Mcdonald?S a Good Image with Bad Ethics

McDonald’s: A Good Image with Bad Ethics Aimee Gibison Introduction McDonald’s Corporation has been growing and spreading internationally for the past three decades. Although McDonald’s seems convenient, cheap and clean there are many negative aspects of the business. In spite of paying their employees low wages and negatively impacting other cultures, McDonald’s and chains like it, have managed to position themselves as a positive piece of Americana. McDonald’s promotes its positive image and products with greasy fries, and a clown named Ronald McDonald.The unethical practices of this large fast food corporation are known but do not seem to detract from the all-American image that the corporation seeks to project. History In the 1950s a new style of eating was introduced by brothers, Dick and Mac Donald. Their original small burger stand was soon transformed into one of the largest, well-known transnational corporations. Ray Kroc, a milk shake mach ine salesman bought McDonald’s from the Donald brothers and made the burger shack into a business characterized by conformity and uniformity. â€Å"Kroc †¦ believed fervently in the ethic of mass production† (Schlosser, 2004).Under the influence of this mass production ethic, McDonald’s developed new, uniform production methods such as using frozen beef patties, instead of fresh ground beef, and developing a genetically-modified potato rather than using locally grown produce to ensure that all McDonald’s fries have the same uniform taste. â€Å"McDonald's Corporation (McDonald's) is the world's largest foodservice retailing chain. The company is known for its burgers and fries which it sells through 31,000 fast-food restaurants in over 119 countries† (McDonald’s Corporation, 2006).With so many McDonald’s located world-wide, many find it somewhat refreshing to see a familiar place when traveling in unfamiliar places. By homogenizi ng products and appearance of the stores, McDonald’s sells this feeling of comfort and familiarity. Spreading Out to New Markets Because it is internationally known and markets a homogeneous image, McDonald’s remains a household name with offerings known for a uniform taste. But McDonald’s is trying to reach a broader market as well. The corporation is trying to reach out to a healthier crowd of customers by releasing salads with fruits and vegetables.To reach international customers, the company has also added specialty foods for different countries. â€Å"The McArabia (chicken patties on unleavened bread with garlic sauce and onion), the McPepper (a double-patty burger seasoned with black pepper sauce), the Bulgogi Korean pork barbecue sandwich, a teriyaki pork burger with lemon-flavored mayonnaise, and, soon to find its way onto the menu, the Mushroom Pinwheel, a five-pointed pastry concoction filled with chicken and mushrooms, are all specialty menu items f or different cultures in some Chinese or Middle Eastern countries† (Old McDonald’s has some smarts in China, 2006).McDonald’s also donates a portion of their earnings to Ronald McDonald houses, located across America, which helps children with life threatening illnesses. Efforts like this portray a corporation committed to the welfare of their customers. However, while the overall image of McDonald’s is that of a wholesome, family oriented business, there are contradictions to this image. The Ethical Problems Big Business Domestically Although McDonald’s makes the effort to support children with life threatening illnesses, the diet offered by this corporation and others contributes to obesity, heart disease, asthma, and possibly mad cow disease.What kind of message are we giving our children when we promote healthy eating, and â€Å"at least 59 of the nation's 250 children's hospitals have fast-food restaurants? † (Tanner, 2006) Environmental ly, McDonald’s practices are also questionable. Unlike a fresh ground beef patty at a local butcher shop, â€Å"a typical fast-food hamburger patty contains meat from more than one thousand different cattle, raised in as many as five countries† (Schlosser, 2004). This raises the possibility of a particular patty containing contaminants of unknown origin.As noted previously, instead of locally grown potatoes, the corporation uses their own genetically modified potatoes. The practices of using food from extreme distances, is problematic environmentally. From a public health perspective, the use of beef from multiple sources makes contaminated sources far more difficult to trace. Impact on Foreign Cultures Not only do McDonald’s products harm individual and environmental well-being, they are also having an influence on some East Asian cultures with the corporation’s entry into those countries. â€Å"Critics claim that the rapid spread of McDonald’s a nd its ast-food rivals undermines indigenous cuisines and helps create a homogenous, global culture† (Watson, 2006). Chinese parents want to connect their children to the world outside of China, so they reward them with a trip to McDonald’s, but in so doing they are also taking away from their culture. â€Å"In twenty years [Yunxiang Yan, a UCLA anthropologist] predicts, young people in Beijing (like their counterparts in Hong Kong today) will not even care about the foreign origin of McDonald’s which will be serving ordinary food to people more interested in getting a quick meal than in having a cultural experience† (Watson, 2006).Another major change brought to the East by the entry by McDonald’s and American corporations into Asian countries, is the new obsession with American culture. â€Å"Prior to the arrival of McDonald’s, festivities marking youngsters’ specific birth dates were unknown in most of East Asia. In Hong Kong, for instance, lunar-calendar dates of birth were recorded for use in later life- to help match prospective marriage partners’ horoscopes or choose an auspicious burial date† (Watson, 2006).With the presence of McDonald’s restaurants in Asian countries, and the accompanying American cultural norms, children in these countries are recognizing the potential for celebration of individual birthdays. McDonald’s exploits this cultural change to market party packages to Chinese children who want to celebrate this new occasion. In many respects, McDonald’s emergence in Asia is permanently altering culture, and norms of the past are being lost in their McDonald’s party packages and Big Macs.In addition to contributing to cultural changes in China, McDonald’s has offended other cultures through some of its actions. The chain has stirred up controversy with some United States Hindus, many vegetarians, and some Japanese. â€Å"McDonald's, the fast foo d giant currently embroiled in a row concerning undisclosed beef flavoring in French fries, has made a formal apology to those it has offended† (McDonald’s resolves french fry dispute, 2002). This may seem like a petty dispute, but is not a small issue to Hindus who believe that the cow is sacred.In response to this offense to Hindus, vegetarians, and others, McDonald’s offered an apology, and paid the groups ten million of dollars in settlement. In addition, â€Å"fast food giant McDonalds is facing criticism in Japan after a number of its apple pies were found to contain a banned food coloring agent (McDonald’s apple pies found to contain banned food coloring in Japan, 2006). In 15 McDonald locations across Japan there has been an apple pie recall due to the use of an illegal coloring agent known as azorubin.McDonald’s has claimed that the substance is not harmful, using consumers in the European Union and Australia as examples where people consu me apple pies containing azorubin, seemingly without ill effect. McDonald’s has, however, recalled the pies and announced that they will no longer purchase their pies from the China-based factory using azorubin. Controversy in the United States Another controversy arose in a Southlake McDonald’s because of a bacon ranch salad. Chrissy Haley, wife of an assistant coach of the Dallas Cowboy’s, found a rat in her salad after ordering that salad and a Happy Meal for her child.According to newspaper reports, Haley and her nanny found the dead rat under a large lettuce leaf in a shared salad. McDonald’s has yet to respond, apologize, or even ask if the women are okay. â€Å"Both women have had blood and stool samples tested repeatedly over the last five and a half months and are undergoing sessions with Dallas clinical psychologist Dr. Rycke Marshall† (Whitt, 2006). Chrissy Haley, who has tested negative for any illness, is suing McDonald’s for $1 . 7 million, for both the dead rodent in her salad and McDonald’s response (or lack thereof) to the incident.The corporation has chosen not to cooperate during the course of the law suit, which was set to reach court in September 2007. Labor Relations Besides health issues, the company also has issues with its workers. The corporation pays minimum wage to their workers, who essentially do assembly line, factory-type work. If the work done by burger manufacturers and drive-thru cashiers were reclassified as factory work, that would â€Å"add about 3. 5 million manufacturing jobs to the U. S. conomy, at a time when such jobs are rapidly being exported over seas. From a statistical point of view, it would make the U. S. seem like an industrial powerhouse once again, instead of an ageing superpower threatened by low-cost competitors† (Schlosser, 2004). In the 31,000 McDonalds world wide, most of the workers get paid minimum wage in spite of the fact that the company is now worth more than a billion dollars. The Backlash There are an increasing number of people who speak out against McDonald’s and similar corporations.George Ritzer is well known for his efforts to raise awareness of the impact of globalization and global corporations by speaking at different colleges around the country. In the article â€Å"Nuggets of Wisdom† author Madelyn Pennino refers to an Elizabethtown College assembly at which Ritzer spoke to students about the illusion created by McDonald’s, of bargain prices and convenience for people ordering a super-sized meal (2006). In reality, this bigger, faster, and cheaper choice is actually not very convenient. â€Å"Efficiency has become inefficient† Ritzer said referencing the huge line waiting in the drive thru (Pennino, 2006).One of the goals of Ritzer and other anti-McDonalds activists is to spread awareness of real costs of doing business with the corporation and to make sure that the name McDonaldâ €™s does not become synonymous with America around the world. Conclusion Over the past four decades McDonald’s has been transformed from a local burger shack serving fresh beef patties, into a huge corporation using mass production methods to produce and sell their products. One of the results of this international expansion has been a number of books, articles, and even documentaries outlining practices deemed unethical.There are many things that might be done to address the ethical problems raised by the behavior of multinational corporations: laws, legal action and public pressure arising from activists. In the end, public awareness might be the most important tool. If individuals are enlightened about McDonald’s practices and their impact on health, environmental pollution and culture change, we can choose to not patronize its restaurants. The action may not shut the McDonald’s down, but it might limit the impact of the corporation. References McDonaldâ €™s apple pies found to contain banned food coloring in Japan. 2006, September 23). MarketLine Business. McDonald’s corporation. (2006, November 26). MarketLine Business. McDonald’s resolves french fry dispute. (2002, June 6). MarketLine Business. Old McDonald’s has some smarts in China. (2006, December 11). Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved March 2, 2007, from LexisNexis. Pennino, M. (2006, October 19). Nuggets of wisdom; Author paints picture of out fast-food culture. Intelligencer Journal. Retrieved March 2, 2006 from Lexis Nexis. Schlosser, E. (2004) Special report on slow food. In J. Johnson (Ed. , Global Issues, Local Arguments. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Tanner, L. (2006, December 4). Study finds allowing fast food in kid’ hospitals sends mixed message to families. Chicago. Retrieved March 2, 2007, from LexisNexis. Watson, J. L. (2006) China’s Big Mac attack. In J. Johnson (Ed. ), Global Issues, Local Arguments. Upper Saddle R iver, NJ: Pearson Education. Whitt, R. (2005, November 23). I smell a McRat; McDonalds serves up a rodent then scurries for cover. Dallas Observer. Retrieved on April 20, 2007 from Lexis Nexis.

Lord of the Ants- Notes and Paper on E. O. Wilson

Lord of the Ants Ed Wilson Was hit in the eye by the dorsal fin of a Pin fish and went partially blind, so he turned his interest to animals small enough for him to see entirely and up close, something small enough for him to hold between his thumb and pointer finger to inspect. Pheidole Jim Watson- Newly appointed head at Harvard Watson inspired Wilson to apply chemistry to how ants stay so organized Chemical trail ants leave to direct and guide other ants towards food, away from an enemy, a new home, and so on. Pheromones Sociobiology Many protested his theory of sociobiology Encyclopedia of Life E. O.Wilson was   intrigued by nature at a very young age, growing up in Alabama offered him a natural world, rich in plants, insects, and plenty other species just waiting to be discovered. He had a true passion for understanding the natural world that we inhabit. As a young boy,   he was hit in the eye by the dorsal fin of a Pin fish and went partially blind. He didn't let this hold him back, instead he focused his interest to animals small enough for him to see entirely and up close, something small enough for him to hold between his thumb and pointer finger to inspect. Wilson's interest in nature grew with his age, he  earned his B.S. and M. S. degrees at the University of Alabama, and went on to earn his Ph. D. from Harvard University. Wilson wrote  On Human Nature, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on his theory of Sociobiology, explaining how the many characteristics of human and society can be explained from an evolutionary point of view. He explained that all animal behavior, including human behavior, is the outcome of hereditary factors, environmental stimuli, and past experiences. His work faced much resistance from many, as a lot of critics had a hard time accepting his theory as it applied to humans.His theory rejects the previously established doctrine of tabula rasa,  which holds that human beings are born a clean slate, and that culture function s to aid in human knowledge, survival, and success. Island biogeography is a field of biogeography that studies species richness in isolated natural areas. This theory examines extinction and migration patterns of different species to isolated areas. Wilson's work has lead to the understanding and need for species conservation. His theory led to establishing national parks and the development of habitat corridors.

Nike. Ethical Audit Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Nike. Ethical Audit Report - Essay Example Also the ethical implications related to the disclosure method adopted by Nike related to its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stature is discussed in detail. The company Nike has responded in a professional manner to the many labor issues it has faced over a span of the past 10 years. A detailed audit related to the ethics of the business and possible changes which can make the company Nike a better workplace are dealt with in this paper. Introduction Nike created a code of conduct related to work place ethics after it was seriously allegated of making women and children work under hazardous conditions with minimum wages especially in developing countries like China. Nike is a leading marketer of athletic apparel and shoes and it has its operations and sales outlets spread across the globe. Nike is not involved in the actual manufacturing of its products; rather the company is involved in designing the products marketed by it. Nike makes use of workers on a contract basis for t he purpose of manufacturing in nearly 600 factories which are scattered across the globe and employs almost 800,000 people (CSR Report, Nike, pg.25). With such a huge work force the company faces issues related to ethics at work place and as the company is globally accredited it also faces Corporate Social Responsibility related ethical dilemmas. Corporate companies have to follow a responsible path and make sure the way with which they act and take their business ahead is within the permissible limits of ethics. In the year 2004 Nike released its Corporate Social Responsibilities report, first of its kind in accordance with the Global Reporting Indicators (GRI). The mission of GRI deals with developing, publicizing sustainability guidelines and global responsibility. GRI is process oriented and the indicators can be made use of while reporting environmental, economic and social aspects related to products, services and activities of the company. In this research paper these GRI ind icators will be applied to perform the ethical social audit of the company Nike. As at present there is no strong code of conduct present to enforce labor standards on an international basis as many countries especially developing ones have limited ability in relation to enforcing labor laws (Cohen, Sabel, 2006). There were only 24,291 direct employees at Nike during the year 1990 who worked in the United States and the major work force in manufacturing factories of Nike was from developing countries on a contract basis. Nike has been criticized for the ethics of the company when it comes to outsourcing. In many of its factories across the globe the problems of low wages, human rights and poor working conditions were prevalent. Though the management at Nike did not accept responsibility for such poor work conditions at first, during the year 1992 a well formulated code of conduct in relation to the labor, health and environmental standards was observed and followed by Nike. The mini mum age for labors was increased to 18 years and all the footwear suppliers were insisted to adopt the United States Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) standards at work place. To deal with labor practices issues Nike created the Nike Environmental Action Team (NEAT) in the year 2000. There are more than 100 corporate responsibility managers at work in Nike at present and there are over 1000 production managers working across the globe. An ethics audit deals with the manner in which the ethical practices and procedures adopted by a company can be assessed. On a professional basis the ethical standards have moved from being comprehensive to being more detailed.

Social technology review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social technology review - Essay Example On top of all these, vine offers the capabilities with other social apps like finding friends, following, trending posts, hash tags and interacting with close people. Another Vine’s unique feature is the capability of saving a post for later editing which is unavailable in most of the related apps in the market. This app has channels, widget for faster capturing and new tools for capturing. Just as the tweeter has retweet functionality, the vine has refined that enhances one’s followers see the video rewind. A widget that can take the user straight to video shooting without the home screen of the app with ghost, grid, and focused capturing tools that enhances video quality. The main difference in instagram and vine’s video sharing capability is that vine has a faster capture widget and an automatic looping of videos. Vines best gives the possibility of arranging the videos according to events and their relation unlike in instagram. Vine used when travelling for c apturing moments and sharing with friends who gives a good feeling to those who are not around you but can see what is happening around you. Use of sessions in vine is a capability that is unavailable in other apps, one can save sessions and open existing ones, and this allows for interaction of up to ten posts at a go. One can leave posts and edit later with just a single tap on a button. Another feature is the Time Travel that allows for removal, reorganizing and replacing any part of a video either shooting or previewing. Mainly the app meant to enhance people to seizure life in wave and share to the world. With the increased competition for the social apps, vine upgrades are matching the user’s needs. For instance, vine app features are being upped day in day out with the capability of front camera and an upload manager for posts in the session for submission. This app can much help in business, for instance, sharing of information on spot from learning institutions or ex hibitions by publishers or even students. This service can be enhancing due to the capability of instant notifications. Though there has been an increased response to the failure of some functionalities while others were not available, the apps updated versions are giving the clients what they need and at the right time. Although Vine users reported several malfunctions and errors when shooting of sharing posts, there has been increased support and upgrades, which reduce those bugs and enhance functionality. The compatibility issue for lower versions of android mobile devices is the biggest challenge with the app. Many users at first had complains about the big caching of the app as it consumed almost 2 GB of memory within a short time. Later, developers checked on the issue and moderated which brought the app to normal memory consumption with efficient functionalities. Its competitor for android, instagram is compatible with some lower versions that affect the competitiveness of vi ne for android. When considering several options, vine and instagram are more alike but their use can differ. The video length allowed by vine is six seconds that is nine seconds less than instagram and this can be a nice feature for commercials for new products for instance. With the six seconds, one can flash the products to users and leave them wanting more about it. In addition, the live interaction

The Representatives of African Music Term Paper

The Representatives of African Music - Term Paper Example There Keita joined a music group Koteba and performed alongside the renowned African stars of that time. These included Kunda of Senegal and Mory Kante of Guinea. He quickly progressed and became a lead drummer of Ballet Djoliba when he was just 15.. He was named as the Artistic Director in the year 1979, the first drummer ever to be given a position of artistic director. Mamady’s name soon began to be heard outside West Africa and he was persuaded by a group of percussionists form Belgium to teach and perform in Europe. In 1991, he opened his own institution of percussions in Belgium with the name of Tam Tam Mandingue. He also formed his own performance ensemble titled Sewa Ken which meant ‘â€Å"Without music, there is no joy, without joy, there is no music.† The school got worldwide fame and very soon its branches were opened in many famous cities around the world. Mamady decided to take his native culture and music to more borders and in 2003 he shifted his fo cus from Europe to the United States. Mamady has also been cast in a movie named ‘West Africa’ when was seventeen. He starred in another titled La Vie Platin and also wrote and recorded the soundtrack of the movie. He released an album with the name of â€Å"DjembeKan which means ‘the sound of the djembe’. The video contained four solo performances and was meant to show the power and influence of Djembe on its listeners. Djembe is a special type of goblet-shaped drum that is very famous in the African especially Guinean culture. Mamady devotes his time to his personal life as well and lives with his wife Monette Marino in San Diego where he teaches students in his school. He actively tours around the world each year to promote and preserve the tradition of Djembe. He is really dedicated to the cause of promoting Drum and djembe playing and was the first percussionist to organize a drum, and dance workshop in association with Guinea’s Secretary of Ar ts and culture. The first camp was held in the year 1990 in which students from thirty-five countries participated.  

Operations Management Case Analysis Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Operations Management Case Analysis - Term Paper Example The revised approach as devised by Master Tag is beneficial, since it will entail supplying the labels directly to the plant growers. The labels will be supplied in two batches, with one batch supplied earlier, and the second batch supplied later, depending on the amount of produce that the plant growers will have obtained during any particular season (Foster, 697). This being the case, the revised plan will ensure that Master Tag does not produce labels beyond the requirements of the plants growers at any particular season, since the production will be based on the quantity of produce that the plants growers have produced in that season. The plan is also beneficial because, the production of the labels will be occurring in two batches, ensuring that the plant growers will not experience any shortages of the labels, since they will already be having the first batch, as they wait for the second batch to be delivered (Foster, 697). This improves the system of communication between the company and the users of the labels, ensuring that the company produces the exact amount of labels, which the plant growers will need to use. This way, the revised plan will have guarded against over or under production of the labels, ensuring that the customers are fully satisfied. 2. Mster Tag has not yet decided to implement this plan. List the pros and cons you think should be considered. The pros that should be considered while introducing the plan include: Direct produce to consumer interaction This is the first benefit that this revised plan will introduce, since it will pave way for the producer, in this case Master Tag, to interact directly with the consumers, who in this case are the plant growers. The improved producer to consumer relationship is a vital concept of business, since it establishes an avenue through which the producer and the consumer will address all the issue involving their business, thus improve their understanding, while also fostering loyalty and goodw ill (Sharp, 43). Direct producer to consumer relationships also fosters the process of innovation, since the producer will understand better the needs of the consumers, and therefore tailor made their products towards directly satisfying the unique needs of the consumers (Sharp, 45). This is contrary to the earlier plan, where the labels were first supplied to the seed companies, who in turn supplied them to the consumers. This is because, the producer would only depend on the information from the seed companies, thus may fail to meet the unique needs of each and every of the consumers, owing to the fact that the seed companies would order universal labels, while different plant growers would want the labels specifically made for them. Reduced price possibilities Secondly, the revised plan is advantageous to the company and to the plant growers, since it would enable a reduction in the price of the labels, now that they are delivered directly from the producer to the consumer, witho ut being added the costs of the intermediary, in this case, the seed companies (Foster, 698). This plan is a double gain, since it allows the producer to sell directly to the consumer without the inconveniencies of

300 word essay, history of history 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

300 word , history of history 4 - Essay Example IV concentrated on fighting the Romans and the Spaniards5, and neglected his duties and vows as the Pope and his expectations as a Church leader6. However, soon, due to certain events7, he underwent a radical shift in his approach towards his office, and from then onwards, expended all his efforts and all his life in establishing rules and practices that were aimed at reviving the lost spirit of the Church8. Renke cites several examples of the reforms that Paul IV introduced as part of his reforms, such as reinstituting the government officials and clergy9, and making the practices of the Church more strict and binding upon the public as well as the clergy10. Renke writes in a very theatrical style11, and presents the history of Papacy with a lot of earnest and interest, which is evident through his writing. However, he merely presents his own opinions about the events that occurred, and his own perceptions about the actions of the Pope and other individuals whom he has mentioned in his book12, rather than citing the incidences themselves and leaving the judgment and conclusion to the readers. Therefore, his writing style is clearly biased towards a certain standpoint, and his writing cannot be claimed to be critical or analytical in nature. It is, nevertheless, quite entertaining and absorbing, and makes the reading of historical anecdotes quite interesting to the general

ITunes price changes hurt some rankings Assignment

ITunes price changes hurt some rankings - Assignment Example The article points out that two days after Apple iTunes Music store raised its prices on some individuals tracks, the sales dipped and with that the rankings of the songs. The iTunes top 100 chart registered 40 songs at $1.29 and 60 songs at the normal $0.99 price point. After the price change, the $1.29 songs lost 5.3 places on the chart while the $0.99 songs gained an average 2.5 chart positions. These changes give a general idea of how incremental changes in revenue can be reached. Moving up and down the chart impacts the revenue greatly which in turn is impacted by price changes. These changes are solely chart position, but a general idea of incremental changes in revenue can be reached. By looking at the unit sales of the most recent Soundscan top track downloads chart, the different between chart positions can offer a view into how moving up and down the chart impacts revenue. An assumption here is that the iTunes Top 100 chart is representative of the Soundscan top track downl oads chart. Given its market dominance, this is a reasonable assumption. I chose this article because it gives a good idea of how small changes in price can turn around Sales. A significant notion raised by this article is the way in which how prices alter the rankings of songs in the music industry. The prices change the rankings and the rankings which in turn impact sales and revenue. This article relates to chapter nine of our text book in which key issues related to initiating and responding to price changes are discussed. Buyer reaction to price changes are a result of the value the customers see in the price change. (Glenn Peoples) Works Cited Glenn Peoples, Nashville. How iTunes Price Changes Hurt Some Rankings. 10 April 2009. 19 May 2011 . Article: 7 in 10 Americans say High gas prices hurt This article is related to a recent chapter that we covered from our text book. Customers don’t react to price changes in a very straight forward way. A price increase is expected to lower sales. This is because a brand’s price and its image are closely tied together. Price changes will alter consumer perception about a particular product and the way they want to consume it. Thus price is a very critical factor. I chose this article because it offers insight into how price changes in a mandatory commodity such as gas influences the common man. The survey was conducted by USA today in which they asked people if recent changes in prices of gasoline have impacted them financially. 7 in 10 Americans believed it did. More than half of them claimed that they have had to make changes to account for higher prices of gasoline. 21% of them felt the impact so heavily that they believed it jeopardized their standard of living. (Stauss) Stauss, Gary. 7 in 10 Americans say high gas prices hurt . 18 May 2011. 19 May 2011 . Article: Apple and Starbucks announce music partnership The article talks of the Apple and Starbucks music partnership. Under this partnership, cu stomers at Starbucks will be able to wirelessly browse, look around for music, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks on their iPod touch, iphone, Mac or PCs running iTunes in a participating location. They will also be available to avail the new â€Å"Now Playing† service under which the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that particular moment will be shown. They will then be able to buy and download songs directly to their device. The partnership will benefit both Apple and Starbucks and is a classic example of horizontal marketing. I selected this article because I felt that having free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store and the Now Playing service of Starbucks is a great ways to attract customers to both Starbucks and Apple iTunes. It will trigger greater revenues for both companies. This

Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as Essay - 11

Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as such cannot be managed. Discuss - Essay Example Apart from this, the visit also guides decisions on choice of theories, authors and exclusion of irrelevant material. After the identification of appropriate assignment material, it was necessary to use such materials in a suitable manner. Using the resources forces a researcher to engage in in-depth reading to properly analyze ideas (Beard et al 2009, p. 56). Critically engaging the questions set for the essay is possible using several approaches. The initial step is exploring critical texts on the same topic with the intention of making comparisons. Another way of achieving critical engagement is analyzing all components of the question to understand it better. For example, the question for this assignment has three components that include organizational culture, symbolic meaning and management. Critical engagement requires that one explore the three components of the assignment question (Oleary 2004 p. 84). Evaluating the quality of sources that one wishes to use is mandatory to attain success in this assignment. One would expect that the books on the reading list would be helpful. This explains why it is fundamental to assess the quality of the suggested books. The evaluation of quality is not simple because it requires knowledge of several scholarly articles. Quality materials should also be peer reviewed because such sources have been exposed to adequate criticism. This suggests evaluating quality of assignment sources includes confirmations of whether the sources have been peer reviewed. Apart from peer reviews, quality of sources is manifest in the qualification of their authors (Cooper 2004 p. 36). Experienced authors present quality sources that make it easy to complete such assignments at a speedy rate. The quality of sources also depends on the depth of the research that the author takes before producing the book. This suggests that a book that covers general aspect of management

African American Press Essay Example for Free

African American Press Essay ?â€Å"We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentation of things which concerns us dearly,† written on the front page of the first African-American owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal. Freedom’s Journal was published on March 16, 1827 by a group of free African-American men in New York City. Freedom’s Journal was published the same year slavery was abolished in New York and was used to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm served, respectively, as its senior and junior editors where they worked together to publish four-page, four-column weekly newspapers. Though The Freedom’s Journal was not the first African-American paper published, it was the first Africa-American owned newspaper. Freedom’s Journal consisted of news on current events, anecdotes, editorials and used to address contemporary issues such as denouncing slavery, advocating for black people’s political rights, the right to vote, and speaking out about lynching. Cornish and Russwurm desire were to give African-Americans the freedom to voice their thoughts, ideas and opinions. They sought to improve conditions for more than 300,000 newly freed men and women living in the North. They fulfilled this desire, by employing 14 to 44 agents each year to collect subscriptions. Each agent was paid $3 a year for their work. To encourage black achievements Freedom’s Journal featured biographies of celebrated black figures and continued to promote better living conditions by printing schools that were open to blacks, job offering and housing listings. Freedom’s Journal, eventually, circulated 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe and Canada before ceasing publications in 1829. During that time, Russwurm became the sole editor of Freedom’s Journal, after Cornish resigned in 1827. Russwurm began to promote the Colonization Movement which was frowned upon by majority of the newspaper’s readers. The Colonization Movement was a movement that was conceived by members of the American Colonization Colony where they began repatriating free African-Americans back to Africa. When the Freedom’s Journal shifted in complete support of colonization, it lost most of its readers and in March 1829 Freedom’s Journal ceased publication. Even though Freedom’s Journal existed for two years, its two years of existence helped spawn other papers. Since then, African American press has evolved and has substantially increased in the population over the years. After Freedom’s Journal, African-Americans had begun establishing and owning newspapers. It began May 1829, when Cornish attempted to revive the Freedom’s Journal under the name The Rights of All, however, the publication was not successful and failed after a year. David Walker, hired as an agent for Freedom’s Journal, became a well known, anti-slavery writer which was inspired by his experience with Freedom’s Journal. In 1830, Walker’s published his most famous publication known as Appeal which called for slaves to rebel against their masters, â€Å"†¦they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us†¦therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed†¦and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty,† (Walker). Another attempt at publication, Samuel Cornish, along with, Philip Bell, and Charles Bennett Ray launched The Weekly Advocate, January 1837. Later, the men changed the name to The Colored American March 4, 1837. The Colored American main purpose was to strengthen the moral, social, and political elevation of colored people as well as emancipation of slaves. The Colored American became well-known in the North because of the wide spread support of abolitionists, African-American churches and local abolition societies, and Caucasian allies. The Colored American published 38 articles, becoming an important paper of its time. The last edition of The Colored American was published on Christmas day in 1841. Other early African American newspapers include the Provincial Freeman, published in 1854, which was the first African-American owned newspapers to be published in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. The North Star was an anti-slavery newspaper published in 1847 by Frederick Douglas. He later agreed to merge it with the publication Liberty Party Paper with Gerrit Smith creating the Frederick Douglass’ Paper, in Rochester, New York. The National Era was published in Washington, D. C. in 1847 by the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The Liberator was probably the best-known publication during the era, published by William Lloyd Garrison in Boston between 1831 and 1865. Other anti-slavery newspapers of note include the Friend of Man, published weekly for the New York State Anti-Slavery Society from 1836 through 1842. The Emancipator, originally known as Genius of Universal Emancipation, was one of the first anti-slavery newspapers published in the United States by Benjamin Lundy in 1819 and National. Anti-Slavery Standard established in 1840. All of these newspapers advocated for the abolition of slavery and for the civil rights of all African Americans. By the start of Civil War, more than 40 black-owned and operated papers had been established throughout the United States. After the end of the Civil War, more than 100 newspapers were beginning to publish. Many of the major African-American owned publications include, Baltimore Afro-American, also known as The Afro, was founded by a former slave, John H. Murphy, SR. , in 1892. Today, The Afro is the longest-running African-American, family-owned newspaper in the United States. The Chicago Defender was founded by Robert Sengstacke. Abbott on May 5, 1905. The Chicago Defender included writing pieces from the well-known Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Willard Motley. The Pittsburgh Courier an African-American newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1910. The Pittsburgh Courier became the most widely circulated newspaper in America for African-Americans. During its peak, the Pittsburgh Courier circulated around 450,000 publications, with more than 400 employees in 14 cities. The Pittsburgh Courier discussed major issues impacting African-American communities. It campaigned against segregation and poverty, and promoted the social advancement of blacks. In the 1930s, the Pittsburgh Courier urged Black voters to vote Democrat, creating a political alliance that still exist to this day. Other publications includes, The Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), Atlanta Daily World (1931–2003), Cleveland Call Post (1934-1991), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934–2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922–1993), and Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003). With African-American newspaper publication on the rise, organizations to help promote the publication began to form to support African-American journalist. In 1940, Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder of Chicago Defender, along with other African-American publishers, organized the National Negro Publishers Association. The members of the National Negro Publishers Association worked together, â€Å"harmonizing our energies in a common purpose for the benefit of Negro journalism†, (Sengstacke). Today, the National Negro Publishers Associations is composed of more than 200 black newspapers in the United States and the Virgin Islands. In 1975 in Washington D. C. , 44 African-American journalists founded the National Association of Black Journalists. The National Association of Black Journalist’ purpose was to provide quality programs and services to and advocate on behalf of black journalists. These organizations are still going strong today and have contributed greatly to the African American population. Today, there isn’t a firm count of how many African American newspapers circulating the United States, however, according to Allied Media Corporation, an ethnic marketing firm, they have listed 250 newspapers in circulation. The National Newspaper Publishers Association, better known as the Black Press of America, assist in the publication of African-American owned newspapers, counts more than 200 black-owned newspapers as its membership. As you can see, since the Freedom’s Journal, the number of newspaper publications has increased. It began with the main purpose being that Africa-Americans would stick together to fight the constant oppression they were under. Now that we don’t see African-American oppression, as we did then, publications has different focal points. Many of the newspapers provide news and insight on African-American culture, including a variety of perspectives from leaders, celebrities, trendsetters and great minds from the African-American community. The Freedom’s Journal created a new stepping stone for the African-American population. It provided the platform for issues and concerns pursuant to ensuring our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to preserve a legacy of black conservatism for generations to come. References 2, M. A. (n. d. ). Early African American and Anti-Slavery Newspapers | Marjory Allen Perez. Genealogy Family History | Search Family Trees Vital Records . Retrieved August 1, 2013, from http://www. archives. com/experts/perez-marjory/early-african-american-and-anti-slavery-newspapers. html Black Newspapers Listing | The Network Journal. (n. d. ). Black Business | Black News, Career Ideas for Black Professionals. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from http://www. tnj. com/lists-resources/black-newspapers-listing David Walker, 1785-1830. Walkers Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly.

Human Resource Management at McDonalds

Human Resource Management at McDonalds Human resource management is the basis of all management activity, but it is not the basis of all business activity. The basis of management is always the same: getting the people of the business to make things happen in a productive way, so that the business prospers and the people thrive. Torrington et al (2005:4) Human Resource can be say to be the strategic and coherent approach management of an organisations most valued assets. The people working these individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Human resource is one of the important parts of any organisation management in the 21st century and up still date. Any corporate firm can get competitor advantage by human resource. The term Human resources can be viewed in two contrasting ways. Placing emphasis on the word Human implies that an organisations assets are valuable human beings with feelings and aspirations that should be respected and nurtured. Highlighting the word resource may have the effect of devaluing the human element by relegating people to a mere resource that is to be deployed as effectively and efficiently as possible, like a piece of machinery. These associated have been embodied as soft and hard HRM (storey, 1992). Soft HRM is often associated with quality-enhancing and value-adding measures, whereas hard HRM is linked to cost-cutting and cost minimization strategies (Schuler and Jackson, 1987). Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management Strategy human resource management is very important because it help to resolve the problems that affect people management programs in the organisation. In every organisation, the employee and customers are very important and the try to listen to their employee and resolve whatever complains from them or the customer. This will help to increase the performance of the organisation. Strategy human resource management also help to improve a business performance and foster an environment of innovation and flexibility among employees. Strategy human resource management help about assessing the companys internal strength and weakness. This is very important as the strengths and weaknesses of the companys human resources have a direct effect on the future of the company. It also helps to check whether the expectations of the employee are addressed properly. The management of Strategy human resource management try to provide the right strategy that will enable the employee to work in a very safe environment and make sure those employees expectation are look into one after the other. Strategy human resource management help to develop the maintainer of competency among workers and it also help to motivate workers to perform their job properly and increase productions. From the above we can see that strategic human resource is now coming to play a very important role in todays business word. Strategy human resource management is all about strategically managing a businesss human resource in a manner that works to the overall benefit of the business. Strategy human resources deal with organisational performance and systems of practice and human resources management deal with an individual employee performance. The role of strategy human resources management or human resources management is to establish a system of human resources management practices that transforms middling work performance to human assets and sustaining the heightened work motivation, expanded job opportunities, and unique skill, knowledge and abilities. http://www.smallbusinessbible.org/strategic_humanr_management.html Comparison of SHRM with HRM The difference between strategy human resources management and human resources management is that strategy human resources management is strategy and human resources management is not, although some resources suggest that strategy human resources management is actually one of the applications of human resources management within an enterprise. The key feature where the two ideas are connected is that they are precisely in approach toward people management. BRIEF HISTORY OF MCDONALDS McDonalds started as a burger brand in 1940 and it was formed by two Brother Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. It progressed from a hotdog stand into one of the worlds leading restaurant chain. By 1953, McDonalds brothers began franchising their restaurant and the first was taken by Neil Fox who opened in other parts of California. McDonalds Corporation came into existence in 1954 after an entrepreneur and milkshake mixer salesman Ray Kroc acquired the franchise of McDonalds outside California after which he bought the business rights from the McDonalds brothers for $2.7 million in 1961. By 1974 the first restaurant in the UK opened and 1988, they had opened in the communist country in Belgrade, Yugoslavia later in Moscow, China and India. In 2003, the Im loving it campaign was launched and by 2005, McDonalds started a Mc Delivery service in Singapore. McDonalds has been looking for a growth strategy for a very long time. And their foreign operation amount for more than half the companys revenue. McDonald has over 30,000 restaurants over 100 countries in the world today. And they maintain the top position in the fast food industry for the past 50 years. Amongst the award bagged by McDonalds is the Catalyst award for its program for fostering leadership development in women and McDonalds has been backing the summer Olympics since 1984. Business strategy of McDonalds in the UK Employment planning: McDonalds try to make the right plans in employing the right number of staffs that the organisation need at the right time. This is the process by which the organisation attempt to ensure that it has the right number of qualified people in the right place and at the right time. Selection: McDonalds involves in choosing from the available candidates the individual predicted to be most likely to perform successfully in the job. They select but the skills and unskilled individual and try to train them in other to make them understand the objective of the organisation. Selection is not always the best process of employing staffs in the organisation because skills will be lack. Training: McDonalds also used the training strategy to improve and develop the skills of the workers in the organisation. Although training is very important in most organisation but its better to bring the right people with the right skill and then give them the right training so they will understand better and know the objective of the training. Education: The management of McDonald provide education for some staffs that are really willing to retain in the organisation. This education is to improve their performance and to give them more ideas about the economic and how the business is operating. Performance: The Company always chose a right time to check the performance of their workers. The performance of the worker can help the company to make the right changes at the right time and the right department of the workers. These has help MacDonald to build a better services. Pay: Macdonald is a big restaurant with so many branches around the world and helps to reduce the unemployment around us. The Company give a good pay to their staffs and encourage them to work. Staff retention: Macdonald tries to keep their staffs and give them promotions to enable them become a manager of a branch someday in the future. Staff retention is very important to most organisations. This will help the staffs to know what really is happening within the organisation and try to suggest a best opinion to fight that out. Contribution of Strategy Human Resource in McDonald Staffing- McDonald should try to get people with the appropriate skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience to fulfil the organisation objectives. Rewards McDonald need to give reward to the staffs who work very hard in development of the organisation. Employee development- the organisation should also help in developing the staffs through providing training and knowledge for them in other to perform a good job. Employee maintenance- maintaining staffs is important in the development of the company. The administration is should try to encourage the staff and reward them in the good job done. Many organisations try to establish why people leave by conducting exit interviews but these are rarely sufficiently accurate, as many people will not give the full reason why they are leaving for fear of jeopardising future reference requirement or because they may wish to return to the organisation at some later stage. There organisation should make sure they try to maintain and look after their staff in other to keep them happy. Employee relation McDonald should develop the relationship between the staffs and the management in other to bring up a smiling environment within the work place. CONCLUSION McDonalds is seen as a global restaurant offering a range of products in a highly competitive and fragmented market. The company must positively respond to both internal and external issues to avoid losing sales and market share. They have been able to achieve a broad scope of business activity as they adopt the cost leadership strategy. There offer food prepared in the same high quality manner worldwide, tasty and reasonable priced delivered in a consistent low key and friendly environment. The opportunities and threats present in the environment enables managers to look both internally and externally to direct their strategy from the information given as it allows them to know their weakness and guard against them as well as make use of opportunities available to them. SHRM NEW MANAGER IN MCDONALDS As the manager of McDonalds, the percentage of highly skilled labour/ talent recruitment will be increase, but low skilled will be reduce as they are the ones directly involved in preparing food and serving customers. Human resource strategy in McDonalds encourage employee involvement and engagement to improve customer service but recruitment and selection in McDonalds is of little emphasis as the nature of the job is mechanical hence most of their recruits are fast learners who can learn on the job rather quickly. There is a rare case of training and development of staff as they are low skilled and the need for the need for developing them would not be beneficial to the corporation. The strategy of McDonalds is based on concept of Michael Porters differentiation and low- cost leadership as their products are mass produced and cost can be reduced by doing this, the threat this can cause is that its competitors like Burger King and KFC can also mass produce at a low cost. Differentiation can be described as marketing technique used by a McDonalds to establish strong identity in the restaurant business. It can also be called segmentation strategy. In McDonalds, there is a huge number of unskilled labours whose employment contact are mostly on short term basis, hence the need for a huge pension budget will not be necessary, this will be seen as an opportunity for the corporation to save revenue. Also in areas of training and development, since they train on the job and there is no series of further training carried out, the corporation does not lose skill and revenue when such employees decide to terminate their employment. (McDonalds Strategic Human Resources Management available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/26247206/Mcdonald-s-Strategic-Human-Resource.

Cells :: essays research papers

History of the Cell Theory   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cells, the make-up of all living things. Some cell are complete organisms, such as unicellular bacteria and protozoa. Other types of cells are called multicellular, such as nerve cells and muscle cells. Withen the cell is genetic material, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) containing coded instructions for the behavior and reproduction of the cell. The cell was first discovered by the 1665 English scientist Robert Hooke, who studied the dead cells of cork with a crude microscope. Robert Hooke was born on the isle of Whight and educated at the University of Oxford. Hooke could not have discovered the cell without the microscope which was developed by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek a 1674 Dutch maker of microscopes. Leeuwenhoek born in Delft, Holland and had little or no scientific education. Leeuwenhoek also confirmed the discovery of capillary systems. Theodor Schwann a German physiologist born in Neuss and educated at the universities of Bonn, Wurzburg, and Berlin, Schwann was involved in the study of the structure of plant and animal tissues. Along with Matthias Jakob Schleiden a German botanist, Schwann proposed the cell theory. The cell theory has three parts:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1. All organisms are composed of cells.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. Cells are the basic units of structure and function in organisms   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3. All cells come from preexisting cells.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The impact on science was very great due to the discovery of cells and the cell theory. Many or all things were effected by the discovery of cells, everything was looked upon in a different way. Some people still did not believe that all living organisms were made of tiny microscopic chambers called

Gothic Architecture :: Architectural Middle Ages Churches Essays

Gothic Architecture The church in the Middle Ages was a place that all people, regardless of class, could belong to. As a source of unity, its influence on art and architecture was great during this time. As society drew away from the feudal system of the Romanesque period, a new spirit of human individualism began to take hold; alas, the birth of Gothic. Here, the Church became a place where humanity became more acceptable, alas becoming the ideal place to visual such new ideals. The beauty and elegance of Gothic architecture is depicted most in the great cathedrals of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries—St. Denis, Notre Dame, Chartres, Salisbury, Durham, Amiens, and more. The experience of looking at one of the great gothic cathedrals is to look up towards God. Indeed, most Gothic structures emphasize the vertical, drawing one’s eyes upwards toward the heavens with the awesomeness of God. These cathedrals were built with towering spires, pointed arches and flying buttresses giving impressi ons of harmony and luminosity. One of the major accomplishments of the 12th and 13th centuries was to develop the engineering mastery of the ribbed vault, pointed arch and flying buttress to create a great cathedral that is at once taller, lighter, wider, and more elegant than the ones before. Even though the pointed arch could support more weight than its predecessors, there was still the problem of finding a way to support the heavy masonry ceiling vaults over wide spans. In order to support the outward thrust of barrel vaults, vertical support walls have to be very thick and heavy. What makes possible the extensive use of ribbed vaulting and pointed arches to â€Å"open† and â€Å"lighten† the walls and space of the cathedral is the flying buttress—â€Å"an arched bridge above the aisle roof that extends from the upper nave wall, where the lateral thrust of the main vault is greatest, down to a solid pier.† [Jansen, History of Art, p. 407]. The effect is to add structural strength and solidity to the building. The visual appearance of changes from the Early and Later or High Gothic are clear, as each cathedral became increasingly narrower and taller. For instance, compare the nave elevations of Notre-Dame to Amiens [Text, fig. 442, p. 333], the pointed arches of Amiens are significantly taller and narrower than the much earlier Notre Dame. The mastery of the flying buttress allowed medieval builders to construct taller and more elegant looking buildings with more complex ground plans.

Demographics Of Madagascar :: essays research papers fc

Formerly an independent kingdom, Madagascar became a French colony in 1886, but regained its independence in 1960. During 1992-93, free presidential and National Assembly elections were held, ending 17 years of single-party rule. Madagascar's forests are a shimmering, seething mass of a trillion stems and dripping leaves and slithering, jumping, quirky beasts out of nature's bag of tricks. Cut off from the African mainland for millions of years, Madagascar's teeming forests are a naturalist's wet dream; they've preserved oddities and developed specializations found nowhere else on earth, and you can get among them in a spectacular collection of accessible national parks. But any nation that turns to North Korea for aid has got to be a basket case. Madagascar's Marxist generals as well as its chameleons are fresh out of the Age of Dinosaurs. The generals haven't got it right - part of the population regularly suffers malnutrition owing to bad seasons and archaic economic orthodoxies at home and abroad. Since human settlement, the forests have been whittled down to a mere 15% of their former extent, scores of species are on the brink of extinction and the topsoil is barreling down into the Indian Ocean like. The countryside alternates between astounding untouched forests and breathtaking human-induced destruction on a scale almost unmatched anywhere. Madagascar’s physical geography is not conducive of the current global trends and needs for economic production. They are severely behind the World as a whole in economic growth and restructuring to fit new world markets. Most of Madagascar lies in tropical or subtropical environment; the soil structure in these sorts of regions is not able to sustain long-term cultivation. The topsoil is good for agriculture for a few years, but after much longer it becomes burnt out, or depleted, and then it needs to rest for a period of time until it can yield a decent crop again. This is because of the way this soil obtai ns nutrients and the type of nutrients generally located there. Considering the island’s physical composition, it will be hard for the poor African nation to catch-up to the new world averages. Physical Geography Madagascar is located 250 miles off the eastern coast of Africa, just south of the equator. This island nation contains no ‘Principal’ lakes, oceans, seas, rivers or islands; however it does have one ‘Principal’ mountain- Maromokotro- that is located on the island’s central plateau. The island is over 1000 miles (1580 km) long and 350 miles (570 km) wide.

Critical Discussion on Watson’s and Skinner’s Versions of Behaviourism Essay

Behaviourism concept emerged at a period when the societal disarticulation as a result of speedy industrialization of American society needed novel approaches of social organization. This was to act as a replacement to Victorian mores of minute-town rural lifestyle (Wightman & Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). At this time, positivists like Walter Lippmann invited psychologists to assist devise approaches, and the lately recognized science of psychology, enthusiastic to signify its position as an autonomous discipline, responded by assertively endorsing itself in terms of societal utility (Wightman & Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). That said, behaviourism premise emanated from the work of an American psychologist John B. Watson. He did assert that psychology as a discipline was never concerned with human mind or consciousness, but rather concerned with just behaviour. This way, Watson claimed that humans could be examined, studied or evaluated impartially just like apes and rats (Cohen 1987, p. 71). Behaviourism according to Watson’s version was a stab to shun the complexities of trying to study human consciousness by limiting scientific attention to evident, overt or blatant behaviour. This version was coupled with a pivotal ambition to put in place much more thorough ways or methods to experimental research as well as report writing. Thus, the key task of psychology was none other than recognition of laws governing the link between behavioural responses and environmental stimuli, and psychology was cast as an attachment to physiology (Richards 2009, p. 35). In this way, Watson believed that psychology would provide knowledge that could be utilized to the prediction as well as control of behaviour. Therefore, his version of classical behaviourism did possess several distinct characteristics, such as: †¢ It was tremendously environmentalist †¢ Its practical vocabulary was mainly limited to not many non-mentalistic terms †¢ Its explanations were exceedingly reductionist, and †¢ The version was majorly concerned with investigational methodology (Richards 2009, p. 35). In the early 1920s, Watson assimilated the concepts of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist and included Pavlov’s ideas of reinforcement and conditioning as key theoretical notions to his classical behaviourism version. Pavlov had done a number of studies on the animal’s responses to environmental conditioning. In his best triumphant experiment, he did ring a bell as he took a number of meals to some dogs. In doing so, each and every time dogs did hear the bell ringing they knew pretty well that a meal was ready, and would start salivating (DeMar 1989, p. 1). On one instance, Pavlov did ring the bell devoid of taking food, but the dogs continued salivating since they had been habituated, conditioned or trained to salivate each time they hear a bell ringing. Watson asserted in his behaviourism version that humans responded to environmental stimuli just in the similar way (DeMar 1989, p. 1). However, Watson’s classical behaviourism was regarded too crude, he himself did refrain from academia after a divorce scandal. In his wake, several neo-behaviourists, including B. F. Skinner, Clark L. Hull and Ernest R. Hilgard took over the doctrine in an array of directions. On a different perspective, the well-known architect of a radical or less mechanistic behaviourism version was B. F. Skinner, whose premises of operant conditioning did attest potent enough to be utilized in a number of settings (Wightman & Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). At times grounded in stylish mathematical learning theories, but much more frequently established on instinctive rules of thumb, behavioural techniques were used in psychotherapy, medicine, education, advertising, business and management of mental hospitals and prisons. Given its predictable comparing of lower animals to humans, together with its firm permeation into such conventionally humanist territories as the curative education and art, it’s doubtless that Skinner’s version of radical behaviourism has long provoked controversy (Wightman & Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). What’s more, today’s behaviourism is associated with B. F. Skinner, who attained his reputation as a radical behaviourist by experimenting Watson’s assertions in the laboratory. His laboratory experiments coupled with a number of researches led him to snub Watson’s exclusive allegations on conditioning and reflexes. Skinner avowed that humans not only respond to their surroundings, but operate on their surroundings to give rise to explicit consequences (Skinner, Catania & Harnad 1988, p. 3). Furthermore, Skinner came up with the ‘operant conditioning’ theory, the notion that human behave the way they do as this sort of behaviour has had explicit effects long-ago. For instance, if a boy kisses a girl when she gives him flowers, then the girl will be expected to come with flowers when she wants a kiss from him. Thus, the girl will be acting in anticipation of specific reward. Contrary to Watson, Skinner rejected the idea that feelings or the human mind play a part in determining behaviour. He instead insisted that an individual experience of reinforcements determines his or her behaviour (Skinner, Catania & Harnad 1988, p. 10). Therefore, according to radical behaviourism version, one of Skinner’s objective was to shape humans’ behaviour in away to respond in a much more socially tolerable way. In his operant conditioning theory he was absolutely clear that his theory ought to be applied to guide human behaviour (Shaffer 2005, p. 45). Moreover, Skinner’s experimental analysis of human or general behaviour has resulted in an effectual, effective and efficient technology, pertinent to psychotherapy, education, as well as the design of cultural practices generally (Shaffer 2005, p. 46). In conclusion, the ethical effects of both Watson’s and Skinner’s versions of behaviourism are immense. An individual is stripped off his or her freedom, dignity, responsibility and reduced to a merely natal being, to be ‘shaped’ by behaviourists who encompass the ability to apply the tools of behaviourism efficiently. Bibliography Cohen, D. (1987). Behaviorism, Oxford Companion to Mind, Richard, L. , ed. NY; Oxford University Press. DeMar, G. (1989). Behaviorism. [Online] available < http://www. forerunner. com/forerunner/X0497_DeMar_-_Behaviorism. html> Richards, G. (2009). Psychology, key concepts. Milton Park; Routledge. Shaffer, D. (2005). Social & personality development. Belmont; Walworth. Skinner, B. , Catania, C. , & Harnad, S. (1988). Selection of behaviour, operant behaviourism of Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Melbourne; Cambridge Syndicate Press. Wightman, R. , & Kloppenberg, J. (1995). A companion to American thought. Massachusetts; Blackwell.

Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle Robert Craven and Stuart Chambers ‘Warwick Castle – the finest mediaeval castle in England. ‘ INTRODUCTION The Stratford-on-Avon and District Hotels and Caterers Association (SCATA) publishes a brochure which has described the Castle as follows; â€Å"This magnificent ancient Castle, situated at the very centre of England, is a treasure house of great beauty and splendid, rare quality collections of pictures, furniture, furnishings and an outstanding collection of arms and armour which bear witness to the power and influence of the Earls of Warwick down through the centuries.The beautiful grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, where peacocks roam freely, are a delight in all seasons. . . Excellent catering facilities are available all year round to suit every pocket and disposition, as well as several gift shops† Warwick Castle is less than two hours by road from London with easy access from all major cities by motorway, road and rail. This e xcellent infrastructure allows the area to be part of the itinerary of any visitor to the UK.The County of Warwickshire is lyrically described in the SCATA brochure: â€Å"Stratford-an-Avon and Shakespeare's Country. When you think of England, and the very best of England, you are probably thinking about this fascinating region. Here in this most English of English landscapes, the broad rolling sweep of the Cotswolds, the classic half-timbered villages of the Vale of Evesham and leafy Warwickshire, there is an unparalleled variety of attractions.The birthplace of the world's greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare; the finest mediaeval Castle and most-visited stately home at Warwick; England's most magnificent palace at Blenheim; and the world's most famous theatre in Stratford† THE CASTLE The Castle is part of the Tussauds Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pearson plc, which also owns the Financial Times Group and Royal Doulton among other varied interests.The Tussauds Gro up runs entertainment centres that include: Madame Tussauds, the famous waxworks in Baker Street, London; the London Planetarium and Laserium; the Royalty and Empire Exhibition at Windsor; Alton Towers, the UK's only world-rated leisure park; and Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo. The Castle's General Manager, Martin Westwood, works in the stately home, from a majestic suite of offices overlooking the grounds.He is enthusiastic about the Castle both as a building steeped in history and as a business. In the relaxed atmosphere of his office, where he is surrounded by portraits and old paintings of the Castle, he refers to it as ‘a brand leader' in stately homes for it is in the top five most visited historic sites that charge entry fees (see Table 1).Table 1 Historic sites attracting more than 300,000 paid admissions 1 Tower of London 2 Roman Baths and Pump Room, Bath 3 State Apartments, Windsor 4 Stonehenge, Wiltshire 5 Warwick Castle 6 Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratfor d 7 Leeds Castle, Kent 8 Hampton Court Palace, near London 9 Tower Bridge, London 10 Blenheim Palace, Wood stock, Oxford 11 Beaulieu, Hampshire 12 Cutty Sark, Greenwich, London 13 St George's Chapel, Windsor 14 Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Stratford 15 HMS Victory, Portsmouth 16 Mary Rose, Portsmouth 17 Royal Pavilion, Brighton 18 Chatsworth House, Derbyshire 19 Hever Castle, Kent 20 Fountains Abbey, North Yorks.Paid admissions (000s) 2298 950 855 703 685 604 540 525 528 517 493 411 372 365 340 333 314 306 303 300 As you pass through the ticket office from the large car park you catch your first view of the Castle. The view truly takes your breath away and fully warrants the description given by Sir Walter Scott in 1828: ‘the most noble sight in England'. MARKETING Marketing Manager, Sarah Montgomery, is another enthusiast of the outstanding beauty of the Castle.Discussing the marketing of the business she considers that the Castle's unique selling point must be that carried on al l the promotional material: ‘Warwick Castle – the finest mediaeval castle in England. ‘ But she does not discount the Castle's unique state of preservation, the breadth of attractions it offers, its location on the banks of the River Avon or its thousand-year span of history. In the year 1068 the first castle was built at Warwick and since that time it slowly developed into a mighty stronghold and later a grand mansion befitting the station of a high ranking nobleman. . In November 1978 the present Earl sold Warwick Castle and its contents to Madame Tussauds of London. The Castle's marketing team recognised that the Castle attracted a diverse audience, each segment of which wanted different things from a visit. So in targeting audiences the team had to decide whether it was trying to sell the Castle aspect, the stately home aspect or the gardens. It was felt that all three areas attracted different audiences and conjured up different expectations.Research had esta blished that from the public's point of view ‘castles' were not associated with grounds and formal gardens, and neither were they associated with the notion of being someone's home. On the other hand, stately homes were associated with grounds and gardens but were felt to be formal and museum-like, with ropes keeping the public away from the interesting areas. So, was the ‘most visited Stately Home in Britain' really a castle, or was the Castle also a stately home? This conundrum had to be solved.The Castle management has a deliberate policy of charging one overall admission charge for all areas of the Castle and Grounds open to visitors. In the past they had considered charging separate admission prices for the Castle and the Grounds but this, it was felt, would confuse the customer. (See Figure 1 for price and attraction details. ) The Castle regularly has detailed market research questionnaires compiled by an outside company. Sarah said that market research is taken v ery seriously by the team: â€Å"On average, overseas visitors represent 42 per cent of the total.Twenty-five per cent of our customers seem to come in groups of greater than 20 and these groups are predominantly from overseas. On the other hand, 58 per cent of visitors come from the UK, of which roughly half come from within a 100 km radius of the site. Another interesting point is that 25 per cent of all customers are repeat visitors which we feel reflects the popularity of the Castle. With UK visitors 33 per cent are repeats. Of the nonlocals, that is UK residents from outside the 100 km radius, 78 per cent stay overnight in the area and the remainder have travelled over 100 km to visit the area for the day.With the recent opening of the M 40 motorway into London (approximately180 km} it is felt that travel time may be a more important factor to consider than distance travelled in kilometres† Figure 1 Admission Rates and attractions at Warwick Castle The data are collected over a period of days, and the market research reports sent to Sarah include not only the profile of visitors but what parts of the Castle they visit. The popularity of various parts of the complex varies according to how busy the site is. For instance, on a quiet day 87 per cent might visit the Private Apartments, but on a busy day this igure drops to 68 per cent. Likewise, during one such busy period, the visitors to the Woodland Gardens increased from 17 per cent to 20 per cent, to the Mound from 46 per cent to 52 per cent, and to the River Island from 34 per cent to 40 per cent. On average, visitors stayed on the site for three hours. Coach parties tended to visit for three hours, probably because the Castle was part of a full-day, tightly scheduled excursion that included other nearby tourist attractions. Competition for the paying tourists' disposable cash was quite fierce in the area, it was felt.Other sites competing for the ‘leisure pound' were the Black Country Muse um, Drayton Manor (Adventure) Park, West Midlands Safari Park, Cadbury World, Blenheim Palace, Alton Towers Theme Park, Ironbridge, Stratford’s Shakespeare and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. In the Undercroft Restaurant marketing researchers overheard an elderly professor in conversation with a friend he had encountered in the Castle grounds: â€Å"I came early in the morning to avoid the rush. Any major historic tourist site is going to be heaving by midday in the summer and personally I hate all the queuing and tourists with cameras and all that.I got here at about 10 a. m. when the place opened this morning. I was able to enjoy the pure magic of the building with relatively few other people around. By lunch-time the queues were what I felt to be unreasonably long, but it is August and this must surely be their peak time here. I do wonder, for instance, should they not encourage more visitors out of season and what about allowing people to visit early morning or in the ev ening to avoid the lunch-time crush? † MANAGING DEMAND Warwick Castle brochures show a wide variety of activities that supplement turnover outside the peak season.According to Sarah, this literature was intended ‘to push up the shoulders of demand': Every Friday and Saturday evening the Undercroft provides the setting for splendid five-course mediaeval banquets recreating the eve of the Battle of Agincourt. . A special events calendar has been published (see Figure 2). The Warwick Arts Festival uses the Castle as a venue in the evenings for a week in July. Exclusive tours of the Castle, and separately of the Gardens, are run by experts for pre-booked groups.These are available during the periods October to March, and March to November respectively, except during school half-term holidays and bank holidays. †¢ †¢ As a profit centre for the Pearson Group, the Castle is given targets that increase at a rate exceeding inflation. From these, prices are derived based on product developments, the prices that competitors are charging and known external factors that may affect demand (such as exchange rates and elections! ). The Castle expected between 700,000 and 800,000 visitors in the next year and profit projections were made based on these estimates.All catering facilities are run by the Castle, recognising franchising to another company would result in lost control and reduce potential to participate in profitable activities. Martin Westwood commented on fluctuations in demand: â€Å"Staffing varies relatively little with demand. It is felt that once the basic positions around the Castle are attended by staff, there is little that an additional staff member can provide. Winter weekends attract more visitors than winter weekdays, such that Saturday and Sunday combined turnover is the same as the other five days of the week put together.In summer things are more even, a Saturday or a Sunday being equivalent to two weekdays, although Sunday is usually busier than Saturday† Figure 2 Warwick castle Special Events Calendar BUSINESS OBJECTIVES Martin is clear that the Castle's prime objective is ‘to achieve growth in earnings per share for its shareholders'. At the same time he emphasizes the sense of responsibility the management feels ‘as custodians of this precious monument' to work within it and use integrity and sensitivity at all times. Hence all signs, directions and facilities take a very low profile. Flashing neon lights are not the order of the day!Sarah Montgomery commented on the need to underplay the commercial side of the organisation: â€Å"Coca-Cola have offered us a sponsorship deal. They will give us money for a particular project which will increase our revenue and also the number of visitors we are getting. The problem is that Coke is the epitome of youth and fizz while the Castle's target market is adults ABC 1, average age somewhere around 45! So how do we pull this deal together? â⠂¬  It is the ‘integrity' of the business in which the management take pride. It is not any business site but a very special building that is loved and cherished by the staff.Their constant concern is how to run a business from the Castle without destroying the charm and romance of the buildings, and without covering it with obtrusive signs and facilities. All staff are very polite and courteous and, though they are available to the public, tend not to interfere with the customers' visit. In fact they blend in with visitors as they wear little that suggests they are actually staff. And when the Castle is relatively empty of visitors it has a really enchanting atmosphere. PERFORMANCE Evaluation of the performance of the business has difficulties.On the one hand, queues are an obvious problem (see Table 2) but then the customers do not seem to mind too much! Above all, the business is going from strength to strength, and achieving healthy profit performance. So, while the criti cisms have to be noted, management has been achieving the high returns and growth that the shareholders require. Table 2 Observations of queuing and flow, Tuesday afternoon Queue to Private Apartments (number of people) 1. 00pm 130 1. 20 147 1. 40 128 2. 00 153 2. 20 132 2. 40 119 3. 00 137 Flow through doors to Private Apartments (number of people) 1. 00-1. 20 104 1. 20-1. 40 113 1. 40-2. 0 107 Flow from Private Apartments and State Rooms (number of people) 1. 00-1. 20 127 1. 20-1. 40 117 1. 40-2. 00 121 Queue to Rampart Walk 0-20 people at anyone time Number of people entering Rampart Walk 1. 40-1. 50 174 Queue at top of ramparts to get down (number of people) 6 minutes 63 Martin Westwood was defensive on the question of queues: â€Å"What popular tourist attraction doesn't have queues, and in any case, the queues here move pretty quickly. If we get queues for one part of the Castle we simply put out a sign suggesting people move on to the next attraction, although, to be frank, that doesn't really work.You see, the trouble is, that once people see a queue they don't want to miss out so they still join on the end of it. Our marketing questionnaires (see Appendix 1) suggest that we've got the operation about right, but there's always room for some improvement† The Professor in the Undercroft Restaurant had raised several issues connected with this: â€Å"The Castle really is in a unique condition of preservation. It's truly marvellous but I wouldn't seriously consider visiting it in the peak season. I just happen to be in the area because we're going over to Stratford tonight to see Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.I'm really looking forward to it! I wonder why they don't have off-peak rates for those not visiting around midday and maybe open earlier and close later. I would be more than happy to spend more time on the site if it weren't for all the other tourists everywhere. And another thing, couldn't they do a package deal with the th eatre at Stratford? I'm sure a lot of visitors here also go there. In fact, I would pay a premium price to have the Castle almost to myself. For instance, I'd find it simply delightful to sip a Pimms or a gin and tonic in the grounds as the sun went down.I know that I am rambling but I am sure there's a way to re-jig the prices so that the site basically generates more income throughout the year. And even if you say they do things out of season I've not heard about them, so what's the use of publicity if it doesn't reach the people that want to spend money? † Sarah Montgomery, mindful of the need to keep a close eye on customers' diverse requirements, often talked to individuals at the exit. A transcript of one such encounter is reproduced in Appendix 2.APPENDIX 1 MARKETING QUESTIONNAIRE OF RANDOM SAMPLE OF PEOPLE LEAVING WARWICK CASTLE Age range 0-5 6-15 16-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 66+ 7 37 27 25 34 17 20 33 Area of origination Local (within 100 km) UK (outside 100 km) Euro pe (excl. UK) USA/Canada S. America Australia Africa Asia Other/unspecified Length of stay in area Day trip 1-3 days 4-7 days 8+ days Method of transport Coach trip Own transport Hire car Public transport Other (bicycles etc. ) 37 27 25 47 3 11 5 14 2 96 50 13 5 96 74 31 20 12 Did you find that you had to queue very much? Yes 186 No 12 No comment 2 Did you feel that the queues were the same as other large tourist sites?Same 190 Better 4 Worse 6 Did you visit†¦? State Rooms and Great Hall The Private Apartments The Watergate (Ghost) Tower The Armory The Dungeon The Torture Chamber The Gatehouse and Barbican 191 190 31 104 193 183 87 Guy's Tower, the Rampart Walk and Clarence Tower The Victorian Rose Garden The Peacock Gardens The Conservatory The River Island Foxes Study and Cedar Walk Pageant Field The Mound Refreshment Stall Stables Restaurant and Tearoom Undercroft Restaurant The Bookshop Did you.. .? Bring your own picnic Did you see the Red Knight Did you buy a brochure How long have you spent at the Castle? hours Is this your first visit? Yes No Would you visit again? Yes No Maybe Don't know 186 103 117 102 57 31 101 54 118 52 71 62 32 81 99 5 67 75 37 16 148 52 144 31 23 2 APPENDIX 2 TRANSCRIPT OF A CONVERSATION WITH A VISITOR Christabelle Trymko, Oldbury-on-Severn, Gloucester ‘We got here at about midday. We came up for the day from Gloucestershire. It was quite a good trip and the kids behaved themselves in the car. We had heard a lot about the Castle from some friends who have just moved up to Stratford, which is just down the road from Warwick. ‘The Castle's in superb condition!You don't know what it's going to be like until you get past the ticket office and it really is amazing. It has been kept in impeccable condition, and the gardens are beautiful as well as being far less crowded than the Castle. ‘There were too many people in and around the Castle. The queues were an irritation but I parked my husband in the queue and too k the kids elsewhere until he was near the front and then we joined him. I think a few people got upset because we seemed to be pushing in, but I'm not prepared to wait with three children in long queues in the sun.Mind you, it's nothing like the queues at Madame Tussauds in London, they really are crazy. ‘I didn't realise quite how big the grounds were. If I had known I think we would have spent longer at Warwick Castle and made a full day of it. We should have come here at about ten and then spent the whole day here. That way the queues inside the Castle would have been shorter for us. The grounds are lovely and they've got special picnic areas which I thought was a nice idea. (I wish we'd brought a picnic. ) Mind you, it does seem to be more than a bit light on entertainment for the kids. Nicky loved the man with the wonderful moustache dressed up in full Crusader uniform on the horse. He was very good with the kids. Nicky also liked the waxworks in the Private Apartments p lace. The queue wound its way up, down and around the place but apart from mild feelings of claustrophobia (that's my problem, I suppose) it went at about the right speed and I guess it lasted a bit under an hour. Oh yes, the Rampart Walk, they ought to warn you about just how many stairs you have to climb. I mean, I know there is a sign but you don't take it seriously, do you!You go up and up and then there's that great spiral staircase up the inside of that tower, I won't do that again in a rush! But it was worth it for the view. ‘All in all it was a good day. More interesting than the average castle and not full of the usual touristoriented rubbish associated with tourist attractions. The commercial side is very much underplayed and I like that. You don't feel obliged to buy ice creams and tee-shirts and pencils and tea towels. Maybe some of the signs were a bit too discreet – we had to ask where the toilets were – but it makes a pleasant change. Also I like t he one price for everything. At other places, I object to paying an admission charge and then paying on top of that for particular attractions. You always feel mean if you don't pay up, and then you also feel that you might be missing something. No, I'd recommend the place and it's so much less hassle than the tourist places in London which you almost feel obliged to visit every so often. ‘ This case is from: Cases in Operations Management (Second edition) Johnston, Chambers, Harland, Harrison, Slack, FT Prentice Hall 1997

Women’s Studies

Major Essay Women across the world face challenges and experiences such as gender class inequality, oppression, struggle with identity, sexual awakening, women's objectification, personal resistance, reliving women's history, female empowerment and etc. These are some of the themes that will be addressed In this essay. These themes will be supported by feminist short stories from books such as â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian and â€Å"The Bloody Chamber and other stories† by Angela Carter.Through the use of aesthetic texts, women's challenges and experiences will be interpreted using the themes in these stories. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on women living In the 19th century where men have a high standing In the social hierarchy that oppressed women, Gender plays a big role In social hierarchy. Even a rich woman cannot exercise the same rights and privileges as men would . Women were not given the same equality as men. Gillian focuses on the themes such as personal resistance and women's history.As the narrator in this story battles with err own psychological mind and the outside world, she slowly falls into deep madness as her obsession grows with the yellow wallpaper. To relief herself from going Insane, she keeps a Journal that exercises her creative mind as her husband prohibits It. This act of writing In her Journal Is also similar to the movie, The Hours where the character Virginia Wolf wrote everyday to keep herself sane in her confinement. The wallpaper represented her sanity and freedom.As a show of resistance from her husband she tore the wallpaper, which made her feel free and powerful. â€Å"l wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? (Gillian 34) shows her longing of freedom and resistance. Women during this time period did not have much value as they were expected to be only wives and mothers and cannot carry on other r esponsibilities. â€Å"It Is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work† (Gillian 24) as her husband instructed her to stay in confinement and away from writing.She has spent her days confined in a room where there is only a window to look at which eventually made her insane. As a woman living In the 19th century, the narrator had no control over her own life and had let her husband dominate her. Women did not have the same opportunities as men did. The author's use of these themes gave the story a powerful message of women longing for freedom and equality in their society. In the story, â€Å"If I Were A Man† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on a woman who fought social boundaries and â€Å"take risk to improve themselves and their material condition† (Hoofers 36).As in this story, women were not ready for business but Gillian challenged that. Gillian focuses on the themes such as gender Identity and empowerment, During this tim e period, women's roles were to stay confined In their preference in gender role was examined in this story, â€Å"Gerald had already about that bill, over which she- as Mollie- was still crying at home† (Gillian 39) shows how different the roles of men and women were. Women were the only subdue to be emotional who stayed at home while the men were the ones who held themselves together with pride and dignity.Mollie Matheson finds herself to be happy when she becomes her husband Gerald â€Å"walking down the path so erect and square- shouldered† (Gillian 35) as manly as she can ever be. The thought of being a man gave Mollie a sense of pride and dignity compared to when she was a woman. In Mollies sense to have equality amongst men, she â€Å"felt such freedom and comfort† (Gillian 36) in becoming Gerald as she has all these privileges a woman would not have. Empowerment became a big symbol once Mollie started to earn money and privileges only men would have had. She never had dreamed of how it felt to have pockets† (Perkins 36) shows how she realizes that she is powerful having money and being able to support herself without the need of having a man to rely on. The themes used in this story became an awakening for women to reach higher and climb the social hierarchy to have equal opportunities as men do. In the story, â€Å"The Cottage† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses closely on how traditional male and female roles are slowly evolving. In this story, despite of the old believe in women serving as wives and housekeepers was challenged.Gillian focuses on themes such as gender identity and status. Malta is expected to be nothing but a wife and housekeeper as â€Å"what they care for most, after all, is domesticity†¦ What they want to marry is a homemaker† (Gillian 55) according to her friend. This shows how inequality and lack of freedom plays along in traditional roles f women. Also, Mammal's lack of independe nce and longing for Ford's approval shows how she follows the traditional role of a woman. â€Å"l could cook. I could cook excellently†¦ But if it was a question of pleasing Ford Mathews- † (Gillian 56) as her goal was to please Ford and nothing but Ford.Women were expected to act polite and demure, as they do not want their status to be devalued. â€Å"†¦ She thought it would look better if we had an older person with us†¦ † (Gillian 57) shows how women are confined to act a certain way and are not able to show who they truly are. Women are also seen as trophies or objects a man can have whenever he wishes, â€Å"And woman? He will hold her, he will have her when he pleases† (Gillian 100). Women were treated nothing equally as men but in this story, this concept was challenged.The themes in this story reminds us that women do have traditional roles but can always do something more than being a wife or housekeeper. In the story, â€Å"The Bloody Chambers† by Angela Carter focuses on sexual awakening and women's objectification through fairytale storytelling. This challenges the typical fairytale story in which is structured as pleasant and happy into gory and violent. The heroine was blossoming into adulthood as she experiences her sexual awakening upon to losing her virginity. â€Å"†¦ Away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment†¦ (Carter 7) shows her freedom from childhood and practice her sexual curiosity. She also compares the act of â€Å"†¦ A tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement†¦ † (Carter 7) leading up to intercourse as meet her husband. She longs and waits the moment when her husband deflowers women â€Å"have been major targets of sexual stereotypical and detrimental orphaned† (Adams and Fuller 7) and seen as sexual objects. Marquis viewed the heroine as a sexual object that he can torture and violate. The heroine felt violated as Marquis in a way forced her to undress and deflower her like â€Å"disrobing of the bride, a ritual from the brothel† (Carter 15).The heroine is comparing the lost of her virginity as a ritual from a brothel depicts how disrespected and disgusted she felt while doing this act. Marquis was a power hungry who showed no respect to her brides. The heroine did not feel that losing her virginity was a special act but rather a aromatizing experiences as â€Å"watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors†¦ â€Å"(Carter 15). Although the story ended with a happy tone, the story still degrades women as the heroin was relieved that she was able to cover her red mark as the blind piano tuner â€Å"cannot see it†¦ T spares me shame† (Carter 41). The themes portrayed in this story shows that fairytale stories objectify women and given women a lesser value then they should have. In the story, â€Å"Puss in Boots† by Angela Carter exami nes the role of violence in sex and woman' objectification. The young woman was predicted as a poor girl who was arced to marry a rich man. In this case, gender and class play a role in social status in this story. As Signor Pantone symbolizes violence and sex for the young woman, as she wishes for sexual gratification she must submit to violence. L gave her the customary tribute of a few firms thrusts of my striped loins† (Carter 70). As Signor Pantone was murdered and passed away, the young woman and Puss' master proceeded with the act of intercourse despite having a dead corpse next to them. â€Å". They're at it, hammer and tongs, down on the carpet since the bed is occupy† (Carter 04) shows the young woman's absurd attraction of violence towards sex. It seems like the young woman is aroused by the acts of violence around her. Women were called unpleasant names and were treated as property by their masters or husbands.One of Signor Pantheon's servants was being call ed a â€Å"hag† and described as someone who is very ugly and useless. Also, Signor Pantaloon sees the young woman as property and a sense of please giver. She is also a prisoner of her own where she can only â€Å"sit in a window for one hour and one hour only' (Carter 101) shows how she doesn't have freedom and is being held captive by her own husband. The themes of violence in sex and women's objectification helped shaped the story poor outlook on women's value. In the story, â€Å"The Tiger's Bride† by Angela Carter focuses on women's objectification and sexual awakening.The heroine is a beauty whose father had a gambling addiction in which he had lost to the Beast. The heroine then was used as a wager for her father' gambling addiction. â€Å"My father lost me to The Beast at cards. † (Carter 60) shows how devalued the heroine is. There is also patriarchy played in this story. As the father and the beast holds the heroine in captivity and she has o voice i n her own life. â€Å"My father said he loved me yet he staked his daughter on a hand of cards. † (Carter 62) shows how helpless and out of control the heroine's life is.She is being used as an object and nothing more but a value of money and not life itself. The heroine's sexual awakening is measured when she transforms into a beast. This also signifies sex and birth as a way of her transformation. Losing her virginity lick the skin off me! † (Carter 69) she describes herself being reborn into a tigress. This act of rebirth signifies a man's reclaim in sex, as a man controls a woman during intercourse. This also ties in with violence in sex as she sheds blood during intercourse and sheds her own skin to become awaken.The themes delivered a powerful message of the pain and relief in finding one's awakening. Through the use of feminist themes and ideas, writers Charlotte Perkins Gillian and Angela Carter sent powerful messages in their short stories. Charlotte Perkins Gi llian mostly used the feminist themes such as personal resistance and gender identity to explain the underlying meanings in her stories. Characters in Sailing's writings were rebellious and did not conform to social norms. As they, freely expressed themselves in their own way with a positive ending.Contrary in Angel Carter's writings, focused on themes such as women's objectification and sexual awakening. The male characters usually portrayed having some essence of evil controlling the female character. The stories in Carter's books are very dark and sexual. Some descriptions in her writing almost have a sense of pornographic image. Both writers gave us a grasp on how themes powerfully send messages throughout the stories. Adams, Terrier M. , and Douglas B. Fuller. â€Å"The Words Have Changed But the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music. Women’s Studies Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination From Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), pp. 221–238 Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as self-defined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people.One distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions of change. Knowledge is a vitally important part of the social relations of domination and resistance. By objectifying African-American women and recasting our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview fosters Black women's subordination.But placing Black women's experiences at the center of analysis offers fresh insights on the prevailing concepts, paradigms, and epistemologies of this worldview and on its feminist and Afrocentric critiques. Viewing the world through a both/and conceptual lens of the simultaneity of race, class, and gender oppression and of the need for a humanist vision of community creates new possibilities for an empowering Afrocentric feminist knowledge. Many Black feminist intellectuals have long thought about the world in this way because this is the way we experience the world.Afrocentric feminist thought offers two significant contributions toward furthering our understanding of the important connections among knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. First, Black feminist thought foste rs a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression. By embracing a paradigm of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression, Black feminist thought reconceptualizes the social relations of domination and resistance.Second, Black feminist thought addresses ongoing epistemological debates in feminist theory and in the sociology of knowledge concerning ways of assessing â€Å"truth. † Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can be empowering. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression â€Å"What I really feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you,† maintains Barbara Smith. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before. † Black feminist thought fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift that rejects additive approaches to oppression. Instead of starting with gender and then adding in other variables such as age, sexual orientation, race, social class, and religion, Black feminist thought sees these distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination.Viewing relations of domination for Black women for any given sociohistorical context as being structured via a system of interlocking race, class, and gender oppression expands the focus of analysis from merely describing the similarities and differences distinguishing these systems of oppression and focuses greater attention on how they interconnect. Assuming that each system needs the others in order to function creates a distinct theoretical stance that stimulates the rethinking of basic social science concepts.Afrocentric feminist notions of family reflect this reconceptualizat ion process. Black women's experiences as blood mothers, other mothers, and community other mothers reveal that the mythical norm of a heterosexual, married couple, nuclear family with a nonworking spouse and a husband earning a â€Å"family wage† is far from being natural, universal and preferred but instead is deeply embedded in specific race and class formations.Placing African-American women in the center of analysis not only reveals much-needed information about Black women's experiences but also questions Eurocentric masculinist perspectives on family Black women's experiences and the Afrocentric feminist thought rearticulating them also challenge prevailing definitions of community. Black women's actions in the struggle or group survival suggest a vision of community that stands in opposition to that extant in the dominant culture.The definition of community implicit in the market model sees community as arbitrary and fragile, structured fundamentally by competition an d domination. In contrast, Afrocentric models of community stress connections, caring, and personal accountability. As cultural workers African-American women have rejected the generalized ideology of domination advanced by the dominant group in order to conserve Afrocentric conceptualizations of community.Denied access to the podium, Black women have been unable to spend time theorizing about alternative conceptualizations of community. Instead, through daily actions African-American women have created alternative communities that empower. This vision of community sustained by African-American women in conjunction with African-American men addresses the larger issue of reconceptualizing power. The type of Black women's power discussed here does resemble feminist theories of power which emphasize energy and community.However, in contrast to this body of literature whose celebration of women's power is often accompanied by a lack of attention to the importance of power as domination, Black women's experiences as mothers, community other mothers, educators, church leaders, labor union center-women, and community leaders seem to suggest that power as energy can be fostered by creative acts of resistance. The spheres of influence created and sustained by African-American women are not meant solely to provide a respite from oppressive situations or a retreat from their effects.Rather, these Black female spheres of influence constitute potential sanctuaries where individual Black women and men are nurtured in order to confront oppressive social institutions. Power from this perspective is a creative power used for the good of the community, whether that community is conceptualized as one's family, church community, or the next generation of the community's children. By making the community stronger, African-American women become empowered, and that same community can serve as a source of support when Black women encounter race, gender, and class oppression. . . Appr oaches that assume that race, gender, and class are interconnected have immediate practical applications. For example, African-American women continue to be inadequately protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primary purpose of the statute is to eradicate all aspects of discrimination. But judicial treatment of Black women's employment discrimination claims has encouraged Black women to identify race or sex as the so-called primary discrimination. To resolve the inequities that confront Black women,† counsels Scarborough, the courts must first correctly conceptualize them as ‘Black women,' a distinct class protected by Title VII. † Such a shift, from protected categories to protected classes of people whose Title VII claims might be based on more than two discriminations, would work to alter the entire basis of current antidiscrimination efforts. Reconceptualizing phenomena such as the rapid growth of female-headed households in African-America n communities would also benefit from a race-, class-, and gender-inclusive analysis.Case studies of Black women heading households must be attentive to racially segmented local labor markets and community patterns, to changes in local political economies specific to a given city or region, and to established racial and gender ideology for a given location. This approach would go far to deconstruct Eurocentric, masculinist analyses that implicitly rely on controlling images of the matriarch or the welfare mother as guiding conceptual premises. . . Black feminist thought that rearticulates experiences such as these fosters an enhanced theoretical understanding of how race, gender, and class oppression are part of a single, historically created system. The Matrix of Domination Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichotomous thinking of Eurocentric, masculinist thought. One must be either Black or white in such thought systems–persons of ambiguous ra cial and ethnic identity constantly battle with questions such as â€Å"what are your, anyway? This emphasis on quantification and categorization occurs in conjunction with the belief that either/or categories must be ranked. The search for certainty of this sort requires that one side of a dichotomy be privileged while its other is denigrated. Privilege becomes defined in relation to its other. Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates possibilities for new paradigms.The significance of seeing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppressions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity. Race, class, and gender represent the three systems of oppression that most heavily affect African-American women. But these systems and the economic, political, and ideological conditions that support them may not be the most fundamental oppre ssions, and they certainly affect many more groups than Black women.Other people of color, Jews, the poor white women, and gays and lesbians have all had similar ideological justifications offered for their subordination. All categories of humans labeled Others have been equated to one another, to animals, and to nature. Placing African-American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a both/and conceptual stance, one in which all groups possess varying amounts of penalty and privilege in one historically created system. In this system, for example, white women are penalized by their gender but privileged by their race.Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed. Adhering to a both/and conceptual stance does not mean that race, class, and gender oppression are interchangeable. For example, whereas race, class, and gender oppression operate on the so cial structural level of institutions, gender oppression seems better able to annex the basic power of the erotic and intrude in personal relationships via family dynamics and within individual consciousness.This may be because racial oppression has fostered historically concrete communities among African-Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. These communities have stimulated cultures of resistance. While these communities segregate Blacks from whites, they simultaneously provide counter-institutional buffers that subordinate groups such as African-Americans use to resist the ideas and institutions of dominant groups. Social class may be similarly structured.Traditionally conceptualized as a relationship of individual employees to their employers, social class might be better viewed as a relationship of communities to capitalist political economies. Moreover, significant overlap exists between racial and social class oppression when viewing them through the collective lens of fa mily and community. Existing community structures provide a primary line of resistance against racial and class oppression. But because gender cross-cuts these structures, it finds fewer comparable institutional bases to foster resistance.Embracing a both/and conceptual stance moves us from additive, separate systems approaches to oppression and toward what I now see as the more fundamental issue of the social relations of domination. Race, class, and gender constitute axes of oppression that characterize Black women's experiences within a more generalized matrix of domination. Other groups may encounter different dimensions of the matrix, such as sexual orientation, religion, and age, but the overarching relationship is one of domination and the types of activism it generates.Bell Hooks labels this matrix a â€Å"politic of domination† and describes how it operates along interlocking axes of race, class, and gender oppression. This politic of domination refers to the ideolog ical ground that they share, which is a belief in domination, and a belief in the notions of superior and inferior, which are components of all of those systems. For me it's like a house, they share the foundation, but the foundation is the ideological beliefs around which notions of domination are constructed.Johnella Butler claims that new methodologies growing from this new paradigm would be â€Å"non-hierarchical† and would â€Å"refuse primacy to either race, class, gender, or ethnicity, demanding instead a recognition of their matrix-like interaction. † Race, class, and gender may not be the most fundamental or important systems of oppression, but they have most profoundly affected African-American women. One significant dimension of Black feminist thought is its potential to reveal insights about the social relations of domination organized along other axes such as religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age.Investigating Black women's particular experience s thus promises to reveal much about the more universal process of domination. Multiple Levels of Domination In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions.Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination and as potential sites of resistance. Each individual has a unique personal biography made up of concrete experiences, values, motivations, and emotions. No two individuals occupy the same social space; thus no two biographies are identical. Human ties can be freeing and empowering, as is the case with Black women's heterosexual love relationships or in the power of motherhood in African-American families and communities. Human ties can also be confining and oppressive.Situations of domestic violence and abuse or cases in which controlling images foster Black women's internalized oppression represent domination on the personal level. The same situation can look quite different depending on the consciousness one brings to interpret it. This level of individual consciousness is a fundamental area where new knowledge can generate change. Traditional accounts assume that power as domination operates from the top down by forcing and controlling unwilling victims to bend to the will of more powerful superiors.But these accounts fail to account for questions concerning why, for example, women stay with abusive men even with ample opportunity to leave or why slaves did not kill their owners more often. The willingness of the victim to collude in her or his own victimization becomes lost. They also fail to account for sustained resistance by victims, even when chances for victory appear remote. By emphasizing the power of self-def inition and the necessity of a free mind, Black feminist thought speaks to the importance African-American women thinkers place on consciousness as a sphere of freedom.Black women intellectuals realize that domination operates not only by structuring power from the top down but by simultaneously annexing the power as energy of those on the bottom for its own ends. In their efforts to rearticulate the standpoint of African-American women as a group, Black feminist thinkers offer individual African-American women the conceptual tools to resist oppression. The cultural context formed by those experiences and ideas that are shared with other members of a group or community which give meaning to individual biographies constitutes a second level at which domination is experienced and resisted.Each individual biography is rooted in several overlapping cultural contexts–for example, groups defined by race, social class, age, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The cultural comp onent contributes, among other things, the concepts used in thinking and acting, group validation of an individual's interpretation of concepts, the â€Å"thought models† used in the acquisition of knowledge, and standards used to evaluate individual thought and behavior. The most cohesive cultural contexts are those with identifiable histories, geographic locations, and social institutions.For Black women African-American communities have provided the location for an Afrocentric group perspective to endure. Subjugated knowledges, such as a Black women's culture of resistance, develop in cultural contexts controlled by oppressed groups. Dominant groups aim to replace subjugated knowledge with their own specialized thought because they realize that gaining control over this dimension of subordinate groups' lives simplifies control. While efforts to nfluence this dimension of an oppressed group's experiences can be partially successful, this level is more difficult to control t han dominant groups would have us believe. For example, adhering to externally derived standards of beauty leads many African-American women to dislike their skin color or hair texture. Similarly, internalizing Eurocentric gender ideology leads some Black men to abuse Black women. These are cases of the successful infusion of the dominant group's specialized thought into the everyday cultural context of African-Americans.But the long-standing existence of a Black women's culture of resistance as expressed through Black women's relationships with one another, the Black women's blues tradition, and the voices of contemporary African-American women writers all attest to the difficulty of eliminating the cultural context as a fundamental site of resistance. Domination is also experienced and resisted on the third level of social institutions controlled by the dominant group: namely, schools, churches, the media, and other formal organizations.These institutions expose individuals to the specialized thought representing the dominant group's standpoint and interests. While such institutions offer the promise of both literacy and other skills that can be used for individual empowerment and social transformation, they simultaneously require docility and passivity. Such institutions would have us believe that the theorizing of elites constitutes the whole of theory.The existence of African-American women thinkers such as Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, and Fannie Lou Hamer who, though excluded from and/or marginalized within such institutions, continued to produce theory effectively opposes this hegemonic view. Moreover, the more recent resurgence of Black feminist thought within these institutions, the case of the outpouring of contemporary Black feminist thought in history and literature, directly challenges the Eurocentric masculinist thought pervading these institutions.Resisting the Matrix of Domination Domination operates by seducing, pressuri ng, or forcing African-American women and members of subordinated groups to replace individual and cultural ways of knowing with the dominant group's specialized thought. As a result, suggests Audre Lorde, â€Å"the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us. † Or as Toni Cade Bambara succinctly states, â€Å"revolution begins with the self, in the self. Lorde and Bambara's suppositions raise an important issue for Black feminist intellectuals and for all scholars and activists working for social change. Although most individuals have little difficulty identifying their own victimization within some major system of oppression–whether it be by race, social class, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or gender–they typically fail to see how their thoughts and actions uphold someone else's subordination. Thus white feminists routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them.African-Americans who possess eloquent analyses of racism often persist in viewing poor white women as symbols of white power. The radical left fares little better. â€Å"If only people of color and women could see their true class interests,† they argue, â€Å"class solidarity would eliminate racism and sexism. † In essence, each group identifies the oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all others as being of lesser importance. Oppression is filled with such contradictions because these approaches fail to recognize that a matrix of domination contains few pure victims or oppressors.Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone's lives. A broader focus stresses the interlocking nature of oppressions that are s tructured on multiple levels, from the individual to the social structural, and which are part of a larger matrix of domination. Adhering to this inclusive model provides the conceptual space needed for each individual to see that she or he is both a member of multiple dominant groups and a member of multiple subordinate groups.Shifting the analysis to investigating how the matrix of domination is structured along certain axes–race, gender, and class being the axes of investigation for AfricanAmerican women–reveals that different systems of oppression may rely in varying degrees on systemic versus interpersonal mechanisms of domination. Empowerment involves rejecting the dimensions of knowledge, whether personal, cultural, or institutional, that perpetuate objectification and dehumanization.African-American women and other individuals in subordinate groups become empowered when we understand and use those dimensions of our individual, group, and disciplinary ways of kn owing that foster our humanity as fully human subjects. This is the case when Black women value our self-definitions, participate in a Black women's activist tradition, invoke an Afrocentric feminist epistemology as central to our worldview, and view the skills gained in schools as part of a focused education for Black community development. C.Wright Mills identifies this holistic epistemology as the â€Å"sociological imagination† and identifies its task and its promise as a way of knowing that enables individuals to grasp the relations between history and biography within society. Using one's standpoint to engage the sociological imagination can empower the individual. â€Å"My fullest concentration of energy is available to me,† Audre Lorde maintains, â€Å"only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally i mposed definition. Black Women as Agents of Knowledge Living life as an African-American woman is a necessary prerequisite for producing Black feminist thought because within Black women's communities thought is validated and produced with reference to a particular set of historical, material, and epistemological conditions. African-American women who adhere to the idea that claims about Black women must be substantiated by Black women's sense of our own experiences and who anchor our knowledge claims in an Afrocentric feminist epistemology have produced a rich tradition of Black feminist thought.Traditionally such women were blues singers, poets, autobiographers, storytellers, and orators validated by everyday Black women as experts on a Black women's standpoint. Only a few unusual African-American feminist scholars have been able to defy Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies and explicitly embrace an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Consider Alice Walker's description of Zora N eal Hurston: In my mind, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith form a sort of unholy trinity.Zora belongs in the tradition of black women singers, rather than among â€Å"the literati. † . . . Like Billie and Jessie she followed her own road, believed in her own gods pursued her own dreams, and refused to separate herself from â€Å"common† people. Zora Neal Hurston is an exception for prior to 1950, few African-American women earned advanced degrees and most of those who did complied with Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies.Although these women worked on behalf of Black women, they did so within the confines of pervasive race and gender oppression. Black women scholars were in a position to see the exclusion of African-American women from scholarly discourse, and the thematic content of their work often reflected their interest in examining a Black women's standpoint. However, their tenuous status in academic institutions led them to adhere to Euroce ntric masculinist epistemologies so that their work would be accepted as scholarly.As a result, while they produced Black feminist thought, those African-American women most likely to gain academic credentials were often least likely to produce Black feminist thought that used an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. An ongoing tension exists for Black women as agents of knowledge, a tension rooted in the sometimes conflicting demands of Afrocentricity and feminism. Those Black women who are feminists are critical of how Black culture and many of its traditions oppress women.For example, the strong pronatal beliefs in African-American communities that foster early motherhood among adolescent girls, the lack of self-actualization that can accompany the double-day of paid employment and work in the home, and the emotional and physical abuse that many Black women experience from their fathers, lovers, and husbands all reflect practices opposed by African-American women who are feminists. But these same women may have a parallel desire as members of an oppressed racial group to affirm the value of that same culture and traditions.Thus strong Black mothers appear in Black women's literature, Black women's economic contributions to families is lauded, and a curious silence exists concerning domestic abuse. As more African-American women earn advanced degrees, the range of Black feminist scholarship is expanding. Increasing numbers of African-American women scholars are explicitly choosing to ground their work in Black women's experiences, and, by doing so, they implicitly adhere to an Afrocentric feminist epistemology.Rather than being restrained by their both/and status of marginality, these women make creative use of their outsider-within status and produce innovative Afrocentric feminist thought. The difficulties these women face lie less in demonstrating that they have mastered white male epistemologies than in resisting the hegemonic nature of these patterns of th ought in order to see, value, and use existing alternative Afrocentric feminist ways of knowing. In establishing the legitimacy of their knowledge claims, Black women scholars who want to develop Afrocentric feminist thought may encounter the often conflicting standards of three key groups.First, Black feminist thought must be validated by ordinary Atrican-American women who, in the words of Hannah Nelson, grow to womanhood â€Å"in a world where the saner you are, the madder you are made to appear. † To be credible in the eyes of this group, scholars must be personal advocates for their material, be accountable for the consequences of their work, have lived or experienced their material in some fashion, and be willing to engage in dialogues about their findings with ordinary, everyday people. Second, Black feminist thought also must be accepted by the community of Black women scholars.These scholars place varying amounts of importance on rearticulating a Black women's standp oint using an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Third, Afrocentric feminist thought within academia must be prepared to confront Eurocentric masculinist political and epistemological requirements. The dilemma facing Black women scholars engaged in creating Black feminist thought is that a knowledge claim that meets the criteria of adequacy for one group and thus is judged to be an acceptable knowledge claim may not be translatable into the terms of a different group.Using the example of Black English, June Jordan illustrates the difficulty of moving among epistemologies: You cannot â€Å"translate† instances of Standard English preoccupied with abstraction or with nothing/nobody evidently alive into Black English. That would warp the language into uses antithetical to the guiding perspective of its community of users. Rather you must first change those Standard English sentences, themselves, into ideas consistent with the person-centered assumptions of Black English.Although both worldviews share a common vocabulary, the ideas themselves defy direct translation. For Black women who are agents of knowledge, the marginality that accompanies outsider-within status can be the source of both frustration and creativity. In an attempt to minimize the differences between the cultural context of African-American communities and the expectations of social institutions, some women dichotomize their behavior and become two different people. Over time, the strain of doing this can be enormous.Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought. Still others manage to inhabit both contexts but do so critically, using their outsider-within perspectives as a source of insights and ideas. But while outsiders within can make substantial personal cost. â€Å"Eventually it comes to you,† observes Lorraine Hansberry, â€Å"the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is ine vitably that which must also make you lonely. Once Black feminist scholars face the notion that, on certain dimensions of a Black women's standpoint, it may be fruitless to try and translate ideas from an Afrocentric feminist epistemology into a Eurocentric masculinist framework, then other choices emerge. Rather than trying to uncover universal knowledge claims that can withstand the translation from one epistemology to another (initially, at least), Black women intellectuals might find efforts to rearticulate a Black women's standpoint especially fruitful.Rearticulating a Black women's standpoint refashions the concrete and reveals the more universal human dimensions of Black women's everyday lives. â€Å"I date all my work,† notes Nikki Giovanni, â€Å"because I think poetry, or any writing, is but a reflection of the moment. The universal comes from the particular. † Bell Hooks maintains, â€Å"my goal as a feminist thinker and theorist is to take that abstraction and articulate it in a language that renders it accessible–not less complex or rigorous–but simply more accessible. † The complexity exists; interpreting it remains the unfulfilled challenge for Black women intellectuals.Situated Knowledge, Subjugated Knowledge, and Partial Perspectives â€Å"My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate trace of universal struggle,† claims June Jordan: You begin with your family and the kids on the block, and next you open your eyes to what you call your people and that leads you into land reform into Black English into Angola leads you back to your own bed where you lie by yourself; wondering if you deserve to be peaceful, or trusted or desired or left to the freedom of your own unfaltering heart. And the scale shrinks to the use of a skull: your own interior cage.Lorraine Hansberry expresses a similar idea: â€Å"I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create t he universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from the truthful identity of what is. † Jordan and Hansberry's insights that universal struggle and truth may wear a particularistic, intimate face suggest a new epistemological stance concerning how we negotiate competing knowledge claims and identify â€Å"truth. † The context in which African-American women's ideas are nurtured or suppressed matters.Understanding the content and epistemology of Black women's ideas as specialized knowledge requires attending to the context from which those ideas emerge. While produced by individuals, Black feminist thought as situated knowledge is embedded in the communities in which African-American women find ourselves. A Black women's standpoint and those of other oppressed groups is not only embedded in a context but exists in a situation characterized by domination. Because Black women's ideas have been suppressed, this suppression ha s stimulated African-American women to create knowledge that empowers people to resist domination.Thus Afrocentric feminist thought represents a subjugated knowledge. A Black women's standpoint may provide a preferred stance from which to view the matrix of domination because, in principle, Black feminist thought as specialized thought is less likely than the specialized knowledge produced by dominant groups to deny the connection between ideas and the vested interests of their creators. However, Black feminist thought as subjugated knowledge is not exempt from critical analysis, because subjugation is not grounds for an epistemology.Despite African-American women's potential power to reveal new insights about the matrix of domination, a Black women's standpoint is only one angle of vision. Thus Black feminist thought represents a partial perspective. The overarching matrix of domination houses multiple groups, each with varying experiences with penalty and privilege that produce co rresponding partial perspectives, situated knowledges, and, for clearly identifiable subordinate groups, subjugated knowledges. No one group has a clear angle of vision.No one group possesses the theory or methodology that allows it to discover the absolute â€Å"truth† or, worse yet, proclaim its theories and methodologies as the universal norm evaluating other groups' experiences. Given that groups are unequal in power in making themselves heard, dominant groups have a vested interest in suppressing the knowledge produced by subordinate groups. Given the existence of multiple and competing knowledge claims to â€Å"truth† produced by groups with partial perspectives, what epistemological approach offers the most promise? Dialogue and EmpathyWestern social and political thought contains two alternative approaches to ascertaining â€Å"truth. † The first, reflected in positivist science, has long claimed that absolute truths exist and that the task of scholarshi p is to develop objective, unbiased tools of science to measure these truths. . . . Relativism, the second approach, has been forwarded as the antithesis of and inevitable outcome of rejecting a positivist science. From a relativist perspective all groups produce specialized thought and each group's thought is equally valid. No group can claim to have a better interpretation of the â€Å"truth† than another.In a sense, relativism represents the opposite of scientific ideologies of objectivity. As epistemological stances, both positivist science and relativism minimize the importance of specific location in influencing a group's knowledge claims, the power inequities among groups that produce subjugated knowledges, and the strengths and limitations of partial perspective. The existence of Black feminist thought suggests another alternative to the ostensibly objective norms of science and to relativism's claims that groups with competing knowledge claims are equal. . . This app roach to Afrocentric feminist thought allows African-American women to bring a Black women's standpoint to larger epistemological dialogues concerning the nature of the matrix of domination. Eventually such dialogues may get us to a point at which, claims Elsa Barkley Brown, â€Å"all people can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison or need to adopt that framework as their own. In such dialogues, â€Å"one has no need to ‘decenter' anyone in order to center someone else; one has only to constantly, appropriately, ‘pivot the center. ‘ † Those ideas that are validated as true by African-American women, African-American men, Latina lesbians, Asian-American women, Puerto Rican men, and other groups with distinctive standpoints, with each group using the epistemological approaches growing from its unique standpoint, thus become the most â€Å"objective† truths. Each group speaks fr om its own standpoint and shares its own partial, situated knowledge.But because each group perceives its own truth as partial, its knowledge is unfinished. Each group becomes better able to consider other groups' standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own standpoint or suppressing other groups' partial perspectives. â€Å"What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life,† maintains Alice Walker, â€Å"is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity. Partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard; individuals and groups forwarding knowledge claims without owning their position are deemed less credible than those who do. Dialogue is critical to the success of this epistemological approach, the type of dialogue long extant in the Afrocentric call-and-response trad ition whereby power dynamics are fluid, everyone has a voice, but everyone must listen and respond to other voices in order to be allowed to remain in the community.Sharing a common cause fosters dialogue and encourages groups to transcend their differences. . . . African-American women have been victimized by race, gender, and class oppression. But portraying Black women solely as passive, unfortunate recipients of racial and sexual abuse stifles notions that Black women can actively work to change our circumstances and bring about changes in our lives.Similarly, presenting African-American women solely as heroic figures who easily engage in resisting oppression on all fronts minimizes the very real costs of oppression and can foster the perception that Black women need no help because we can â€Å"take it. † Black feminist thought's emphasis on the ongoing interplay between Black women's oppression and Black women's activism presents the matrix of domination as responsive t o human agency.Such thought views the world as a dynamic place where the goal is not merely to survive or to fit in or to cope; rather, it becomes a place where we feel ownership and accountability. The existence of Afrocentric feminist thought suggests that there is always choice, and power to act, no matter how bleak the situation may appear to be. Viewing the world as one in the making raises the issue of individual responsibility for bringing about change. It also shows that while individual empowerment is key, only collective action can effectively generate lasting social transformation of political and economic institutions.