Comparing and Contrasting Society in the Book, The Lathe of Heaven and

Comparing and Contrasting Society in the Book, The Lathe of Heaven and the Movie, Matrix In the book The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin, there are many similarities and some differences in society in comparison to the movie Matrix. The two stories settings take place in different locations. Although, throughout both stories many huge changes are made, the people in the societies remain unaware of the changes. Then, similarly, only a certain few individuals are knowledgeable of the true reality. A difference between The Lathe of Heaven and the Matrix is the place setting. The Lathe of Heaven's characters are in the real world. The real world is physical and tangible, filled with items that tiger senses. People have feelings and react differently to situations. Each one depending on the person and the circumstance. The real world is the truth, the truth is reality. Although, this reality is changed with one night's dream, from George Orr. Orr is a man who has the ability to change truth, including history and every humans view of what reality is. When Orr dreams, h is thoughts become reality. With one dream he changes today, and the history. Orr is the only one who is aware of the original, true reality. In the Matrix, however, what the society believes to be the real world, is really a computer program invented and run by Machines. In the Matrix, Machines have taken over the human population and created a world, known as the Matrix. This world is only lived out through the minds of the people, as the people are kept in holding tanks. The world, or Matrix is a computer program, and only known to be a computer program by the Machines and a few selected individuals. Similarly, in The Lathe of Heaven and in the Matrix ... ...er begins to manipulate his dreams, abusing his ability to change reality. Orr decides to inform a lawyer, Heather Lelache, with hope she will aid in preventing Orrs dreaming. Together the three of them are the only ones aware of the dreams, and therefore the only ones knowledgeable of the original truth, true reality. In both stories, the novel, The Lathe of Heaven, and the movie, Matrix, the societies compare and contrast. The stores share in similar themes and plot but have different aspect to the changes made in society. The changes in society both, positively and negatively affect and influence the people. Included are powers that are overbearing and controlling that need to be stopped, such as the Machines and the dreaming. Similarly, both stories involve people who want to change the world for themselves and ones who prefer to allow God to plan the future.

The R-word and Racist Native American Sports Team Logos Essay

Racial epithets have long existed and plagued our society, Native Americans throughout the country consider the R-word a racial, derogatory slur along the same lines of other hurtful, slanderous, and offensive ethnic insults including the N-word among African-Americans, the K-word for the Jewish and the W-word amongst Latinos. Above all, the portrayal of stereotypical Indian images is common in American popular culture (i.e. Jeep Cherokee, Land O’Lakes butter). Moreover, the use of Indian logos or mascots at both the professional and high school level in sports has become increasingly controversial. Thus, the removal of Native American mascots from sports teams is necessary to fight the injustice of the negative connotations and stereotypes that are typical in the depiction of Indians. Our society must become aware of how very racist the word â€Å"redskin† is and how very derogatory the portrayal of the Native American is in so many commercial and sporting events. Interestingly, Merriam-Webster’s definition defines â€Å"Redskin† as a very offensive slang used as a disparaging term for a Native American and should be avoided. The fact that many Americans are not aware of the definition of the term â€Å"redskin† or are blind to see into believing that this term means strong, brave, and courageous gives them a false sense of understanding to the true testament of the word â€Å"redskin† that is heavily misunderstood and overlooked in today’s society. First, by considering the term â€Å"Redskin† has for centuries been used to belittle and humiliate an entire people. The meaning originated in colonial times when traders and local government paid for skins. There was a certain price paid for various animal skins. On that list was the term â€Å"Red-skin,† which referred to bloody scalps of American Indians resulting from a Native American crossing the path of a bounty hunter. Most of the affected tribes were Penobscots, Passamaquoddy, Wampanoag, Mashpee Wampanoag and others along the New England coastal line. The reason they were paid for these scalps, the colonists were working to remove the American Indian presence and take over their land. Furthermore, the original name was a European one used to describe Algonquins who painted their face with bright red ocher and bloodroot, consequently making their  face red with war paint. In addition, red is the most common color used by Native Americans in painting their skin. According to Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians by Ronal P. Koch, â€Å"Red is generally accepted as being one of the colors most easily available to and most used by Indians for decorative and ceremonial purposes.† In recent developments, the Non-Disparagement of Native American Persons or Peoples in Trademark Registration Act of 2013 (H.R. 1278) introduced by U.S. Congressman Eni Faleomavaega of the Territory of American Samoa states that this bill would require cancellation of existing trademark registrations for trademarks using the term â€Å"redskin† in reference to Native Americans. It would also deny registration for new trademarks so using the term â€Å"redskin† would be deemed improper, the bill has begun to pick up steam and has garnered nation wide support through the backings of Native Americans and Non-Native American organizations in advocating an end to the use of the term â€Å"redskin† which constitutes a racial slur and is disparaging, derogatory, demeaning, and offensive to Native Americans. According to the United States House of Representative’s website, documented in a letter to Members of Congress, the National Congress of American Indians (NC AI) which is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving tribal governments and communities recently stated: This legislation will accomplish what Native American people, nations, and organizations have tried to do in the courts for almost twenty years – end the racist epithet that has served as the [name] of Washington’s pro football franchise for far too long. The Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism (TICAR) asserts that the â€Å"R-word† is â€Å"hurtful and injurious to our youth, as well as the entire Native American population.† Accordingly, the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA) affirms: The term has never been acceptable in the Native community and causes harm to the collective self-esteem and status of American Indians in the larger society. . . What should be viewed as a national embarrassment has somehow turned into a  celebrated namesake for a national sport? Further, the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST) sustains that: Our organization supports the goal of ridding the sports world of the disparaging name of the Washington pro football franchise. There is no question that this is a racist term that causes harm and injury, whether or not it is intended to do so, and must not be tolerated in decent society. As well as, the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET) expresses: Overcoming the social challenges resulting from industry branding and media exposure has taken generations for other groups. Native communities are on a similar journey. In our work to protect and promote our sovereignty rights at all levels, existing stereotypes, bigotry, and racist views about our people often get in the way of progress. This legislation will assist Tribes in promoting an understanding of American Indian culture, positive images of Indian Country, the effects of historic trauma, and the modern-day successes and challenges Tribes face as we seek to improve the standard of living within our communities. In addition to the above organizations, there are 50 other organizations that have either pledged their support for this bill or rejected the use of the term ‘Redskin,’ among them are the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, the Oneida Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the National Indian Youth Council, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the National Indian Education Association, the National American Indian House Council as well as a long laundry list of other notable organizations. Second, the stereotypical Indian images in American pop culture known as â€Å"Tribalism,† as Ruth Hopkins, a columnist for the Indian Country Today Media Network concedes â€Å"as a mainstream trend largely based on false, stereotypical notions of who indigenous people are has become a pop culture phenomenon.† Among those are celebutantes, pop princesses and hipster  wannabes have been wearing obtrusive, exaggerated war bonnets and headdresses, wearing â€Å"war paint,† and playing dress up in Native American â€Å"inspired† costumes in record numbers. She goes on to illustrate that the perpetuation of stereotypical images of Native peoples is unacceptable and discriminatory for a plethora of reasons. (Hopkins) Clearly, Non-natives who wear American Indian costumes are pretending to be someone of another race. Those who play â€Å"dress up† by wearing an American Indian costume, headdress or war bonnet are not only failing to acknowledge the existence of over 500 recognized Native nations, each separate and distinct from one another, they are making light of centuries of suffering, oppression and massacre endured by the indigenous people of this country. Enforcing racial stereotypes of Native peoples as savages in characterless feathers and fringe also perpetuates the myth that American Indians are not active members of modern society and casts them aside to make them feel further disrespected and unworthy as a depleted and lost society. (Hopkins) Actually, not all American Indian tribes include war bonnets or headdresses as part of their traditional insignia. Of those who do, headdresses and war bonnets were worn by men, and have nothing to do with fashion or the sexual objectification of women. Hopkins expresses that â€Å"each eagle feather contained in a war bonnet is individually earned, often bestowed upon the owner through ceremony, and represents a significant event or acknowledged act of bravery, leadership, or self-sacrifice.† Much less, powerful, respected American Indian men with a history of valor who are leaders in their Tribal community specifically wear war bonnets. In other words, the only people who should be wearing war bonnets are chiefs or well respected warriors, such as Tatanka Iyotanka or Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota not these so-called reality stars such as Chloe Kardashian, or the pop star Ke$ha. It’s sad and pathetic that such an inconsiderate display would be similar to th e wearing of a war bonnet by someone who hasn’t earned it. (Hopkins) Because many people have such a limited knowledge of Indians, Native Americans are arguably, among the most misunderstood ethnic groups in the United States. Native Americans are also among the most isolated groups. What people know is limited by their sources of information and,  unfortunately, much of the information about Indians is derived from popular culture. Stereotyping is a poor substitute for getting to know individuals at a more intimate, meaningful level. By relying on stereotypes to describe Native Americans, whites come to believe that Indians are drunks, get free money from the government, and are made wealthy from casino revenue. Or they may believe that Indians are at one with nature, deeply religious, and wise in the ways of spirituality. Indeed, American mainstream media have always tended to distort Native American images. In a research conducted by Liu & Zhang on the representation of Native Americans in pop culture, â€Å"the film Dances with Wolves; the radio and TV Western, The Lone Ranger; and the novel, by Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, are just a handful of TV shows ad movies that present negative or romanticized images of American Indians, either nasty or cruel, or subservient and short, but all disappearing.† For instance, the fabricated Indian images on TV and in the Hollywood films influence the identity formation of individual Native Americans. Consequently, Hollywood and TV have created simulated Indians and have played and replayed these images so many times that the Indian viewers take them as real. These romantic and stoic characters hardly speak in the films; nor do they get heard. Especially, Liu & Zhang point out the discrepancies that in Hollywood films and TV plays, Indians ar e paid to die, to fall off the horse, to confirm the â€Å"Vanishing Noble Savage† stereotype, so endings are important. Further propagating that these stereotypical images can be seen in the â€Å"westerns† movies and even in some cartoons such as Peter Pan. Moreover, other stereotypical images showed them with painted faces smoking peace pipes, dancing around a totem pole (at times with a captive tied to it), sending up smoke signals, wearing feathered head pieces, scalping the heads of their enemies and constantly chanting the word â€Å"um† promotes a damaging misconception and negative inferences towards Native Americans. With regards to discrimination, when the highly popular Twilight series received the Hollywood treatment, Taylor Lautner played the Native American character Jacob Black and his casting became steeped in controversy. As Dow points out that â€Å"Lautner’s presence seemed out of sync with Hollywood’s recent pro-Indian stance. Lautner claimed to have discovered his Indian  ancestry after being cast. Actions like this show film producers’ hesitance to hire an actor in spite of the character’s ethnicity. Rick Mora, an actor who resides in California, who plays a Native American in T wilight disagrees with the casting of Taylor: â€Å"There is plenty of Native talent in town (Hollywood) to play that role.† Furthermore, she yields that the movie could be â€Å"applauded for representing Natives as more than simply a dying race, instead appearing onscreen as people with their own unique personalities.† For some younger viewers this may be their first contact with Native American culture, so acknowledging Indians as Americans on screen was an achievement on the part of Hollywood. In addition, the summer release of X-men Origins: Wolverine in 2009 and the highly popular character Silver Fox made her first onscreen appearance in the movie series. In the original comics, Silver Fox is described as a Native Canadian Black Foot. The character is to be played by Caucasian actress Lynn Collins, and the decision to cast a white actress has upset many fans of the comics. Hollywood producers have also decided to change her name to the more American-sounding Kayla Silverfox. Clearly, not only does Hollywood still find it difficult to include a Native American in a blockbuster, but also they e ven refuse to leave the traditional ethnic names intact. (Dow) Whereas names, images, and mascots that symbolize Native Americans are used extensively in the United States, particularly in sports and advertising. In sports there are the Washington Redskins football team, the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians baseball teams, and the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team. Fans of the Atlanta Braves use the â€Å"tomahawk chop† accompanied by a chant to intimidate visiting teams, while the Cleveland Indians use the mascot Chief Wahoo and the University of Illinois uses the mascot Chief Illiniwek. As a result, Native Americans across the country have been protesting the use of their symbols and heritage in sports arenas for over a decade. Most particular in the realm of professional sports, these protests have not generated significant changes in attitudes and practices. As an illustration, Hatfield designates that logos used by the Washington football team and the Cleveland and Atlanta baseball teams are offensive for many reasons, as are the logos formerly used by Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois. (They are no longer used because the NCAA banned teams with racist names and ma scots from post-season play.) He implies that  these logos appropriate the identities of Native Americans, many of whose languages and cultures have been destroyed by Euro-Americans. They take sacred religious symbols from Native American cultures – eagle feathers, face paint, and peace pipes – belittle them, and exploit them for the commercial and entertainment purposes of Americans. And they perpetuate outdated, demeaning stereotypes of Native Americans that make it difficult for Native Americans to represent themselves as part of contemporary American society.  Be that as it may, these logos reduce Native Americans to savages, to defeated enemies who have been â€Å"erased† from today’s world. Indian mascots objectify and commercialize Native Americans and their cultures. Cigar store Indians were used as advertisements to sell tobacco. Urban Outfitters used Navajo patterns to sell clothes, at least until lawyers representing the Navajo Nation filed suit against them and won an i njunction forcing them to stop. (Hatfield) Other nicknames of professional and college teams, such as Indians, Braves, Chiefs, and Seminoles may not in themselves be offensive. However, the portrayal of these words is often very demeaning. For example, the 1995 World Series, the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves, with Chief Wahoo as the mascot for the Cleveland team and the â€Å"tomahawk chop† exemplified by fans of the Atlanta team, portrayed Native Americans in an extremely degrading manner. Suzan Shown Harjo, Director of the Morning Star Institute, says that this portrayal of Native Americans is â€Å"racist, derogatory, demeaning, pejorative, offensive and ignorant at best.† On the other hand, Dr. Cornel Pewewardy, a visiting scholar in the Department of Education at Cameron University, has written extensively about the struggle of unlearning ‘Indian Stereotypes’ for both Native Americans and non-Native Americans as learned from the demeaning public portrayal of the American Indian through mascots, the movie, Pocahontas, and the â€Å"tomahawk chop.† Being that there are 62 high schools that use the name Redskins, the term has vanished from the collegiate landscape. Accordi ng to Capital News Service, â€Å"the last two colleges that used Redskins changed the name in the late 1990s. Miami University of Ohio changed from the Redskins to RedHawks in 1997 and the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm dropped the name in 1999. If the two universities had not changed their name by 2006, they would have been unable to play in the postseason under a NCAA policy adopted in 2005 that bans the use of Native American mascots by sports teams during its tournaments.† The postseason ban convinced colleges with mascots like Braves, Indians and Savages to become the Red Wolves, War Hawks, Mustangs or Savage Storm. In view of the fact, the CNS denotes that the policy made an exception for teams that have the consent of local Native American tribes like the Florida State University Seminoles. At the high school level, there is no single national sports organization like the NCAA to pressure schools to abandon Native American mascots. But officials in a growing number of states are taking similar steps as the NCAA to force schools to change. Wisconsin passed in 2010 the nation’s first state law banning public schools from using Native American names, mascots and logos. It left exceptions for schools that had the approval of local Native American tribes. In 2012, the Oregon State Board of Education issued a ruling banning all Native American team names, mascots and logos. Affected sc hools must comply by 2017 or risk losing state funding. Alternatively, according to Munson, â€Å"Indian† logos and nicknames create, support and maintain stereotypes of a race of people. She asserts that when one or many of society’s institutions support such cultural abuse, it constitutes institutional racism. Further, the logos, along with other societal abuses and stereotypes separate, marginalize, confuse, intimidate and harm Native American children. They create barriers to their learning throughout their school experience. Additionally, the logos teach non-Native American children that it’s all right to participate in culturally abusive behavior. Children spend a great deal of their time in school, and schools have a significant impact on their emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual development. As long as such logos remain, both Native American and non-Native American children are learning to tolerate racism in our school. Understanding the history of Native Americans is important to understanding why this is such a controversial topic. The Native American community for 50 years has worked to banish images and names like Chief Wahoo, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Braves. It is important to remind people of the cognizant use of the symbols’ resemblance to other historic, racist images of the past. She adds that Native Americans struggled to survive in harsh situations. The support of these mascots only  brings back memories of their ancestors and the suffering and pain they went through for their children and grandchildren. The debate is about more than sports teams and what they call themselves; it is about how Americans treat one another. It is about the respect that different ethnic groups have for those different than themselves in terms of history, physical characteristics, values, and most importantly, emotions. (Munson) In essence, I have came to the conclusion that the Washington Redskins were originally known as the Newark Tornadoes and then the Boston Braves. Most accounts can agree that team owner George Preston Marshall changed the franchise name from the Boston Braves to the Boston Redskins in 1933 to recognize then coach, William â€Å"Lone Star† Dietz. Dietz, who claimed half-German, half-Sioux background, embraced what he perceived to be a Native American heritage. So, since many Native Americans are outraged about the symbolization of Native Americans in sports and advertising, and since society would not tolerate equivalent symbols of other minorities, it is clear that Native Americans are discriminated against, regardless of how others may feel about the matter–and that their civil rights are violated by such racial discrimination. These are important reasons for eradicating the use of Native American names in sports, advertising, and elsewhere. Consequently, Native American organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) are making a strong push through legal action in a bid to force the Washington Redskins to change their name. Most notable of these cases are Pro Football vs. Harjo and Blackhorse v. Pro-Football, Inc. that have made strong efforts in the fight against the discrimination of Native Americans. Works Cited Hatfield, Dolph L. â€Å"The Stereotyping of Native Americans.† The Humanist Sept. 2000: 43. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 15 July 2013. Washington, d.c.—members of congress urge snyder and the national football league to change the washington team’s name. (2013, May 28). Retrieved from http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/as00_faleomavaega/eniredskins.html Miller, Jackson B. â€Å"Indians, Braves, And Redskins: A Performative Struggle For Control Of An Image.† Quarterly Journal Of Speech 85.2 (1999): 188. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 July 2013. Soong, Kelyn. â€Å"The Other Redskins.† . Capital News Service. Web. 15 Jul 2013. . Koch, Ronald P. Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians. University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. Examination of the design and construction of Plains Indian formal †¦ www.minnesotahumanities.org/Teachers/3-04plains.htm Hopkins, Ruth. â€Å"Indian Country Today Media Network.†Tribalism as Pop Culture Phenomenon and the Perpetuation of Offensive American Indian Stereotypes. N.p., 19 Aug 2011. Web. 14 Jul 2013. . Liu, Kedong, and Hui Zhang. Self- and Counter-Representations of Native Americans: Stereotypical Images of and New Images by Native Americans in Popular Media. Harbin Institute of Technology, China, n.d. Web. 15 Jul 2013. . Dow, Madeline. â€Å"Race, Gender, and Mass Media Blog.†Native American Portrayal in Cinema. N.p., 06 Nov 2012. Web. 14 Jul. 2013. . Munson, Barabara. Common Themes and Questions About the Use of â€Å"Indian† Logos. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jul 2013. .

Postmodernism and Politics Essay

Postmodernism has revealed how science has been political largely because of how postmodernism approaches science, for instance. Postmodern thought does not consider the scientific method as the sole basis for determining the truth or understanding the world as there are many other approaches which, for all we know, may also be more or less valid (Cole, Hill & Rikowski, 1997, p. 189). In doing so, postmodernism views the scientific method as one of the reasons why science has dominated not only the academic circles but the bastion of human knowledge in its entirety. Basically, anything that has been established by the methods of science has been collectively understood as the truth or the closest that we can get to truth (Mirchandani, 2005, p. 93). The result is simply staggering—science has become power itself in shaping the course of human civilization. One example is how the development of the atomic bomb through careful scientific research and experiment has led the way to the contemporary proliferation of nuclear power. Countries have become all the more powerful because of their possession of nuclear armaments that could easily wipe away the threats to their sovereignty. Another example is the way in which science has created technological means for hastening the production and distribution of goods across geographical boundaries. The scientific advancement in terms of cyber technology and the internet has contributed to the increase in the capabilities of local and global businesses. In effect, large corporations have gained more ways to expand their wealth and, therefore, their influence over governments. Postmodernism has made all of these circumstances clearer than before although critics point out that postmodernism merely reveals the power of science and the other ways of explaining why science has gained such wide influence over various societies (Lee, 1999, p. 744). In essence, postmodernism has revealed the breadth of the influence and power of science over humanity inasmuch as science has largely contributed to the assimilation of political power and force over the years. Other ways may be developed in explaining how science has behaved in more recent times in changing the political landscape of the world, but postmodernism will agree that those ways do not necessarily stand of lesser significance than the scientific approaches. References Cole, M. , Hill, D. , & Rikowski, G. (1997). Between Postmodernism and Nowhere: The Predicament of the Postmodernist. British Journal of Educational Studies, 45(2), 187-200. Lee, J. (1999). The Utility of a Strategic Postmodernism. Sociological Perspectives, 42(4), 739-753. Mirchandani, R. (2005). Postmodernism and Sociology: From the Epistemological to the Empirical. Sociological Theory, 23(1), 86-115.

Nau company

Ana Innovating for Social Consciousness By Alex Claws Can a for-profit enterprise succeed if its main innovation is valuing social consciousness as much as shareholder returns? The question is particularly relevant in a time of high gas prices and a growing sense that our current consumption of natural resources is simply unsustainable. The founders of Ana, a fledgling retail outerwear company, believed the answer to this question to be a resounding mimes. Built with an unprecedented level of environmental, social, and human-rights unconsciousness, by April 2008 Ana was an underground success on the West Coast, opening five stores and a website selling critically acclaimed clothing collections. Then, at the beginning of May, Nan's board of directors voted to shut down the company. Viewed through Insight's lenses, Nan's promise becomes clear-?along with the perils that led to its downfall. Ana had a reasonable business model built around a well-defined Job-to-be-done. But as will beco me clear, Ana didn't follow an emergent strategy.And Nan's management discovered that a business model that looks good on paper doesn't always translate into immediate profits. Ultimately, a lack of careful execution and a push for quick expansion doomed Nan's first incarnation. But the story of Ana is still unfolding. Ana 2. 0 is currently underway, and that venture appears to have a better chance of success. The Launch Ana (Maori for â€Å"welcome†) began with the dream of Eric Reynolds, an outdoor enthusiast entrepreneur, co-founder (in 1974) of outerwear brand Marmot, and subscriber to the belief that a single individual can have an impact on the world.In the summer of 2003, Reynolds conceived of Ana, a sustainable clothing company that would donate a significant portion of its revenue to nonprofit organizations. Specifically, Reynolds envisioned customers presented with a unique question at point-of-sale: â€Å"To which organization should ‘my five percent' go? â €  By giving five percent of its revenue to nonprofits, Ana would break new ground. (For comparison, the most generous corporations give away one percent of revenue, with the average corporation giving less than . 05 percent. ) In the summer of 2004, Reynolds began recruiting a management team.In 2005, he hired a number of individuals away from Patagonia, a firm commonly considered a leader in outerwear, social consciousness, ND charitable giving. Chris Van Dyke (son of actor Dick Van Dyke), an ex-Nikkei employee 1 and ex-Patagonia vice president of branding and marketing, was hired as CEO. Mark Calibrating, a successful Patagonia designer, Joined Ana as lead designer. Patagonians director of marketing, Ian Yells, Joined as vice president of marketing. Nan's commitment to sustainability framed the constraints within which Calibrating worked as he designed Nan's clothing collection.Calibrating avoided any materials that weren't renewable or recyclable while seeking a balance betwe en performance, sustainability, and style. As a result, nearly all of the 30 fabrics utilized in Nan's clothing collection were custom materials developed specifically for Ana. The fabrics -?made from corn, recycled plastic bottles, 100 percent organic wool, and recycled synthetics-?set a new standard for sustainability. Nan's clothing creation process led to a number of innovations, including the elimination of solvent-based adhesives.The efforts of Calibrating and his team were rewarded-?Nan's first collection received critical praise from such disparate sources as Men's Vogue and Rock and Ice magazines. One downside: The fabric choices greatly constrained the range of colors possible, resulting in mostly drab hues. Nan's custom fabrics also required that customers pay a substantial premium for their clothing, but Nan's management team did not see this as a problem for its target customer segments: the affluent â€Å"multidimensional outdoor athlete,† the â€Å"new activis t,† and â€Å"creative. The Ana team expected that their customers' passion for sustainability would overcome any price resistance. Nan's commitment to sustainability was enforced as carefully in its stores as in its clothing. The company eschewed traditional 4,000-square-foot retail stores for a 2,000-square-foot â€Å"Webfoot† concept. The store spaces were long and narrow, designed purposefully with limited space for inventory that would be restocked twice weekly. Ana also offered customers a 10 percent discount and free shipping if they were willing to try clothing in the store, and then purchase it online.Assembled from a modular, prefabricated design, each store featured energy-saving lighting and leveraged materials such as reclaimed timber, toxin-free fiberboard, and recycled resin (for mannequins). Customers were offered a choice of 12 carefully selected environmental, social, and humanitarian nonprofit organizations, and five percent of the purchase price was donated to the chosen group. Nan's values extended to its real estate leasing strategy as well-?Ana only leased store space that was LED-certified (LED certification indicates environmental- and health-consciousness standards).The company also set a minimum age limit for the workers at its overseas material suppliers. Nan's principles included the constraint that the highest-paid worker within the company could only earn a maximum of 12 mimes the lowest-paid employee's salary. Finally, Ana did not invest in marketing or public relations beyond a series of websites, choosing instead to rely on word-of- mouth, a more â€Å"sustainable† form of marketing in the eyes of Yells and his team.While Ana managed to be remarkably consistent in the infusion of its values into its processes, one of the key factors in its eventual downfall was that the company had a difficult time securing financing. At least one investor's legal counsel balked at a contract clause that placed the â€Å" needs of society' equal to the â€Å"needs of shareholders,† but Ana held firm. 2 Nan's business plan called for it to earn more than $250 million in revenue in 2010 and to achieve profitability in 2009 or 2010, figures based on opening four stores in 2007, 20 stores in 2008, and 150 stores by 2010.To build the necessary momentum toward these goals, Ana needed at least $51 million in funding. By the end of 2006, Ana had raised $24 million, largely from â€Å"super angels,† individual investors who included the chairman of Seagate Technology, Steve Lucid, and Stephen Gomez, Nan's chairman and a former Nikkei corporate vice president. Despite the fact that Ana had only reached half of its funding goal, the first Ana store penned in Boulder, Colorado, in January 2007, with three more successful store openings following during the year in Adulating, Oregon; Chicago; and Bellevue, Washington.Ana completed its first year of operation in 2007 with 92 employees, four clothing collections, and four stores. In March 2008, Ana donated $223,000 to its 12 nonprofit organizations, implying 2007 sales of around $4. 5 million. In mid-April, Ana opened its fifth store in Los Angels. In late April 2008, despite raising an additional $10 million in funding, Ana announced that it would scale back its store- peeing plans to a total of five in 2008, down from an already-reduced projection of 10.Finally, on May 1, Nan's board of directors voted to â€Å"wind down its business operations,† citing â€Å"insurmountable financial obstacles. † All inventory was liquidated at 50 percent off and the stores were closed. Post-mortem interviews with Nan's executives suggest that the company was approximately $5 million to $10 million short of the funds needed to sustain its operations and open additional stores towards its goal of profitability.In the days following the decision, many customers commented on Nan's blob, expressing sadness, frustration, and anger and questioning why Ana had failed. Ana: The Post-Mortem Looking at Ana through Insight's business model innovation framework and a number of Insight lenses offers insight into how Ana developed such a devoted following as well as how the management team might have been able to ensure a brighter future for their company. Insight believes that business model innovation is one of the most powerful ways for organizations to achieve new growth.By carefully adjusting business model components-?the customer value proposition (the offering itself), the profit system (how the company creates value for itself), key resources (the critical things required to deliver on the value proposition), and key processes (how the company organizes and acts to deliver on the value proposition) -?organizations can build the type of competitive advantage necessary to create truly transformation growth. Nan's business model looked good-?on paper, at least.But Nan's impatient push for profits made it hard to re ally validate whether the business model would in fact work, and shut all opportunities for learning. Ana pulled the customer value proposition lever expertly. The company created potently positive solutions to a number of emotional, social, and functional Jobs-to- be-done. The sustainability of Nan's operations and products set a new standard of satisfaction for the emotional Job â€Å"Feel good about 3 the environmental and social consciousness of my clothing. Nan's clothing also satisfied the social Job â€Å"Convey to others that I prioritize the sustainability of my clothing over its color and flash. † And, as lauded by Rock and Ice magazine, Nan's clothing also satisfied myriad functional Jobs related to comfort and technical performance. Since its sustainable materials carried up to a 20-percent price premium over more commercially available materials, Ana had to pass the premium along to customers.But Nan's management team was correct in assuming that the high qualit y and the redeeming social and environmental value of its clothing Justified that premium in the eyes of customers -?as long as the economy was robust enough that sufficient customers could afford it. And Ana broke new ground with its â€Å"Webfoot† stores by implementing a retail business model that required lower capital and operational expenditures than a traditional retail store model. But there was a significant downside to Nan's profit-system choices.Insight recommends that new ventures â€Å"be patient for growth, impatient for profit. † Nan's management expected the company to have 150 stores in operation by 2010, but did not expect profitability until 2009 at the earliest. Growth was thus essential to profitability, creating a significant risk of failure if the company could not reach its early-stage funding goals. Insight also recommends that new ventures pursue an emergent strategy, to take small steps by conducting inexpensive tests of its key assumptions a bout the new racket.When the test results are in, the venture can analyze the results, adjust its strategy accordingly, and then conduct additional tests. This careful approach helps new ventures optimize for success while avoiding huge, potentially fatal resource commitments. In Nan's case, an emergent strategy might have enabled the firm to consume its funding more slowly while developing an optimal strategy. Instead, the team decided to go straight to launching full Webfoot's rather than testing the clothing line in a department store or opening a single, test-store concept.The root cause for the failure of Ana 1. 0 seems to have been that Nan's business strategy and some of its business model decisions proved questionable. By following a more careful, emergent strategy and by focusing on profitability before growth, Nan's executives might have been able to strike a better balance between vision and execution. Ana 2. 0: On June 24, 2008, Nan's fortunes turned around. Horny Toad A ctivities, a Santa Barbara-based lifestyle clothing company, stepped in to buy Nan's assets with the goal of re-launching a modified version of Ana by late summer. While â€Å"Ana 2. † Is gust beginning to emerge, early signs suggest that the re-launch will follow a strategy more closely aligned to that which Insight would recommend for success. Horny Toad creates and sells men's and women's lifestyle and outerwear clothing. Horny Toad's tagging, â€Å"every day is an adventure,† introduces a humorous, irreverent, socially-conscious approach that lies at the core of everything the company does. Indeed, Horny Toad and Ana have much in common. Horny Toad's stated commitment to â€Å"lightening its environmental footprint† and to 4 supporting both the community and organizations that improve the world immediately suggest synergies.Much as Ana showcased the organizations chosen for customer contributions, the Horny Toad website highlights its support for causes rang ing from helping adults with developmental disabilities to supporting clean energy, with a wide range of other environmental and community-activist organizations in between. However, in contrast to Nan's commitment to sell its clothing solely through a growing number of its own stores, Horny Toad has only two stores and sells its clothing in a wide variety of online and brick-and-mortar retailers. In addition to a store inFreeport, Maine, Horny Toad runs the â€Å"Lizard Lounge† in Portland, Oregon, complete with music, wireless access, coffee, and ping-pong. Horny Toad clothing has been lauded for its hip funkiness by print publications and blobs alike. Recognizing the similarities between Ana and Horny Toad, Horny Toad felt that it would support its motto â€Å"do well by doing good† by purchasing Nan's assets and hiring its leadership to help re-launch the clothing line. In addition to providing financial support, Horny Toad will sell Ana clothing in the Lizard Loun ge and, in a break from Nan's original treated, through other retailers as well.And, with Horny Toad's support, a percentage of Ana sales will continue to go to worthy non-profits. According to Nan's â€Å"Thought Kitchen† blob, shortly after the relationship was finalized Ana leadership began working to resurrect relationships with company partners and to put together a Fall/Holiday clothing collection in time for October availability. While the Ana clothing line will continue to deliver on the â€Å"Beauty, Performance, and Sustainability' commitment through the use of environmentally friendly and socially conscious trials and methods, a quote from Nan's website gets to the heart of why Ana 2. May very well succeed while 1. 0 failed: â€Å"As we move forward with the re-launch of Ana, you'll definitely recognize us, but we intend to do some things differently†¦ We're going to start small and grow the business organically in relationship to the demand for our product. We'll continue to sell our product at Ana. Com, but we're also going to partner with select retailers who share our common goals. We will not be operating our own retail stores, at least not in the near term†¦ So stay tuned. We're coming back. Smaller and a little wiser, our ambitions tempered a bit by the experience, but our passions most definitely intact. Ana 2. G's strategy will most likely enable the brand to focus more closely on identifying the product, marketing, and channel mix that appeals most to customers, without worrying about the pressures of rapid expansion. Particularly in a new venture, vision and passion tempered by patience and pragmatism is the way to go. This approach is also particularly appropriate in these tough economic times. Satisfying social and emotional Jobs-to-be-done around environmental friendliness ND social consciousness may be enough to earn significant premiums for clothing in a strong economy.However, during an economic downturn, financia l reality frequently wins out as consumers prioritize value over the satisfaction of some social and emotional Jobs. 5 For example, since the economy began to sour, Whole Foods Market has seen some of its consumers move their food spending to more budget-friendly alternatives. Whole Foods has responded by shifting its marketing strategy from a focus on quality and environmental friendliness to an emphasis on discounts, store brands, and reduce value as it attempts to keep its customers.Even if Ana 1. 0 had received enough funding earlier in 2008 to continue operations, economic conditions would likely have pushed the enterprise to the breaking point, as has happened with many other fledgling clothing boutiques. When Ana 1. 0 launched, its management team made an impressive commitment to the company's values, taking steps such as tracing the wool used in its clothing back to the sheep to ensure that they were well-treated and implementing a â€Å"sustainable† word-of-mouth mar keting strategy.To launch the new Ana, it is clear that the team as had to compromise on some of its values, such as the control provided by company-owned storefronts, a grassroots-only marketing effort, and potentially the level of contribution to nonprofits. In the end, however, the Ana 2. 0 strategy, with the help of Horny Toad, may be the key to enabling the company's sustainable operation. Making their operations as sustainable as their values will help ensure that Ana is able to be a force for good in the world for a long time to come. For more information: http://www. Ana. Com/coming-this-fall. HTML (Accessed 8/29/08, 1 :41 pm) http:// www. Gibbousness. Com/CGI-bin/magma/article. Pl? Articled=30412; http:// gratifiers. Com/content/fullest/? Acid=50781 6 Innovator's Insight In Need of an Innovation Fill-up By Stephen Hunker Recent news that Consulship's will be selling all 600 of its U. S. Service stations for $800 million comes as little surprise. Oil companies are facing ext raordinarily attractive investment opportunities in exploration and production, and the service station business has been tightly squeezed between rising wholesale costs, inability to pass along those cost increases, and falling demand as driving declines.Clearly the station's buyer-?closely held Peterson Fuel-?sees it differently. We do too. In our view, Peterson Fuel is buying cheap assets with lots of innovation headroom. While â€Å"stick to your knitting† is a popular business maxim, it is of course common to find diversified businesses. There are several reasons diversification can make sense: ; If the new business can share costs and customers with the core business-? in this case, owning both enterprises can provide scale economies, improve distribution, create a better buying experience, and other advantages.This is why many European parameters have service stations outside their doors, for example. ; If the new business provides a useful hedge against a core with vo latile returns but a need for consistent investment. This explains why many pharmaceutical firms own over-the-counter consumer healthcare brands. ; By diversifying, a firm can hold on to a seemingly unrelated business because it sees substantial headroom for growth and a right to triumph in that arena. This is one reason News Corporation bought Namespace. Historically, oil companies owned service stations for each of these reasons.The end nonuser drove demand, and having direct access to that consumer allowed firms to exercise some control over demand levels while also gaining precise information about what products were demanded where. Profits from service stations could offset volatility in exploration and production. Also, the advent of convenience stores at service stations created a new high-margin business. Each of these Justifications for integration now seems threatened by changes such as improved information technology, more efficient capital markets, and communication of t he service station experience.With supermarket-owned service stations now coming to the United States, oil companies face new competitors who may even sell gasoline at a loss in order to drive traffic into their stores. In the I-J, pressure from supermarkets is a factor leading to the net closure of 600 service stations per year. The service station business is looking much less attractive than it used to. So, what might Peterson Fuel be thinking? We imagine two major Justifications for the investment. First, if oil prices decline, the profit margins on service stations may rise, and Peterson will have bought valuable assets for a song.Second, there may be much more innovation headroom in this business than oil companies have traditionally assumed. For instance, Fullness Media International offers local news, weather, and sports on screens at pumps at a few hundred stations. Fullness pays the retailer and shows ads to this highly captive audience. Shell is experimenting with fuel pu mps that are activated simply by a swipe of a fingerprint. Dutch inventors have created a robotic arm that finds a car's fuel cap, unscrews it, and automatically pumps gas. Regional fuel retailer Sheets differentiates itself through premium coffee and made- o-order sandwiches.Another retailer, Valier, is piloting 5,000-square-foot convenience stores with fully nonwhite of the space dedicated to fresh food and other perishables. Oil companies would be well-served by thinking through how well the jobs of their customers are getting done, and whether they can De-commoditized the service station business through new propositions or re-definition of the competitive set. Looking through this lens, we can imagine how a mother could prefer a certain service station because it offers very fast, targeted entertainment for bored children n the back seat, or how a senior might prefer one with very brightly lit displays.The advent of electric- and fuel-cell-powered vehicles opens further possibi lities for using service station real estate in new ways. Look at how Best Buy reconciled what an electronics retailer could be, and how it escaped industry communication in the process. While Wall-Mart and others cut prices ruthlessly, Best Buy rolled out Geek Squad-?a service tightly integrated with its retailing business that addressed a wide swath of unsatisfied Jobs its customers faced post-sale. It also became a place to try new videotapes. The store is even trying to become a hub for musicians buying electric guitars and other gear.In the process, the company increased revenue 92 percent over five years, almost entirely through internally generated growth. It turned out that electronics retailing wasn't a commodity business at all. Sometimes a dog business is Just a dog business. MM spun off its floppy disk and magnetic tape business in 1996, and that turned out to be a smart move. But we find it hard to believe that there is little room for profitable innovation in a retail business that hundreds of millions consumers have to visit on a regular basis.When the finance people come knocking, looking to sell downtrodden assets and invest the proceeds in high-flying businesses, lock the doors for a bit. The business may indeed have few prospects. On the other hand, it may support the core business in many oblique but important ways, and it may have far more innovation headroom left to exploit. – â€Å"Consulship's Will Sell Its Company-owned Service Stations†, by Brett Clayton, Houston Chronicle, August 27, 2008 (http://www. Chronic. Com/disk/story. Ml/business/energy/5969574. HTML) 8 â€Å"Finding the Right Job for your Product†, by Clayton Christensen, Scott Anthony, Gerald Brewster and Denies Meetinghouse, Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007 (http://www. Insight. Com/innovation_resources/research. HTML? Id=167) 9 Innovators' Update A Good Start for Amazon AMP Amazon's digital music store keeps sailing on the winds of industry change s Insight #98 from October 2007, â€Å"Handicapping Amazon's Low-Cost Music Store,† suggested that Amazon might find the results of its then newly launched music download store disappointing. What has happened since?By Renee Hopkins Callahan When Amazon launched its Amazon AMP online music download store in September 007, we were skeptical. At the time, Apple had sold more than 100 million pods and tunes had a lock on the online music market. Amazon AMP planned to sell music free of Digital Rights Management (DORM) protection-?a limited supply, since at the time only one of the four major music labels had agreed to make its music available without DORM protection. Amazon AMP seemed unlikely to succeed with a business model focused on undercutting tunes on price, selling songs for 89 cents instead of 99 cents.We were right that the low-cost strategy would not put much of a dent in the popularity of Tunes. Yet circumstances in the year since its launch have helped Amazon refine its strategy and offer a preview of possible success. According to NYPD Group research released in late July, tunes remains on top of the music retail pack. It is the largest music retailer in the world and it sells at least 90 percent of digital downloads in the U. S. However, the same research showed that Amazon AMP has grown to be the fourth-largest retailer of music in the U. S. , behind tunes, Walter, and Best Buy.That puts Amazon AMP in second place for online music download sales. And while here's still a huge gap in volume between tunes and Amazon AMP-?with Amazon's share of the market in single digits-?Amazon is in the game. However, Amazon hasn't accomplished that by stealing tunes customers. Russ Cropping, an entertainment industry analyst for NYPD, said in an April 2008 report that only about 10 percent of Amazon AMP customers used to be tunes users, with the other 90 percent likely to be people who had been using other services or were new to digital downloading.Amazon AMP attracts young adults age 18 to 25, while tunes' strongest demographic is teens age 13 to 17, another April 2008 study said. Amazon has likely benefited from winds of change blowing in the music industry. A number of analysts have speculated that the industry sees Amazon as an ally in an effort to break Apple's dominance in digital music. It would seem counterintuitive that the music industry would want to bypass its richest retail channel. But some of Apple's practices cut profits for the major labels.In late August, the Wall Street Journal reported on a growing trend in the music business: labels deliberately withholding some of their music from tunes. The article cites several cases in which albums were either not made available on Tunes or were pulled. Why? While consumers strongly prefer purchasing music by song, music label executives, managers and even some artists dislike the tunes policy that requires that music be made available by the song as well 10 as by the album, because profit margins for single-song sales aren't nearly as good as the margins for album sales.Meanwhile, Amazon AMP lets labels sell music the way they want to. If a label wishes to make an artist's work available only by the album, Amazon AMP allows it. Some of the music that the labels have been withholding from tunes is ending up on Amazon AMP. The DORM issue has worked to Amazon's benefit as well. Apple's tunes has historically sold Deteriorated downloads. Such encoding means that songs downloaded on tunes cannot be played on other AMP devices. Apple has worked to persuade the major labels to drop DORM, though it still seeks to keep tunes the only source of song downloads for the pod.At the time that Amazon AMP launched, only MIME, one of the four major music labels, had announced it would drop DORM protection on its music. By early January 2008, a few months after Amazon AMP launched, the three other major labels-universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMW- dro pped DORM. That meant their music could be made available on Amazon AMP, which does not use DORM, and which features free software that delivers a customer's AMP file directly to their tunes library.Meanwhile, according to a May 30 Macdonald magazine story, â€Å"Sony, Universal, and Warner continue to withhold the unencumbered tracks from Apple, choosing instead to back tuner's rivals. † Amazon may have more surprises up its virtual sleeve. In late July, Fortune magazine reported that Amazon was in talks with Namespace about becoming the social networking giant's download store partner hen it rolls out its highly anticipated Joint venture with Universal, Warner Music and Sony BMW in September.If the deal goes through, it puts Amazon in a good position to continue nipping at Apple's heels. According to the Fortune report, Namespace plans to let its 120 million users stream entire songs before downloading them. That potentially changes the convenience trade-off for the Namespa ce customers in Amazon's favor, because they would be able to buy a song and get it into their computer's music manager, even tunes, with one click using Amazon's software. Those who wanted to use tunes would have to leave Namespace and physically go to Tunes to accomplish the same end.Clearly, we underestimated the desire of other companies to develop a reasonable Number Two to Apple, a position that Amazon AMP seems to have grown into in the last year. If Amazon can figure out more ways to capitalize on its toehold position in the digital music business,

A comparison cultures of the Irish Travellers in Ireland, Great Research Paper

A comparison cultures of the Irish Travellers in Ireland, Great Britain and the United States and the preservation of their customs and language - Research Paper Example The common heritage will be explored first in order to discern the connection between these geographically distinct groups. A comparison across cultures will be made for various cultural aspects such as language, religion, society etc. This will aid in discerning how well preserved the Diaspora cultures are in respect to the original culture. HISTORICAL CONNECTION AND ORIGINS The origins of the Irish Travellers have been mired in mystery. Myriad theories and ideas exist as to the origin of the travellers. (Helleiner, 2003) Most scholars hold that the Travellers descended from landowners and labourers who were persecuted by Oliver Cromwell during his military campaign in Ireland. The numbers are speculated to have increased as the famines of the 1840’s forced more settled Irish people to join the ranks of the travellers. Another alternative theory sees the Travellers as a mix of Scottish Travellers and certain other gypsies from England from somewhere around the 1600’s. An even older view persists that the Irish Travellers are derivatives of nomadic groups that roamed Ireland as far back as the 5th century. By the 12th century these nomads assumed the names of â€Å"Tynkler† and â€Å"Tynker†. (O Riain, 2008) A unified social system is seen to have emerged but the exact details of such a social system remain sketchy. The Irish Travellers were not and are not a highly learned group so historical records are neither stored nor transmitted. Gaps in each of the theories presented above indicate that no theory can be seen as a culmination of the origins. Instead, the Travellers can be seen as a dynamically changing social group. Various influences such as the ones presented above have impacted the group’s cultural outlook. Changes in transport aided the Travellers in crossing regular geographical boundaries. Consequently the travellers continued to move to Britain and North America till immigration laws allowed. The resulting groups in various geographical boundaries offer commonly shared and unique perspectives that are analysed below in context of a common culture. Baseline Irish Traveller Culture The Irish Travellers are not ethnically distinct from the Irish people. Instead, the Irish Travellers are actually derived from the Irish people. However, the culture of the Irish Travellers is distinct and distinguished from regular Irish culture. The cultural development of the Irish Travellers has more or less occurred in isolation from popular Irish culture. There are streaks of some other cultural influences as listed above. These cultural influences include Christianity, Roma gypsies and localised influences on the Irish Traveller Diaspora. (O hAodha & Acton, 2007) An overview of common cultural traits of the Irish Travellers are provided below which will be used as a baseline to evaluate newer cultural developments of the Diaspora. Profession As mentioned before, the Irish Travellers were known as â€Å"Tynkers† which represents the prime profession of the travellers. The travellers were traditionally repairmen for tin pots and pans. Given that pot repair is not a regular function, the travellers would move about the countryside from settlement to settlement to repair utensils. This tendency produced a nomadic character while the profession became the identity of the trav ellers. The travellers became distinguished tin smiths but the dearth of work in one place caused them to be on the move. It is also mused that the travellers would purchase animals, often old ones in order to fulfil their nourishments needs. Thus they were also known as â€Å"knackers† in relation to their animal purchases. (Okely, 1983) Dealing in horses was a speciality of the Travellers. They

Project Management Mock Exam Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Project Management Mock Exam Paper - Essay Example â€Å"The benefit of utilising and understanding Belbin Team Roles is that not only do we learn more about ourselves, but also a lot about our work colleagues and how to get the best out of them† (â€Å"Belbin Team-Role Theory,† 2011, pgh. 3). In Belbin’s theory, his specified team roles help delineate what kind of worker each person is within a group setting at work. It is obvious from the â€Å"Belbin Team-Role Summary Sheet† that every individual contributing in a group—either as a plant, a resource investigator, a coordinator, a shaper, a monitor evaluator, a teamworker, an implementer, a completer finisher, or a specialist—has particular strengths and weaknesses (2011, pp. 1). ... Teamworkers are People-Oriented Roles. Teamworkers want to make the flow of the group smooth, and will do anything to be cooperative. In fact, they will go out of their way to make any project operate like a well-oiled machine. Teamworkers are diplomatic. Not only do they avoid friction and drama, but they try to build a team instead of break it down. Typical teamworkers will always try to repair any fractures within the infrastructure of the team. Teamworkers are good to have around because they are beneficial alliances in the event that other workers are upset with the manager. Specialists are Thought-Oriented Roles. Specialists are self-starting, dedicated types who evaluates research. Additionally, this person finds specialized information that is difficult to find. The weakness of a specialist is that he or she tends to get weighed down in technicalities. These prevent him or her from becoming an integral part of any team. Although the specialist’s skills are invaluable, he or she might have to be dropped from the team if he or she cannot get past the fact that it is important to coordinate with the other team members. Without doing this, the team will not be supported and could have other additional problems—thus ruining the teamwork. iii) Imagine an unbalanced team was formed in the group project, e.g. lack of one group type in the project team. What happens then? (329 words) Basically, Belbin’s theory of team-roles definitely seemed to make sense. Even in the face of an unbalanced team, various people can step up into place in order to take leadership in the team. One of the group members on the team who would be a specialist—having specific knowledge about the activity trying to be

Contemporary Theories of Political Economy Essay

Contemporary Theories of Political Economy - Essay Example The Second World War had a great impact on almost all the world economies as it led to greater spending and a need for more and more arms and ammunition. All of this led to the building of more and more industries, which made countries around the world tap and realise their industrial potential. The 1950s and 60s were a time when most economies began to understand the true power that they possessed in terms of both physical as well as mineral resources. This World War was termed as the age of anxiety – when people were running helter-skelter for their lives and wishing for their sons, husbands, and fathers to return from the war scene, as well as families growing and prospering in terms of consumer spending because of the incessant revelation of the need and desire for more and more things. Prior to the war, the country had thus been witnessing a boom in the economic sphere; this was because of the introduction of machines, tools and all kinds of equipments which were helping the primary, secondary as well as the tertiary sector of the economy to grow and develop. A number of changes were being brought into the economy as more and more women began working which helped labour and knowledge go hand in hand and get nurtured. Scientists began finding ways to implement their thoughts in terms of inventions and discoveries and with the help of machines, everything had become possible and people were beginning to realise that it was possible to achieve the American dream by just having access to some purchasing power and being able to spend money. However, it is only natural that every economic demand and supply structure can never remain a constant because the needs and wants of the people or the consumers change with time. Thus, the American economy too, began to witness a decline in the profits around the year 1968. Post the Second World War, profits related to industrialization began to see a close not only in America, but also in various parts of the world , because of the impact that the American economy had had on the various world economies. Various steps were taken in order to help the economy boost and find constancy in its establishment. For example, President Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ program helped to establish Keynesian economics within the American economy and stabilise it with respect to understand demand and supply of the consumers. However, since profits from industries and firms kept on decreasing, something had to be done in order to make changes and not let the economy decline to an extent that it would fall into a depression and not be able to recover from the depths of the same. In the year 1972 the then President, Richard Nixon, even took the dramatic step of pulling the American dollar off the Gold Standard; this was considered to be a very pragmatic step taken in order to move towards a fiat currency system which had been started in the 1910s. Back in the year 1933, President Roosev