...Assess functionalist views of the role of education (20 marks) There are multiple views in society of the education system. The first view is functionalist – they believe that the education system is positive. The second view is Marxism – they believe that education in negative. The final perspective is feminism and they believe that again education is a negative thing. Functionalists such as Durkheim believe that the education system is positive because it gives us a shared sense of belonging, he also believes that due to history in education we are all bonded together because we all share the same past. Moreover, he also said that education gives us social solidarity because we’re all functioning together in society due to education giving us specialised skills for the workforce and later life. Additionally, functionalists such as Parsons believe that education is vital because it’s a bridge from the family to society. He also believes that there is equality of opportunity in society and in education this means there is a meritocracy and social mobility. Moreover, he said that education encourages individual achievement and this achievement is measured by role allocation and setting. This means that those who do well in school (those in the top sets) will be pushed to go for the highest jobs. He also said that education develops a value consensus in society this means that society has a shared set of norms and values. Davis and Moore examined role allocation. They believe that...
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...Abstract The problem to be investigated is the role of corporation in society and its ethical influence on social responsibility. There have been arguments that capitalism and corporations are responsible for economic ills of the society. It is therefore necessary to understand the role of corporation and ethical influence if any. In other to address the problem stated above it is necessary to define what capitalism and corporation are, and give background insight through meaningful literature reviews. According to dictionary.com capitalism is an economic system in which investments, ownership and means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is driven and maintained mainly by private individuals or corporations, in contrast to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. A corporation on the other hand is a business organization created by its owners known as stockholders under authority of the law to exist continuously independent of its members; powers and liabilities (limited liability) separated from those of its members.(American Heritage Dictionary). The answer to the problem stated above may be embedded in the "not a cold mete or fallen from the sky" statement of Dr. Novak (Jennings, 2012, p.108). Role of Corporation In Society The problem to be investigated is the role of corporation in society and its ethical influence on social responsibility. There have been arguments that capitalism and corporations are responsible for economic ills of the...
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...of Marxism and other conflict theories of our understanding of society. Marxism is a useful conflict theory in helping us to understand why there was obedience, particularly in the past in society. Marx was seen as an economic determinist, as he believed that the functioning and running of society was based upon the economy. Because of this, Marx says that is why there was a divide between the proletariat (working class who have only their skills to sell) and the bourgeoisie (the ruling class who own the means of production). The bourgeoisie cannot operate without the proletariat, as they cannot produce products, and similarly the proletariat cannot operate without the bourgeoisie, as they need them so they can be paid a wage and feed their families. Therefore, even though the Bourgeoisie were exploiting the proletariat and the proletariat could have walked away to stop being exploited, they never walked away as they needed the money. On the other hand, this can be viewed from a different perspective. The reason why these people may have not left their jobs is because they could have been in a state of false consciousness, whereby they were unaware of their exploitation by the bourgeoisie. This helps us to understand society as the Marxism theory provides reasoning on how the bourgeoisie were able to exploit the proletariat, which in turn fuelled capitalism and allowed the ruling elite to maintain their profits. It is also relevant to today’s society, as it helps to explain why...
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...Asses the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interest of capitalism. Within sociology there are many different perspectives on the family. Each different perspective sees different things as the main role of the family. Marxists view the family in a very critical way. They believe that the main role of the family is to serve the interest of capitalism. They also believe that the family is seen as an institution which serves to maintain the position of the ruling class. Karl Marx's view on the capitalistic approach shows the unequal nature of the economic system. He shows how the middle and upper class take advantage of the working class and their labour; and that the working class are a tool used to create profit and to keep profit margins at acceptable levels. Marx also argues that the monogamous upper class nuclear family is developed to help solve the problem of the inheritance of private property. The men needed to know who their children were in order to pass on their property on. The family was therefore thought to be designed to control women and protect property. It encourages male power and dominance through the inheritance of property. Marxists argue that the families function is to socialise us into the ruling class ideology. They see the family as an institution which serves and maintains the position of the ruling class. As a result of this they see the family class split into two categories, a small powerful ruling class dominated by...
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...COMM020 Steve Lipman 11/08/2012 Assignment: Analyze the debating of “Does China do capitalism better than America” hosted by Intelligence Squared Does China Do Capitalism better than America? There is no doubt that China is rising whether the American people like it or not. What kind of impact is China having on American economy and trade policy? Intelligence Squared hosted a very interesting debating called “Does China Do capitalism better than America”. The audience first voted for the motion, but 35% changed their minds after hearing the debate. How did the team against the motion change the audience’s minds? The debating strategy played a key role during the debate. There were two teams in this debate. For the motion team, Orville Schell, Director of Director of the Center on U.S. - China Relations at Asia Society & Award-Winning Journalist; Peter Schiff – CEO & Chief Global Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital. Bestselling books, Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse, The Real Crash: A Blueprint for a Bankrupt America. Ian Bremmer and Minxin Pei were on the team of against the motion. Ian was much energized and casually dressed without a tie. Minxin Pei was from China, and earned his Ph. D from Harvard University. Currently he serves as Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. In 2006, he published his second book, China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy. From the book...
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...Liberal, the least extreme or violent, Marxist, who link in capitalism to Feminism and Radical Feminists, the most extreme. These groups seek to bring about equality through different means and on different levels of severity. In addition to these, there are smaller and more modern groups of Feminism which are Dual Systems Feminists, who are similar to Marxist Feminists and Poststructuralists who believe other Feminists disregard differences between women. Liberal Feminists are concerned with the human civil rights, therefore they seek legal reforms and changes in attitudes and socialisation to bring about gender equality, which does not require a violent revolution. They are the closest Feminist theory to a consensus view on today’s society even though it focuses on the conflicts between men and women. Liberal Feminists reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent or rational than men or vice versa. They distinguish between sex and gender; whereby sex refers to the biological differences such as their reproductive role and physical differences and gender refers to culturally constructed differences between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ roles. As gender is culturally constructed and transmitted through socialisation, what is seen to be considered a proper role for women in one society may be disapproved in another, therefore it is not universal. Liberal Feminists seek to promote appropriate role models in education and the family, this is done by having...
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...Journal of Business Ethics (2007) 74:303–314 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9517-y Ó Springer 2007 Stakeholder Capitalism R. Edward Freeman Kirsten Martin Bidhan Parmar ABSTRACT. In this article, we will outline the principles of stakeholder capitalism and describe how this view rejects problematic assumptions in the current narratives of capitalism. Traditional narratives of capitalism rely upon the assumptions of competition, limited resources, and a winner-take-all mentality as fundamental to business and economic activity. These approaches leave little room for ethical analysis, have a simplistic view of human beings, and focus on value-capture rather than valuecreation. We argue these assumptions about capitalism are inadequate and leave four problems in their wake. We wish to reframe the narrative of capitalism around the reinforcing concepts of stakeholders coupled with value creation and trade. If we think about how a society can sustain a system of voluntary value creation and trade, then capitalism can once more become a useful concept. KEY WORDS: capitalism, stakeholder, ethics, economics, free market Introduction1 We live in the age of markets. While markets have been around for thousands of years, we are just beginning to understand their power for organizing society and creating value. In the last 200 years markets have unleashed a tremendous amount of innovation and progress in the West. The industrial revolution, the rise of consumerism, and the dawn...
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... 1. Why was Capitalism not a catalyst for improving the position of women in relation to Patriarchy? -‐ The Industrial Revolution was the origin of complete transformation, where people started to make things for exchange instead of for themselves. Value of the good is assigned depending on what people are willing to pay for it vs. the good’s actual worth. -‐ Capitalism was a revolution between classes and not between genders. -‐ From Feudalism to Capitalism 1. Rise of middle class-‐ money as new source of power vs. birthright (“To the manner born” 2. Fall of aristocracy – keep wealth but lose power, emergence of parliamentary system 3. Creation of working class – seems like a huge improvement to be paid in money, as compared to being rewarded with shelter and food. Capitalism promises to pay you what you are worth based on your skills and expertise. 2. Relationship between Patriarchy and Capitalism. When is it good? When is it bad? -‐ -‐ -‐ Capitalism reinforces women’s...
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...maintain a capitalist society. The education system can be seen to support the capitalist system. Education trains us for the workplace and it teaches us skills that make us employable which is part of the capitalist system. Also it teaches us to be punctual and to obey rules so we are compliant in the workforce. It teaches us to accept our status and authority figures in life and stick to the role we are in. The capitalist system shows that there are winners and losers, just like in education. Marxists see the state as Capitalist dominated. Althusser says the state consists of two elements which serve to keep the bourgeoisie and these are the repressive and ideological state apparatuses. The repressive state apparatuses include police and the army and when necessary use physical force to control the working class. The ideological state apparatuses are the bourgeoisie controlling the people’s ideas, beliefs and values. His theory ensures that working-class pupils will end up in working-class jobs and accept their roles. The capitalist society need people to do the low paid, hard labour, gritty jobs, they need students to fail, as high achieves would want to continue their education and aim for higher paid jobs . Bowles and Ginntis argue that capitalism requires a work force that has the right attitude and behaviour for that role and in their view the role of the education system in a capitalist society is too produce an obedient work force. Bowles and Ginntis also came...
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...When auditing succumbs to capitalism – Enron We all know why Enron failed. Everyone knows the story and everyone is pointing the finger at someone else. Let us not waste our time trying to pass the buck, but look at the failures of auditors in this saga for they were the ones entrusted to act as steadfast agents of independence to protect the interests of the common man from the capitalist vices of the modern era. Where did it go wrong? Capitalism, for all its glory and wonder is nevertheless flawed. It is its own worst enemy. The purpose of auditing is to make sure capitalism does not get ahead of itself and collapse taking us down with it. Of all the theories to support the existence and importance of auditing, independence has by far been the most if not the only solid argument. Its duty as an autonomous entity to reduce the information asymmetry so that the engines of our financial markets run efficiently and free from the flaws of the capitalist system. The role it plays as a fail-safe to prevent the house form crumbling down is as good a reason as it gets. But in this case it would seem as though, despite its best efforts auditing, ironically has itself been pulled into the very house it was meant to watch over. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because let us not forget auditors are also subject to the philosophies of capitalism despite being its nanny. This failure of the checks and balances meant to keep capitalism on a leash lead to synergistic corruption which saw...
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...The Morality of Capitalism 500520316 ENT 527 Ryerson University Dr. Jeffrey Overall Friday, January 23, 2015 Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Through the capitalist system, state and economic affairs are completely separated, leaving the government with a single role to protect individual rights against those who pose a threat against others through physical force. Capitalism is diminishing as government regulations of most countries have increased with the intent to gain more revenue through the involvement of business affairs. Therefore, governments are subsidizing businesses through loans, bailouts and tax credits. Although laws and institutions are vital, capitalism is sustained by the more fundamental role played by basic human spirit of independence, initiative, and innovation conducted through entrepreneurship. Capitalism is the only social system that protects the human means of survival which consists of thinking and applying reason to produce material values or creating innovation. Capitalism is a system of freedom where individuals have a choice in work or business to be involved with and the choice to trade with others freely through mutual agreement. Capitalism creates better products, better production and better distribution processes through its system of competition and innovation, resulting in lower costs and prices. An example demonstrating...
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...Capitalism Is the Devil The United States was founded by numerous founders who wanted to build the best nation in the world. According to the Constitution, the right should be given to “We the People”. The government should build “a more perfect Union” and promote “the General Welfare”. It has always been a dream. It is a goal that we cannot reach. But somehow, capitalism has been disguised as the best system ever devised, making citizens believe that it is the only way we can reach our goal. And it leads us to an irreversible situation of plutocracy. It is Michael Moore who pulls back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of our American dream. In his documentary film “Capitalism a love story”, Michael Moore demonstrates the failure of Capitalism as an economic system in America. The movie explores what capitalism is, who benefits and whom capitalism hurts. Moore shows us how capitalism has been hijacked by entrepreneurs and how it jeopardizes the middle class. The poorest, uneducated, and hardworking middle class are the most likely people to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous corporations such as the home loan industry, health insurance industry and many others businesses. According to the film, some people are no longer able to live in their own house, which they live for decades, because they cannot pay their bills or the authorities have sold their land to corporations. Kids in Pennsylvania are sent to private...
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...Assess the marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. In sociology there are many different perspectives on the family and the Marxists view is that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. They would argue that they do this through primary socialisation, Althusser says that the family teaches the ideas of capitalism through socialisation as the family is part of the ideological state apparatus, teaching us not to question authority figures and be obedient to them, linking for when the individual work and the bourgeoisie will be the authority that they have to obey. Zaretsky who is also a Marxist had very similar views to Parsons, a functionalist who came up with the warm bath theory about family, but instead Zaretsky says that the family is a safety valve and also an illusion, that you think you’re coming home after a hard day at work to relax with your family but really they’re actually there just to rest you so that you can go straight back out to work again and serve capitalism the next day, all over again. The family also serves the interests of capitalism because families buy the latest consumer goods that are out to be judged on that basis by others, thinking that if they have the new good stuff then they will look better and a higher class of person but these are just seen as false needs and when families are getting tricked into thinking they need to buy these thing they are serving the bourgeoisie...
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...need to happen to create gender equality. Liberal feminism is a march of progress theory as it sees a trend towards improvement and believes all humans should be equal. Oakley, as a key sociologist, distinguishes between sex and gender; sex refers to biological differences whereas gender refers to the culturally constructed differences between the roles and identities assigned to men and women. Liberal feminists argue there has been a move towards greater gender equality and that a gradual reform is necessary through changing laws and cultural changes away from gender stereotypes. They also believe that the ideas about gender are culturally constructed and transmitted through socialisation. For example, the mother is supposed to look after the children rather than go to work. Oakley criticises Parson’s assumption of gender roles being based on biological differences by arguing that men and women are equally capable of performing both roles within society yet this is prevented by the traditional gender roles. Liberal feminists make a fair point by stating that gender roles are not ingrained as they show to an extent that roles are not determined. However Liberal feminists are criticised by Radical and Marxist feminists as they argue that Liberal feminists fail to recognise the underlying causes of women’s subordination and that is naïve to believe that changes in the law or attitudes will be enough to bring equality between men and women. The Liberal feminists have contributed...
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...Book Review: This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein, published: Sept. 2014 Summarize the book. What is being discussed? Rob Nixon of the New York Times called Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” “a book of such ambition and consequence that it is almost unreviewable.[1]” Naomi Klein researches the impact of Climate change and its relationship with free market capitalism. She discusses capitalism as failed economic system. She goes into great depth on the subject of resource extraction, pollution and the events of surrounding the affected communities in these regions across the world. However, rather than concluding that things are hopeless Naomi Klein argues that: We can build something better and reclaim our economic system. She argues that the market cannot save us. We have the tools/technology to get off of fossil fuels, but it requires leaving free market capitalism behind. We need to rebuild local economies, reign in corporate power and reclaim democracy. She argues that we aren’t all the all powerful saviours of the planet, but that as visitors on the earth we have to save ourselves from an earth that is rocking, burning and driving humanity into extinction because of our actions. Describe the three most important arguments or claims made in the book. The first argument Naomi Klein makes is that world leaders and climate scientists agree if we are going to avoid truly catastrophic consequences of climate change; we need to...
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