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Children of Global Migration

Rhacel Salazar Parrenas’ book is mainly about the detailed interviews that she had with people that are migrants between the age of 17-24 as well as their guardians in Philippines. Many children talk about their perspectives on their parents when they had to leave them and the aspect of living in transnational households. It illustrates the child’s perspective on international migration and shows what it is like to be a child who is nurtured from parents that do not live in the same country as them.

Parrenas also focuses on gender analysis by showing how traditional gender and care expectations influence the experience of children in transnational households and the experiences of migrant mothers and fathers. The author argues that the traditional values of the mother as the light of the house and the father as the pillar of the house confront migrant parents with very different expectations that they need to fulfill in order to live up to their children’s expectations.

While the father is traditionally responsible for the economic well being of his family, the mother is the nurturer of the family; her main task is to provide emotional security for her children. As a consequence of fathers migrating to secure the financial well-being of the family and their traditional gender role affects migrant mothers’ role and brings additional tasks into her responsible life. Mothers who migrate do not only have to provide material security to their children, but also have to continue to provide nurturing and emotional work from far away if they want their children to accept their migration.

In the Philippines, a dramatic increase in labor migration has created a large population of transnational migrant families. Thousands of children now grow up apart from one or both parents because the parents are forced to work outside of the country in order to send their children to school, give them access to quality health care or just provide them with enough food.

Analyzing the in depth interviews with the family members left behind, Parrenas examines two dimensions of the transnational family. She looks at the impact of distance on the intergenerational relationships, specifically from the children’s perspective. She then analyzes gender norms in these families, both their reifications and transgressions in transnational households. Acknowledging that geographical separation strains family bonding, Parrenas argues that the maintenance of traditional gender ideologies becomes worse and sometimes even creates the tensions that outbreak many migrant families.

After reading Parrenas’ work I find it sad to know that some of the fathers that are left behind with their children while the mothers are away would not step up and take on the mother’s role. I feel like one of the reasons behind some of the father’s actions is because of the pride that they have within themselves. I see this similarity not only in Philippines but in other Asian countries as well. It seems that as if men would feel less of a man if they would helped out around the house and do things like washing dishes, laundry, cooking. I feel that the drive behind this could also be somewhat cultural. Knowing that this is not a short period of time for the families to be split this way, the children obviously grow and become older. Therefore these everyday life aspects become engraved in their minds and shape their lives, which in the end become a vicious cycle of possibility for this to happen to their children’s future families.

Theories of child labour rely on the universal concept of a child and a set age limit of responsibility and working life, however in many developing countries this concept does not exist or cannot exist because of poverty and lack of education.. Work can also not be limited to paid employment, as many children often help out in domestic work at home, a phenomenon not limited to the developing world, as it can be seen in the responsibilities of children who are carers in the UK. So with the differences in the social aspects between the countries in the developed and developing worlds, can we apply the theories of development, modernisation and dependency to the concept of child labour in the Malawi province when it is a largely western construct- this paper will discuss child labour in relation to these theories and attempt to draw conclusions on the notion of child labour in a developing countries.

A child according to UNCIEF is a person under the age of 18 years and the convention states that international law that state parties must maintain that all children benefit from special protection measures and assistance (www.unicief.org). It goes on to state that a child must have access to education and health care and must be knowledgeable about and contribute to the process of attaining their rights. Conversely, the notion of a child is a challenging one according to James et al, in their book Constructing and Reconstruction Childhood, the writers go on to state how childhood is a social construction, and has different forms in different societies. (Prout et al, 1967).

This view is in contrast to that of the western notion of child that appears to adopt the blanket view of the child and one size fits all. Children globally should be protected and remain in the family unit until they reach the age of 18years. It does not however allow for different cultural approach, or whether a child contributes to the household due to poverty, or indeed the child needs to fund their education (Leonard, 2009).

To define a child is a difficult and emotive issue, and definitions and norms surrounding childhood vary over time and place, and within developing societies the move from childhood to adulthood may not be based on age (Johnson, 2012).

According to the University of Malawi Centre for Social Research child labour has existed in Malawi for a long time. It goes on to state that it part of the Malawian culture to have children assist their parents in the home, and it was not until the late 1890s that child labour formalised (University of Malawi).

In developing countries such as Malawi children are integrated into the household economy at an early age, where according to the International Labour Orginastition where 93.7% of girls and 90% of boys between the ages of 5-14 are unpaid family workers. Paid labour is 3.8% for girls and 4.7% for boys, self-employed is 2.6% for girls and 5.3% for boys (www.ilo.org).

In to White’s consortium the writer argues that cultural doctrine in relation to child work appears to be a more general issue when it is raised on the international level of debate. White goes on to say that ethical issues are raised, and he raises the question as to whether the rights of different cultures should be recognised when debating child labour (white, 1999).

The discussion continues in White’s paper where globalisation is concerned and takes the form of international debates regarding taking the child labour subject across borders, cultures and political worlds (Kent, 1995: 80). This according to White results in a debate that will never be resolved (Alston, 1994: 16).

White believes that with regard to universalism of which he states there are three; cultural relativism that cultures cannot be compared, resulting in according to White cultures that can only be understood in their own terms. The second is cultural relativism as an ethical and political belief, in that culture is immune from critism from outsiders. White’s third cultural relativism pertains to developed world’s view of developing world and how we need to learn and observe and not change (White, Ben. 1999). This would tie in with the notion that west is not always best where the majority countries are concerned.

The western notion could be misunderstood an issue raised by Leonard when she notes that children work in many types of work in developing or majority world countries and it’s the minority that work in the production of goods for the global market (Leonard, 2009). The estimate of child work involved in family based work is 70% (O’Donnell et al. 2002). Leonard also argues that targeting child labour will categorises all child work and has a negative effect on the economics of the child and their nation state (Leonard, 2009). This further the debate on White’s third cultural relativism and the need to learn and respect for different cultures and to understand what other cultures define as child work as opposed to child labour and how western notions are not the best way to future development (White, 1999).

In the now developed countries of the world millions of children once worked in mines, mills agriculture and on the streets, often in similar conditions to that of today’s developing world, but yet the developed countries took several generations to address the issue of child labour according to Hindman. (Hindmand, 2009). It is this western notion of childhood that is imposed on the now developing countries that are sometimes viewed as deviant or backward when they don’t adapt the ‘west is best’ approach to childhood.

It is this western notion of development that Frank argues developing countries could never adopt as developed countries have never experienced colonialism. He goes on to argue that many countries such as China and India were quite advanced before they were colonised in the eighteenth century how a peripheral account of development for developing countries would be that the deviancy of developing countries cannot be explained feudalism of traditionalism ( Frank, 1967:1969).

It is according to Frank past experience of colonialism and domination that have reversed the development of what he term ‘advanced’ developing countries and forced them to become economically regressive, and he terms this the ‘development’ of ‘underdevelopment’ this he writes signifies as unnatural and was created by historical colonialism (Frank, 1967: 1969).

Defining development according to storey, 2009 was for many years straightforward and was seen as equivalent to economic growth of which Gross National Product (GNP) was used as the main indicator and is used in determining the individual total or per capita. This equation is used to determine the development or under development of a country (Storey, 2009).

Social scientists Walt Rostow developed the idea that growth consists of five stages in which developing countries moved from traditional society to an age of high mass consumption. But the concept of growth without development came into question in the 1960s and 1970s (Storey, 2009).

It was not until 1990 that Human Development Index (HDI) was introduced to accurately measure whether people were better off in terms of health, freedom, education and other aspects of life that were not measured by Gross National Product (GDP). Human Development Index was an alternative to Gross National Product; it does not however include the cultural features that make up a society (Lopez, 2009).

There have been critism of HDI no more so than Storey when he states how the Human Development Index is extremely motivated by Western notions (Sen. 1981).

Developing countries according to Frank 1990 became a urbanised western areas that are drained of their natural resources. This was prevalent as a result of colonialism and according to Baran 1957 India was at the fore of development in the world in the eighteen century. Their economy was seen as comparatively progressive and their production was the best in the world (Baran, 1957).

The policies forced onto India were to result in India becoming dutiful to Britain and resulting in India becoming dependant on Britain and moving backwards from a moderately progressive industrial nation to a regressive agricultural nation (Baran, 1957)

According to Frank this was a dependency theory with regard to international capitalism, and resulted in the division of labour that was responsible for the underdevelopment of many countries. The division of labour is the reason for poverty and capitalism regards the division of labour as essential when it comes to the distribution of resources (Frank, 1967).

In 1963 an agreement was reached between European Community and its former colonies to address the underdevelopment of the former colonies and to contribute to a equally useful trading scheme with a range of trading measures. But in 1986 the European Union repositioned itself with regard to global economic position. This was followed by the Maastricht Treaty (1992) saw policy changes to include the smooth and slow incorporation of developing countries world into the world economy, this saw the change in the method in which governments approached support and trading treaties, this according to Mc Cann lead to a more globalising focus on the type of help that developing countries would receive. Mc Cann believes that the EU has the capacity and the financial means to give more help to developing countries. But he notes that after 50 years after the first help from the EU under the Treaty of Rome, developing countries continue to experience social and economic marginalisation, and these further impacts on the poorest and most helpless in developing countries (Mc Cann, 2009).

The overseas Development Institute briefing paper for 1973 state that the International Munirity Fund (IMF) has become more interested a better balance between supply-side and demand-management, and the progress of economic growth within the said nation. It goes on to say how the IMF insist on reforming info-structure to encourage growth in the economy and this results in cuts to education and hospital which impact directly on children who may as a result of these measures need to work to help their family or themselves (www.odi.org.uk).

In an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper by de Carvalho Filho 2008, on Household Income Determinant on Income on Child Labour and School Enrolment. The discussion focuses on household income as a problem where child labour and school enrolment is concerned. This plays back to the need for children to work as opposed attending school. It goes on to note the importance of policies that will improve the human capital of poor children and cut inequality in developing countries (www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2008/wp08241.pdf).

The paper does not however focus on the determination of the IMF to ensure that the country seeking aid is required to restructure and to cut spending in order to get financial help from IMF in the first instance. According to Aide Internationale Pour L’enfance a nongovernmental organisation, the IMF contribute to child labour when they insist that countries severely indebted to them reduce their spending on education and healthcare increasing poverty and child labour www.aipe-cci.org/en/en-index.html .

World Bank Global Child Labour Program was established in 2003 to research child poverty, and to actively address child labour within its lending and non-lending procedures. Another topic within this programme is for the World Bank Organisation to enable greater support between multilateral agencies (www.worldbank.org).

In Malawi according to the World Bank Oginasation has a poverty level of 67.34% the WBO plans to transform Malawi form being an importing and consuming economy to a mainly manufacturing and exporting one (www.worldbank.org). Malawi gained its independence from colomlism in 1962, with a history of corruption and high interest loans it is according to an article in the economy watch dated 9th April 2010,one of the poorest countries in the world. It relays mainly on agriculture and its main crop it tobacco that employs a high percentage of children, and has been criticised by the International Labour Organisation for its use of child labour with some children as young as 11 years working sorting tobacco leave ( www.economywatch). .

Tabaco growers are worried as the World Health Organisation Agreement on tobacco that will see governments move their economies away from tobacco growing, leaving the poorest vauranable and unsure of what crop they can grow to sell on the world market (www.bbcnew.co).

Malawi gets significant financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank. The drive to reduce loans has led to server economic policies being implanted by the current government that has imposed severe hardship on the poorest of Malawi

6 Ibid, 19.

7 John Frederick, Conway. The Canadian family in crisis. (Toronto: J. Lorimer), 2003, 90.

8 Ibid, 90.

9 Neil Frude. Psychological approaches to child abuse. (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield), 1981, 120.

10 Ibid, 120.

11 Ibid, 154.

12 Ibid, 155.

13Karel Kurst-Swanger, and Jacqueline L. Petcosky. Violence in the home: multidisciplinary perspectives. (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press), 2003, 65.

14 Neil Frude. Psychological approaches to child abuse. (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield), 1981, 156.

15 Ibid, 156.

16 Ibid, 156.

17 Ibid, 157.

18 Karel Kurst-Swanger, and Jacqueline L. Petcosky. Violence in the home: multidisciplinary perspectives. (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press), 2003, 113.

19 Neil Frude. Psychological approaches to child abuse. (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield), 1981,126.

20 Ibid, 126.

21 Ibid, 125.

22 Ibid, 125.

23 Maxine Hancock, and Karen Burton. Mains. Child sexual abuse: hope for healing. (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers), 1997, 6.

24 Ibid, 5.

25 SiteWizard. “Lucy Faithfull Foundation.” Child sexual abuse facts. Accessed March 24, 2017. https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/quick_facts.htm, para 4.

26 “The 1 in 6 Statistic.” 1in6. January 1, 2017. Accessed March 24, 2017. http://1in6.org/the-1- in-6-statistic/? gclid=CjwKEAjwh9PGBRCfso2n3ODgvUcSJAAhpW5ouQSjBwcKyLP9OXyXNvkR4iuZVypisYN 9E6MePsf9oRoCOpPw_wcB, para 2.

27 Ibid, para 2.

Critically assess the contribution of the Chicago School

In this essay I will critically assess the contribution of the Chicago school. I will open this essay by briefly describing the Chicago school and the conditions in which it arose. I will then look at the context within criminology in witch the Chicago School emerged; I will do this by looking at the dominating criminological theories that existed before the Chicago school. Furthermore I will discuss the influence Emile Durkhiem and Ernest Simmel made to the Chicago school theories. I will follow by describeing and criticaly assesing the contributions made by some of the key Chicago School thinkers, Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, Edwin Sutherland and Robert Merton. This essay will be concluded by assessing the contributions of the Chicago School theories.

The Chicago school is the name given to the work conducted at the University of Chicago since the 1890’s. The Chicago school emerged at a time when the city was experiencing rapid social changes owing to a rapid increase in population as a result of great migration. These massive social changes caused problems regarding; housing, poverty and strain on institutions. These rapid social changes interested sociologists; they were concerned as to how the city would stay stable in relation to these changes (Faris, 1967, p.5).

The Chicago school primary work took a positive stance; however, sociologists were more focused on social povisitivism. This social positivism I will demonstrate in social structural theories by Robert Park, Ernest Burgress, Robert Merton, Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay. Following world war two some sociologists at the school employed a different form of enquiry to the previous positivist approach. These sociologists’s applied an interactionist form of enquiry to study the social world; this was called symbolic interactionism strongly influenced by the work of Ernest Simmel. This intractionist form of inquiry I will demonstrate in the work of Edwin Sutherland.

In order to understand the contributions made by the Chicago school, we need to understand the context in which the Chicago school emerged. The dominant theories in Criminology preceding the Chicago school were classical criminological and positivist theories of crime.

The classical school of criminology dates back to the enlightenment in the early 18th century. Philosopher’s Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, focused their interest on the system of criminal justice and penology, they suggested that crime is a product of human nature and rational humans possess free will, therefore have the ability to control their actions. (Carrabine et al, 2004, chap. 3)

This perspective emerged as an alternative to the old barbaric system of capital punishment and was concerned with generating a criminal justice system which was more reasonable. This theory was not concerned with the individual causes of crime but instead focused on the law enforcement and legal procedure. Classical criminologists believe that laws are constructed to demonstrate that non-criminal behaviour is in peoples self interests because, according to Jeremy Bentham, it corresponds to his hedonistic utilitarian principle, ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ (Bentham,1789).

Beccaria suggests that crime is a result of bad laws and had nothing to do with bad individuals. Beccaria’s famous book On Crime and Punishment, offered a new perspective based on justice, his notions became the foundations of the modern criminal justice system (Beccaria, 1764, p.8-19).

Early positivist theories of crime are deterministic as they reject the naotin of free will. This deterministic approach uses emprical reasurch methods. This perspective proposes that crime is a consequence of biological, psychological and enviromental determents (Ceurabine et al, 2004, chap. 3). This is in contrast to the classical approach, which focuses on legal issues and prevention of crime. Positivist criminologists alleged that the causes and effects of criminal behaviour are directly observable; this view was shared by Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso did not believe in the notion of free will, he believed that criminal behaviour was inherited. Lombroso suggested that a ‘criminal type’ exists, criminals are physiologically different to non –criminals and these criminals display observable physical signs and deformities. Lombroso conducted research on criminals to gain observable evidence (Macionis and Plummer, 2005, p.442).

Both of these theories offer interesting explanations of crime and have contributed to the development of criminology today. The criminal justice system might not exist without the work of Beccaria and perhaps capital punishment might still be in use presently. The work of early positivist criminologists have contributed to criminology by suggesting that crime is not necessarily a matter of free will but could in fact be a result of determining external factors. The positivist tradition was also employed by Emile Durkhiem. The Chicago school was highly influenced by Durkhiem’s work and his ideas contributed to the development of some of their theories. The Chicago School’s early work employed a social positivist tradition as they believed that crime was not a matter of free will but was determined by social factors.

Emile Durkhiem was interested in social positivism; his theories focused macro sociological issues. Durkhiem looked at societies as a whole and believed that there were laws that govern and control our behaviour. Durkhiem suggested that a certain degree of crime and deviance was necessary for a healthy society. He suggested that individuals are influenced by different factors and may not share the same values; these conflicting values can cause deviant behaviour (Durkheim, 1895, p.65-73).

Durkhiem suggested that too much crime and deviance threatens the stability of society but too little indicates apathy as well as limiting change and innovation. Durkhiem also suggested that deviance has a positive function because exposure to criminal behaviour reinforces society’s belief in shared norms and values, when a criminal trial transpires; it heightens awareness of society’s moral code. Durkhiem believed that society can be viewed similarly to an organic organism because both are made up from interdependent parts working together in order for the whole to function; he suggested that institutions such as the family, education and religion all contribute to the overall functioning of society. (Macionis and Plummer, 2005 p.444)

After world war two, some Chicago school thinkers were influenced by the work of Ernest Simmel, his ideas are essential for understanding the original notions from where symbolic interactionism emerged. Simmel looked at micro sociological issues. Simmel suggested that individuals are not directly observable because of their subjective nature; he believed that individuals are self interested and try to gain their needs by using the means available to them. Simmel looked at individual’s actions as he believed that through these actions the social world was constructed he suggests “…. society is made up of the interactions between and among individuals, and the sociologist should study the patterns and forms of these associations, rather than quest after social laws” (Farganis, p. 133). This perspective is different from the deterministic postivist theorys as it belives that individuals have the free will to construt their own reality.

Robert Park was an influential figure at the university during the 1920’s and 1930’s, he was interested in human Ecology. He was highly influenced by the work of Emile Durkhiem and his organic analogy of society. Park saw the city as a super organism and held that social changes were a natural process required by society in order to proceed and effectively evolve. (Park and Burgress, 1921)

Robert Park was pioneer of a new research method called ethnography. This pioneering new method made huge contributions to the way sociologists/ criminologists studied the social world. Park encouraged his students to go into the city and collect primary data using observational methods. (Macionis and Plummer 2005 p.648-649)

“Go and sit in the lounges of the luxury hotels and on the doorsteps of the flophouses; sit on the Gold Coast settees and on the slum shakedown; sit in the Orchestra Hall and the Star and Garter Burlesque. In short, gentlemen, go get the seat of your pants dirty in real research.”

(Park, Cited in Prus 1996, pg 103-140)

Using a mixture of ethnographic methods combined with ecology, Park and Ernest Burgress conducted an ecological study on the city of Chicago. Together they constructed a diagrammatical representation of the city called the concentric zone model. The concentric zone model was the first model to demonstrate how urban land was used. This model showed the location of certain social groups within the city of Chicago (Macionis and Plummer, 2005 p.650-651).

This theory revealed that there was a correlation in distance from the central business zone depending on class, it showed that richer people lived further away from the central business district and poorer people lived near it in the zone of transition. Their theory suggests that areas nearest the core are impacted higher by social changes for example poverty, immagration (Macionis and Plummer, 2005 p.650-651).

This theory has contributed to criminology as it shows the correlation between social ecology, class and crime; this model demonstrates the impact social changes have on crime. This was a change to previous explanations of crime as it suggestes that crime is a result of external social factors, and therefore challenges the earlier positivist’s biological causational theory supported by Lombroso.

The centric zone model has been criticised because the theory is context and historically specific. This theory cannot be applied to explain city’s other than Chicago. This theory does not explain modern ecology, as high-class housing is near the centre of the city and not on the outskirts. Another criticism is that Park and Burgess used official data to produce their theory but they did not have knowledge of how this official data was configured, such as; if the data was affected by bias, if individuals were labelled. This theory also did not take into account white collar crime. Furthermore Park and Burgess’ theory did not offer explanations as to why crime in the zone of transition was higher in other areas. This theory also did not suggest who committed crime’s and why? (Short, 1976)

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay also made contributions to the development of the Chicago school. They were interested in how these social forces influence crime, an area overlooked by the earlier work of Park and Burgess. Shaw and McKay were interested in social disorganization; they suggest that crime is a social disorder resulting from social disorganization (Lotz, 2005 p. 122-127).

Shaw and McKay used Park and Burgess’s concentric zone model to investigate the relationships in crime rates and delinquency in the different zones in the city. They also found that areas located near the city centre that were experiencing high disorganization were also experiencing high delinquency. They suggest that “Delinquency rates were for these groups high…because of other aspects of the total situation in which they lived” (Shaw and McKay, 1942 pg56).

There theory looked at the reasons behind the high levels of disorganization.

They advocate that social disorganization in urban areas is linked to social changes for example, industrialization, urbanization and immigration. They propose that disorganized areas will develop deviant and criminal values that substitute conventional values. The diagram below demonstrates Shaw and McKay’s theory (Shaw and McKay, 1942).

Shaw and McKay theory is unique as it looks at the social aspects causing crime; it explains why there are increased amounts of delinquency in certain areas and within certain groups (Shaw and McKay, 1942).

There are however criticisms of Shaw and McKay’s social disorgniztional theory. Critics suggest that not everyone who lives in disorganized communities engage in criminal acts. It also does not explain why criminal acts are still present in areas that are seen to have low disorganization. This theory also overlooks middle class crime as it only focuses on disorganized areas. This theory does not explain how deviant norms and values are transmitted (Lotz, 2005, p. 122-127).

Another theory associated with the University of Chicago was the theory of differential association developed by Edwin Sutherland 1939. It aim is to understand the process in which deviant behaviour is learnt. This theory explains areas that Shaw and McKay missed. This theory looks at the cultural transmission it proposes that criminal behaviour is learned through human interactions and suggests that criminal and deviant norms, attitudes and motives transpire from learned behaviour. He looked deeply at individuals’ values and cultural perspectives in order to recognize the reasons behind deviant and criminal behaviour. This perspective was influenced by the ideas of Simmel and the idea that researchers needed to look at the underlying causes of criminal behaviour (Cote, 2002, p.125-130).

This perspective made contributions to criminology as it suggests that the causes of crime are related to learning deviant or criminal norms. This theory contrasts the positivist theories as it takes an interactionists stance. This theory suggests that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction and can be transmitted through groups of people through communication and a collection of shared attitudes. This theory also can be used to explain white collar crimes (Lotz, 2005 p.127-131).

However this theory does not explain why not all individuals who are influenced by criminal or deviant norms don’t become deviant or criminals. This theory can be criticized for its lack of empirical evidence due to interpretive form of inquiry. This theory does take into account the pressure society puts on individuals to achieve their goals; this pressure is explained by Robert Merton’s strain theory (Cote, 2002, p.125-130).

Robert Merton’s strain theory was derived form Emile Durkhiem’s theory of anomie. This theory looks at the impact society has on individuals. Merton suggests that there is an inequality in the ability for individuals to achieve their goals. This theory suggests that when individuals cannot acquire the means to achieve their goals this can lead to criminal and deviant behaviour. His theory is broken down into five elements as this diagram demonstrates (Lotz, 2005, p.127-131).

Conformity is when individuals accept there are means and goals.
Innovation is when there is a rejection of the means but the individual still desires the goal, this could result in criminal behaviour.
Ritualism is not a rejection of the goals but the individual accepts that they can’t reach their goals.
Retreatism, individuals want to withdraw from society and are not interested in inquiring the means or reaching their goals.
Rebellion, these individuals reject the means and goals but do not withdraw from society but rather wants society to change and become active force of change.

This theory has contributed to criminolgy as it focuses on how strain society puts on people, to obtain the means in order to achieve their goals, these pressures Merton calls anomie. This theory gives explanations to why poor people commit crime. It demonstrates that the poor don’t have the means they need to achieve their goals (Cote, 2002, p.125-130).

There is however criticisms of this theory this theory does not explain why there is white collar crime. It overlooks the issue that rich people who have the means to achieve their goals still commit crime (Lotz, 2005, p.127-131).

In conclusion the Chicago school theories made significant contributions to the study of criminology. The modern structural theories changed our thinking from the idea that crime was caused by individual biological/genetic factors, to the idea that crime was a result of social factors. The Chicago school’s social structural theories suggest that crime is a result of external social and cultural factors. Robert Park and Ernest Burgess ecological theory, made a contribution as it demostrated how exteral social factors can influence crime. Shaw and McKay made contributions to criminology by explaining how thease external social factors had an impact on criminal behaviour. Their social disorgniztional theory demonstrates the link between external factors (social disorganization) and crime. Their disorganizational theory demostrates what happens if there is a break down of social control in society. They suggest that this beack down leads to disorganization. However this theory does not explain the pressure social control has on individuals. This was the focus of Merton’s strain theory; Merton was interested in the pressure society put on individuals. Merton’s strain theory higlights effects the social forces have on determin crime. The Chicago School also contributed by adopting an interactionist’s form of inquiry as demostrated in Edwin Sutherland’s diffrential associaition theory. This form of inquiry was inspired by the work of simmel and is unique in comparission to the positivist tradittion. The interactionist approach made significant contributions to the way we understand the underlying reasons behind criminal behaviour. This perspective is not intrested in finding the cause of crime but is aim. The Chicago school contributed by using ethnography, this allowed researchers to get in-depth detailed accounts of the social phenomena they were observing. Ethnographic methods are still used today as they are considered a vital way to gain detailed primary information. Every Chicago school theory has contributed to the way we study criminology some theories may be more relevant than others but all the theories have raised important issues.

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Darwin’s theory of sexual selection suggests that desirable members of the opposite sex possess reproductively valuable assets over which members of the same sex compete. Gender differences typically exist when it comes to which reproductively relevant resources are valued by men and women. Females seem to increase their reproductive success by choosing a man of high status with sufficient resources, thereby able to provide material security to successfully raise offspring. Males, on the other hand, increase their reproductive success by choosing women who are receptive, fertile, and possesses characteristics suggestive of being a good mother (Singh, 1993). Research suggests that mate qualities valued by people offline are the same as those valued by people online (Lenton, et al., 2008) and studies investigating mating preferences on online dating websites display similar findings, with women going to significantly greater lengths than men to enhance physical attractiveness on profile photos, and men emphasising their status and income to a significantly greater extend than women. The present study proposed that evolutionary differences between the sexes with regards to sexual selection should also exist in non-dating online environments like the social networking website, Facebook, with females placing more of on emphasis on projecting physical attractiveness, sociability and nurturing qualities, and males projecting competitiveness and status. Most of the hypotheses were confirmed and were consistent with other studies on mating preferences from an evolutionary viewpoint. Several conclusions can be drawn from this study. Firstly, support was found for significantly greater female than male use and perceived effectiveness of projecting physical attractiveness and nurturing qualities. Secondly, support was found that single women perceive the effectiveness of projecting physical attractiveness to a significantly greater extent than married females. Thirdly, support was found for significantly greater male than female use and perceived effectiveness of competitiveness. Fourthly, support was found that single persons perceived the use and effectiveness of projecting sociability as significantly greater than married persons. Finally, the perceived use and effectiveness of the projection of status did not vary significantly for either gender or relationship status.

These findings provide evidence that mating preferences are also displayed implicitly in non-dating online environments where the main agenda is social networking, rather than attracting a mate. This implies that the projection of reproductively valued assets could also be an unconscious process, engrained in our evolutionary biological make-up. The results of this study will now be discussed in terms of each hypothesis, after which the practical implications of the study will be highlighted and suggestions will finally be made on how future studies could utilize and expand these findings.

Physical attractiveness

As predicted, significant results were found for the projection of physical attractiveness for gender, with women scoring higher overall than men, and also for relationship status, with single persons scoring significantly higher than married persons. These findings provide evidence that pressure on women to appear young and attractive is just as prevalent in today’s society as it was when Darwin wrote his theory on sexual selection in 1871, noting that “In civilized life man is largely, but by no means exclusively, influenced in the choice of his wife by external appearance”, Darwin (1871; cited in Confer, Perilloux & Buss, 2010). The pressure to be beautiful can be most blatantly observed on dating websites where the intrasexual battle between women ensues as they compete for the attention of a potential partner, and rely solely on photos as a method to project physical characteristics, even lying about age and weight to appear more attractive (Hitsch et al., 2009). Minervini & McAndrew (2005) found that men were more likely to respond to an advertisement in which a woman identified herself as a recovering addict than to an ad in which the woman identified herself as obese. Findings of this study reveal Facebook to be just as a competitive virtual arena which exhibits similar characteristics to online dating websites, including the strategic way in which one’s projected physical attractiveness is manipulated and enhanced online. Women displayed considerably more of a tendency to change their profile pictures on a regular basis than men, thereby drawing attention to- and emphasizing their looks to a much greater extent than men. This tendency was particularly highlighted among single women. Considering that evolutionary biology rules out beauty for its own sake, Derry (2008), these findings reflect the unconscious way in which women on Facebook project reproductively valued qualities to the opposite sex through the implicit medium of photography. Although facial attractiveness is expected to predict the popularity of both men and women, and emerged in virtually all dating studies based on real interactions as a powerful predictor of popularity as found by Asendorpf, Penke & Back (2011), women tend to score significantly higher on projected physical attractiveness in comparison to men, as also supported by the findings of this study.

Further significant differences were found between single- and married persons, with single users projecting physical attractiveness more than married users. This supports predictions, and reflects that there is less pressure on married couples to emphasise physical attractiveness, which can be attributed to the fact that they are already in positions of long term mating, and there is thus less of a need to emphasise looks.

Another interesting finding in the current study was that only 52% of single women listed their age, followed by 78% of married women, 88% of single men, and finally 94% of married men. This further highlights the pressure on women to appear youthful, and it is interesting to note that it is predominantly single women who do not choose to list their age. Considering that 78% of married females list their age, one can not generalize this finding to women in general. The conclusion which must thus be drawn is that single women tend to de-emphasize elements relating to age in an attempt to appear more youthful. It is also interesting to note that the average age of single women was 24 in comparison to married women who were aged 29 on average. Considering that married women were aged slightly older than single women, one would in fact expect them to be more secretive about their age. However, this research indicates findings to the contrary and highlights the reproductive value of appearing young for single women. These findings are supported by various previous studies on mating preferences that found both physical attractiveness and youth as indicative of health and fertility in women, and as valued significantly by men as sources of reproductive value (Buss et al., 1990; Buss & Barnes, 1986; Buss et al., 2001; Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Kenrick & Keefe, 1992; Singh, 1993).

Competitiveness

Human beings tend to live in groups and all groups have status hierarchies, whether formal or informal, with reproductively valued resources usually abundant at the top rather than the bottom, creating steep levels of competition (Buss, 2001). Levels of intrasexual competition also increase, especially among males, as male resource display is judged as more effective than female resource display when it comes to attracting a mate. Men more than women display characteristics that would lead to the likely acquisition of resources like ambition and industriousness (Buss, 1988). In the current study significant gender differences were found for the projection of competitiveness, with males overall scoring significantly higher than females, as predicted. Previous studies found that men were more likely to display resources as a tactic of intrasexual competition than women, also linking to studies done on mating preferences as displayed on online dating websites which found that men tended to project their status in society, as well as their income, to a much greater extent than women (Hitsch et al., 2009, Toma, Hancock & Ellison, 2008, Mahfouz, 2008). Although projected levels of competitiveness is not viewed as directly projecting resources or income in the case of this study, it is seen as a powerful indicator of a male’s ability to succeed in allocating valuable resources such as financial income. Levels of competitiveness did not vary significantly between single- and married men as predicted, indicating that the projection of competitiveness is valued by males in general and not just single males. This could arguably be explained by the fact that, from an evolutionary viewpoint, men may have evolved over human evolutionary history a powerful need for sexual access to a large number of women (Buss, 1993) which in combination with the innate ability to father offspring until much later in life than women are capable of biologically, entails higher levels of competitiveness to suffice throughout a male’s life. In one study men stated that they would ideally like to have more than 18 sex partners in their lifetimes, whereas women state that they would desire only 4 or 5 (Buss & Schmitt, 1993), and these findings were replicated twice when 75% of men but 0% of the women approached by an attractive stranger of the opposite sex consented to a request for sex (Clark & Hatfield, 1989). From an evolutionary viewpoint, marriage is a relatively modern concept, implying that gender differences with regards to intra- and intersexual competition have not changed dramatically in modern times. In this sense competitiveness leads to a higher position in the social hierarchy, and better chance of providing for one’s offspring, and should not significantly vary between single- and married men, as findings illustrate in this study.

The importance of physical characteristics in the female choice of a mate is prevalent throughout the animal kingdom, and one benefit of a woman in permanent mating conditions is the physical protection offered by a man, Buss (2003). Considering that levels of competitiveness were correlated with participation in sports, one could further explore the possibility that physical strength as displayed in sports is valued as a reproductive resource by women- supported by studies such as Buss (1995) which found that women valued physical protection abilities more than men, in both short-term and long-term mating. Thus, it is additionally also possible that men project physical strength by appearing “sporty” in profile photos as the reproductively valued asset of providing physical protection to offspring. This could also account for the insignificant difference between single- and married males when it came to the projection of competitiveness, seeing that men can father (and thus protect) offspring until late in life.

Nurturing qualities

The current study predicted that women would score significantly higher on projected nurturing qualities than men, and this hypothesis was supported. Both single and married women projected nurturing qualities to a greater extent than males. Stereotypically women are nurturing, where as men are somewhat more aggressive and less person-centred. Traditionally sex differences have been explained by the process of socialization , and the way men and women are influenced by societal norms to play acceptable gender roles. However, from an evolutionary viewpoint men would need to exhibit higher levels of aggression, and competitiveness, supported by the findings of this study, to protect their positions in society where as women with lower levels of competition and higher investment in their offspring are expected to show more nurturing behaviours (Workman & Reader, 2004). This study supports findings from previous research which highlight nurturing qualities in women as being innate, as illustrated in a study by Bernt (1986) in which it was shown that women are more attracted to intimate relationships than men, and cross-cultural studies which suggests women to be more person-centred, in contrast to men who are more object-centred. There is also evidence that sex differences in nurturance has its origins in infancy, and another study found that infant girls more than infant boys were more likely to also start crying when they heard another baby cry, than when hearing a loud noise Simner (1971, as cited in Workman & Reader, 2004). Contrary to prediction single women did not score higher on projected nurturing qualities than married women with married women having the highest scores on projected nurturing qualities overall. A possible explanation for this could be that married women, who being married are in a more secure position to either have children- or already have children, are either consciously or unconsciously depicting salient nurturing qualities. This study also illustrates that the biological experiences of pregnancy and lactation generate a strong, instinctual drive in women to nurture (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999), as illustrated by the higher, although not significantly so, proportion of married women who exhibited nurturing qualities in this study versus single women.

Sociability

A significant difference between single- and married subjects was noted when it came to sociability, with single Facebook users projecting sociability to a greater extend than married users. This links to previous studies done on Facebook which found that most users attempted to project a socially desired self, claiming that they were “popular among friends”. Fierce competition was also noted among Facebook users for the size of social networks they claimed to possess, and competition to have the most amount of “friends” (Zhao, 2008). Thus, it would seem that the desire to appear sociable or popular offline, also exists online. There is further support for the importance of social skills as found in a study by Buss (1989) which studied mating preferences across 37 cultures and found that kindness, intelligence and social skills were listed as the top criteria for a potential mate. This supports the current study’s prediction, that single Facebook users would appear significantly more social than married users. However, unlike predicted there was no significant difference between men and women when it came to projected sociability, revealing that the projection of warmth towards others is just as important for single men as it is for single women. Significantly lower levels of projected sociability in married couples could be a reflection of lower levels of social activity as portrayed in profile pictures, perhaps as a result of spending more time with their partners or children, but could also indicate that there is less of a need to exhibit sociability, and thereby project popularity among friends .

Status

Status is closely correlated to financial income, and it was predicted that men more than women would display their status on Facebook, supporting studies such as one by Buss (1988) in which it was found that men more than women display characteristics that lead to the likely acquisition of resources, e.g. degree attainment. However, this was not the case, and no significant differences in the projection of status were found between either men and women overall, or single- and married subjects. There could be several explanations for this, one relating to previous studies done on online dating websites which found that both sexes tended to favour members of the opposite sex with similar educational levels. Considering the overwhelming support that previous studies provide with regards to the importance that women attach to resource income as a reproductive value and status as a reflection of financial income, another explanation could lie in the obvious fact that Facebook is a social-, rather than dating network, and that popularity as illustrated with regards to exhibiting sociability, is highly valued. Thus, it would be just as important for women than for men to list their status in a virtual social network where one would expect similar levels of education among friends or acquaintances as a general rule. Also, Facebook is arguably not different from online dating websites where users, both male and female, tend to list their status as a formality, but in which one study men stated in a questionnaire that they did have a particularly strong distaste for a better educated partner, while women particularly avoided less educated men (Hitsch et al., 2009).

In conclusion, the implicit nature of photography and the unconscious way in which participants use it to project reproductively valued qualities to members of the opposite sex are particularly interesting findings. Facebook as a social networking website, in which users have control over self image and access to many tools with which to present themselves in a favourable way to others makes it a fascinating medium to further explore.

Limitations and suggestions for future research should be noted. Suggestions for future studies include conducting a cross-cultural study to see if there are any significant differences to note. Secondly, exploring other functions on the social networking website, such as the number of friends- or social networks a user possess, additional photo albums, qualitative analysis of verbal descriptions under the “About me” section or status updates of users, etc. The vast amount of additional information available on Facebook could be used to supplement current findings, and other popular social networking sites such as MySpace could be researched in a similar fashion. Thirdly, different age groups could be tested for significant correlations- or differences. Fourthly, data could be collected in combination with questionnaires, supplementing findings. Fifthly, a study looking at specific differences between the explicit and implicit projection of reproductively valued qualities on Facebook could be conducted. Finally, there are many other traits which both sexes highly value in the opposite sex like displaying humour, good manners, sympathy, good grooming (Buss, 1988), similar values, honesty (Whitty, 2007) etc. and future studies could aim to include these.

Although this study and its hypotheses were interpreted from an evolutionary perspective, additional theoretical accounts are possible, and it should be kept in mind that evolutionary explanations supplement, rather than replace traditional modes of explanation in psychology (Buss, 1988). These results may be seen as the start of an exploration into social networking websites and how reproductively valued traits are unconsciously and implicitly projected to members of the opposite sex, but current social psychological accounts should also considered.

Introduction

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

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

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

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

Overview

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Analysis

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

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

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

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

Which characteristics have held constant, and which been transformed

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reference list

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1

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

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

Definition of Ethnomethodological ethnography

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

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

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

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

The main characteristics of ethnomethodological ethnography

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

Taken for granted assumptions

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

Common-sense knowledge and procedures

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

Typification

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

Indexicality

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

Accounting

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

Reflexivity

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

Steps of Ethnomethodological ethnography

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

Defining the objectives of the study

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

Fieldworks, fieldnotes and documents

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

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

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

Data analysis

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

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

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

Review of selected previous literature

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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