Cultural Boundaries Essay Example for Free

Cultural Boundaries Essay Youth culture has been studied from several ideological perspectives on assumptions that they are ‘not isolated and untouched by the surrounding culture’ (Keyes, 2000). This notion has lead researchers to assume that youth culture is not part of ‘growing up’, but a phenomenon that occurs as a precipitation of the social, political, cultural and ideological factors. There is not one monolithic youth culture that defines all young people. Popular youth culture embraces a diversity of sub-cultures or â€Å"tribes† such as skaters, druggies, snobs, band geeks, Satanists, Jesus freaks, techno-goths, computer dweebs, blacks, Latinos and white trash. Groups distinguish themselves by dress, style, music, body modification practices, race, ethnicity, and language. (Hines, 1999) Thus a researcher, who intends to study the ethnic, racial, political, cultural, sociological or linguistic aspect of a subculture, often ends up in analysing one of the factors and tend to romanticise or over-politicise these aspects. Thornton’s study on club cultures and Nava’s treatise on youth and consumerism are good examples in this genre. The debates on how best to conceptualise both the structural and cultural transitions of young people remains a central issue in the sociology of youth. In these debates cultural approaches have been criticised for neglecting the role of social divisions and status inequalities in lifestyle ‘choices’ (Bennett 2002). The cultural night lives of young people have provided fertile ground for social researchers. There have been explorations of the character and division of dance scenes (Thornton 1995), the relationship between femininities, women’s clubbing experiences and feminism (Pini 1997a, 1997b), clubbing experiences (Malbon 1999) and the relationship between drug use and clubbing (Henderson 1993; Merchant Macdonald 1994; Forsyth 1997). What has not been studied so well is how people become clubbers, what practices this entails, what kind of young people invest in this lifestyle, what resources are required to do so, whether this process is gendered as well as if and how this experience has impacted on their sense of identity. Earlier studies portrayed Rave culture as being a social arena where social divisions were put aside and anyone and everyone mixed together (Henderson 1993; Merchant Macdonald 1994). Yet, more recent studies suggest that distinctions do operate between ‘mainstream’ and ‘hip’ club scenes (Thornton 1995), that ‘nightlife provision exploits existing cleavages in the youth population, and segregates young adults into particular spaces and places’ (Hollands 2002, p. 153). Given this it seems important to unpack further the nature of boundaries: the divisions between ‘us and them’: the boundary work that we do and how boundaries are constituted in social interaction. Thornton asserts ‘club cultures are taste cultures’, but as she also points out, practices of distinction do not just involve taste and cultural hierarchies are numerous (1995, p. 3). What other practices of distinction are involved in identification and differentiation processes, both within and between club scenes? It seems unlikely that these processes and practices are wholly elective. Young people’s experiences of clubbing, their lifestyle ‘choices’, need to be contextualised and conceptualised in such a way that recognise that some young people are more able than others to engage in particular styles of life, and consumer and cultural activities, such as clubbing. Boundaries are about both the individual and the collective, notions not new to youth research. Willis (1978) suggested that ‘becoming’ a hippie or a bike boy involved not only cultural knowledge, but also a process of developing group sensibilities, and these sensibilities could be used to identify and differientiate one group from another. The notion of ‘becoming’ is a way of exploring both individual and group processes (Becker 1991): how young people learn to use ‘recreational’ drugs, learn particular practices, affiliate with a culture, lifestyle or social group and invest in additional forms of identification, as well as encounter cultural barriers that constrain participation and processes of ‘becoming’. Symbolic interactionist theories would suggest that notions of what and who you are, as well as what and who you are not, only become meaningful and significant through interaction with others. When social anthropological and symbolic interactionist conceptualisations of boundaries are brought together they can help us understand how people come to form into collective groups, groups that construct shared meanings through interaction. Symbolic boundaries, group life or how ‘people do things together’ (Becker 1986), are interactional resources that groups draw upon to create their own boundaries. These notions offer a fruitful way to explore the relationship between the individual and the group, and the divisions between ‘us and them’ found in the empirical studies exploring the cultural night-lives of young people. Moreover, it may be that identifying as and ‘becoming a clubber’ may only acquire meaning in relation to and in contrast to those who do not identify as or become ‘clubbers’.

Case Study Analysis Ppaer Essay Example for Free

Case Study Analysis Ppaer Essay Introduction A number of problems were made during the recent hiring process. This case Study is an attempt to identify and recommend ways to improve this process. From the information that has been obtained, I believe that a lack of employee experience and a lack of prior planning and follow up resulted in a failure to accomplish all the task necessary to hire the new employees in a timely fashion. ?Background Carol Robins, a new campus recruiter for ABC, Inc. , in early April he was able to hire 15 new trainees who were destined to work for Monica Carrolls,  the operations supervisor. From the interviews that were conducted, it appears that Carl was unable to accomplish all of the tasks necessary so that the new hires could begin work. These tasks included documentation, drug testing, material preparation for the orientation, and facility scheduling. Monica Carrolls did contact Carl on May 15 concerning his process with the hiring process. Other employees had failed to keep the paper copy of the master orientation manual current so that it can be quickly copied. Another factor appears the rapid expansion of the company. Alternatives With more than one problem a major focus on a number of different Solutions, such as, Prior planning by Carl could have eliminated some of the issues; however, Carls in experience would probably still have resulted in there being some problems. The company has failed to provide relatively inexperienced employees, like Carl, with comprehensive procedures and job practices. Under the topic of supervision, Monica Carrolls could have made contact more often with Carl. But her job, as operations manager, does not include his supervision. Another solution to the supervision problem could be to increase the staff in the human resources department. However, on examination this does not appear to be the most efficient solution due to the increased costs. Another solution would be to maintain the master New Employee Orientation manual in electronic format. Having the manual in electronic form allows for easy updating of the policy and procedures, and prevents inadvertent loss or damage to that document. This method is cost effective and easily implemented. ?Proposed Solutions. A New Employee Checklist will be created with all pre-employed tasks listed on it. ?The Employee Orientation manual will be maintained in an electronic format. ?Some of the pre-employment tasks will become the responsibility of the potential employees to accomplish. Potential employees will report when the tasks have been completed. A member of the human resource staff will confirm that the task has been completed correctly. ?Employees like, Carl Robins, will be required to submit weekly reports detailing the current status of all potential employees. ?Recommendations New employees are the only way the work of this organization gets accomplished. Everyone efforts to sustain the continued growth and profits of this company cannot be ignored. With the continued growth of the company the proposed solutions that the employee will make on that day may need to be modified as the company becomes larger. I would recommend that a periodic review of the hiring process; looking for ways to improve it. And also a review should be done on an annual basis.

Breaking The Television Watching Habit

Breaking The Television Watching Habit For most of you, as it was for me, I grew up watching three, four and even five hours of television a day. It was a part of my daily routine and it wasnt easy for me to break. I managed to do it when my family and I moved to a small city in the west. After we moved in we found out that you had to buy cable if you wanted to have television. So we attempted a little experiment. We decided that we were not going to get cable and just tough it like the good old pioneers. This was partly because we couldnt afford it after the great expense of buying a new house and out of the wishes of my wise mother. So the family tuned out and switched off. It was nuts for a while but then I began to notice some changes taking place in my family and myself. I started to realize that television increased violence and aggression in my siblings and I, detracted from the way our family interacted and finally I noticed its adverse effects on all of our school scores. I plan to show that these adverse effects of television are reason enough to give your TV to the neighbor. Now your probley saying that people are naturally violent. Look at Gengis Kahn and Adolph Hitler . None of them grew up with television and they were still killing innocent people. From what I can tell if TV had been around they would have been a whole lot worse. In the book Televisions Effects, a government study compiled by George A Comstock , It states on page twenty five, that children who had viewed violent programming exhibited more aggressive behavior than children who had viewed a sports program. In the study they were able to tell which children would exhibit this behavior this shows a correlation between violent programming and violent behavior. Even if a naturally violent nature is the root of the problem we also need to recognize that the television is making those naturally aggressive and violent children even more so. We need to realize that these people have a hard time distinguishing between right and wrong. We need to help correct this problem by total abstinence to television. In the book The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn, a book about the ill effects of television on the different aspects of human life, it states It is particularly hard for parents to buy the Idea that television instigates aggressive behavior when its function in the home is so different, television keeps children quiet and passive, cuts down on loud and boisterous play, prevents outbursts between brothers and sisters. The sad fact of the matter is, parents sometimes have to work and are not able to spend nebulous amounts of time with their children. We need to stop allowing our children to be exposed to the violent distortion of reality that TV proje cts, Our children should be out playing sports or just romping around in the backyard. Activities that are proven to wear kids out and dont bombard them with all kinds of extremely violent stimuli. By destroying TV we can increase productive family time. Stop desensitizing our children to violence and begin to reteach our children good manners and good morals simply by our example. In a story by Ray Bradbury called The Veldt. We see the extreme end of this TV addiction when the existence of the childrens parents is of less importance than continued access to the TV room. Parents you need to let TV be a tool instead of a replacement. We must take up the reigns again raise our future generations the right way, by good old human contact. Now youre probably thinking to yourself, how am I supposed to live without television. Its the peacemaker in our home. When its on the children stay out of my hair and they stop fighting with each other. Anyway its the only time that the family really gets together. It really helps our family get along. You see not only have we replaced the parent with TV we have replaced the good old-fashioned family as well. I think the effects of television on the family and person are best stated in a quote by Urie Brofenbrenner Like the sorcerer of old the television set casts its magic spell , freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces although there is danger there as in the behavior that it prevents: the talks, the games, the family festivities and arguments through which much of a childs learning takes place and trough which his character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people. We neglect our responsibilities as parents and families to build children and future generations with character and moral values. When the TV is on we subject our children to the values of the world. We see TV as the fix all for the evening problem. Instead of playing, nurturing and loving we use the TV as the escape hatch. It lets the adults, the rolemodels, have their time and gives the children the necessary attention that they need. While at the same time allowing the parents to keep some semblance of sanity. You see why it is so easy for us to justify TV as a necessity. The bad thing about this is that children spend very little time interacting with adults and their other family members. All they ever see are two-dimensional flashes of lights and sound, merely impressions of a human soul. So good is TV at tricking the mind that we dont even realize that children are lacking something they desperately need, a strong family. In the LDS church families are a very important thing. The LDS church encourages families to take at least one night of the week and set it aside for just the family. This time is spent singing songs, playing games, and doing small acts of service. A lot of good television free family time results on this night and many needed skills like cooking and cleaning are taught to sons and daughters. We need to stop letting TV be our social outlet. It just isnt the same. We are so addicted that without it for even a short period of time we go stir crazy and have no idea how to entertain ourselves. We have forgotten how to enjoy ourselves and our own family members. We need to unplug and tune out. Read a book or even play a game of Monopoly with a younger sibling. We have lost the arts of interaction. We waste our lives away trying to escape, not realizing what we have around us, always wanting the next Scooby Snack, exploding truck or funniest home video. The worst place that TV beats us upside the head is in the learning department. Its like letting Dirty Harry put a big 44 round trough your skull. Now your probley going to try and tell me about good educational programs like Bill Nye and Sesame Street. We cant forget the Discovery channel. Yes, these are the rare jewels of television programming. We need to concentrate our viewing time in these areas. Television despite what programming may be on is an inefficient way to learn. TV is so easy to use and it is so easy to change to a totally different program if it becomes disinteresting or boring. I personally have noticed that whenever I get the remote in my hand I have to switch channels constantly. I think if you asked me what I saw on TV I could only tell you selected parts of the last five minutes. In a study conducted by Canadian researchers three towns were surveyed. One had no TV capabilities. The second city had only one channel. The third city had many channels. When reading score were compared between the three town they found that the highest scores were from the city with no TV. The next highest from the city with one channel and tailing closely behind the second city was the third in last place with many TV stations. Now you might be thinking that this study is not so great because they didnt take into account income and education of the people studied. The thing that make this study so intriguing is that the same group was able to go back into the city that had no TV after it had television for about two years. They found that the scores in the first city had dropped down with the scores of the other two cities. A sad testimony to the ill effects of television. One thing we fail to realize is that little things count when it comes to TV and how it relates to school performance. Things like reduced sleep time caused by late television viewing. Loss of productive play and self-learning time and a reduction of time spent on school work and studying. TV is like a drug, it acts like a good emotional and mental laxative. It lets us forget the things that we dont want to deal with and allows us to take the back seat and partake of the action guilt free. All the while we let our school books rot and our lessons pile up until we have no way to make up for the lost time. This wasted time is hard to fathom. Millions of man-hours wasted on what, a useless story, a few loud explosions and a dead policeman. We should be spending this time on reading, writing, arithmetic, and maybe even some thing we could turn into a career. You dont see an awful lot of people getting paid to watch television. An interesting comparison was done of SAT test score before and after the introduction of television. They found that between the years of 1964 and 1981, The exact years when children who had been exposed to large doses of television during their language learning years came up to take the SAT challenge the researchers witnessed a steep decline from the years before television. I can see how this wasted time that was before used on studying and hobbies was now channeled into six and seven hours of viewing a day. (Plug-In Drug) Could mean the difference between Harvard University and Southern Utah University. Television has proven to be one of the most effective drugs in human history. We can learn to live without it and we can learn to enjoy our families more. We must separate ourselves from that great monster. We must do as my family did and eliminate the need for television. I can honestly say that my grades went up. I had more time to read. We started to do things together as brothers and sister. Now we just have long conversations with each other. If you would like to see the good changes it can make in your life and the numerous benefits that abstinence provides then join me. Throw you TVs in the street.

Digital Video Recorders Essay -- essays research papers

We have all at some time or another missed a show we have wanted to see. Things such as work and school get in our way of watching our favorite shows. Shows that we have watched religiously. Ten years ago, if you knew you were about to miss a show, you would leave the TV on the channel you need to watch, and you would set the VCR timer to the appropriate time. This was and is not the most fun and easy thing to do. At the most, you would want to do this once a week as a maximum. Did you ever have to get up and go to the bathroom while the game is on? Sometimes you have to bear yourself just so you do not miss a single thing. Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s), eliminate all of this and more. If there is a show that you watch, you just enter it in the season pass box of your DVR. This ensures that your recorder will capture every episode of that show for you to watch. Sometimes there is only one showing of something. No problem, just select it and hit record. DVR’s make it easy to record anything on TV. They store all of the upcoming shows, so you do not have to enter dates and times. Say you are watching that game, and your bowels go off. Hit the pause button! Yes, with a DVR, it is possible to pause live TV. The thing is, you probably will not be using the pause button for live TV, because you probably will not be watching anything live anymore. You do not have to worry about commercials, you fast-forward through them. With a DVR, you watch what you want, when you want. DVR’s...

Impact of Outside Invasion in the Central Andes and Himalayas Essay

Impact of Outside Invasion in the Central Andes and Himalayas In Toward a Cultural Ecology of Mountains: The Central Andes and Himalayas Compared, David Guillet writes to address the nature of cultural adaptations between two mountain populations. His research is spurred by increased recognition that human intervention can cause detrimental resource degeneration in these fragile mountain environments. Guillet attempts to answer two questions; What environmental constraints on material provisioning will a human population encounter in mountains? How does the range of possible responses lead to patterns of social relations? By asking these questions Guillet believes that the production process is the critical link between the culture and the environment. Production is important to the cultural ecology of mountainous regions because; 1.) production decisions are constrained by altitude; 2.) cultural strategies implemented as a result of the mountainous environment are related to production; 3.) comparing production allows for a comparative model of mountain adaptations; and 4.) it shows that individuals and groups are involved in a process of adaptive flexibility that allows human response to the environment (Guillet, 563). In mountain environments, human populations are limited by vertical constraints on production strategies. The interaction between altitude, climate, and soil fertility sets limits on what types of crop can survive. This is evident in the use of animals to plow fields. The yaks of the Himalayas were able to adapt well to the plow, unlike the Andean camelids that lacked the physical strength for plowing. The mountain environment impacts many aspects of life. These regions have a poor... ...ent from degradation. After reading both Himalayan Herders and Toward a Cultural Ecology of Mountains, I have noticed a difference in the impact of outside invasion. For Bishop, the relatively isolated Melemchi village is rapidly changing, in response to global patterns, as a result of outside influences. However, these herders are able to maintain their cultural knowledge and traditions that have shaped their village for centuries. Why is it that Bishop noticed the dramatic influence of outside forces, while Guillet hardly recognizes this as a factor leading to adaptations in mountain populations? Is it because Guillet’s model needed to be broad that he was unable to focus on this influence? Works Cited Guillet, David, 1983. "Toward a Cultural Ecology of Mountains: The Central Andes and the Himalayas Compared," in Current Anthropology, 24(5) 561-574.

A Heartfelt Wedding Speech by the Father of the Groom -- Wedding Toast

A Heartfelt Wedding Speech by the Father of the Groom There is a small amount of humor at the beginning and toward the end of the speech, but it is the sentiment that makes it special. The speech ends with some advice for the bride and groom, which is touching, and a toast in the form of a poem. The happy couple, reverend celebrant, dear guests. The first wedding speech I ever gave was in 1958 when I married the groom's mother. Oh, I was in love! I remember clearly what a great feeling courtship gave me. I used to lie awake all night thinking about something she said. After we married and had four kids I'd fall asleep before she finished saying it. I'd like to focus on my son for a moment. He's married now, this may be his last chance to be the center of attention. His arrival on this earth was a most significant event for us as his safe delivery was my wife's first after many disappointments. He was both long-awaited and much-wanted. Other birth disappointments followed but where there is a strong desire for offspring there is a way and eventually We were blessed with four lovely children. And they in turn have given me grandchildren who give me great pleasure. When you are raising your kids you often wonder if You are getting it right. Forgive my little boast, but when I see how my children have turned out, its all been worthwhile. Every one of them, their partners, and my grandchildren are worth knowing. My son did not get the best start in life, losing his mother when he was sixteen years of age. Having me as a father did not always help. Fewfathers aree equipped to be mothers too, to bridge the gap successfully. His mother and I felt he got every one of the personal qualities of both of us. Some of ... ...iderable amount of hard work and organization and I commend the bride and groom for the effort they have made to ensure a day worth remembering. It’s their day, they’ve worked hard, and done good. What I wish most for them is that they be each other’s best mate. You can have all the love in the world swirling through the ether, flashing lights, sky rockets and balloons going up, but unless your partner is your best mate, the one who is always there for you, the one most interested in what you think and say, you will be missing out on the best of life's greatest institution. Would you please join me in this toast to the newlyweds: May you live as long as you like, and have all you need for as long as you live. May the road you choose be smooth, and your burdens light. May your pleasure in each other, grow with your years together. The bride and groom.

Charismatic style of Leadership

I have chosen the leader of a local foundation in our community who had been in the public eye due to his tireless efforts and initiative in addressing the homeless problem that are common even in suburban America. The person exhibits all three characteristics which include firstly, charm and grace, a primary characteristic of charismatic type of leadership. Secondly, the leader has the ability to command respect because he has immense self-belief that he can accomplish a lot for the homeless people. Thirdly, this person or leader has been influential as well because he can draw people in the upper echelon of society to support in many aspects of their program. People, both within the volunteer and paid staff, the homeless themselves and the supporters respect, abide by and pursue this leader’s vision and plans because they see firsthand his transparency and personally admire or have a high regard for his manner of dealing with the staff. This is what is called intense â€Å"attraction† to a leader because of his/her ability to command respect, conduct with such verve and energy (â€Å"Charismatic Leadership, 2007). When they hold meetings or when this leader speaks to people, he sees everyone in the room, and seems to convey at a level of â€Å"closeness.† The leader picks at the moods and behavior of the moment and then tailors what he is going to do next based on those observations. The leader employs different methods or strategies to get the attention of the followers, is very persuasive and very effective in using gestures and body language (â€Å"Charismatic Leadership, 2007). When this person leads his team, he tries to create a distinction about his group in contrast with that of others. He builds the uniqueness of the group in the eyes of members and makes efforts to solidify the group’s adherence to the leader but the members expect as well of their leader’s loyalty towards them. He exhibits leadership skills coupled with a positive outlook and is other –oriented which results to changes for the good of the team usually (â€Å"Charismatic Leadership, 2007). Reference: _________ â€Å"Charismatic Leadership†. 2007. Changing minds.org. Accessed March 24, 2008