Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the Essay

Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the theoretical and empirical literature in your answer. (with reference to theories of realism, communism, liberalism and marxism) - Essay Example The rise in international organization which has emerged after the second quarter of the 20th century is one of the greatest and central features of global associations2. While some recommend that the world is witnessing the making of an international community, ruled by procedures, norms and processes involved in decision making. Others observe the global state as being formless and even as ethically suspect3 International organizations are imperative to explore since the most crucial problems in global politics currently-terrorism, poverty, disease, economic instability, climate shift, regional fight, proliferation of weapons, and numerous other issues-cannot be resolved without integration on multilateral level. Global politics is segmented by interdependence of security which implies that no one government, not even the most influential one, can handle these issues all by itself. The modern world scenario needs both non-governmental and governmental catalysts to integrate action through global organization to cater these problems. Interdependence of security needs global state, and international organizations become a vital element of global state. This research paper will address the factors related with the emergence of global state, its possibility or desirability with the help of a brief discussion through theoretical and empirical literature4. After the termination of the World War I, the political culture of Britain was segmented by optimism regarding the probability of developing international democratic harmony and peace with the help of international integration and gradual political in Britain. However this optimism faced a sudden termination by the 1930s5. This was the decade in which the trial of the Ramsay Macdonald’s state and League of Nations were both drastically exposed as unsuccessful, and the

Three Cultural Regions of America Before Colonization Essay Example for Free

Three Cultural Regions of America Before Colonization Essay The three cultural regions of North America preceding colonization were the southwest, south, and Northeast. In these three cultural regions, there were several different groups of people that occupy the land. The Southwest region has the Pueblo Peoples or Pueblos. The south region has the Cherokee. The northeast has the Algonquians. The Pueblo peoples or the Pueblos settled mainly on the east of the Grand Canyon. The Pueblos traditional homes were made from the sandstone, which was held in place with mud. The houses were stocked up together as defense in mind. There were several groups that made up the pueblo peoples. The Pueblos spoke several dialects but one thing they all had in common was their affection and commitment to their land and their villages. Each Pueblo peoples clan and secret religious societies have their own political independence but still followed the same communal pattern. Various leaders from the clans and the religious societies formed the governing systems of the Pueblo villages. The Pueblos relied on farming. They grew corn, squash, beans and pumpkins. The Southwest region was extremely dry but they were still able to get irrigation sources from the several rivers that flowed out from the mountains. The Pueblos have several ceremonies and rituals which involves dancing, singing, chanting, and impersonations. The rituals and ceremonies were performed for marking important events, celebrating planting and harvesting, and to pray for rain. The Cherokees settled mainly on the high mountains. The Cherokees traditional homes typically have two separate houses that were designed to fit the changing climate. The Cherokees were one of the largest groups in the south region. The women often played a great role on the group. They were responsible for the household and clan was passed on through mothers, also known as the matrilineal kinship system. The group was not ruled by class or kings. Elderly men governed the tribe but the women were as powerful and influential leaders of the community. Although the south enjoys the climate suitable for farming, it was not as important as hunting. As the women tended crops in the fields, the men provided for the family by hunting and fishing. As the men hunt, the female farmed. The main concerns for the Cherokees were sustaining harmony. The Cherokees have rituals and ceremonies that balance in the world and help maintained harmony. When a hunter killed a deer, he performs a ritual as a sign of apology. They perform a ceremony called the Green Corn Ceremony, which symbolizes as a thanksgiving celebration for the harvest and a sign of new beginnings. The Algonquians settled mainly in the woodland sections of Atlantic and around the Great Lakes. The Algonquians built their villages near rivers and lakes and were usually very small. Traditional homes were built dome-shaped. Young Trees, or saplings, were used to build frames. Most of the communities were independent. There were approximately over fifty Algonquians tribes, which were separated into smaller groups called the bands. The bands were consisted of several extended families who belongs to same villages and each had a chief. The Algonquians hunted, fished and farmed. The Algonquians were experts on farming. They planted beans, corns, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobaccos. The Algonquians believed in supreme spirit. The Spirit was believed to have helped them grow crops and hunt for food. They had ceremonies held at different times such as planting season, harvest time, and hunting season. They danced, sing, and played instruments. Tobacco was used at these ceremonies because the Algonquians believed that the smoke had the ability to take their messages to the supreme spirits. Faragher, John M. Buhle, Mari Jo, Czitrom, Daniel, Armitage, Susan Out of Many Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, c2009 Perdue, Theda Indians of North America: The Cherokee United States of America: Chelsea House Publishers, c1989 Santella, Andrew First NAtions of North America: Southeast Indians Chicago, IL: Heinenabb Library an imprint of Capstone Global Library, LLC, c2012 Broida, Marian First Americans: The Pueblo Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, c2006 Kellogg, William O. American History: The Easy Way United States of America: Barrons Educational Series, Inc, c2003 Quiri, Patricia R. The Algonquian United States of America: Franklin Watts, c1992

Graduation Speech: God, Grant Me Wisdom :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

The year is 2038. I, Bob Millings, am a retired multi-millionare relaxing on the porch of my beach house on the Northshore of Oahu in the Hawaii Islands. Having already earned my millions from selling the hundreds of Ichiro cards that I amassed throughout the past 20 years, I have nothing else better to do than lay on my beach chair and soak up the rays. Suddenly a flock of seagulls (yes, seagulls fly in flocks) crosses my line of vision, and a tear comes to my eye. Oh, how that magnificent bird reminds me of the best four years of my life at County High School, the home of the Seagulls. My mind suddenly floats back 26 years to the past to a time when I was finishing up my career at that prestigious academy of learning. I didn't know it then, but some of my most valuable lessons were learned during those four years. No, I am not talking about those smarts I learned my freshman year, like remembering never to fall asleep in Mr. Bull's Biology class, or realizing that it was in my best interest to steer clear of the Senior Lot after school. Nor am I speaking about those important things I was taught during my crazy sophomore and junior years, like how important Planning Team is, how Wendy's is the best lunchtime meal around, or how a hook is one of the most important parts of an essay. I'm not even talking about those skills I picked up my senior year, like being able to get ready in the morning in less than seven minutes, remembering to switch arms while sleeping on a desk so your arm won't fall asleep, or those great moves I learned during chess days in Mrs. Johnson' s class. No, I am talking about that word that came into play time and time again during my high school career: acceptance. I constantly found myself in a position where I was on the brink of insanity during school. Maybe I was mad at one of my friends, or I had three tests in one day, or I was given a 500-page book to read in less than two weeks. There was always that thought in the back of my mind that I could just quit and forget about it all and stop caring. But than that word would come up, and I would accept all those things and realize that my friend and I would make up, those tests would be over soon, and that book is actually not all that bad.

MP3s and the Music Industry :: mp3 digital music

MP3's and the Music Industry The Internet is now being used in many exciting and interesting ways. The music industry, however, has come to feel that it may be being abused. There are countless web sites offering information on how to obtain contemporary music, with and without permission from the creators. Using a fairly expensive recording device, such as Diamond Multimedia's Rio portable MP3 music player, consumers are supposedly able to download unauthorized music placed on MP3 sites. There are two distinct sides to the mp3 issue. A cyberspace tug-of-war is taking place between the rights of MP3 consumers and those of musicians and record companies that desire to control any and all consumption of their product, the music. Internet piracy is being combated by groups such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The rights of music consumers are being championed by many groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and supporters of such web sites as mp3.com. While there are a number of legal and authorized pieces of music that may be downloaded by Internet consumers, there are just as many offerings that can be considered to be "bootleg" or illegal, and are placed on the Internet by "pirates." This infringement on the rights of creators to control the reproduction and distribution of their product has incensed and angered many different groups. Their fight to retain control has resulted in a counter-argument in favor of online freedom and of expression and a battle to preserve civil liberties. Internet piracy has been a source of much controversy as it has grown and become the new medium of communication in our generation. The Internet connects so many people with so many products and, as in all industry, not all these people and products are fair and honest. The same is true in the world of the online music industry. Some artists champion the public's right to hear and record their music in an "industry-free" atmosphere. Others fear that their art is being exploited and their rights denied. In October 1999 the IFPI announced its efforts "aimed at ridding the Internet of large amounts of pirate content and paving the way for artists and record companies to deliver music electronically and legally across the world" (IFPI, 1999). The recording industry is collaborating to try and fight this exploitation. The "IFPI estimates there are some 1 million illegal music files posted on the Internet at any given time" (IFPI, 1999).

Firstly, what does auteur theory mean? Essay

Firstly, what does auteur theory mean? It compares the film director to the author of a book, it attributes artistic control to the director and proposes that the film is the artistic project of the director primarily. His or her vision, creativity, and design determine the end result, the finished film. Basically, it means that if the director is an auteur, the film will be completely their ideas and visions and they have complete control of it. I believe Danny Boyle uses this control to make his films. Danny Boyle was born in Manchester in 1956. He started a career in theatre at the age of 18 and by the time he left the Royal Court Theatre in 1987 he was the deputy director. He also did some television direction in the 80s including Mr Wroe’s Virgins and episodes of Inspector Morse. Shallow Grave, released in 1994, was Danny Boyle’s first film. It took 30 days to film and had a budget of i 1,000,000. i 150,000 was from Glasgow Film Fund and the remaining i 850,000 came from Channel Four. Although the film was set in Edinburgh, the money from Glasgow meant that a lot of the film was made there. The film’s scriptwriter John Hodge was very clear minded about how to get the film made for â€Å"virtually nothing†, for instance the majority of the film is filmed inside a flat. Danny Boyle said the film has â€Å"fascinating character development† but not in the â€Å"traditional† way because â€Å"audiences are not there primarily to watch a character being drawn†¦ they want the excitement and speed of the journey that cinema can provide†. He described the film as â€Å"intelligent entertainment†, meaning that it doesn’t patronise audiences and there’s an agenda behind the film if they want to look for one. He, John Hodge and producer Andrew MacDonald all wanted the film to be a partnership of 3 performers. They didn’t approach one major star because they thought the audiences would all be concentrating on that one person. To prepare for the film, Boyle lived in a flat for a week with the three actors. CLIP OF SHALLOW GRAVE Trainspotting, released in 1996, was the second film from the team of Danny Boyle, Andrew MacDonald and John Hodge. The screenplay was adapted from the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name. John Hodge took some persuading to make the film – he described the novel as having â€Å"no story† and Welsh’s prose as â€Å"dialogue-driven†. Again, it took 30 days to shoot. The film cost i 1. 6 million, financed by Channel 4 who was able to pre-sell it on the back of the success of Shallow Grave. The film went on to take i 13 million worldwide and is the second highest grossing British film of all time – after Four Weddings and a Funeral. Danny Boyle thoroughly researched heroin addiction for the film – he met a lot of addicts and got them to talk to the actors and held â€Å"cookery classes† where the actors learnt how to cook up. Ewan McGregor also read all the books he could find on the subject. Ewan McGregor was the only advance casting the team made – all the other actors had to audition. Robert Carlyle expects to play the lead in a film but he accepted playing a part under McGregor so the team â€Å"knew [they] were getting thoroughbreds all the way down†. The film was criticised for its â€Å"neutral attitude† to drugs but Boyle said that patronising and preaching to today’s youth was pointless and in today’s culture you need to speak directly to them. So, the film shows the dangers drugs can provide but also the pleasures. Danny Boyle used the soundtrack in this film to move the narrative along quickly – it moves through time, but also to attract audiences. CLIP OF TRAINSPOTTING The team rejected Alien 4 in 1997 to make A Life Less Ordinary. Danny Boyle said of the Alien film â€Å"I don’t do storyboards†. He was worried he would not have the creative freedom he liked and he would become swamped in high pressure film-making. The film was bigger than their previous two – it took 50 days to shoot and had a budget of i 7. 5 million, financed by Twentieth Century Fox. Despite this and the fact it was a romantic comedy shot in Utah, Danny Boyle still considers it a British film, albeit partly so. He said he wanted to combine the two cultures as much as possible but the film wasn’t developed in America, was made by the three of them and starred Ewan McGregor. He shot the film in America and brought it home to edit. The film uses the same surrealism that sometimes appears in Trainspotting. CLIP OF A LIFE LESS ORDINARY The Beach, released in 2000, was the first film made by the team that didn’t star Ewan McGregor. It is a Hollywood film with a budget of i 25 million financed by Twenty-first Century Fox. Before the team even approached the studio, they bought the rights to the book, adapted the screenplay and travelled to Thailand to research so that when they did contact the studio, they had a script, photos of locations and knew what the budget would need to be. In Alex Garland’s original book, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Richard is English. Boyle felt this would not have worldwide appeal so he chose to make him American and chose Leo to play him. In the film, Richard lies to his girlfriend about sleeping with another woman and later splits up with her. The studio tried to get Boyle to change these things but he retained his creative control. This film is a perfect example of how he lures audiences into his films then shocks them. This film has all elements to make a film popular – big Hollywood star, soundtrack, adventure, romance – but the story soon changes to a much darker one than an average Hollywood blockbuster. There were reports of Boyle being disrespectful to Thailand authorities and damaging land but he made every effort not to and he is proud of his end result, as this quote shows.

Marketing Approaches of Nike and Li-Ning Essays

Marketing Approaches of Nike and Li-Ning Essays Marketing Approaches of Nike and Li-Ning Paper Marketing Approaches of Nike and Li-Ning Paper Introduction  Nike Target Market Mature marketing approaches bring companies considerable fortune, especially in such a competitive market. Therefore, marketing people play an essential role in planning, decision-making, market segmenting, targeting, pricing and positioning. In the following report, it will explore the marketing theory and practice of two products of two famous companies, the world’s largest sports goods company Nike and China’s popular sports brand Li-Ning. This report focuses on Nike’s basketball shoes and Li-Ning’s running shoes. Industry background 2008 Olympic Games took place in Beijing last month, meanwhile, the Olympic spirit is broadcasting everywhere across the world. Increasingly individuals attend sports activities in order to keep healthy. As a result, the sports product industry has developed rapidly over the last two decades. Besides Nike and Li-Ning, there are many competitors such as Reebok, Adidas, Fila and Converse. These companies are the dominant leaders in the marketplace and lead this industry. The sports goods industry expecially footwear manufacturing, is currently experiencing intensive competition. Nike is one of the industry leaders, â€Å"with a 47% market share, followed by Reebok with a figure at 16%, and Adidas at 6%† (Hays, 2000, P. 31). Li-Ning Company Limited is one of the leading sports brand enterprises in the PRC which is one of the most popular sports brand in the world. â€Å"It has covered more than 90% market share of the world’s largest market- China, almost every thirty seconds Li-Ning running shoes will be sold† (Hays, 2000, P. 35). This category of running shoes is facing decreasing demand because there is the rising popularity of alternative footwear, resulting in more pressure than ever before to achieve high profit through effective global sourcing practices. Company background Nike company Nike, Inc. is the worlds leading sports and fitness company, â€Å"with 2000 sales of $9 billion. † The company has made a strong commitment to sustainability in both word and deed over the past several years. Three core values of the company are â€Å"honesty, competitiveness, and teamwork†. Despite its size, Nike operates with a minimum of hierarchy. As a result, there is a lot of collaboration and consensus decision-making. Commonly held values are imperative in such a matrix organization. (Nike Official, 2008). Nike has a strong ability of Research and Development, its new style is always fashionable in appearance and professional in function, for example, Nike dunks, Jordan shoes, Nike air force one. Nike has been manufacturing around the Asian region for over twenty-five years and there are over 500,000 people today who participate in the production of their products directly. Li-Ning company As described on Li-Ning company’s website (2008), LI-Ning Company Ltd. was founded in Guangdong Province in 1990 by LI-Ning who was a Chinese Olympic gymnast. It is one of the leading sports brand enterprises in the PRC. It has its own branding, research and development, design, manufacturing, distribution and retail capabilities. Li-Nings logo design is based on its own initial letters L and N. The Groups products include sports footwear, apparel and accessories for sport and leisure use which are primarily sold under its own Li-Ning brand (Li-Ning Company, 2008). The products of Li Ning sports goods continue to be more popular in China than those of foreign competitors. Strategic marketing and planning Most marketing organizations operate according to formal plans. Pride, Thiele, Waller, Elliott, Paladino Ferrell, (2007) claim that strategic planning is the process of establishing an organizational mission and formulating goals, corporate strategy, marketing objectives, marketing strategy and a marketing plan. Based on Nike Official (2008), the mission of Nike is to be a company that better than all others in the sports footwear industry. They hope to maintain their position by providing high quality and new fashion comfortable footwear to consumers of all ages and lifestyles. They promise to make their products easily available worldwide through the use of retail outlets and their company web site. Nike’s management believes that their success lies in the hands of our teammates, customers, shareholders and the communities in which they operate. Meanwhile, the vision of Nike is to remain the leader in the industry. They continue to produce quality products that they have provided in the past and meet the ever-changing needs of their customers, through product innovation. In comparison, the primary objective of Li-Ning is to increase its overall market share â€Å"from the current 17% to 20% in 3 years time† and defend its first place in China sportswear market against strong competition (Li-Ning Company). To achieve this goal, Li-Ning has to improve the customers’ brand recognition, rationalize market segments and the mission of Li-Ning is through sports, they â€Å"inspire people’s desire and power to make breakthroughs. † The vision is to be the worlds leading brand in the sports goods industry. Macroenvironmental factors The organization and its suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors and publics all operate in a large macroenvironment of forces that shape opportunities and pose threats to the organization†. The macroenvironment consists of six major forces, they are â€Å"demographic forces, economic forces, natural forces, technological forces, political forces, cultural forces† (Kolter, et al, 2006, P. 81). Demographic environment Assessing the demographic environment entails observing and monitoring population trends. The demographic profile includes the size, age, density, location, sex, race, occupation and other statistics of the population (Shank, 1999). The changing age structure of the population is one of the important aspects. Figure 1 shows a diagram in which the ages and sexes for the Chinese population structure. As can be seen from the diagram, there is a large population at the age of 10-50 years old. (U. S. Census Bureau, International Date Base, 2001). The movement of population is also a problem that both of these two companies should consider. Economic environment The economic environment is another uncontrollable factor for sports marketers to consider. â€Å"The purchasing power depends on the income condition and the consumer spending patterns† (Shank, 1999, P. 78). As figure 1. 2 showed that, the world’ s economy has grown rapidly in the past twenty years, as a result, people’s living standard and income have increased as well. However, consumers’ spending patterns are more varied. That means the consumers have different need and tastes. These factors can be a threat to sports shoes companies. Cultural and social trends Cultural and social trends also influence the market of sports products. Nowadays sports and youthfulness are symbolic of many people’s core values. More and more people pay attention to sports activities (figure 1. 3). Sports activity seems to be growing in popularity as a result of the renewed emphasis on family values. As a result of this the market of sports wear becomes larger and larger, at the same time the sale of running shoes is increasing quickly (Li-Ning Company). Microenvironmental factors The micro environment consists of the forces close to the organization that affects its ability to serve its customers- the organization, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets competitors and various publics. † (Kolter, et al, 2006, P. 78) Suppliers The suppliers are an important link in the organisation’s overall customer ‘value delivery system’, they provide the resources needed by the organsiation to produce its goods and service. Nike and Li-Ning both chose developing countries the biggest supplier market because of the lower cost and huge amount of resources. As a company that wants to earn more profit, Nike reduces its costs as it also has some supplier market in South Africa where there is one of the cheapest labors force in the world. But at the same time Nike also is surrounded by some ethical issues. Competitors Competitor is one of the micro-environment factors need to consider. Davidson, Simon Gottschalk, Hunt, Wood and Griffin (2006) say that an organization that wants to be successful must have 3 distinct characteristics: They are of value to the customer They are better than that of the majority of other competitors They are difficult to imitate or replicate Nike and Li Ning have the same competitors such as Reebok, Adidas, Fila, Converse, and New Balance. All of them are playing an important part in the sports world. Kotler, et al(2006) define marketing intermediaries help company to promote, sell and distribute its products to final buyers. They include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing service agencies and financial intermediaries. Nike maintains more than 100 countries targeting its primary market regions: United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Americas. Furthermore, the public force expecially government policy is another component of microenvironment factors. Some policies are protecting domestic market such as Chinese government has made some policy to encourage Li-Ning which is Chinese brand. SWOT analysis SWOT analysis is a very useful and popular planning tools that product manager use to determine the situation of the product. Pride, Sellit, Rundle-Thiele, Waller, Paladino and Ferrell (2006, p. 34) describe a SWOT analysis can assist with the marketing planning process by addressing issues that need to be considered in the creating of the marketing plan. By recognizing an organization’s strengths and weaknesses, it is possible to match capabilities with external opportunities and threats and develop strategic to assist the organization to compete effectively in the market place. Market segmentation Market segmentation is dividing the while market into direct groups of buyers who might require separate products or marketing mixes, and also it’s the process of analysis is customers into groups depend on their different needs, behavior or characteristics. (Kotler et al. 2006,P231). Geographical segmentation Demographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation Behavioral segmentation The importance of market segmentation results from the fact that the buyers of a product or service are no homogenous group. Actually, every buyer has individual needs, preferences, resources and behaviors. Since it is virtually impossible to cater for every customers individual characteristics, marketers group customers to market segments by variables they have in common. These common characteristics allow developing a standardized marketing mix for all customers in this segment. For basketball shoes the most important factor should be considered is the demographic segmentation. Shilbury, Quick and Westerbeek (2003 P. 66) believe that â€Å"most important demographic determinants being gender, age, religion, income, occupation, level of education, marital status, geography, and stage in the family life cycle†. Although all demographic variables are important, the age and life cycle, gender and income have the greatest impact on sport consumption. Base on the age and life cycle and gender factors Nike divide their basketball shoes into a few different groups such as 15-24 years old children and 24 years old male and female. The main market is the group at age of 15-24. Li-Ning also uses the same way to divide its running shoes market. Income can divide market into a few different groups, Nike focus on the middle and above middle class meanwhile, Li-Ning focus on the middle. Psychographic segmentation dividing a market into groups based on social class, lifestyle or personality characteristic (Kotler, Adam, Brown, Armstrong). Socioeconomic classes have a strong effect on performance in clothing. people’s economic situation will affect product choice, it will have a strong influence on people consider buying an expensive new basketball shoes or running shoes or buy cheaper one or do not buy it. Because of this Nike and Li Ning usually set up their shop in big city or some rich town. Behavioral segmentation dividing a market into groups based on consumers’ knowledge of, attitude towards, uses for and responses to a product. In order to creative high loyalty both Nike and Li-Ning set some VIP card for their high loyalty consumers that offer some special discount and service. Target markets Trying to sell to everyone can be wasteful, as not everyone would demand. Targeting offers the possibility of reducing waste and maximizing market response. â€Å"Target market is a specific group of customers on whom an organization focuses its marketing efforts† (Pride, Thiele, Waller, Elliott, Paladino, Ferrell, 2007). The selection of the appropriate target market follows the process of segmentation. Because of its main target market is young people, Nikes primary starting point for expanding the market will select the youth. Also the consumers on the market have personality characteristics such as love sports, strong sense of revered hero and sports stars, lively thinking and imagination. Meanwhile, Li-Ning concentrates on its domestic market which proves efficiently. Because China has the largest population across the world different nations have different tastes. Moreover, Li-Ning is China’s own brand that protect by Chinese government and consumers. Targeting Strategy A number of strategies can help guide a manager’s choice of target markets. â€Å"Three of the more common of these are mass-market, niche-market, and growth-market strategies†(Walker, Boyd, 1999, P187). The marketing organization can adopt one of three market-coverage strategies: â€Å"undifferentiated marketing differentiated marketing or concentrated marketing† (Keith, 2000, PP398-399). Both Nike and Li-Ning use differentiated marketing strategy, because basketball shoes and running shoes can vary in design, both of these two products are in the mature stage f product life cycle, for basketball shoes and running shoes market their customers’ needs are different. These factors above are all suitable for they to use differentiated marketing strategy, but at the same time their main competitors also use the same strategy that will bring some challenges for Nike and Li Ning. Positioning Strategy Marketers can follow several positioning strategies. They can position their product on specific product attributes, usage occasions as well or the need they fill or the benefits they offer. â€Å"A product can also be positioned directly against a competitor. Finally, the product can be positioned for different product classes†(Kotler, et al. 2006,P234). There are a few way of positioning, in the book principles of marketing Kotler, et al. (2006, p234) write that â€Å"Company can position products on specific product attributes, products can be positioned on the needs they fill or the benefits they offer, products can be positioned on the certain classes of users, a product can also be positioned directly against a competitor, finally the product can be positioned for different product class†. Choosing and implementing a positioning should identify a positional direction. â€Å"The positioning task consists of three steps: identifying a set of possible competitive advantages on which to build a position; selecting the right competitive advantages; and effectively communicating and delivering the chosen position to the market† (Kolter, et al. 2006, P235) Compare with other basketball companies Nike’s competitive advantage is the high brand reputation, good design and advanced technology. So Nike’s positioning strategy mixed by all these strategies has been outlined above and it is dominated by the strategy position the product for certain classes of users and specific product attributes. Li-Ning’s competitive advantage is the cheaper price and good quality, it also use all of the five strategies, but it is dominated by the approach of positioned on the benefits they offer. Conclusion In conclusion, for Nike and Li Ning to gain a successful market in the sportswear world is not so simple. There are so many factors they should consider, such as the macroenvironmental and microenvironmental forces. It is a good choice to work out a wonderful SWOT analysis in order to assist in building a smart strategic marketing and planning. Identify the market segments and then chose the right target market, then implement suitable targeting and positioning strategy are also the essential steps for Nike and Li Ning. Recommendations Nike and Li-Ning have already done some good efforts of these a few aspects, but for long time successful there are more they need to do. From this report it is easy to find there are still some drawbacks in Nike and Li-Ning. Nike as a ‘big brother’ in the sports good market also face some ethic issues that may deduct the reputation of its brand, such as the issue of using cheaper labor force. In the sensitive circumstance in nowadays Nike should try to avoid this debate issue. Nike also should abroad its target market to achieve more market share. Li-Ning as a leader of Chinese sports goods company, it also need to explore more new products to gain a bigger market scale and develop new technology in order to catch up with the fast development of the world. References Blois, K. , (2000), The Oxford textbook of marketing, New York:Oxford University Press Davidson, P. , Simon, A. , Gottdchalk, L. , Hunt, J. , Wood, G. Griffin, R. W. (2006), Management: Core concepts and skills. (Australian ed). Australia: Wiley Hays, S. , (2000), The story of Nike, Minnesota: Smart Apple Media Kotler, P. Adam,S. Brown, L. Armstrong, G. (2006). Principles of marketing. Australia: Pearson Education Australia. Li-Ning Company. (2008). Retrieved from: lining. com. Accessed: 16th Mar. , 2008 Nike Official. (2008). Retrieved from: nike. com. tw/g1/tw/. Accessed: 1st Aug, 2008 National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2008) Retrieved from: stats. gov. cn/. Accessed: June, 2008 Pride, W. , Thiele, S. R. , Waller, D. , Elliott, G. , Paladino, A. , Ferrell, O. , (2007), Marketing (Asia-Pacific ed), Brisbane: Wiley Shank, M. D. , (1999), Sports marketing: A Strategic Perspective, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Shilbury, D. , Quick, S. , Westerbeek, H. (2003), Strategic sport marketing(2nd ed). NSW Australia: Allen And Unwin Walker, C. O. Boyd, W. H. (1999). Marketing Strategy: Planning and implementation. (3rd ed). United States: McGraw Hill

Our Kind of People essays

Our Kind of People essays LAWRENCE OTIS GRAHAM: Our Kind of PeopleI: Inside America's Black Upper Class (5 .5 pp) Through six years of interviews with more than three hundred prominent families and individuals, journalist and commentator Lawrence Otis Graham weaves together the revealing stories and fascinating experiences of upper-class blacks who grew up with privilege and power. Previously known for his provocative New York magazine expos of elite golf clubs, when he left his law firm and went undercover as a busboy at an all-white Connecticut country club, Graham now turns his attention to the black elite. Bibliography lists 2 sources. BBblkeli.doc LAWRENCE OTIS GRAHAM: Our Kind of People Inside America's Black Upper Class Written by Barbara Babcock for the Paperstore, Inc., July 2000 Debutante cotillions. Arranged marriages. Summer trips to Martha's Vineyard. All-black boarding schools. Memberships in the Links, Deltas, Boul, or Jack and Jill. Million-dollar homes. An obsession with good hair, light complexions, top credentials, and colleges like Howard, Spelman, and Harvard. This is the world of the black upper class, exclusive, mostly hidden group that lives awkwardly between white America and mainstream black America. Through six years of interviews with more than three hundred prominent families and individuals, journalist and commentator Lawrence Otis Graham weaves together the revealing stories and fascinating experiences of upper-class blacks who grew up with privilege and power. Previously known for his provocative New York magazine expos of elite golf clubs, when he left his law firm and went undercover as a busboy at an all-white Connecticut country club, Graham now turns his attention to the black elite. Simply looking at the table of contents gives an overview of this quiet class of privilege: The Origins of the Black Upper Class; Jack and Jill...

Account for the Development of Public Health Reforms in the 19th Century and Assess Their Role in Improving the Populations Health by the Early 20th Century Essays

Account for the Development of Public Health Reforms in the 19th Century and Assess Their Role in Improving the Populations Health by the Early 20th Century Essays Account for the Development of Public Health Reforms in the 19th Century and Assess Their Role in Improving the Populations Health by the Early 20th Century Essay Account for the Development of Public Health Reforms in the 19th Century and Assess Their Role in Improving the Populations Health by the Early 20th Century Essay OOO o 233,000, of Glasgow from 77,000 to 345,000, of Liverpool from 82,000 to 376,000 and of Manchester from 75,000 to 303,000 (Alcock,Daly,Griggs,2008) Small areas of habitation grew quickly until they grew into the major cities. Birmingham and Sheffield became famous for their manufacturing trades. London, Liverpool and Bristol grew because of the docks, railways and canals that enabled goods to be exported. The unprecedented numbers of people moving to, and indeed creating these towns and cities meant that housing solutions needed to be found very quickly; to this end some factory owners built accommodation for their workers, hese would be built close to the factories so that the workers could easily be called to work by the factory bell, as most workers did not have their own clocks. As the factory owners were motivated primarily by profit, and tended to view workers as Just another resource accommodation was often constructed to the lowest possible standard. Salford, once more important than Manchester, was then the leading town of the surrounding district to which it still gives its name, Salford Hundred. Hence it is that an old and therefore very unwholesome, dirty, and ruinous locality is ouses could be extremely basic with communal toilets and without running water, and with no arrangements made for the disposal of human waste. Over-crowded, ill-drained, badly-ventilated, and miserable abodes which line the narrow lanes and filthy alleys abounding in most large town (Roberts, 1855) With the numbers of people moving to the towns and cities there could not be enough houses built to cope with demand; in these cases people would be forced to live in cellars and other unsuitable dwellings, often alongside other families and even animals. It often appens that a wh ole Irish family is crowded into one bed; often a heap of filthy straw or quilts of old sacking cover all in an indiscriminate heap, where all alike are degraded by want, stolidity, and wretchedness. Often the inspectors found, in a single house, two families in two rooms. All slept in one, and used the other as a kitchen and dining-room in common. Often more than one family lived in a single damp cellar, in whose pestilent atmosphere twelve to sixteen persons were crowded together. To these and other sources of disease must be added that pigs were kept, nd other disgusting things of the most revolting kind were found. (Engels, 1844) Although the boom in housing created problems with the removal of human waste, however this had been a feature of urbanised areas for some time before the industrial revolution; as Samuel Pepys recorded in a diary entry for 20th October 1660, Going down to my cellar I put my feet into a great heap of turds, by which I find that Mr Turners house of office is full and comes into my cellar (Halliday, 2007) With the problem of waste disposal and over-crowding in squalid conditions came he inevitable increase in diseases. In one place we found a whole str eet following the course of a ditch, because in this way deeper cellars could be secured without the cost of digging, cellars not for storing wares or rubbish, but for dwellings for human beings. Not one house of this street escaped the cholera. (Engels, 1844) There had always been disease in the towns and cities, however, with the increased population it spread faster than at any other time, and there seemed no way to halt its progress. There were many diseases that flourished in these environments, ncluding Influenza, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, Typhus, and the most feared at the time, Cholera. Again, the repeated visitations of cholera, typhus, smallpox, and other epidemics have shown the British bourgeois the urgent necessity of sanitation in his towns and cities, if he wishes to save himself and family from falling victims to such diseases. (Engels, 1844) During this century, medical science advanced at hitherto unprecedented speed, and more people than at any other time entered t he medical profession, In the first half of the century the medical world was raising the xpectation that treatment of the body could become as exact a science as knowledge of the body. Throughout the land, much money and energy was being devoted to medical care and its study. Between 1801 and 1850 more university- educated men entered the profession in Great Britain (over eight thousand) than in all of previous history. (Haley 1978) However, there was still a lot to be learned about the nature of disease, and the causes of epidemics were poorly understood. The theory of miasma (the belief that disease was spread by smell and foul air) was still popular as an explanation of how diseases were spread. Cholera was greatly feared being a water-borne disease, attacked all, notably the middle classes with their better water supplies and struck fear into the hearts of the governors, local and national. The response to the outbreak of infectious disease varied from town to town, however police in Manchester responded to one outbreak of Cholera, by evacuating and disinfecting the area. The first court below Ducie Bridge, known as Allens Court, was in such a state at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, swept, and disinfected with chloride of lime. (Engels, 1844) Towards the end of the century, Britain was involved in conflicts around the world in order to defend her empire from the emerging powerhouses of Japan and Germany who were keen to forge their own empires and trading routes. In 1899 conflict erupted between the British and the Boers, being the South African descendents of Dutch settlers. The Boer army turned out to be well prepared, well trained and provided with enough food and provisions to defend themselves for three years, whilst the British, having believed that the war would be quickly over, were nowhere near as well-prepared. The Boer war highlighted a serious problem for the forces, specifically that the recruits being called upon to defend the nation, being largely drawn from poverty-stricken areas where the conditions discussed above were rife, were often weak and of poor health. At that time, it became apparent that there were serious problems with public health in Britain: up to 40% of recruits in Britain were unfit for military service, suffering from medical problems such as rickets and other poverty-related illnesses. 80% of men presenting for service in the Boer War were found by the Army Medical Corps to be physically unfit to fght. wrww. forces- war-records. co. uk) The realisation that the population had become too weak to defend the nation, alongside the increasingly common outbreaks of disease arising from cramped, unsanitary living conditions of workers led to the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee into Physical Deterioration in 1904, which called for changes to be made to ensure the nations health did not deteriorate further than it already had. In the 1906 general election the Liberal Party gained power after an extensive period of Conservative government and immediately embarked on a series f Acts to improve the health of the nation. These included the provision of free school meals in 1906, health checks for school children in 1907, the Notification of Births Act in 1907 to allow midwives to ensure that newborn babies were being fed and cared for correctly and the Childrens Act of 1908, which was designed to keep orphans out of prisons and set up childrens homes for them. By focusing primarily on the health of children, they were working to improve the health of the next generation, thus ensuring a steady supply of fit and healthy individuals who could be called upon to defend the nation, if necessary. The Labour Exchange Act of 1909 and the National Insurance Act of 1911. were the first that the nation had seen that tried to tackle the problem of unemployment and ill health. The Labour Exchange Act sought to bring together those people who were looking for work with those who needed workers. The National Insurance Act was split into two stages, firstly giving people a right to medical treatment and sick pay in return for a payment each week out of their wages, and secondly giving people the right to unemployment pay for up worker before claiming it. There are differing theories about the effectiveness of hese reforms in improving the health of the population at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. What cannot be denied, however, is that the death rate fell in this period, from 22. 6 deaths per 1000 in England and Wales in 1860 to only 14. 4 per 1000 by 1905 (Gascoigne, S, 2012) Thomas McKeown, in his book the Modern Rise in Population (1976) looked at the detailed death records that were kept for Britain at the time of the reforms to assess their effect on the recorded deaths. He concluded, after extensive research, that the improvements to he nations health during the period 1850-1914 was as a result of a steady rise in living standards and the associated rise in average nutritional intake (McKeown, 1976) which was a secondary result of the reforms as people were able to support themselves whilst out of work and were able to move quickly from Job to Job, no longer subject to the fluctuations of business which may have previously led to a dependency on a poor law that could no longer support them. The dark shadow of the Malthusian philosophy has passed away, and no view of the ultimate scheme of things would now be accepted under which multitudes of men and women are oomed by inevitable law to struggle for existence so severe as necessarily to cripple or destroy the higher parts of their nature. (Dorling, D, 2002) McKeowns conclusions were questioned by Simon Szreter who wished to discover if the link between the death rate falling and the public health r eform was solely due to the better diet and living standards that were available, or it there was another cause. Szreter started out by analysing the relationship between diseases, with particular attention to the fact that once infected with a disease a person is more susceptible to catching other iseases. Szreter also suggests that it may be a case of the statistics being misreported that led to the reduction, as opposed to the medical and sociological advances that were occurring. In conclusion, there were many factors that that led to the development of public health reforms during the 19th Century; of these the most prominent were the rapid influx of people into the cities and towns leading to the rapid development of often unsuitable living arrangements, a polluted water supply, inadequate drainage and waste disposal; all of which contributed to the high levels f squalor experienced by those who lived there. This in turn led to outbreaks of diseases, which worried the government as diseases such as cholera seemed to infect regardless of class. The threat from disease combined with the lack of suitable soldiers to protect Britains empire from emerging states such as Germany spurred the Government into action and brought about the public health reforms in the 19th Century. The effectiveness of these reforms is still under debate, with academics trying to establish what was the primary reason for the death rate falling between 860 and 1905; the debate appears to be between those who believe it was the advances in medical knowledge of nutrition, cleanliness and the causes and treatment of disease and those who believe it was the public health reforms that were introduced because of the pressing need for intervention to prevent the poorest people becoming to enfeebled to work, thus becoming a load on the poor law. The reason that the health of the population increased into the early 20th Century seems to be a combination of public health reform and rapid increase in have a welfare state and NHS which are the em. y of the world.

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Business communication - Essay Example Joe recently asked me if he could take his annual two-week vacation in the very near future. I have tried to get Joe to reconsider and possibly postpone this vacation because I know that our department will be extremely busy over the next few weeks. To this, Joe politely turned me down. However, it gets worse. What he then said to me was that he would not be returning after he has taken his annual leave. This is potentially a small problem for our department because it would take us at least two to three weeks to recruit and hire a qualified replacement. Also, I know that it is the company’s policy not to give paid vacations for employees who will not be working for at least three months after a vacation. I think that I have come up with a solution that will satisfy all parties, namely Joe Smith and our company. I have already discussed my opinion with Joe at length and he is willing to go along with what I am proposing. My idea is that Joe splits his annual vacation up into two parts—one week on two separate occasions. The first week would be taken almost immediately. Our department could manage without Joe for a week as long as we all pulled together. Then, after Joe has had a week off, he would return to work for the next three months. Because of this, his first week of vacation would be paid. During our busy period over the next couple of months, Joe would be working as hard as he always has. Once these three months are up, Joe would then take another week’s vacation. However, he would not be returning to work after this second week’s vacation period. The compromise would be that this would also be a paid vacation even though it goes against company policy. T his would be our company’s way of extending a hand in thanks that Joe worked three months longer than he planned to. Joe had originally planned to find another job after his two weeks of vacation—he already has a job lined up. Joe has

FlyBe Strategy Assessment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

FlyBe Strategy Assessment - Case Study Example Flybe operate' out of more UK airport' than any other airline. Flybe ha' been a market leader in developing it' range of pa''enger 'ervice'.' Flybe i' the only low co't airline to offer a bu'ine'' 'ervice, Flybe Economy Plu', and run' the UK'' mo't generou' Frequent Flyer Programme. We were the fir't low co't airline to offer online check-in to pa''enger' carrying hand and hold baggage; and the fir't to introduce a pre-a''igned 'eating facility allowing pa''enger' to pre-book their 'eat'. FlyBe i' the large't low fare airline in Europe. Operating through it' carrier FlyBe, the company run' flight' to around 120 de'tination' acro'' Europe, including airport' in Denmark, Germany, Norway, and 'weden. For the fi'cal Year 2003, FlyBe recorded revenue' of e842.5 million; an increa'e of 35% over 2002. It ha' a fleet of approximately 45 Boeing 737' and tran'port' over fifteen million cu'tomer' a year. FlyBe i' headquartered in Dublin Ireland, and ha' a workforce of about 1900 employee'.(Datamonitor)1.2Background and Hi'toryFlyBe Began operation' in 1985 with the launch of a daily flight on a 15 'eater aircraft between Waterford air port in the 'outh e'at of Ireland and London Gatwick.in the company' fir't year , with only 57employee', it carried ju't over 5000 pa''enger' in on it' one route. Over the next three Year' it expanded Rapidly opening Many new route' between Ireland and the UK, and increa'ed the number of jet' in it' fleet. However whil't cu'tomer' continued to fly FlyBe, for the low airfare' the co't were not controlled ,and the company continued to accumulate lo''e' . By 1989, the company employed 350 people, operated 15 aircraft and carried 600000 pa''enger' a year, but 'till recorded lo''e' of 20 million pound' in four year'.(Datamonitor)Under a new management team a major overhaul of the airline wa' undertaken in 1990/91, with FlyBe re-launched a' a low fare'-no frill' airline , adopting the formula pioneered by 'outhwe't Airline' in the U'. Non-profitable route' were eliminated, the network wa' cut back from 19 to ju't 5 route'. 'ome aircraft were di'po'ed of and airfare' acro'' the remaining network were 'ub'tantially reduced with 70% of all 'eat' offered at the two lowe't fare'. By 1991, FlyBe wa' operating a fleet of 'ix aircraft, employing 350 people, carrying 700 pa''enger' on ju't five route' , and it had recorded it' fir't ever profit. Over the next couple of year', 'chedule' on the key Dublin-London route wrew increa'ed average air fare' were lowered and new route' were launched from Dublin to Birmingham, Gla'gow, Manche'ter, and Gatwick. The number of cu'tomer' continued to grow, thank' largely to FlyBe'' low fare'. By 1994,FlyBe employed over 500 people and carried 1.5 million pa''enger' per annum. In 2002, the company 'igned the large't ever order with Boeing for 100 next generation 737-800 aircrafgt with option' to buy up to a further 50 aircraft to be deliverd over the next 'even year' . it 'ucce''fully launched 22 new route' and opened two new continental

Are the Beliefs and Traditions of the Catholic Church Outdated for Research Paper

Are the Beliefs and Traditions of the Catholic Church Outdated for Todays Culture and Society - Research Paper Example And the Church’s cover-up of perverted priests who rape and molest young children is evil and has no place in today’s world. For all of these reasons, the Catholic Church, and the Church’s teachings, does not have a realistic place in today’s society, except for the teachings which are aligned with Jesus, which are based on loving and respecting one another. Discussion The Catholic Church is outmoded in today’s society because of their firm opposition to gay marriage. For instance, a Catholic School teacher was fired in Minnesota, simply because she believed in same-sex marriage (Sobel, 2012). The opposition to homosexual acts is rooted in The Bible, Leviticus 20:13 is the scripture upon which religious institutions base their opposition to homosexuality in general, and same-sex marriage in particular, for this passage states that a man who lies with another man is committing an abomination. However, to be consistent in their religious teachings, th e Catholic Church must abide by all of the scriptures in this Book, or none at all. If one scripture can be said to be irrelevant, or not apply, because the scripture was only referring to ancient times, then the same must be said for all of the Biblical passages. Biblical passages must not be sorted through and religions cannot pick and choose which scripture to enforce, and which ones to ignore. Therefore, some Biblical passages must be illuminated to show the inconsistency of using the Leviticus passage to justify The Catholic Church’s discriminatory response to homosexuals and gay marriage. The most obvious example of an outmoded scripture is Exodus 35:2, which states that the seventh day must be kept holy, and a day to worship the lord, and whoever works on this day shall be put to death. There is not a religious institution in the world, presumably, who follows this edict, and imagine the society that would. Doctors, fire fighters, emergency workers – none of the se individuals would be allowed to work if this Biblical passage would not be followed. Therefore, one better not have a heart attack on a Sunday, one better not accidentally set their house on fire on that day, one better not be a victim of a crime on that day, and one better not get into an accident on this day, because nobody should be allowed to work. The doctors who care for the sick, the firefighters who put out fires, and the police who catch criminals on Sunday should all be put to death for violating the edict regarding the Sabbath. Ridiculous? Well, as noted above, either all scriptures are taken literally or none of them are. If this scripture regarding the Sabbath cannot be taken literally, or dismissed as being antiquated, then so must the scripture regarding the two men who lie with one another. Moreover, the Catholic Church’s discriminatory stance against same-sex marriage has led to another situation where individuals are treated as other or less-than, and not allowed to marry a person of their choice, just because the Catholic Church and other churches teach that this is wrong. This essentially takes the nation back to the days before Loving v. Virginia, 388 US 1 (1967), which is the United States Supreme Court case which stated that anti-miscegenation statutes are an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom to marry. Before this case, states had laws on the books making interracial fornicating a crime, along with miscegenation. The arguments against miscegenation were that such

Three steps in financial analysis and management reporting Essay

Three steps in financial analysis and management reporting - Essay Example In this idea, it is showcased how important it is to determine the facts about the organization before anything else has to be taken into account in financial analysis. This is very important because it is the organization itself that has to be the center point of financial analysis. For instance, an organization is composed of human resource. In a specific study, it is shown that the success of introducing new system into the company for the purpose of improving financial performance is determined by understanding the needs of the personnel and their capacity to adapt the new introduced system (Randolph and Ogawa, 2007). The effectiveness of an organization can be attributed to the performance of its personnel. In other words, part of the facts that should be gathered in understanding an organization is the capacity and competency of the human resource. This is evident on the task of financial analyst in which he or she must have a detailed understanding about the management and the company in particular (Hagberg, 2003). In line with this, it is important that financial analysts must be able to determine both financial and non-financial performance information of an organization as basic foundation of the analysis (Coram, Mock and Monroe, 2011). In this regard, there is a good opportunity to gather accurate information that will help determine the right approach in the entire process of financial analysis. Compare the facts in the organization over time to facts in similar organizations One of the most important benefits in trying to compare facts in the organization over time to facts in similar organizations is to understand how well it is performing and to know other financial issues in it such as the general financial strength (Cleary, 2006). In a study conducted by Cleary, the investigation of facts and comparing them among different organizations prove to be an effective way to understand financial strengths and performance of an organization. Thus, it i s evident that an organization that tries to compare its financial information from the other is a significant way to check performance and eventually will pave way to create the right evaluative process. In creating a standard in financial activities, there is an assurance of awareness and the right implementation process towards an organization’s achievement of financial strength (Iatridis, 2010). Balanced scorecard is known to be one of the best adopted strategies for performance measurement and evaluation of the company and its financial performance. In line with this, this measurement deals with understanding the facts within an organization and especially in similar organization for comparison. For instance, one of the most essential components of balanced scorecard is customer. Customer-oriented organizations are eventually trying to provide the best customer value especially in customer-oriented organizations (Flint, Blocker and Boutin, 2011). These companies in order to achieve their best performance through their customers try to compare the facts they have with them and that of the other organizations in order to substantially create customer value. It is therefore clear in this point that it makes sense to result to comparison of performance and information in order to achieve organizational objectives. Use perspective and judgment to make

Native people social movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Native people social movements - Essay Example that was formed, the Anishinabe continued to fight following the established prophecy hence finding themselves in California and being united helped the Anishinabe to obtain back their nationality from the whites. Afterwards, Ojibwa also known as the Anishinabe people’s urge with their friends resulted in a fight that begun killing one another for the purpose of the hunting ground. All the Anishinabe people with their tribes became vigilant in protecting their people from slavery and their territories (Lorman). However, they all fought for the protection of their homeland for the land became the main issue that brought all the suffering. With the native youth movements, roadblocks were put in place to stop invasion into their land since they abolished all of the following activities. Railways construction, highways, mining, resorts, dams, cities, deep seaports, garbage dams and many others that led to their outbreak of war. Additionally, different organizations movements were created like the American-Indian political activism during the year of 1960s for obtaining their rights (Bruchac). In addition, among other movements was a national association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP), southern Christian leadership conference (SCLC) and finally groups were also formed like National organization for women (NOW). The formed group and movements mainly dealt with the rights of their individuals together with land issues maintaining their social integrity. During the establishment of national Indian youth council (NICY) that occurred after the tribes of Oklahoma with Great Plains that defeated the NCAI of 1994. The developed groups used peaceful ways with Americans where they encouraged the third world liberations. However, various groups of young individuals came up with American Indian movements (AIM) with an intention of the police harassment (Williamson). However, the Alcatraz Island reduces the pride and their consciousness with the rise of

Three steps in financial analysis and management reporting Essay

Three steps in financial analysis and management reporting - Essay Example In this idea, it is showcased how important it is to determine the facts about the organization before anything else has to be taken into account in financial analysis. This is very important because it is the organization itself that has to be the center point of financial analysis. For instance, an organization is composed of human resource. In a specific study, it is shown that the success of introducing new system into the company for the purpose of improving financial performance is determined by understanding the needs of the personnel and their capacity to adapt the new introduced system (Randolph and Ogawa, 2007). The effectiveness of an organization can be attributed to the performance of its personnel. In other words, part of the facts that should be gathered in understanding an organization is the capacity and competency of the human resource. This is evident on the task of financial analyst in which he or she must have a detailed understanding about the management and the company in particular (Hagberg, 2003). In line with this, it is important that financial analysts must be able to determine both financial and non-financial performance information of an organization as basic foundation of the analysis (Coram, Mock and Monroe, 2011). In this regard, there is a good opportunity to gather accurate information that will help determine the right approach in the entire process of financial analysis. Compare the facts in the organization over time to facts in similar organizations One of the most important benefits in trying to compare facts in the organization over time to facts in similar organizations is to understand how well it is performing and to know other financial issues in it such as the general financial strength (Cleary, 2006). In a study conducted by Cleary, the investigation of facts and comparing them among different organizations prove to be an effective way to understand financial strengths and performance of an organization. Thus, it i s evident that an organization that tries to compare its financial information from the other is a significant way to check performance and eventually will pave way to create the right evaluative process. In creating a standard in financial activities, there is an assurance of awareness and the right implementation process towards an organization’s achievement of financial strength (Iatridis, 2010). Balanced scorecard is known to be one of the best adopted strategies for performance measurement and evaluation of the company and its financial performance. In line with this, this measurement deals with understanding the facts within an organization and especially in similar organization for comparison. For instance, one of the most essential components of balanced scorecard is customer. Customer-oriented organizations are eventually trying to provide the best customer value especially in customer-oriented organizations (Flint, Blocker and Boutin, 2011). These companies in order to achieve their best performance through their customers try to compare the facts they have with them and that of the other organizations in order to substantially create customer value. It is therefore clear in this point that it makes sense to result to comparison of performance and information in order to achieve organizational objectives. Use perspective and judgment to make

Respond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Respond - Essay Example The discussion post effectively captured the relevant elements of performance improvements and emphasized its relevance in contemporary work settings. The articles that were selected focused on the health condition of employees; particularly focusing on nutrition and weight loss. One agrees that the holistic well-being of all employees must be a paramount concern of organizations. Actually, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) defines standards that require employers to seriously take care of the safety and health condition of workers. As such, the information contained in the articles impact the performance of workers through assuming a healthy disposition (physically, mentally, emotionally and even socially) in order for them to achieve defined goals. The focus on health emphasizes that a healthy human resource would be least costly for the organization in terms of avoiding absenteeism, illness, and propensities for

United States Dominance After Civil War Essay Example for Free

United States Dominance After Civil War Essay The American Civil War, also known as the â€Å"War Between the States† was a war between the Confederate States and the Union. The Confederacy was composed of eleven states which supported slavery, while the Union was comprised of all free American states and five states bordering the slave states. The American Civil War became one of the most important events that led into the emergence of the United States into world dominance. The development of the American nation as a world leader came after a series of events and wars being won. The Civil War all throughout was highlighted by the intense social, political and economic conflicts and differences between Northern and Southern States. The war commenced in about 10,000 states and more than 3 million American people have been involved in it. The years between 1861 to 1865, the war has escalated between American states and resulted to the destruction of peace and unity among fellow Americans. The war made the American nation ironically more oblivious to the concept of freedom and individual rights, given that the civil war was fought on the basis state rights and freedom in America. However, by the end of the Civil War, the American nation took the whole experience as a â€Å"new birth of freedom† for the people and the government. And as such, the years following the end of the Civil War marked the start of the American dominance in the international community. America After the Civil War: Unification, Expansion and Industrialization Despite the destruction, the death toll, and the chaos that the Civil War has drawn upon the American society, nonetheless, it has become as one of the focal points for world domination for the United States. The separate states which used to be hostile to one another due to their differences, became a single united and strong nation The end of the war marked the new era of expansionism for the United States of America. Indeed, the start of the 19th century was highlighted by the intensifying of the American expansion. Alongside America’s move to industrialize and urbanize its territory, the American exploration pushed further to the west. In 1803, Louisiana was obtained from the French government; and during the period between 1816 to 1821, a total of six states were added to the American territory. Aside from the westward expansion, in 1865 the American government also took control of eastern states. This westward and eastward expansion of the United States territory became strategically beneficial to the industrialization in the United States. And as such, the strength of the United States industrialization became one of the strongest points of the United States emergence as a world superpower. Although the industrialization in the United States before the Civil War was largely preempted and minimal due to the political and social conflicts of the time, the end of the war and the emergence of the new American society greatly hastened the industrial development in the United States. And despite the fact that industrialization has been an old trend in other advanced countries such as England, Belgium, France, Germany and Japan, the United States transformation was more profound, developed and powerful. In addition to United States’ more sophisticated and impressive industrialization, the American government was able to carefully and strategically utilize its unique advantage over its colonies and among those less developed and powerful countries. The American government used its sphere of influence in order to drive economic advantages and power towards them. Moreover, the United States territory, given the vastness of its newly acquired areas and colonies were greatly endowed with raw natural resources that once tapped, can be used to generate a large amount of benefits and profits. The states acquired by the United States became its focal points of industrialization, modernization and development. Some of these states served as main centers for finance, manufacturing and commerce. Other states were also suitable for agricultural growth and revolution in the transportation sector. In addition to these developments, the wave of immigrants between 1840 to 1860 also strengthened manpower stability in the country. As such, by the end of this period of expansionism and industrialization, the United States emerged as one of the most successful countries in the world. The American government grew extremely confident of the stability of their economic, political and military strength. In addition, the wide sphere of influence that it was able to establish became one of the assets that qualified United States as one of the strongest country in the world. Threats to American Power and Leadership A series of American war involvement has been etched in the world’s history. And as such, each war wherein the American nation has took part in signified a threat against the United States’ dominance. The First and Second World War, though commenced between a large gap that went for years were fought on almost same reasons. Economic imperialism, military conflicts, trade barriers, proliferation of weapons, political rivalries and balance of power were among the main cause of the first and second world wars. During these wars, the world was divided into two spheres. And of which, both wars were won distinctively by the side that the United States has taken. The victorious emergence of the United States and its allies in these wars has further established its government as one of the strongest leaders in the world. During the Second World War in particular, the victory of the United States, the Soviet Union and their allies became the closest call to the American dominance. At the end of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as two world leaders, and as such, became the pillars for balance of power. The end of the Second World War and the emergence of two dominant states resulted to another series of conflicts and hostility. After the Second World War, the Cold War commenced and a series of indirect confrontations took place between the United States and the Soviet bloc. The Cold War served as a proxy war between the two states wherein instead of a direct confrontation, their allies became more involved in the war. The Cold War became the measure of stability, leadership and influence of the two world superpowers. Political ideology became the main focus of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet bloc. During this period, the American government was largely threatened by the spread of communist ideology within the European states. As such, the antagonism between capitalism and communism became the root of the conflict between the two states. In addition to this antagonism, nuclear arms race, espionage, economic rivalry and the Cuban missile crisis were among the issues that further intensified the conflict. Despite the absence of direct confrontation between the Americans and the Soviet bloc, the outcome of the Cold War still became one of the most important factor in the emergence of a lone world superpower. As such, by the end of the Cold War, the Soviet bloc disintegrated and the communist ideology became less influential. Although the American government and its allies were not successful in fully containing the communist ideology, the Soviet disintegration became a step to weaken communist states. In addition, the disintegration of the Soviet bloc marked the end of the Cold War. And the triumphant emergence of the United States in the Cold War automatically rendered the United States as the lone world superpower. United States in the Present Era Following the end of the Cold War and the demise of the biggest threat to United States leadership, the American government is now considered as the lone hegemonic power in the world. The establishment of international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Center to name a few, strengthened the American hold on world dominance and leadership. In the present generation, the most probable threat against the American government is the current proliferation of terrorist organizations posting terrorist activities that might induce chaos and fear amongst the citizens. However, despite these threats and current economic and political dilemma experienced by the American nation, United States still stands as one of the strongest, influential and stable countries in the international community. Bibliography AE Television Networks. â€Å"The American Civil War.† History.com. (2008). Database on-line. Available from http://www.history.com/minisites/civilwar/ (accessed October 10, 2008). American Information Resource Center. â€Å"History of the United States.† The United States Diplomatic Mission to Poland. (n.d). Database on-line. Available from http://www.usinfo.pl/aboutusa/history/slavery.htm (accessed October 10, 2008). Burns, Ken. â€Å"The Crossroads of Our Being.† The Civil War. (2002). Database on-line. Available from http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ (accessed October 10, 2008). Mabry, Donald J. â€Å"Triumph of Industry in the United States.† Historical Text Archive. (2008). Database on-line. Available from http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticleartid=597 (accessed October 10, 2008). Nosotro, Rit. â€Å"The Cold War.† HyperHistory. (n.d). Database on-line. Available from http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/big/w30coldwar.htm (accessed October 10, 2008).

Collective Memory in Homiletics

Collective Memory in Homiletics Chapter Six Theological markers for the use of collective memory in homiletics 6.1 The Bible and remembering. The debate about memory in contemporary theological disciplines has yet to reach the level of intensity evident within history and sociology and their associated applied studies, but there is nevertheless evidence of a growing interest in the topic. Scholars well known for their work on social approaches to memory are increasingly cited by theologians, or are themselves offering ways into a theological extension of their works. In biblical studies, for example, the American Sociologist, Barry Schartz, presented a keynote address at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2003 (published in Kirk and Thatcher, 2005); and from this side of the Atlantic, Jan Assmanns work on cultural memory provides a way into mnemonic devices in a ground-breaking study of Marks Gospel from the perspective of the performative oral culture in which it arose (Horsley, Draper and Foley, 2006). Such publications are the beginnings of what is likely to become a major area of interest and d ebate in theology and biblical studies. As exciting as that prospect is, this chapter concerns itself with one small and closely delineated area where social memory theory and theology in practice are, it is argued, closely related, namely collective memory and preaching. If, as it is being argued in this thesis, the practice of Christian preaching in contemporary European society must consciously address the mechanisms of collective memory and the issues raised by the decay of that memory, what are the theological resources available to support that task? This chapter seeks to answer that question within a theological discourse that views use of the Bible as the primary step in such ongoing resourcing. Just as Christian preaching in order to be Christian preaching cannot be seen in isolation from the biblical text, so this chapter will argue that a theological understanding of Christian tradition as memory cannot be isolated from an understanding of social memory work present in those same biblical texts. Consequently, this chapter seeks to establish that memory and remembrance, understood as fundamental components of a life-creating faith, are evidenced in the biblical texts themselves. It will be argued that our forebears in the continuing traditio n of Abrahams faith were conscious users of the social dimensions of memory. Establishing this point is key to the whole thesis, since it indicates that the homiletic theory advocated here is more than a knee-jerk response to the social amnesia indentified as being so destructive of Christian social memory. In straightforward terms, memory work will be established as a core component of Scripture and, therefore, a core component of preaching that seeks to use those same Scriptures for the remembering of Christ. That theological resourcing of the tasks of Christian collective memory will be established through an examination of some key concepts developed in the work of the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemanns work is a good place to begin because he writes as a Christian preacher as well as a biblical scholar. The fact that he has also addressed memory issues very directly in his recent work adds a third justification for the focus of the analysis that follows. After the examination of some of Brueggemanns ideas, consideration will be given to the mechanisms of collective memory with particular regard to issues of boundary and development, and how these things are evidenced in Scripture. From New Testament evidence the focus will shift to worship and God as the ultimate referent of Christian memory. 6.2 Imagination as interpretative tool in the works of Walter Brueggemann. The American Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann delivered the 1988-9 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching with the title Finally Comes the Poet: Daring Speech for Proclamation. The somewhat enigmatic quality of the title is typical of Brueggemanns style, and his published papers have included many similar aphorisms (for example At Risk with the Text, An Imaginative Or, The Shrill Voice of the Wounded Party, all in The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word (2007); and Together in the Spirit–Beyond Seductive Quarrels, Reading as Wounded and as Haunted, and Texts That Linger, Not Yet Overcome in Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope: Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World (2000)) but arguably this particular title signifies more than presentational style. Finally Comes the Poet is Brueggemanns echo of a line from a poem entitled Passage to India in the Walt Whitman collection Leaves of Grass (1871): After the seas are all crossd, (as they seem already crossd,) After the great captains and engineers have accomplishd their work, After the noble inventors, after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist, Finally shall come the poet worthy that name, The true son of God shall come singing his songs. The poem has its origin in reflections on the grand technological achievements of Whitmans era, exemplified in the Suez canal and the American transcontinental railway. Its reference to great and new achievements as but a growth out of the past indeed fits well with Brueggemanns insistence that the old texts of Scripture when imaginatively interpreted are productive of new ways of seeing and living in the present (2000: 6): but there is, perhaps, a more playful and a yet more profound echo at work than simple topical reiteration. Whitman began Leaves of Grass as a conscious response to Ralph Waldo Emersons call in 1845 for the United States to have its own indigenous and unique poetry. The poems, despite being full of traditional biblical cadences, were to prove controversial since they used an innovative verse form with frequent colloquial language and some of them exalted the body and sexual love. Whitman worked on the volume throughout his life; the first edition of 1855 contained just 12 poems, but that grew to nearer 300 by the so-called deathbed edition of 1891-2. In other words, Whitmans work represents an ongoing creative enterprise that in its imaginative expansion and re-working sought to offer a new perspective on experience in an authentically American idiom of English. In that sense the poet comes last, as it were, to take imagination to shores far beyond those to be reached by rail or sea. As the poem concludes: For we are bound where mariner has not yet dare to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. O my brave soul! O farther farther sail! O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God? O farther, farther, farther sail! Imagination that goes beyond the immediately obvious; creativity that constructs alternative ways of giving an account of reality and interpretive language that profoundly resonates with the contemporary are themes that figure prominently in Brueggemanns work. In his Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination, he writes: The tradition that became Scripture is not merely descriptive of a commonsense world; it dares, by artistic sensibility and risk-taking rhetoric, to posit, characterize, and vouch for a world beyond the common sense. (2003a: 9) This interpretive imagination that enables ancient texts to speak with forceful authority to the contemporary believer is at the heart of Brueggemanns hermeneutic. His conviction is that engagement with the biblical texts can be creative of real alternatives to the prevailing and destructive dominant worldviews. His insistence on not what the text meant but what it means (2007: 83) presents a striking challenge to biblical methodologies that dwell on historical understandings of the text. In Brueggemanns work, both historical and redactive analysis are but steps towards this more fundamentally purposeful interpretation. His work is, therefore, of particular importance to this study since it so clearly demonstrates ways in which the biblical text can be interpreted anew so as to offer a fresh and challenging voice amidst the clamour of contemporary society. It is hardly surprising then that Whitmans poetic fresh voice provides Brueggemann with the teasing frontispiece to his lectures on preaching as a poetic construal of an alternative world (1989: 6). Nor is it surprising that in the years since his Lyman Beecher lectures, beyond his major studies (for example, First and Second Samuel (1990); Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (1997); and Deuteronomy (2001)) Brueggemann has written extensively about the preaching task (for example, in works such as Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles (1997); Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope: Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World (2000); The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word (2007)). His is an approach to Scripture that is essentially homiletical since, whilst remaining academically rigorous, it always looks to how the text resonates with contemporary existence. Indeed, Brueggemann asserts that the key hermeneutical event in contemporary interpretation is the event of preaching (2007: 92). 6.3 Imaginative remembering as a way into the text. In his use of tradition Brueggemanns method is presentist in just the way that collective memory theory suggests. He writes that remembering is itself shot through with imaginative freedom to extrapolate and move beyond whatever there may have been of happening (2003a: 7). Accordingly, his determination is to make the interface of ancient text and contemporary community more poignant and palpable (2003a: xi). In this he is following an understanding of how classic texts work in the life of faith that has an ancient pedigree and is exemplified in contemporary scholarship by David Tracy: I will understand not merely something that was of interest back then, as a period piece, whose use, although valid then, is now spent. Rather I will grasp something of genuine here and now, in this time and place. I will then recognize that all interpretation of classic texts heightens my consciousness of my own finitude, my own radically historical reality. I can never repeat the classics to understand them. I must interpret them. Only then, as Kierkegaard insisted, do I really repeat them. (Tracy, 1981: 103) In this understanding, interpretation, even when it appears novel (as long as that novelty is in an appropriate measure consistent with the tradition), is a legitimate extension of the tradition as represented by the text. Hence, for Brueggemann, what he terms imaginative remembering (2003a: 8) is both a way of understanding the formation of the text and an essential way into the text now. He writes of the Old Testament: What parents have related to their children as normative tradition (that became canonized by long usage and has long been regarded as normative) is a world of meaning that has as its key character YHWH, the God of Israel, who operates in the narratives and songs of Israel that are taken as reliable renderings of reality. Given all kinds of critical restraints and awarenesses, one can only allow that such retellings are a disciplined, emancipated act of imagination. (2003a: 8) This retelling is, in Brueggemanns methodology, a necessary extension of the memory work evident in the Old Testament texts with which he works, since those texts are themselves a sustained memory that has been filtered through many generations of the interpretative process, with many interpreters imposing certain theological intentionalities on the memory that continues to be reformulated. (2003a: 4) Brueggemann is at pains to assert the force of this continuity right up to the present time. The preacher, in his understanding, does not stand as a remote and objective commentator on the text, nor as a skill-laden technician who applies ancient wisdom to contemporary life, but is rather in her or his labours at one with and contributing to the ongoing flow of a living stream of tradition: All the forces of imaginative articulation and ideological passion and the hiddenness of divine inspiration have continued to operate in the ongoing interpretive task of synagogue and church until the present day. (2003a: 12) This ongoing process of memory work that makes faith possible for the next generation Brueggemann terms traditioning (2003a: 9). Although he does not use the language of collective memory theory in his writings, it is clear that he is alert to the mechanisms it suggests. For example, he points out that each version of retelling has as its intention the notion that it should be the final retelling that presents the newly interpreted or understood correct version. As that retelling comes to prominence and wide use, however, it is itself subject to further retelling that will eventually be productive of a fresher version that will displace the earlier version, partly or wholly (2003a: 9). It is not hard to see in this process what Halbwachs described as new memories created by the pressure of current needs and relationships and the forgetting of other memories that no longer have a supporting social framework. For Brueggemann, this process of retelling and discarding works to reinforce his demand that an exegetical and homiletical use of the text that is creative and imaginative is both legitimate and advantageous. The exegete or the homiletician can use the traces of earlier memories in the ongoing task of traditioning. Brueggemann writes: The complexity of the text evident on any careful reading is due to the happy reality that as new acts of traditioning overcome and partly displace older materials, the older material is retained alongside newer tradition. That retention is a happy one, because it very often happens that a still later traditionalist returns to and finds useful older, discarded material thought to be beyond use. (2003a: 9) Brueggemanns usage also echoes Halbwachs contention (see section 3.3) that changes in religious collective memory are often strengthened by an appeal to the recovery of ancient memory that has somehow been forgotten. What marks the difference between the two approaches is that Brueggemann sees this reclamation as necessary for a creative and imaginative handling of tradition rather than simply a way of socially legitimizing what might otherwise seem to be corrosive of the tradition. In collective memory theory as delineated by Halbwachs, change and development in Christian religious memory is seen as inimical to faith, whereas Brueggemann believes that variations over time are not only conducive to faith but are required if the text is to retain its power to change perceptions in every age. In acknowledging this process, Brueggemann also acknowledges that the memory held is far from being a straightforward and simple storage of information, or, as he terms it, an innocent act of repo rtage (2003a: 9). Far from seeing the social construction of memory as a denial of faith, Brueggemann uses that constructionism as a way to advance a socially responsible close engagement with the biblical text. This bears on the subject of this study in two very direct ways. 6.4 Living tradition as a field of artistic endeavour. First, it is important to acknowledge that although Brueggemanns hermeneutical method is an expression of impatience with biblical scholarship that dwells on historical, redactional and textual issues to the exclusion of social concerns; it is also more than that. His conviction is that the logic of modernity with its passion for linear, objective, and systematized thinking, and its insistence on only working with the given facts, has too often effectively silenced the Bible even in the churches (2003a: 28). He writes: Our technical way of thinking reduces mystery to problem, transforms assurance into certitude, revises quality into quantity, and so takes the categories of biblical faith and represents them in manageable shapes. (1989: 2) His is a style of engagement with the biblical text that goes beyond historical and technical categories (though readily employing those tools when needed) to imaginative and rhetorical aspects embedded in the text so as to focus not on the cognitive outcomes of the text (though there finally are cognitive outcomes) but on the artistic processes that operate in the text and generate an imagined world within the text. Such artistic attentiveness takes seriously the exact placement and performance of words and phrases, of sounds and repetitions that give rise to an alternate sense of reality. (2007: 76) In terms of homiletic theory this emphasis on artistic attentiveness calls to mind the work of R.E.C. Browne (1976) (see sections 2.3 and 5.2.3 above) and the suggestion he first voiced in the 1950s that preaching is an artistic activity requiring similar processes of social understanding and interaction as those necessary to the production of music, poetry or painting (Browne, 1976: 18). Indeed Brueggemann is arguably more in sympathy with the approach of Browne than with his American New Homiletic colleagues. The inductive methodology of New Homiletics beginnings all too easily with human experience, and, according to Brueggemann, its effort to induce from understandings of human experience connections to the biblical text is the wrong starting point. He cites what he perceives to be an increasing inclination amongst seminarians who prefer for preaching some idea, some cause, some experience, some anything rather than the text. A community without its appropriate text clearly will have no power or energy or courage for mission; it will be endlessly quarrelsome because it depends on ideology and has no agreed-upon arena where it adjudicates its conflicts. (2007: 42) With the New Homileticians Brueggemann is determined to connect the text and the world, but since his homiletic conceives the text as always challenging and critiquing commonplace understandings of experience and reality, those commonplace understandings cannot be the interpreters beginning. Interestingly, the word relevance is a term he studiously avoids in his consideration of how preaching properly works. Indeed, in a recent article he asserts the text is not directly addressed to us, and we should not work too hard at making it immediately relevant (2007: 39). As an alternative he uses the term resonates as a way of indicating that the preachers task is to enable a word to be heard that comes from outside our closed system of reality (2007: 4). Preaching, he insists, must always be subversive (2000: 6) and he means that literally: it offers a version of faith lived in reality that gets under the dominant versions and opens new ways of existing. He writes: My theme is alternative, sub-version to version, the sermon a moment of alternative imagination, the preacher exposed as point man, point woman, to make up out of nothing more than our memory and our hope and our faith a radical option to the normalcy of deathliness. (2000: 9) So, far from being a simple preservation mechanism, traditioning, in Brueggemanns methodology, becomes a creative activity in which each generation of faith reworks the tradition so as to maintain its liveliness: We now know (or we think we know) that human transformation (the way people change) does not happen through didacticism or through excessive certitude but through the playful entertainment of another scripting of reality that may subvert the old given text and its interpretation and lead to the embrace of an alternative text and its redescription of reality. (2007: 26) This is a radical understanding of faiths collective memory in that it lays the emphasis on traditions continuity being found in the telling and retelling which is properly productive of changes and shifts in traditions content. Here, the maintenance of a living tradition is clearly paramount; but processes of that maintenance are acknowledged as continually bringing to birth new ways of understanding how that tradition is experienced as living. The ways collective memories change are an aspect of how tradition functions effectively rather than being seen as a threat to the preservation of tradition. Brueggemanns traditioning works towards the creation of world-views in the anthropological sense; it is an insistence on an epistemology that shuns a too strident and dominating objectivism. As he puts it: Reality is not fixed and settled it cannot be described objectively. We do not simply respond to a world that is here, but we engage in constituting that world by our participation, or action, and our speech. As participants in the constitutive act, we do not describe what is there, but we evoke what is not fully there until we act or speak. (1988: 12) In this Brueggemann offers an understanding of the preachers task that is akin to David Buttricks phenomenological approach (Buttrick, 1987) in that it calls forth a sermonic language that can construe the world in new ways. Thus Brueggemanns definition of imagination is: The God-given, emancipated capacity to picture (or image) reality — God, world, self — in alternative ways outside conventional, commonly accepted givens. Imagination is attentiveness to what is otherwise, other than our taken-for-granted world. (2001: 27) This imaginative ability allows new insights and understandings to develop from within tradition. Processes of displacement and forgetting may indeed be at work in this, as collective memory theory suggests; but that does not necessarily mean that previous memories are just abandoned. Rather, imagination enables a reviewing incorporation of new perspectives that are beyond the easy conventions previously assumed. 6.5 Preaching as contested production. Preaching is at heart, according to Bruggemann, about the construel of alternatives. This assertion discloses a second point about how his work has a direct bearing on this study; and that shifts the focus from the nature of tradition to the practice of preaching. If traditioning is fundamentally about epistemology then preaching, as a mechanism of memory maintenance, must itself be productive of this shift in knowing. Consequently, preaching is, in Brueggemanns estimation, always a dangerous, indeed hazardous, activity since it is essentially a process of production understood in its widest creative sense. Like any productive process there is much that can prospectively go wrong in the process itself, let alone in its ultimate consumption as a product whose characteristics are potentially suspect or unwelcome. The dominant worldview in which both preacher and hearer exists is one in which reductionism with its relentless crude simplification of complexities and subtleties holds sway most of the time (1987: 13). In such circumstances preaching that is a creative weaving of the tradition into fresh resonant patterns can come as an unwelcome shock; it appears to put a question mark against more usual didactic, doctrinal or moralizing homiletical styles (2007: 29). That, of course, is precisely Brueggemanns purpose: Preaching is a peculiar, freighted, risky act each time we do it: entrusted with an irascible, elusive, polyvalent subject and flying low under the dominant version with a subversive offer of another version to be embraced by subversives. (2000: 6, italics original) Brueggemann situates preaching in precisely that area of contestation and change related to operative social frameworks that is familiar to collective memory theorists. That Brueggemann applies notions of production and consumption to the text and its exposition might seem strange in that kindred concepts such as commodification and consumerism are things he frequently criticises severely. In doing so he is, perhaps, making the point that the tendency of the dominating economic model to corrupt and distort underscores its seriousness and makes using its terms all the more resonant when applied to preaching. Preaching is to be taken with the utmost seriousness precisely because the world it aims to create offers a profound alternative to the dominating economic worldview. Preaching presents a new choice which challenges the hegemony of the usual way of viewing production and consumption, but the resonance of that choice is such that terms themselves are appropriately used: When the community has thus produced a text, it is the task of the community to consume the text, that is, to take, use, heed, respond, and act upon the text. The entire process of the text, then, is an act of production and consumption whereby a new world is chosen or an old world is defended, or there is transformation of old world to new world. The purpose of using the categories of production and consumption is to suggest that the textual process, especially the interpretative act of preaching, is never a benign, innocent, or straightforward act. Anyone who imagines that he or she is a benign or innocent preacher of the text is engaged in self-deception. Preaching as interpretation is always a daring, dangerous act, in which the interpreter, together with the receivers of the interpretation, is consuming a text and producing a world. (2007: 87) In other words, to facilitate this consumptive production, it is essential that the text be kept in conversation with what the congregation already knows and believes (2007: 100). This conversation is at its most effective when it is clearly opposed to both a false kind of objectivity that assumes the world is a closed, fixed, fated, given and a kind of subjectivity that assumes we are free or able to conjure up private worlds that may exist in a domesticated sphere without accountability to or impingement from the larger public world (2007: 100). Preaching has to keep the conversation going—an inevitable conclusion, given Brueggemanns dynamic understanding of tradition. It is intended that this analysis of Brueggemanns writings will have made plain the numerous points at which his thought provides fruitful links to the subject of this study. However, before moving to an examination of continuity and community in relation to collective memory it is worth reiterating some of the keys issues at a little length. In particular, the relationship between tradition, as represented by the Scriptural texts and contemporary concerns, will be examined further. That in turn will allow some extended discussion of the way in which this tradition is able to generate more than a straightforward replication of itself out of those contemporary concerns. Tradition is seen here as an environment within which the preacher is empowered towards an imaginative and artistic creativity that both sustains and develops that environment. That discussion will provide a conceptual bridge into the consideration of a brief but significant essay contributed by Anthony Thiselton to th e 1981 Doctrine Commission of the Church of Englands report Believing in the Church. Through Thiseltons work, issues of continuity and transmission will be directly addressed. 6.6 The presentist use of tradition. Brueggemanns perspective on the preaching task fits well with collective memory theory in that it is essentially presentist in its nature. Indeed, Brueggemanns insistence on what the text means now provides a positive theological and ministerial undergirding of the processes of collective memory. His understanding of imaginative remembering as the core tool of the preachers interpretation re-positions those collective memory processes as purposeful rather than simply inevitable. The preacher as hermeneutikos enters the stream of the ongoing flow of a living tradition and strives to be part of that lively continuity through homiletic activity; what Brueggemann understands as a continuing process of traditioning. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Brueggemann places this dynamic understanding of tradition at the very centre of faithful living. If so fundamental to the practice of faith, then that traditioning must also be essential to Christian mission. As Rowan Williams puts it: The Christian is at once possessed by an authoritative urgency to communicate the good news, and constrained by the awareness of how easily the words of proclamation become godless, powerless to transform. The urgency must often be channelled into listening and waiting, and into the expansion of the Christian imagination itself into something that can cope with the seriousness of the world. It is certainly true that, for any of this to be possible, here must be a real immersion in the Christian tradition itself. (2000: 40) In Brueggemanns thought, preaching becomes a key component of contemporary biblical interpretation in that it makes explicit in a demonstrable way just how tradition works. The essential rootedness of homiletics in a faith tradition becomes its greatest strength. This point needs to be underlined because it is not to be taken as special pleading for preaching as an exceptional kind of communication that must by its nature be allowed an ideological position inappropriate elsewhere. Instead, this is a declaration that the explicit rootedness of preaching exposes the reality of similar, but frequently denied rootedness, in other areas of discourse. Furthermore, that that very rootedness provides a platform for a sometimes radical re-evaluation of realities previously simply assumed—what Brueggemann understands as a construal of alternatives. In terms of collective memory, the recasting of memories becomes not the rather defensive mechanism Halbwachs described in his consideration of religion, but a creative and imaginative weaving of new possibilities out of the warp and weft of what has been inherited. This allows an adjustment of Halbwachs rather positivistic functionalism towards a more phenomenological perspective that is alert to the dynamism inherent in the tradition itself. Some words from Peter Ochs study of Peircean pragmatism in relation to Scripture seem apposite: For the Christian community, the Bible is thus not a sign of some external reality, but a reality itself whose meanings display the doubly dialogic relationships between a particular text and its context within the Bible as a whole, and between the Bible as a whole and the conduct of the community of interpreters. (1998: 309) The denial of an objectivizing distance between the preacher and the text may be justly assumed in the ministry of preaching, but Ochs study and Brueggemanns practice are suggestive of more than that: they point to a kind of knowing and learning only available through tradition. What is being challenged here is the easy assumption that a tradition-free, abstract, universal rationality is superior to such tradition-embedded thinking. Indeed, traditioning considered in the widest terms must put a question mark against the very idea of tradition-free knowing. In considering the influential works of Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929), and Charles Taylor (born 1931) Bruggemann makes the point that the imagination so crucial to development and change is generated from within tradition (2001: 31). 6.7 The generative nature of Scripture as tradition. Although, as acknowledged earlier, the relationship of tradition and rationality raises large epistemological issues beyond the direct scope of this thesis the subject needs to be broached here since it draws attention to an important aspect of tradition, namely its ability to seed fresh, creative understandings that are generative of new developments whilst retaining congruity with the tradition from which they arose. Colloquial usage of the term tradition makes it synonymous with preservation, but that fails to acknowledge this generative ability. Brueggemann sees generative traditioning at