite the venue now only drawing around 20,000 spectators for local sporting events (Leeds and Von Allmen, 2008). In the U.S.A., an “abundance of abandoned and crumbling sports places” exist, many less than 20 years old (Horrow and Swatek, 2011, p3). As noted above under ‘The Tendency to Overestimate’, New Zealand experienced increased economic activity during the Rugby World Cup in 2011; however the long term impact was not as significant (Statistics New Zealand, 2011).

When measuring the economic impact in England, Arnold and Grice (2015, p11) refer to an induced economic impact of further investment on the back of “a lasting legacy for the sport”. In addition, infrastructure investment is listed as the second most influential direct economic impact. However, given the results in New Zealand, the U.S.A., Japan and Korea, and the nature of large, relatively infrequent sporting events, it is possible these benefits have been overstated, particularly in the long term.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is likely the economic impact of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, as outlined by Arnold and Grice (2015), is a good overview. Increased economic activity leads to direct impacts including increased output and GDP driven by higher foreign and corporate investment, such as sports tourism and corporate branding respectively. Indirect impacts include high intermediary activity, including increases in the hospitality industry and spend on food and beverages, while induced benefits are as far reaching as social support driven by higher consumer income and the multiplier effect.

While these impacts are positive, it is believed the magnitude of the results have been exaggerated, due to limitations including the tendency of host countries to overestimate the impact of sporting events, and the temporary effects of short-term events – even those as large as the Rugby World Cup. Further, due to the scope of an economic impact statement, many costs have gone unmentioned, creating a disproportionate impression of gains and optimism.

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Arnold, P. and Grice, M., 2015, ‘The Economic Impact of the Rugby World Cup 2015’, Ernst & Young, Available through http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-rugby-world-cup-final-report/$FILE/EY-rugby-world-cup-final-report.pdf
Freid, G., DeSchriver, T. and Mondello, M., 2013, Sports Finance, 3rd Ed., U.S.A.: Human Kinetics
Harrow. R, and Swatek, K., 2011, Beyond the Scoreboard, U.S.A.: Human Kinetics
Gibbons, T., 2014, English National Identity and Football Fan Culture, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Leeds, M. and Von Allmen, P., 2008, The Economics of Sports, 3rd ed., Boston: Pearson
McConnell, C, Brue, S, Flynn, S. and Barbiero, T., 2010, Macroeconomics, 12th ed., Canada: McGraw Hill Ryerson
Menary, S. 2015, ‘Rugby to prove lucrative game as World Cup kicks off’, The National: Business, Sept 17 2015, Available through http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/rugby-to-prove-lucrative-game-as-world-cup-kicks-off
Outspan Group Inc, The., 2009, The Economic Impacts of Cultural and Sport Tourism in Canada 2007, Amherst Island: The Outspan Group Inc.
Ritchie, B. and Adair D. (eds)., 2004, Sport Tourism: Interrelationships, Impacts and Issues, U.K.: Channel View Publications
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Statistics New Zealand, 2011, ‘Impact of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand’s macro-economic statistics’, Statistics New Zealand, Available through http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/NationalAccounts/impact-of-rugby-world-cup.aspx
Thanapathy, S. 2015, ‘Off the Pitch: The winners and losers of the Rugby World cup’, Australian Times: Sport, 25 Sept 2015, Available through http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/off-the-pitch-the-winners-and-losers-of-the-rugby-world-cup/
Tyrrell, J. and Johnston, R., 2006, ‘The Economic Impact of Tourism’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 45, Aug 1 2006, Available through Deep Dyve at https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/the-economic-impacts-of-tourism-a-special-issue-RCkCF7L8ja?articleList=%2F
Wilson, B. 2015, ‘Rugby World Cup a global game changer, says RFU’s Ritchie’, BBC News: Business, 24 Sept 2015, Available through http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34130763

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This essay discusses the ability of the governments in developing countries to promote and manage economic development. In essence, the essay discusses the fact that the governments of developing economies understand the problems they face and have a set of priorities, and that the heads of government may have personnel educated and trained abroad who are familiar with recent economic thinking, plus the possibility of support from international institutions. However, they may lack the resources to implement policy, elements of the economy may be outside their control, they may have corrupt bureaucracies, may lack competence at different levels of government and may set anti-developmental priorities. In addition, the problems they face in managing their economic development may be the result of external factors beyond their control, and the narrow base of the economy may make them very susceptible to external shocks. In addition, policies once implemented may face conditions, either internal or external, which cause them to fail. In general, the essay considers that East Asian economies supply examples of competent economic management, while sub-Saharan Africa has a record of failed economic management.

Africa has heard calls for democracy for many decades, both from internal and external sources, and due to external and internal factors (Darga, 1997), however, especially in this climate, where nations go to war in the name of fighting for democratization, it is important to realise that governance and democracy are not the same thing. Governance, i.e., governing the people in a responsible manner which leads to equal economic prosperity for all inhabitants, is not the same as democracy, which can be defined, in its simplest terms, as “rule by the people”, and these two ideas have very different practical applications and outcomes, although they are interrelated, and both have emphases which can be political or economical. The World Bank defines governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development” and it is under the terms of this definition that the present essay shall move forwards, even though this definition does not specify that democracy is a pre-requisite for governance.

As can be seen from any analyses of the present state of the economies of these two continents, Africa and East Asia are at very different developmental stages, in terms of social, economic and also political development, perhaps because, in Africa (for example, Zimbabwe), leaders have often failed to deliver on their promises for enhanced economic performance, with changes of regimes also failing to improve economic or social conditions; on the other hand, in East Asia, for example, in Japan, which came very late to industrialisation, under a Western framework, a market system was created which has led to sustained economic success for this economy. Further examples from East Asia, such as Taiwan and Korea show that strong governance, in the formation of rent creating avenues, such as fiscal incentives and protection and promotion, can lead to the formation of an environment that is conducive to private investment, which propels the country to economic success (Darga, 1997). Thus, governance is of fundamental importance to the economic success of a nation, and nations without strong governments cannot promote and manage economic development, at least not in the long-term.

Thus, the need for positive governance is fundamental, in terms of developing architectures which allow future economic prosperity, but it can be seen, across the less developed world, that even if the governments of developing economies understand the problems they face and have a set of priorities for tackling these problems, and even if those heads of government are assisted by personnel who have been educated and trained abroad and who are familiar with recent economic thinking, these governments may well lack the resources to implement policy, elements of their economy may be outside their control, they may have corrupt bureaucracies, they may lack competence at different levels of government and may set anti-developmental priorities. In addition, the problems they face in managing their economic development may be the result of external factors beyond their control, such as payments to impossible external debts, and, as such, the narrow base of the economy may make the country very susceptible to external shocks.

A case in point here to illustrate this is Colombia. Colombia is very rich in natural resources, and indeed the government has just begun the process of privatizing its oil resources, through Ecopetrol, but the country has massive external debts, which cripples its economic structure (Solimano, 2000). In addition, the country is beset by other problems which do not allow progress in economic development: it is in the middle of a civil war, between left-wing guerrillas (the FARC and ELN) and the right-wing paramilitaries, said to have been formed as counter-guerrilla movements by the current President, Alvaro Uribe (Solimano, 2000). On top of this, which does not allow the country to flourish, economically, as many people who are able to work cannot do so due to the fighting in large parts of the country, or due to the fact that working in the illegal drugs industry is more lucrative when you need to feed your family, the country is being coerced in to signing a free-trade (the TLC) agreement with the United States, which, under the guise of ‘free trade’ and ‘trade liberalization’ would basically mark the end of Colombian agricultural production in some sectors, due to the expected influx of massive amounts of highly subsidized goods from the United States (Solimano, 2000).

This situation, however complicated it is by the conflict over drugs, is not unique to Colombia: many less developed countries find themselves run by competent governors but unable to forge ahead economic development due to many adverse external factors which cripple any economic progress they try to make (Smith, 2007). Thus, whilst many in the West can blame the problems of the less developed world on the lack of adequate governance, this simply is not the case on the ground in many of these less developed countries. For some of these countries, Argentina, for example, which just passed through one of the worst economic crises of recent times, due to a miscalculation of its foreign exchange system, crippling levels of external debt, which have yet to be forgiven, mean that interest payments make up the bulk of the country’s expenses, at the expense of urgent social development programs. This leads to further problems for less developed countries: as social programs are ignored and left aside, through lack of funds, the youth become more disillusioned still, making it difficult for them to be educated fully, making it difficult for them to find work, and thus making it easier for them to enter in to crime, posing far greater social problems for the country concerned (Smith, 2007). It has been suggested that this vicious circle can only be broken when the full extent of the contribution of external problems to the problems of less developed countries is acknowledged fully, and acted upon, by, for example, offering debt relief.

Thus, the problems of governance and how these relate to the problems of less developed countries is an agenda to be taken seriously, but not as an agenda in itself, but rather as a means to an end, especially bearing in mind that good governance can only come about when the populace has a certain level of social coherence (Smith, 2007). It is a rather obscure form of negative cultural relativism that assumes that less developed countries cannot ‘manage themselves’ solely because of the problems of government. People in less developed countries, especially those who have been educated abroad, are as capable than people in developed countries, in terms of formulating solutions to the present problems and implementing these solutions. The ability of the governments in developing countries to promote and manage economic development is generally not a function of the personnel involved, although factors like corruption and lack of democracy are, often, present and highly negative, but rather a complex reaction to a range of factors, both internal and external, which usually mean that whatever government is in place in a less developed country cannot fully solve the problems present in that country at any particular time, due to the magnitude of those external and internal problems: the ability to solve those problems, to allow for the promotion and sustenance, of economic development simply is not possible, especially in those countries with no industrial development to speak of (i.e., many African countries) and those countries with other problems (i.e., Colombia or Afghanistan, for example, where civil war, related to drugs, prevents true economic development) (Smith, 2007).

There is no panacea for how to achieve sustained economic development in less developed countries, due to the myriad of inter-related problems facing each and every one of these countries, and the idea that the ability of the governments, alone, is responsible for promoting and managing economic development in less developed countries is naive, to say the least. Developed countries have a responsibility to the less developed countries to offer fair aid to these countries, so that they might be allowed to govern themselves, from a level playing field, towards sustained economic development.

References
Cheema, G.S. (2005). Building democratic institutions: governance reform in developing countries. Kumarian Press.
Darga, L.A. (1997). Governance and economic development in Africa. Available http://www.unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/ public/documents/CAFRAD/UNPAN008715.pdf [28th October 2007].
Jreist, J.E. (2001). Governance and developing countries. Brill.
Pang, G. (2005). Efficiency of public spending in developing countries: an efficiency frontier approach. World Bank Policy Research Paper No. 3645.
Pitt, A. (2005). New forms of governance: the role of the World Bank and civil society in Argentina. Thesis, Oxford Brookes University.
Smith, B. (2007). Good governance and development. Palgrave Macmillan.
Solimano, A. (2000). Essays on Conflict, Peace, and Development: Colombia (Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Reconstruction). World Bank Publications.
Van de Sijpe, N. and Rayp, G. (2004). Measuring and explaining government inefficiency in developing countries. Working Paper of the University of Ghent.

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Discuss ways in which Richard Schechner’s ‘Performance Theory’ may be of use to contemporary practitioners. Illustrate your answer with reference to at least one dance or theatre performance which you have seen ‘live’.

The influence of Richard Schechner (b. 1934) on both theatre production and academic theory has been profound and, in some ways, revolutionary. Schechner has consistently challenged traditional practices and perspectives of theatre, performance and ritual for almost half a century. His principal contention is that drama is not merely a province of the stage, but of everyday life, and is a cross-cultural phenomenon. ‘It is important to develop and articulate theories concerning how performances a regenerated, transmitted, received and evaluated in pursuit of these goals, performance studies is insistently intercultural, inter-generic and inter-disciplinary’. (Schechner, 1995)

As with all academic studies, performance theory is founded on certain key principles, which include such terms as ‘presentation of self’, ‘restored behaviour’ and ‘expressive culture’, and incorporates social drama and ritual. His concept of performance, which contrasts sharply with previous, principally modernist, approaches to the arts, asserts the importance of different ‘systems of transformations’, which vary enormously from culture to culture, and throughout historical periods and movements.

The radical nature of performance theory is demonstrated by its all-encompassing, even holistic, approach to theatre and performance, with popular culture, folklore, and ethnic diversity incorporated into the cross-disciplinary mix. In examining the ways in which the theory can be useful to theatre practitioners, it is important to examine in more detail the main strategies it deploys, including the concept of ‘performativity’.

The word ‘performative’ was originated by J.L Austin, a linguistic philosopher, who coined the term for the first time during lectures at Harvard University in 1955. Expressions such as ‘I take this man to be my lawfully wedded husband’ are an example of an action in itself, rather than simply the description of an action. As Austin put it, ‘to say something is to do something’. (Austin, 1962)

‘Performativity’ as a concept is closely related to postmodernism. The postmodern view does not see the idea of ‘performance’ as intrinsically artistic or theatrical, but as something that pervades the fabric of the social, political and material world. It is an inalienable part of what constitutes power and knowledge. Teaching and lecturing, political speech-making and religious sermonising illustrates this characteristic of performativity.

The postmodern view of things posits a standpoint that culture has become a commodity in itself, rather than a critique of commodity. It is inseparable from the context of post-World War II Western society, where new goods and technology, and corresponding cultural developments, emerged from the rubble of post-war austerity. This shift from modernist to postmodernist thinking in the arts can be located in the 1950s, with movements such as abstract expressionism, modernist poetry and existentialism in literature and philosophy representing a high flowering of the modernist impulse. The postmodern world, originating in the 1960s, represented a blurring of distinction between high art and popular, mass-communicated mediums, formerly derided as ‘low art’.

‘Recognising, analysing, and theorising the convergence and collapse of clearly demarcated realities, hierarchies, and categories is at the heart of postmodernism. Such a convergence or collapse is a profound departure from traditional Western performance theory’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 116)

In the Schechner universe, the previously solid foundation of modernism, with clearly defined borders of reality and representation in performance, has been wrenched away, and many of the assumptions in the western artistic tradition, from Plato and Aristotle on, such as the notion that theatre reflects, imitates or represents reality, in both individual and social life. ‘Representational art of all kinds is based on the assumption that ‘art’ and ‘life’ are not only separate but of different orders of reality. Life is primary, art secondary’. (Schechner, 2002, P.116)

In Performance Studies, Schechner asserts that ‘performing onstage, performing in special social situations (public ceremonies, for example), and performing in everyday life are a continuum’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 143) His contention that each and every one of us is in some sense a ‘performer’ is difficult to dispute. Engaging in ‘real life’ is often indistinguishable from ‘role play’, and in today’s ‘surveillance societies’ of Western culture, with CCTV cameras seemingly everywhere, the scope for performance as an extension of simply being has never been wider. The evident logical development of this is the ubiquitous ‘reality TV’ show, as well as the do-it-yourself webcam and personal websites on the internet, both of which have contributed a new dimension to ‘the style of being’. 2

Pop artist Andy Warhol would surely have embraced the new media’s possibilities for exhibitionism, and reflected wryly on his own pioneering role in this phenomenon. His films of the1960s and ’70s were forerunners of reality TV, and his mantra of ’15 minutes of fame’ has never seemed more applicable.

At first glance, Schechner’s hypotheses appears to fulfil both Warhol’s philosophy and Shakespeare’s oft-quoted ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ as an approach to performance. The key concern of the drama ordnance practitioner is to place this into the context of performing a in a way beyond simply ‘being in itself’ to the portrayal of a self-contained ‘thing in itself’- an abstract presentation of a text or idea, for the purposes of entertain mentor education. (E.g. Theatre-in-education)

The actor or ‘player’ is not alone in presenting self-contained performances, with a beginning, middle and end. As Schechner observes, various figures in the public arena adopt strategies of performance and role play, such as politicians, religious leaders, and businessmen and women, conducting presentations at meetings: ‘Paid performers all seeking attention, adulation, re-election, and money’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 146) They all have their own strategies and scenarios to achieve effects, towards a specific goal, and, like the theatre/performing arts practitioner, their performances are predicated on self-consciousness.

‘ Across this very wide spectrum of performing are varying degrees of self-consciousness and consciousness of the others with whom and for whom we play. The more self-conscious a person is the more one constructs behaviour for those watching and/or listening, the more such behaviour is performing.’ (Schechner, 2002, P.146)

The application of role playing in many contexts, from psychotherapy sessions to teacher training exercises, follows similar approaches as drama improvisation classes, albeit with different objectives, but no less in addressing the self-conscious and unconscious impulses which lie at the basis of performance. It reflects the in-built routines, rituals and conventions of everyday life, instilled from birth, and through childhood experience. The Jungian theories of archetypes and the collective unconscious would suggest that the individual’s mind is not a tabularasa (blank page) at the time of birth – the implications of which are potent with creative possibilities for the practitioner/performing artist.

The concept of ‘performing in everyday life’ is a central aspect of performativity, as envisaged by Schechner. ‘Performativity is everywhere – in daily behaviour, in the professions, on the internet and media, in the arts and in the language’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 110) It is a natural progenitor of role play and improvisation. The expression ‘showing off’ is heard frequently throughout childhood, but is equally applicable to adult behaviour. Certain jobs and professions have evolved traditional codes of conduct, some of which have emerged as specific character traits, behaviour patterns and tones of voice. These have in turn been stylised into stereotypical representations: the roles of dignified clergyman, ardent reporter, solemn court judge, et al. They usually adhere to custom, but have evolved into modes of performance.

The implication is that many individuals, going about their ‘everyday business’ are not being themselves all of the time. They are acting out roles, predetermined to the point of being programmed in some cases. ‘Performing in everyday life involves people in a wide range of activities from solo or intimate performances behind closed doors to small group activities to interacting as part of a crowd.’ (Schechner,2002, P. 175)

Schechner observes that the social codes of our daily lives are adapted to greater or lesser degrees by everyone. The unconventional or rebellious resist the rules, but only revolutionaries seek to break them to achieve permanent change – a principal equally applicable to artists. The arts, and particularly the theatre, have always made use of stereotypes and archetypes, often parodying or subverting them. Those practitioners who set out to achieve truthful performances, to ‘get under the skin’ of a character, can identify with these typical representations, as role play exercises reveal, but the underlying personality lies a layer or two deeper.

‘In the theatre the actor and the audience both know that the actor is not who she is playing. But in real life a person is simultaneously performing herself and being herself. The matter is, of course, nicely complicated because in some methods of realistic acting, actors are taught how to use their own selves to construct theatrical roles’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 177)

In approaching the role of , for example, a science teacher, and avoid a one-dimensional portrayal, an actor must discover the character as not simply a teacher, carrying out a teacher’s role, but as an individual when ‘off duty’ during times, as Schechner puts it, when ‘the performance aspect of ordinary behaviour is less obvious, but not absent’. (Schechner, 2002, P. 177) 4

The actor can draw on his/her own experience, be it of a personal kind (i.e. they may have previously been a teacher) or from memories and observations based on an actual person, or persons. (E.g. a teacher who had taught them) Naturally, this approach places more demands on the actor, enabling him/her to enact a performance of a person who is also a science teacher, rather than simply a science teacher with no identity beyond his/her teaching duties.

A-Gender, produced in 2004 by Joey Hately, artistic director of Transaction Theatre Company, was a postmodern theatre piece that adopted many of the elements of new theatre and performance theory very effectively. Ostensibly a presentation of gender politics portrayed as a personal case history, A-Gender presented the issue of transsexualism in a powerfully theatrical manner, deploying methods of performance outside the restrictions of conventional theatre.

The use of the ‘one man (or one woman) show’ format (a prototypical popular cultural form) and the ‘stand up ‘routine, interwoven with visual media (video sequences) and other performance modes, enabled the artist/performer to convey the confusion, pain and anger of person whose gender identity causes them to believe that they have been born in the wrong body, the wrong gender.

A-Gender adopted a modus operandi of style and performativity that placed it squarely in the new theatre approach. Its subject matter determined this, and evident devices to unsettle, or even alienate, the audience were adopted by Hately effectively. Some of these devices were not exclusively of postmodernist origin, having close links to the Theatre of the Absurd and Brechtian strategies of alienation, but the multi-media technique of juxtaposing live theatre with pre-filmed video sequences, was pure new theatre.

In fringe, community, and street theatre performances, the scope for applying Schechner’s performance theory is virtually limitless. The roots of street theatre are varied and eclectic, having both a primitive, ritualistic dimension, with antecedents in ancient and tribal cultures, as well as avant garde origins of performance art at the start of the 20^th century (e.g. surrealism, dada, etc), culminating in the pop art, post-modern dance and ‘Happenings’ of the 1960s, a movement from which Schechner’s early work in the theatre emerged.

Street theatre performances contain some elements derived from Happenings, which Allan Kaprow outlined in The seven qualities of Happenings. (Kaprow, 1966)

There are essential differences. Street theatre is usually played out for the benefit of an audience, albeit one of a generally random nature, some of whom may become participants, but not in the same way as in Happenings – with everyone performing and no audience. One element they do share is the idea of the ‘found space’, which is crucial to ‘environmental theatre’. Kaprow stated, ‘it doesn’t make any difference how large the space is. It’s still a stage’. (Kaprow quoted in Schechner,1977) Schechner elaborated on this principle with his axiom that ‘the theatrical event can take place in a totally transformed space, or found space’. (Schechner, 1977)

Whereas traditional theatre restricts the ‘special place’ to an area (the stage) marked clearly as the space for performance, new theatre creates a space that is ‘organically defined by the action’. As in the Happening, and street theatre, space is transformed by the participants, who discover their own sets and scenery, using their surroundings, the various elements ‘found in the environment of the space, including decor, textures and acoustics.

Outdoor stage performances have adopted this principle, with many touring theatre companies using castle ruins, woodland clearings and riversides to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice. This use of transformed space is perhaps a more conservative application of Schechner’s theory, as it retains many of the conventions of traditional theatre. The theatrical stage is simply substituted for its outdoor counterpart. Much of street theatre approaches adopt a radical use of space in the environment.

There are innumerable ways in which performance theory and new theatre are a useful alternative to traditional theatre. The application of other (visual) media has already been noted, as in the example of A-Gender. Schechner proposes others:

‘I suggest other tools, other approaches. Mathematical and transactional game analysis, model building, comparisons between theatre and related performance activities – all will prove fruitful.’ (Schechner, 1988, P. 27-28) This demands a high level of intense physical and mental rigour from the practitioner, as Schechner sees theatre as alive, experiential, organic, rather than something that merely replicates or reconstructs reality. His theory offers many practical methods for both student and practitioner to follow, in the form of both things to think about and things to do.

These are inter-disciplinary and encourage an expansionist outlook, which is cross-cultural, as well as making explorative use of the inner life of the performer. This dynamic and multi-faceted approach can be adopted by the full range of performing arts, which the theory so comprehensively reflects. For both actors and directors it creates new space and new possibilities, especially to the experimental and fringe theatre practitioner.

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Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German poet, playwright and theatre director. This project will look at the development of Brecht’s playwriting over time in response to the socio-political changes in Berlin, by evaluating Brecht’s work in the three periods of different political environments that Brecht was exposed to in Berlin.

These should reveal how historical context and political stance shaped his work. Some reference will be made to the plays mentioned, due to their content and the different times in which they were written. Academic and contemporary responses mentioned in this project were mostly acquired at the Brecht Haus archive in Berlin on 14th February 2008.

During the First World War, Brecht doubted in a school essay whether it was honourable to die for your nation and this feeling was heightened when he had to serve in the war as a medical orderly in 1918 (Rosenhaft, 1994). His first plays were written as the war ended; the working title of one of his first was Spartakus (later published as Drums of the Night), after the organisation of the German revolutionaries Luxemburg and Liebknecht.

Brecht’s radical side is clear in his early plays; he talks about the decay and corruption of the bourgeois society that he felt a part of (Meech, 1994). Yet arguably at this point in time, Brecht was “a bohemian rather than a Marxist” (Schoeps, 1992). The polarisation of the Weimar Republic and the rise of fascism that resulted in stronger political beliefs and works in the late 1920s (Fetscher, 1980). Saint Joan of the Stockyards, an allegory on the workings of the stock exchange, is an example of this (McCullough, 1994).

The Weimar Republic saw the increasing commercialisation of leisure activity with the rise of popular entertainment (cinema, sports, dance, jazz, etc) (Rosenhaft, 1994). The educated, bourgeois audience was being replaced by a broader audience. This cultural democratisation affected the role of the writer (Silberman, 1993). Some traditionalists sought new ways of asserting their elitism whilst others like Brecht began to develop a habit of production that submerged the author’s subjectivity within a collective (Meech, 1994) as seen with the adaptations of Marlowe’s Life of Edward the Second (1924) and Man Equals Man (1926).

The notion of aesthetic activity as production rather than creation, theorised by Brecht in his essay The Threepenny Lawsuit (1932) indicates this shift. Social changes have therefore directly impacted Brecht’s style of writing and theoretical concepts of theatre. Brecht was taught Marxism in the late 1920s twenties by Korsch and Benjamin, both anti-Stalinists (Esslin, 1959). Brecht supported the KPD, a mass party that to him seemed the only force capable of confronting Hitler, unlike the main Trotskyist organisation in Berlin with only 50 members (Windisch & Brandon, 2006).

He would not have had much opportunity to influence events otherwise. Brecht’s turn to Marxism changed his approach to theatre. He rejected the naturalistic style that presented the audience with a perfect illusion of reality. For productions of Drums of the Night, he suggested hanging a banner above the stage saying “Don’t Stare So Romantically!” Ironically, the need for a new form of theatre became obvious to him after his biggest financial success. The Threepenny Opera (1928) illustrated begging as an organised trade, with criminals working hand in glove with the police. But rather than shocking bourgeois audiences, the play was a huge success (Schmidt, 1992).

Audiences loved music, while Brecht’s critique of capitalism did not attract much attention. Brecht was involved in the conflicts at the end of the Weimar Republic. One month after the premiere of The Mother (1932), police ordered that the play could be recited but not played. The production of another play was stopped because Nazis were assaulting the actors (Windisch & Brandon, 2006). Brecht’s vision of a more humane society changed with the rise of fascism (Silberman, 1993).

He usually failed to represent convincingly the alternative order that could confront fascism, as seen in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (1938), The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar (1938-39), and the Book of Changes (1935-42). As a Marxist, when the Nazis gained power, Brecht went into exile, staying close to the German border in Denmark and Finland to support the anti-fascist struggle until the war forced him to leave for the USA (1941). Until the end of WWII, Brecht’s plays rarely reached the stage.

Yet the plays written in exile are his most famous today. Brecht expressed opposition to National Socialist and Fascist movements in Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Mother Courage, for example, is torn between protecting her children from the war and making a profit out of the Thirty Years War (Leach, 1994). Key themes in the play include war as business, virtue in wartime and morality.

None of those plays put simple answers to the moral questions they raise, and none of them are simple propaganda pieces. Rather, they show how the possibilities of the individual characters are limited by social conditions, and they force the viewer to think about the limits of “common sense” moral judgements (Windisch & Brandon, 2006). Brecht focused on new representation.

On the one hand, the formal reductionism of the parable plays from this period seems to function as a kind of protective shield against the impossible contradictions of reality, but on the other, the shift in subject and technique to more deliberate forms of distancing de-centres the text-audience relation by transferring the utopian imagination into the spectators themselves (Silberman, 1993). The prologue to The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944) suggests the political and poetic utopia Brecht envisioned in his mature plays.

Brecht’s invitation to return to the GDR, enticed by offer of own theatre and company, shows that although Brecht was not a member of the Communist Party, his allegiances were sincere (Esslin, 1959). The impressive Berliner Ensemble, visited on 15th February 2008, solely for the use of Brecht’s work and directing, and his work still dominates the theatre today (fieldtrip, 2008). He spent his last years defining and reworking his ideas. Although towards the end of his life Brecht wrote few plays, some famous poems have emerged from after the Second World War (Rundell, 1980).

The Solution was Brecht’s commentary on uprising (1953) the GDR; he supported government measures taken to crush the uprising, including the use of Soviet military force, despite his concern for the protesting people as well. His allegiance to the communist regime is portrayed in The Days of the Commune, which is based on the proletariat revolution of the Paris Commune in 1871, which attempted to bring about a revolution through the working class. Brecht is often criticised for returning to the GDR (Fetscher, 1980).

In fact, exile gave Brecht first-hand experience of the ‘freedom’ of the West. He was blacklisted – out of 40 scripts he wrote, one was accepted for filming, and this was cut severely by Hollywood that Brecht withdrew it. Brecht’s commitments were leftist enough to provoke HUAC’s investigation in 1947 and the refusal of visas for travel to West Germany under US control (Kruger, 2004). Brecht also came into conflict with the Stalinist cultural bureaucracy. They forced him to make changes in several productions and even stopped two of them (Esslin, 1959).

Brecht received support for his theatre in East Germany but he expressed private reservations about SED policy, especially after the workers’ uprising on 17 June 1953 challenged the party’s claim to lead a “workers’ and peasants’ state” (Kruger, 2004). Brecht’s relation to the GDR regime remained contradictory. On the one hand, he said it would be better to have a bad socialism than to have none, he also disliked the dictatorship. When the Berlin workers uprising (1953) was repressed, he wrote a letter to the general secretary of the Communist Party in which he called for dialogue (Esslin, 1959).

Only his last sentence backing the government was published. Hi call for dialogue, I believe, had two aims. Firstly, to reinstate peace amongst the campaigning people, as it seems unlikely Brecht would have spoken publicly against the GDR regime, despite his dissatisfaction with the scenario. Secondly, because of his pro-GDR regime status and his status as a GDR icon, his words would be more trusted by both parties.

There is much argument over Brecht’s true thoughts regarding the 1953 uprising. In private, Brecht was more outspoken. In his unpublished poem The Solution, he ironically asks, “If the people had forfeited the confidence of the government, would it not be easier to dissolve the people and elect another?”

Brecht intended his theatre to be a critique of society, believing that theatre’s function was to educate, and to achieve this he created his epic theatre theory. “A play should not cause the spectator to emotionally identify with the action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the actions on the stage”. Brecht wanted audiences to use critical perspective to identify social ills and therefore effect change, having described his plays as a collective political meeting in which the audience is to participate actively (Brooker, 1994).

For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind spectators the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself called the alienation effect (Esslin, 1959). To achieve this, he ripped up the traditional five act structure of static drama. Inspired by Russian revolutionary theatre, he looked for ways to interrupt the main plot (Windisch & Brandon, 2006). For example, he used comments on the action directed to the audience, songs in between and projections of text with extra information.

To undermine the natural curiosity of the audience, he used an announcer to summarise the scene before it was shown. This allowed him to show that the course of events is not simply given, and therefore demands choices and active intervention. The political side of his plays became harder to ignore. A good example is The Mother, which is set during the Russian 1905 revolution, showing a mother who wants to free her Bolshevik son from jail – and how by doing so she gradually becomes convinced of Communism herself (Windisch & Brandon, 2006).

Brecht chose historical settings as another means of creating a distance between the viewer and the play. In Galileo Galilei, the struggle between the scientist and the Catholic Church served as the scene for a debate on the tensions between individual beliefs and the way our rulers try to control our thoughts (Weber, 1980).

Brecht’s has attracted immense controversy since his early theatrical successes in the 1920s, having been compared to Shakespeare (Laughton); Brecht is considered one of the great playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Over 50 years after his death, his plays – along with those of Chekhov – are the most frequently performed works (Fuegi, 1995). As Brook has emphasised: “Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point starts or returns to his statements and achievement”. But much praise for his ability and work is usually held up because of his Marxist views.

This political allegiance has annoyed some critics like Willet, who has chosen to look upon it as something unfortunate but incidental to his achievements. Bentley also expresses his disappointment: Brecht “would be a better writer if he gave up Marxism”. Others oppose his work on the grounds that it is propagandistic and lacks the subjective sentiments accessible only through a more personal theatre of individual experience. Inevitably, commentators are forced to approach Brecht by addressing not only his plays but also his writings on theatre as well as the way he directed productions.

Mostly they decide to deal with his technical expertise in isolation from his politics (Fuegi, 1995). Brecht is seen as a modern dramatist and poet worthy of careful study, and of no more particular interest except that he also happened to be political (Breuer 1992, Weber 1992). This purposeful attempt to neglect the political Brecht is frustrating because of its success in obscuring the relevance of his achievements, despite his surviving attempts by fascism to destroy its revolutionary content and undermine its significance.

Most commentators have failed to understand the rationale of the method involved. But Brecht was quite clear about what he wanted and how he proposed to get it. When he referred to Marx as “the only audience for my plays that I had come across”, Brecht was describing a primary focus that is lost on his many critics. He did not mean that only Marxists could understand his plays. Rather it was Marxists alone who could understand what he was trying to do. Brecht comprehended how controlling cultural production had become under capitalism. His response was to do something about it by creating a theatre that sought to redefine the relationship between audience and performance (Trommler, 1980).

Yet the historical illusions of modernism have become a problem of positioning oneself subjectively in a post-modern age when evaluating the subject of this study. Brecht was a communist without a party card. He could write only “on commission from the party,” their precarious status did not hinder him from criticising the policies of the party as well as praising its goals (Volker, 1987). His critiques were never simply blunt attacks, but were handled lightly with wit and satire.

However, the party officials did not appreciate his critical irony, but preferred instead the sympathetic tracts of bourgeois authors. Brecht’s communist allegiances have also led to numerous attempts by the mainstream art world to degrade his legacy – either by claiming that his plays are worthless Stalinist propaganda, or by claiming that they are worthwhile despite the politics (Windisch & Brandon, 2006).

Yet Brecht’s popularity has depended on misreading since 1928, when “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” song performed as part of The Threepenny Opera in Berlin became one of the most-recorded standards in the history of pop music. Brecht (and his composer Weill) might have wanted an art that hastens the overthrow of capitalism; instead they got covers from Darin and Sinatra (Tonkin, 2006).

Depoliticising Brecht, however, is a difficult job – he wrote plays with titles such as The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoisie and Days of the Commune, and poems like The Song of the Class Enemy (Windisch & Brandon, 2006). Brecht’s period in exile was a fight against material want, persecution, betrayal, and political disappointment (Volker, 1987). The last years of his life were spent in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), because he wanted “another Germany” based on the principles of peace and socialism.

There, he was able to preserve his independence and artistic integrity. He welcomed the politicisation of art while vigorously defending his work against any state ideology (Volker, 1987). His theatre, the Berliner Ensemble, was opposed to the official GDR doctrine on art (Socialist Realism) and to the German Stanislavski tradition (naturalism) (Etkind, 1980). On principle, he rejected the use of art and theatre to conform to state requirements of taste.

Brecht’s main contribution, then, is to be found in the innovative ways he devised for examining history and making the processes of history visible as changeable ones (Trommler, 1980). Brecht’s impact is not to be found in any recipes he may have provided but rather in the possibility of his writings to enable our own creativity in thinking about historical truths and processes (Silberman, 1993).

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The nature of musical communication and the framework of thought, feeling and behaviour within which this communication takes place.

Musical communication is commonly associated with place or location; for instance a piece of music will often bring about a flood of memories recalling the place the piece was heard, perhaps the people in whose company the time listening to the piece was spent and certainly the mood of the piece. A piano recital is the cultural event we will focus on, using specific examples of piano recitals held around the world, drawing on reports about those recitals from performers and audience alike. The framework of thought, feeling and behaviour which takes place at a piano recital is different from any other cultural environment, primarily because it the most special and intimate of instruments, one which connects the player with the listener in intimate and unmediated communication, in a pure communicative act. The piano is an instrument which evokes extraordinary passion, requires considerable dedication and patience, together with skill and flair to bring about a perfect percussive performance.

There are a number of key players in a piano recital, not least the composer who communicates his art to the pianist and onwards, through the instrument, to an audience. The composer is the translator of musical ideas into a symbolic form, usually the twelve semi-tone scale on a musical stave. The standard Western musical notation is a treble clef and a bass clef. Each note can be between lines or on a line and the piece is given a time signature denoting the rhythm of the music. Other symbols signify changes in tone, pace, volume and feeling. The behaviour of the player is also communicated from the composer to the pianist using symbols, including Italianate adjectives, although with more modern piano pieces the Italianate is often replaced with words from the composers’ usual vocabulary. Examples include piano, meaning quiet and forte, meaning loud.

The nature of this communication is symbolic, or in the words of Roland Barthes, the literary critic, semiotic Barthes (Barthes 1977) views semiology as underlying all communication, an ’empire of the signs’ that extends over film and photography, music criticism and reading and writing as historically situated activities. He identifies two natures of music:

There are two musics (at least so I have always thought): the music one listens to, the music one plays. These two musics are totally different arts, each with its own history, its own sociology, its own aesthetics, its own erotic; the same composer can be minor if you listen to him, tremendous if you play him (even badly) – such as Schumann. (Barthes 1977, p. 149)

We will employ this distinction between passive and active to our discussion of the piano recital, where passive music is the music we listen to and active music is the music we play. Schumann is the composer we will focus on when discussing the cultural event that is the piano recital.

Robert Schumann was a significant figure in German musical romanticism. (Jensen 2001) Schumann specialised in writing lyrical piano music and songs, but also composed notable orchestral choral and chamber works. He literary output was motivated by his love of literature which informed his musical criticism and composition. He was forced to abandon his career as a pianist after critically damaging, with a strengthening device, a finger on his right hand. Schumann wrote piano works that were a linking of short sections, such as Kreisleriana and Carnaval. Linked together, these sections paid extreme attention to detail, forming an interlocking composition. A talented music journalist, he was editor on one of the most significant journals of his day, Die Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. In 1840 he wrote over a hundred songs, a year that became known as his year of song, including the song cycles Dichterliebe and Liederkreise. Schumann suffered from depression and mental instability as a result of syphilis and died in an asylum.

Schumann believed that musical communication was under attack from virtuoso players who had little thought or feeling for music. His mission statement was given in his journal Die Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, which, perhaps in spite of its name suggesting new music, promoted music proven by history – music which had withstood the test of time. His era saw the rise of piano virtuosity from players who wanted to become celebrities in their own right without recognition of whose music it was they played, going so far as to compose pieces without thought about the framework of the musical communication, preferring technical complexities over clearly communicated music. Their ignorance of the thought, feeling and behaviour of composers, said Schumann, was philistine. He thus founded the Davids bundler, or League of David, named after the biblical King David, who composed music, wrote poetry and slew the Philistines.

Barthes speaks of piano recitals as an active form of music that has declined in practice to almost extinction where the piano has been forsaken for the guitar recital:

The music one plays has disappeared; initially the province of the idle (aristocratic) class, it lapsed into an insipid social rite with the coming of the democracy of the bourgeoisie (the piano, the young lady, the drawing room, the nocturne) and then faded out altogether (who plays the piano today?). To find practical music in the West, one has now to look to another public, another repertoire, another instrument (the young generation, vocal music, the guitar). (Barthes1977, p. 149)

Barthes’ interest in the piano recital as a cultural event for a particular social grouping, the bourgeoisie, is part of his semiotic history, analysable through the distinction between active and passive:

Two roles appeared in succession, first that of the performer, the interpreter to whom the bourgeois public (though still able itself to play a little – the whole history of the piano) delegated its playing, then that of the (passive) amateur, who listens to music without being able to play (the gramophone takes the place of the piano). (Barthes 1977, p. 163)

We muster cognise that Barthes is writing from a French point of view and that his critique of the piano recital as bourgeois is not necessarily relevant to our discussion of the piano recital as an event instructive for an analysis of the nature of musical communication, although it does give some behavioural insights of the social roles of the performer and the audience at a cultural event, despite its over-politicisation of the framework within communication occurs. There is something more peculiar about Barthes’ role in the study of culture, namely that whenever a term is difficult to define, translators forget their native English tongue, as in this example, again discussing the piano:

The melody succumbed to its salon image, this being a little the ridiculous form of its class origin. Mass ‘good’ music (records, radio) has left it behind, preferring either the more pathetic orchestra (success of Mahler) or less bourgeois instruments than the piano (harpsichord, trumpet). (Barthes 1977, p. 187)

This is not biased criticism: the death of the French language is acknowledged by Barthes himself, therefore it seems right for us to acknowledge his language together with his semiotics as being nothing more than an exercise in textual ambiguity and irony. (Barthes 1977, pp. 187 – 188) The melody is not significant for the history of the piano recital and is perhaps more relevant to another form of musical communication, such as the voice, however. >From Barthes we do have one definable framework within which musical communication takes place: the political. What Barthes shows is that the nature of music is to some degree governed by the environment in which it takes place, namely the background and political situations of the participants, who in the case of the piano recital are, according to Barthes, middle class. As a descriptive fact, the piano player and the passive audience will behave according to certain middle class conventions or thought or feeling, though what such middle class behaviour might be is not discussed by Barthes, who confines himself to semiological vagueness.

How is culture to be evaluated ? According to its origin? Bourgeois. Its finality? Bourgeois again. According to dialectics? Although bourgeois, this does contain progressive elements; every one of them bourgeoisified. There are some who finally prefer to give up the problem, to dismiss all ‘culture.’ (Barthes1977, p. 211).

If piano recitals are to be dismissed as ‘culture’, then we would be obliged to reject Barthesian discourse as overly polemicized, concerned overly with the political and insufficiently with the communicative, because the music of the piano is not bourgeois. Far from it, as Schumann argued, the piano is an instrument through which thought, feeling and behaviour can be transmitted; and although Schumann was not completely apolitical, his compositions must be musical first and foremost.

Musical events such as a piano recital have a specific format. Firstly the audience is seated in front of stage upon which there is a piano. The stage marks the boundary between the active musician and the listeners, who with their programmes know the pieces that will be played, before the recital starts. Secondly, the pieces (whether they are by Schumann or another composer) are performed. Finally, the passive element joins the active element during applause, concluding the event.

Musical communication can take the form of quoting ideas from previous musical compositions in new ones. Schumann borrowed from Beethoven, Clara Wieck, and other composers. For the cultural event that is the piano recital, this is the nature of musical communication, because it is history and allows us to place Schumann, or other composers of piano music, in historical context. Continuing with the example of Robert Schumann, we can say that Schumann borrowed from Beethoven because he came afterwards. Schumann built upon the musical framework left behind by Beethoven in the piano recitals Schumann attended, so much so that he could incorporate Beethovenian thoughts, feelings and behaviour into his own compositions.

Amore prosaic framework of musical communication is the biographical context of Robert Schumann’s life. Schumann was born in 1810 and died at the age of 46, in1856. He was a major figure in German musical romanticism, amongst the leading composers of his day, whose communications are highly regarded. The descriptive term of the time was Neu-Romantisch, or Neo-Romantic, the earlier Romanticism being associated with composers of Beethoven’s period. We should not try to define the meanings of feeling, thought or behaviour within a discussion of German Romanticism. The movement is its own framework, with Schumann at its editorial front, writing for the Davids bundler.

Piano music is its own form of musical communication. The music played at a recital is not only a communication from the composer to the audience; it is also a communication of the ideas behind the music, such as in Schumann’s case from Beethoven, to the audience. An educated audience will be able to hear these audible messages. The programme notes may even identify an idea to the audience explicitly, for instance in a performance of Carnaval, where the final section is March of the Davids bundler against the Philistines. Similarly there is a quotation of a musical theme, also in Carnaval, called Papillons. (Jensen 2001, p. 83)

The mood of the piece Carnaval is quixotic, a description that may also be used of Schumann’s nature, because he loved to incorporate cryptic communication within his compositions. For instance, Schumann received the idea for the musical mottos that serve as the basis of Carnaval from the name of the home town, Asch, of a female correspondent. (Jensen 2001, p. 119) There are three combinations of Asch possible, in musical notation: S, C, H, A; AS,C, H; A, S, C, H. All but two of the twenty-one compositions that make up Carnaval use the latter two, which from the German musical system transcribe to the notes A flat, C, B, or A, E flat, C, B. Schumann decided to call the mottos Sphinxes. (Jensen 2001, p. 150) Each of the pieces comprises a musical representation of a masked ball during carnival season.

Jensen describes Schumann’s behaviour laconically and contradictorily:

It says much about Schumann’s naivete that he was convinced the sphinxes in themselves would create something of a sensation and sales of the work – as if there were widespread interest in such musical games. But for much of his life Schumann was fascinated by puzzles and ciphers, particularly if they could be applied to music. His interest in ciphers was one that was common to not a few writers andarti1sts associated with German Romanticism; Friedrich Schlegel, for example, described art as inner hieroglyphic writing. (Jensen 2001, p. 151, citing Dieckmann 1955, p. 311)

We should recognise this relationship between codified musical communication and German Romanticism. It was shared by other writers:

Schumann’s interest in cipher, number symbolism, and musical/word puzzles is frequently encountered in his writings. [] Such an approach permitted him to add both mystery and extra musical significance to his works. [] An entire section of Aesthetics is devoted to the creation of secrets and hidden identities, all for the delight of the unravelling of little knots for the reader. (Jensen 2001,pp. 152 – 153, citing Richter 1973, p. 195)

In conclusion, a framework of communication, we have shown, can be semiological, cryptic and political. Barthes’ semiological analysis of a piano recital tends towards the political, with his disdain for the bourgeois influencing his dislike of the politics of those attending piano recitals. If Schumann is played at a piano recital, there are semiological frameworks of musical communication derived from Schumann’s interest in musical code. What is certain is that the historical context for each, the composer and the cultural analyst equally, is of paramount importance Without musical communication with Beethoven, Schubert would not have composed vastly different piano pieces, not to mention the pieces he composed for other instruments; and without a French social milieu Barthes might have had more tolerance for the piano recital as an excellent cultural event through which to investigate the nature of musical communication. As an event, the piano recital will generate a flood of memories for the active player and the passive audience, whose mood will be affected by the communication of thought, feeling and behaviour of the composer and by the music. Therefore historical is probably the best discussion of the specific type of cultural event that is the piano recital, because the music is historical, as is the event, and the environment.

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To what extent is language used differently and similarly by males and females?

This paper assesses the claim that language is gendered, that is to say, that there is a significant difference between the way language is used by men and women. Discussion about gendered patterns of communication frequently appear in both the popular press and in psychology literature (Basow & Rubenfeld, 2003, pp. 183-187). This paper explores both the more anecdotal discussions of the subject in the popular press, and the more sophisticated discussions in academic works. During the course of this paper, it is argued that sex is not the determinate factor influencing the use of language. Instead, the use of language is much more dependent on individual differences and personalities, the social structure, and the context in which language is being used.

However, before proceeding, it is worth exploring the term “gendered” and similar, associated terms. Gender is to some extent a performative and iterated social construct. Thus, gender is the characteristics attached to the male and female sex (Butler, 2002). This lacuna between sex and gender causes some problems when assessing whether language is gendered since much of the literature on the topic is not precise about whether what is being discussed is a difference between the two sexes (Men and Women) or a difference between the gender performances of the two genders (Male and Female). However, this paper does not have the space to discuss this complex area. Therefore, the focus of the paper is whether we can establish a claim that language is used differently by men and women. It will be concluded that such a claim cannot be proved or substantiated, and differences in language use are determined by the individual’s personality/idiosyncrasies, temporal-socio-cultural location, and the specific context/situation in which language is being used.

This paper assesses two distinct claims (“myths”) about the differences between how men and women use language. The first commonly held “myth” that shall be considered is the claim that women talk more than men. This is a commonly held “myth” within society, and one which is explored in much of the literature about language use in men and women (see: D Cameron, 2007; J Holmes, 2007, pp. 299-305; T Kornheiser, 2007, pp. 305-307). The second “myth” considered in this paper is the claim that men and women use language for different purposes/goals. Specifically, I shall examine Rossetti’s claim that: ‘the main distinction between the way boys and girls communicate is that girls generally use the language to negotiate closeness [… whereas] boys generally use language to negotiate their status in the group (competition-oriented)’ (Rossetti, 1998, pp. 1-6). I also consider Tannen’s similar and related claim that men use language to impart knowledge; whereas, women use language in a supportive role (Tannen, 2007, pp. 322-334). Specifically, Tannen argues that men play ‘a game of “Have I Won?” while … women … [play] a game of “Have I been sufficiently helpful?”‘ (Tannen, 2007, p. 326).

Korneiser provides an amusing anecdote involving his children to suggest that differences in their linguistic styles are based on differences of sex (Kornheiser, 2007, pp. 305-307). Although Kornheiser’s article is explicitly about how boys/men and girls/women respond to questions, the article implicitly demonstrates an anecdotal example of the “myth” that girls/women talk more, since Kornheiser’s daughter is depicted as far more verbose than her brother (Kornheiser, 2007, pp. 305-307). Kornheiser uses the anecdote of his more talkative daughter to suggest that this is typical of differences between how the sexes use language. More explicitly, Holmes begins her article by raising the “myth” that women talk more than men, opening with the question, ‘Do women talk more than men?’ (Holmes, 2007, p. 299). Cameron is explicit that this attitude is a widely-held belief, and argues that it is one of ‘”the myth[s] of Mars and Venus” is… [that] women talk more than men’ (Cameron, 2007).

Both Holmes and Cameron aim to show that it is a myth that women talk more than men, by reporting, in detail, a vast number of studies as evidence. They rely on quantitative data to support their argument. For instance, Holmes describes a study by James and Drakich which examined “the amount of talk” used by men and women in 63 studies; the resulting study showed that women only talked more than men in 2 of the 63 studies (Holmes, 2007, p. 300). Precisely what is meant by “amount of talk”, here, is slightly unclear – it is not explicitly stated whether the studies are discussing the total number of words used by the men and women, or whether “amount of talk” refers to the amount of time each speaker talks for. “Amount of talk” is a somewhat unclear term; however, Holmes is keen to demonstrate that detailed research has been conducted, and that this has debunked the myth that women talk more than men. In contrast, the “evidence” that women talk more than men is mostly based on anecdote and commonly accepted ideas about gender differences. Cameron uses an even more quantitative approach to back-up her argument by detailing Hyde’s “meta-analysis” statistical technique (Cameron, 2007). Cameron also shows that the author of The Female Brain (where it was claimed that women use 20,000 words a day, whilst men only use 7,000 words a day) had later accepted that the claim could not be substantiated and would be deleted from later editions (Cameron, 2007).

Tannen takes a different approach. Although Tannen does claim that there are differences between how men and women they use language, Tannen implicitly argues that it is a myth that women talk more than men, since her anecdotes suggest that women do not talk more than men. Tannen relies, primarily, on anecdotal evidence to illuminate her argument that women listen and men talk. Her point is that men have information they wish to impart; and, thus, they lecture. Men, she claims, do not listen but use language as a form of monologue to impart information, whereas women play the role of the supportive listening audience (Tannen, 2007, pp. 322-334). Tannen is not necessarily aiming to dispel the “myth” that women talk more, but this is implicit in her depiction of men as lecturers and women as the audience. In contrast to Holmes’ and Cameron’s presentation of their arguments, Tannen’s discussion primarily relies on qualitative data, in the sense that her article is based on personal anecdotes and her interactions with male and female colleagues.

Both the approaches taken by Holmes/Cameron and Tannen fail to tell the whole story about the “myth” that women talk more. Holmes and Cameron dismiss the claim by referring to quantitative data and “meta-analysis” which fails to illuminate individual differences and context, whereas Tannen relies on anecdote and qualitative data to imply that it is “myth” that women talk more. Whilst Tannen’s article provides specific incidents and explores the context, situation and status of participants, she does not provide statistical or quantitative data to demonstrate that men really do lecture and women really do play the part of a listening audience.

Whilst the evidence provided by Holmes, Cameron and Tannen seems to suggest that it is only “myth” that women talk more, this does not take into account individual personalities/differences, the socio-cultural context in which gender roles are played out or the specific situations and contexts that determine language usage. Interactions do not take place in a vacuum, but within a certain socio-cultural structure (that could still be argued is patriarchal). On this point, Macaulay makes the observation that ‘in Western industrialized societies men have more often been in positions of power over women rather than the reverse’ (Macaulay, 2007, p. 309). Macaulay makes this observation in order to show that, given such a socio-cultural structure, it is not surprising if women are sometimes found to use more deferential language (Macaulay, 2007). Within such a context, it is not surprising if men are pushed into the role of lecturer, and women into the role of listening audience. Therefore, it seems that (rather than women talking more than men) men may talk more than women if they occupy a “higher” status in society. Instead of thinking that the “amount of talk” is differentiated along gender lines, it may be more accurate to think that the “amount of talk” is differentiated along hierarchical lines.

The final section of this paper explores the second “myth” – the claim that men and women use language for different purposes/goals. Again, it shall be argued that to differentiate the way language is used along gender/sex lines is flawed and that a deeper understanding of the use of language requires consideration of individual peoples’ personalities, as well as the socio-cultural structure and the specific context/situation in which language is being used.

Rossetti argues that ‘language styles… reflect the different goals of the users’ (Rossetti, 1998). This is an innocuous claim, as it is reasonable to argue that language styles are dependent upon the goal(s) of the user. However, Rossetti argues that the different goals of the users can be differentiated along gender lines, that is to say men and women have different goals when they use language. Specifically, men use language to extend their ‘authority and respect in society; while women [use language]… to nurture existing relationships and develop new ones’ (Rossetti, 1998). Rossetti’s view of how men and women use language seems very similar to Tannen’s view (previously mentioned) where men use language to lecture, and women play the role of audience (Tannen, 2007, pp. 322-334). Basow & Rubenfeld provide a succinct summary of the supposed difference in the goals of men and women when they use language: ‘in general, women are expected to use language to enhance social connection, and men are expected to use language to enhance social dominance’ (Basow & Rubenfeld, 2003, p. 183). Thus, it seems that the two claims are linked. Men use language to enhance social dominance, and those who have social dominance are able to occupy more of the “amount of talk” time.

However, differentiation of language usage along sex binaries fails when we step away from quantitative analysis, and consider specific and unique contexts and situations. Generalizations based on quantitative analysis obscure individual differences between people by focusing on sex and analyzing sex as the determinate factor. Thus, Cameron succinctly argues that ‘focusing on the differences between men and women while ignoring differences within them is extremely misleading’ (Cameron, 2007). To argue that a specific goal is pursued when using language which is determined by the sex of the speaker does seem to ignore the differences within a sex, and between individuals. Thus, an argument that one’s purposes and goals when using language are determined by sex is a very blunt and unrealistic explanation for differences in language usage in a complex world in which there is a wide variety and difference within a sex, as well as between the sexes.

A feminist analysis might suggest that it is not so much the case that men and women have different goals when they use language; rather, differences are due to perceived gender roles that become re-iterated and played out, for instance the role assigned to women which often sees them ‘provid[ing] a silent, decorative background in many social contexts’ (Holmes, 2007, p. 304). Thus, if ‘female loquacity is generally combined with disapproval of it’ (Cameron, 2007), a socio-cultural structure develops in which men have a dominant hierarchical place within it. From this position, it is plausible that society may develop a false belief that women talk more than men. A feminist analysis suggests that ‘people overestimate how much women talk because they think that, ideally, women would not talk at all’ (Cameron, 2007). Thus, given the overestimation of how much women talk, the belief comes to exist that women talk more than men.

However, this analysis reverts to the original argument that differences in language usage (whether it is the amount of words spoken, or the goal/purpose of language), cannot be differentiated along simple gender lines. It is necessary to take account of the individuals using language, and therefore the differences within a sex, as well as the socio-cultural structure in which language is used, as well as the specific situation/context of a particular utterance. Holmes argues that ‘many different factors including the social context in which the talk is taking place, the kind of talk involved and the relative social confidence of the speakers, which is affected by such things as their social roles… and their familiarity with the topic’ (Holmes, 2007, p. 304) are all involved in the way language is used. Thus, sex/gender is only one factor that influences how language is used, and it would be difficult to substantiate a claim that sex is the most important factor when considering how language is being used in a specific context.

References

Basow, S. & Rubenfeld, K. (2003) “‘Troubles Talk’: Effects of Gender and Gender-Typing”, Sex Roles, 48(3/4), 183-187.

Butler, J. (2002). Gender trouble. New York: Routledge.

Cameron, D. (2007, October 1). “What language barrier?”, The Guardian. Retrieved October 2, 2015.

Holmes, J. (2007) “Women Talk Too Much” in Exploring Language (11th edition) (ed. G. Goshgarian). New York: Pearson/Longman, 209-305.

Kornheiser, T. (2007) “No Detail is Too Small for Girls Answering a Simple Question” in Exploring Language (11th edition) (ed. Gary Goshgarian). New York: Pearson/Longman, 305-307.

Macaulay, R. (2007) “Sex Differences” in Exploring Language (11th edition) (ed. Gary Goshgarian). New York: Pearson/Longman, 305-322.

Rossetti, P. (1998). Gender differences in e-mail communication. The Internet TESL Journal, 4(7), 1-6.

Tannen, D. (2007) “‘I’ll Explain It to You’: Lecturing and Listening” in Exploring Language (11th edition) (ed. Gary Goshgarian). New York: Pearson/Longman, 332-334.

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Discuss Barthes’ essay with reference to social media

In his seminal essay ‘The Death of the Author’, Barthes (1977) challenged the world of orthodox literary criticism by claiming that its obsession with distilling the truth of an author’s intentions from his works is futile. The act of writing is ‘the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 142). The author’s aims and motives are obscured by the duplicity of language: not only is language inadequate to express the author’s inner world, but language also skews the reader’s interpretation of the work. Language is a complex network of cultural codes and associations over which the author has no control.

Yet, the notion of authorship is not confined to literature. In this essay, I shall be examining how Barthes’ ideas apply to Facebook, a social media website. Here, users create Facebook ‘pages’, which are in effect mini-autobiographies that they update with news, photos, biographical details etc. Users are also able to make ‘friends’, i.e. to subscribe for updates from other users’ pages, and to comment on these updates. Facebook is then a vast network of individuals who are both authors of their own pages and readers cum critics of their friends’ pages. Moreover, not only is communication between author and reader mediated via language, it is also restricted by the Facebook software, which as shall be seen, permits only certain kinds of expression on the part of the author.

This essay is structured as follows. Firstly, I will review Barthes’ essay in more depth, emphasizing the issues relevant to my study. Secondly, I will consider how Facebook mediates between author and reader, providing a cultural template through which an individual’s biography is filtered. Finally, I will consider how Facebook alienates users in the manner envisaged by Barthes in his essay.

According to Barthes, it is the identity of the author that is paramount for the literary critic: the work is ‘tyrannically centred on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 143). The responsibility for meaning, for the “truth” of the work, as well as its success or failure, is placed squarely on the author’s shoulders. The work of literary criticism is to enlighten the readership as to the author’s motives by invoking their personal biography: Van Gogh’s genius is attributed to his madness, Tchaikovsky’s to his alcoholism and Baudelaire’s to his ‘failure’ (ib.) as a man.

Yet, Barthes maintained that the medium of language interferes with the process of writing, such that an author necessarily relinquishes control over the manner in which his work is interpreted. Influenced by contemporary advances in linguistics, Barthes claimed that ‘language knows a “subject” not a “person”‘ (Barthes, 1977, p. 145). The “subject”, or author, of the work is not an individual. In other words, the author as individual with a biography, emotions and intentions is invisible to the reader. Rather, they see the subject, an empty construct, an abstraction formed by the words on the page. This subject is ’empty outside the enunciation which defines it’ (ib.): it is the work that calls the subject into being and the subject is entirely dependent on the work. The author’s true identity has been hollowed out due to the alienating effects of language and has been replaced by the subject, a mere place-marker holding language together.

Language, argues Barthes, has this alienating effect since a text is nothing more than a ’tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 146). An author’s words, and the manner in which he utilizes them, are not the author’s own but are drawn from a huge cultural reservoir of previous texts. A phrase elicits a culturally determined meaning, provoking a myriad of contextual associations giving the text a life of its own, constantly displacing its meaning even further from the author’s intentions. Attempting to pin down meaning is futile since no text was ever written in a vacuum; the cultural landscape has no origin, no founding text that would guarantee all meaning. Rather, the origin is language itself, which ‘ceaselessly calls into question all origins’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 146).

The author is then doubly deceived by language. Firstly, language does not belong to the author. It is an alien presence that inhabits him and that enforces a culturally dependent mode of expression. The author can never perfectly capture his inner experience through language, as there is always some part of that experience that evades capture through words. Rather, he evokes the subject, his avatar, as seen through the lens of language. The author’s true identity, if indeed there is a “truth” of his existence, will always elude the reader and in fact, himself.

Secondly, the reader also has this alienating relationship with language. The “meaning” of a text, as supposed by the reader, is coloured by their cultural context. The author, in allowing his work to be read, relinquishes control over how it is received by his audience. They will draw their own conclusions, make their own associations and interpretations which depend on the ‘immense dictionary’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 147) of cultural references that they have at their disposal. Thus, the reader imagines the author as a subject, a construct of their own conception of language. This subject differs not only from reader to reader, but temporally, being reconstructed every time a particular reader approaches the same text.

Any attempt to attribute a work’s success or failure to a particular author is fruitless. When a critic examines and re-examines a text, they are merely reconstructing their own conception of the author as subject, which can never coincide with the author’s conception, let alone his true identity. Asking an author to explain a text merely creates another text with another subject, and the game begins again. The author is effectively powerless—responsibility for a text’s interpretation is passed to the reader. There is no ultimate meaning: ‘In the multiplicity of writing everything is to be disentangled, nothing deciphered’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 148).

Yet the effects of language are not disproportionately visited upon the author. According to Barthes, language’s alienating effects apply equally to the reader. The reader is ‘without history, biography, psychology’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 148), an impersonal ‘destination’ (ib.) for the author’s work. The reader’s role is to hold the text together, to create a unity from the cultural codes that make up the text. In other words, the author’s relationship with the reader cannot be personal: they can make no assumptions about the reader’s identity because the reader, in the process of reading, is also an abstraction evoked by the text. By symmetry, both author and reader, as represented by the text, are subjects.

Barthes’ textual examples in ‘Death of the Author’ (1977) are not limited to literary texts: as mentioned previously he uses the music of Tchaikovsky and the work of Van Gogh as illustrations of his thesis. Indeed, Barthes never limited his analysis to so-called high culture: in his book ‘Mythologies’ (Barthes, 1972) he deconstructs the cultural meanings of, for example, advertisements and films. Facebook is therefore an entirely appropriate medium for a Barthesian analysis. First, however, I will examine what is meant by a text in Facebook, and nature of the cultural codes peculiar to it.

Facebook can be viewed as a form of relational biography (Richardson & Hessey, 2009). Users update their biographies by adding essentially static information (date of birth, education etc.) as well as time-dependent data about their feelings, social commitments etc. This data can be annotated by other users in the form of comments. The user in essence constructs a “timeline” which amounts to a somewhat haphazard diary of their inner life and social relations. This timeline can be read by the user and, within certain restrictions, the user’s friends. It therefore amounts to a text, from which an interpretation of the author-as-subject is constructed in the reader’s mind.

Facebook updates can take written form, which is subject to the constraints of language and alienating to both author and reader as demonstrated earlier. Yet, the architecture of Facebook is such that further restrictions are imposed on the author. One example of this is the “like” button. A user demonstrates his or her preferences by “liking” other users’ comments or updates. Yet, this restricts the user’s reaction to mere approval. This has led some users to call for a “dislike” button, or a range of options to indicate, for example, humour or sadness (Guynn, 2015) in response to an update. Such an innovation would, however, still place a limit on the user’s reaction. Facebook texts are therefore subject to a far more restrictive cultural template than literary texts. The Facebook user-author is potentially alienated as a subject to a greater extent than the author of a literary text.

However, such alienation appears to be exactly what users of Facebook want. Das and Kramer (2013) note that a large proportion of users (over 70%) practice self-censorship. That is, they manipulate both the data they post to Facebook and their reactions to other user’s activities, in an attempt to create an idealized autobiography. They might attempt to post only positive updates in order to seem optimistic, or they might “like” other user’s posts in order to appear friendly. In Barthesian terms, they are manipulating the “language” of Facebook in an attempt to manifest themselves as an ideal subject. The Facebook author is not only dead, but the cause of death appears to be suicide.

Unfortunately, as Barthes predicts, such an exercise is futile. The restrictive cultural code inscribed in the apparatus of Facebook leads to far greater opportunity for the reader to misunderstand the user-author. Such misunderstandings can lead to “flame wars”—heated comment exchanges between users—or in extreme cases “unfriending” (the revoking of the right of another user to read one’s Facebook page). This had led to the publication of numerous books on Facebook etiquette that document the possible ways in which such misunderstandings occur and provide tips on how to avoid these situations (see e.g. Awl (2011)). However, such rules of etiquette serve only to narrow the options a user has for self-expression, leading to further alienation.

These cases serve to illustrate Barthes’ claim that the reader is ‘without history, biography, psychology’ (Barthes, 1977, p. 148), an abstract concept emptied of intention and affect. When a user-author makes an update on Facebook, they make certain assumptions about the reader and how they will react, and tailor the update to such a reader. Yet, these assumptions are not necessarily transmitted to the readership, each of whom infers their own reader-subject from the text. An example is the relationship status: a user can define themselves as “single”, “married”, in a “complicated” relationship etc., and a complex etiquette has arisen to prevent misunderstandings of this status (Suddath, 2009). For example, the author might set their relationship status to “complicated” and assume readers will interpret this as “difficult” and view it fairly neutrally. However, the author’s partner might interpret it in an entirely different fashion—as an open relationship, perhaps—and have a negative reaction. The author and their partner each invest the reader of the text with a different identity: the reader-subject of the text is an abstract concept, given flesh by the individual reactions of the text’s consumers.

In conclusion, I have examined the phenomenon of Facebook from the perspective of Barthes’ essay, ‘The Death of the Author’ (1977). I have argued, not only that the Facebook author is dead in the sense that their identity cannot be inferred from their text, but that Facebook architecture and the self-censorship of its participants lead to a greater alienation of the author from their text than that achieved in a purely literary context. Moreover, I have demonstrated that this alienation applies both to the author and the reader of the text. Not only is the censorship practised by user-authors with the aim of creating an idealized self-image counterproductive, but the message the user-readers receive about their identity is equally alienating. Since Facebook authors are at the same time readers, this leads to a double alienation that Barthes had not anticipated when he wrote his essay.

Bibliography

Awl, D. (2011). Facebook Me! A Guide to Socializing, Sharing, and Promoting on Facebook. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.

Barry, D. (2012). How To Facebook – The No Nonsense Guide To Using Facebook. UK: KernowWeb.

Barthes, R. (1972). Mythologies. New York: The Noonday Press.

Barthes, R. (1977). The Death of the Author. In R. Barthes, Image, Music, Text (pp. 142-148). London: Fontana Press.

Das, S., & Kramer, A. (2013). Self-Censorship on Facebook. San Diego: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Guynn, J. (2015). USA Today. Retrieved October 19, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/10/08/facebook-reactions-emotions-like-button-dislike/73574704/

Richardson, K., & Hessey, S. (2009). Archiving the self? Facebook as biography of social and relational memory. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 7(1), 25-38.

Suddath, C. (2009). Your Facebook Relationship Status: It’s Complicated. Retrieved October 19, 2015, from Time: http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895694,00.html

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When individuals either witness or are a victim of crime they may be required to give evidence in court. This can involve recounting events that took place or identifying a suspect from an identity parade. Evidence presented in a trial contributes to a judge or jury deciding whether an individual is innocent or guilty and if the information provided by the eyewitness is incorrect then innocent people may be found guilty or guilty people may go free (Loftus, 1986). With DNA testing, many individuals initially identified by eyewitnesses as being the perpetrator have subsequently been found to be innocent (Wells and Olson, 2003). Therefore, it is important that eyewitness testimony presented in court is accurate. The following essay will present research that has investigated why eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate and may consequently not be relevant in a court case. The essay will also consider whether children are accurate and reliable eye witnesses.

Reconstructive Memory and Schemas

When individuals observe an unusual event, such as a crime, their memory is often affected by their mental schemata, which involves prior knowledge and factors such as cultural background and values, and not solely information from the event. If there are gaps in people’s understanding of an incident they can reconstruct their memories so that they can make sense of them. The notion of reconstructive memory was proposed by Bartlett (1932, cited in Toglia, 2007, pp.240-241). Witnesses’ memories may be influenced by events that occur after the crime, for example, information from news reports in the media or other witnesses talking immediately after the event about what they saw or heard. This is relevant in particular to witnesses who observe one part of an event who then incorporate such information to elaborate and reconstruct their own memories. Toglia (2007) states that this is known as the misinformation effect and also source misattribution, which occurs when witnesses are unable to remember where the information originated from and they are then seen as being unreliable and not relevant to the court procedure.

In their 1974 study, Loftus and Palmer found that the wording of questions affected the recall of witness. Participants watched a film of a car accident and were then asked to write a brief summary of what they had seen. They were then were asked questions about the accident using different verbs to describe the accident such as, ‘how fast were the cars going when they smashed/hit/bumped each other?’ (Loftus and Palmer, 1974, p.586). The different words implied that the car was travelling at different speeds with some words implying a faster speed than other words. It was found that there was a 9 mile per hour difference between the slowest and fasted estimated speeds of the cars made by the participants. One week later, the participants returned and were asked further questions including ‘did you see any broken glass’ and, depending on the verb used in the original question, the faster the car was perceived to be travelling, the more participants reported seeing broken glass, even though there was no glass in the film (Loftus and Palmer, 1974, p.587). The study supports Bartlett and the way in which witnesses can reconstruct their memories with their previous knowledge. In a similar study, Loftus and Zanni (1975) reported that more participants said they had seen the broken headlight, rather than participants who were asked if they had seen a broken headlight, even there was no broken headlight in the film. However, both studies were undertaken in a laboratory environment and involved participants watching films, therefore it may not be possible to generalise the findings to the way witnesses respond when witnessing real-life accidents. The studies show the importance of the way in which language can alter perceptions or memories of an event. This has been addressed by introducing a cognitive interview technique which Fisher, Geiselman and Raymond (1987) suggest avoids influencing the answers given by witnesses.

If a car was travelling fast and was involved in an accident, it would be expected that there would be glass or a broken headlight, even though the witnesses (participants) did not see any in the film scenario. Individuals use their schemas to explain what happens in certain situations for example, how a burglar behaves or what type of objects would be present in a specific context, for example, the layout inside a bank or restaurant. Therefore, if something unusual is seen Loftus, Loftus and Messo (1987) argue that a witness will pay more attention to the unusual object. This has been found to be the case for crimes where weapons are involved. Participants in the Loftus et al. study were shown a series of slides of a crime in a fast-food restaurant where a customer either pointed a gun or a cheque at the cashier. It was found that there were more eye fixations on the gun than the cheque. In a second study, it was found that participant’s memory for events was poorer in the weapon scenario than in the cheque condition which according to Loftus et al. (1987) emphasises the focus on weapons.

The Effect of Stress on Witnesses.

Observing a weapon in a crime may cause a witness considerable stress and this may have an effect on their ability to accurately remember details. This has been demonstrated by Clifford and Scott (1978) in a study that involved participants watching a film of a violent attack and a control group that watched a less violent version of the film. It was found that participants who watched the violent film remember fewer details than the control group. As the study was conducted in a laboratory, it is possible that the stress experienced by witnesses to violent events is greater in real-life crime and therefore, suggests that accurate recall may be impaired. A review of the literature undertaken by Deffenbacher, Bornstein, Penrod and McGorty (2004) undertook a review of studies that investigated the effects of stress on eye witnesses and found support for the negative effects of stress on accurate recall. Stress was notably higher, for example, if suspect was present in a line-up in comparison to the suspect being absent. A number of studies have attempted to induce stress-related scenarios to study the effects on participants as witnesses, although it could be suggested that this is unethical as it may cause the participants psychological harm. However, in a study with real-life witnesses who had been present during a robbery at gun shop where the perpetrator was shot dead, Yuille and Cutshall (1986) argue that stress may not have an adverse effect on memory and eyewitness testimony. The witness in the gun shop event had very accurate and clear memories of the event, which endured over a period of 5 months.

Intergroup Bias

Another factor that may influence the accurate memory of a crime in intergroup bias. Lindholm and Christianson (1998) found that the eyewitness testimony of Swedish students taking part in a mock crime scenario involving an armed robbery was influenced by whether the perpetrator was Swedish (in-group perpetrator) or an immigrant (out-group perpetrator). The participants in the study were both immigrant and Swedish students and when both groups were shown the film and asked to identify the perpetrator in a line-up afterwards the majority incorrectly identified an innocent immigrant. Both groups of participants typically identified an innocent perpetrator who was ethnically dissimilar more often than an innocent Swede. The study appears to show that witnesses can be influenced by biases and expectations regarding the type of person who is more likely to commit a certain type of crime. However, because the study involves a mock crime scenario it lacks the emotional aspects of a real crime and witnesses may not have the same biases they demonstrate in a laboratory task.

Loftus (1986) reports that in cross-racial identification by eyewitness, individuals are less accurate at identifying a member of a different ethnic group or culture than identifying features of a person’s own race. Such findings would appear to be particularly relevant in contemporary, multi-racial society in the UK, and other countries. Alderson (2010) reports that the majority of men held for violent and sexual crimes in inner city London between 2009 and 2010 were black, however, black men have also been found to constitute the greatest number of victims of crime (e.g. 29% male victims of gun crimes, 24% of knife crimes). This can lead to the stereotyping of certain groups such as black men being responsible for violent actions in comparison to white men as found by Duncan (1976).

Children as Eye-Witnesses

There have been some concerns expressed regarding the relevance and reliability of children as witnesses. There may also be concerns about older people as West and Stone (2013) for example, report that young adults are more accurate in their recall as witnesses than older adults. Children who appear as witnesses in a court case may have been exposed to very stressful events such as sexual or physical abuse, which would be unethical to replicate in laboratory conditions. According to Bidrose and Goodman (2000), childhood sexual abuse is additionally accompanied by feelings of shame as well as a lack of emotional support because of the secrecy that surrounds such events. In a study undertaken by Bidrose and Goodman, they investigated the testimony given by four female children aged between 8 and 15 years, in a sexual abuse case in New Zealand and also assessed the level of support regarding the allegations. The findings showed that there was a high degree of support for the children’s allegations which was matched to audiotapes and photos of the abuse (Bidrose and Goodman, 2000). The real-life study indicates that children’s testimony can be highly accurate although the children in the study were older and younger children may not be able to articulate what happened to them in cases of abuse.

Krahenbuhl, Blades and Eiser (2009) conducted a study with 156 children aged between 4 and 9 years to investigate the effects of repeating questions several times in an interview situation as a witness. The children watched a staged event and were asked eight open-ended questions, each of which was repeated 4 times. Some questions could be answered from watching the scenario although others could not, and it was expected that the children would say that they did not know the answer. The children returned again after one week. It was found that for over 25% of children there was a decline in accuracy which was greatest after the first repetition of questions. There was little change with the questions that could be answered but considerable decline in accuracy with those questions with no accurate answers. Krahenbuhl et al. (2009) concluded that if there is considerable repetition of questions with child witnesses, the accuracy of responses changes significantly and that if children cannot answer a question, they are more likely to fabricate answers with repeated questioning.

Conclusion

The evidence presented indicates that there are a number of problems around the issue of eyewitness testimony although it would appear that research has attempted to address some of the problems. This means that eyewitness testimony should be considered a valuable and relevant part of court procedure. Avoiding leading questions (Loftus and Palmer, 1974) and the introduction of the cognitive interview technique (Fisher et al. 1987) have helped to contribute to the more accurate recall of witnesses. Some problems are less easy to address, such as the stress experienced at a crime scene which may negatively affect recall although, Yuille and Cutshall (1986) have argued that in real-life witnesses are able to recall stressful events accurately. Similarly, intergroup biases are difficult issues to address in particular the perceptions of black people and their relationship with crime. Children as witnesses has a more positive outcome as their recall has been shown to be accurate (Bidrose and Goodman, 2000). A further problem is that of the methodology used when researching eyewitness testimony which is predominately undertaken in a laboratory and may not be generalisable to real-life situations.

References

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Linholm, T. and Christianson, S.A. (1998). Intergroup biases and eyewitness testimony. Journal of Social Psychology, 138(6), 710-723.

Loftus, E.F. and Palmer, J.C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13, 585-589.

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West, R.L. and Stone, K.R. (2013). Age differences in eyewitness memory for a realistic event. Journals of Gerontology, Series B, 69(3), 338- 347.

Yuille, J.C. and Cutshall, J.L. (1986). A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 291-301.

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What is distinctive about the political ideas underpinning crime control in the past 30 years?

Margaret Thatcher famously commented that “there is no such thing as society” (1987) and in that comment is ample evidence of the Thatcher governments adherence to ‘New Right Realism’, arguably the dominant political philosophy underpinning crime control policies throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and which continues to be a major influence on criminal justice policy to this day.

Walklate explains the concept of Right Realism as a product of governments targeting public expenditure in response to the changing economic climates of the 1970’s. It entailed a completely new discussion of how social problems should be dealt with. The shift to this new understanding occurred both in the UK, particularly as a result of the election of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, and in the US under the Reagan administration among others.

One of the foremost American theorists in the US at the time was criminologist James Q. Wilson. Wilson was President Reagan’s adviser on crime and argued that crime does not have ‘root causes’ embodied in the context of individual citizens lives but that people choose to commit crime on the basis of the possible rewards offered (Blake, 2001). Essentially, New Right Realism as a political and criminological philosophy began with Wilson who proposed, in association with George Kelling (1982), the idea that crime is an inevitable result of disorder. They argued that if a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will believe that no one is in control and no one cares. This will lead inexorably to more windows being broken and before too long a sense of anarchy and disorder will develop. This idea became known as the ‘broken windows’ theory. Young (1983) noted Wilson’s rise as an influential figure in the US, but he became even more influential with his association with Richard Hernstein with whom he wrote the book Crime and Human Nature (Wilson & Hernstein, 1985). In this book, the authors wrote that crime was disproportionately the preserve of young men living in large cities.

Walklate argues that these two authors essentially constructed a criminal personality based on age, sex, body type and personality and that these qualities are presented almost as ‘biological givens’. Walklate cites Young (1994) in observing that essentially Wilson and Hernstein concerned themselves primarily with maintaining order rather than necessarily delivering justice. Young comments that such a view is based on Rational Choice Theory which (in its criminological manifestation) refuses to address the causes of crime but instead is concerned with its management. Cornish and Clarke (1986) not only supported this notion but went on to describe the actions of the criminal as being based purely on economic motives in which human beings are regarded as being driven by profit motives. Fundamentally this way of thinking was a product of the work of Cohen and Felson (1979) who argue that crime is the product of three factors coming together at a particular time, notably motivation, a victim and a lack of a potential guardian. This then set the pattern for the New Right Realism that was to be adopted in the UK, primarily by the Thatcher government.

John Lea (1997) argues that the central task of the Thatcher government was the political and ideological management of the process of destroying the old Keynesian welfare state but that necessarily entailed a deepening authoritarianism throughout society. Essentially Thatcher sought to isolate the problems of the poor from any consideration of state responsibility arguing that people were responsible for themselves. In this context, the welfare state moved from being seen as a system of support to being a source of debilitating passivity which must be replaced by a concept of people acting for themselves and thereby taking responsibility for their own misfortune. Part of this thinking involved the breakup of the trade union movement or at least placing strong restraints on unions ability to interfere with the labour market, local government or to resist the Thatcherite programme. It also meant that society had to be depoliticised so that libertarian politics and free market capitalism remained formed the basis of everyday life in every sector. Crime control was therefore an essential part of this programme (Downes & Morgan, 1994).

To a certain extent, Lea maintains, a crackdown on crime would have been essential since crime levels had been rising steadily since the 1960’s and according to police statistics had doubled in the 1980’s. The British Crime Survey (BCS) also indicated such a rise in crime figures. What is important however is that the Thatcher government integrated crime control into political and particularly ideologically-driven thinking since it was considered to be an important element in the drive towards creating the model apolitical citizen advocated by New Right Conservatism. One of the main initiatives in this programme was the Neighbourhood Watch scheme, introduced in 1983. This was an American idea based on the encouragement of ordinary citizens to keep watch on their own areas and report suspicious behaviour to the police.

Lea argues that the idea of an ‘active citizen’ as espoused in the thinking behind the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, was an essentially middle class concept and this explains why the scheme had little effect on crime, since Neighbourhood Watch systems were set up in middle class areas where there was little actual crime and therefore where they were not actually needed. They were areas where the fear of crime was growing rather than crime itself. Meanwhile, in areas affected by real poverty, in which there was little sense of community, high unemployment and high crime rates such initiatives were actually quite useless, since there often tended to be a sense of active warfare between young people and the police. Local council estates were particularly affected and so local authorities were considered to be the main agents for crime control. A philosophy of ‘dangerousness’ and ‘risk management’ began to form the basis for discussion with regard to crime and this led to the idea of poverty and homelessness being breeding grounds for disorder rather than being considered as social problems.

Because much of the funding for crime prevention came from central government, the government came to insist that in order to be eligible for funding, local authorities had to coordinate their crime prevention plans with the police. This was little more than an attempt to ensure that political influence was kept to a minimum. While all this was going on the Thatcher government also began to compel local authorities to sell off public housing to those people who could afford to buy their own homes. This meant that the remaining public housing stock was inhabited by the poorest communities in the country and therefore areas in which crime was rife. Central government funding was increasingly restricted and was accompanied by measures to reduce the power of local authorities to vary local taxes. This meant that while local authorities were being asked to become the main agents for crime control they very often found they had limited resources to fund initiatives.

Many local authorities concentrated ‘problem families’ in particular areas and with regards to the physical environment of council estates, a form of ‘architectural determinism’, as Lea puts it, began to take over. In essence, a number of theorists began to suggest that particular architectural styles of building could be used as an agent against crime. Much of this was directed towards council estates and one of the most prominent thinkers in this respect was Alice Colman who offered guidance to the Design Improvement Controlled Experiment (DICE) programme of redesign begun in 1990. Lea notes that the idea was to make it harder for criminals to enter and also to escape from these estates but he observes that this has led to an assumption in which a criminal is someone who is essentially an outsider, who needs to be watched and deterred from entry. In practice however, most criminals are locals rather than strangers. A number of critics have condemned these ideas as almost completely ineffective (e.g. Foster, 1983; Osborne & Shaftoe, 1995) while according to Rose Gilroy et al (1995) some tenants have complained that the practice of dividing blocks into units and encouraging accompanying gardens merely prepares public housing units for private ownership.

It can be seen therefore that the essence of Right Realism is essentially punitive. Montorosso refers to this as ‘popular punitivism’ and he explains it as something that is based more on emotions and symbolism than on expert-driven penal policy. This lends itself to political advantage (Maruna & King, 2004), particularly to those politicians advocating prison as an almost default solution – the ‘prison works’ idea (Frieberg, 2001). This then tends to diminish criminology by virtue of subordinating criminal policy to tabloid interpretation, something that has been extended by the Labour government through their courting of the media. In essence, high profile cases are allowed to take precedence which then creates a fertile ground for authoritarian responses. In the process the debate is transferred from the realm of criminologists to the public arena, particularly with regard to those who are ‘living in fear’ and thus demand action (Garland, 1996, Thomas, 2004). Thomas notes that in this climate, the interests of the victim and ‘victim status’ underpin punitive approaches.

Montorosso comments that the Thatcher government maintained a sustained discourse based on a punitive rhetoric characterised by themes of retribution and deterrence and reinforced by a ‘near-unconditionally backed police service’. This approach continued to be followed by the Major government. Both administrations argued that crime could not be explained by ‘social conditions’, thus following the philsophy of Wilson and Hernstein. To some extent, having also been promulgated by the New Labour governments of Blair and Brown and characterised by the stock phrase ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’, it continues to this day. Some may express surprise that the New Labour government followed their Conservative predecessors, but Montorosso accurately notes that New Labour has regularly been described as ‘popularist’ and ‘punitively managerialist’ in nature, drawing attention that after Blair’s election over 1000 new offences were created up until early 2005.
Indeed, Montorosso comments that the Blair government showed ‘incredible aptitude’ in its management of ‘message’ through a policy of focusing public attention on toughness via press conferences, interviews and public meetings. Mackenzie (2008) has suggested that New Labour’s approach effectively established moral and normative reference points for governance through a media and politically driven focus on the icon of ‘the other’, in essence the perceived sense of threat represented by archetypes of the irritant, the outsider and the dangerous. This then provided encouragement and justification for punitive state action and this was further encouraged by the ‘war on terror’ rhetoric (Loader, 2006). These messages were delivered in a language that was easily understood by the public, particularly via tabloid journalism (Mackenzie).

Montorosso correctly identifies American influence in the policies of the Blair government. He comments that the ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric has been prevalent in the US since the days of President Nixon with his ‘war on crime’ of the 1960’s, turning into a ‘war on drugs’ during the Reagan administration of the 1980’s. Montorosso observes that this form of discourse is a ‘well entrenched’ ingredient in American political debate. It formed an important part of President Bill Clinton’s electoral victory over Michael Dukakis, primarily through the support of George Bush Senior who instituted a negative advertising campaign claiming that Dukakis was ‘soft on crime’.

Conclusion:

Lilly, Cullen and Ball (1995) argue that there is no particular dispensation of conservative politics towards Right Realism but Walklate argues that the obsession with the individual in Right Realist theories lends itself towards such a conclusion in particular social contexts. He argues that in times of economic stress, it is tempting for governments to blame the individual as a means of cutting back public expenditure. Lily, Cullen and Ball critique Wilson and Hernstein’s work on the basis that, through viewing criminality in terms of a particular biological disposition, credence is given to the idea that criminals are beyond redemption and therefore worthy of punitive action. Walklate supports this conclusion by arguing that it tends to result in particular policy inconsistencies and even contradictions. Thus Right Realism argues that crime is directly a result of what is ‘real’, rather than resulting in changes in reporting practice, policy or the law. It is therefore inherently political and ideological.
This meant that the approach taken by the Thatcher government towards crime control was characterised most notably by its authoritarianism. Rather than moving away from this approach, both the Major and New Labour governments enforced it. New Labour particularly were very effective in managing an authoritarian crime control policy in the style of an almost ‘corporate’ PR campaign which manipulated and milked public support.

This is the distinguishing feature of political involvement in crime control of the past thirty years. An attitude marked by authoritarian penal policy, extensive state support for the police, isolation of poverty stricken areas within the community accompanied by a certain level of ‘demonisation’ both directly and through the media. Something that hasn’t been discussed in this essay but which forms an important part of the authoritarian approach of the past thirty years is the, again American inspired, philosophy of ‘zero tolerance policing’. Lea discusses this in his online essay noting that a great deal of support for this idea has been expressed by British police forces. It originated in New York, the brainchild of the NYPD police chief William Bratton (1997) and described by Lea as essentially a more belligerent form of the Wilson-Kelling strategy and involving an aggressive response by police officers towards incidences of disorder and petty anti-social behaviour. As with other forms of punitive penalism, it targeted the poor, particularly street beggars, drinkers and ‘squeegee’ car washers operating at traffic junctions. Bratton and others claimed it was an effective measure, but the reality is, as Lea points out, that crime rates had been falling in most North American cities for some years previously and therefore had nothing to do with the aggressiveness of police officers. Nevertheless, the UK Home Secretary at the time warmed to the idea enthusiastically despite the fact that aggressive policing in the UK is hardly new. As Lea points out, such policing tactics were often used to clear young black males from London streets but Chief Constable Charles Pollard of Thames Valley Police has argued that such an approach merely ends up targeting ethnic minorities resulting in potentially explosive situations and actual riots such as that which occurred in Brixton in 1981.

As Montorosso notes, punitive approaches are not limited to the UK. Having spread across the globe, originating primarily from the US, such attitudes are now found in many countries across the world. Montoross argues that penal policy should embrace values of safety and freedom from fear but that it should be achieved through a mix of measures including rehabilitation of offenders, developmental or situational crime prevention, socialization and education alongside deterrence and incarceration. However, achieving the right level of balance is not easy but the dangers of getting it wrong through the implementation of an overzealous penal policy means that a state can become, as Montorosso puts it, ‘unduly and unjustly intrusive on the liberty of citizens’.

References:

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Bratton, W. (1997), ‘Crime is Down in New York City: blame the police’ in Dennis, N. (ed.) Zero Tolerance, Policing a Free Society. Choice in Welfare No. 35, London, Institute of Economic Affairs

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Lilly, J., Cullen, F. and Ball, R., (1995). Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Loader, I. (2004), ‘Fall of the Platonic Guardians, Liberalism, Criminology and Political Responses to Crime in England and Wales’ 46(4) British Journal of Criminology,561, 574-8

Mackenzie, S., (2008), ‘Second-Chance Punitivism and the Contractual Governance of Crime and Incivility;
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Maruna, S. & King, S., (2004) ‘Public Opinion and Community Penalties’, in Bottoms, A., Rex, S. and Robinson, G. (eds), Alternatives to Prison. Options for an Insecure Society 83, 84.

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Thatcher, Margaret (1987), comment made during an interview with Woman’s Own magazine, October 31st 1987

This work was produced by one of our professional writers as a learning aid to help you with your studies

Once a criminal, always a criminal: myth or fact?
Introduction

The introduction of psychotherapy programs into criminal rehabilitation settings has been vitally documented primarily within only the past few decades. This has contributed insight into a different realm of criminal rehabilitation that has yet to fully be understood by psychologists and jail managers alike.

Estimates run as high as 70% that the majority of inmates released from prison in the US, are convicted of new crimes within five years (McGuire, 2008, p.29). Existential psychotherapy programs suggest an effective means for criminal rehabilitation and for reduction of jail populations.

Effective criminal rehabilitation programs would contribute to notably reduce recidivism rates, consequently, decreasing jail populations. Kramer (1971) suggests that art therapy is ideal for working with aggressive children as aggression is an abundant source of energy for creative activity. The creative process both utilizes and neutralizes the client’s pent-up aggression.

By analysing the impact of such programs among children, psychologists are able to develop rehabilitations programs to undertake with adults. When addressing the aggressive aspect of numerous inmates, these latest programs aim high with intent to achieve desired reductions of displayed aggression and potentially the cause of recidivism.

Validation of the previous statements could generate a wide variety of answers from more than one academic discipline. According to Repko (2005), complex issues of this condition necessitate the use of the interdisciplinary approach to be thoroughly explored. Additionally, the discussion concerning the relationship between effective existential psychotherapy approaches and recidivism cannot be fully explained by scholars from one single discipline.

Finally, the debate about whether effective psychotherapy programs can positively influence offender rehabilitation adequately enough to shrink recidivism rates, therefore, reducing jail populations, is cross cultural and addresses a practical societal problem. By meeting these criteria, this topic warrants investigation using the interdisciplinary approach (Repko, 2005, p.88).

Given the broad nature of such a topic, ways in which an existential approach to psychotherapy can affect individuals could be discussed from the vantage point of several disciplines; in fact, most of the published research on the matter is integrative in nature. Disciplines that accurately encompass the entirety of this topic include psychology, sociology, art, economics, socioeconomics and humanities. Most pertinent to this research, however, are the disciplines of psychology, sociology and art.

As a discipline which links behaviour with cognitive processes (Repko, 2005), psychology will provide a context in which to understand the emotional and cognitive nature of who psychotherapy influences. Given the continued rise in prison populations, a premium is placed on identifying efficient, yet effective prison based interventions (Morgan, 2006).

Society is composed of individuals; therefore, to understand the sociological implications of psychotherapy or recidivism, it is first necessary to understand psychotherapy’s effect on an individual level. Prison inmates are some of the most maladjusted people in society. Most of the inmates have had too little discipline or too much, come from broken homes, and have no self-esteem (Kennedy, 1984, p.275).

Art as art therapy provides a unique solution for children and adults with special needs or issues, as it addresses many aspects of the individual, including those of cognitive, emotional, and social nature that are hard to address initially separately within that personality (Nissimov-Nahum, 2008, p.1). Through the interdisciplinary process, the separate ideas presented by psychologists, sociologists, and art therapists will synthesize into a new whole, thus resulting in a significantly more comprehensive analysis.

Despite being such a prolific form of treatment, psychotherapy’s ability to cognitively and behaviourally affect the mind is remarkably essential. Methods of research for this discussion will comprise of exploratory research, which structures and identifies new problems, constructive research, which develops solutions to a problem, and empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence.

Another method will be to study the results of experiments done by scientists and to perform statistical analyses. The purpose of this paper is to place a premium on identifying efficient, yet effective prison based interventions. Doing so will result in a hope of dissipating the problem until there is a more detailed understanding of an effective means for criminal rehabilitation and for reduction of jail populations.

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