Cost Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cost Control - Essay Example The new methods are based on activity based costing which helps in cost control up to the managerial level. Cost Control and Project Management Cost control has become a very important management tool for construction industry as it does not only helps to make a certain project successful but also gives idea to the construction firm about the most profitable project. The cost control systems can generate data which can be used for progress payment requests and future bidding predictions. Cost Control Systems and Cost Accounts An efficient cost control system is necessary for proper execution of a project. Following are the steps which are mandatory for a successful design and maintenance of a Cost Control System: 1. Determination and allocation of cost accounts is the first step for a cost control system. Proper breakdown of a project into various heads based on type of activity and work is essential. These heads into which the project is divided are known as cost accounts. Establish ing cost accounts helps in maintaining a relationship between the project expenditure and the general accounts of the firm. 2. The formulation of a proper project cost plan is the next step because it helps in setting up a mechanism according to which the actual cost of the project could be compared with the estimated/budgeted cost. Moreover project cost plan also helps in relating costs of the project to the project schedule. 3. Cost Data Collection is the next step in which the actual cost data is collected by various means which include historical data, vendor quotations, supplier catalogs and market surveys. 4. Project Cost Reporting should be done according to the requirement of managerial staff and the Cost Control Engineer should be able to identify the data which is beneficial to the managerial staff. 5. After collecting the data and analyzing it, the final step is selection of Cost Engineering techniques best suited to the project scenario. Cost Coding System and Structure Since the construction projects are of very large magnitude and there is a huge amount of data which has to be organized. Cost coding systems are used for organizing the cost control data so that the required information can be accessed easily. Various organizations like American Road Builders Association, Associated General Contractors and the Construction Specifications Institute have developed cost coding systems and a project manager and cost control engineer can select the appropriate system according to the project under consideration. The cost coding system helps in giving a proper structure to the cost control breakdown of a project. Various cost accounts are given cost codes according to the detail incorporated in them. Cost control codes have various detail levels, the longer is the cost code the higher is the detail present in it. The various details which are present in a cost code are project initiation year, project type, project number, construction type classificatio n, work classification, functional classification etc. This makes project codes as long as 13-digit, but these details can easily be processed in computers and is also understandable as the people working in the cost control department have a very clear idea of these codes. Cost control matrix is another way of controlling cost which traces the overlapping areas between material and work cost accounts. Earned Value Method Earned Value Meth

The filament bulb obeys ohms law Essay Example for Free

The filament bulb obeys ohms law Essay I think this was caused by air already in the tube being pushed out. To overcome this I could have measured how much O2 started in the tube and then subtracted that from my 1st measurement. My experiment was good because it was repeated enough times, three times, so that any anomalous results could be clearly seen next to a best-fit curve. Also all of my results had a best-fit curve and the values increased throughout, backing up my prediction that as the substrate concentration increased so would the initial rate of reaction. Using a measuring cylinder rather than a gas syringe to collect the O2 is better because gas syringes, although easier to use, do not always move with ease when oxygen moves in. In my experiment the oxygen bubbles could be clearly seen in the water inside the measuring cylinder and had no trouble reaching the cylinder. Limitation How does this affect accuracy and/or reliability? Importance? Why? Modifications O2 escaping due to tubes in bung. If O2 escaped then the volume of O2 collected will be wrong and therefore the result could not be reliable. This is very important as if gas was escaping then it would not have got into the tube, therefore affecting the amount of O2 collected in the experiment. However, as the same equipment was used throughout this is not a very important factor as it would have been the same for all of the experiments. Use Vaseline around tubes to stop O2 escaping and look for any gas escaping through holes in the tube that is in the water. This would stop O2 escaping but wouldnt really alter the reliability too much, just the accuracy of the result. Surface area of yeast not being similar. This is a variable and therefore not keeping it the same means two things are being investigated at the same time, and therefore this would mean that the results gathered do have some inaccuracies and can not be reliable. This is the most important factor because a larger surface area means that there will be more to react with. If there were a very small surface area the reaction would be slow, as there is not much for the substrate to react with. By crushing the yeast up with a pestle and mortar the surface areas will all be the same but this would speed up the reactions dramatically as it would give the maximum surface area. This would have made the results a lot more reliable as they all would have begun with the same surface area. Test tube containing O2 before H2O2 was added. This means that the first measurement could be quite high, when there is little activity, as solution being pushed in it pushes oxygen out through the tube. This is important as it explains the 1st result being much faster than the 2nd throughout the 5 experiments. However, it is the same for all of the experiments so it wouldnt make a big difference in the comparison of my results. Making a vacuum around the experiment would stop O2 getting into the tube. An easier alternative would be to measure O2 in tube before and then subtract that number from my 1st measurement. Although this would increase accuracy it would not alter the reliability, as the amount of O2 in the tube is the same each time. Obstruction in the tube This would slow or stop the movement of O2 through to the measuring cylinder. If there was a block then it would cause the results to be much lower than they should be, with a much slower initial rate of reaction. This is because less O2 is being measured as less would get to the measuring cylinder. By rinsing out the tube before each experiment any obstructions can be removed. If there were an obstruction then doing this would make the results more reliable and much more accurate. The results that I gathered, in my opinion, are not all reliable. This is mainly due to the wide range of results gathered in my 5ml H2O2, the final measurements being 45cm3, 93cm3 and 92cm3. Also, my 2ml H2O2 experiment ended up with a higher initial rate of reaction and more O2 collected than the 3ml H2O2 and the 4ml H2O2 experiments. Repeating the experiment 3 times and then taking an average helps to hide these unreliable results. Another reason why my results are unreliable is that the surface area was not the same each time. If the yeast in one experiment had a much higher surface area then it was going to have a much faster initial rate of reaction than an experiment where yeast had a small surface area. This is likely to be why my 2ml H2O2 experiment came out higher than my 3ml and 4ml H2O2 experiments On my graphs I have circled what I think are anomalous results. My first anomalies occur on my 2ml H2O2 graph. Between 40seconds and 60seconds the O2 collected is 14. 3cm3, 17. 7cm3 and 21. 7cm3. I think that, although the graph on the whole is unreliable, these are anomalous because they do not fit the best-fit curve. On the 3ml H2O2 graphs I have circled two points as these points dip below the best fit curve and then back up again. At 70seconds and 80seconds the O2 collected is 20. 7cm3 and 22. 7cm3. A possible reason for this could have been that the tube might have been blocked, maybe by the way that the measuring cylinder was held. It might have been different if the measuring cylinder was clamped so it couldnt move and therefore couldnt squash the tube. By holding the measuring cylinder it was possible that it may have been pressed down on the tube briefly. This would of held the O2 in the tube and then when it was released the O2 would have all come out at once, resulting in the points moving back to the best-fit line. On the 5ml H2O2 graph I have circled one point. This point is after 30seconds and misses the best-fit curve by about 4cm3; it has 30cm3 whereas the curve crosses 30seconds at 34cm3. The reason for this anomaly could have been the same as above or possible because of a reading inaccuracy. Also, when holding the measuring cylinder, it was not always held perfectly upright, and therefore could have given a false reading but this is likely to have been the same throughout the experiment. Bibliography These are the books from which I gathered my information and used to make my prediction: Indge, Rowland, Baker, (2000): A New Introduction to Biology (Hodder Stroughton) Jones, Forsbery and Taylor (2000): Biology 1 (Cambridge University Press) Toole, Glenn and Susan (1999): Understanding Biology, Fourth Edition: (Stanley Thorne Ltd).

Government and Politics - Americas Addiction to War Essays -- Argumen

The United States is addicted to war. In the same way that the drug addict seeks a euphoria from heroin, America seeks the thrill of war and victory. Though there are dire consequences, and certain destruction, the thrill of the high is a prize to be won, no matter the cost. The euphoria of victory and the addiction to war are comparatively recent for the United States. America was a reluctant and late participant in World War One, and before that, wars were fought for the conquest of the continent, or for hemispheric objectives. The notable exception was the Civil War, which was terribly destructive, and which took place entirely on American soil (the only one; the Indian wars were about the conquest of land belonging to others). More American combatants lost their lives in the Civil War than in any other involving Americans. The United States of America was founded by people with a distrust of a large standing army, a distrust that lingered into the twentieth century. As economically powerful as the United States was by the beginning of the twentieth century, it was not a country with a huge military. Viewed as it was then, it was easy enough to defend the country, with friendly neighbours to the north and south, and great oceans between the US and the rest of the world. As the situation in Europe and Asia tended to become more dangerous in the 1930s, there was still very strong sentiment in the United States against getting involved in wars on other continents. The country was very reluctant to enter the First World War, and the hope was that it wouldn’t be sending anyone to war abroad again. Besides, the Civil War and its horrors were still part of living memory. The coming of World War Two, and the possibility of Amer... ...ar movement today is higher; especially amongst the younger elements of the movement, there is a greater realisation of the connections between war, capitalism, and globalisation. That consciousness can be found at ground level, too. It does not manifest itself only at the level of abstraction and theory. I am reminded of the Liberation Theologians’ principle of 'praxis-reflection-praxis', and the advantage of this 'orthopraxis' over 'orthodoxy' and 'practice'. I am also hopeful because, disconnected as it seems, SUV-loving Americans do seem to have in the back of their minds that oil is both finite and bad for the environment. Moreover, as the US moves reluctantly away from the oil economy, it may not have as many of the economic rationales described above to wage war, and war may even be kicked as an addiction. These are hopeful signs, and I am always one to hope.

Antigone Right V. Right Essay

A famous German philosopher named Hegel claimed, â€Å"At the heart of the Greek tragedy is the spectacle of right vs. right.† The central idea of the tragedies was not about who was right and wrong, because those two would be effortless to separate from each other, but on who was considered the most right, which would many times be difficult to tell apart. Throughout the tragic play, Antigone, written by the ancient Greek playwright, Sophocles, Antigone was proven to be the most right. This can be verified since Antigone decided to follow the gods’ law over Creon’s law, and the punishment that she received from Creon was far too unreasonable. Antigone does what is ethical by pursuing what would be right in accordance to the gods, not in accordance to Creon. Creon believed that Polyneices did not deserve to be buried. Before Antigone is sent to dies, she tells Creon, â€Å"You will remember / What things I suffer, and at what’s men’s hands / Because I would not transgress the laws of heaven† (4.78-80). When it comes to order of importance, the gods should be more valued, because they always will know what is right for the people. Those who follow the gods’ rules more often will most likely make the better decision. As Aristotle once said, â€Å"†¦human reason is the most godlike part of human nature, a life guided by human reason is superior to any other.† Eventually, even Creon himself comes to the realization that he was wrong when he says, â€Å"The laws of the gods are mighty, and a man must serve them / To the last day of his life!† (5.108-109) The gods are a powerful force, and if more people are meant to follow them. Honoring the gods is something significant, especially during ancient Greece. Even though Antigone did make the decision of breaking Creon’s laws, her punishment was not at all fair. Even if one were to say that Antigone did the wrong thing, it is hard to argue that the penalty should not have been as brutal. When discussing this situation with his father, Haemon informs Creon of his thoughts, â€Å"They say no woman has ever, so unreasonably / Dies so shameful a death for a generous act† (3.63-64). Antigone wanted to do what was best for Polyneices, to make sure that his death will be as much of an honor as the one of his own brother. And for doing for what she, as well as many other citizens, thought was the most proper thing to do, she was unfairly sentenced to death. Antigone, also before leaving for her punishment, speaks of Creon, â€Å"But if the guilt / Lies upon Creon who judged me, then I pray / May his punishment equal my own† (4.68-70). She knows that she made the most moral decision, so the real punishment will eventually go who have misjudged her, Creon in this case. This did come true, when Creon’s life when turned into a catastrophe when his son and wife, Haemon and Eurydice, both committed suicide after admitting that they could not possibly live with someone who was so cruel to someone who was innocent. It was a law unreasonable, so it deserved to have been broken. While it is true that anarchy comes from many citizens deciding to rebel against the law, the law that Antigone broke was worthy of breaking. Creon tried to reason his punishment by saying, â€Å"If I permit my own family to rebel / How shall I earn the world’s obedience?† (3.30-31) It is true that Creon and his family should abide to the laws in order to set an example for his state, but not a law as unjust as that one. There should be exceptions to certain laws, if there is proof that it was the most ethical choice. He also tried to make this decision seem rational by stating, â€Å"Of all the people in this city, only she / Has had contempt for my was and broken it† (3.24-25). Actually, Creon is incorrect with making this statement. Many citizens have said that they don’t believe in Creon’s decision, but are too afraid of being punished if they choose to stand up for Antigone. Considering the fact that Creon is meant to be a representation of the people he is leading, he should not have been so ignorant to everyone else, and let Antigone free. In this battle of right vs. right, Antigone was shown to be the most justified. All in all, Antigone had made the most reasonable choices, in comparison to Creon. Not only had she chose the gods over Creon, she also suffered an undeserved punishment. Nowadays, we come across sever right vs. right situations, and sometimes it is hard to tell what the better decision is. Learning to separate these from early on will help others make the best choice when problems become more difficult. Human nature has a harder time making the distinction, so it is important to realize the difference when we have problems that require this amount of thought.

Lincoln and Johnson vs. the Radicals Essay

The Civil War, which lasted up until 1865, was the bloodiest battle that this Nation had ever faced. Making it even sadder was the fact that this Nation was divided, North against South, and brothers were killing brothers, fathers killing sons. It was indeed a tough time for President Lincoln who was sworn into office in 1861. He needed to end the war and figure out a way to bring peace and rebuild the Nation. In order to end the war he devised a plan to free all slaves in the eye’s of the government, and on the first day of the year in 1863 he announced his â€Å"Emancipation Proclamation,† declaring all slaves owned under the Confederacy to be now free men. The Confederacy was beginning to crumble; Southern cities were destroyed and the Southern economy was in ruins. Lincoln now focused his attention on the idea of Reconstruction, and reuniting those Southern States back into the Union. It would not be easy for Lincoln, however, as he faced far different ideas than his, proposed by the Radical Republicans, led by Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Despite being the Republican nomination for President, Lincoln was far more conservative than those Republicans taking the majority of seats in Congress. In December of 1863, before the war had officially come to a close, Lincoln began to devise his Reconstruction plan, which at the time was considered to be very lenient by those of the Union. His plan was very compassionate toward white southerners, except for major leaders of the Confederacy. He needed those Confederate Army generals and high-ranking officers to take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and verbally accept the Nation’s abolition of slavery. Lincoln’s plan was to institute new state governments in the South, under control of those southerners who had not aided to Confederacy. Lincoln also had the idea of granting voting rights to those freed African Americans who were educated, owned land, or had participated in the fighting for the Union. Under Lincoln’s plan, three southern states (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee) acknowledged the abolition of slavery, formed new Union-loyal governments, and were ready to be readmitted completely into the Union. The Radical Republicans were not pleased to the slightest with Lincoln’s plan. They demanded much harsher penalties for seceding the Union, and they refused to seat the representatives from those three states, reconstructed under Lincoln’s plan. Because they were so displeased with Lincoln’s leniency, they pushed what is known as the Wade-Davis bill through Congress in 1864. This bill instituted a temporary governor, from the North, to each of those 11 Confederate states. When the majority of men residing in those states had pledged their allegiance to the Union, the governor was to hold a â€Å"constitutional convention,† where only men who had never fought against the Union could elect delegates to represent them in Congress. Once this was accomplished, the new state governments had to acknowledge the total abolition of slavery, disenfranchise Confederate leaders, and pay off all of their war debts, mainly owed to England. After all of this, and only after all of this, could those southern states be readmitted into the Union. Dissatisfied with the Radicals bill, Lincoln overrode their authority with a â€Å"pocket veto.† As you would assume, the Radicals were utterly outraged with Lincoln’s actions, and demanded that Lincoln accept some of their ideas proposed by the Wade-Davis Bill. Unfortunately, we will never know how the President would have negotiated terms with those Radical Republicans. On the night of April 14th, 1865, Lincoln was shot from behind while watching a play with his wife, and died early the next morning. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice President, became the Nations new President shortly after the assassination. Johnson, who was originally a democrat, was now faced with the issue of Reconstruction, and like Lincoln, took a more moderate approach. While Congress was out of session in the summer following his launch into Presidency, Johnson quickly began to â€Å"R estore† (as he like to call it) those southern states back into the Union. His plan was very much like the Wade-Davis Bill in which he instituted a temporary governor to those southern states and had the governor allow qualified voters to elect delegates to represent them in Congress. When Congress came back into session in December, they began almost immediately to refuse seats to those elected delegates. Even though Johnson’s intentions were very similar to their Wade-Davis Bill, those Radicals were angered by the fact that most southerners still wished for slavery even though they took an oath against it. Many Confederate generals being voted in as Representatives in Congress also angered the Radicals. So they shot Johnson’s plan down, plain and simple. The Radicals began to gain more and more power in Congress due to several factors. First, Black Codes began to arise in southern states which authorized sate officials to apprehend unemployed blacks for vagrancy, and hire them out to mostly plantation owners in order to pay off their vagranc y fines. This angered many northerners as is basically violated southern states oaths of African American freedom. This caused Congress to pass the first Civil Rights Act, which gave the federal government the right to intervene in state affairs if blacks were not given appropriate rights. Johnson vetoed this bill but was easily overridden by the all-powerful Radical Congress. Next, Congress devised the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It stated that all people born or naturalized in United States territory are considered citizens, and penalties would arise for states that denied the right to vote to any male citizens. It also stated that former Confederate officials were prohibited from holding any state or federal position unless they were pardoned for their treasonous Civil War crimes by two-thirds of Congress. Any state that ratified this 14th Amendment would be readmitted into the Union. Tennessee was the only state to ratify and be readmitted right away. Finally, those ten states that were still outstanding from the Union were divided into five different â€Å"military districts.† A military commander was assigned to each district and was responsible for registering citizens to vote (black males, and those whites who had not bore arms against the Union). Voters had to elect government bodies who would write their new state constitution, and have it passed by Congress. And finally, after all that, the state had to ratify the 14th Amendment. All but Virginia, Texas and Mississippi had reunited with the Union by 1868 and finally by 1870 those last 3 states were reunited only after ratifying 15th Amendment in addition to the 14th one. Alas, the Union was rejoined, blacks now had their freedom and right to vote, and peace was beginning to take presence. When we look at the similarities proposed by Lincoln and Johnson, we see that both men were in favor of leniency for those southern states. Lincoln only felt it was necessary for Confederate leaders to take an oath of loyalty as opposed to the Congressional decision that Confederate leaders needed to be pardoned by two-thirds of Congress (Which would likely never happen as Radicals held so much power in Congress) in order to take part in state or federal legislature. It is clear that Johnson also opposed this idea, and leaned toward Lincoln’s plan, in the way he vetoed Congress vigorously. This similarity in ideas between Lincoln and Johnson is also a major difference between the presidents and Congress’s final decision. Unfortunately for Johnson (and Lincoln), and the rest of the moderate northerners, his veto was no match for Congress. A key similarity between the presidents and Congress though, was the issue of African American rights. The final Congressional plan involved a federal Civil Rights Act and two new Constitutional Amendments, in order to protect the rights of African Americans. Lincoln obviously believed in equality when he delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, and stated that educated, land-owning, or allied blacks should be given the right to vote. And based on Congresses final decision, I would say the majority of people from the south who were qualified to vote on the new state governors were probably African Americans. In conclusion, when comparing the presidential Reconstruction plans, with those actually put into play by Congress, the main difference falls within the idea of leniency vs. anger. The presidents wanted the whole ordeal over and the states rejoined, whereas the Radicals wanted revenge on the South for seceding. As to which ideas would have worked better? It is very hard to say. All that can be said is that eventually, the Radicals gained too much power in Congress for the presidents to handle, and ultimately an all-powerful republican Congress overruled their ideas. Bibliography(EZbib.com) Brinkley, Alan. â€Å"Reconstruction and the New South.† The Unfinished Nation. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York [u.a.: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 369-83. Print. 35b. Radical Reconstruction.† Radical Reconstruction [ushistory.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Time Line of The Civil War, 1865.† Time Line of The Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.

Job apps that will make your work search easier

Job apps that will make your work search easier â€Å"Simple† and â€Å"painless† are two words that are rarely associated with a job search. Usually, the descriptions job seekers use to describe the process are more along the lines of the â€Å"repetitive,† â€Å"confusing,† and â€Å"bang-my-head-on-the-desk† variety. Luckily for all of us, technology is changing all that. There is now a bevy of hiring job apps, Chrome extensions, and other tools that can take some of the sting out of looking for a new gig. We’ve rounded up five of the best job apps and tools for those on the hunt for a new job. These tools will help you manage the work of looking for work.ContactOutDuring the job search, follow up is key to getting a job. But since most job posts don’t contain the name of the hiring manager, it can be a difficult task.For finding email addresses, ContactOut  a great Chrome extension for email collection and a powerful tool for job seekers who are looking to connect directly wit h recruiters and hiring managers. Just find the LinkedIn profile of the person you want to email or call, and ContactOut scours the web for personal emails and telephone numbers, making it easier than ever to follow up on your dream job. Users get 50 free credits per day.JobScanIf an online job search were a bar, the applicant tracking system (ATS) would be the bouncer. With companies often receiving hundreds of applications for a single job opening, an ATS is the first line of screening for almost every online application. And, like a password whispered into a bouncer’s ear for entry into an exclusive hotspot, the key to getting past an ATS is having the right keywords on your resume. But how does the average job seeker know the right resume keywords to use?Enter JobScan, which optimizes your resume to boost your success with getting it past the ATS and onto the desk of a human recruiter. Just paste your resume and an interesting job ad into fields on the website and JobScan will analyze the two and make suggestions for how to improve your keyword match in the ATS. A separate service will do the same for your LinkedIn profile if you plan to apply through LinkedIn.LiveCareer ApplyIf the repetition of your job search is killing your optimism, we have the tool for you. It doesn’t take long once you’ve started looking for a new job to realize that it is a pretty tedious process. Fill out an online application. Attach your resume and cover letter. Hit send. Repeat.To reduce the monotony, LiveCareer has created a tool that makes filling out online applications fast and error-free. The LiveCareer Apply tool helps you autofill job applications  ­Ã¢â‚¬â€œ input your information once and the tool will populate applications for you. It increases your efficiency, reduces the possibility of typos or other manual data entry errors in your online forms, and works on all of the top job boards. Even better? The Chrome extension is free! Download it and start applying today!LinkedInThis mention on a list of great job apps might elicit a collective â€Å"DUH!† from active job seekers, but LinkedIn remains one of the most useful hiring apps out there. Whether you are using the app on your phone or perusing the site on your desktop computer, LinkedIn provides job seekers with the visibility they need during an online job search.Downloading LinkedIn onto your phone puts a powerful job app at your fingers tips for use anywhere. Apply for jobs on the bus, share trending industry news while watching television, or respond to messages from hiring managers in the park. Features like Easy Apply (which allows you to apply to jobs directly from your device without attaching your resume) make this one of the best job apps out there, no matter where you are, and no matter when you are using it.LinkUpOnline job boards are great, but every job seeker has experienced the frustration of spending time personalizing a resume and writing a cover letter, only to find they’ve been duped by a duplicate or outdated listing.LinkUp indexes 50,000 employer job boards daily to ensure only the most up-to-date job ads appear in your job search, making this one of the must-have job apps for serious job seekers. Users can save jobs, archive applications and search histories, and sign up for job alerts, which makes it much easier to keep track of what you’ve already viewed on the site’s two million jobs.Unlike other job apps, the company promises that all of the opportunities are verified, which means no applying to spammy jobs again. The LinkUp job app is available for free on desktop,  iOS, and  Android.With these five apps and extensions at your disposal, you’re that much closer to finding your dream job!About the Author:LiveCareer offers assistance to job seekers at every step of the journey. Access free  resume templates  and  resume examples, plus a  cover letter builder  and advice on ho w to answer  interview questions  of all stripes.

The Scarlet Letter1 essays

The Scarlet Letter1 essays In the book The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a character by the name of Roger Chillingworth had committed the unpardonable sin and he basically killed another character, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Everyone has been in a position where they have had the chance of manipulating or blackmailing someone. Chillingworth did exactly that and ended up breaking down Dimmesdale to his death. Dimmesdale was not the single one affected by Chillingworths deeds. Chillingworth had a spouse, but no one knew of their relationship. Her name was Hester Prynne and she had an illegitimate child named Pearl. The Reverend Dimmesdale had an affair with Hester, and he is the real father of Pearl. Throughout the novel the people of Boston were withheld this information, along with the information of Hesters real husband. Chillingworth was a physician, or back in those days a doctor was called a leech. Dimmesdale started to feel ill, thus starting the beginning of his end. Dimmesdale became not simply a patient of Chillingworth, but a roommate as well. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth has come to know the ministers most private emotions, and he has begun to suspect that Dimmesdales illness is the result of a deep secret that has at no time been confided with another. In a sequestered conversation with Hester, Chillingworth made a vow to descry the real father of Pearl, and expose him. In a conversation with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth brings up the question of why an individual would be willing to carry secret sins to his grave sooner than confess them during his lifetime. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth exchange their thoughts. One of Chillingworths was, Wouldst thou have me to believe, O wise and pious friend, that a false show can be better-can be more for Gods glory, or mans welfare-than Gods own truth? Trust me, such me ...

Emperor Penguin Facts (Aptenodytes forsteri)

Emperor Penguin Facts (Aptenodytes forsteri) The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the largest type of penguin. The bird is adapted to living its entire life in the cold of the Antarctic coast. The generic name Aptenodytes means diver without wings in Ancient Greek. Like other penguins, the emperor does have wings, but it cannot fly. Its stiff wings act as flippers to help the bird swim gracefully. Fast Facts: Emperor Penguin Scientific Name: Aptenodytes forsteriCommon Name: Emperor penguinBasic Animal Group: BirdSize: 43-51 inchesWeight: 50-100 poundsLifespan: 20 yearsDiet: CarnivoreHabitat: Antarctic coastPopulation: Fewer than 600,000Conservation Status: Near Threatened Description Adult emperor penguins stand between 43 and 51 inches tall and weigh between 50 and 100 pounds. Weight depends on sex and season. Overall, males weigh more than females, but both males and females lose weight when incubating eggs and raising hatchlings. After the breeding seasons, both sexes weigh around 51 pounds. Males enter the season between 84 and 100 pounds, while females average around 65 pounds. Adults have black dorsal plumage, white feathers under their wings and on their bellies, and yellow ear patches and upper breast feathers. The upper part of the bill is black, while the lower mandible may be orange, pink, or lavender. Adult plumage fades to brown before molting each year in summer. Chicks have black heads, white masks, and gray down. Emperor penguins have bodies streamlined for swimming, flipper-like wings, and black feet. Their tongues are coated with rear-facing barbs that help prevent prey from escaping. Penguin bones are solid rather than hollow to help the birds survive the pressure of deep water. Their hemoglobin and myoglobin help them survive at the low blood oxygen levels associated with diving. On land, emperor penguins either waddle or slide on their bellies. Sian Seabrook, Getty Images Habitat and Distribution Emperor penguins live along the coast of Antarctica between 66Â ° and 77Â ° south latitudes. Colonies live on land, shelf ice, and sea ice. Breeding occurs on pack ice as far as 11 miles offshore. Diet Penguins are carnivores that prey upon fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are social birds that often hunt together. They can dive to 1,500 feet, spend up to 20 minutes underwater, and forage over 300 miles from their colony. Chicks are hunted by Southern giant petrel and south polar skuas. Adults are only preyed upon by leopard seals and orcas. Behavior Penguins live in colonies ranging from 10 to hundreds of birds. When temperatures drop, penguins huddle in a rough circle around juveniles, slowly shuffling around so each adult gets a chance to shelter from the wind and cold. Emperor penguins use vocal calls to identify each other and communicate. Adults can call at two frequencies simultaneously. Chicks modulate the frequency of their whistle to call parents and indicate hunger. Reproduction and Offspring Although sexually mature at three years of age, most emperors dont start breeding until they are four to six years old. In March and April, adults begin courtship and walk 35 to 75 miles inland to nesting areas. The birds take one mate each year. In May or June, the female lays a single greenish-white egg, which weighs about one pound. She passes the egg to male and leaves him for two months to return to the sea to hunt. The male incubates the egg, balancing it on his feet to keep it off the ice. He fasts about 115 days until the egg hatches and his mate returns. For the first week, the male feeds the hatchling crop milk from a special gland in his esophagus. When the female returns, she feeds the chick regurgitated food, while the male leaves to hunt. The parents take turns hunting and feeding the chick. The chicks molt into adult plumage in November. In December and January all of the birds return to the sea to feed. Less than 20% of chicks survive the first year, as a parent must abandon a chick if its mate doesnt return before the guardians energy reserves are depleted. The adult survival rate from year to year is about 95%. The average lifespan of an emperor penguin is around 20 years, but a few birds may live as long as 50 years. Males keep chicks warm by resting them on their feet and snuggling them in an area of feathers called the brood patch.. Sylvain Cordier, Getty Images Conservation Status The IUCN updated the conservation classification status of the emperor penguin from least concern to near threatened in 2012. A 2009 survey estimated the number of emperor penguins to be about 595,000 individuals. The population trend is unknown, but suspected to be decreasing, with a risk of extinction by the year 2100. Emperor penguins are highly sensitive to climate change. Adults die when temperatures rise high enough to reduce sea ice coverage, while low temperatures and and too much sea ice increases chick deaths. Melting sea ice from global warming not only affects the penguin habitat, but also the species food supply. Krill numbers, in particular, fall when sea ice melts. Emperor Penguins and Humans Emperor penguins also face threats from humans. Commercial fishing has reduced food availability and tourism disrupts breeding colonies. Emperor penguins have been kept in captivity since the 1930s, but only successfully bred since the 1980s. In at least one case, an injured emperor penguin was rescued and released back into the wild. Sources BirdLife International 2018. Aptenodytes forsteri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22697752A132600320. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22697752A132600320.enBurnie, D. and D.E. Wilson (Eds.). Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Worlds Wildlife. DK Adult, 2005. ISBN 0-7894-7764-5.Jenouvrier, S.; Caswell, H.; Barbraud, C.; Holland, M.; Str Ve, J.; Weimerskirch, H. Demographic models and IPCC climate projections predict the decline of an emperor penguin population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (6): 1844–1847, 2009. doi:10.1073/pnas.0806638106Williams, Tony D. The Penguins. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-19-854667-2.Wood, Gerald. The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. 1983. ISBN 978-0-85112-235-9.

Marketing Myopia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Myopia - Essay Example A growth industry builds its success by replacing a previous utility or product and it is at risk of such same risk of replacement by future innovations. Thinking outside the box is not some initiative to make a difference or of being creative. Rather, it is a crucial component of every organization’s attempt for competitive advantage and survival. Levitt argued that there is really no such thing as a growth industry because everything works within a cyclical process. Here, an industry or a business may assume its strength because of the unchallenged superiority of the product, which displaced another that it has substituted. His evidences are legitimate and numerous. He cited the experiences of many industries that were considered boom sectors but eventually declined after several years. The cycle features organizations and products constantly replacing another because of wrong management perspective. The examples provided were the dry cleaning industry, the railroad industry and the grocery stores. Levitt also predicted that the electric utilities and gadgetry is in danger of the same trouble because technologies will then be discovered to offer newer and more efficient products. The idea is that when managers fail to think outside the box – beyond the periphery of their visions, their products tend to be swallowed by the cycle. On the other hand, once management think about the future and the decline of their product so that they are able to provide solutions and new innovations that will replace their own, competitors will have less opportunities for competitive advantage. Much of Levitt’s arguments are anchored on one simple principle – that survival for industries rests on perspectives. There are industries that are focused on their products and, hence, myopic in their management models. For example, the railroad company was focused on their product, which is the railroad. Had they opted to adopt a perspective that went beyond it, they would have thought about their business as that of transportation and, hence, was able to prevent the decline of their profits. Personally, I have experienced this myopia on account of my work experiences with three industries. For example, I worked for an Auto dealership several years ago. Now the management of this organization has been focused much on automobiles. For several months of my stay, I saw how such singularity in objective has hurt the sales of the organization. Clients are not only interested in cars but they look for things and services that go with it. For example, when sales people have everything there is to know about cars, we cannot answer questions about technology like how their mobile phones can be integrated with car accessories, for example. This is because we did not have them – no products offered beyond cars and, hence, we cannot offer services, much less the know-how. So fewer clients came to visit because we cannot offer more. The clien ts did not come because they did not want to. There was no reason to. This was also the same with some companies in the moving and storage company, which I was connected with for a time. There was a lot of opportunities either as additional services within moving and storage and related and new products and services that could have been served and provided customers the value and convenience of having many services at one outlet or in a single transaction. I can see many other industries not cited in the article that display marketing myopia. For example, there is the

Contemporary Quebec Nationalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Contemporary Quebec Nationalism - Essay Example Among the main achievements of Quite Revolution, the health insurance plan and the education system should be noted. Daniel Johnson won the election as head of Union Nationale. He followed the same steps as those of Lasage but in different terms. He prepared the way of eliminating preferred reference of ethnicity as the major element when defining nationalism. Johnson preferred the sociological definition of the nation to ratify that the two countries exist in Canada. The nation duality did not depend on the ethnic origin but the culture of citizens. The liberation of the French-Canadian nation was enabled through the appropriation of the state. Rene Levesque founded the "movement souverainete-association† that later became "Parti Quebecois†. In 1967, Là ©vesque advanced a thesis that remained unchanged over years. The English Canada looked to simplify, rationalize and centralize powers to central government. The Quebec, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction. The nationalism that characterized the Quiet Revolution was on the basis of the dynamism of state action. In conclusion, nationalism has been sustained by the will to preserve and affirm the collectivity of the nation. Since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has developed a nationalist ideology making the state of Quebec one of the major elements of identification of social, economic and political promotion of Francophone. Economically, francophones have been able to implement a network of financial, industrial and service businesses with the state’s support.

Transfer from Cal Poly Pomona to USC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Transfer from Cal Poly Pomona to USC - Essay Example Lack of passion in agriculture and biology as subjects and redefined personal and professional goals that identify with civil engineering are therefore the immediate motivation into the desire to change my academic program and institution. While Cal Poly Pomona also offers civil engineering program, I prefer studying the course at USC because of its better facilities and staff that has earned it a better reputation among engineering colleges, being ranked better Cal Poly Pomona. This means that I shall develop greater potentials at USC than at Cal Poly Pomona, a factor that will enhance my long-term career and academic objectives. My primary and short-term objective is to complete the civil engineering program with outstanding academic and technical potentials for a faster career establishment and career development path. I also plan to study civil engineering at graduate and postgraduate levels and therefore desire a strong foundation that USC promises than the Cal Poly Pomona does. The transfer will, therefore, help me pursue my academic and career goals with higher success potentials and I look forward to your kind consideration that will facilitate these objectives.

Sainsbury Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sainsbury - Assignment Example However, the major success factor of the company is its effective value chain framework that ensures long-term sustainability and profitability for the company (Sainsbury Plc, 2014). Notably, the company has fully automated depots in its inbound logistics which further depicts the extensive use of IT in its business operations. This not only enhances the operational efficacy of the company but also results in establishing it as one of the competent business unit in terms of implementing and utilizing IT (Sekhar, 2009; Clark, 2004). The operations of the company are conducted in a three store formats which includes the local, regular and the central domain. The company has more than 500 local stores operating in the UK that has diverse branding approach and fascia. The central formats are used for the stores of the company which are small to medium in size and operate in the center of the city. Apart from the regular products, the company also sells some specific mainline brands through its stores in the UK market (Prezi Inc, 2014; Khosrowpour, 2004). The outbound logistics of the company includes two picking centers and it follows a warehousing model. The aim of this model is to establish dedicated picking centers in the UK with the aim to enhance the delivery of its products and services to the urban area further expanding their services to new potential customers. Notably, the company has faced immense competition from the rival supermarket chains which has forced it to develop effective strategies which can ensure the sustainability for the business. This has influenced the company to adopt the warehousing model (Prezi Inc, 2014; Khosrowpour, 2004). In the value chain domain of marketing and sales, the company targets both the customers including high income group as well as the potential buyers falling under the low income group. However, the company mainly focuses on providing high end products and makes a mark for itself in the

Minority Transfer in California Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Minority Transfer in California - Essay Example Historically, jobs offered to minorities did not require a four-year college education. Secondly, the four-year institutions were not interested in receiving minorities as students from two-year colleges. The four -year institutions mainly targeted students with Advanced Placement. This majority-minority demography who desire and need higher education is hitting colleges and universities. This maintained a two-tier system with an underlying aspect of white supremacy. In California, where 60 percent of K-12 scholars consist of minority groups, only 65-75 percent enrolls in the community colleges. According to reports, only 17 percent Latinos and 19 percent African-American scholars intending to enroll to a four- year institution manage to do so. This system locked out many of the minority students as it is different. Technical course credits were not transferable, and students could not get fee waivers. However, recommendations to revise the old transfer policies are in place (Chau 1) . Statistics indicates that, by 2025, there will be a shortage of degree holders in California. Analyses also indicate that students performing poorly in high schools transfer to community colleges and perform poorly too. ... Poorly prepared students rarely transfer. The report encourages low-performing high schools to help the students realize the challenges of developmental education (Chau 1). Racism is a noticeable aspect within the community colleges. Minority students registered less than 20 percent of all the transfers recorded in colleges. This has necessitated actions aimed at educational reform. Stakeholders involved have come together in order to streamline the system. Civil Rights Project, in its report, recommends dual-enrollment programs, which will provide a better transition between the high schools and colleges, thus expanding programs meant for college readiness. They also recommend simpler transfer processes with credit transfer uniformity. The report also indicated that colleges offering financial incentives would improve on the transfer rates. Some of the colleges have already started implementing the report (Chau 1). In January 1998, Proposition 209 terminated racism segregation in pu blic colleges and universities in the state of California. The Proposition refers to the ban on preferential treatment in learning institutes. Proposition 209 defines new diversity guidelines issued by the Justice and Education departments. Institutions find it difficult to enroll and retain historically under-represented minority (URM) youth. The number of African American and Hispanic scholars drastically dropped at four-year institutions after the year 1998. The University of California has embraced proposition 209. It has diversified efforts and developed a program that reviews the application to incorporate the barriers students have put under control. This has led to the creation of Eligibility in the Local Context program (ELC), to assist in increasing

Art- Principles of Design Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Art- Principles of Design - Term Paper Example This paper will first discuss Luis Barragan’s Torri Satellites in the context of Modernist architecture. Then it will proceed to Benvenuto Cellini’s metal sculpture of the salt-cellar for King Francis I, created during the Renaissance period. Finally, the essay will turn its focus on Albrecht Durer’s metal craft entitled, Melencolia I created during the Italian Renaissance movement. Luis Barragan is one of the most renowned architects due to his firm devotion to modernism of the 20th century. Given this primary devotion to a new feat in the history of architecture, it can be said that Barragan’s philosophical leaning when it comes to the context of his field is towards the propagation of this new movement in architecture. It is with such philosophy that his works are transformed into structures of simplicity, elegance and unorthodoxy- one that is very new to the eyes of the people. Barragan is one of those who revolutionized the Modern Movement which began in the 1920s. The architect shares the same approach to this new phase of architecture with his colleagues like Lina Bo Bardi, Jose Antonio Coderch, Fernando Tavora, and Jorn Utzon (UNESCO 144). In 1957, Luis Barragan created his memorable piece, the Torri Satellites, which became well-known in the world. A joint-effort between him, the painter Jesus Reyes Ferreira and the sculptor Mathias Goeritz catapulted Barragan into the international line-up of architects and making him a recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture in1980. The epitome of the Modern Movement of architecture is ever present in Luis Barragan’s Torri Satellites. This 4-piece structure is erected in a high class zone; each piece is a symbolism of utter simplicity because of its simple triangular cylinder. This is very modernist in nature – the very style that explains Luis Barragan’s talent for architecture. Also, the color of each tower patterned in primary shades of red, blu e and yellow with the addition of a simple white for the last tower all explain how the concept of the Modern Movement caters minimalism in its designs (Ulloa 4). Going back several centuries in the annals of art history, Benvenuto Cellini was an exceptional goldsmith who surpassed the precepts of metal craft and was transformed into a painter and sculptor, thus a full-bred Italian artist of the early Renaissance period. All of Cellini’s mastery, his high class metal crafts and his intricate designs as both sculptor and painter, can be seen in a single work that he had created for King Francis I of France, the famous salt-cellar. It is in this salt-cellar that one can see the intricacy of Cellini’s style and the careful use of iconography as part of his designs. The salt-cellar for Francis I was one to be considered as Cellini’s exceptional works because the piece of art was a small-scale figure. The tight attention to detail and the symbolism attributed thereof was the highlight of Cellini’s masterpiece. The minute scale of Cellini’s piece was not a hindrance for his artistic capabilities to show. The salt-cellar for Francis I was a perfect example of the fusion of pre-Renaissance to the Renaissance precepts of art. Pre-Renaissance focused on the material value of an object which gives it the proper indication for social status. Renaissance, on the other hand, focused on the artistic value of an object. Cellini’

Minority Transfer in California Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Minority Transfer in California - Essay Example Historically, jobs offered to minorities did not require a four-year college education. Secondly, the four-year institutions were not interested in receiving minorities as students from two-year colleges. The four -year institutions mainly targeted students with Advanced Placement. This majority-minority demography who desire and need higher education is hitting colleges and universities. This maintained a two-tier system with an underlying aspect of white supremacy. In California, where 60 percent of K-12 scholars consist of minority groups, only 65-75 percent enrolls in the community colleges. According to reports, only 17 percent Latinos and 19 percent African-American scholars intending to enroll to a four- year institution manage to do so. This system locked out many of the minority students as it is different. Technical course credits were not transferable, and students could not get fee waivers. However, recommendations to revise the old transfer policies are in place (Chau 1) . Statistics indicates that, by 2025, there will be a shortage of degree holders in California. Analyses also indicate that students performing poorly in high schools transfer to community colleges and perform poorly too. ... Poorly prepared students rarely transfer. The report encourages low-performing high schools to help the students realize the challenges of developmental education (Chau 1). Racism is a noticeable aspect within the community colleges. Minority students registered less than 20 percent of all the transfers recorded in colleges. This has necessitated actions aimed at educational reform. Stakeholders involved have come together in order to streamline the system. Civil Rights Project, in its report, recommends dual-enrollment programs, which will provide a better transition between the high schools and colleges, thus expanding programs meant for college readiness. They also recommend simpler transfer processes with credit transfer uniformity. The report also indicated that colleges offering financial incentives would improve on the transfer rates. Some of the colleges have already started implementing the report (Chau 1). In January 1998, Proposition 209 terminated racism segregation in pu blic colleges and universities in the state of California. The Proposition refers to the ban on preferential treatment in learning institutes. Proposition 209 defines new diversity guidelines issued by the Justice and Education departments. Institutions find it difficult to enroll and retain historically under-represented minority (URM) youth. The number of African American and Hispanic scholars drastically dropped at four-year institutions after the year 1998. The University of California has embraced proposition 209. It has diversified efforts and developed a program that reviews the application to incorporate the barriers students have put under control. This has led to the creation of Eligibility in the Local Context program (ELC), to assist in increasing

Trait of Effective Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Trait of Effective Communication - Essay Example Not to forget though, that effective communication may also be defined as the way a person uses his body language in order to convey his message. This can be done through the nod of the head, raising of the eyebrow, hunching of the shoulders... Any of these aforementioned method of communication can be taken to define what effective communication is all about. 2. There are two traits that are necessary in effective communication. The first trait is speaking clearly. By speaking clearly and properly explaining what it is that you wish to have another person understand, he will be able to get a clear grasp of what it is that you are trying to say. Being sure to use words that you are sure the person one is speaking to can understand, one can be sure that his message will definitely be received and understood. The second important trait of effective communication has everything to do with the ability of a person to listen attentively and actively. By listening attentively, one is able t o concentrate on the message being delivered by the person speaking. It will also allow for a better analysis of the discussion and active participation as one will be able to properly pose clarification questions whenever the need arises. 3. An example of a communication break that can occur which can result in the distorting of a message often occurs with the written word. This is because the written word can change its meaning depending upon the punctuation used or the mistaken context of a message. Something as simple as â€Å"Dont rush me! Im leaving now!† in a text message can either be taken as an angry message by the receiver or as a message of excitement. All depending upon the way that the message was perceived by the other side. On the other hand, a message such as â€Å"Dont bother. I can do it.† when spoken can be taken as either exasperated, angry, or simply a statement by the person hearing it. All depending upon the vocal intonation of the speaker.

he cost associated with running Essay Example for Free

he cost associated with running Essay Candidates should be limited on the amount of money they can spend during a campaign. The cost associated with running for public office is expensive, especially in the case of large national scale elections, but also in smaller local ones. The money factor discourages regular middle class individuals from running for office, often leaving the ballot seriously one sided. If spending limits were placed on campaigns, our government could represent the views and issues of the majority of Americans, rather than only those of the wealthy. Further, if candidates are given a spending limit, they are less likely to take money from supporters who will benefit or profit from a particular view. Candidates then are more likely to make choices based on the good of the community, state, or country, rather than what will bring in the most money. Although mandatory voting could produce both positive and negative outcomes, voting should be a requirement of all Americans. On one hand, forcing people who do not support any of the candidates on the ballot might lead to careless voting. Those citizens who have no knowledge of the people who are running or no interest in voting at all will most likely cast their votes simply to uphold the law. On the other hand however, if all people are required to vote, and they do so in an educated manner, the government could represent all people of our country, rather than only those who choose to vote. Additionally, if Americans are forced to vote, candidates will spend less money campaigning. The months leading up to election become a time of voicing views rather than persuading people to vote in the first place. The decreased spending will, once again, ease the chances of a candidate taking a particular stance on an issue due to the influence of those who donate to their campaign. Texas should not hold partisan elections whereby candidates run as a member of a given political party. In these elections, voters are more likely to vote based upon the party that they support in substitution to the views held by the candidate. In a state that is populated by a majority of Republicans such as Texas, a partisan election would limit the amount of Democratic candidates elected to office, resulting in a severely unbalanced government. Suddenly every public office would be held by a Republican. The only real race in a partisan election would be which Republican to vote for. Furthermore, a non partisan election calls attention to the views of the candidate on an individual level, rather than on the views of the political party to which they belong. Those who do not join parties, or who take a stance that is not supported by any party, are more likely to run for office in a non partisan election. These non partisan elections make holding an office more accessible to a wide variety of candidates, instead of only people who share similar views of Republicans or Democrats.

Evaluation of Tourism Brochure for Portugal

Evaluation of Tourism Brochure for Portugal The National Tourism Office for Portugal describes the country as one of the world’s oldest nations whose boundaries have remained unchanged since the thirteenth century. It encompasses the Azores and Madeira within its region and offers rapid access to other countries in Europe as well as the American continent and Africa. It has mild winters and ‘agreeable’ summers. It has a population of over 10 million, with the highest demographic in Lisbon. It boasts strong and historical and cultural ties with the rest of the world. (Sourced from: http://www.portugal.org/index.shtml, Date accessed, 12/01/09) Located in South West Europe Portugal has been an economic and politically powerful country and played a key role in early maritime exploration during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is clear that tourist brochures key objectives are to sell a positive and appealing destination to travelers; what is not quite so apparent are the disguised messages that are frequently conveyed by the way in which certain pictures are produced and by way of cleverly composed coded text throughout. Two official brochures issued by the Portuguese Tourism Office will be analysed for their content within this paper. This will mostly focus on visual images as well as some textual interpretation. One represents a traditional travel brochure depicting the country generically, while the other is their most up to date promotional campaign brochure which has only recently been launched. In Eric Laws’ Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism he talks about using content analysis to make ‘replicable and valued inferences from data to their context’. His model seeks to decode messages according to categories including location, activities, transport and travel parties etc whilst breaking down the analysis in sections; the front page, photographs and text. (Laws, 1998) It is this approach that will be applied to this paper. Assessing first the more traditional brochure for the country, immediately the front cover conveys a sense of isolation, with what appears to be a digitally enhanced image of a rock in the middle of the sea. Whether this is meant to represent Portugal is unclear and although a little uninspiring it will appeal to a certain type of audience that will want to discover more. This audience target becomes more apparent the further into the brochure you read. The first page into the literature provides a mixture of emotive, nationalistic and evocative images. A local Portuguese poet is quoted as a means of engaging the reader immediately with the prospect of a country which is inspired by the arts, as well as characterising it as a country not to be confused as a seaside resort, but rather for its lesser known rugged mountains and lakes which are illustrated romantically on the front cover. The accompanying text continues to relay all of the diverse things that Portugal has in terms of app ealing to a broad audience. These include nightclubs, hiking or deserted coves. However whilst it may seem to want to appeal to all people it is at the same time obviously trying to attract the type of middle class, sensitive and emotional visitor who will be inspired by beauty and poetry. The second page continues with this theme but elaborates on the architecture, museums and heritage to be discovered. Now the reader begins to imagine Portugal as more of an ‘old world’ country, which of course is what it is and it is clear that the brochure wants to emphasise this age old association with Portugal, not so much the seaside resort, but more of a cultural haven. Once again this romantic element continues across the following pages where the quaint old images are elaborated further with the introduction of the idea of romance. It’s as if the brochure has succeeded in coming across as a charming, welcoming country which is most suitable as a destination for lovers a nd couples to embrace. The reader is told that for the Portuguese ‘romance is as important as the air they breath’ It even goes so far as to say ‘one-night stands are out’ which automatically assumes that the young, single man or woman perhaps coming to the country in a group of similar young and single people would not feel comfortable or at ease. This is not the market that they want to encourage. It is a clever message and not so much cryptic, more overt in its presence. Already there have been four images all of which contain no people in them. This is particularly interesting as it suggests the sender of the message is trying to convey Portugal as a form of tourism which suits escapism. Pictures of food and restaurants feature across the next two pages with a list of the ten things you should not leave Portugal before tasting. Portugal thrives on its high-level services like drinking, eating and shopping and it seems uncharacteristic then that for a thirty six page brochure only around three or four pages have any images of food, bars or restaurants. Already this assumes in many ways that the country has defined its tourist and is utilising different methods of trying to attract them. In Finn et al’s Tourism and Leisure Research Methods: Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation the authors write about a research study which took place over three years on a remote Scottish Island with the intention of understanding better the relationship between islanders and tourists. Life on the island changed significantly over the summer months when visitors arrived and the study was able to determine that all visitors could be clearly categorized. The categories included day-trippers, summer residents, tourists, returning island-born visitors etc. (Finn et al, 2000) The tourists were defined, known and responded to accordingly. Each country has an understanding of who their visitors are and will attempt to appeal to them as categories, such as those listed above. In order to do that they apply a number of techniques that will be designed to capture the imagination of any given category. This particular brochure omits any indication of hedonism, instead it depicts couples walking or lone back-packers. There are no crowd scenes, no shots of happy groups of participatory people. The focus remains on large rural landscapes, with urban representations limited to the city architecture, rather than on nightlife or entertainment. The word romance appears seven times in the first four pages, which immediately indicates that the oweness is on this type of visitor; a couple or perhaps two friends looking for meaningful encounters rather than drink-fuelled, party antics. This isn’t isolated to one section of the brochure either, it is prevalent throughout even in the pages selling Lisbon, Portugal’s adven turous capital city. In fact the word Lisbon only features once in some contact details at the end of the literature. Portugal’s capital is referred throughout by its old traditional Portuguese name, Lisboa. This in itself suggests that the tourist office is appealing to more sophisticated and knowledgeable travelers who will know that Lisboa is Lisbon. Some readers may understandably pick up a brochure of Portugal looking for Lisbon, but it is clearly this type of prospective visitor that the country is not necessarily interested in appealing to here. Page 19 goes into tremendous detail about the historical background of the region. For many standard holiday makers looking for a cheap and cheerful get away this will automatically leave them cold and disinterested. The text reads like a detailed guide book in the style of Lonely Planet or Time Out. The Mosteiro dos Jerà ³nimos in the district of Belà ©m is a hymn in stone to Portugal’s maritime heritage, while the Torre de Belà ©m is a potent symbol of Portugal’s great age  of expansion. Even contemporary architecture takes on a maritime theme – the amazing new Vasco da Gama bridge is in the shape of a giant sail. After the devastating earthquake of 1755, Baixa Pombalina (the centre of Lisboa) was rebuilt in a classical style, but many of the winding mediaeval bairros remain, crammed with fascinating shops, restaurants and cafà ©s. At night they come into their own,  offering everything from African to Latin American music – and of course the  bluesy melancholy of fado. This is not the language traditionally associated with grabbing the attention of hard marketing, fast promoting tourist attractions and once again only seeks to reiterate the type of audience they are trying to capture. The second brochure for analysis is very different in its approach. It has been designed in a deliberately stylized way to grab the attention of the potential tourist. The reader is informed immediately that this has been created specifically for Portugal by the world renowned photographer Nick Knight. A photographer who is British, which immediately eradicates any thoughts of patriotism or national pride which comes across so clearly in the opening pages of the other brochure. And on the cover the reader is presented with a juxtaposing photograph of the Portuguese football manager Jose Mourinho resting above the caption ‘My country has 220 days of sunshine every year’. Jose Mourinho is the face of Portugal, literally. Not only that but the accompanying statement makes it personalized somehow, as if Mourinho was talking to the reader as a friend or confident. This is a very clever way of engaging readers. In addition it is almost as if the writers of the brochure have de cided that they need to associate the country more with a well known image. It signifies pride whilst boasting that it is a country blessed with sun and celebrities. National celebrities as well as the ability to attract other celebrities such as Nick Knight. It is a very bold, confident style. The most noticeable next technique to be analysed is the selected font that the brochure is written in. This looks like old computer style icons, which conjures up images of both the future in terms of technology and of nostalgia for old fashioned computer text. As a consequence the reader becomes drawn in by a familiar yet inspirational attitude towards the literature being presented. Is this the way in which Portugal is trying to be imagined? As an inspiring, forward-thinking country which is also reassuring some how. As if carrying on with this theme the brochure then informs us that Portugal is essentially trying to re-define and re-brand itself, telling us on page 4, that its many and varied assets deserve to be ‘promoted and exploited†¦.with a proper stage so that they can be seen, appreciated and valued as they are not enough at the moment’. This self-depreciating and yet overly confident message will appeal to readers on a number of levels. The information which the reader is communicated on page 6 is particularly interesting. It seeks to plead with prospective tourists on the basis of beginning to disassociate itself away from its old Mediterranean identity. Despite none of Portugal’s coast being on the Mediterranean Sea, it has often promoted itself as a ‘Mediterranean area’. For the first time in this brochure it is realigning itself with the ‘Atlantic†¦and our home’. This signifies a complete change of image and identity for the country and one that it wants to relay to other potential visitors from around the world. After approximately seven extremely short paragraphs along this same theme and a biography of Nick Knight; what emerges is a series of robust images, first of rugged seascapes and rough coastal scenes which invoke feelings of drama, excitement and energy which is clearly what this ‘new’ Portugal is attempting to portray. Probably the most powerful messa ges are however the next set of portraits which illustrate well known Portuguese people including the architect Miguel Cancio Martins, the artist Joana Vasconcelos, the footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and of course Jose Mourinho. It is a brochure which is very stylised and reads more like a power point presentation than a piece of promotional tourist information. It is particularly visual and leaves behind any romantic, idealised, historical textual information so associated with the hard sell of ‘old world country’s’. Instead it is making a very brave and bold move into re-branding itself as a country to be viewed as a modern contender even going to the extreme of repositioning itself geographically within the Atlantic Ocean, rather than the Mediterranean. Perhaps this has been done in a move towards getting people to start associating it with an entirely new type of holiday which does not necessarily reflect the beaches, clubs and excitement connected to the Medit erranean, but more in line with the sophistication of the brochure discussed earlier. To be considered more like Mexico and Guyana rather than Cyprus and Greece; the more popular and media driven destinations which are more and more prone to be associated with package tours, groups of young people and stag and hen parties. The other rationale for its provocative move might relate to the Middle East; so firmly entrenched as it is in the Mediterranean, in particular Israel and Libya. Recent political unrest and continued problems in this area might have prompted Portugal to consider disassociating itself from its previous identity. In Pritchard and Morgan’s study, Evaluating vacation destination brochure images: the case of local authorities in Wales, they identified the power and influence of images appearing in brochures into six groups all of which assist with establishing identity; scenery, activities, people, heritage, urban and rural and iconic destinations. (Pritchard and Morgan, 1995). This contemporary brochure proves no different in many ways. It still succeeds in Portugal establishing itself as a vacation destination in that it projects large bold images of Portugal’s natural scenery, not its heritage, castles or monuments, but the wildlife that exists around its coast, the people of course are also iconic representations and exemplify the country as a modern forward thinking and inspirational place to go. No activities are demonstrated but the photographs of well known people listed by occupation craftily suggests that it is possible to do anything in Portugal, whether that be a scient ist, artists, architect or even an Olympic champion. Portugal has it all. The juxtaposition of both brochures; traditional and contemporary have been interesting to analyse in relation to their differences as well as their very obvious similarities. From this angle it is determinable that messages may often be similar or indeed the same but that they can be delivered in very conflicting ways in the context of differing perspectives. Many of the messages relayed in both brochures advertising Portugal predominantly appeal to more broad minded, sophisticated audiences who appreciate and know a little more about life and the world around them. By doing so it sometimes actually serves to discourage anything other than that type of tourist, which may on some levels seem risky, whilst on others is understandable if the country has faced economic, public or political issues due to the nature of their tourism or media associated tourism. References Finn, M, Elliott-White, M, Walton, M (2000) Tourism and Leisure Research Methods: Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation: Pearson Education Laws, E, Faulkner, W, Moscardo, G, Faulkner, B (1998) Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism: International Case Studies: Routledge Pritchard, A and Morgan, N. (1995) Evaluating destination brochure images: the case of local authorities in Wales, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol 2, pp 23-38 Ringer, G.D (1998) Destinations: Cultural Landscapes of Tourism: Routledge Official Portugal Tourism Office (Sourced from: http://www.portugal.org/index.shtml, Date accessed, 12/01/09)

Computers and Health :: Technology Papers

For my I-Search topic I chose to research health related issues due to increased computer usage both in the work and home settings. Computer technology is becoming commonplace in the work field. As a teacher, I use the computer to present topics to my students, enter grades, send email to co-workers and parents, and to post homework assignments on the Internet. Ten years ago, teachers and other professionals used computers on a limited basis. I became interested in the side effects caused by prolonged usage of computers since several family members complain of wrist soreness as well as eyestrain due to the effects of monitor radiation. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the first term that comes to mind when thinking of problems that people experience with computer use regarding their hands. Based on my limited knowledge of this topic, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome occurs due to a persons prolonged usage of a computer keyboard. Problems of this sort occur more often due to poor ergonomics and posture. Computer office furniture that does not allow one to adjust the height of the chair or keyboard, so that the arms form a write angle at the elbow, cause strain on the wrist, which may result in carpal tunnel syndrome. People who use computers for long periods of time without giving themselves a break and flexing their wrist have a higher propensity of developing problems. Monitor radiation has been discussed throughout computer journals for years. I have learned that different monitors have higher or lower radiation levels. Monitors made overseas are generally considered to have a lower radiation level than those built in the United States. For example, as an engineer the Management Information Services (MIS) unit told us that NEC monitors had much lower radiation levels than IBM monitors. After sitting at a computer during my eleven-year career as a Civil Engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, I often found that headaches at the end of the day were common. My eyes felt strained due to the looking at a monitor for an extended period of time. Over the years as an engineer I bought various types of glare screens for my computer monitor. Even though I doubt the glare screens help with the reduction of radiation given off by the monitors, they do seem to help with eyestrain. Throughout this paper, I hope to discover ways to minimize or prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and the negative effects of monitor radiation on ones health.

Terms Comparison Paper Hcs 552

Terms Comparison Paper HCS/552 February 4, 2013 John J. Schibler Terms Comparison Paper Health care economics involves making plenty of choices. Individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations choose how to use resources . Economics and health care are linked, because health care professionals apply economics in their everyday professional activities. They are able to do this through resource allocation. Any health care organization has to plan out how they will use their resources to their advantage. Health care economics are able to incorporate terms like cost, quality, and resources.In this paper, I will compare these terms as they relate to health care economics. In this paper, I will also explain how they differ from one another. Resources are considered to be any physical thing or virtual element that has limited availability. A resource can also be anything that is used to help people earn a living. There are different types of resources such as human resources, and natural resources. In economics, human resources refer t human capital or employees in an organization (Getzen, 2007).Many times resources are considered to be a means of factors of production. When health care organization is in production of something, natural resources are being used. Resources are usually limited, and most organizations have to look for ways of allocating resources that they need. Resources in health care means that all materials and funds are used to provide health care for people. The term â€Å"resource† has similar meaning in health care and economics. When used in health care, it means that all materials and funds are used to provide health care.When referring to the economic portion of health care, resource means that they are the personnel, the funds, facilities, or any material used in production. Another similarity is that resources are limited and they have value. For example, funds, as well as personnel are limited, and they may hinder delivery of hea lth care services and productivity. Most people prefer to have quality health care. Quality may also have many different meanings. Quality in health care economics means the superiority of something. This can also mean the best of something.Quality in health care can be determined by determining if the health care is a great fit for the person. Quality of health care can be considered as the right treatment for the right illness, and also delivering health care at the right time. Quality in health care economics means to give the best health care possible. Getzen (2007), states that medicine often involves life and death situations (p. 12). In these situations, quality is crucial and quantity is irrelevant (Getzen, 2007). Quality cannot simply be added up or multiplied to arrive at a total spending limit.In medical care, getting more ounces or pounds or boxes or whatever is usually not very important, but getting higher quality is. When referring to health care economics, â€Å"cos t† refers to the funds that are used to deliver health care to patients. Cost can also mean the amount of funds used to access health care or to deliver health care (Getzen, 2007). It is applied in many different ways such as, health care professionals applying economic principles like cost benefit analysis, or cost effect analysis to determine if the choice is good or bad.The principles help the government to provide the best intervention in health care (Getzen, 2007). In conclusion, all the terms are interlinked when discussing health care economics. This is so and will always be so, because health care professionals always apply economic principles in health care. All of these terms help when deciding how to make and provide the correct interventions when making difficult decisions. When referring to resources, it has the same meaning when dealing with health care as well as economics alone.It means, materials, funds, employees and the facilities used in achieving goals set by the health care organization. While the term cost means something differently when separating health care and economics it all ties in when they are applied together in an organization. Cost means the funds used to deliver health care or when a patient is trying to access health care. Costs can also be rejected when making decisions about health care. Quality means to give the best possible when delivering care to a patient as well as when making decisions about a health care organization.All of these terms are the same in making health care economical decisions. We depend on all the terms in this paper when trying to make an ethical decision as it relates to health care and health care organizations. The essence of health care economics is simply trade or making a buck (Getzen, 2007). Its focal point will always be the market and the place where buyers and sellers exchange dollars for goods and services (Getzen, 2007). References Getzen, T. E. (2007). Health, economics, and fin ancing (3rd ed. ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. http://www. healthcarefinance. org/HEtext_files/chap01. pdf

Ulrich Beck

Sociology http://soc. sagepub. com Beck's Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment Anthony Elliott Sociology 2002; 36; 293 DOI: 10. 1177/0038038502036002004 The online version of this article can be found at: http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/36/2/293 Published by: http://www. sagepublications. com On behalf of: British Sociological Association Additional services and information for Sociology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://soc. sagepub. com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www. agepub. com/journalsReprints. nav Permissions: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsPermissions. nav Citations (this article cites 6 articles hosted on the SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/content/refs/36/2/293 Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 293 Risk Society Sociology Copyright  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd ®Volume 36(2): 293–315 [0038-0385(200205)36:2;293–315;022761] SAGE Publications London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi Beck’s Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment s Anthony Elliott University of the West of England AB ST RAC T The German sociologist Ulrich Beck has elaborated a highly original formulation of the theory of risk and re? exive modernization, a formulation that has had a signi? cant impact upon recent sociological theorizing and research. This article examines Beck’s sociology of risk in the context of his broader social theory of re? xivity, advanced modernization and individualization. The article argues that Beck’s work is constrained by several sociological weaknesses: namely, a dependence upon objectivistic and instrumental models of the social construction of risk and uncertainty in social relations, and a failure to adequately de? ne the relations between institutional dynamism on the one hand and self-referentiality and critical re? ection on the other. As a contribution to the reformulation and further development of Beck’s approach to sociological theory, the article seeks to uggest other ways in which the link between risk and re? exivity might be pursued. These include a focus upon (1) the intermixing of re? exivity and re? ection in social relations; (2) contemporary ideologies of domination and power; and (3) a dialectical notion of modernity and postmodernization. K E Y WORDS domination / modernity / postmodernity / re? exivity / risk / social theory A s competent re? ective agents, we are aware of the many ways in which a generalized ‘climate of risk’ presses in on our daily activities.In our dayto-day lives, we are sensitive to the cluster of risks that affect our relations with the self, with others, and with the broader culture. We are specialists in carving out ways of coping and managing risk, whether this be through active engagement, resigned acceptance or confused denial. From dietary concerns to 293 Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 294 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 294 Number 2 sMay 2002 prospective stock market gains and losses to polluted air, the contemporary risk climate is one of proliferation, multiplication, specialism, counterfactual guesswork, and, above all, anxiety. Adequate consideration and calculation of risktaking, risk-management and risk-detection can never be fully complete, however, since there are always unforeseen and unintended aspects of risk environments. This is especially true at the level of global hazards, where the array of industrial, technological, chemical and nuclear dangers that confront us grows, and at an alarming rate.Indeed the Germa n sociologist, Ulrich Beck (1996a), de? nes the current situation as that of ‘world risk society’. The rise of risk society, Beck argues, is bound up with the new electronic global economy – a world in which we live on the edge of high technological innovation and scienti? c development, but where no one fully understands the possible global risks and dangers we face. My aim in this article is to explore some of the issues that concern the relation between risk and society by focusing on the work of Beck.A profoundly innovative and imaginative social theorist, Beck has developed powerful analyses of the ways in which the rise of the risk society is transforming social reproduction, nature and ecology, intimate relationships, politics and democracy. 1 It is necessary to state at the outset that I am not seeking in this article to provide a general introduction to Beck’s work as a whole. Rather, I shall offer a short exposition of Beck’s risk society thesis, in conjunction with his analysis of re? exivity and its role in social practices and modern institutions. The econd, more extensive half of the article is then critical and reconstructive in character. I try to identify several questionable social-theoretic assumptions contained in Beck’s risk society thesis, as well as limitations concerning his analysis of re? exivity, social reproduction and the dynamics of modernity. In making this critique, I shall try to point, in a limited and provisional manner, to some of the ways in which I believe that the themes of risk and social re? exivity can be reformulated and, in turn, further developed in contemporary sociological analysis.Outline of the Theory Let me begin by outlining the central planks of Beck’s social theory. These can be divided into three major themes: (1) the risk society thesis; (2) re? exive modernization; and (3) individualization. The Risk Society Thesis From his highly in? uential 1986 volume Ris k Society through to Democracy without Enemies (1998) and World Risk Society (1999b), Beck has consistently argued that the notion of risk is becoming increasingly central to our global society. 2 As Beck (1991: 22–3) writes: Downloaded from http://soc. agepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 295 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott [T]he historically unprecedented possibility, brought about by our own decisions, of the destruction of all life on this planet †¦ distinguishes our epoch not only from the early phase of the Industrial Revolution but also from all other cultures and social forms, no matter how diverse and contradictory.If a ? re breaks out, the ? re brigade comes; if a traf? c accident occurs, the insurance pays. This interplay between before and after, between security in the here-and-now and security i n the future because one took precautions even for the worst imaginable case, has been revoked in the age of nuclear, chemical and genetic technology. In their brilliant perfection, nuclear power plants have suspended the principle of insurance not only in the economic but also in the medical, psychological, cultural, and religious sense.The ‘residual risk society’ is an uninsured society, in which protection, paradoxically, decreases as the threat increases. For Beck, modernity is a world that introduces global risk parameters that previous generations have not had to face. Precisely because of the failure of modern social institutions to control the risks they have created, such as the ecological crisis, risk rebounds as a largely defensive attempt to avoid new problems and dangers. Beck contends that it is necessary to separate the notion of risk from hazard or danger.The hazards of pre-industrial society – famines, plagues, natural disasters – may or m ay not come close to the destructive potential of technoscience in the contemporary era. Yet for Beck this really is not a key consideration in any event, since he does not wish to suggest that daily life in today’s risk society is intrinsically more hazardous than in the pre-modern world. What he does suggest, however, is that no notion of risk is to be found in traditional culture: pre-industrial hazards or dangers, no matter how potentially catastrophic, were experienced as pre-given.They came from some ‘other’ – gods, nature or demons. With the beginning of societal attempts to control, and particularly with the idea of steering towards a future of predictable security, the consequences of risk become a political issue. This last point is crucial. It is societal intervention – in the form of decision-making – that transforms incalculable hazards into calculable risks. ‘Risks’, writes Beck (1997: 30), ‘always depend on d ecisions – that is, they presuppose decisions’.The idea of ‘risk society’ is thus bound up with the development of instrumental rational control, which the process of modernization promotes in all spheres of life – from individual risk of accidents and illnesses to export risks and risks of war. In support of the contention that protection from danger decreases as the threat increases in the contemporary era, Beck (1994) discusses, among many other examples, the case of a lead crystal factory in the former Federal Republic of Germany. The factory in question – Altenstadt in the Upper Palatinate – was prosecuted in the 1980s for polluting the atmosphere.Many residents in the area had, for some considerable time, suffered from skin rashes, nausea and headaches, and blame was squarely attributed to the white dust emitted from the factory’s smokestacks. Due to the visibility of the pollution, the case for damages against the factory was imagined, by many people, to be watertight. Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 295 022761 Elliott 296 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 296Number 2 s May 2002 However, because there were three other glass factories in the area, the presiding judge offered to drop the charges in return for a nominal ? ne, on the grounds that individual liability for emitting dangerous pollutants and toxins could not be established. ‘Welcome to the real-life travesty of the hazard technocracy! ’ writes Beck, underlining the denial of risks within our cultural and political structures. Such denial for Beck is deeply layered within institutions, and he calls this ‘organized irresponsibility’ – a concept to which we will return.The age of nuclear, chemical and genetic technology, according to Beck, unleashes a destruction of the calculus of risks by which modern societies have developed a consensus on progress. Insurance has been the key to sustaining this consensus, functioning as a kind of security pact against industrially produced dangers and hazards. 3 In particular, two kinds of insurance are associated with modernization: the private insurance company and public insurance, linked above all with the welfare state.Yet the changing nature of risk in an age of globalization, argues Beck, fractures the calculating of risks for purposes of insurance. Individually and collectively, we do not fully know or understand many of the risks that we currently face, let alone can we attempt to calculate them accurately in terms of probability, compensation and accountability. In this connection, Beck emphasizes the following: s s s s risks today threaten irreparable global damage which cannot be limited, and hus the notion of monetary compensation is rendered obsolescent; in the case of the wors t possible nuclear or chemical accident, any security monitoring of damages fails; accidents, now reconstituted as ‘events’ without beginning or end, break apart delimitations in space and time; notions of accountability collapse. Re? exive Modernization Beck develops his critique of modernity through an examination of the presuppositions of the sociology of modernization. Many mainstream sociological theories remain marked, in his view, by a confusion of modernity with industrial society – seen in either positive or negative terms.This is true for functionalists and Marxists alike, especially in terms of their preoccupation with industrial achievement, adaptation, differentiation and rationalization. Indeed, Beck ? nds an ideology of progress concealed within dominant social theories that equate modernization with linear rationalization. From Marx through Parsons to Luhmann, modern society is constantly changing, expanding and transforming itself; it is clear th at industrialism results in the using up of resources that are essential to the reproduction of society.But the most striking limitation of social theories that equate modernity with industrial society, according to Beck, lies in their lack of comprehension of the manner in which dangers to societal preservation and renewal in? ltrate the institutions, organizations and subsystems of modern society itself. Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 :49 am Page 297 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott In contrast to this grand consensus on modernization, Beck argues that we are between industrial society and advanced modernity, between simple modernization and re? exive modernization. As Beck (1996b: 28) develops these distinctions: In view of these two stages and their sequence, the concept of ‘re? exive moder nization’ may be introduced. This precisely does not mean re? ection (as the adjective ‘re? exive’ seems to suggest), but above all self-confrontation.The transition from the industrial to the risk epoch of modernity occurs unintentionally, unseen, compulsively, in the course of a dynamic of modernization which has made itself autonomous, on the pattern of latent side-effects. One can almost say that the constellations of risk society are created because the self-evident truths of industrial society (the consensus on progress, the abstraction from ecological consequences and hazards) dominate the thinking and behaviour of human beings and institutions. Risk society is not an option which could be chosen or rejected in the course of political debate.It arises through the automatic operation of autonomous modernization processes which are blind and deaf to consequences and dangers. In total, and latently, these produce hazards which call into question – inde ed abolish – the basis of industrial society. It is the autonomous, compulsive dynamic of advanced or re? exive modernization that, according to Beck, propels modern men and women into ‘self-confrontation’ with the consequences of risk that cannot adequately be addressed, measured, controlled or overcome, at least according to the standards of industrial society.Modernity’s blindness to the risks and dangers produced by modernization – all of which happens automatically and unre? ectingly, according to Beck – leads to societal self-confrontation: that is, the questioning of divisions between centres of political activity and the decision-making capacity of society itself. Society, in effect, seeks to reclaim ‘the political’ from its modernist relegation to the institutional sphere, and this, says Beck, is achieved primarily through sub-political means – that is, locating the politics of risk at the heart of forms of social and cultural life. Within the horizon of the opposition between old routine and new awareness of consequences and dangers’, writes Beck, ‘society becomes self-critical’ (1999b: 81). The prospects for arresting the dark sides of industrial progress and advanced modernization through re? exivity are routinely short-circuited, according to Beck, by the insidious in? uence of ‘organized irresponsibility’. Irresponsibility, as Beck uses the term, refers to a political contradiction of the self-jeopardization and self-endangerment of risk society.This is a contradiction between an emerging public awareness of risks produced by and within the social-institutional system on the one hand, and the lack of attribution of systemic risks to this system on the other. There is, in Beck’s reckoning, a constant denial of the suicidal tendency of risk society – ‘the system of organized irresponsibility’ – which manifests itself in, s ay, technically orientated legal procedures designed to satisfy rigorous causal proof of individual liability and guilt. This self-created dead end, in which culpability is passed off on to individualsDownloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 297 022761 Elliott 298 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 298 Number 2 s May 2002 and thus collectively denied, is maintained through political ideologies of industrial fatalism: faith in progress, dependence on rationality and the rule of expert opinion. Individualization The arrival of advanced modernization is not wholly about risk; it is also about an expansion of choice.For if risks are an attempt to make the incalculable calculable, then risk-monitoring presupposes agency, choice, calculation and responsibility. In the process of re? exive modernization, Beck argues, more and more areas o f life are released or disembedded from the hold of tradition. That is to say, people living in the modernized societies of today develop an increasing engagement with both the intimate and more public aspects of their lives, aspects that were previously governed by tradition or taken-forgranted norms.This set of developments is what Beck calls ‘individualization’, and its operation is governed by a dialectic of disintegration and reinvention. For example, the disappearance of tradition and the disintegration of previously existing social forms – ? xed gender roles, in? exible class locations, masculinist work models – forces people into making decisions about their own lives and future courses of action.As traditional ways of doing things become problematic, people must choose paths for a more rewarding life – all of which requires planning and rationalization, deliberation and engagement. An active engagement with the self, with the body, with rel ationships and marriage, with gender norms, and with work: this is the subjective backdrop of the risk society. The idea of individualization is the basis upon which Beck constructs his vision of a ‘new modernity’, of novel personal experimentation and cultural innovation against a social backdrop of risks, dangers, hazards, re? xivity, globalization. Yet the unleashing of experimentation and choice which individualization brings is certainly not without its problems. According to Beck, there are progressive and regressive elements to individualization; although, in analytical terms, these are extremely hard to disentangle. In personal terms, the gains of today’s individualization might be tomorrow’s limitation, as advantage and progress turn into their opposite. A signal example of this is offered in The Normal Chaos of Love (1995), where Beck and Beck-Gernsheim re? ct on the role of technological innovation in medicine, and of how this impacts upon conte mporary family life. Technological advancements in diagnostic and genetic testing on the unborn, they argue, create new parental possibilities, primarily in the realm of health monitoring. However, the very capacity for medical intervention is one that quickly turns into an obligation on parents to use such technologies in order to secure a sound genetic starting point for their offspring.Individualization is seen here as a paradoxical compulsion, at once leading people into a much more engaged relationship with science and technology than used to be the case, and enforcing a set of obligations and responsibilities that few in society have thought through in terms of broad Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 299 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott moral and ethical implications.It is perhaps lit tle wonder therefore that Beck (1997: 96), echoing Sartre, contends that ‘people are condemned to individualization’. Critique Beck has elaborated a highly original formulation of the theory of risk, a formulation which links with, but in many ways is more sophisticated in its detail and application than, other sociological approaches to the analysis of risk environments in contemporary society (among other contributions, see Douglas and Wildavsky (1982), Castell (1991), Giddens (1990, 1991), Luhmann (1993) and Adam (1998)).Beck’s sociology of risk has clearly been of increasing interest to sociologists concerned with understanding the complex temporal and spatial ? gurations of invisible hazards and dangers including global warming, chemical and petrochemical pollution, the effects of genetically modi? ed organisms and culturally induced diseases such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (see Lash et al. , 1996; Adam, 1998). In what follows, there are three core areas around which I shall develop a critique of the work of Beck: (1) risk, re? xivity, re? ection; (2) power and domination; and (3) tradition, modernity and postmodernization. Risk, Re? exivity, Re? ection Let me begin with Beck’s discussion of the ‘risk society’, which, according to him, currently dominates socio-political frames thanks to the twin forces of re? exivity and globalization. There are, I believe, many respects in which Beck’s vision of Risikogesellschaft, especially its rebounding in personal experience as risk-laden discourses and practices, is to be welcomed.In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster and widespread environmental pollution, and with ever more destructive weapons as well as human-made biological, chemical and technological hazards, it is surely the case that thinking in terms of risk has become central to the way in which human agents and modern institutions organize the social world. Indeed, in a world that could litera lly destroy itself, risk-managing and risk-monitoring increasingly in? uences both the constitution and calculation of social action.As mentioned previously, it is this focus on the concrete, objective physical-biological-technical risk settings of modernity which recommends Beck’s analysis as a useful corrective to the often obsessive abstraction and textual deconstruction that characterizes much recent social theory. However, one still might wonder whether Beck’s theory does not overemphasize, in a certain sense, the phenomena and relevance of risk. From a social-historical perspective it is plausible to ask, for instance, whether life in society has become more risky? In ‘From Regulation to Risk’, Bryan S. Turner (1994: 180–1) captures the problem well:Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 299 022761 E lliott 300 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 300 Number 2 s May 2002 [A] serious criticism of Beck’s arguments would be to suggest that risk has not changed so profoundly and signi? cantly over the last three centuries. For example, were the epidemics of syphilis and bubonic plague in earlier periods any different from the modern environment illnesses to which Beck draws our attention?That is, do Beck’s criteria of risk, such as their impersonal and unobservable nature, really stand up to historical scrutiny? The devastating plagues of earlier centuries were certainly global, democratic and general. Peasants and aristocrats died equally horrible deaths. In addition, with the spread of capitalist colonialism, it is clearly the case that in previous centuries many aboriginal peoples such as those of North America and Australia were engulfed by environmental, medical and political catastrophes which wiped out entire populations.If we take a broader view of the notion of risk as entailing at least a strong cultural element whereby risk is seen to be a necessary part of the human condition, then we could argue that the profound uncertainties about life, which occasionally overwhelmed earlier civilizations, were not unlike the anxieties of our own ? n-de-siecle civilizations. Extending Turner’s critique, it might also be asked whether risk assessment is the ultimate worry in the plight of individuals in contemporary culture?Is it right to see the means-ended rationality of risk, and thus the economistic language of preference, assessment and choice, as spreading into personal and intimate spheres of life (such as marriage, friendship and child-rearing) in such a determinate and uni? ed way? And does the concept of risk actually capture what is new and different in the contemporary social condition? I shall not pursue these general questions, important though they are, here. Instead, the issue I want to raise concerns the multiple ways in which risk is perceived, approached, engaged with or disengaged from, in contemporary culture.Beck’s approach, however suggestive it may be, is at best a signpost which points to speci? c kinds of probabilities, avoidances and unanticipated consequences, but which is limited in its grasp of the social structuring of the perception of risk. The American social theorist Jeffrey C. Alexander (1996: 135) has argued that Beck’s ‘unproblematic understanding of the perception of risk is utilitarian and objectivist’. Alexander takes Beck to task for adopting a rationalistic and instrumental-calculative model of risk in microsocial and macrosocial worlds; to which it can be added that such a model has deep af? ities with neo-classical economics and rational-choice theory, and thus necessarily shares the conceptual and political limitations of these standpoints also. Beck has also been criticized by others for his cognitive realism, moral proceduralism and lack of attention to aesthetic and hermeneutical subjectivity (Lash and Urry, 1994); failure to acknowledge the embodied nature of the self (Turner, 1994; Petersen, 1996); and neglect of the psychodynamic and affective dimensions of subjectivity and intersubjective relations (Elliott, 1996; Hollway and Jefferson, 1997).In a social-theoretical frame of reference, what these criticisms imply is that Beck’s theory cannot grasp the hermeneutical, aesthetic, psychological and culturally bounded forms of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in and through Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 301 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott which risk is constructed and perceived.To study risk-management and riskavoidance strategies, in the light of these criticisms, requires attention to forms of meaning-making within socio-symbolically inscribed institutional ? elds, a problem to which I return in a subsequent section when looking at Beck’s analysis of tradition, modernity and postmodernity. In raising the issue of the construction and reconstruction of risk – in particular, its active interpretation and reconstruction – one might reference numerous studies of socio-political attitudes relating to the conceptualization and confrontation of risk, danger and hazard.The anthropologist Mary Douglas (1986, 1992), for example, argues that advanced industrial risks are primarily constructed through the rhetoric of purity and pollution. For Douglas, what is most pressing in the social-theoretic analysis of risk is an understanding of how human agents ignore many of the potential threats of daily life and instead concentrate only on selected aspects. Interestingly, Beck fails to discuss in any detail Douglas’s anthropology of risk. This would seem peculiar not only sin ce Douglas’s path-breaking analyses of risk appear to have laid much of the thematic groundwork for Beck’s sociological theory, but also because her work is highly relevant to the critique of contemporary ideologies of risk – that is, the social forms in which risk and uncertainty are differentiated across and within social formations, as well as peculiarly individuated. My purpose in underscoring these various limitations of Beck’s theory is not to engage in some exercise of conceptual clari? cation.My concern rather is to stress the sociologically questionable assumptions concerning risk in Beck’s work, and to tease out the more complex, nuanced forms of risk perception that might fall within the scope of such an approach. To call into question Beck’s notion of risk is, of course, also to raise important issues about the location of re? exivity between self and societal reproduction. Now it is the failure of simple, industrial society to c ontrol the risks it has created, which, for Beck, generates a more intensive and extensive sense of risk in re? xive, advanced modernity. In this sense, the rise of objective, physical, global risks propels social re? exivity. But again one might wish to question the generalizations Beck makes about human agents, modern institutions and culture becoming more re? exive or self-confronting. Much of Beck’s work has been concerned to emphasize the degree of re? exive institutional dynamism involved in the restructuring of personal, social and political life, from the reforging of intimate relationships to the reinvention of politics.But there are disturbing dimensions here as well, which the spread of cultural, ethnic, racial and gendered con? ict has shown only too well, and often in ways in which one would be hard pressed to ? nd forms of personal or social re? exive activity. No doubt Beck would deny – as he has done in his more recent writings – that the renewal of traditions and the rise of cultural con? icts are counterexamples to the thesis of re? exive modernization. For we need to be particularly careful, Beck contends, not to confuse re? exivity (self-dissolution) with re? ction (knowledge). As Beck (1994b: 176–7) develops this distinction: Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 301 022761 Elliott 302 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 302 Number 2 s May 2002 †¦ the ‘re? exivity’ of modernity and modernization in my sense does not mean re? ection on modernity, self-relatedness, the self-referentiality of modernity, nor does it mean the self-justi? ation or self-criticism of modernity in the sense of classical sociology; rather (? rst of all), modernization undercuts modernization, unintended and unseen, and therefore also re? ection-free, with the force of autonomized modernization. †¦ [R]e? exivity of modernity can lead to re? ection on the self-dissolution and self-endangerment of industrial society, but it need not do so. Thus, re? exivity does not imply a kind of hyper-Enlightenment culture, where agents and institutions re? ect on modernity, but rather an unintended self-modi? ation of forms of life driven by the impact of autonomized processes of modernization. Re? exivity, on this account, is de? ned as much by ‘re? ex’ as it is by ‘re? ection’. ‘It is possible to detect’, write Lash et al. (1996) of Beck’s recent sociology, ‘a move towards seeing re? exive modernization as in most part propelled by blind social processes – a shift, crudely, from where risk society produces re? ection which in turn produces re? exivity and critique, to one where risk society automatically produces re? exivity, and then – perhaps – re? ection’.Without wishing t o deny the interest of this radical conception of re? exivity as self-dissolution, it still seems to me that Beck’s contention that contemporary societies are propelled toward self-confrontation, split between re? ex and re? ection, remains dubious. In what sense, for instance, can one claim that re? ection-free forms of societal self-dissolution exist independently of the re? ective capacities of human agents? For what, exactly, is being dissolved, if not the forms of life and social practices through which institutions are structured?How might the analytical terms of re? exivity, that is social re? exes (nonknowledge) and re? ection (knowledge), be reconciled? It may be thought that these dif? culties can be overcome by insisting, along with Beck, on re? exivity in the strong sense – as the unseen, the unwilled, the unintended; in short, institutional dynamism. But such an account of blind social processes is surely incompatible with, and in fact renders incoherent, concepts of re? ection, referentiality, re? exivity.Alternatively, a weaker version of the argument might be developed, one that sees only partial and contextual interactions of selfdissolution and re? ection. Yet such an account, again, would seem to cut the analytical ground from under itself, since there is no adequate basis for showing how practices of re? exivity vary in their complex articulations of re? ex and re? ection or repetition and creativity. Power and Domination I now want to consider Beck’s theory in relation to sociological understandings of power and domination. According to Beck, re? xive modernization combats many of the distinctive characteristics of power, turning set social divisions into active negotiated relationships. Traditional political con? icts, centred around class, race and gender, are increasingly superseded by new, globalized risk con? icts. ‘Risks’, writes Beck (1992: 35), ‘display an equalizing effect’. Everyone Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 303 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott ow is threatened by risk of global proportions and repercussions; not even the rich and powerful can escape the new dangers and hazards of, say, global warming or nuclear war. And it is from this universalized perspective that Beck argues political power and domination is shedding the skin of its classical forms and reinventing itself in a new global idiom. The problematic nature of Beck’s writings on this reinvention of political power and its role in social life, however, becomes increasingly evident when considering his analysis of social inequalities and cultural divisions.Take, for example, his re? ections on class. Re? exive modernization, says Beck, does not result in the self-destruction of class antagonis ms, but rather in selfmodi? cation. He writes (1997: 26): Re? exive modernization disembeds and re-embeds the cultural prerequisites of social classes with forms of individualization of social inequality. That means †¦ that the disappearance of social classes and the abolition of social inequality no longer coincide. Instead, the blurring of social classes (in perception) runs in tandem with an exacerbation of social inequality, which now does not follow large identi? ble groups in the lifeworld, but is instead fragmented across (life) phases, space and time. The present-day individualizing forces of social inequality, according to Beck, erode class-consciousness (personal dif? culties and grievances no longer culminate into group or collective causes) and also, to some considerable degree, class-in-itself (contemporary social problems are increasingly suffered alone). In short, class as a community of fate or destiny declines steeply. With class solidarities replaced by brittl e and uncertain forms of individual self-management, Beck ? ds evidence for a ‘rule-altering rationalization’ of class relationships in new business and management practices, as well as industrial relations reforms. He contends that new blendings of economics and democracy are discernible in the rise of political civil rights within the workplace, a blend which opens the possibility of a post-capitalistic world – a ‘classless capitalism of capital’, in which ‘the antagonism between labour and capital will collapse’. There is considerable plausibility in the suggestion that class patterns and divisions have been altered by rapid social and political changes in recent years.These include changes in employment and the occupational structure, the expansion of the service industries, rising unemployment, lower retirement ages, as well as a growing individualization in the West together with an accompanying stress upon lifestyle, consumption a nd choice. However, while it might be the case that developments associated with re? exive modernization and the risk society are affecting social inequalities, it is surely implausible to suggest, as Beck does, that this involves the trans? guration of class as such. Why, as Scott Lash (Beck et al. , 1994: 211) asks, do we ? nd re? xivity in some sectors of socio-economic life and not others? Against the backdrop of new communication technologies and advances in knowledge transfer, vast gaps in the sociocultural conditions of the wealthy and the poor drastically affect the ways in which individuals are drawn into the project of re? exive modernization. These Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 303 022761 Elliott 304 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 304 Number 2 s May 2002 ensions are especially evident today in new social d ivisions between the ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor’, and of the forces and demands of such symbolic participation within the public sphere. What Beck fails to adequately consider is that individualization (while undoubtedly facilitating unprecedented forms of personal and social experimentation) may directly contribute to, and advance the proliferation of, class inequalities and economic exclusions. That is to say, Beck fails to give suf? cient sociological weight to the possibility that individualization may actually embody systematically asymmetrical relations of class power.Taken from a broader view of the ideals of equal opportunity and social progress, Beck’s arguments about the relationship between advanced levels of re? exivity and the emergence of a new sub-politics do not adequately stand up to scrutiny. The general, tendential assertions he advances about business and organizational restructuring assume what needs to be demonstra ted – namely, that these new organizational forms spell the demise of social class, as well as the viability of class analysis. Moreover, it seems implausible to point to ‘subpolitics’, de? ned by Beck only in very general terms, as symptomatic of a new socio-political agenda.When, for example, have the shifting boundaries between the political and economic spheres not played a primary role in the unfolding of relations between labour and capital? Is decision-making and consciousness really focused on a post-capitalistic rationalization of rights, duties, interests and decisions? A good deal of recent research shows, on the contrary, that income inequality between and within nations continues to escalate (Braun, 1991; Lemert, 1997); that class (together with structures of power and domination) continues to profoundly shape possible life chances and material nterests (Westergaard, 1995); and that the many different de? nitions of class as a concept, encompassing t he marginal, the excluded as well as the new underclass or new poor, are important in social analysis for comprehending the persistence of patterns of social inequality (Crompton, 1996). These dif? culties would suggest that Beck’s theory of risk requires reformulation in various ways.Without wishing to deny that the risk-generating propensity of the social system has rapidly increased in recent years due to the impact of globalization and techno-science, it seems to me misleading to contend that social division in multinational capitalist societies is fully trans? gured into a new logic of risk, as if the latter disconnects the former from its institutionalized biases and processes. The more urgent theoretical task, I suggest, is to develop methods of analysis for explicating how patterns of power and domination feed into, and are reconstituted by, the socio-symbolic structuring of risk.Here I shall restrict myself to noting three interrelated forces, which indicate, in a ge neral way, the contours of how a politics of risk is undergoing transformation. The ? rst development is that of the privatization of risk. Underpinned by new trans-national spatializations of economic relations as well as the deregulation of the government of political life (Giddens, 1990; Hirst and Thompson, 1996; Bauman, 1998), the individual is increasingly viewed today as an active Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. om by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 305 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott agent in the risk-monitoring of collectively produced dangers; risk-information, risk-detection and risk-management is more and more constructed and designed as a matter of private responsibility and personal security. By and large, human agents confront socially produced risks individually.Risk is desocialized; risk-exposure and risk-avoi dance is a matter of individual responsibility and navigation. This is, of course, partly what Beck means by the individualization of risk. However, the relations between individualized or privatized risk, material inequalities and the development of global poverty are more systematic and complex than Beck’s theory seems to recognize. In the post-war period, the shift from Keynesian to monetarist economic policies has been a key factor in the erosion of the management of risk through welfare security.The impact of globalization, transnational corporations and governmental deregulation is vital to the social production of the privatization of risk, all of which undoubtedly has a polarizing effect on distributions of wealth and income. It has also become evident – and this is crucial – that one must be able to deploy certain educational resources, symbolic goods, cultural and media capabilities, as well as cognitive and affective aptitudes, in order to count as a ‘player’ in the privatization of risk-detection and risk-management.People who cannot deploy such resources and capabilities, often the result of various material and class inequalities, are likely to ? nd themselves further disadvantaged and marginalized in a new world order of re? exive modernization. The second, related development concerns the commodi? cation of risk. Millions of dollars are made through product development, advertising, and market research in the new industries of risk, which construct new problems and market new solutions for risk-? ghting individual agents. As risk is simultaneously proliferated and rendered potentially manageable’, writes Nikolas Rose (1996: 342), ‘the private market for â€Å"security† extends: not merely personal pension schemes and private health insurance, but burglar alarms, devices that monitor sleeping children, home testing kits for cholesterol levels and much more. Protection against risk through an investment in security becomes part of the responsibilities of each active individual, if they are not to feel guilt at failing to protect themselves and their loved ones against future misfortunes’.In other words, the typical means for insuring against risk today is through market-promoted processes. However the fundamental point here, and this is something that Beck fails to develop in a systematic manner, is that such ‘insurance’ is of a radically imaginary kind (with all the misrecognition and illusion that the Lacanian-Althusserian theorization of the duplicate mirror-structure of ideology implies), given that one cannot really buy one’s way out of the collective dangers that confront us as individuals and societies. How does one, for example, buy a way out from the dangers of global warming?The commodi? cation of risk has become a kind of safe house for myths, fantasies, ? ction and lies. The third development concerns the instrumentalization of iden tities in terms of lifestyle, consumption and choice. Beck touches on this issue through the individualization strand of his argument. Yet because he sees individualiza- Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 305 022761 Elliott 306 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 306 Number 2 s May 2002 ion as an active process transforming risk society, he pays almost no attention to the kinds of affective ‘investments’, often destructive and pathological, unleashed by an instrumentalization of identities and social relations. Of core importance here is the ‘culture of narcissism’ (Lasch, 1980) which pervades contemporary Western life, and plays a powerful role in the instrumental affective investments in individuals which a risk society unleashes. Joel Kovel (1988) writes of ‘the de-sociation of the narcissist ic character’, a character lacking in depth of emotional attachment to others and communities.Unable to sustain a sense of personal purpose or social project, the narcissistic character, writes Kovel, rarely moves beyond instrumentality in dealing with other people. Such instrumental emotional investments may well be increasingly central to the management of many risk codes in contemporary culture. Consider the ways in which some parents fashion a narcissistic relation with their own children as a kind of imaginary risk-insurance (involving anxieties and insecurities over old age, mortality and the like), rather than relating to their offspring as independent individuals in their own right.Also in risks relating to the home, personal comfort as well as safety, hygiene, health and domesticity, the veneer-like quality of pathological narcissism can be found. Some analytical caution is, of course, necessary here, primarily because the work on narcissistic culture of Lasch and Se nnett, among others, has been criticized in terms of over-generalization (Giddens, 1991: 174–80). Accordingly, it may be more plausible to suggest that narcissistic forms of identity are a tendency within contemporary cultural relations of risk management, and not a wholesale social trend.Beck’s writings, I am suggesting, are less than satisfying on issues of power and domination because he fails to analyse in suf? cient depth the psychological, sociological and political forces by means of which the self-risk dialectic takes its varying forms. To develop a more nuanced interpretative and critical approach, I have suggested, the sociological task is to analyse privatization, commodi? cation and instrumentalization as channels of risk management. Tradition, Modernity, Postmodernity The limitations in the concept of re? xivity I have highlighted are, in turn, connected to further ambiguities concerning the nature of social reproduction in contemporary culture. The produc tion and reproduction of contemporary social life is viewed by Beck as a process of ‘detraditionalization’. The development of re? exive modernization, says Beck, is accompanied by an irreversible decline in the role of tradition; the re? exivity of modernity and modernization means that traditional forms of life are increasingly exposed to public scrutiny and debate. That the dynamics of social re? xivity undercut pre-existing traditions is emphasized by Beck via a range of social-theoretical terms. He speaks of ‘the age of side-effects’, of individualization, and of a sub-politics beyond left and right – a world in which people can and must come to terms with the opportunities and dangers of new technologies, markets, experts, systems and Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:5 0 am Page 307 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott nvironments. Beck thus argues that the contemporary age is one characterized by increased levels of referentiality, ambivalence, ? exibility, openness and social alternatives. It might be noted that certain parallels can be identi? ed between the thesis of detraditionalization and arguments advanced in classical social theory. Many classical social theorists believed that the development of the modern era spelled the end of tradition. ‘All that is solid melts into air’, said Marx of the power of the capitalist mode of production to tear apart traditional forms of social life.That the dynamics of capitalism undercut its own foundations meant for Marx a society that was continually transforming and constantly revolutionizing itself. Somewhat similar arguments about the decline of tradition can be found in the writings of Max Weber. The development of industrial society for Weber was inextricably intertwined with the ri se of the bureaucratic state. Weber saw in this bureaucratic rationalization of action, and associated demand for technical ef? ciency, a new social logic destructive of the traditional texture of society.The views of Marx and Weber, among others, thus advanced a general binary opposition of ‘the traditional’ and ‘the modern’. For proponents of the thesis of detraditionalization, such as Beck, the self-referentiality and social re? exivity of advanced modernity also necessarily implies that traditional beliefs and practices begin to break down. However, the thesis of detraditionalization is not premised upon the broad contrast between ‘the traditional’ and ‘the modern’ that we can discern in much classical social theory. On the contrary, Beck ? nds the relation between tradition and modernity at once complex and puzzling.If tradition remains an important aspect of advanced modernity, it is because tradition becomes re? exive; tradi tions are invented, reinvented and restructured in conditions of the late modern age. So far I think that there is much that is interesting and important in this general orientation of Beck to understanding the construction of the present, past and future. In particular, I think the stress placed upon the re? exive construction of tradition, and indeed all social reproduction, is especially signi? cant – even though I shall go on to argue that this general theoretical framework requires more speci? ation and elaboration. I want, however, to focus on a speci? c issue raised by Beck’s social theory, and ask, has the development of society toward advanced modernization been accompanied by a decline in the in? uence of tradition and traditional understandings of the past? Must we assume, as Beck seems to, that the social construction of tradition is always permeated by a pervasive re? exivity? At issue here, I suggest, is the question of how the concept of re? exivity shou ld be related to traditional, modern and postmodern cultural forms. I shall further suggest that the concept of re? xivity, as elaborated by Beck, fails to comprehend the different modernist and postmodernist ? gurations that may be implicit within social practices and symbolic forms of the contemporary age. In order to develop this line of argumentation, let us consider in some more detail the multiplicity of world traditions, communities and cultures as they impact upon current social practices and life-strategies. I believe that Beck is Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 07 022761 Elliott 308 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 308 Number 2 s May 2002 right to emphasize the degree to which modernity and advanced modernization processes have assaulted traditions, uprooted local communities and broken apart unique regional, e thnic and sub-national cultures. At the level of economic analysis, an argument can plausibly be sustained that the erratic nature of the world capitalist economy produces high levels of unpredictability and uncertainty in social life and cultural relations, all of which Beck analyses in terms of danger, risk and hazard.It is worth noting, however, that Beck’s emphasis on increasing levels of risk, ambivalence and uncertainty is at odds with much recent research in sociology and social theory that emphasizes the regularization and standardization of daily life in the advanced societies. George Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (1993) is a signal example. Drawing Weber’s theory of social rationalization and the Frankfurt School’s account of the administered society into a re? ctive encounter, Ritzer examines the application of managerial techniques such as Fordism and Taylorism to the fast food industry as symptomatic of the in? ltration of instrumen tal rationality into all aspects of cultural life. McDonaldization, as Ritzer develops the term, is the emergence of social logics in which risk and unpredictability are written out of social space. The point about such a conception of the standardization of everyday life, whatever its conceptual and sociological shortcomings, is that it clearly contradicts Beck’s stress on increasing risk and uncertainty, the concept of re? xive individualization, and the notion that detraditionalization produces more ambivalence, more anxiety, and more openness. Of course, Beck insists that re? exive modernization does not mark a complete break from tradition; rather re? exivity signals the revising, or reinvention, of tradition. However, the resurgence and persistence of ethnicity and nationality as a primary basis for the elaboration of traditional beliefs and practices throughout the world is surely problematic for those who, like Beck, advance the general thesis of social re? exivity.Ce rtainly, the thesis would appear challenged by widespread and recently revitalized patterns of racism, sexism and nationalism which have taken hold in many parts of the world, and indeed many serious controversies over race, ethnicity and nationalism involve a reversion to what might be called traditionalist battles over traditional culture – witness the rise of various religious fundamentalisms in the United States, the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia. These political and theoretical ambivalences have their roots in a number of analytical dif? ulties, speci? cally Beck’s diagnosis of simple and advanced modernity. Beck furnishes only the barest social-historical sketch of simple modernity as a distinctive period in the spheres of science, industry, morality and law. He underscores the continuing importance and impact of simple industrial society for a range of advanced, re? exive determinations (for example politically, economically, technologically and envir onmentally), yet the precise relations of such overlapping are not established or demonstrated in any detail.Exactly how we have moved into the age of re? exive modernization, although often stated and repeated, is not altogether clear. Beck’s main line of explanation seems to focus on the side-effects of modernization as undercutting the Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 309 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott foundations of modernity. But, again, the dynamics of simple and re? xive modernization, together with their social-historical periodization, remain opaque. In addition, it is not always clear how Beck is intending to draw certain conceptual distinctions between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ instantiations of respectively simple and advanced modernist socio- symbolic figurations. Rejecting outright any crude opposition between traditional and modern societies, Beck relates a tale of the proliferation of re? exive biographies and practices, lives and institutions, in which creative possibilities develop and new forms of risk and hazard take shape.Yet social advancement is far from inevitable: Beck speaks of counter-modernities. The question that needs to be asked here, however, is whether it is analytically useful for social theory to construct the contemporary age as characterized by interacting tropes of industrial society and re? exive modernization on the one side, and a range of countermodernities on the other. Viewed from the frame of postmodern social theory, and in particular the sociology of postmodernity (see Bauman, 1992a), Beck’s argument concerning the circularity of the relationship between risk, re? xivity and social knowledge appears in a more problematic, and perhaps ultimately inadequate, light. For postmodern so cial theorists and cultural analysts diagnose the malaise of present-day society not only as the result of re? exively applied knowledge to complex techno-scienti? c social environments, but as infused by a more general and pervasive sense of cultural disorientation. The most prominent anxieties that underpin postmodern dynamics of social regulation and systemic reproduction include a general loss of belief in the engine of progress, as well as feelings of out-of-placeness and loss of direction.Such anxieties or dispositions are accorded central signi? cance in the writings of a number of French theorists – notably, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Baudrillard, and Deleuze and Guattari – and also in the work of sociologists and social scientists interested in the rami? cations of post-structuralism, semiotics and deconstruction for the analysis of contemporary society (Lash and Urry, 1987; Harvey, 1989; Poster, 1990; Best and Kellner, 1991; Smart, 1992, 1993; Bauman, 1992a, 2000; Elliott, 1996).Postmodern anxieties or dispositions are, broadly speaking, cast as part of a broader cultural reaction to universal modernism’s construction of the social world, which privileges rationalism, positivism and techno-scienti? c planning. Premised upon a vigorous philosophical denunciation of humanism, abstract reason, and the Enlightenment legacy, postmodern theory rejects the metanarratives of modernity (that is, totalistic theoretical constructions, allegedly of universal application) and instead embraces fragmentation, discontinuity and ambiguity as symptomatic of current cultural conditions.To express the implications of these theoretical departures more directly in terms of the current discussion, if the social world in which we live in the 21st century is signi? cantly different from that of the simple modernization, this is so because of both socio-political and epistemological developments. It is not only re? ection on the globalization of risk tha t has eroded faith in humanly engineered progress. Postmodern contributions stress that the plurality of Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. om by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 309 022761 Elliott 310 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 310 Number 2 s May 2002 heterogeneous claims to knowledge carries radical consequences for the unity and coherence of social systems. Bluntly stated, a number of core issues are identi? ed by postmodern analysts in this connection: s s s The crisis of representation, instabilities of meaning, and fracturing of knowledge claims;The failure of the modernist project to ground epistemology in secure foundations; The wholesale transmutation in modes of representation within social life itself. Postmodernization in this context spells the problematization of the relationship between signi? er and referent, representation and reality, a re lationship made all the more complex by the computerization of information and knowledge (Poster, 1990). What I am describing as a broadly postmodern sociological viewpoint highlights the de? iency of placing ‘risk’ (or any other sociological variable) as the central paradox of modernity. For at a minimum, a far wider range of sources would appear to condition our current cultural malaise. What is signi? cant about these theoretical sightings, or glimpses, of the contours of postmodernity as a social system are that they lend themselves to global horizons and de? nitions more adequately than the so-called universalism of Beck’s sociology of risk.Against a theoretical backdrop of the break with foundationalism, the dispersion of language games, coupled with the recognition that history has no overall teleology, it is surely implausible to stretch the notion of risk as a basis for interpretation of phenomena from, say, an increase in worldwide divorce rates through to the collapse of insurance as a principle for the regulation of collective life. Certainly, there may exist some family resemblance in trends surrounding new personal, social and political agendas.Yet the seeds of personal transformation and social dislocation are likely to be a good deal more complex, multiple, discontinuous. This is why the change of mood – intellectual, social, cultural, psychological, political and economic – analysed by postmodern theorists has more far-reaching consequences for sociological analysis and research into modernity and postmodernization than does the work of Beck. In Beck’s sociology, the advent of advanced modernization is related to the changing social and technological dimensions of just one institutional sector: that of risk and its calculation.The key problem of re? exive modernization is one of living with a high degree of risk in a world where traditional safety nets (the welfare state, traditional nuclear family, etc . ) are being eroded or dismantled. But what is