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Assessing the theory of “Broken Windows”

“Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent people…We have trifled with the wicked, made sport of the innocent, and encouraged the calculators. Justice suffers, and so do we all”

– James Wilson

The basic idea for the Broken Windows theory is that any kind of urban blight – a broken window, graffitied walls, rubbish on the streets, etc. – does no harm to a neighbourhood if it is immediately remedied. However, if left untended, it signifies a lack of care in the community, the kind of environment in which it is acceptable for residents to relinquish any notions of concern. And while the initial damage and disrepair is physical, the next stage is psychological. That is, if it becomes acceptable for people to litter and vandalise at will, why not walk around drunk, or beg for money, or mug others for it? Why not even kill for it? Why follow any kind of rules at all? In sum, the Broken Windows theory postulates that the smallest symptoms can lead to the greatest crimes. This paper will examine the effectiveness of this idea.

The Broken Windows theory first became widely known in 1982, when James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published an article in the Atlantic Monthly called “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety.” The article articulated the reasons why minor neighbourhood slights should not be ignored:

“A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy. Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers” (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

On the surface, this idea, that small acts of antisocial behaviour can act as catalysts for others, and that a broken window “sends a signal” to criminals that it okay to break the law, seems perfectly reasonable and logical. The notion that once people begin disregarding the norms that keep order in a community, both order and community unravel, even follows the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics (systems naturally progress from a state of order to disorder). And almost from its inception, the idea took hold.

While the Wilson/Kelling article did the most to publicise the theory, there were some precedents, namely Philip Zimbardo’s 1969 experiment, in which he left two identical 1959 Oldsmobiles in different neighbourhoods, one near the Bronx campus of New York University and one near the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. “The license plates of both cars were removed and the hoods opened to provide the necessary releaser signals” (Zimbardo, 1969).

In the Bronx, within ten minutes, the car was vandalised, and by the end of the day was stripped bare. In Palo Alto, the car remained untouched for a week, until Zimbardo himself broke one of its windows with a sledgehammer, at which point others joined in. Within a few hours, the car was completely destroyed. (Gladwell, 1996).

Zimbardo’s focus was on the psychological aspects of authority and anonymity, and his experiment aimed to understand what factors and to what extent human behaviour was governed by environmental and physiological stimuli, a process known as deindividuation:

“…a series of antecedent social conditions lead to a change in perception of self and others, and thereby to a lowered threshold of normally restrained behavior” (Zimbardo, 1969).

Wilson and Kelling’s article, however, was more prescriptive, and was focused on applying the Broken Windows theory to law enforcement procedures. And it is in this way that politicians and police have regarded the theory over the past twenty-five years, paving the way for a slate of reforms aimed at promoting deterrence through arrests, imprisonment and harsh sentencing, with a heavy reliance on the criminal justice system to impart severe and swift penalties (Conklin, 1992).

Within the article, the authors discuss the historical function of police work, which they describe as maintaining public order:

“From the earliest days of the nation, the police function was seen primarily as that of a night watchman: to maintain order against the chief threats to order – fire, wild animals, and disreputable behavior. Solving crimes was viewed not as a police responsibility but as a private one” (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

However, this eventually changed, and detective work (solving crimes) took on a greater role, a shift that the authors feel should be reversed:

“A great deal was accomplished during this transition, as both police chiefs and outside experts emphasized the crime-fighting function in their plans, in the allocation of resources, and in deployment of personnel. The police may well have become better crime-fighters as a result. And doubtless they remained aware of their responsibility for order. But the link between order-maintenance and crime-prevention, so obvious to earlier generations, was forgotten” (ibid).

Another criticism felled by Wilson and Kelling was the lack of “community policing,” or the “beat officer” on foot, patrolling the neighbourhood. Instead, there had been a steady shift towards keeping the officers in their squad cards, in which case they were isolated, removed from the people of the neighbourhood and the life on the street, whereas “what foot-patrol officers did was to elevate, to the extent that they could, the level of public order in these neighborhoods” (ibid). In short, the officer on foot was not only more accessible, and thus a part of the community; he was better able to understand it and serve it.

The majority of the theory, however, has to do with a new focus on smaller crimes – beggars, drunks, teenagers, litter, etc. – rather than big ones. These so-called “gateway crimes” are where the real offenses take root; eliminate these, and the major crimes will be stopped before they have a chance to foster and spread:

“The citizen who fears the ill-smelling drunk, the rowdy teenager, or the importuning beggar is not merely expressing his distaste for unseemly behavior; he is also giving voice to a bit of folk wisdom that happens to be a correct generalization – namely that serious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked. The unchecked panhandler is, in effect, the first broken window” (ibid).

But does the theory work? As of yet, there has been no scientific evidence proving it does. Even Wilson himself a few years ago admitted: “People have not understood that this was a speculation” (Hurley, 2004).

It should be noted that on the very first page of the Atlantic Monthly article, where the authors were giving a history of community policing in Newark, NJ, they mentioned a study by the Police Foundation that discovered that while “foot patrol had not reduced crime rates, residents seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas” (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

On the surface, this seems pretty straightforward – because foot patrols did not lead to a drop in crime rates, they didn’t do anything to make neighbourhoods safer. However, Wilson and Kelling use the residents’ testimony to argue that, in fact, the community is safer, because disorder itself is something to be feared:

“We understand what most often frightens people in public places. Many citizens, of course, are primarily frightened by crime, especially crime involving a sudden, violent attack by a stranger. This risk is very real, in Newark as in many large cities. But we tend to overlook another source of fear–the fear of being bothered by disorderly people” (ibid).

This is all very well and good, that people appreciate not having to deal with aggressive and disorderly people. But how then is safety being measured, if not by crime rates? The authors certainly aren’t implying that it can be measured by residents’ feelings of safety? Regardless, the rest of the article makes no mention of this issue, and concentrates primarily on perceived dangers (how to curb a community’s fears of being bothered by disorderly persons), rather than actual ones (curbing crime rates themselves).

The theory had its first test in the early 90s, when the Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, implemented his own version of it to target the city’s high crime rate. This didn’t happen simply by chance; George Kelling was a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, and was one of Giuliani’s advisors (DePalma, 2002). The term that was used to describe the new initiative was the “no tolerance policy.” This phrase, along with another that soon followed (“quality of life”), acted as the cornerstones for Giuliani’s mayorship. He aimed to aggressively target even minor infractions (no tolerance) in order to clean up the city and make New York a safe place to live (improved quality of life).

Police were given powers that they never before had, and were encouraged to hand out tickets and arrests for anything and everything. “For the cops,” Chief of Police William Bratton commented, they were “a bonanza. Every arrest was like opening a box of Cracker Jacks. What kind of toy am I going to get? Got a gun? Got a knife? Got a warrant? Do we have a murderer here? Each cop wanted to be the one who came up with the big collar. It was exhilarating for the cops and demoralizing for the crooks” (Bratton, 1998).

In addition to the usual list of offenders – drunks, panhandlers, juvenile delinquents – were added jaywalkers and “squeegee men,” those homeless men and women who aggressively and without asking would clean a car’s windshield while the driver was stuck in traffic, and then demand payment. The effect of the new procedures was instant and irrevocable: crime dropped to its lowest figures in four decades, and stayed there. At the present moment, New York City is the safest big city in America. However, whether this decline can solely or even partially be attributed to Broken Windows is up for debate. At the same time the police were implementing harsh “no tolerance” crackdowns, the crack cocaine market bottomed out, which resulted in less drug deals, fewer addicts on the street and a reduction in violent turf wars, all of which at one time were responsible for numerous muggings and murders (Harcourt, 2002). In addition, over the same time period, there were dramatic improvements in emergency response capabilities and medical care, which ended up saving the lives of countless people who previously would have died (Lizza, 2002).

There were also important changes at the New York Police department during this time that could have explained the drop in crime, including a significant increase in the number of police officers. In 1992, Giuliani’s predecessor, David Dinkins, hired over two thousand new officers under the Safe Streets, Safe City project, and Giuliani himself hired another four thousand, and merged another six thousand Transit and Housing Authority officers into the ranks of the New York Police Department (Harcourt, 2002). Because of this, the department increased from 26,856 in 1991 to 39,779 in 2000, giving New York the largest police force in the country, with the highest ratio of officers to civilians of any major city (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992).

Another argument against the success of Broken Windows is that the 1990s were generally a “boom time.” The stock market, employment and wages were all at record highs throughout the United States, and crime rates are usually more prevalent when times are hard. For example, crime fell in many large cities – San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and others – at exactly the same time, and in some cases in an even more dramatic fashion:

“One study found that New York City’s drop in homicides, though impressive, is neither unparalleled nor unprecedented. Houston’s drop in homicides of 59 percent between 1991 and 1996 outpaced New York City’s 51 percent decline over the same period. Another study looked at the rates of decline in homicides in the seventeen largest U.S. cities from 1976 to 1998 and found that New York City’s recent decline, though above average, was the fifth largest, behind San Diego, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, and Houston” (Joanes, 1999).

And many of these cities did not implement the kind of order-maintenance procedures that New York did. For example, the San Diego police department instilled a model based on community-police relations. Their strategy was one of sharing the responsibility of identifying and solving crimes with neighbourhood residents. Because of this, San Diego not saw a marked decrease in crime, but experienced a 15 percent drop in arrests, and an 8 percent drop in complaints of police misconduct (Greene, 1999).

In addition, San Francisco made community involvement a priority, and felony incarcerations dropped from 2,136 in 1993 to 703 in 1998, and rape, robbery, aggravated assault and total violent crime decreased more than the rate in New York over the same period (Khaled and Macallair, 2002).

Other cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, also experienced significant decreases in crime without adopting as coherent a policing strategy as New York or San Diego.

The fact is that there was a remarkable drop in crime in many major cities in the United States during the 1990s, many of which used a variety of different strategies. To attribute New York’s declining crime rates to merely their implementation of more aggressive initiatives is overly simplistic. However, New York’s success got the most publicity, and much of the country wanted to learn from Giuliani and to implement their own “no tolerance” policies. And its popularity in the U.S. was only matched by its appeal abroad. In 1998, representatives from over 150 police departments from around the world visited New York to learn about order-maintenance policing, and in 2000, another 235 police departments, the vast majority from overseas, followed suit (Gootman, 2000).

However, even if the Broken Windows theory is correct, it has still never been fully explained as to how it works. It could be argued that those who choose to commit crimes, denied the signals they would normally receive from low-grade disorder, move on to different locales. But where do they go? And if such places existed, couldn’t they implement their own Broken Windows initiatives? One possible answer comes from writer and social theorist Malcolm Gladwell, who suggests that crime actually does increase or decrease much like an epidemic, and at certain thresholds will turn, rather than rise and fall in a typical linear fashion (Gladwell, 1996).

Wilson and Kelling for their part fail to talk much about the specifics by which public disorder turns into crime. They simply say it does, as do most of the theory’s supporters. However, some seem to have taken the idea to illogical extremes, such as a Lancaster, Pennsylvania reporter commenting on the city’s new “quality of life” initiatives: “If you put a couch out in a backyard, somebody could get raped on that couch” (Van Nguyan, 2001).

Bernard Harcourt, who has written extensively on the issue, believes that the aggressive prosecution of disorderly behaviour has had little effect on crime rates dropping. His argument is that the increased number of arrests, searchers, surveillance, and police officers on the streets has had the fairly straightforward effect of bringing more small offenses to light, and that no provable connection has ever made between disorder and crime (Harcourt, 2002). His worry is that this sets a dangerous precedent, and that the unfounded power of the police will only lead to more drastic action against less drastic offenses, especially minorities:

“Incidents like the NYPD’s alleged torture of a Haitian naturally reinforce minority citizens’ distrust of the police. This mistrust has been boosted of late by numerous television videotapes showing police officers beating up unresisting citizens. In most cases, the cops were white and those on the receiving end of their clubs were black or Latino” (McNamara, 1997).

However, this is exactly in line with what Wilson and Kelling argue for, this “bygone era” of policing:

“The police in this earlier period assisted in that reassertion of authority by acting, sometimes violently, on behalf of the community. Young toughs were roughed up, people were arrested ‘on suspicion’ or for vagrancy, and prostitutes and petty thieves were routed. ‘Rights’ were something enjoyed by decent folk, and perhaps also by the serious professional criminal, who avoided violence and could afford a lawyer” (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

Kelling himself spent some time accompanying an officer (“Kelly”) on his beat, the experience of which again illustrates a strange tolerance for lawlessness on the part of the police:

“Sometimes what Kelly did could be described as enforcing the law, but just as often it involved taking informal or extralegal steps to help protect what the neighborhood had decided was the appropriate level of public order. Some of the things he did probably would not withstand a legal challenge” (ibid).

After all, what can “extralegal” possibly mean other than “illegal?” It seems odd that this is the sort of behaviour the authors advocate, one in which officers are allowed to take the law into their own hands, but anyone who commits even the smallest of trespasses – jaywalking, littering, urinating in public – needs to be several punished. It certainly doesn’t put much faith in the fairness of the model. And, in fact, the Broken Windows model is far from fair. One of its constant critiques is that the kinds of offenses it targets are primarily those carried out by the poor. There is no mention of embezzlement, crooked accountants, insurance scams, loan sharks or slumlords, crimes typical of the wealthy. And these offenses, certainly, can have just as detrimental effect on a community as a host of unsightly behaviours, if not more so.

The “broken windows” metaphor is interesting in that it is actually up to landlords to fix real-life broken windows, while it is often those who are not in a position to do so, the community, who are held responsible for the damage. Aside from more people being arrested and subsequently incarcerated, the theory doesn’t actually do much to aid a neighbourhood. If the aim is improved public order, couldn’t that be achieved with homeless shelters, urban renewal projects and social workers? (Harcourt, 2002). In many ways, the philosophy behind it is almost “out of sight, out of mind.” And, in fact, this seems to be the view expressed by Kelling and his wife Catherine Coles in Fixing Broken Windows, a book-length exploration of the policing strategies first advocated in 1982:

“Kelling and Coles take a tough-minded view of who the street denizens we frequently label ‘the homeless’ really are and what they are doing, sidestepping the politically constructed images of claimants like ‘the homeless’ that little resemble the aggressive, conniving, often drug-crazed schemers that Kelling and Coles see populating the streets” (Skogan, 1997).

Skogan, in fact, is so skeptical of the motives of the poor that he cannot even use the word “homeless” without quotation marks, as if they all have houses somewhere. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a dangerous “two worlds” model, where people are either decent and respectable or disingenuous and “no good.” And, naturally, all the problems in neighbourhoods arise from the actions of the latter. This kind of precedent was set down by Wilson as far back as 1968:

“The teenager hanging out on a street corner late at night, especially one dressed in an eccentric manner, a Negro wearing a ‘conk rag’ (a piece of cloth tied around the head to hold flat hair being ‘processed’ – that is, straightened), girls in short skirts and boys in long hair parked in a flashy car talking loudly to friends on the curb, or interracial couples – all of these are seen by many police officers as persons displaying unconventional and improper behavior” (Wilson, 1968).

If the police are allowed to restore public order according to their own beliefs and judgments, what is to stop them from carrying out whatever action they deem necessary against the “unconventional” and “improper,” including using “extralegal” measures?

Unfortunately, cultural hegemony is nothing new, and many neighbourhoods have enforced rules that govern the actions and abodes of its residents. In every community there is a house that doesn’t conform to the aesthetic principles of the rest, a lawn that is never tended or strewn with toys or trash, a derelict car that doesn’t meet environmental standards, all of which raise resident ire. But should these things be dealt with under the Broken Windows theory? For example, the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, adopted Broken Windows measures in the late 90s, and in 2002, the local newspaper received this letter:

“This being almost mid-April, shouldn’t homeowners have had sufficient time to remove their December holiday decorations? Icicle lights hung year round give the impression of a homeowner with an aversion to work and negatively impacts on neighborhoods” (Kelly, 2002).

While there are obvious differences between public drunks and icicle lights, in other cases the line is much finer, and the potential for abuse is obvious. Wilson and Kelling, for their part, are aware of the problem, and speak out against it:

“The concern about equity is more serious. We might agree that certain behavior makes one person more undesirable than another but how do we ensure that age or skin color or national origin or harmless mannerisms will not also become the basis for distinguishing the undesirable from the desirable? How do we ensure, in short, that the police do not become the agents of neighborhood bigotry? We can offer no wholly satisfactory answer to this important question. We are not confident that there is a satisfactory answer except to hope that by their selection, training, and supervision, the police will be inculcated with a clear sense of the outer limit of their discretionary authority. That limit, roughly, is this – the police exist to help regulate behavior, not to maintain the racial or ethnic purity of a neighborhood” (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

Unfortunately, their only solution is to again have the community put its faith in the integrity and judgment of the law enforcement officer, a notion that does little to quell the doubts of those who might be wrongly typecast as “criminal” because of their race, age or class. In such a subjective atmosphere, with so much at stake, it seems dubious to give one party the last word, or the ability to render judgment (especially if that party is the one with the gun). By taking the focus off the community, and putting it on the individual, a dangerous precedent is being set.

However, not everyone agrees with this line of thinking. In fact, many people, including police officers, understand that the only way for Broken Windows or any other community enforcement project to succeed is by people working together:

“Without the full cooperation of the community, local government and the courts community policing will not work” (police officer Daniel Jenkins, 2002).

Unfortunately, the authors themselves don’t focus too much on this notion of “working together,” and, if anything, since the Atlantic Monthly article, have gone even further to highlight the vast differences between people. For example, in 1985, Wilson co-authored with Richard Herrnstein a book called Crime and Human Nature, which describes the various traits by which to classify and identify criminals. The book deals not only with age, class and race but body types, painstakingly sorting and measuring these and other attributes into definable composites of law-abiders and law-breakers. The authors’ conclusions are fairly predictable, describing those prone to commit crimes as an:

“Unattached, young, most often racialized ‘other.’ The youth or young adult, threatening, defiant, suspicious, often black, wearing distinctive designer-label clothes. Or the down-and-out street person in a dirty oversized coat. Or the squeegee man, the panhandler, the homeless person, the turnstile jumper, the public drunk” (Harcourt, 2002).

In stark opposition to this are the ideas of Felton Earls and his colleagues, who conducted a large-scale study of street crime in Chicago in 1997. The study’s main focus was on “collective efficacy,” which was defined as “social cohesion among neighbors and their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good” (Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls, 1997). The concept, according to the study, is the greatest predictor of street crime, and not Broken Windows or any form of disorder:

“Testing ‘broken windows’ was not the point of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the study planned and conducted by Dr. Earls and colleagues to unravel the social, familial, educational and personal threads that weave together into lives of crime and violence…Nonetheless the data gathered for it, with a precision rarely seen in social science, directly contradicted Dr. Wilson’s notions” (Hurley, 2004).

Thus, the seemingly obvious and incontestable connection between crime and disorder may, in fact, not exist at all. Community presence and action may actually be what ultimately fells crime. According to Earls:

“It’s not so much that broken glass or disarray in neighborhoods is the source or root of crime, it’s really in the social relationships that exist among neighbors, among people who work in neighborhoods, among services and so forth, that the social conditions are there to engage or not to engage citizens, neighbors in watching out for crime or crime-related activity in the neighborhoods” (Earls, 2004).

And in another no less extensive study two years later, Sampson and Raudenbush found that disorder and predatory crime were moderately related, but that, when antecedent characteristics were added (such as poverty and neighbourhood trust), the connection between the two “vanished in four out of five tests – including homicide, arguably our best measure of violence” (Sampson and Raudenbush, 1999). In addition, they discovered that while disorder may have indirect effects on crime by influencing “migration patterns, investment by businesses, and overall neighborhood viability…attacking public order through tough police tactics was politically popular but an analytically weak strategy to reduce crime” (ibid).

In short, the central tenets of Broken Windows – that disorder leads to crime, and that said crimes are generally carried out by individuals belonging to a “criminal class” – are questionable. This is not to say that the entire theory is at fault; certainly the notion that a safe neighbourhood is one in which the residents feel secure enough to participate in its defense still holds water. In addition, Wilson and Kelling are correct in urging the community to work with police, and for police to become a part of the community. What they seem to have missed is that the focus of this kind of relationship should rest on there being a real and active presence in the community, and not on crime and disorder.

One related irony is that, in the use of Broken Windows policing in New York, “for all their effectiveness in cracking down on a wide range of antisocial behaviors, the New York City police never repaired a single broken window, fixed up a single house, or cleaned one vacant lot” (Grogan and Proscio, 2000). Furthermore, because of the new aggressive tactics, the city experienced illegal strip searches, extensive sums lost to police misconduct charges, clogged courts and countless traumatic encounters for innocent, ordinary individuals (Harcourt, 2002). In addition, the implementation of a “policy of arrest” may have had unintended consequences:

“Someone arrested for turnstile jumping may be fired for missing work; and strained police-civilian relations can create friction between the community and the police force that may be detrimental to solving crimes” (ibid).

However, this has not stopped cities across the world from emulating Broken Windows procedures, or, for that matter, Giuliani and the Manhattan Institute from exporting their policing philosophies to places like Latin America (despite reservations that what worked in an economic boom in the U.S. may not do as well in extremely poor cities undergoing violent crime and corrupt police) (Village Voice, 2002).

The truth of the matter is that Broken Windows is not applicable everywhere, and even within the theory itself there are vagaries, namely the categories of “disorder” and “the disorderly.” The concepts are not well-defined; while we identify certain acts as disorderly – panhandling, public drunkenness, litter, prostitution – others – police brutality, tax evasion, accounting fraud – we do not. In addition, the acts themselves are sometimes ambiguous. For example, while people loitering on a building’s front steps or the presence graffiti may signify that a community is disorderly, it is only if they are seen as such. In some neighbourhoods, people loitering may represent strong community bonds, and graffiti may be seen as an art form, or as political or social commentary. The darker truth about Broken Windows is that it attempts to enforce an aesthetically sterile and “safe” environment, in which one community looks like the next looks like the next. While no one can argue that panhandlers, prostitutes and homeless people, along with litter, dirt and broken windows themselves are not eyesores, their removal is not necessarily a sign of “progress.” And for those subject to countless and unnecessary searches, acts of intimidation, arrests, imprisonments and the like, it is anything but.

Bibliography

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Conklin, John E. Criminology. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

DePalma, Anthony. “The Americas Court: a Group That Changed New York.” The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2002.

Felton, Earls. National Public Radio, Weekend Edition. Jan. 17, 2004.

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Tipping Point.” The New Yorker, June 3, 1996.

Gootman, Elissa. “A Police Department’s Growing Allure: Crime Fighters From Around World Visit for Tips.” The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2000.

Greene, Judith A. “Zero-Tolerance: A Case Study of Police Policies and Practices in New York City.” Crime and Delinquency 45, 1999.

Grogan, Paul, and Proscio, Tony. Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000.

Harcourt, Bernard. “Policing Disorder: Can We Reduce Serious Crime by Punishing Petty Offenses?” Boston Review, April/May, 2002.

Hurley, Dan. “Scientist at Work – Felton Earls: On Crime as Science (A Neighbor at a Time).” The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2004.

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The aim of this assignment is to evaluate the claim that Britishness is based on shared values, ideas or ways of life. I will do this with particular focus on a range of short pieces of writing from a variety of different sources such as that at government and independent levels. Britishness is not entirely about symbols and a flag, to be British implies sharing a place of residence.

Although these residents of Britain will exhibit an array of different identities according to their background, Britishness can also be used to refer to the characteristics that bind and distinguish British people and forms the basis of a national identity or explains British culture.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the correct name for the country, whereas Great Britain alone does not strictly include Northern Ireland, the adjective ‘British’ usually includes everybody. Britishness does not have a singular meaning and it has been created through a numerous ideas. For some people, Britishness refers to the relationship between people and places, other people will make historical connections such as that of the Monarchy or see the political influences that shape the country. Many people believe the term directly relates to a shared culture, shared values, ideas or ways of life. People in the United Kingdom share a national identity, though this for many is not something they are predominantly at ease with. A person may wish not to be associated with a stereotypical view like English people drink excessive amounts of alcohol, though have no problems with the view that British people are polite. Being British, as mentioned, suggests that people share a place of residence, though it is also sometimes treated as a racial category, that means being part of the ‘British race’ or being Caucasian. At other times it has been treated as an ethnic identity and such ideas of

race, termed by scholars as ‘racial thinking’, have made it possible to see how white people were able to dominate other groups and places because they were deemed the superior race. Due to the fact that racial thought focuses on the biological questions of skin colour and so on, it always constructs connections between race, place and culture and often the imagined connections between these blur national, racial and ethnic identities. Shared belief in ‘common descent’ is what makes ethnicity a social category, because ethnic groups are expected to describe themselves and this may change over time or depending on the social context. Therefore to identify ourselves as British can sometimes create both negative and positive feelings, such “uncertain results from the many potential meanings of this identity” (Clarke, 2009, P.214).

Culture, a rather vague term with various meanings can be connected to ‘high

culture’, the artistic or aesthetic cultural products that shape culture at a national level through music, art and literature as examples. Another meaning of culture “involves treating culture as everyday life – the habits, practices and values of a ‘way of life’”, (Clarke, 2009,P.219).

There are many aspects of literature associated in the identification of British

Culture. William Shakespeare used literature and theatrical plays to demonstrate the British culture by providing powerful imagery that reflected British attitudes during the sixteenth century. Although these images continue to be powerful today, which suggests such values remain relevant when thinking about Britain, it is uncertain whether or not these values are continued in the modern United Kingdom. This view of British culture is created and cultural theorist and historian Raymond Williams (1958) describes this as a selective tradition, where the work of some individuals is remembered and others, excluded. The dominance of, for example, English writers and musicians throughout the country is the cause of many a clash. This biasness results in the exclusion of cultural influences from other countries of the United Kingdom or scattering populations like migrants, though cultural products are apparently common to all British people. Britishness in the terms of values and practices, discussed in a statement by David Blunkett as contribution towards a debate about a ‘diverse society’, explains that Britishness is not defined on exclusive backgrounds. Instead he claims it can be defined “through our shared values”, ([BLUNKETT, 2005, P.4] Clarke, 2009, P221) and represented through public organisations such as the NHS and the BBC that are open to all citizens. Trevor Phillips, who was Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality also highlighted how Britishness can be easily adopted by people of all backgrounds, though he believes that these values are expressed more so in our actions towards one another as a form of social order that control the way people behave, “the way we behave towards each other is the outward appearance of our values” ([Phillips, 2007, P.42] Clarke, 2009, P.233) Both insist that Britishness is open to everyone and that it is not exclusive, though, despite Blunkett and Phillips trying to define a common Britishness using the matter of shared values, both views can be challenged if one looks into other aspects of British life and the experiences of different members of society that contradict such claims. Contradictions include the evidence of inequality even though there are claims of social equality or supposed tolerance that can be set alongside evidence of persistent judgement or the increased numbers of ‘hate crimes’ towards minority groups. The relationship between national identity and diversity were heavily debated matters during the early 21st century. A mixture of individuals and parties suggest that diversity has overstepped the mark and that it undermines the national identity resulting in types of social solidarity. Portraying diversity in such a way conflicts with other arguments that claim Britain has become a multi-cultural society that must work towards developing a more multiple and complex national identity by acknowledging all cultures and identities as playing their part in contemporary Britain. A focal point over recent years has been to establish the relationship between national

Identity and diversity. David Goodhart, the editor of a magazine called ‘Prospect’ believes that decades of peace, increased wealth and mobility have allowed for greater diversity in our lifestyles and values, he uses the term ‘value diversity’ to refer to cultural diversity and implies that ethnic diversity produces stranger citizens. In contemporary British society people live amongst stranger citizens and regularly share things with them, whether that be

public services or parts of their income in the welfare state. Also implied is that if we live by a limited set of common values and assumptions, that this process will be best managed. Though as diversity continues to rise and common cultures fade, Goodhart focuses on social solidarity and argues that problems will occur because sharing and solidarity can conflict with diversity. Sociologist Bhikhu Parekh looks at different obstacles that British society is faced with, such as racial discrimination and a racially orientated moral and

Political culture. In contrast to Goodhart, Parekh writes about the importance of valuing all citizens and communities and identifies social fragmentation and racism as a cause for concern because these could amplify the differences between social groups. ‘Imagined communities’ as described by the anthropologist Benedict Anderson (1983) are nations that rely on construction through a variety of symbolic forms, such as every day ceremonies and flags. Britain is imagined in relation to America, Europe and Empire. These have significantly contributed to the key conditions of Britishness and the construction of national identity. Britain’s relations with these other nations have shaped Britishness materialistically and culturally in a number of different ways. For instance there is a strong sense of antagonism towards Europe due to previous conflicts, the ‘Empire’ has shaped the country’s economic, political and cultural life and the relationship with America is focused on fantasies of power and living a life of luxury. Throughout the construction of imagined

communities the word ‘we’ is used, this implies the sharing of something in common and gives a clear distinction between those who are members of the community and of those who are not.

To conclude, one can see that Britishness is not a simple matter, the nation is not fixed or permanent and things are constantly changing. There are a number of influences that contribute towards Britishness and this can be defined through relationships between people and place, imagined communities, diverse societies and shared cultures that form a national identity as described in the essay. Culture it is claimed by some people to be the habits, practices and values of a way of life, whereas William’s claims that there are selective traditions that cause some aspects to be excluded, despite the view that cultural products are common to all residents. It is clear that there are a lot of sources from which to gain information about the portrayals of Britishness, though one should also take into account the writers or speakers interest or role in the matter, because they can often manipulate the wording to give or enhance particular significance.

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Evaluate depictions of Britishness in the songs of the Beatles and 1990’s Brit pop groups and discuss the relation between politics and music.

A feature that is evident in the music of the Beatles from 1966 on wards is the way in which they use representations of everyday British cultural life. Such representations are not contained to the latter of the Beatles work but do take on a much more important role in the way the music is formed and words are written. Tracks like Eleanor Rigby, A Day in the Life, Penny Lane and Polythene Pam are all connected by their distinctive British sound and context. The Small Faces and the Kinks were also bands that had a keen eye for writing about different aspects of the lower to middle-class British people’s lives in the 1960’s. A resurgence of this type of writing appeared in the 1990’s with such Brit pop groups as Blur, Pulp and Oasis portraying an ever-changing view of Britain. I will begin my discussion by briefly looking at what it means to be British and discuss the connections between music and national identity. I will then analyse how the Beatles developed a distinctly British sound by looking at their influences and then give examples of this sound by referencing the bands music.

National Identity in music and what it means to be British
What does it mean to be British? Freedom? Democracy? Trial by jury? Freedom of speech? Acceptance? Tolerance? White?

It would seem that politicians were unaware of what it meant until it started to fall away from us and deteriorate. The national flag, the ‘Union Jack’ or ‘Union Flag’, is not a proud flag that we as one nation unite under as the Americans do with the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’. A regulation was previously in place across government that meant the Union Jack could only be flown 18 fixed days a year on government buildings (The governance of Britain green paper 2007). A regulation now waved. The government for specific forms of the military reserves the flag. It is used by the Royal Navy and as a way to display the rank of admiral of the fleet, which is the reason why it is still illegal for a civilian ship to fly it. In war time Britain we were defined by our one nation joining together to fight for a common purpose. The common man was out fighting against an evil dictatorship. We had one of the most advanced Naval forces in the world bringing technology in Britain to the forefront and an outstanding air force, which repelled an overwhelming German attack at the Battle of Britain. But in the 64 years since the end of world war two Britain has seen many changes in its cultural make up. America has had a very powerful influence over the music we listen to, the way we dress and eat and we seek to replicate their dominant cultural traditions (Mundy 1999). We have seen an influx in the number of immigrants coming to Britain to live and work. Injecting a little of their culture into our own. Furthermore, the industries such as the ship building in Glasgow and Liverpool, the shoe factories in Northampton and the steal works in Scunthorpe and Sheffield have all but disappeared. The traditions that shaped the country and gave it international acclaim and recognition have been lost to overseas countries that have the technology to produce it cheaper. I will revise the sociological aspects of our changing culture later and analyse whether British society has changed over the years and if this has made Brit Pop differ from music of the 1960’s. For now I will touch upon music and national identity and the reasons for national patriotism.

Music has long been a fundamental tool in the study and assembly of national identities. Its intricate framework has been studied in great depth. Possibly one of the most obvious ways in which music is amalgamated with national identity is the national anthem. It provides an opportunity for people to obtain a state of deep heart felt emotion towards their country and is used in Britain before various sporting events, before the Queen’s Christmas Message and in the event of a royal announcement or death. Perhaps the oldest form of national pride is found in ‘folk music’, commonly described as an accurate look at a way of life as it was or a life about to fade away. Richard Middleton explains the real meaning of folk music well.

‘The Romantics, who originated the concept, often thought of ‘the people’ in the sense of a national essence. Or ‘ and this later became more common ‘ they thought of a particular part of the people, a lower layer, or even class.’

Middleton’s thoughts therefore could be applied to Brit Pop. With the eighties at an end, Margaret Thatcher’s government leaving record unemployment rates of 3 million unemployed, factories closed and there were cuts in spending. Things looked bleak and it was hard for young people to get a job. In the nineties Brit Pop, backed by this 60’s inspired form of pop/rock with the qualities of folk music, exploded onto the scene. Artists such as Damon Albarn from Blur were writing songs that echoed issues regarding the lower classes and once again music was recognizable as being British. It is vital to understand what this British sound consists of and more importantly where it came from and who pioneered it. I will now go on to discuss the Beatles development as British artists and their everlasting footprint on music.

The Beatles developing a British sound

The Beatles were the first of a selection of bands from the 1960’s to start a movement called the ‘British Invasion’. The name ‘British Invasion’ was invented by the press to describe British bands that travelled to America and made a name for themselves. This all began in 1964 with the appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show but was continually used to describe many British bands who made a huge impact on the American music market. Namely the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Small Faces, The Yardbirds and The Kinks with the Beatles making the largest impact.

The Beatles cannot be so neatly categorised as the archetypal British band, as their style is so eclectic and borrows from many different cultures. Early on in their career, the band had been mainly focused on writing songs about love and the loss of a love with not much indication of Britishness in the lyrics but there were a few facts that made their style stand out from their American competitors. One such fact is the accent the group sang with. In the early 1960’s, radio was populated with simple two-minute pop songs from American artists like Elvis Presley and British artists who sounded American like Cliff Richard and the Shadows. However, Lennon and McCartney were singing songs like ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ with a British accent. The Beatles were different, fusing exciting melodies with classical harmonies and a guitar sound that was full bodied and dominant. This brand new sound was one that defined the British sound of the sixties. When one says ‘sound of the sixties’ it really means the period from 1963-1970, the Beatles era. Between 1955 and 1963 would be described as the sound of the fifties (Zarecki 2007). The Beatles changed music to a point that a child growing up in the 60’s would call the records of the 50’s ‘oldies’, a word still used today to describe the same records (Wald 2009).

The musical education the Beatles received can be traced back as far as the mid 1930’s when Robert Johnson, kindly named the ‘Grandfather of Rock n’ Roll’, was recording the blues/rock tracks which would be an inspiration for artists like the Memphis born B.B. King who in turn was greatly admired by another king, Elvis Presley. Elvis forged the rock n’ roll sound of the fifties that the Beatles loved. They covered many songs by Chuck Berry and Little Richard during their time in Hamburg in the early 1960’s. John Lennon is famously quoted as saying,

‘Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been Elvis, there would not have been The Beatles’

But there was more to the Beatles sound. Although most of their influences came from America, they were not a band trying to replicate the American sound. Harmonies that the band integrated into songs were reminiscent of early Motown records and the Everly Brothers provided a strong influence when it came to producing close harmonies, a technique where the notes of a chord are sang within a narrow range.

Influences of the Beatles were not confined to what had come before them. Throughout their career they continued to remain open to new influences. Paul McCartney sites one of his favourite albums as the 1966 album ‘Pet Sounds’ by the Beach Boys and talks about it’s importance over the idea for creating the Beatles 1967 album ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’.

‘It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much’that, I think, was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper’

The Beatles were at the vanguard from 1966 onwards when music began to progress from the pop/rock love songs into something altogether more experimental and risky. Looking at the memoirs of Kate Paul (2000) makes it clear the significance art school training had on new artists, fashion and music. It was becoming more common for teenagers to attend Art School and this training is said to have shifted the thinking behind the writing of many bands and change British music forever. As musical ideas were changing so was the way people were thinking about art. Music and art were becoming more abstract and new and radical thinking was being poured into both. In 1961, a group of artists graduated from the Royal College of Art including David Hockey and Patrick Caulfield. This pair along with other young artists put the Pop Art style on the map. The style quickly became very popular and the artists involved in it’s production became fashionable celebrities receiving much notification in the press. By 1968 for the very first time in the Twentieth Century, London had risen to become the world focus in art and Britain the focus for new and innovative art and music. Pop Art was not solely the reason for the popularity of the art scene in London. It was very diverse, and more artists were turning their hand to abstraction, which involved more gestural marks, block colours and interesting shapes. Sculpture also went through a great transformation in the sixties with sculptors such as Anthony Caro, whose interest in shape and colour came straight from America. Gone were the days of bronzed statues on plinths, now it was all about sheet metal and plastic arranged on the floor in amazing shapes. This environment of such an eclectic mix of artists and so much competition would have forced students to think in an original way. Just as artists were using new materials to create their work, musicians like the Beatles were using new instruments such as the Indian Sitar and using new techniques like playing tape recordings in reverse to create never before heard sounds. George Martin often said that John Lennon would enter the studio every morning with the intent of sounding different to yesterday. John Lennon attended Liverpool Art College with friend and short term ‘fifth’ Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe. John was always a disruptive pupil and continued to be through art school. Although John failed an annual exam and eventually dropped out of art school before his final year the impact it made would stay with him, encouraging him to push the boundaries and keep his music inspirational and contemporary. John always had a devoted interest in the art world, even deep into the Beatles experimental career. Their use of orchestral scores accompanied only by voice, three part harmonies and psychedelic arrangements would stand to become a major influence to Brit Pop bands. This entwined with the shifting context of the Beatles lyrics would shape the music of the late 60’s and prove to be the very essence of what Brit Pop came to embody.

The most noticeable example of this experimental and contemporary writing is found in the album ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’. Released in June 1967 ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was a groundbreaking album that combined revolutionary engineering and musical techniques. It is believed to be the first ‘concept’ album and also the first album to print the lyrics to the songs on the sleeve. All the songs on the album except possibly George Harrisons experimental ‘Within you without you’ either lyrically or musically express a sense of British culture. Sgt Peppers is steeped in images of brass bands playing in bandstands, Punch and Judy, cream teas, donkey rides and naughty postcards. In ‘When I’m Sixty four’, Paul McCartney gives us a description of what life can be like growing old in Britain. He talks of going for a drive on a Sunday, doing some gardening and renting a cottage in the Isle of Wight, ‘If it’s not too dear’. ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’ arouses clear images of the great British past time of the circus and also creates a joyous atmosphere with the merry go round sound playing along with the main organ melody. This effect was created when producer George Martin told engineer Geoff Emerick to splice up old Victorian tapes of organ music and throw them into the air. He was then ordered to piece the tapes back together in a completely random order to create an energetic looping sound (Martin 2008).

The images Lennon and McCartney present in a lot of their songs make it hard for the listener to fully understand the content. Their writing would often stumble into the surreal, and perplexing words would be used to compliment the music. Some of their music however, seems to be more clear in the way it comments and often ridicules observations of ordinary British cultural life. In the final track on the Sgt Pepper album, ‘A Day in the Life’, this trait seems to be evident. The lyrics were inspired by two newspaper articles and contain many haunting but also some quite comical images. Within the song Lennon mentions three distinct British places, The House of Commons, Blackburn in Lancashire and the Royal Albert Hall. In the first verse John talks loosely about the death of Tara Browne the Guinness heir who died in a car crash. Lennon said, ‘I didn’t copy the accident. Tara didn’t blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse’. The Line ‘They’d seen his face before/Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords’ refers to the British public turning what should be a solemn moment into some cheap excitement. Some people in the crowd may know the individual involved in the car crash as a face on television or in a newspaper but he is no more than that. The second verse came from a newspaper article concerning the state of the roads in Blackburn which Lennon jokes could fill the Albert Hall. This type of ironic and sarcastic view of Britain was commonly found in John Lennon’s writing. Andy Bennett writes,

‘Tracks like ‘A Day in the Life’, are clearly meant to be seen, in part at least, as satirical commentaries on aspects of British society. Lennon’s descriptions of the slavish counting of the holes in the streets of Blackburn, and’to the double life led by politicians’would appear not merely to poke fun at British society but also to criticize it.’

On the other hand, the song ‘Penny Lane’ doesn’t appear to criticize British culture but instead runs like a commentary of what can be seen. ‘Penny Lane’ was written by Paul McCartney and released alongside ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as a double-A side single in 1967. It was common practice to release singles that were not on the album at the time. George Martin always believed it wasn’t fair to the public that singles should come from the album. The title ‘Penny Lane’ came from a street in the bands hometown of Liverpool. Lennon and McCartney would often meet at Penny Lane Junction to catch a bus into the centre of town and had met up with friends around the area as teenagers. Penny lane is a study of the humdrum lives of people, evoking feelings of blissful memories and describing the ordinary sights and sounds of a suburban British neighbourhood. ‘Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes/There beneath the blue suburban skies’. During this line a brass section plays a small musical fill coupled together with McCartney’s quaint English tone to create an altogether exultant sound. This song, different from ‘A Day in the Life’, has a strong feeling today of harking back to a happier and simpler Britain now lost and forgotten. The man who has popped into the barbers for a shave, the fireman who carries a picture of the queen in his pocket and the standard procedure of carrying an hourglass now seem long-gone. It’s a song that takes the listener on a ride and brings up various emotions ranging from nostalgia to a pride of Britain during the piccolo trumpet solo and to laughter at the sexual slang of the time ‘A four of fish and finger pie’. The qualities found in both these Beatles songs can also be found in songs from other British bands from the 1960’s. The Small Faces song ‘Rene’ tells the unpleasant tale of a woman parading the quayside every night to welcome sailors from Kuala Lumpur who have docked with plenty of ‘readies’ (ready money) to spend at the pub having a good time. While ‘Lazy Sunday’ rebels against the neighbours that complain when Steve Marriott and his friends play their music loud. The Small faces songs ‘Rene’ and ‘Lazy Sunday’ are both sung in ridiculously thick Cockney accents and seem almost to make fun of their London ancestry. The same examination can be made in the music of The Kinks who gave us their keenly observed satires ‘A Well Respected Man’ and ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ (which lampooned the characters of Carnaby Street in swinging London).

The contrast of Britpop

In the early 1990’s Britpop emerged fusing new British ideals with the pop music of the 1960’s. The two main aims of Britpop were to drown out the electronic sound of the eighties and to react against the grunge sound of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Britpop made British alternative rock mainstream and formed the foundations for a larger British cultural movement called ‘Cool Britannia’. This phrase, a pun on the patriotic song ‘Rule, Britannia’, was first used as a song title by the ‘Bonzo dog Doo Dah Band’ in 1967. It emerged in the 1990’s as the name of one of the company Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavours. The name came about through a competition the company were running. An American lawyer living in London named Sarah Moynihan-Williams won with her suggestion and recipe for ‘Cool Britannia’, which was in relation to the New Labour era. The media quickly picked up on this term, and seeing a young Prime minister in power and the fashionable nature of London at the time gave the idea new scope.

Looking now at the representations of Britishness in the music of Britpop bands from the 1990’s presents a different argument. The Beatles and other bands from the same era such as The Kinks and The Small Faces heavily influenced Brit Pop. Musical pioneers of the nineties such as Blur, Pulp and Oasis completely dropped the synthesizers and the electric drums of the eighties and began creating music with full guitars and raw drumming. The orchestral and brass band instruments were introduced once again to achieve the complete British sound of the 1960’s. An example of this resurrection can be established through the Blur song ‘Sunday Sunday’. The song featured on the apt 1993 album ‘ Modern Life is Rubbish’, features a trumpet solo that could easily have been found on any later Beatles track. The lyrics in the first verse read much like a social commentary with lines such as ‘You read the colour supplement, the T.V. guide’ and ‘Together the family round the table’. Both bring to mind visions of a quiet ordinary Sunday at home with the family. The second verse however mentions a walk in the park where the writer meets a soldier who fought in both world wars and says, ‘The England he knew is no more’. Quite unlike the interpretation of a British Sunday morning the second verse takes a nostalgic look back with a conceivable chance of the soldier appearing as a metaphor for a Britain that used to be. Britpop resonated with a sound of the past. Singers and back up singers were producing exciting harmonies like the ones found on the Oasis record ‘Cast no shadow’. Artists were being commended for their song writing abilities and musical talent unlike the dry and dreary song-writing period of the eighties, which featured Duran Duran, Gary Newman and Depeche mode. The ‘mod’ subculture of the 60’s also became popular again. People began growing their hair with the Beatles various styles in mind. Jarvis Cocker from the band ‘Pulp’ used to wear suits which echoed the mod style. The Who’s manager Pete Meaden famously described modism saying,

“Modism, mod living, is an aphorism for clean living under difficult circumstances”

Not everyone believed that Britpop reminisced of a past idea of Britishness. Some suggested that bands crafted an entirely new image altogether, focusing on ‘an attitude based not on a nostalgic Carry On Mr Kipling Britain, but a Britain that you will recognise as the one you live in’ (Jones 1994). Undoubtedly the song ‘Girls and Boys’ which is performed in front of a club 18-30’s holiday backdrop with its subject matter of casual sex is one which is more contemporary rather than the wistful longing for old England found in Sunday Sunday. Also, Oasis’s accounts of throwing up on a Sunday and their wild views that cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are a remedy for a dull, ordinary life may have appealed to the young generation of the 1990’s but it was miles apart from the Beatles idealized and glamorized version of Britain. It appears that this type of topical writing is in the minority and more songs relate to similar representations conjured up by the Beatles in the 1960’s. There is another area that is imperative to study when analysing depictions of Britain and that is the view created through the music video.

The Beatles and the Birth of the Music Video

One main important difference in the way in which music is presented in the 1990’s is the availability of the music video, which further enhances depictions of Britishness. The Birth of the music video may to some be credited to the band ‘Queen’. In November 1975 due to tour commitments they could not appear on Top of The Pops and so produced a video to promote their new single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. But as much as a decade before, the Beatles were generating videos to be broadcast on television shows all over the world. In 1996, with the release of the Beatles Anthology film box set, George Harrison received an interview and in relation to the promotional video made for the song ‘Rain’ he made the statement:

‘So I suppose, in a way, we invented MTV’

Now that the music video is fast becoming an art form in itself it is interesting to analyze how Lennon and McCartney’s influence on the British social commentary style of writing transposed into video format. I will begin by analysing the reflection of Britain the Beatles achieved through their use of video and the reasons for them depicting society in this way, then I will compare this to the music video’s in the 1990’s. The first Beatles film was released in 1964 entitled ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. With prospects of an accompanying soundtrack album, the film was released as a way to make more money from the bands growing success. As Bob Neaverson said:

‘The project was initially envisaged by the American-owned company as little more than another low budget exploitation picture which would capitalize on the group’s fleeting success with the teenage market’

No matter which way it is looked at, the decision to release a Beatles film came about because of a money making business deal. Although it turned out much more was achieved than simply money. Director Richard Lester broke rules that had been associated with the pop music format since the 1950’s. To begin, one of the opening scenes is filmed in an unconventional train carriage, a setting with no musical connection. His use of free hand documentary filming not only added excitement and energy but also made the viewer feel as if he or she were in the film closely interacting with the band. This made the Beatles able to be shown as the ‘guys next-door’, seemingly unaffected by fame, instead of fictional characters. Whereas realism had already been established in British films through the working class genre known as ‘kitchen sink’ drama with films like ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ (1962) and ‘A Taste of Honey’ (1961), A Hard Days Night was the first music video to incorporate this into it’s style and content. This working class image was an important factor that shone through the films of the Beatles. In a time when all well-known artists were predominantly imported, any British act doing significantly well was a joy. The bands natural working class attitudes coupled together with their down to earth, oblivious out look on fame only endeared them to the British public who Neaverson says, ‘upheld them as symbols of the new social mobility and ‘classlessness’ of sixties Britain’. In this sense, this approach broke down barriers and was vital to the modernization of British national identity in the 1960’s. Having looked at how the Beatles became symbols for a cultural shift I will now investigate how music videos in the 1990’s adapted the skills that Richard Lester put into practice and decide if the substance of the video is similar to that of Lennon and McCartney’s writing.

One such video that involves strong British connotations is ‘Park Life’ by Blur. It is a song that lyrically documents parts of British life with examples including being wakened by the dustmen, cups of tea and feeding the pigeons. Although these are very banal actions the visuals found in the video take on a different, more contemporary feel. In the video actor Phil Daniels plays a creepy door-to-door double-glazing salesman driving around in his Ford Granada Coupe Mk1. It seems at times that the video is not related to the song until the rapid images of British life ‘ the row of terraced houses, the red post boxes, the arrival of the ice cream van and the playful nature of the band meeting up with friends in 90’s style attire spinning each other in a trolley crop up. In many ways the video resonates with a feeling not to dissimilar from Penny Lane, which I mentioned earlier. This parallel is continued through the use of characters in the video – the man with the four King Charles dogs, the fat man in the shirt and braces, the jogger and the couple sprawled across their sports car with their names printed above the driver’s and passenger’s window. These are visually very interesting characters and like McCartney’s fireman; banker and nurse could easily be fantastic characters in a book of British cultural life. The Park Life music video is obviously based around actual everyday encounters experienced by Damon Albarn that have been tweaked to appear more surreal much the same format as the lyrics take on in the song.

Using Pop Music to Promote Political Interests

Popular music has long been associated with showing dissatisfaction or opposition with the government and the government has always shown an interest in securing for itself a stake in the management of powerful bands. Conversely, today in China, leader Hu Jintao has spoken out frequently about building a ‘harmonious society’. He has great power and influence over the media, mainly monitoring everything that is broadcast on the radio. The government’s ideas to create harmony are through censorship of the media. All music heard on Chinese radio consists of love songs or upbeat ballads. These gentle songs are not damaging to China’s image of a stable and harmonious country. Pop and Pop/Rock songs where politics, rebellion and casual sex are the themes are disregarded for fear of a revolution. The state cannot completely censor music they find harmful, although they do have complete ownership of all broadcasting media giving them a loophole through which they can have the majority rule. Chinese people believe the popular music they hear on the radio all sounds the same and if you’ve heard one song you know them all. Even musicians asked to submit songs for the Olympic games in Beijing were too worried to write anything with fear of going against the state policies. In this example the state is controlling the music. They are keeping a lid on the pot of society to prevent the revolution inside over spilling. In addition something that is so carefully prohibited may incite curiosity within youths of any culture and a notion to rebel will ensue. An example of this use of music to revolt was apparent in Germany during world war two.

If music can be said to be associated with nationalism and national identity then it can also be criticized for supposed destabilization of the nations culture. During world war two, young German music fans sought after the British and American way of life and defined themselves through the music of Swing. Although they were not an organised political opposition group, they refused the culture of National Socialism. The group made such an impact in 1941 that the Gestapo violently repressed them and police ordered anyone under the age of 21 to stay out of dance bars (Whiteley, Bennett and Hawkins 2005). Whether a connection is made as a shared goal for public popularity or a way to manipulate or even to revolt, music and politics have a bond.

Throughout the 1960’s and again in the 1990’s political groups created a connection with pop stars of the time. In 1965, current Prime Minister Harold Wilson showed he was ‘in touch’ with the younger generation by awarding the Beatles with the honour of an MBE. It proved a popular move with young people. This move did however spark some controversy. Protestors and picketers who had received the award for military service showed their displeasure towards Harold Wilson but there were too few of them to make any real impact. Attackers thought it a clever and crafty plan to solicit votes for the next year’s general election but defenders argued the fan base of the Beatles were generally under the age of 21, too young to vote at the time. In any case, bestowing an MBE on the Beatles showed that Harold Wilson was a modern leader willing to embrace new ideas and be part of a contemporary Britain that culturally, the Beatles were helping to shape. A year later George Harrison would write the song ‘Taxman’ as a retort to the 95% super taxes introduced by Harold Wilson and even included a harmony within the song incorporating his name. John Blacking argues that,

‘Cultural politics, the use of culture and the arts to promote political interests, invariably exploits and contains the power of music ‘to restrict political argument. It diverts attention from the real political issues or simply asserts the hegemony of its promoters’ (Blacking)

On the other hand, not all people would agree with John Blacking’s statement. Some believe that in the right hands music can open up avenues and make people pay attention to various issues. Khaver Siddiqi would argue that,

‘In an era where politics uses as many avenues it can to reach the people, it is ultimately the words of song and rhyme that will attract the attention more, than speeches ever will.’ (Siddiqi 2009)

This thought can be put into practice if we look at the issues of race in the 1960’s. In 1968 James Brown wrote a song called ‘Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)’ that become a very successful ‘black power’ anthem. It was a racially chaotic period during the 1960’s and this song filled black Americans with pride. This elevated Brown to the status of icon and also made him the face for a movement that shaped the 1960’s.

In 1997, after a period of predominantly conservative power in Britain, a new Prime Minister was elected, Tony Bl

The Latin name ” Britannia” was found around 320 BC in the travel diaries of the ancient Greek Pytheas , and was used to refer to the name of some numerous islands in the North Atlantic, while the inhabitants of those places were called “Priteni or Pretani”. The modification of the name came around with the reign of Julius Cesar and by 1st century BC, Britannia was being used to refer to Great Britain specifically. But the name that this nation holds today, has its origins in the Acts of Union 1707 signed on 1 May 1707 under the reign of Queen Anne. In that time took place the political union between the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and later on between 1801 and 1921 the whole Ireland was added. And the nation received the title of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Furthermore, there might not seem to be much that links France with Britishness. After all, France is a state in the Western Europe, while UK is an island situated to the northwest of the Continental Europe. Indeed, but if we add a surprise element, like the war between UK and France, the sense of Britishness becomes stronger and prominent in the eye of the enemy. In contrast in an interviw with Matthew Reisz about her paper entitled “Britishness”, the leading British historian Linda Colley argues that Britain is “an invented nation, heavily dependent for its raison d’etre on a brutally Protestant culture, on the threat and tonic of recurrent war, particularly war with France, and on the triumphs, profits and Oherness represented by a massive overseas empire, Britain is bound now to be under immense pressure… The Other in the shape of militant Catholicism, or a hostile European power, or an exotic overseas empire is no longer available to make Britons feel that – by contrast – they have an identity in common”. ( Reisz)

1. Debates on Britishness and National Identity

1.1 The implications of National Identity

A. Brah’s favorite definitions of identity were written by Erikson in 1968 and Berger and Luckman in 1971: for Erikson, the process of identity formation is for the most part unconscious except where inner conditions and outer circumstances combine to aggravate a painful or elated’ identity-consciousness’. He insists that identity is never ‘established’ as an ‘achievement’ in the sense of a personality armour, or of anything static and unchangeable (20).

These themes are echoed in the formulations of Berger and Luckman. The key premise underlying their thesis is that reality is socially constructed. They argue that, during the course of everyday life, a person is conscious of the world as consisting of ‘multiple realities’, but among them ‘there is one that presents itself as the reality par excellence. This is the reality of everyday life’ (20).

This approaches suggest that the national identity can be experienced different depending on the social characteristics that every individual has. Undoubtedly, a person has a past, this means that he/she has an ethnic identity, but is also living in the present, concluding that his/her national identity is put to a test by the forces of modernity, according to Anthony D. Smith.

Fallowing the studies of the same author, the national identity is divided in: civic, referring to residence, shared political values, common civic institutions and language, while the other division, called ethnic deals with ancestry, national customs and traditions. The result of this division is that the sense of national quality of an individual is related with the prosperity of the society, inducing the idea of “regime of truth”, concept used by Michel Foucault. And Foucault further explains ” Each society has its own regime of truth, ‘its general politics’ of truth- that is the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true ” (Higgins, Smith and Storey 20).

In his resignation speech Tony Blair declared that Britain is a society that prospers: “I have been very lucky and very blessed. This country is a blessed nation. The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth”. But today the “regime of truth” of this nation lies in the eyes of the Scottish, the English or Welsh, who have this separate identity and declare that the British identity comes second.

1.2 A Phenomenal called Britishness

” In ‘A Union of Multiple Identities: The British Isles c. 1750-c.1850’, Lawrence Brockliss et al. argued that Britishness was a perceptive and ‘composite’ national identity that reached a point of development after 1800 and which made limited demands upon its subjects”

(Cruse).

As I said in the first paragraph of this paper and adding the testimony of Linda Colley I can state that Britishness was first of all an historical phenomenal. But as a cultural, social, political phenomenal this national identity has eight parameters: geography, national symbols, people, values and attitudes, cultural habits and behavior, citizenship, language and achievements.

1.2.1 Geography

Britain is an island nation, having only one land border and four water boders: the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. Being cut off from the rest of the continent by the English Channel, this unitary state developed different ideas, wits and today plays a leading role in the world.. And we find another element, the topography. This element is divers and unique: rugged coastline, moors (Scottish moor lands), mountains (Cambrian Mountains, Mourne Mountains, Pennine Range, Mount Snowdon), lakes (Loch Lomond, Lough Neagh), bays, hills (Cheviot Hills) and rivers (The Severn and Thames, while Tay, Clyde, and Forth are river valleys).

1.2.2 National symbols

” British examples might include Trooping the Colours, Changing the Guards, the Grand National, the FA Cup Final, certain rivers and mountains, particular monuments, the Union Jack, the BBC, the House of Parliament, fish and cheaps, the Highland Games, the Notting Hill Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Eisteddfod, drinking warm beer. These are just some of the many rituals and symbols that seems to articulate Britishness” (Higgins, Smith and Storey 21).

1.2.3 People

“People are products of their biology and environment ( Natura and Nurture)” (Storry and Childs 29). The authors explain this conflict of pride, of being different, for example the fact that a person is living in a certain region. For example Lancashire and Yorkshire have a known rivality, despite that the red rose symbolises the end of this war and is now the national flower of England. Furthermore the people from the country side do not feel they have much in common with the economic heart of the nation, while the Londoners think as themself as authentic Englishmen. But let’s not forget that Britain is a multinational nation. The September 11 terrorist attack and the 7/7 in London, are events that put a dark vale on the minorities and people have a brutal reaction towards the emigrants, because some are of Islam religion and in the perception of many Britons this links them with the tragic events.

1.2.4 Values and attitudes

1. Positive values and attitudes

In general, it can be said that the greatest values and attitudes of a person are involved with his success in the contemporary world, in which the individual is an important element. This affirmation can be possible based on his previous understanding of the world with the help of culture. The people of Britain have a significant culture, that with the introduction of democracy, values like freedom, the understanding of law, and also fairness, tolerance were born. This set of values also brought a sense of difference, in comparison to the European set of values. The Britons attitude of being reserved and polite in a way that it does not affect other’s feelings, has both sides. One is positive and illustrates the courteous and educated side of a British and the other is negative and is more developed in the sub-part of this section heading.

Another set of values are pride and work ethic. There is something in history that makes the white English proud, and they are entitled to do so. Every nation has the right to be proud of their ancestors and their achievements. The second value is about the word “hard-working” that is defined by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom, as they announced on their official site on August 2010 that the ” full-time workers average around 37.0 hours per week, part-time workers average around 15.5 hours per week and just over a fifth of people in employment work more than 45 hours a week”. But today Brits do not work the longest hours in Europe, but the Czech. They do not even appear in the top three; Britain is taken by Greece and Bulgaria. So in our modern times, this notion of “hard-working” can be a legend; and today seems a myth.

But I end this section with some important values and attitudes like community spirit, mutual help, stoicism and compassion. Values that are planted firmly in today’s society.

2. Negative values and attitudes

The negative side of reservation is recognized by other people that are not in direct contact with the British culture, like other Europeans. But as a surprise, an unacceptable attitude about this matter comes from the Scottish and Welsh, and also from the immigrants. They see this reservation like a mask, that helps the real identity to be disguise, and the real thoughts to be buried. Discussing more about this negative values, pride is another key element. This values is negative, because it becomes another issue in the life of the Scottish, Welsh and immigrants.

The final negative point of view, is not regarding the groups mentioned above, but was percepted by the entire world. Probably because they are huge fans of sports and they spread more outside their borders values like drunkenness, hooliganism and yobbishness. The football hooliganism dates back in 1880s, the drunkenness issue is confirmed by the BBC : “Drunkenness in the UK is the highest among 24 OECD countries, measured in terms of the proportion of 13 and 15-year-olds having been drunk at least twice.”( UK teenage girls ‘worst drunks’), and all these attitudes are called a yobbish behaviour.

1.2.5 Cultural habits and behaviour

The perspective presented here, however, is rather different. It has not ups and downs, but only a progressive position of the British identity. When the British stand in queues (as they have been doing at least since 1837) is a sign of civilization. Sports like football, cricket and rugby are symbols of the Brits and their traditional food and drink is a ritual for the members of this nation.

1.2.6 Citizenship

Nick Stevenson describes citizenship being part of the social system, more precisly “it belong to the a specifically differentiated sub-system of society ( the administrative-political sub-system) ” (35). And another social writer Paul Whiteley describes it as “a set of

norms, values and practices which bind society together, makes democratic government

possible and helps individuals to solve collective action problems” (Cruse). But citizenship is not only about a social role, but also can be described in terms of legislation. The British

Nationality Act 1981 introduced the UK citizen, meaning that a child that is born in the UK would be granted British citizenship and passport if either its mother or its father are British citizen or are settled in the UK.

1.2.7 Language

When you are a UK citizen, it is obvious that you speak English. It does not matter if you are Scottish ,Welsh, as long you have a British passport. Even immigrants can hold one in time, but the first thing for them is to learn the language. So the second thing in common beside a passport is the language. From the geographical perspective they are regions where they use different accents, but it doesn’t matter as long as this element has the sense of Britishness and makes the puzzle complete.

1.2.8 Achievements

Britishness is part of the past and present. There is a nucleus of fully achieved political and historical achievements, in which Britishness is balanced and which shows a strong nation. The technological achievements like Fleming and penicillin, Bell and the telephone, Dypson and the new vacuum cleaner, are the best ways of preserving a cultural and social heritage. In this respect, sport is a source of innovativity that was been exported in other European countries. Another successful export was the British music, that ranked high in the charts and made the Mother Country proud. Bands like The Beatles, singers like Robbie Williams and today celebrities born within the “X factor” tv-show, are symbols of Britishness and make the “cool Britannia”.

2. The Decline of Britishness exists?

The layers of British identity and the fact that the structure of the empire is made out of separated nation-states that have their own culture, makes it harder for the notion of Britishness to be around.

2.1 The causes

The multicultural Britain made possible the rising number of ethnic minorities and for the Britons to refuse the bounding with the minorities. In our modern times, we can read about the cultural differences and the highlights of the non-existent shared values. This episode of immigration is still a problem of today for the citizens of the United Kingdom, introducing some hard words towards the immigrants and their culture, words like ” islamophobia”. This battle is taken at higher stages, like the immigrants are accused of unfair claims on the welfare state. In many news reports, we can see that this people don’t have the same rights and the same chances to live a normal life, and their human demands are perceived as a violation of the Britons rights. Because institution try to make a possible integration of the ethnic minorities, the people attack was called “political correctness”. They still think that because institutions don’t take into account their perception, there is a lack of freedom of speech. But the biggest intrusion toward Britishness, was the implication of Europe in the British politics. Their rights are not negociable in the European court and the arrival of asylum seekers in the UK proposed by Europe, was a reverse.

2.2 The consequences

The difficulties of establishing effective mutual communication and harmony between white Britons and ethnic minorities was already being identified as a decline of Britishness. The institutions attempt to solve the problems, create a deeper hole in this matter. The victimization was not only among British Muslim, but as a boomerang came to be a problem for the white Britons. The surprise elements of this society was the tolerance of other ethnic minorities that are seen as “Ok” or “like us”, in contrast with the British Muslim, that are the “others”. This impact on the UK is called “social unrest” and it is a serious problem, that emerges frustration and anger towards ethnic minorities groups.

3. Britishness in the future

In the debate of House of Lords on 19th June 2006, the future perspective of the historian, Linda Colley was took in account, regarding the common themes that can make Britishness available in the future :

There has to be a way of linking past, present and future. And one of the ways

we could do this is surely with a document. We don’t necessarily want a

codification of British values, but there is a case for a new bill of rights, or a bill of

rights and responsibilities, which would include values. One of the things we

need to do too is improve the history curriculum in schools. It is right that

Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland should have their distinctive

histories taught. But there could be common history lessons too, which would

recognize all kinds of diversity but which would also hammer out something of a

common story. This would be partly an invention; all histories are. But it might be

a useful invention. (Cruse).

In the same report Gordon Brown thinks that a new British patriotism should allow people to have shared values: “aˆ¦a common view of challenges and what needs to be done forge a unified and shared sense of purpose about the long term sacrifices they are prepared to make and the priorities they think important for national success” (Cruse). He argues that this new Britishness should be formed of “a rich agenda for change” with “a new constitutional settlement, an explicit definition of citizenship, a renewal of civic society, a rebuilding of our local government and a better balance between diversity and integration” (Cruse).

Nonetheless, the financial crisis attacked also Britain, and althought it has some strong sectors like pharmaceuticals, aerospace, defense, cars, high technology, research and design, pointed out by David Cameron, the prime-minister in his first economical speech, it needs at least 10 years to renaissance over. So this is only the beginning of a new delicated process of reinforcing the nation and the society, that will necessarily take time.

4. Concluding statement

One major conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is the old attitudes towards Britishness has not yet provoked a seismic wave in the new mentality of some people and Britain has to make sacrifices and introduce new terminology of citizenship and civic society in the educational system. Although the multicultural Britain has created new forms for the expression of some sub-state identities, this has not helped Britishness winning over civic loyalties and government. In some cases about minorities the ‘meaning of citizenship will be lost under the laws of the country that the individual comes from ‘(Cruse). A study “Young People and British” ‘found that amongst young people, Britishness “did not feature on the list of traits which helps define personal identity” and was seen “as an unchanging static attribute” ‘(Cruse). In addition, present debates about the future of Britishness highlight uncertainty on all sides as to what constitutes this concept and how it will be preserved in the future by the generation of “cool Britannia”. Or it will be only about the decline of Britishness?

The concept of identity has both personal and social perspectives but, irrespective of focus, each is concerned with categorisation and assumptions of similarity and difference. Social identity relates to the links that exist between people and places, the ideas and practices that align individuals to one social group as opposed to another and the feeling of acceptance and belonging which comes from such allegiance.

Great Britain consists of a group of individual countries: England, Wales and Scotland, each of which joined the union at different points in a turbulent history. Northern Ireland, whilst part of the United Kingdom, is not part of Great Britain despite its population being included in the British political process. In spite of these confusing, apparently all-encompassing titles, each individual nation retains a separate identity in addition to the collective ones conferred by the UK and GB acronyms.

Historically, English dominance of the union has been a source of contention and in recent years the individual identities of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have become more officially recognised by the adoption of a partially devolved political process for the former two and a power sharing agreement with the Irish Republic for the latter. The merits or shortcomings of devolution fall outside the scope of this essay, nevertheless, it could be argued that at a time when the very notion of Britishness is up for debate, separating the union, even if only for political purposes, will do nothing to strengthen a collective sense of national identity if, in fact, one ever truly existed.

Diversity amongst the individual nations of the United Kingdom is only one part of the story and despite being an island and thus having an easily recognisable border, the reach of Britain extends well beyond geographical limits. Great Britain’s empire building past has left a web of connections that span the world. The British Empire at its height covered a quarter of the globe, and whilst many former colonies, dependencies and protectorates have since regained independence, the history of a British presence in parts of South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean left a postcolonial legacy of citizenship rights which has contributed to the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society that exists in Britain today.

Whether because of commerce or conquest, as an escape from poverty or persecution, Britain’s population comprises a diverse collection of people, some of whom may have connections to and, therefore, identify with places other than the British Isles. Who we are and who others think we are has a lot to do with where we live and our origins, but it takes much more than territorial borders to define national identity.

It is almost impossible to say exactly what British identity is or should be in the 21st century and as a result the very idea of Britishness “has been the source of much anxiety, uncertainty and political debate in recent years” (Clarke, 2009, P. 210). From politicians to social commentators, newspaper editors to academics, all have suggested ways in which the meaning of Britishness could be constructed and fixed.

Amongst other things, Clarke suggests that British national identity may mean having a sense of place, a shared way of life, a common history and a recognised image of race or ethnicity (2009, p. 219), but in light of the diverse nature of Britain’s population some of his suggestions seem more plausible than others. A sense of place can only come from a feeling of acceptance and belonging, hard to achieve when even after three generations of British citizenship your community is still viewed with suspicion and resentment. The idea of a common history may not sit well with everyone, especially those whose ancestors were the subject of domination, oppression and exploitation. A recognised image of race or ethnicity implies a singular recognition, fine if your skin is the ‘right’ colour, but at risk from discrimination if it is not, legislation can protect but it cannot change attitudes. Even though a shared way of life seems to be a reasonable suggestion, cultural differences make this equally difficult to imagine.

Culture, according to Clarke, has at least two meanings (2009, p. 219). The first suggested interpretation is what he calls ‘high culture’; this includes art, literature, theatre and music. Writers such as Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens, artists such as Turner and Constable and composers such as Elgar all supposedly provide an “apparently shared set of reference points” with which all British people can identify (2009, p. 221). However, Clarke also notes that the stressed importance of English names in the list of preferred cultural icons excludes not only those members of British society whose origins, whether real or imagined, lie outside its geographical limits, but those from other parts of the UK too. Raymond Williams (1958, cited in Clarke, 2009, p. 219) calls this a ‘selective tradition’. Therefore, to suggest the use of British high culture as a unifying tool is to exclude a large section of society to whom it is probably irrelevant and perhaps even unintelligible.

Clarke’s suggestion of a shared way of life also falls under the cultural banner. Normal everyday practices of living such as dress, food, customs and religious observance are all important in defining the meaning of culture. Common forms of behaviour, values, morals and ethics are important in a shared way of life but immediately this highlights some problems. Religious and cultural differences, for example, may make behaviour considered acceptable to people in one community completely unacceptable to those of another. Not all diversity is necessarily ethnic or religious, however, and age, gender, social background and political differences can all divide as well as unite.

Having established the difficulty in accepting shared culture as a means of defining British identity, the idea of shared values has been suggested by both David Blunkett and Trevor Phillips. Mr. Blunkett, former UK Home Secretary, suggested that “Britishness is defined aˆ¦ through our shared values, our history of tolerance, of openness” (2005, cited in Clarke, 2009, P. 221). Trevor Phillips, former Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, also suggested that “Britishness aˆ¦ lies in a way of living aˆ¦ In a diverse society, the shared values are the fundamental glue that holds us together; and the way we behave towards each other is the outward manifestation of our values.” (2007, cited in Clarke, 2009, PP. 222-223). Both these statements, whilst obviously well meant, do not stand up to scrutiny. To suggest that the British people are tolerant and open is to deny history. Perhaps Blunkett and Phillips are simply stating how they would like people to think and act, in which case their argument will likely fall on many deaf ears!

For Blunkett and Phillips diversity is a positive thing, something to embrace and celebrate. They suggest that only through tolerance and openness to diversity can Britain gain a unifying sense of identity. Their views have been contested, however, and statements denouncing the acceptance and encouragement of diversity have been equally prominent. David Goodhart, a magazine editor, has suggested that increasing diversity in Britain has caused us to become a nation of strangers. He also suggests, “As Britain becomes more diverse that common culture is being eroded” (2004, cited in Clarke, 2009, pp225-226). Whatever ‘common culture’ he happens to be referring to; he suggests that its loss is leading to a lack of solidarity and social cohesion. His opinion, unlike that of Blunkett and Phillips, however, does not carry the weight of authority since it is a personal opinion expressed in a magazine article.

In complete contrast to Goodhart, Bhikhu Parekh, in a report for the Runnymeade Trust, suggests that diversity and collective national identity need not be mutually exclusive. Whilst acknowledging the risk of social fragmentation and racism, Parekh suggests that if all members of society feel equally valued, have access to equal opportunities, lead fulfilling lives and shoulder the burden of societal responsibility that it may be possible to develop a “shared identity and common sense of belonging” (2000, cited in Clarke, 2009, pp. 226-227).

In a diverse society, therefore, the concept of national identity should be all-inclusive; clearly, this cannot depend on a shared culture. Moreover, simply telling people how to think or behave will not change attitudes nor make them feel united. Ultimately, perhaps economic and social equality will lead to a unified purpose and sense of collective identity – or perhaps not, this is clearly a complex question without a single answer.

(1500 words)

What is an underclass and does it exist in Britain today?

The idea of the existence of an underclass isn’t by any means new. Charles Murray is perhaps the best known researcher who has studied the underclass both in the US and Britain. Murray arrived in Britain in 1989 from the US where he suggested that a huge underclass had already emerged and he wanted to compare Britain to the US. He described in his 1990 paper “the Emerging British Underclass” that it was spreading “like a plague through our social fabric”, concluding that Britain does indeed have an underclass and predicting that by the year 2000 it would have grown to dramatic proportions. This essay shall examine the theory of underclass by Charles Murray and some alternative opinions by his critics in order to exemplify what a complex subject the underclass is. Murray’s prediction of an existing and indeed expanding underclass will also be examined.

It is impossible to examine the concept of underclass without looking at an example of class theory of which there are many. Just one has been selected, that of Runciman (1990). He suggests that there are seven classes in British society – the upper class, three middle classes (upper, middle and lower) two working classes (skilled and unskilled) and an underclass. Runciman describes the underclass as those who are “excluded from the labour market entirely” (cited in Marshall, 1997). This could be because of disability, being in debt, or through lack of skill and are highly likely to be women or/and in the ethnic minorities. These are not causal factors. The main feature of the underclass is long term unemployment.

Murray (1990) agrees that long term unemployment and it’s increase is the cause of the underclass along with the rise of single parenthood. Welfare benefits are too easily available for these groups he argues, thereby creating a “culture of dependency”. Murray’s definition of “underclass” is not concerned with the degree of poverty but a type of poverty and supports the view that the underclass are defined by their behaviour. They devalue the work ethic and are often associated with anti social behaviour and crime. He argues that the provision of welfare benefits for single parents have contributed towards the decline of the traditional nuclear family. Murray focuses on illegitimacy seeing it as a different “problem” from divorce, separation or widowhood. He sees that children who have only ever known one parent from birth are more likely to be in the underclass than those who have, at some point, experienced having two parents. He concluded that illegitimacy was more common in households that were poor than rich and also in white families more than black or Asian (although he doesn’t see “race” or ethnicity, or gender as a contributory factor). He makes a distinction between the short term unemployed and those who are long term “economically inactive”. The reliance on benefits and devaluation of work perpetuates from generation to generation, thereby forming early socialisation into the counter-culture referred to as the “underclass”.

The class theory of Runciman and the meaning of underclass according to Murray are not the only theories in existence. The complexity of it means one fixed definition cannot be attributed to it. Critics of Murray suggest that there is a tendency in his work to blame the underclass themselves, whereas societal factors need to be considered. Glasgow (1980) argues that the economy has failed to provide equal opportunities. Inequalities mean that some groups are excluded. Field (1989) blames the Thatcher government for rewarding the rich and punishing the poor and suggests that social problems are interconnected. One particular part of Murray’s theory that has attracted criticism is the focus on illegitimate1 children. Brown (cited in Lone Parent Families, Ed: Donnellan, 2004) argues that it is unfair to label illegitimate children as being in the “underclass”. In many cases of divorce or separation, the absent parent doesn’t contribute financially at all or contributes very little, thereby placing their child and former partner amongst the groups that are not so well off . Statistics have shown that single parenthood has risen in Britain supporting Murray’s prediction. Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe, the second highest in the world. The figures for the number of illegitimate children in 1988 in Britain was 25.6%. The 2001 census showed that as many as one in four children are being raised in a single parent family. 90% of single parents are women. Single teenage parents are most likely to be amongst the poorest. Child care facilities are expensive and working hours may not be flexible. Studies have shown that if they do find work they may start at the very bottom of the ladder in part time or temporary positions with few benefits, perhaps only earning slightly more than they would on benefits. If they do try and get themselves out of hardship, it would prove incredibly difficult. Finding work does not necessarily mean that someone will be out of poverty.

Murray fails to mention the elderly, often seen in Britain as outside of mainstream society, despite what their position was during their working life. Field (1989) cites the underclass as consisting of single parents, the long term unemployed and the frail, elderly pensioner. Many critics of Murray argue that income and wealth need to be equal to give the elderly better lives. Efforts have been made such as free eye tests, free television license and winter fuel payments. However, this help is not available to all pensioners and those in social policy would like to see a return to a link between pensions and earnings (which was abolished in 1980) which would help lift the elderly out of poverty (source: the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website).

Government policies have been implemented to try and alleviate problems. Charles Murray eventually stopped providing Government with possible policies because of pessimism about their capabilities to change things. Figures for February 2006 showed that the employment rate was 74.5% but this figure was down by 0.4% over the year. 51% of those unemployed were women. However, the number of job vacancies had decreased. Those taking part in Government schemes such as the New Deal are not included in unemployment figures. Critics suggest that the Government create these schemes so that unemployment figures drop but putting people into poorly paid work will not lift them out of the underclass. Preston (2005) emphasises that the benefit system for those not working is inadequate and often inaccessible (for example to asylum seeker families) so therefore doesn’t provide the security Murray suggests it does.

It is impossible to give an adequate definition of what the underclass is as it is very much a disputed concept. Ideas of what the underclass actually is have been mentioned here, notably Murray who suggests that the British underclass is a subculture in itself and tends to blame the people within it rather than societal circumstances. Critics blame inequalities in education, job opportunities, housing and so on. It can be concluded that there are sections of society that could be termed the “underclass”, desperately needing Government to create policies to help them out of poverty and that those outside the mainstream society are growing – asylum seeker families are certainly excluded from mainstream education and a chance to work adding to those living in poverty in this country. In this respect, Murray was right in that those living in poverty has grown. Social scientists and policy makers however do not always agree on who actually makes up the “underclass”.

Word count: 1252

References

Brown J (2004) Quoted in Lone Parent Families Ed: Donnellan, Scotland, Independence Educational publishers

Field, F , (1989) Losing out: The Emergence of Britain’s Underclass, Oxford, Blackwell

Marshall G (1997) Social class and underclass in Britain and the USA (an essay from Social Differences and Divisions Ed: Braham P & Janes L (2002) Oxford, Blackwell in association with the Open University)

Murray C (1990) The Emerging British Underclass cited in Morris L (1993) Dangerous classes, London, Routledge

Preston G, (2005) Quoted in Child Poverty Action Group Manifesto: Ten Steps to a Society Free of Child Poverty, CPAG (white paper) Internet source

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (online)

Social Exclusion Unit: Breaking the Cycle: Taking Stock of Priorities for the Future, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2004 Internet source

Do the Consumers get Sensitized towards the Brands by the Brand Placement in Bollywood Movies?Abstract

The practice of product placement is seen everywhere in media across the world and is now ubiquitous. The same practice of Product placement in Bollywood is not new and the practice of placing the products in the bollywood movies is seen from the time of early 1970s. The movies produced in last ten years are seen with a lot of product placement and the practice of strategically planned product placement has grown to a major extent in Indian movies (bollywood). The practical implication of the methods of product placement is evidenced in the Indian Cinema but there is hardly any substantial evidence present for the product placement and its strategies in Bollywood. The research presents an overview of the strategies adopted by Hollywood for the product placement and consolidates the technique of product placement with the practical brand placement done in bollywood by assessment of a recently released bollywood movie ‘Blue’. The brands placed in this movie are classified on the basis of the methods of classification derived from the theories which are drawn from the literature based on Hollywood. The main objective of this research is to find out whether or not the consumers are sensitized by the practice of brand placement in bollywood, and if yes then which is the method which scores most number of recalls of brands shown in bollywood movies.

The findings of this study indicate that the Indian consumers do get aware from the brands shown in the bollywood movies. The findings are based on the empirical study derived from three main methods which are used in this dissertation for the collection of data, those three methods are; Case study, semi-structured interview and questionnaire. The investigation led to the other findings as well which were indicating that the format of bollywood is very different than the format of Hollywood and brand placement can be experimented much more freely as there is another dimension of music in the bollywood movies; brand placement in the bollywood movie ‘Blue’ investigated as a case study provided a 100% recall on the brand ‘Kylie Minogue’ who was placed in a song; recalls from such placement are assumed to be long lasting as the songs are shown on satellite television generating frequent encounter. No theories or methods are found on this kind of placement as the methods are derived from Hollywood format of which is different and does not includes songs. Dissertation concludes with providing the limitations of the research and directions for future researches.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Synopsis

This chapter provides with the introduction of the subject of the research and also looks at the background of the topic in brief. This chapter throws light on why I have chosen to work on this topic and what are the aims and objectives of the research made. This chapter takes into account the summary of chapters in the content which are to be followed further down in the dissertation.

1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Indian Film Industry also popularly known as “Bollywood” is one of the biggest film making industries in the world and is the only other film making industry which can stand against Hollywood. Mishra in his work says “the massive size of Indian cinema is obvious from its statistics; eight hundred films a year shown in more than thirteen thousand predominantly urban cinemas, viewed by an average of eleven million people each day and exported to more than hundred countries.” Mishra (2002, pp.1) having considered this data which has grown to even much bigger numbers in year 2009, Indian Films have become one of the biggest instruments of mass communication. The commercial breaks on the satellite television are now avoided by the viewers as the number of channel on television have increased to huge extent which gives liberty to the viewer to flip to a channel which is more interesting and avoid the advertisement, the technology give the viewer the privilege of recording the programs without commercial breaks as well, factors like these has open portals for movies to become a new carrier for brand promotion. Being a mass media of this enormous magnitude, Bollywood has a lot of potential and a significant number of opportunities for In-Film planned brand placement also known as brand entertainment or brand integration (Glaiseter, 2005 ) and these opportunities are being well grabbed by the advertisers and marketers in the Indian market.

In recent years a lot of research is done on Brand/Product placement in Bollywood films by marketers and advertisers so as to understand the concept and strategies of brand placement in movies. Although not many academic researches can be seen in the field of product placement in Bollywood, the practical usage of the practice of Brand Placement has grown significantly. Lehu in his work defines, “The expression ‘Product Placement’ or, ‘Brand Placement’ essentially describes the location, or more accurately, the integration of a product or a brand into a film or televised series.” Lehu (2007, pp.1) it can be understood from the work of other scholars like Kalish (1988), Gupta and (Gould 1997) Balasubramanian (1994) that brand placement is planned consolidation of brand with the elements of a feature film in return for money, service, barter, or any other kind of consideration. The research also focuses on the strategies of brand placement in Hollywood as no substantial academic can be found on classification of brands in the Indian cinema. The literature looks and analyzes the Tripartite typology of product placement by Russell (1998) , two dimensional approach to classify brand placement by Gupta and Lord (1998), Classification on the basic on Integration and explicitness by d’Austos and Seguin (1999) and finally Shapiro’s (1993) classification of brand placement.

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim at which the research focuses is to answer the question -“Do the consumers get sensitized towards the brands by the brands placement in bollywood moives?” Following are the main objective for this research

* To know, does the Indian audience get aware of the brands shown in the movie through in-film brand placement?

* Which method of brand placement leads to maximum number of recalls of brands by analyzing the data collected after conducting surveys and unstructured interviews?

1.3 KEY REASONS FOR RESEARCH

The key reasons for research in this field are, not much research has been made on this field and it is a very interesting and challenging task and the field has a lot of potential for growth in future and substantial findings might prove to be an insight for marketeers and will be useful for the adoption of correct method of brand placement in future projects in Bollywood.

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

The dissertation is divided into five different chapters; Chapter one is introduction which describes in brief the research background, aims and objectives of the research, why I have chosen this research and the structure of the dissertation. Chapter two reviews the literature and most of it is drawn from Hollywood. It begins with the definitions of Branding and Brand placement; it also draws the methods in which brand placement can be done and its classification. Chapter three of this dissertation depicts the methods used for the collection of data and also draws out the limitations of this research with other issues in detail. The fourth chapter will portray the research findings from survey and unstructured interviews. Chapter five of this dissertation is the final chapter which begins with consolidation of the research objectives with the literature review and concludes the dissertation with recommendation for future researches.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Synopsis:

This part of the dissertation focuses on defining the two most important terms for this dissertation which are branding and brand placement. This chapter also reviews the existing literature on brand placement and the strategies for its classification. The chapter is divided as follows; the first section of this chapter defines Branding after understanding of which the section second of the chapter looks at one of the methods of Branding or brand promotion which is Brand placement. Section three of this chapter begins with describing the strategies for brand placement and critically analyzes work from different scholars with their classification techniques in the subsections of section three. Section four and final section of this chapter portrays the instances of successful brand placement in Bollywood. As there is hardly any literature available on Indian film industry and brand placement the theories and literature retrieved for this chapter is majorly captured from American film industry.

2.1 Branding

The word so commonly used, yet not correctly interpreted by a lot of people. For the establishment of brands, companies around the world spend millions of dollars and formulate new strategies and techniques to market their product, this is what the common notion and understanding of brands for a lot of people is. (Levine, 2003) in his work says that the brand is not necessarily associated with a product or an organization or a title but anything that can be identified. One of the most popular footballers David Beckham is a brand and so is Mercedes Benz. De Chernatony and McDonald in their work define Brand as “A successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique, sustainable added values, which match their need most likely.” De Chernatony and McDonald (2003, pp.25) Taking this definition into consideration it can be said that consumers identify a product/services with its distinct feature, an attribute which associates product with some quality which are distinguished from the rest in one way or the other. This unique association encourages the consumers to buy the brand and give the brand an edge over the other products in the market. Thus, it can be said that a brand is a product/service with some attributes or features that helps the product/service to stand out in the market for having such distinguished attributes. A few examples of most commonly known brands all over the world can be: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Adidas, Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, Michael Schumacher, David Beckham, Omega, Rolex, etc. It took a lot for the marketers and brand promoter to first establish these brands and a huge amount of money is spent for the promotion of these brands by using different strategies and techniques. One of such techniques is Brand Placement.

2.2 Brand Placement

Also commonly known as Product Placement, the term Brand Placement has been defined by many scholars like (Steortz, 1987), (Balasubramanian, 1994), (Karrh, 1998), etc. This part of the dissertation highlights the definitions of brand placement by these scholars.

(Steortz ,1987) defines Brand Placement as “the inclusion of a brand name, product, package, signage, or other trademark merchandize in a motion picture, television show or a music video”, another definition of Brand Placement is contributed by (Balasubramanian, 1994) who in his work said, “a paid product message aimed at influencing movie (or television) audience via planned and unobtrusive entry of branded product into a movie (or television program)”, the definition by Balasubramanian covers the concept of integrating brands as done in the definition by (Steortz, 1987), but it also considers the aspect of paid inclusion which is ignored by Steortz. (Karrh, 1998) defines the brand placement by covering almost all the dimensions associated with it, he defines Brand Placement as “the paid inclusion of branded products or brand identifiers, through audio and/or visual means, within mass media programming”, he further explains that the brand placement can also be obtrusive and is done to compliment the character’s image and help in setting and filling up the elements in background.

The purpose of brand placement is to promote the brand but the ways in which it is done also generates a hybrid message, it merges the major features of advertising, it give the sponsors privilege of retaining the control over the content and format but also increases the credibility by not identifying the sponsors directly. (Cohen, 1988) With the definitions above it can be drawn that the Brand Placement in movies is that technique of advertising in which the Brand or the owner pays a compensation for its integration in the movie for the exchange of marketable benefit that the brands enjoy after being noticed by the audience, however, these placements are sometimes done just because the plot of the movie requires them to be placed there, this way brand placement can also be of non commercial nature.

2.3 Strategies of Placing the Brands

The practice of brand placement has been there for decades, the placement of brands in american feature films can be seen since the time of late 1940s and early 1950s (DeLorme and Ried 1999) One example of such placement is legendary actor Joan Crawford sipping Jack Daniels whiskey in the film “Mildered Pierce” in year 1948. (Nebenzahl and Secunda 1993) The evidence of brand placement in Hollywood can been seen in feature films produced in late 1940s but one of the earliest evidence of product placement in Indian cinema was seen in early 1970s when Rajdhoot motorcycles brand was placed in movie Bobby featuring one of legendary Indian actor Raj Kapoor. Brand placement in feature films caught the attention of marketers and companies when the sales of Reese’s Pieces candy increased by 65% in three months after the successful placement of the brand in the American film “E.T”. (Reed, 1989)

The strategies that help brand placement the most in regards to its impact and effectiveness are elaborated by Russell (1998) and Gupta and Lord (1998) further on, this research looks at classification of brand placement by d’Austos and Seguin (1999) and Shapiro (1993).

Russell’s argument for techniques of brand placement is three dimensional and focuses on modality of Visual, auditory and plot connection, whereas Gupta and Lord emphasizes on two broad categories Audio-Visual and the level of prominence. The studies from both the scholars are discussed below.

2.3.1 Tripartite Typology of Product Placement

According to (Russell 1998) product placement can be classified on the basis of three dimensions visual, auditory and plot connection. Visual dimension enables the placement of the brand in such a way that the product is seen on the screen and these placements on the screen can also be further classified on the basis of their appearance. The auditory dimension or the verbal dimension refers to the mention of a brand in a dialogue these placements are also called as ‘script’ placements and the degree of such placements varies depending on the number of times the brands were mentioned, what was the tonality in which the brands were mentioned and in what context the brand was mentioned. The Plot connection dimension indicates the magnitude of integration of brand with the plot of the story. The dissertation will now look at the literature/the findings from previous researches, which point towards the combinations or particular method amongst the three methods stated above that might get the maximum recalls. Russell in his work says product placement modality and its effect is now expanded to a new dimension of elaboration, the difference between visual and auditory presented information can now be distinguished by exploring the audio-visual context of product placement. The screen placement and the script placement, or the visual and the auditory type of brand placement differ from one another especially in the terms of conveying a meaning. Visual placement of brands act as props in television and movies so as to make them more real and close to the practicality and visual channel leads to the creation of context in which the story is set whereas the audio channel is the medium through which the television program is scripted, narrated and is made audible, this makes the information received through this channel more meaningful. (Russell, 2002) The reception and processing of auditory information also happens when a person is not looking and the auditory modality conveys semantic information through speech. (Rolandelli et al., 1991) The reception and processing of such information which is audible is higher as it also posses the basic characteristics of intrinsic alerting and intrusiveness which also are the basic characteristics of auditory modality. (Posner et al. 1976) Using brands for representation in any of the modalities brings a relativity of the same to the story and brings more meaning to the presentation and gets deeply integrated to a person’s cognitive structure. (Lehnert, 1981) Such stimulus generates deeper meaning and leads to greater recalls of brands. (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) The third dimension of brand placement also called as dimension of meaning is that of Plot Connection. The magnitude of such placement depends upon the integration of brand with the plot, the higher the connection of the brand with the story, the more significant the placement of brands is. The plot connection connects the brands with the macro structure of the story, with which are associated important information, hence increasing the significance and role of placement. (Russell 1998) The different combinations in plot connection and modality can also be of great significance. There can only be two situations in which the combination of modality and plot connections can be established; Match and Mismatch. The combination can said to be a ‘match’ when the auditory method of placement is higher in use than the visual and the brand names are audible in narration and is deeply linked with the story whereas the combination can said to be a ‘mismatch’ when the visual method of placement of brands is higher in application than auditory in plot connection. (Russell, 2002) A good example of a matched plot connection can be the movie “Cast Away” featuring Tom Hanks who by an accident gets left alone on an abandoned island. The two brands that were integrated well with the plot were one of the biggest courier companies “Fed Ex” and another was sports goods brand “Wilson” which was integrated well in the narrative structure. A good example of a mismatched plot connection can be seen in the movie Transformers and its sequel Transformers Revenge of the Fallen in which the car which is major attraction of the movie and transforms itself into a robot is manufactured by Chevrolet, here more of Visual placement is seen and the brand is hardly mentioned in the narrative structure. Mandler in his work says lesser exposed information which is less congruent in nature is more memorable as it grabs the attention of the person by provoking his/her mind to elaborate the information. (Mandler, 1982) Modality of placement is thus a very significant factor in categorizing the recalls as it persuades and influences people and also shows the significance of stimulus.

2.3.2 Two Dimensional – Approach

After studying Russell’s approach of Tripartite Typology of Product Placement this part of the dissertation will look at Gupta and Lord’s Two Dimensional Approach. Gupta and Lord (1998) distinguish the product placement on two major categories Mode of Presentation and Level of Prominence. Mode of presentation further classified by (Karrh et al., 2003) as: Visual only, audio only and combined audio-visual. Visual only: this kind of presentation involves visibility of signage, hallmark, billboards, logos, or any other kind of presentation that is represents the brand. The presentation or the placement is only visual with no presence of audio or gestures. One example of ‘Visual-only’ placement can be seen in the movie Top Gun where the lead actor Tom Cruise wears aviator model of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Although, this method has comparatively low recall rate visual-only form of product placement is one of the most common methods for brand placements and can be seen in a lot of movies. ‘Audio-only’ technique of brand placement represents the brand by transmitting the message in only auditory way. (Gupta et al., 2000) The name of the brand or a tune or even a jingle closely associated with it can be added to the script and also be a part of the narration. One example of such placement can be from the movie “The Aviator” in which the lead mentions the brand “Sears” in his dialogue delivery. ‘Audio-Visual’ method of brand presentation represents the brand by both, the presence of brand’s logo, billboard, signage, product, etc. on the screen with the mention of it in the narrative of the script. One example of such can be from the movie “James Bond-Die another day” in which, with the presence of Aston Martin, the narrative include the product name which was mentioned as Aston Martin Vanquish. This method of brand placement produce more recalls as compared to both ‘Visual-only’ and ‘Audio-only’ methods of brand placement. The other major segment drawn out by Gupta and Lord (1998) for classification of brand placement is on the basis of level of prominence. The differentiation in this segment was on the basis of prominent placement of brand from the subtle placement of brand, wherein in prominent placement of brand the product or the brand is kept in foreground and is in the prime focus, the field in which the brand is placed is not shared and the visibility of brand is prominent, example of such brand placement can be seen in the Tom Hanks starrer movie terminal, when he is in office of immigration officer while he explains him the situation of his country he refers to a bag of chips, the bag of chips shown for over 30 seconds was “Lays”. On the other hand the subtle placement of brand is normally not prominent and does not catch attention, the visual field is shared with other brands and the products are placed in the background. Subtle case of brand placement can be seen in the movie ‘Hangover’ which shows billboard of brand ‘Riviera’ in background while the actors are driving in a police car in Las Vegas.

Although the strategy which used prominent visual brand placement with properly exposed information and auditory mention of brand’s name and its attributes is said to have more effectiveness than just the visual placement, but it is not clear as the results from different academics do not coincide. (Law and Barun, 2000; Sabherwal et.al,. 1994; Galician, 2004: 188-190)

2.3.3 Brand Placement on the basis of Integration and Explicitness

The brand placement methods defined by Russell were three dimensional, as by Lord and Gupta were bifurcated into two major segments based on audio-visual as mode of presentation and level of prominence. d’Austos and Seguin (1999) in their work classify brand placement in three different ways.

1. Implicit product placement: The placement in which the presence of product, brand or firm is a part of the program and is placed there to fulfill the requirement of the context and plays a passive role and can be seen on the screen but the product name is not formally mentioning or demonstrating the product benefits, etc.

2. Integrated Explicit product placement: An integrated brand placement is the one in which the brand, firm, product placed plays an active role, the brand is formally mentioned and the attributes of the brand are clearly demonstrated.

3. Non-Integrated Explicit product placement: In this type of placement the brand, firm or the product is not related to the contents of program and no integration can be seen, but the name of the brand is formally expressed. Such placement is often seen in the title of the movie or in the beginning or in the end of the movie and it is seen that the brands placed in this kind of placement are often sponsors. (d’Austos and Seguin 1999)

The classification of brand placement by d’Austos and Seguin classifies brands on the basis of their integration and explicitness whereas there can be seen similarities in the classification made by Gupta and Lord (1998) and Russell (1998) as they classify the placement using similar grounds of mode of placements which are audio and visual, though the approach of Gupta and Lord’s classification is simpler as the modes are clearly distinguished, the difference arise when Russell base the placement with the connection to the plot and Gupta and Lord ground their classification on prominence of brands.

2.3.4 Shapiro’s Method

Shapiro (1993) relegates product placement in four different categories which were modified to three as practitioners agreed this classification to be the most suitable compilation for conducting the research at the initial most stage as it covers the spectrum of brand placement. The classification is grouped as:

1. Implicit: In this kind of placement the brand is visible on the screen, it might be foreground or background, etc. but brand name or benefits is given no verbal reference.

2. Used in a scene: In this kind of placement, the brand is visible and is used in the scene, but no verbal reference is given to the brand. Instance of such brand placements can be seen in movies when the characters are driving in a car or using a cell phone and the logo or name or identification of car is clear.

3. Integrated Explicit product placement: This kind of placement shows the lead actor or main characters of the movie using a product while mentioning and describing the benefits or attributes of the brands or the product.

The brand placement method enunciated by d’Austos and Seguin were quite similar to that of Shapiro’s classification as both the practitioners focused at the integration and explicitness of brand to major extent but the classification from d’Austos and Seguin cover the dimension in which brand is place in the beginning or in end of the movie which he calls as Non-Integrated Explicit brand placement which is not discussed by any other scholar. The classification by d’Austos and Seguin is very simple and can be used to sort and categorize the placement of brands in a broader way as it covers the major aspect of placement in a well defined manner. I adopt the usage of the classification techniques of brand placement portrayed by d’Austos and Seguin (1999) as it will help me to create a clear distinction in the placement of brands and will be an optimum method to put into application for my research question.

2.4 Brand Placement and Bollywood

The technique of brand placement in Indian film industry also called as Bollywood is not new, one of the earliest example of the same was seen in the film Bobby in year 1973 when the lead actor Raj Kapoor was seen riding on a bike which was ‘Rajdhoot’ Since that time a lot of brand placement can be seen for aerated soft drinks in a lot of Indian movies, brand like ThumsUp, Gold Spot, etc were commonly visible in movies in early 1990s, also the visibility of high ended cars during that time were prominent on the screen. Branded liquor with bottles was a common sight in many movies during this phase and the most common brands placed were Black Dog, VAT69 and Black Label. Latest examples can be seen in movies like Om Shanti Om (2007) with brands placed like Tag Heuer (Implicit), Nokia (Integrated explicit), Shoppers Stop (Implicit), etc, another instance can be seen in the movie Goal (2007) with integrated explicit brand placement of Reebok and Western Union Money Transfer. More than 54% of Indian audience is under the age of 25 which comes under the target audience slab and of most of movie makers and the advertisement companies aiming of brand placement, and according to (FICCI and Ernst & Young, 2003) this generation has more propensity and access to wide range of media and entertainment than the previous generation hence creating a lot of opportunities and scope for brand placement in the Indian Film industry from both Indian film industry and brand promoters point of view. Not only the access to modes of entertainment but also because the Indian middle class has grown more flexible and receptive towards international outlook because of the risen standard of living through increase in purchasing power (Varma, 1998) which is also another factor of supporting the growth. There are not many studies done on Brand placement in Bollywood and no substantial research can be seen focusing on the recalls towards the brands from the brand placement shown in the bollywood movies.

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.0 Synopsis

This chapter focuses on the importance of research methodology and explains in brief why it is necessary to draw a frame work of the research before bringing it into practical application. This chapter clearly states the aims and objectives of the research and defines the research approach undertaken. Also this chapter looks at the research methods used for this research and explains in brief the reason for their implementation as well. As almost every other research this research also is encountered with some limitations which are stated in the end of this chapter.

3.1 Research Methodology

Research literally means the search for knowledge, a systematic and scientific search for relevant information and answers on a specific topic, searching new facts in any new branch of knowledge through inquiry, search and careful investigation. (Kothari, 2009) It is of very importance to detail out the research approach and the methods used, as it helps the reader to understand the research in a much convenient manner. Research plan includes the instruments of research which will lead to investigation of data (quantitative or qualitative) keeping the research question as prime consideration so as to be ascertain of the information gathered is fitting in with the requirement of the research. (Chisnall 1997) The following chapter includes all the activities concerned with the research conducted for this particular academic work and also tends to draw out research method which sets up an appropriate frame so as to fulfill the objectives and aims of the research further stated. The structure of this chapter is as follows

* Aims and Objectives

* Research philosophy

* Approach

* Data collection techniques

* Data Analysis

* Research Limitations

3.2 Aims and Objectives

The main purpose of this research is to work on the concept of “awareness” or “consciousness” of brands as people watch movies. The critical issue that the research focuses at is; do the consumers get sensitized towards brands after watching Bollywood movies. The main objectives of this research are;

* To know is Indian audience/Bollywood’s Viewers are getting aware of brands shown in the movies through in-film brand/product placement?

* If yes, then which is the most effective method of in-film Brand/product placement by analyzing the recalls?

3.3 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy helps the researcher to find out the ways in which his/her research will comprehend the development of researcher’s knowledge. (Crossan 2003) Three of the major reasons for which the research philosophy must be taken into consideration are; a) it helps the researcher to figure out the methods he can use to design and conduct the research and to chalk down a strategy, b) it helps the researcher to evaluate the limitations of the research by putting different methodologies to test, c) it helps the researcher to explore different methods beyond his knowledge or experience. Thus researcher’s perception towards the development

Why are boys a problem for the education system today?

Introduction:

Until the middle 1990s boys were not generally seen as aspecific problem in British education. Many researchers in education tendedto focus on the disadvantages facing girls in schools and the way they tendedto be channelled into soft subjects such as cookery and health and socialcare while boys were left to dominate subjects such as the sciences (apartfrom biology), mathematics and wood and metal working.

The increasing penetration offeminist arguments into the debate on education however has increasingly undermined these gender distinctions while the ending of O levels in 1988 andtheir replacement by GCSE led to a more girl-centred examination regime with thefocus on course work.

It has thus become possible tospeak in recent years of boys as a distinct problem for the educationalsystem in Britain. As this essay will seek to point out, though, this is by nomeans to the exclusion of other significant problems such as poor classroomdiscipline, weak teaching in some schools and continuing social and economicdisadvantage for some social groups.

It became evident indeed duringthe 1990s that girls were increasingly out-performing boys across almost allsubjects, especially English, Art, Design and Technology and modern languages.This difference emerges in primary school at Key Stage 1 where a higherproportion of girls than boys achieve a level 2 in reading and writing comparedto boys and continues right through secondary school (ranging from 9.1% in 1998to 7.2% in 2002). The gap between girls and boys in reading and writingcontinues into Key Stage 3 where it widens to up to a 15% difference in 2002.Only in Mathematics do boys outperform girls by a small margin (2.8% in 1998and 0% in 2002) (Ofsted 2003, pp. 38-39). These differences are by no meansunique to Britain since similar differences have been found in otherOrganisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. In all27 OECD countries boys scored lower than girls in reading tests although onlyfive countries (including Portugal and Denmark from Europe) had a smaller gapthan the UK. It is possible to take some pride in the fact that the UK’s gendergap is smaller than the average of OECD countries (Ofsted 2003, p. 8)

It is evident that boys do face agreater degree of difficulty in learning compare to girls in almost allsubjects. This gap has probably widened as more opportunities have becomeavailable for girls to excel in a wider range of subjects than twenty to thirtyyears ago. It may therefore be the case that we are not faced with a distinctlynew problem but one that has always been there but is now becoming moreevident. Girls, it is generally recognised, are happy to work over long periodsof time at producing full coursework portfolios. Boys, on the other hand, tendto prefer putting off revision for exams until the last moment, meaning thatthey are reluctant to engage in extensive coursework and prefer crammingthemselves for a final one-off examination (Bleach 1998, p. 13).

The reasons for the difficultiesfacing boys in education can to some extent be put down to basic biological andgenetic differences between the sexes. Boys possess an X and a Y chromosomewhile girls have 2 Xs: some biologists have concluded from this that this makesboys genetically less well disposed towards understanding the feelings ofothers, forcing many to learn social skills which tend to come to girls morenaturally. This makes them more resistant to school discipline and it isimportant to note that in British secondary schools boys are four times morelikely to be excluded than girls while in primary schools the ratio is 14:1(Kitching, 2001: 7). In the case of school work, too, boys are more likely torebel against the constant attention to detail that a course work basedcurriculum demands (Bleach 1998, p. 3)

It is probably unwise to pushthese biological arguments too far since the obvious question arises if boysare doing badly now as a result of genetic background why have they not donebadly in the past? There are clearly a series of other reasons that need to belooked at in order to be able to understand the relatively poor performance ofboys in schools in Britain compared to twenty to thirty years ago.

Indeed, another way of looking atthis issue is to see it not as part of a long-standing problem concerning boys’ability to learn but also one that has been produced but a new set ofcircumstances both inside and outside the school that have produced a situationthat is increasingly disadvantaging boys as a group compared to twenty tothirty years ago. Boys are emerging as a increasing problem in school policy.In this essay I shall look at this argument in two main areas: firstly, therise of the single parent family and its impact on the culture of laddismand, secondly, the teaching regime within schools.

The single parent family and the rise of laddism

In the course of the 1990sresearchers in education tended to shift their attention away from extra schoolforms of explanation for the success and failure of children towards moreschool-centred approaches. This was driven to a considerable extent bypolitical values as radical researchers became increasingly hostile toexplanations for the relatively poor performance of working class children inschool in terms of working class family life The newer school-centred approach,by contrast, has been keen to stress poor performance in terms of unequalallocation of classroom resources as well as the bias and hostility amongteachers towards certain categories of pupils and their active sponsorship ofothers (Foster, Gomm and Hammersley 1996, p 111).

In the case of the poorperformance of boys this new school-centred approach has been favoured in muchof the recent discussion and I shall look at this in the next section. Howeverit is also clear that the older extra school approach has a lot of value whenit comes to understanding the difficulties confronting many boys in school.

One of the central explanationsfor the relatively poor performance of many boys relates to the changingstructure of the family in Britain. High divorce rates and family break-upshave impacted more highly on boys compared to girls. Boys, it has often beenargued, need a male role model more than girls and if they are unable to findsuch a role model within the family in the form of the father than they willseek one elsewhere as a yardstick for masculinity. Often this can be amongother young men similar to their own age and this leads to them identifyingthemselves with a very limited conception of a boy as a non girl. This thenleads them to valuing coolness, hardness and in some cases a homophobic andanti gay outlook (Neall 2002, p. 13). Here are the ingredients of a culture ofladdism that has been much talked about in recent years in terms of the antisocial behaviour of many young men both in school and outside. It has oftenbeen used to explain yob culture in city and town centres as well as theunruly behaviour of soccer hooligans.

Macho and lad culture haveclearly penetrated into schools and has some impact on the poor performance ofsome boys in school. Some research conducted by Keith Shipman and Keith Hicksin 1998 for example pointed to the importance of what was termed boys peergroup culture and that for a small number of boys home background has such anegative effect on motivation and is causing such disruption in their livesthat they can be classed as ‘pupils under pressure'(cited in Ofsted 2003, p.10). Since the late 1990s this negative peer group pressure may well haveescalated in many schools to the point where a distinct anti learning culturehas taken hold preventing many boys as well as girls from doing any seriouswork in class.

This anti learning culture amongboys takes a number of forms in schools. It is manifested by a reluctance toengage with lessons and either passive withdrawal from the teaching process oractive disruption of lessons. In addition it can lead to progressive nonattendance and truancy from school as well as the involvement with gangcultures which have now penetrated many schools in Britain, especially in majorcity areas. The anti learning culture can in some cases contribute to a declinein the morale of many teachers who may leave the profession and so furtherundermine the confidence of many boys in schools where there is a rapidturnover of teaching staff.

The anti learning culture amongboys is often a form of defence against low self esteem. As one former teacher,Peter Neall, has pointed out boys have adjusted to being branded as idiots andhave turned it almost into a fashion accessory. This has led to a situationwhere it has become cool to be a fool, which is a kind of self preservationmechanism coming into play. Rather than be put down, boys will put on a frontthat they want to under-perform or be disobedient from their own choice(quoted in Bale 2003).

This anti learning cultureembraces girls as well as boys in many schools and, from recent reporting inthe media, appears to be spreading to the point where many schools have lostcontrol of pupil discipline. This is an issue that schools do not like to havereported but, as the recent undercover filming by one supply teacher of aseries of classes that were seriously disrupted, has led to the point in anumber of schools where discipline has effectively broken down (Henry 2005).This can be in part explained by the anti learning culture among many boys;however, since many girls are involved in this disruption too, it would be anexaggeration to say that this is the whole explanation.

The situation within schools

Another type of explanation forboys. relatively poor performance compared to girls focuses on the regimeoperating within schools. Here the main issues concern both the allocation ofschool resources as well as the type of teaching employed to cater to the needsand interests of boys.

There is no real evidence thatresources within schools are allocated in a distinctly gender-biased way tofavour girls. Indeed traditionally schools resources have been skewed infavour of subjects in which boys have traditionally excelled such sciencelaboratories, carpentry, metal working and sporting facilities. The issuerelates far more to the kind of teaching regime that different schools employ,though this is an area that is notoriously difficult to quantify and compare ina rigorous manner. Much of the research in this area has been of an ethnographicnature based on the participant observation by researchers in class. It may bepossible to show from this research that the attention of teachers is unequallyallocated to particular groups of pupils though it is still difficult from aseries of snapshot observations to deduce from this the actual overall amountof teacher attention that is misallocated or its frequency (Foster, Gomm andHammersly 1996, p. 111).

However the general impressionhas emerged from the research that has been done that boys’ performance is moreaffected by the kind of learning regime operating in a school compared togirls. For instance, from survey work conducted in 1996 in mixed by HerMajesty’s Inspector of Schools (HMI) it was found that in more than two thirds oflessons teachers gave little or no attention to where boys and girls sat in theclassroom. This though clearly did have an effect on performance sinceboys-only groups or pairs within classes performed markedly less well than whenthe class as a whole was put into either mixed set groups or pairs (cited inOfsted 2003, p. 8).

In addition it is also evidentthat many boys performed far better in schools which have an ethos encouraginghigh standards and that engages their interest and commitment and that insistson good behaviour and close partnership with parents Boys tend from thisevidence to perform much better in schools with a good learning culture whereasgirls are rather better able to learn from indifferent or poor teachingcompared to boys (Ofsted 2003, p. 3). The implication of this is that manyschools need to rethink their teaching and learning strategies in order todevelop a whole-school focus that employs base line data in order to measurepupils progress and takes into account gender. By setting targets forindividual pupils it becomes possible to raise expectations as well as trackthose pupils who are under-performing. The adoption by schools of a mentoringsystem may also help in this process as the performance of boys is tracked.

It is also evident that singlesex schools in many cases help a lot of boys. In contrast to the picture ofthe twenty to thirty years ago where under-performing girls were oftenconsidered to be better off in single sex schools. It is now often argued thatboys perform better in situation where they do not face competition fromgirls. The 2001 GCSE results appear to confirm this as boys achieving 5+A*-Cgrades was higher in single sex schools except for schools where over 50% ofpupils were entitled to free school lunches, suggesting that family backgroundalso plays a role in this. Boys from middle income homes are thus more likelyto do well in single sex schools than mixed ones where this may be less so forboys from poorer backgrounds (Ofsted 2003, p. 27). However only 7%of boys incomprehensive schools are in single sex schools, though the implication ofthese results may be that boys as a whole will benefit from more single sexschooling. It should also be pointed out that the results for girls also confirmedthat girls in single sex schools outperformed girls in mixed schools (Ofsted2003, p. 270.

Conclusion

This essay has sought to showthat in many ways boys can be seen as a problem in the educational system inBritain in terms of the fact that they are under-performing relative to girls.In addition, boys are at the centre of contemporary discussion concerning ananti learning culture that has penetrated many schools along with macho andladdish behaviour.

The sociological explanations forthis underperformance can be located both outside the school in general socialand economic trends as well as within schools themselves and their teachingregimes. While the first is often referred to the main emphasis in much recentdiscussion such as the 2003 Ofsted Report on Boys Achievement stresses thecentral role of the teaching within schools. This emphasis is part of a moregeneral shift in educational research since the 1980s towards the school andaway from wider economic and class factors though as Foster, Gomm andHammersley point out this has led to a redefinition of the concept ofeducational inequality away from the original concept of equality ofopportunity towards the concept of equality of outcome. This has also meantthat almost anything that schools do can be treated as contributing toeducational disadvantage through exploitation of the uncertainty whichsurrounds our understanding of the effect of treatment on outcomes (1996, p.176).

It is probably too easy to blame schools for theseapparent disadvantages for boys which also need to be explained in terms ofwider pressures from the surrounding culture outside schools. Getting thebalance right in this form of educational debate though is probably never goingto be very easy.

References

Bale, B, 2003. Taming the Classroom Rebels, TheAberdeen Press and Journal, 6 February.

Bleach, K, 1998. Why the likely lads lag behind. InK.Bleach, ed. Reviewing Boys Achievement in Schools. London: TrenthamPress, 2-17

Foster, P, Gomm, R, Hammersley, M, 1996. ConstructingEducational Inequality. London: The Falmer Press.

Henry, J, 2005. ‘The disruption made teaching virtuallyimpossible. I could not believe what I saw’. The Sunday Telegraph, 24April.

Ofsted, 2003. Boys Achievement,July. London: HMI.

How Useful are Bourdieu’s Concept of Field, Habitus, and Capital for Understanding Contemporary Social Theory?
Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) developed his theory of cultural capital, with Jean-Claude Passeron, as part of an attempt to explain differences in educational achievement according to social origin (Robbins, 2005: 22-24): to show ‘that social exclusion is a continuous process’ (Ibid. p 23). In his theory, the cultural and social forms of capital are based on, without being determined by, the amount of economic capital possessed and thus hide or mask the way in which social hierarchies are reproduced. The three forms of capital combine, and are embodied, to produce an individuals habitus, or set of predispositions, whilst the field refers to the arena in which a specific habitus is realised or deployed. For Bourdieu, then, the concepts of capital, field and habitus were ultimately embedded in relations of power (Burkett, 2004: 236) and were part of a complex theory that sought to explain the way that social inequality is reproduced. Many have debated the usefulness of Bourdieu’s theory to contemporary research (see, for example, Fine in Burkett, 2004; Tooley and Darby in Nash, 1999), while others have debated the degree to which he drew on the founding fathers of sociology, with some concluding that his theory of practice is ‘strongly Weberian’ (Keyes, 2002: 233), or that his concepts draw on the work of Durkheim (Camic, 2000). Here I attempt to asses the degree to which he drew on Marx, Weber and Durkheim when constructing the key concepts of capital, field and habitus, and the usefulness or otherwise of them to contemporary research.

In the first section, I outline Bourdieu’s concept of Capital, demonstrating its role within his overall theory before showing the key ways in which his usage differs from that of Marx. Next I examine the debate surrounding the use of the concept within contemporary political science, notably in the work of Robert Putnam (1995). In the second section, I examine Bourdieu’s concept of Habitus, demonstrating its role within his overall theory of cultural capital, before showing the key ways in which his usage differs from that of Durkheim and Weber. Next, I examine the usefulness of the term by examining the debate surrounding its use in educational research in the work of Diane Reay (1995). In the final section, I outline Bourdieu’s concept of the field, discussing its role within his overall theory before finally examining its usefulness to those undertaking feminist examinations of the way that power is experienced as differentiated, especially within the reproduction of patriarchy (McNay, 1999). In the conclusion, I attempt to assess the overall usefulness of Bourdieu’s key concepts to the social sciences, arguing that he raided the concepts of the founding father but without having any ideological commitment to them; that his usage reflected his focus on them as tools of practical research. That, however, it is this practical focus that may have contributed to the difficulty experienced by those who now seek clarification as to their meaning.

The Forms of Capital

In this section I outline Bourdieu’s concept of Capital, demonstrating its role within his overall theory before showing the key ways in which his usage differs from that of Marx. Finally, I examine the debate surrounding contemporary use of the concept within political science, notably in the work of Robert Putnam (1995). For Bourdieu capital can be divided into different forms: social capital, cultural capital and economic capital. By social capital he refers to the network of ‘useful relationships that can secure material or symbolic profits’ (Bourdieu, 1986: 249): the amount of social capital that an individual can draw upon is thus the sum of the number of people in their network and the amount of capital so possessed. Bourdieu further divides cultural capital into three forms: ‘embodied’, ‘objectified’ and ‘institutionalised’: embodied capital is imbued during socialisation, and is ultimately tied to the social location of the individual (Nash, 1999: 185). Embodied capital represents ‘external wealth converted into an integral part of the person’ (Bourdieu, 1986: 244-5). Objectified capital refers to goods or artefacts – including paintings and sculptures – which ‘…are defined only in the relationship with cultural capital in its embodied form’ (Bourdieu, 1986:246): in other words, the goods themselves and the ability to consume them. Institutionalised capital refers to those academic qualifications which enable an individual to directly convert between cultural and economic capital: ‘a certificate of cultural competence which confers on its holder a conventional, constant, legally guaranteed value with respect to culture’ (Bourdieu, 1986:248). Thus, the different forms of capital are based upon, but not determined by, economic capital. We can see that Bourdieu’s use of ‘capital’ is very different from that employed by Marx. Whereas Karl Marx (1818-1883) had paid little attention to the cultural sphere, believing it to be little more than ‘false consciousness’, Bourdieu sought to use the language of Marx and economic theory (Robbins, 2005: 20) to develop a ‘marxisant’ (Moi, 2000: 322) theory of culture. Like Marx, for Bourdieu capital has the capacity to reproduce ‘in identical or expanded form’ (Bourdieu, 1986:241), becoming part of the structure of society that enables and constrains individual’s lives (Bourdieu, 1986: 242). However, Bourdieu’s use of the term may therefore be viewed as being closer to power (Bourdieu, 1986: 243) than as it was used by Marx.

In Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000)^[1] Robert Putnam utilised the concept of social capital, transferring it from sociology into the realm of political science. Putnam argued that increasing individualism had led to the decline of community ties, political participation and therefore ‘good governance’ (Russell, 2005: 557). Putnam defined social capital as ‘features of social organisation such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam, 1995: 67). However, Putnams’ definition is very different from Bourdieu’s; whereas for Bourdieu social capital was held by the individual (Walters, 2002: 387), for Putnam it is a collective capacity (Ibid. p. 379). Further, within Bourdieu’s conception it would be difficult to see how there could be a reduction in social capital.

William Walters (2002) argues that Putnam’s use of the concept differs from Bourdieu’s in that whereas Bourdieu argued that social capital is transferable with economic capital but not reducible to it (Bourdieu, 1986: 243) Putnam’s use is more liberal; he assumes ‘a self-maximising individual for whom associative activity can, under certain circumstances, be an investment’ (Walters, 2002: 379). Ben Fine argues, convincingly, that academia has been gripped by a ‘social capital fetish’ (in Burkett, 2004: 234): that the concept has been so stretched as to render it meaningless (Burkett, 2004: 238). However, the weakening of Bourdieu’s concept of capital has occurred since his death, and so reflects on contemporary theorists and not on the usefulness or otherwise of the concept itself.

Habit: Habitus

The forms of capital as outlined above combine to produce a persons habitus, or set of predispositions: in this section I first provide a brief summary of the use of habit/ habitus in sociological thought, before next outlining Bourdieu’s use of the term. I examine the concepts role within his schema and demonstrate how his conception draws, but differs from, the work of Durkheim and Weber. Finally, I examine the debate surrounding the use of the concept in educational research, notably by Diane Reay (1995, in Nash, 1999). Charles Camic (200) describes how the term habit was extensively used by the Ancient Greeks, and medieval scholars and theologians. During the 18^th century it continued to be used by Enlightenment thinkers as diverse as Helvetius, Acquinus, Rousseau and Kant (Camic, 2000: 329; Nash, 1999: 180-182) to describe a range of behaviour from those ‘virtually automatic’ actions to ‘more involved patterns of conduct’ (Camic, 2000: 327). Within the work of Durkheim the term assumed a central importance, concerned as he was with the development of the collective conscience, or secular moral code (Camic, 2000: 334). For Durkheim human action could be divided into two poles, with ‘reflection on the one side, and that of habit on the other side, with the latter pole being the stronger’ (Durkheim in Camic, 2000: 333). For Durkheim primary education was therefore benign, for here the child can be imbued with ‘the habitual basis of social morality’ (Camic, 2000: 33). Yet despite this assertion of the central role of habit in the social world, Durkheim assigned the study of it to psychology, and not sociology (Camic, 2000: 337).

However, for Bourdieu social inequality, or differential access to the forms of capital, becomes part of the very bodies and predispositions of the individual via the habitus (McNay, 1999: 99). Marx argued that ‘men make their own history, but […] they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past’ (Marx, 1852, quoted in Coates, 1990: 265): for Bourdieu, the individual is constrained by the amount and quality of cultural, economic and social capital that they possess: it is ‘discrimination embodied as dispositions’ (Nash, 1999: 177), it is thus a sociological concern. Further, whereas Durkheim’s conscience collective sought to explain the way in which meaning is given to emotional experiences (Shilling, 1997: 204) and so focuses on the collective, for Bourdieu the habitus is a possession of the individual (Nash, 1999: 182).

For Weber, ‘custom’ designated that range of behaviour that is the ‘unreflective, set disposition to engage in actions that have been long practiced’ (Camic, 2000: 337): being both conformity with and the generator of social norms (Camic, 2000: 338). This is similar to Bourdieu’s ‘sociology of practice’: following Weber, Bourdieu believes that the purpose of the social sciences is to explain action, yet where Weber was more interested in the ‘larger social and cultural conditions under which general societal patterns of habitual action wax and wane’ (Camic, 2000: 341), Bourdieu remains tied to the individual, actual, practical affects of power and history (Bourdieu in Nash, 1999: 179). For Weber, habit falls at the border of meaningful action, and therefore outside of sociology (Camic, 2000: 345), for Bourdieu it is precisely the doxic nature of habit that renders it socially important.

Diane Reay (1995) used habitus as a method when conducting fieldwork in the classroom (in Nash, 1999). For Weber, an ideal type is ‘a construct developed to make sense out of a chaos of facts’ (Keyes, 2002: 240). Likewise, for Bourdieu habitus helps us to make sense of ‘that part of practices which remains obscure in the eyes of their own producers’ (Bourdieu in Keyes, 2002: 240): it is a conceptual tool, something to ‘think with’ (Nash, 1999: 185). Roy Nash (1999) charts the difficulties that arise, when such a conceptual tool is utilised in practical research, but concludes that it is ‘worthwhile, just because to do so forces one to think’ (Nash, 1999: 185): the habitus ‘offers explanations’ (Nash, 1999: 185), by examining whether the habitus can explain social differences in education we have gained a deeper understanding of these inequalities. The concept of habit had previously been a ‘staple’ of western social thought, from medieval times to the thought of Weber and Durkheim, but fell outside of sociology and into psychology due to the scramble to assert disciplinary boundaries (Camic, 2000: 355); Bourdieu sought to revive the concept as part of his search for concepts which would aid our understanding of the limits to individual action: it is ‘a conceptual tool for comprehending that the capacity to project forwards which people really posses is understandable as a function of their prior social condition rather than in terms of abstract mathematical models’ (Robbins, 2005: 26). In other words, habitus allows Bourdieu to mediate between agency and structure without relying on the atomised, rational individual of liberalism, instead situating the actor within extant power relations.

The Field

In the final section I outline Bourdieu’s concept of the field, discussing its role within his overall theory before finally examining its usefulness to those undertaking feminist examinations of the reproduction of patriarchy (McNay, 1999). The ‘field’ refers to the arena, or social context, in which a specific habitus may be realised; knowledge regarding the use of particular machinery may be of little use in the world of show jumping, but of uppermost importance to those involved in car manufacture. Likewise, maintaining a network of engineers would be of little use to those outside this specific field: society in total constitutes a field, and is ‘structured according to relations of domination’ (Peillon, 1998: 215), but also society is comprised by a range of distinct fields:

Fields will vary according to how much autonomy they acquire from the entirety of the social field. An autonomous field is characterised by a high level of specificity: it possesses its own history; a particular configuration of agents operate within it and struggle for a distinctive stake; it induces its own habitus and upholds a distinctive set of beliefs. Such an autonomous field is highly differentiated and marked by sharp boundaries, beyond which the field ceases to have any impact on practice (Peillon, 1998: 215).

Bourdieu recognised that academia is such a field and therefore is embedded in and reflects social relations. For Bourdieu, then, the field refers to the different arenas or social spaces in which capital is deployed or the habitus acts: ‘the embodied potentialities of the habitus are only ever realized in the context of a specific field’ (McNay, 1999: 109), further, each field is distinct and therefore operates according to its own logic (McNay, 1999: 114): knowledge of sociological theory would be of little use to our aforementioned show jumper. As it is deployed, therefore, habitus is both determined and generative as it is able to constitute the field from which it emerges (McNay, 1999:100); it is the ‘feel for the game’ that also reproduces the game (Bourdieu, 1990: 52) as each individual is positioned within the field by their possession of specific types of capital and their strategies so contribute to its reproduction.

When comparing Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of the field with that of Foucault’s work on the body, Lois McNay (1999) finds that Bourdieu’s is the more developed as he is better able to theorize the differentiated nature of the constraints which act to limit the individuals ability to create their own identity (McNay, 1999: 95). For McNay, Bourdieu’s concept of the field is useful within feminist theory when considering the differences within women’s experiences of gender, as well as those differences between men and women (McNay, 1999: 114): ‘as a relational concept the field yields an understanding of society as a differentiated and open structure and provides a framework in which to conceptualise the uneven and non-systematic ways in which subordination and autonomy are realized’ (McNay, 1999: 115, my emphasis). For example, in relation to the production of knowledge this might explain the early marginalization of much feminist research and the way it was the thought of a particular group of women – white, heterosexual, middle class women – that came to dominate second wave feminism, as opposed to the feminisms of other groups: in short, Bourdieu’s concept of the field enables us to consider the way that power is not a monolithic concept but is experienced differentially.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when assessing the overall usefulness of Bourdieu’s key concepts to contemporary research and theory it is important not to forget the intention of Bourdieu himself: Bourdieu intended capital, habitus and the field to be tools used to aid such empirical research (Peillon, 1998: 241) and not as constituent parts of a ‘grand theory’: he had no interest in ‘speculative philosophy’ (Robbins, 2005: 15). Bourdieus’ theory has been criticized as being essentialist and deterministic, however others have embraced its potential to explain the way in which such social inequality is reproduced (such as Reay, 1995 in Nash, 1999). Derek Robbins argues that Bourdieu had ‘no sympathy for the mystery of Durkheim’s conscience collective’ but was enough a product of the ‘Durkheimian legacy’ to wish to encourage a future society based on the positive unity of equality (Robbins, 2005: 19). For Robbins then, Bourdieu:

regarded the discourses of the sciences as contrived language games which are alienated from natural culture. This did not cause him to be reductive or sceptical but it did cause him to deploy these discourses, varying them imaginatively, so as to isolate essences which are contingently changeable socially, geographically and historically (Robbins, 2005: 20).

In other words, the language of the sciences were the tools that Bourdieu used in his practical attempt to construct a fairer world. However, it is this practical focus of his concepts that may have contributed to the difficulty experienced by those who now seek clarification as to their meaning, as he had varied their meaning to aid understanding of the particular instance under scrutiny. Having drawn on the work of the founding fathers of sociology – Marx, Durkheim, Weber – he felt no ideological commitment to these concepts, but instead felt free to move between discourses to better understand (Robbins, 2005: 20). Thus the concept of habit and/ or habitus that had been a ‘staple’ concept in western social thought, (Camic, 2000: 355) which Bourdieu sought to revive as part of his search for concepts which would aid our understanding of the limits to individual action. Keyes argues that Bourdieu’s use of habitus is as a Weberian ‘ideal type’ (2002: 239), I argue that his use of capital and the field are as similar ‘ideal types’. His concept of capital may have been weakened, as Ben Fine argues, by academia’s subsequent stretching (Burkett, 2004: 238), however this weakening occurred after his death, and so should not reflect negatively on the usefulness of the concept. Indeed, it is this flexibility that renders it an appropriate tool. Finally, his notion of the field is useful when considering the differentiated affects of power: Bourdieu remains good to ‘think with’ (Nash, 1999: 185).

Bibliography

Bourdieu, Pierre (1990) The Logic of Practice, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1986) ‘The forms of Capital’, Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Richardson, J (Ed.), London: Greenwood Press, pp241-258.

Burkett, Paul (2001) ‘Book Review: Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millennium’ by Ben Fine, London: Routledge, Historical Materialism, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 233-246.

Camic, Charles (2000) ‘The Matter of Habit’, Pierre Bourdieu: Volume One, Robbins, Derek (Ed.), London: Sage, pp. 323-366.

Coates, D (1990) ‘Traditions of Social Thought’, Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity, Anderson, J & Ricci, M (Eds.), Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Keyes, Charles F. (2002) ‘Weber and Anthropology’, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 31, pp. 233-255.

McNay, Lois (1999) ‘Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Reflexivity’, Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 95-117.

Moi, Toril (2000[1991]) ‘Appropriating Bourdieu: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture’, Pierre Bourdieu: Volume IV, Robbins, Derek (Ed.), London: Sage, pp. 314-341.

Nash, Roy (1999) ‘Bourdieu, ‘Habitus’, and Educational Research: Is it all Worth the Candle?’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 175-187.

Peillon, Michel (1998) ‘Bourdieu’s Field and the Sociology of Welfare’, Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 213-229.

Putnam, Robert (1995) ‘Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, An Interview with Robert Putnam’ in Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 65-78.

Robbins, Derek (2005) ‘The Origins, Early Development and Status of Bourdieu’s Concept of ‘Cultural Capital’’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 13-30.

Russell, Andrew (2005) ‘Political Parties as Vehicles of Political Engagement’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 58, No. 3, pp. 555-569.

Shilling, Chris (1997) ‘Emotions, Embodiment and the Sensation of Society’, The Sociological Review, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 195-219.

Walters, William (2002) ‘Social Capital and Political Sociology: Re-imagining Politics?’ Sociology, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 377-397.

Introduction

The presentation of oneself is based on the observation of an individual through comparing the life of him and the other people. Because of that inspiration of determining the revolutions that are found in the society, the roles and relationships that are found can affect the value of an individual and the idea on how he can describe himself from other people. Due to the intensive curiosity of an individual in life and his environment, there are studies that stress out the possible explanation on how to describe the changes in the earnest way. Various sociological models and approaches were presented to show the connection of the man in his environment. The interaction of the people in the social life is presented by the Erving Goffman in his dramaturgical model that attempts to see the society in a lighter sense.

The Key Ideas

Erving Goffman prepared the key ideas behind the discussion on the values wherein the ideas in theorizing the social roles and relations that are present in the contemporary society. According to the book of Goffman, the individual performs a certain role, which varies according to their audience. Those individuals as actors have an intention in manipulating the role that they play for the purpose of managing others impressions of them. Usually, this occurs through the interaction of the individuals in their everyday life. Since the society presents the interactions that usually matters with the human social relations or group of life, there is a natural involvement of disciplines that goes right with the study of sociology including the economics, political science, and psychology because they all fall within the topic of human society. Goffman, presented the theory that suggests that individuals engage in a significant amount of expressive manipulation along several fronts. Goffman likened his ideas to a theatre because “individuals are, in essence, dramatic actors on a stage playing parts dictated by culture” and this is the goal of such a presentation is acceptance from the audience through manipulation. If the actor succeeds, then they will be viewed as they desired by the audience. Goffman argues that the key to this success is to control which information the audience has access to (Goffman, 1959).

Unlike the sociological theories wherein the individuals are linked with the disciplines early states, Goffman’s dramaturgical model outlines the existence of the human’s perspective on the stages where as an actor he usually plays. Giddens (2009) suggests that front regions are situations where individuals act out formal roles, essentially when they are ‘on-stage’. Performances in front regions often require teamwork in order to be successful. Impression management also occurs in the front regions as the actor is trying to give the audience certain impressions of himself. Goffman suggests that “when an individual appears before others, he will have many motives for trying to control the situation”. In contrast, back regions (of the stage) are where individuals or performance teams prepare themselves for their roles. Goffman implies that it is where teams discuss and rehearse their performance before they enter the front stage. Props can also be used to aid an actor in their performance and they are assembled in the back region. These props assist an actor in convincing the audience that their performance is true. For example, a waitress in a restaurant would use a notepad and paper to take an order, to help convince her audience (customers) that her performance is true. Goffman indicated that the two regions are connected by a “guarded passageway”. This stops public performances being shattered by an inadvertent look from an audience member. If an individual’s performance is weak, the audience will see through it. “The phenomenon of embarrassment is where the actor acts ineffectually or is unable to sustain their expected role. This leads to them being excluded from full participation in society, which demonstrates the importance of maintaining the appearance of being a competent social actor. The dramaturgical models value in theorizing social roles and relations in contemporary society is open to discussion. Goffman’s ideas are praised for having had a “profound influence” on sociology as a discipline. On his book, it clearly states that Goffman uses the dramaturgical metaphor as his contribution in the field of sociology. He acknowledges the most stimulating and thought-provoking contributions to sociology which made the sociologists today refer to his work, especially for examples on how to carry out micro sociological work.

Goffman’s dramaturgical model can also be seen as valuable within contemporary society as the concepts he developed have become part of “the very fabric of sociology” (Giddens, 2009). For example, phrases such as ‘front stage’, ‘back stage’ and ‘performance’ have all become an important part of sociology’s vocabulary. Moreover, Goffman identifies the way in which humans use culture in interaction. This allows for a certain level of understanding in how our culture shapes our social interactions with others. This all provides evidence for the argument that Goffman’s work, especially his dramaturgical model, is valuable in contemporary society when trying to theories social roles and relations. However, it can be argued that Goffman does not give enough recognition to the role those power plays in shaping our social relations. If his dramaturgical model ignores this potentially crucial factor, can it be considered valuable? Additionally, his choice of methodology has also attracted criticism. However, there are doubts over its validity as a research method. It can be argued that using a metaphor means any “resulting analysis cannot be disproved” and may therefore have little scientific use and also the metaphors are criticizes only “partial descriptions of social behaviour”. Consequently, Goffman’s use of a metaphor to outline his dramaturgical model may result in the validity of his entire theory being questioned, and therefore its overall value to contemporary society.

Goffman’s suggestion that his dramaturgical model revolves around the interaction rituals of everyday life has also been questioned. But in the continuous increase in the formality of modern interpersonal relationships there is a decline in class in contemporary society raise doubts about “the degree to which such rituals are essential to everyday life”. This again suggests that Goffman’s dramaturgical model is of no value to theorizing social roles and relations in contemporary society. This argument is also reinforced by the fact that his model is only relevant to western societies “which have developed a division between the public and the private realms of life”. Essentially, Goffman universalizes from a perspective of a white, middle-class male in 1950’s America, where there are apparent ‘front’ and ‘back’ stages. Giddens (2009) argues that this division is not as apparent or does not exist at all in other societies and therefore Goffman’s dramaturgical model is irrelevant.

In conclusion, Goffman’s dramaturgical model has both its criticisms, and its values. It can be seen that there are legitimate concerns regarding its validity and significance within certain cultures. However, it is valuable in some respects as it can be applied to contemporary western societies when theorizing social roles and relations. This helps to give us a greater understanding of why people act they way to do in different situations. In addition, Goffman’s overall contribution to sociology is unquestionable and it is fair to say that his dramaturgical model has a strong role to play in that (http://socyberty.com/sociology/erving-goffmans-dramaturgical-model/).

Discussion

The work of Goffman manifests the deep appreciation in the individual work within the society. His contribution in the sociology has a great effect in the modern sociological studies. For example, economics is linked to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services; political science to political philosophy and to actual forms of government; and psychology to individual human mental processes. Sociology, however, is involved with almost the whole human life beyond the biological level which fully asserted by Goffman in his study. Virtually, all human activities have a social aspect in that people engage in them together rather than alone and mutually influence one another. Sociology is best viewed with the contribution of Goffman as not as a distinct subject area but as a particular perspective on human conduct. The same may be said of psychology, but the psychologist focuses on the individual whereas the sociologists are concerned with the pattern of social relations formed by two or more persons. Social interactions, or the mutual responses of individuals, are perhaps the basic sociological concept, because such interaction is the elementary component of all relationships and groups that made human society.

As a discipline, or a body of systematized knowledge of sociology, Goffman used this as an inspiration in presenting one-self and which can be the very foundation of a society. The aspect of his studies was long identified primarily with the broad evolutionary reconstructions of historical changes in Western Societies, as well as the endeavour to explore the relationships and interdependencies among their more specialized institutions and aspect of social life, such as economy, the state, the family, and religion. Sociology, in Goffman’s study, can be thought more about synthesizing the field that attempted to integrate the findings acquired from other social sciences. Although such concepts concerning the scope and task of sociology are still prevalent, they now tend to be regarded as the province of sociological theory, which is only a part of the entire discipline.

Sociological theory, in a lighter sense as based on the works of Goofman, includes the discussion and analysis of basic concepts that are common to all different spheres of social life that had been part of studying sociology. An emphasis on empirical investigations – that is, the gathering of data – carried out by standardized and often statistical research methods, directed the attention of sociologists away from the total but abstract visions towards the limited and concrete areas of social reality. These areas where Goffman focused on came to constitute the recognized subfields and specialties of sociology that are today part of the college courses, textbooks, and specialized journals. Much of the scholarly and scientific works of Goffman, it falls clearly within one another of the many subfields into which the discipline is divided and can be performed by an individual. In addition to the basic concepts, research sociological theory and research methods are both usually required subjects for all who study sociology.

The oldest subfields in the disciplines are those that concentrate on the social phenomena in which Goffman in practically asserting and that have not previously been adopted as objects of study by other social science disciplines. These include marriage and the family, social inequality, and social stratification, ethnic and race relations, deviant behavior, urban communities, and complex or formal organization. Subfields of more recent origin examine the social aspects like on sex and gender roles. Because nearly all human activities involved in social relation, another major source of specialization within sociology is the study of the social structure of recognized areas of human activity which is bound to be in the concept of interaction. These areas of teaching and research include the sociology of politics – even in simple conversations – law, religion, education, and many others. The subfields differ widely in the extent to which they have accumulated a substantial body of research and attracted the large numbers of practitioners. Some, such as the sociology of sports, are of recent origin, whereas others rooted deeply in the earliest form of sociology. Certain subfields had achieved brief popularity, only to be later incorporated into a more comprehensive area. A more common sociological phenomenon is the splitting of a recognized subfield into narrower subdivisions; the sociology of knowledge, for an instance, has increasingly been divided into individual sociologies of science, art, literature, popular culture, and language.

In the shade of interdisciplinary fields, the oldest and most important would be the social psychology in which Goffman justified through explaining the things around and at present through the simple interaction. Actually, it has often been considered virtually a separate discipline, drawing practitioners from both sociology and psychology. As sociologists, they are primarily concerned with the social norms, roles, institutions, and the structure of groups, while social psychologists concentrate on the impact of these various areas on individual personality. Social psychologists trained in sociology have pioneered in the studies in interaction in small informal groups; such as the distribution of the beliefs and attitudes in a population; and the shaping of personality through the experience of socialization, or the formulation of character and outlook under the influence of the family, the school, the peer group, and other socializing agencies. The psychoanalytic ideas derived from the work of Sigmund Freud and other later psychoanalysts have been particularly important in this last area of psychology. This might be also played a significant part in the study of Goffman in presenting one-self.

As for the comparative historical sociology there is an often strongly influenced by the ideas of both Marx and Weber but has shown much growth in the recent years. Many historians have been guided by concepts borrowed from sociology; at the same time some sociologists had carried out large-scale historical comparative studies. The once firm barriers between history and sociology have crumbled especially in such areas as social history, demographic change, economic and political development, and the sociology of revolutions and protest movements.

Research Methods

Sociologists use nearly all the methods of acquiring information employed in the other social sciences and the humanities, from advanced mathematical statistics to the interpretation of the texts. They also rely heavily on primary statistical information that is usually regularly collected by the governments such as census, records of employment, immigration, the frequency of crime, and other useful statistics that can be used as variable and for quantitative measurement. It seems like the method established by Goffman is criticized by some of his contemporaries because it appeared that the process of his information gathering is plainly through observation and interpreting things.

The direct observation or reporting is the firsthand in some aspect of study within the society. The society, in fact, has a long history in sociological research. Sociologists have sometimes obtained information through what has been called participant observation- that is, by temporarily becoming or by pretending to become members of the group being studied. Sociologists also obtain firsthand information by relying on knowledgeable informants from the group. Both methods have also been used by social anthropologists. Several of the classical studies of American sociology, in fact, were patterned on anthropological accounts of illiterate peoples, in that they attempted to present the complete pictures of life that represents their study.

In recent years, the detailed firsthand observation has been applied to smaller-scaled settlings, such as hospital wards, religious, and political meetings, bars and casinos, and classrooms. The work of the Canadian-born sociologists Erving Goffman (1922-82) has actually proven both models and a theoretical rationale for such studies. Goffman’s influence has been only one of the numbers of theoretical currents insisting that everyday life as directly experienced is the bedrock of social reality, underlying all statistical and conceptual abstractions. This emphasis has encouraged intensive microsociological investigations using instruments as tape recorders and video cameras in natural rather than artificially contrived “experimental” social situations (Giddens, 2009).

Furthermore, sociologists use surveys for scholarly or scientific purposes in nearly all subfields of the discipline, although surveys had been most often employed in the study of voting behavior, racial and ethnic prejudice, responses to mass communications, and other areas in which the probing of subjective attitudes is clearly appropriate. Although surveys are an important sociological research tool, their suitability for many types of investigation has been widely criticized. Direct observation of social behavior cannot be replaced by verbal answers to an interviewer’s standard list of questions even if such answers lend themselves easily to statistical tabulation and manipulation. Observation enables sociologists to obtain in-depth information about certain group in which Goffman’s method is good as an example.

Emerging Trends

Since the 1960s sociology has ceased to be primarily an American subject. In sociological theory, in particular, a partial reversal of the previous direction of influence has occurred, with theoretical currents once again and the sociologists expanded enormously in both Europe and US. In addition to theoretical diversification, new subfields came into being, such as the sociology of gender (spurred by the resurgence of feminist movements), which includes the analysis of gender-based social roles and inequalities, and the study of emotions, aging, and the life course. Older subfields such as historical and comparative sociology were revitalized, as was the broaden movement towards theoretical practice, which encompasses applied sociology, policy analysis, and various sociological interventions. Sociological practitioners apply their knowledge through roles as consultants, planners, educators, researchers, and managers in federal, state, and local government, in nonprofit organizations, and in business – especially in the field of marketing, advertising, insurance, human resources, and organizational analysis.

Sociologists made greater use both of traditional research methods associated with other disciplines, such as the analysis of the historical resource materials, and one of more sophisticated statistical and mathematical techniques adapted to study of social phenomena. Development of increasingly complex computers and other devices in handling and storing information has facilitated the processing of sociological data. Because of the wide diversity in research methods and approaches, sociologists working in a particular subfield often have more in common with workers in a complementary discipline than with sociologists specializing in other subfields. A sociologist of art, for example, stands much closer in interests and methods to an art historian or critic than to a sociologist who constructs mathematical models of occupational mobility. In theory, methods, and the subject matter, no single school of thought or topic dominates sociology today (Mujtaba, Griffin, & Oskal, 2004).

In Practical Association

Actually, Goffman focuses on how the men are interacting with the society and his environment which mainly involves the changes in the objectives. In today, the development in the society came to the point where in the discussion leads to “human security” there is an emerging role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the development of multidimensional peace-building activities. In the changing international environment in which local, regional, and global level actors and norms have accrued enhanced legitimacy, a new generation of multi-dimensional peace-building activities has developed aiding in the development of ethical norms, utilizing peacekeeping, traditional mediation, conflict resolution or transformation, increasingly through transnational organizations and NGOs (Mercer, 2002).

The re-emergence of ethonationalist and identity based conflicts, and to respond to urgent humanitarian crises. It is in this context that the peace-building role of NGOs in conflict and complex emergencies may be usefully located and assessed as part of a socio-political fabric engaged in sustainable approaches to ending conflict. Conflict resolution/transformation and peace-building approaches to understanding conflict and methodologies for addressing it are being utilized by NGOs. This is in conjunction with more formally constituted methods and actors, in order to stabilize local environments in a local, regional and global normative context, as well as in the context of an emerging global civil society. This may enhance the legitimacy of NGOs (and their regulation) and may also increase the effectiveness of peace-building in the international system (Bratton, 1994).

Part of NGOs approach in peace-building is with the perspective on conflict, and the methodology which is derived from it for solving conflict, is thought to remove the critical difficulties inherent in first generation peacemaking where the common argument is made that involvement is crippled by the intensity of the dispute, the resources or lack of that the third party has access to, and the type of issues at stake for the disputants. The application of the international system dictates those third parties or the NGOs to view their role as one of conflict management as opposed to resolution in order to bring about compromise through bilateral and trilateral negotiations. In response to the peace-building approaches, it has been argued that settlements need to be based upon just political orders which promote democracy and human rights, new norms, participatory governance structures, civil society, international tribunals, and truth commissions. Disarming, repatriating refugees, building a consensus for peace under the auspices of the UN, and moderate local political leadership play a role in this method (Mercer, 2002). This is based on conflict resolution perspectives of conflict, and requires deep access into local environments, something that requires grassroots processes rather than top down approaches. NGOs can often provide this because of their unofficial and human security oriented focus. As actors of peace-building process, NGOs should focus on the injustices relating to human needs/security, humanitarian intervention, and human rights and the inflexible perceptions that states have held with respect to territorial sovereignty. NGOs have often been a low profile response to the exploitation of power by political entrepreneurs in domestic environments, and to intractable conflicts, economic inequality, and humanitarian abuses. The relationship of the NGOs in the society creates an emergence in the solving the needs and act in a much broader range of security issues, which makes the role of the NGOs complex. Providing a serious action on the impediment is a great start in the peace-building processes (Richmond, 2001).

The global changes continuously draw its impact in different parts of the world and reflected in the e-society. It also affects the simple business transactions up to the simple livelihood of the citizens. The issue of globalization got the attention of the researchers and proved itself as a great substitute from the traditional. In addition, the society embraced those changes and crafted a revolution that aims for its benefits.

The e-society is the term applied in the use of the consumers on Internet, web, and information technology in which it can change the society for the better living. The purpose of this interaction depends on the application of an individual which is mostly according to their needs (Reiter, 2008). However, the people can still recognize that the changes require many non-technical barriers that is indeed, needed to be addressed. The non-technical barriers oftentimes limit the ability or capability of the technology. The e-society is divided in many sectors namely e-commerce which can be applied to the businesses (Mujtaba, Griffin, and Oskal, 2004); e-government that recognizes the activities involved in the governmental sector (Heeks, 2001); e-learning or the innovative approach on education to achieve the quality education; e-health that was made to improve the health status of the society (Kaveny and Keenan, 1995); e-science that sometimes collaborated to the e-health and is bound for the continuous scientific research activities (Binik, Mah, and Kiesler, 1999; Reiter, 2008) and; e-entertainment that is for the leisure of the individuals (Husselbee, 1994). All of the components of the e-society are purposely made for the benefit of the society. But as the old saying says “no one is created perfect” – the e-society also receives drawbacks and other limitations because of the issues. One example is the e-commerce, the business leaders recognized the benefits such as changing the facilities, production process, or service offered. The business leaders also aim for serving the customers even from a far. But with the aid of the technology, this is highly positive. In fact, through the interaction of the business in the technology, the marketing and/or advertising can be easy. There are only problems that limit the businessmen in doing so. The problems are on the business models that can be apply for the organizational change; the security of the applied internal system, privacy of the people and even the consumers, and the trust and; the legal barriers to international sales (Mujtaba, Griffin, and Oskal, 2004).

Conclusion

Sociologists, like historians, also make extensive use of secondhand source materials. These generally include life histories, personal documents, and clinical records. Although the popular stereotypes have sometimes pictured sociologists as people who by pass qualitative observation of human experiences by reducing them to statistical, or quantitative, summaries, these never had been accurate. Goffman’s works impressively left a great contribution in sociology and explaining the interaction of individuals as much as giving the light emphasize on how an individual represents in the crowd. Therefore, his part in sociological field of work is utilized to use as basis in developing the society in a most attractive way.