Brand Community

During the last fifteen years, there are many popular subjects: relationship marketing and brand building,etc.These hot subjects encourage interaction and speed up the incubation of new sources of disciplinary growth: Brand Relationship(the relationship between consumer and brand).In Brand Relationship theory sysytem,more scholars focus on the relationship between consumer and brand, but Muniz and O’Guinn(2001) did more research on the relationship among consumers, and put forward a new brand concept – Brand Community. This concept comes from â€Å"consumption community†,which was first proposed by historian Daniel Boorstin(1974), ‘in the modern era of high mobility, people look not only to communality of consumption behavior but also to neighborhood as a basis for feelings of community.’ The same as consumption community, brand community is also initiative and drive of individuals’ co –operating at the beginning, after that, enterprise start to take advantage of the power of brand community to build brand loyalty and brand equity, therefore, brand community is becoming a new weapon of marketing. In this essay, I make literature review surveys on scholarly articles, books relevant to brand community, providing a description, summary and critical evaluation of brand community. Firstly, discuss the origin and definition of brand community. Secondly, summary the research status and the dynamic natures of brand community which are different from consumption community, briefly introduce three main features of brand community. Thirdly, illustrate evolution of brand community model. Fourthly, case study, use case of Starbucks to explain the implications of brand community. Finally, conclusion and the prospect of research. 1 Demarcation of Brand community 1.1 Origin of Brand community During the last few years, there is a trend that academic research on consumption activities moved away from considerations of individual to a focus on communal. The word ‘community’ was used frequently. ‘consumption community’ (Boorstin, 1973). ‘Subcultures of consumption’ (schouten and McAlexander, 1995). ‘Band community’ (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander et al., 2002).These communities are referred to as ‘social collectives’ (Greenwood, 1994). ‘Life-mode communities’ (Firat and Dholakia, 1998) and‘neo-tribes’ (Cova, 1997). Brands provide the linking value to some individuals who wants to become member of these communities. These communities seize the idea that people have relations with other people and such relationships are constructed around a fulcrum acted by brands. Harley Owners group(HOG)is a good example of the brand providing such linking value(Fournier et al.,2001).There are more and more descriptive studies detailing the features of such communities: Star Wars fans (Brown et al.,2003); Sun’s Java Center community (Williams and Cothrel,2000) and Nutella(Cova and Pace, 2005). In a word, communities are expected to provide benefits for the organisation: they affect brand equity and create a stable base of loyal, enthusiastic consumers (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander et al., 2001). Actually, it is not easy for a brand to establish a community. Brand-centred communities may typify themselves to open up a utopian place in the contemporary world.Kozinets (2001) noted that ‘impossibility and dreamness together with deep motivational power and desire’ While utopianism enables customers to engage with reality rather than merely escape into fantasy (Geoghegan, 1987).Which means transform and subvert are the two abilities of utopian (Maclaran and Brown, 2001).Members and the relations among them compose a community. McAlexander and Koeing (2002) identify communities on the basis of identification among community members(a neighborhood, a leisure pursuit, an occupation and devotion to a brand).Brand community is a new type of community, different from traditional community, can form a strong image, a lengthy history around brands.Actually,it is a community established with brand-centric 1.2 Definition of Brand community Because brand community is a new concept, there is nounified definition in academia, but we can define it from two parts: narrow and broad meanings. Narrow meaning is represented by Muniz and O’Guinn. Based on the research on some brands, such as Ford Bronco, etc.Muniz and 0’Guinn (2001) noted a brand community is a no-geographically bound and specialized community based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand. It highlight the point connection of brand community is brand not region, and brand community has three essential markers (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Bagozzi (2006) noted that brand community is consumption community with common enthusiasm for a certain brand or certain good social cognition (environmental protection), the members realize collective objective or express the common emotional and commitment through common action. Substantiallyï ¼Å'this is as the same as Muniz and O’Guinn’s definitionï ¼Å'they both emphasize the expressions of emotion and action from a certain brand McAlexander (2002) expended this conceptï ¼Å'the broad meaning of brand community is a connection network with focal customer as centre, besides brand relationship, there are many other relationships. This concept emphasizes the Consumers’ all-round experience of brand. Upshaw and Taylor (2001) made a broad explanation to this conceptï ¼Å'they documented that all the stakeholders who have relationship with the brand (including employee〠customer〠stockholder〠supplier and strategic partnered) compose brand community. 2 Basic theory and concept 2.1 Research Status Brand community is becoming an increasing popular topic in brand management research; however, the short-lived time leads to its present research is preliminary, and mainly focused on the concept, features, origin, impact and modes, etc. For example,Muniz and O’Guinn(2001)claimed that brand community has three essential features of community: consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions and moral responsibility. Schau and Muniz (2002)reported the value of brand community image is important to consumers identify centified;Schmitt , Rogers and Vrotsos (2003)described the performance of brand community in Jeep,BMW and many other vehicle brands;Hoeffler and Keller (2002)noted the improving consciousness of brand community is in favor of enhancing brand equity based on consumers; McAlexander , Kim and Roberts (2003)researched the relationship between brand community and consumers satisfaction, consumers loyalty, and claimed that consumers loyalty is not only affected by customer satisfaction, but also by brand community. Belk and Tumbat noted that it is not easy for a brand to establish a community.(Schouten and McAlexander, 1995; Kozinets,2001;Muniz and Schau,2005).There are many scholars focusing on virtual community, documented the classify of community and marketing strategy (McWilliams , 2000 ; Monica , 2000 ; Wind , Mahajan and Gunther ,2003). All above research enrich the brand community theory, but there is a serious problem: research only stays on statical concept ,feature and primary implication phase.Muniz and O’Guinn said the future of research is to know how brand community change in different social situation. 2.2 Dynamic Natures Consumption community and brand community are different on several dimensions:firstly,Muniz and O’Guinn(2001)noted that brand community is non-geographically bounded, they may be either scattered(Boorstin,1974),or geographically concentrated (Holt,1995).Geographical concentration is the dimension of social context. To be more exact, interactions within a brand community may be rich in social context. Communication may be predominantly face to face,nediated by electronic devices(Boorstin,1974).Members may have a number of information about each other(gender,age and background).There is little understanding of movement along this dimension. The temporal stability of a community can be asset to marketers in as much as legerity equates with a long-term, stable valuable market communities can share useful consumption experiences. (Arnould and Price, 1993). 2.3 Three main features 2.3.1 Consciousness of kind This feature includes two sides: legitimacy and oppositional brand loyalty.Muniz and O’Guinn noted that members feel an significant connection to the brand and toward each other, even they are strangers, members feel they know each other, â€Å"the link is more important than the thing †(Cova,1997,p307).They also can distinguish who is the real member by judging whether he is familiar with and in favor of the brand, not just because of chasing fashion to use product of the brand.Sometimes,brand community members build community to share common experience and brand connotation to fight with other brands. That means community will become more solidarity when facing with threats (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001). 2.3.2 Shared rituals and traditions The main point of this feature is shared consumption experience. It consists of celebrating the history of the brand and sharing brand stories. The transmission of brand community is life-affirming to establish its culture. At the same time, brand history is brand community’s cultural equity. Sharing brand stories playing a significant role in brand building and maintaining. It strengthens consciousness of kind among brand members and contributes to imagined community. It also reinforces members ‘identity to the brand and help members learn more about communities’ value. Ads play a significant role in brand community rituals and traditions. Members are concerned with ads as they display the brand to those outside of the community, and themselves (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001). 2.3.3 Moral Responsibility Its definition is â€Å"a sense of duty to the community as a whole and to individual members of the community† (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001).There are at least two traditional communal missions: the first one is integrating and retaining members, there is the presence of a social moral consciousness in traditional communities, they recognize the bounds of what is appropriate and inappropriate, right and wrong. Another is assisting in the use of the brand. Assistance is to help community members, both known and unknown, repair the product or solve problems. Assisting is one of the places in which computer-mediated communication offers a great deal of information (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001).According to the primary nature of the relationship, the assistance offered between individuals sharing a communal bond is specialized (Wellman, 1990; Wellman and Wortley, 1990) 3 Evolution of Brand Community model 3.1 Traditional Brand community Model Boorstin emphasized the relationship between product (brand) and customer in consumption community model (figure 1).Customers look brand as the promise enterprise made for the products function value and image. Enhancing brand means the contract between enterprise and customer. To satisfy different needs from different target market, different brands need different brand positioning, even the same brand, with the changing of customers’ need, also need change brand positioning. Therefore, Boorstin took the perspective that consumption community is customer-centric, the development of brand should stick to customers’ need as the guide. 3.2. Triangle Brand community model Muniz and O’Guinn ,who are the initiator of the theory of brand community, enrich the relationship model of â€Å"customer-brand†, emphasized brand as intermediary (figure 2).With the development of social economy, customers are not confined to need for product (material level), they are not only concentrating on the function value of products own, more concentrating on consuming the product can give them symbolic significance and emotion interests. The similar experience and shared emotion among community members give them more emotion value than product function value. Brand community Triad Model break through the single dimensionality in traditional â€Å"customer-brand†, concentrate on the relationship among â€Å"customer-customer†. Weakness is that the brand will be influenced not only by customers belong to itself, but also by customers belong to other brands. For example,Many customers will interview the website and forum before purchasing products, they can find information about many other brand customers. 3.3. Brand stakeholder relations model Upshaw and Taylor came up with a new Masterbrand Community model based on Brand community Triad Model. Their opinion is all the stakeholders with brand should include employee,customer,stockholder,supplier and strategic partnered.compose brand community(figure 3).A good brand image is the base of community, while these stakeholders play an significant role in maintaining brand image and reputation, only be kind to these stakeholders ,can brand have attraction. It is the motivation of brand community. This model organizes many factors which can influence brand to build and maintain the harmonious relationship between them. Although this model emphasizes that many kinds of stakeholders are important to brand building, it involves too many complicated relationships which is not easy for analysis and research. Besides, this model strengthens brand’s core position, neglect customers playing an important role in brand building. 3.4. Focal customer model Based on Muniz and O’Guinn’s brand community theory (2001), McAlexanderï ¼Å'Schouten and Koening (2002) put forward Focal Customer Model. This model emphasizes brand, product, customer and marketer are important factors to compose brand community, and bring four relationships into brand community: customer and enterprise, customer and product, customer and brand, customer and customer. This model’s feature is highlighting the focal customer playing linking role in brand community. Besides Muniz’s â€Å"relationship among customers†, they added product, brand and marketer. Although this structure is more comprehensive, it has drifted â€Å"brand community† raised by Muniz, which studied the relationship among customers. McAlexander’s opinion actually is another closely related topic-brand relationship. A research specialist in brand relationship field, Fourier (2001), expended the relationship between brand and customer to four relations as McAlexander’s model. Based on new product diffusion theory, focal customer is playing an opinion leader during product diffusion process, they are the base of enterprise. So, when enterprices want to attract new customers, also should pay more attention to focal customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. 3.5 conclusions The premise of research on brand community is better understanding of brand community models. From the focus of the study,Muniz’s and McAleXander’s models focus on customer, while Upshaw’s model focus on brand, the difference is that former model studied the role customer playing in brand building, the later studied all the factors can influence brand. From the range of the study, Upshaw’s mode is very comprehensive, but too complex; it is difficult to consider all types of relations in one study at the same time. That is the reason why it is seldom used.Muniz’s and McAlexander’s models are more useful, but from the logicality of study, their models did not distinguish the importance of all types of relations, that is to say, they did not tell us which relation playing an important role in brand community. 4 Case study: The success and failure of Starbucks Founded in 1971, Starbucks has the fastest growth rate of any company in the history of retailing. (George and Pierce, 2007)Starbucks sells mainly coffee, and even were it the best coffee in the world it would still only be coffee. The question spontaneously arises, however, why is Starbucks today a brand to be counted among the elite of mythical brands? What has made the consumer pay a premium price for something they would normally have paid significantly less for? The answer can be found in the fact that Starbucks’ marketing approach goes far beyond the tangible component of the product by infusing coffee with new symbolic values and brand community. A high quality of coffee, widespread locations and commercial partnership agreements have undoubtedly contributed to the company’s growth, but these elements are not sufficient to make a brand a global myth, an authentic icon of postmodern society. An exchange from the movie Duplex illustrates the bohemian image Starbucks has acquired as a place where writers and other intellectuals are welcomed as part of a specific community. In the film, a young wife, played by Drew Barrymore, turns to her writer husband and says †Well, what if you got out of the house for a little while and went to write at, like a Starbucks or something? † †It would be nice not to have to write at Starbucks with all the other novelists,† replies the young man, played by Ben Stiller.It is precisely this which is the true essence of Starbucks: a place which evokes symbolic values and brand community values which go beyond coffee and the products sold and which makes a sign a metropolitan legend. It is feeling part of a community like that of the writers looking for success quoted in the film, and many morebesides,which makes consumers identify with a place where, when it really comes down to it, what you mostly do is just drinking cof fee. A person who habitually goes a sort of community to do so not just to drink a cup of coffee but to access a sort of community where they find values, models and behaviors which they tend to recognize themselves in. While Starbucks continued to enrich its context with new meanings and values, other competitors continued to simply sell coffee (Shu-pei Tsai, 2005), Starbucks’s performance demonstrates how, by enhancing the atmosphere and making the place of consumption a space linked to trendsetters and not the minority fringe of the population, by creating a sense of belonging and community, it is possible to achieve success even when satisfying routine needs. As Volli says, Starbucks â€Å"is together closed and secret but also open and public, it shows and hides at the same time, it simultaneously exercises modesty and seduction, the secret and the recall†(Volli,1998).Starbucks has known how to invest a new way of communication ,strongly centered on the communicative processes among members of its brand community and between its members and the outside world. There is no perfect in the world,with the development of society,economy and many other aspects,Starbucks also should face with some shortage and challenge.The greater standardization of the â€Å"structures† has slowly made them lose the bohemian charm which the first points of sale had, and that aroma of coffee which represented the heart of the brand community offering in Starbucks has progressively weakened. The sensory connotation which immediately hits you when you enter a Starbucks and which creates around it a relaxing atmosphere similar to that felt in a club of people who share the passion for coffee, is gradually getting weaker. But the problem is not limited to reduced olfactory involvement, if anything it involves the fact that the chain is losing its soul of the past, becoming more and more like a conventional chain and losing that atmosphere which was so dear to its founder of a small neighborhood ship, whose emotive warmth can generate particularly intense experiences. We could say that this is one of the risks which companies which have been able to build real communities around their brands find them having to face. When the brand becomes as developed as Starbucks, its audience widens and new consumers, with characters different from those of the community’s original members, take possession, thus reducing the initial followers’ feeling of belonging. Infact, belonging to a community satisfies the desire of individuals to share common aspects with other individuals and in that way express their distinctiveness from other social groups. When those very people they are trying to distinguish themselves from try to become part of the community, it is necessary to know how to manage this process by trying to preserve the symbolic consistency of the brand rather than adapting it to the new context. This is a natural process: the company does not live so as to remain in the ghetto of the niche; it is in development a growth that we find the preservation of its vital functions, but the process must be handled with extreme care, avoiding compromising the good and the unique that has been built.

Denis McDonough

â€Å"What Barack has said is that we can begin withdrawing our troops immediately, and he believes that we can do it at pace of about one to two combat brigades per month. And at that pace, we could get the remaining troops out in about 16 months. This is not an ironclad absolute commitment that at the end of 16 months all of our troops will be out. But he does believe that is the kind of pace that we can do responsibly and safely. † (Interview with NPR, June 2008. ) McDonough has argued for a common-good approach to foreign policy, saying that the U. S. must address problems like global warming and poverty by taking approaches that will benefit other countries as well as the United States. He has spoken in support of a cap-and-trade system and called on the U. S. to make a serious commitment to reducing greenhouse gases. (6) Iraq McDonough opposed the Iraq war from the start and backs Obama’s efforts to withdraw troops slowly from the country, aiming to have all of th em out in about 16 months. He argues that Congress and the president failed to plan for the long-term impact of the Iraq war. He would like Obama’s administration to craft a thorough proposal that lays out what the U. S. ’s specific role will be in Iraq over the next ten years. (7) Intelligence Oversight While at the Center for American Progress, McDonough lobbied for reform of Congressional oversight of intelligence. He argued that Congress must pursue vigorous oversight of the 17 agencies because they operate in such secrecy, ensuring that the intelligence community is behaving constitutionally and lawfully while pursuing their aims effectively. (8) Samantha Power. Q: Though some analysts see U. S. foreign policy woes as a recent phenomenon, you argue that recent foreign policy missteps by current U. S. leaders have exposed and exacerbated long-standing structural and conceptual problems in U. S. foreign policy. Please explain. Power: It is tempting to see Iraq as the source of all our woes now, whereas I see Iraq as the symptom, in some measure, of a number of longstanding trends and defects in American foreign policy. March,6,2008 One example is the US historic predisposition to go it alone. Because we have long undervalued what international institutions have to offer, we believed that we could go into Iraq, and as soon as we declared the mission accomplished, we expected to be able to turn the problem over to others, regardless of how they had been treated in the run up to the invasion. This thinking is very flawed, but not all that new. In a uni-polar world, the Clinton Administration was able to get away with an instrumental relationship with international institutions, but that is harder with the rise of new powers who are willing to challenge the United States in international bodies. It is also harder now that the Iraq war itself has exposed so many US weaknesses. In addition, we long saw international authorization as a luxury, something good for global public opinion, but not very relevant to US national security. But what we have seen, by revealing our indifference to international legitimacy both in the Iraq war and in the practices carried out in our counter-terrorism efforts – the disavowal of the Geneva conventions, prisoner abuse, extraordinary rendition, etc. is that being seen to thumb our nose at international law actually has profound security ramifications, as more and more people seek to take up arms against U. S. citizens and interests. Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the ‘national interest' as a whole is defined and pursued. Look at the degree to which Halliburton and several of the private security and contracting firms invested in the 2004 political campaigns and received very lucrative contracts in the aftermath of the U. S. takeover of Iraq. Also, America's important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive. So greater regard for international institutions along with less automatic deference to special interests – especially when it comes to matters of life and death and war and peace – seem to be two take-aways from the war in Iraq. Q: Elaborate on your differentiation between ‘power' and ‘influence' as accurate metrics for conceptualizing effective foreign policy. Power: I think that most of us, in a knee-jerk way, tend to conflate power with ‘hard power' – with economic and military power. At the Kennedy School, Joe Nye gave us the concept of ‘soft power' as another component of power. Building on Nye's concept, we would be wise in the 21st century to measure our power by our influence. Influence is best measured not only by military hardware and GDP, but also by other people's perceptions that we, the United States, are using our power legitimately. That belief – that we are acting in the interests of the global commons and in accordance with the rule of law – is what the military would call a ‘force multiplier. ‘ It enhances the U. S. ability to get what it wants from other countries and other players. The third component of influence – along with traditional hard power and legitimacy – is people's perception that we know what we are doing, that we are competent. Here, one cannot overstate the devastating one-two punch of Iraq and Katrina in undermining the global public's and the American people's faith that the U. S. is a competent prosecutor of its own objectives. Even if you disagreed with the Bush administration's decision to go to war, and thought it would do more harm than good, many people assumed that this administration, in pursuing this war, would at least know what it was doing. Whatever its objectives were – again, objectives many of us found suspect or insufficient to warrant the use of military force – we expected this group of experienced professionals to pursue those aims competently, to prepare properly, and to bring adequate resources to bear. We all know now that experience does not translate into competence. The war in Iraq has thus undermined our hard power by overstretching our military and sending us into deficit. It has undermined our perceived legitimacy because we've ignored the will of the international community and committed grave acts of torture, crimes against humanity, and other terrible sins in the conduct of the war itself. But, crucially, as my colleague Steve Walt has put it, we also no longer look like the country that put the man on the moon. Nor does the rest of the world see us, currently, as the country that liberated Europe from two world wars, that devised the Marshall Plan, that helped bring down the Wall. As a result, our ability to get what we want – whether we're talking about ending Iran‘s nuclear enrichment program, halting genocide in Darfur, reforming the UN, or even securing international buy-in for the effort to stabilize Iraq – our influence has eroded such that we are unable to actually achieve our policy objectives Q: You see the U. S. as being more isolated today than it has ever been. Though there have always been ‘America-firsters' among policy makers, why do you think this is especially dangerous now? Power: Traditionally, American isolationism comes about in spurts as the result of very vocal domestic constituencies who believe that engagement with the rest of the world is bad for U. S. interests. Although today there are some in this country who would like to see the United States ‘come home' after its bungled misadventures abroad, most Americans understand that the nature of the global marketplace, as well as the global threats, make this impossible. Yet we are in a period of relative isolation – one that stems less from ascendant Copperhead isolationism at home and more from the way other countries calculate their interests as they relate to the United States. So, in a sense, those countries are retreating from the United States, rather than the United States retreating from them. It's the reverse of what we have seen in the past. What you have are a number of countries -even those with which the United States has long been aligned – who believe that a very close association between themselves and the Bush administration undermines their internal domestic standing. So we see longstanding allies of the United States pushing back against Washington, asserting independent views on everything from global warming and international justice to troubled war zones like Afghanistan, where the U. S. desperately needs the support of its western partners in attempting to stabilize that country. So we are the recipients of isolationism now, you might say, rather than the crafters of it. Q: The focus in discussions of U. S. foreign policy is often on the executive branch, but you place great responsibility on Congress and journalists, and even the public, in relation to U. S. foreign policy. Why? Power: The longstanding habit of governments is to pursue their national interests – to pursue their economic and security interests. That is what governments are for. That is what states are for. The only occasions in which regard for human rights and human consequences are injected into foreign policymaking historically are occasions when the Congress has in sisted upon it or when the press has either shamed the Congress or shamed the Executive Branch into entertaining a broader set of interests which include regard for human consequences abroad. The reason this becomes especially important in the 21st century – in an era of asymmetric threats- is because our systematic neglect of human rights in the formulation of our foreign policy over the years has engendered great resentment. Our abuses in the conduct of the so-called ‘war on terror,' too, have enhanced terrorist recruitment, fueled vitriolic anti-Americanism and, arguably, made it more difficult for us to summon resources from other countries to deal with threats. Human rights abuses have supplied oxygen to the minority of those who hold the United States in such contempt that they want to take matters into their own hands and kill Americans. It's very important, for our national security in the long term, and of course on principle, that human consequences be integrated into our foreign policy, but it's very unlikely historically that this will be done in a top-down fashion. So if the American people or particular constituencies care about particular issues – say Afghanistan, Guantanamo, or Darfur – unless they actually give voice to that concern, whether for its own sake or because they believe that those crises will come back and haunt the United States if they are not dealt with, the only way that the public is going to see their interests in those issues internalized by senior policy makers is if they make it vocally and painfully clear to policy makers that there is a strong domestic political constituency for a change in course. Q: You posit that both the self-image and global image of the U. S. have eroded. How can the U. S. again be seen as a force for good in the world? Power: It's probably going to be a long and windy road to rehabilitation. A crucial step for the United States is to really begin to think in terms of ‘do no harm' and actually ending some of the more egregious aspects of its approach to counter-terrorism. First, in the ‘do no harm' camp: end the practice of extraordinary rendition, where US agents willfully ship terrorist suspects in our custody to countries that we know torture, for the explicit purpose of evading domestic checks on US abuse. Second in the ‘do no harm' camp: close Guantanamo and actually channel its prisoners through internationally respected legal processes. And third, restore habeus corpus to those detainees who are in US custody. To strip a group of individuals – no matter what blood some number of them have on their hands – of the most fundamental constitutional rights sends a signal to the rest of the world that there are two sets of human rights that we believe in: one robust set that Americans get to enjoy, and another much diminished set that those perceived as hostile to us get to enjoy. There are also two sets of individuals – ‘tortureables' and ‘untorturables. ‘ So a first step in our rehabilitation is to rid our conduct of these colossal blemishes on the American character. The second is embedding U. S. antipoverty, anti-disease and democratization policy initiatives within international institutions as part of a grand vision of what the United States actually does stand for – which is trying to ensure that people enjoy the kind of freedom from fear and freedom from want that Franklin Roosevelt promised Americans many years ago. The burden of actually making people secure in their homes is far too steep a burden for one country to handle. We must articulate a vision for human security and then channel US resources through international institutions, which themselves must become more rigorous and accountable. This will over time enhance US standing, but more importantly, it will force other countries – who have delighted in Bush's misfortunes but put little on the line themselves to patrol the global commons – to pick up the slack. Introduction Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) foreign policy agenda has emphasized multilateralism and reinvigorated diplomacy to advance U. S. interests. He has pledged to take steps to end the war in Iraq soon after taking office, to negotiate with the leadership of U. S. adversaries like Iran and Cuba, and to revamp the U. S. approach to free trade to bolster labor and environmental protections. Obama has attracted as advisers a number of top foreign policy experts who served under President Bill Clinton. Those advisers tend to be more independent from party orthodoxy on foreign policy issues, analysts say. Obama's top advisers were opposed to the U. S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, although a number of prominent Democrats, including rival Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), supported the action at the time. Obama's advisers generally appear to agree with his belief that it is â€Å"important for the United States not just to talk to its friends but also to talk to its enemies. A New Foreign Policy Vision Obama was elected to the Senate in 2005 and serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to that, his professional experience was primarily confined to Illinois, where he served as a state legislator representing a Chicago district, and before that, a community activist. He has cited his personal background-his Kenyan-born father and a youth spent in Indonesia-as crucial to the development of his world view. Like other presidential campaigns, Obama's draws on a long list of advisers on foreign policy matters. The most senior include several ranking Clinton administration officials, the Brookings Institution's Susan E. Rice, former National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. This is a team that's very reflective of Obama, who has made it pretty clear in his speeches and statements during the campaign that he believes that diplomacy has been undervalued over the past few years and that the United States shouldn't fear to negotiate,† says Derek Chollet, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security who advised Jo hn Edwards' presidential campaign. If Obama wins the general election in November, his foreign policy and economic agendas will surely break with the legacies of the Bush administration, experts say. Whether it's our approach to torture, or climate change, or how we're dealing with Iran, to Iraq, to the Middle East peace process you're going to see significant changes,† says Chollet, who is not connected to the Obama campaign. Obama advocates a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions, and has said the United States should invest $150 billion over ten years to advance clean-energy technology. Obama has also been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, which he opposed from its outset in 2002. He has said he will withdraw troops from Iraq and refocus U. S. military efforts against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. National Security Advisers Obama has stressed his commitment to winning the battle against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He has also vowed that he would pursue al-Qaeda elements into Pakistan, with or without government permission, if he had strong intelligence the group was planning an attack on the United States. Obama's leading national security advisers include: Denis McDonough , senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the national security coordinator for Obama's campaign. McDonough was foreign policy adviser to former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. McDonough has been outspoken on energy and environmental policy. In June 2007, McDonough urged the Group of Eight (G8) to take action to combat climate change, and warned that current levels of development assistance are â€Å"woefully insufficient† to help underdeveloped nations deal with climate change. McDonough has also said that the United States should do more to â€Å"promote the development of our domestic clean energy sector industry. † McDonough said on a Brookings Institution panel in May 2007 that it is â€Å"far past time† for the United States to institute a cap-and-trade system mandating â€Å"very aggressive reductions† in greenhouse gases, with the goal of an 80 percent reduction over 1990 levels by 2050

Case : Trader Joe’s Essay

– What are the key sources of Trader Joe’s competitive advantage? Is their advantage sustainable? Unlike another retail stores, Trader Joe’s aims to provide an extraordinary shopping experience unable to be found anywhere else in the perspectives of the following key sources. Store operations: The Stores are small in old strip malls in suburban locations. There are no self-out checkout lanes so the customers had opportunity to talk to employees. Merchandising: It sold mostly private label goods at reasonable price by stocking fewer items, but more line-ups with dynamic mix compared to typical retail channels. Also, it doesn’t follow trends, but tried to sell new products that customers had not experienced previously. Customers: Trader Joe’s had been targeting clearly and not doing one-way communication. Trader Joe’s really understands the characteristics of customers so it enjoyed a cult-like following. Many customers created Facebook fan pages, wrote cookbooks featuring meals prepared with the firm’s products, and waited in line for hours before a new store opens. The company has made consumers so loyal to it. Marketing: Rather than offering any discount coupons, Trader Joe’s distributed a customer newsletter to provide information on certain products. Trader Joe’s doesn’t have its company-led social media strategy. Instead, the company finds a great deal of content generated by fans of the company. Therefore, credibility of customers has become very high because of such a fan base marketing. People: Trader Joe’s has paid staffs more than they might expect at rival grocers whereas typical grocery stores have cut-off wages of their staff due to its decreased margin under strong competition. Also, the company wants  its employees to become familiar with the company’s products so it provides funds to sample new food. Additionally, the company makes employees not bored about their job by letting employees rotate their jobs not only from day to day, but hour by hour. As the employees are satisfied with company, they always provide best service with customers so customers usually have good experience while shopping. Trader Joe’s will thrive in success for the many years to come because it truly values its consumers. The importance of consumerism is in the â€Å"Frequent Newsletter† and the employees’ dedication to the consumer. Consumers will return to a store in which they feel valued and appreciated. Then, they continue to create a lot of fan sites to have a good impact on brand equity and reputation of Trader Joe’s. I think that there would be virtuous circle on this business for the future.

Development of Arab Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Development of Arab Film - Essay Example However, the Quran does not have instructions on the subject giving Arab cinema creators a chance to come up with pieces that include a man and beast character. The cinema producers are prohibited by Islam from using images that are works of Satan. The minor religious objection led to the development of film in Arab. Symbolism is used to develop relations between characters and the plot of the films. Traditional Arab culture did not recognize symbolism in both fine arts and literary genres such as classical poetry ( Shafik 61). Lack of symbolism recognition in Arab films then paved way for western film influence. The films began to integrate symbols into Arab’s literary creations. The process brought meaning to symbols used in Arab fills that would depend on different elements to fix images. The influence of western films came in to teach the directors how to come up with symbols with unambiguous statements. The major forms or elements of popular theatre in Arab films include performers, audience, director, theatre space, design elements, and dramatic action personified in the text. The elements were initially developed by the activities of the actors, actresses, and directors who combined effort to create plays with public appeal. For instance, a play such as Kish Kish bey was adapted for the film but the play was a success due to a combined effort of the stars (Shafik 72). The films were directed for Arab and international audience after World War II. The dramatic actions, design elements, and arrangement of theatre space were influenced by elements of European theatre.  

Mini Research Project Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mini Project - Research Proposal Example When the world real Gross Domestic Product was having a howling dread, the GDP of China was pretty much sturdily moving upward in an open contrast (Easterly, 2011). The underlying research project aims to spotlight the off budget fiscal activity and the effectiveness of the emergency fiscal policies implemented by the Chinese government by making use of the IMF’s published augmented fiscal data. Data were originally augmented by adding the general statistical output up with the off budget fiscal data. Though, this is a secondary research including the subjective approach by analyzing a number of theoretical sources to make a solid and theoretical inference so far. However the augmentation in the fiscal data is an aid to understand the underlying course of activity rather to replace the general purpose government released statistics. It was not possible to draw the judgments by using each and every part of the published augmented data; hence here I am going to exclude some of t he figures to reduce the complexity and intricacy i.e., policy banks fiscal activity data, ministry of railway net borrowing etc. In the period of the world economic crisis, local government aimed to implement several plans to reduce the impacts. Out of the most prominent activity, the most observable can be reported as the infrastructure investments to support and boost up the economic development in the country. It remained a popularized countercyclical tool to foster the internal developmental course. This developmental spending was categorized as an off budget expenditure and managed through the sales of the government inland property or Local Government’s Finance Vehicle borrowings so far internally. Thus IMF introduced the concept of augmentation in order to measure the impact of the budgeted and off budgeted fiscal activity within the economy. Without complementary augmented data, it is quite thorny to analyze the total effect and stimulus towards the tradeoff to the crisis.

Stratification Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Stratification Systems - Essay Example Perhaps his ideas originated from his family background, where a blend of politics and academics created the right environment for a sociologist of his stature to develop. Studying law at the university further enabled the polishing of the ideas held about the society, despite having developed impressive historical and social views at a very tender age, which almost put him in trouble with his teachers. Weber had personal experience with conflict at the domestic level when his family problems exposed him to taking sides with his mother in disputes (Kerbo, 6). Concept of conflict among upper and lower classes took the dimension of the motivation, which he thought depended on factors such as power, prestige, as well as the ownership of property and wealth. The level of access of class and status is dependent on the transferability of the factor that accords the class and status, for instance prestige. Weber held that it would be possible for prestige to gain property if the parties involved in both classes were willing to exchange their possession. The position that wealthy people often wield power in the society may also translate into prestige involved, making it easy for such persons to rise to political power. In view of bureaucracies and their origin, Weber identifies the authority of the state as the only legitimate party to apply force and violence in carrying out its roles. His observation of the rational source of legal power wielded by the state explains the acceptance of government in the modern world (Kerbo, 15). Rising population numbers in human civilization and the need to control the monetary concept of living among the people eventually led to bureaucratic organization, taking care of administration needs of the socie ty. To generate this argument, Weber identifies three types of authority or dominations namely, charismatic, traditional and legal. From the legal coining of power by the state,

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

Marketing analysis report - Essay Example Unlike other hedge fund strategies, Emerging market is marked geographically where investment is done in a market that has potential of growth. Even though it has been adopted by many investors, it has a couple of disadvantages. For instance, the cases of inflation or political instability may result to very poor returns to the investors. Another strategy that is close to emerging market is emerging market stock. This is different to the emerging market because its existence is through the emerging market mutual funds. For the past decade, emerging market mutual funds has lost investors to the emerging markets, for example, the pension funds by the institutional investors. The main reasons for the gained popularity of emerging markets are discussed below in the growth and benefits of emerging markets hedge funds. Despite the fact that of the world’s nations, emerging markets have a percentage of only twenty; emerging markets have still experienced remarkable growth. This is because 20% of the world’s nations constitute the 80% of the world population (Barclay Hedge, 2013 p. 1). Since emerging markets are defined by its nature of growth in terms of industrialization and business, the chances of increased returns to the investors is quite, therefore many investors are adopting this strategy. As mentioned earlier, the emerging markets as an investment strategy has gained popularity over emerging market mutual funds since it is not only tied to bonds but also permits investment on real estate among other investments. Due to this advantage, it has really gained popularity among many investors. For instance, in the beginning of the year 2008, it is clear that over nine billion dollars were spent in the new assets. In addition, the average returns received annually by many firms were above average by 25% (Alpha Calling, 2013 p. 1). Since emerging markets are characterized by unpredictability in terms of inflation or the

What are the Key Success Factors for the industry Essay

What are the Key Success Factors for the industry - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that wide market that is available. Many people nowadays prefer bottled to other water. Some of the reasons why they frequently choose to take bottled water are because it is safe, that is, free from contamination, it is flavored and readily available. More significantly, most of the people consider bottled water as a product of prestige. Due to the fact that, we are in the generation that value showing than any other thing they opt for bottled water. It is estimated that in the year 1990 more than two billion of gallons of this water was consumed in the United States of America only, exclusive of other countries. By the year 2005, there was an increase of consumption per capita of 25 gallons. This is a proof that this product has a wide and ready market. The bottled water popularity that was ever on the rise was ascribed to the questionable sanitation issues of the drinking water that was provided by the municipality. Also, the lifestyle o f American that is ever working and busy found bottled water to be more convenient due to its portability. Due to health consideration, many people opted to take the bottled drinking water instead of the soft drinks. Soft drinks had a lot of sugar and other additives that were not healthy for the consumption of the people. The method of parking water too pleased many people. The water was parked in containers that could be returned back to the company after the whole amount of purchased water was used. (Dege 421). There was also very stiff competition from rivalry companies, something that made the administration of the company to innovate new production and marketing strategies to ensure that the company is known by many customers. This greatly improved the quality of the products. Due to the quality it attracted many clients who were interested with quality products. Promotions of the company were intensified, and at the same time products were sold at lower prices compared to the rivalry companies. The company was complying with all the legal requirements. Therefore, there was a minimal hindrance from the legal framework. This feature made all the activities of the company to be undertaken openly with no resistance from the enforcers of the laws for instance, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was given much priority. The constructions and the design of the company had followed the legal framework to the latter (Dege 420). Good administration is a factor that led to the success of the company. The management team focused on research to improve the production and marketing processes. It was also proactive in prevention of instances that could jeopardize the progress of the company. 2. How is the industry changing? The industry has been growing tremendously and expanding its market since the year 2000.this is because many people shifted and some are in the process of stopping using Municipal drinking water to bottled drinking water. More especially in the United States of America the market has immensely grown leading to high consumption of bottled water and other products which are produced by the company. The production of the industry is also changing to fit the demands of customers in regard to their health and nutrition, whereby they are producing products which are healthy and boost the body systems. Due to this, the industry is making a lot of profit and it is utilizing the same profit in opening up of new branches in areas of the target. Up to now, the industry is found all over the world. 3. Describe and evaluate the strategies of the "Big 3" companies in the U.S. market. Appropriate Promotion strategies The companies invested adequately in the marketing of their products using attractive methods and knowing the gap that was left especially by the Municipal that was in charge of supplying people with drinking water. The strategies took the attention of many people who later on decided to purchase for the products of the companies. They went beyond the market

Environmental Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Environmental Law - Essay Example The economies of the world hang on legislation passed global environmental law making bodies like the United Nations (IPCC Secretariat).    Fossil fuel is what drives the global economy, everything from your car to get to work, to the transnational shipping chain around the world. Business revolves around fuel and our nations revolve around that very business to build strong financial systems. How does fossil fuel cause climate change? Well, the answer lays around particular greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere. Like a greenhouse these gases allow heat from the sun to pass through the ozone layer and trap infra red radiation inside the layer, causing the earth to heat up if the right conditions are met for such a thing to happen (Goldberg D. 1993, 244-51).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Climate Change happens naturally. Some factors that contribute to the earths climate change in the past deal with volcanic activity, continental drift, ocean heat exchange and atmospheric chemistry. This in relation to the global carbon cycle gives scientist and pro fuel lobbyist something to cheer about. But since man has been driving his cars and burning his refined fuels, man-made greenhouse gases have been presented to the atmosphere as well. Gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons all have taken shelter in the atmosphere. The intergovernmental board on climate alter stated there was a "discernible" human pressure on climate; and that the pragmatic warming trend is "unlikely to be completely natural in origin." In the mainly present Third Assessment Report the panel wrote "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." These gases o nly make up three percent of the earths atmosphere, But that small percent can have catastrophic events on climate patterns all over the world (Intergovernmental Panel, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So far the

Drake Circus Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Drake Circus - Article Example It is managed by Donaldsons LLP which runs over 250 shopping centres throughout Europe (www.drakecircus.com/background). The original Drake Circus shopping centre was a two level centre with open malls constructed in the early 1970s. Initial proposals to redevelop it in the early 1990s failed, but the developers, P&O Estates, tried again in the early part of the 21st century. Plans were drawn up for a much larger centre and having signed up Allders as the first anchor tenant in 2001 and Marks & Spencer in early 2004, work started on demolishing the old centre and the adjoining Charles Cross car park in February 2004. The new building, designed by Chapman Taylor Partnership, has provoked a mixed reception (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Circus). The scheme suffered a setback in January 2005 when Allders went into administration, but other tenants, including Zara, Boots the Chemist, Virgin Megastore and H&M continued to commit to the scheme. New anchor tenants to replace Allders were found in summer 2005 in the guise of Next and Primark. The new development was topped out in June 2005 and the scheme opened, 90% let, on 5 October 2006 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Circus). The new car park has five levels, with the first two levels larger than the upper three. It will have dedicated entry and exit ramps which will keep queue times to a minimum. There will be wider spaces, more headroom and much better levels of lighting. Interior finishes will be painted white with good direction signage for both cars and pedestrians. The car park will be well lit, with high levels of visibility for drivers and those on foot and clear signage that will comply with the 'secure by design' standard promoted by the police authority (www.drakecircus.com/background). The whole of Drake Circus shopping centre has been designed, wherever possible in line with the latest disability access regulations, will be wheel-chair friendly with ample provision of lifts, ramps and specially designated parking spaces for blue badge holders. Enhanced facilities for the ambulant disabled will also be provided (www.drakecircus.com/background). The scheme incorporates facilities for the loan of wheelchairs and powered scooters. Car Parking: Drake Circus is a "Pay on Foot" car park - so no more worrying about your time running out and having to dash back to your car! Simply take your ticket when you arrive and keep it with you while you shop. When you're ready to leave simply pay by cash or card at one of the pay stations, located on each car park levels before you return to your car. Technological impact in shopping centre sales: Advances in Information Technology are constantly

When we were Soldiers Essay Example for Free

When we were Soldiers Essay The Randall Wallace movie â€Å"When we were Soldiers† is a factual account of Vietnam War but with specific Hollywood aspects which one finds in majority of movies. The move takes you back to the year is 1965 and Lt. Col. Hal Moore leading the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry. The battle takes place at the La Drang Valley called The Valley of Death. This film allows the viewer to see what fighting and the what the war zone was really like in Vietnam as they experience one of the most violent battles in U. S history. The film uses images in a very important way to convey historical truth as to what really happened at Vietnam. The film uses graphic images to portray what the battle scene was really like. It shows how the American troops were outnumbered and how they were fighting literally within feet of the enemy. The images in the movie that we seen are as close to as what it was really like, because there was a photographer there taking pictures during combat. The pictures that the photographer shot during battle helped us visualize what the battle scenes were really like and the pain and anguish that soldiers went through when fighting. The images of soldiers dying during combat and the reality of the battle helps to portray the bloodiness of the battle. Some black and white photographs of the actual battle scene in 1965 were in the film so that the viewer could see real images of the battle and what soldiers had to go through to survive the combat. One problem with most Hollywood films about war is that they make war seem more heroic than it actually is. The producers of this film managed to keep that false sense of wanting to fight in a war to a minimum. The images and the plot allow the viewer to really see what is going on in the battle. The producers show how gruesome the battle really was and the small heroism there actually was in a war. The grim fighting conditions that soldiers endured while fighting in Vietnam made many Americans want to stay out of war as it was a horrible place to be. This film had a couple of weak spots in the plot. One thing was that it never really talked about why we were going to Vietnam to fight in a war. It barely touched on the subject about the controversial issues that surrounded the United States into entering this war. The battle at La Drang Valley was one of the first battles in the Vietnam War, and the American public knew little about our position in Vietnam until this battle had taken place. When this battle broke out there was no hiding our position any longer. The American public would now know that we were at war with northern Vietnam. Another part of the plot that I thought was bad was the life on the home front. I feel as the producers used Hollywood at the home front a little too much. The films most dramatic scene involving the Armys failure to properly deliver the telegrams of regret is ruined by a number of wives crying through screen doors. Also when the husband comes home he rings the door bell to provide a false sense of sorrow only to see him standing there to greet his wife and family. This hurts the films authenticity but makes up for it when the battle scenes resume. Another part of the film that was poor was the timeline of events that happened. In the movie it seemed as if the battle only took a few days where in reality the battle took over a month. It is a little bit confusing because when it returns to the home front it seems that time is going by but, when on the combat zone it is like the battle took a couple of days and then everybody left to go home. In reality the battalion that the film was following left the combat zone to another battalion and they returned back to base. The film is important because it takes a look at the first battle of Vietnam and how under equipped, out numbered and ill informed our troops really were. When they first step foot onto the battle scene they undertake heavy fire from the enemy and realize that they may be in over their heads. They never suspected that they had such great numbers in their military. The amount of casualties was tremendous, after the first day of fighting thousands of bodies lay on the battle field.

Create A Classic Detective Story Essay Example for Free

Create A Classic Detective Story Essay In this assignment I will analyse the classic Sherlock Holmes detective story the Speckled Band and find out how sir Conan Doyle takes a basic idea from all detective stories, a murder and still create a classic story.  First off a detective story needs a murder and in this case it was the death of Sarah stoner that starts the story off, but no death in any detective story would be complete without a mysterious death and the way Sarah died was a mystery. And I think that most detective stories use mysterious deaths because this makes the story more interesting and more intriguing because if the death was straight forward then the reader might be able to predict the ending of the story before actually reading the end of the story. This story also has its fair shares of mysterious characters for instance Helen Stoner, who is Sarah stoners sister is as mysterious as they get, like when she first met Sherlock she was wearing black clothes like she just came from a funeral. But why use mysterious characters? Because it is these characters that keep the reader guessing as to who the suspects may be and sometimes the writer can use this as an advantage to create a huge twist in the end of the story. The story describes the atmosphere as well such in the case of Sarahs death the atmosphere was described as dark, mysterious sounds etc and this is very important to use descriptions of certain atmospheres and locations because they will help the reader create a sort of picture of the scene in their heads therefore making them want to read more because it helps them get more involved with the story and also makes them think about whats going to happen next. The location of the story is also important and in this story most of the tension is created in the mansion of Helen stoner, which is owned by Dr Roylott. And in this mansion are a number of false clues such as in the room of Sarah stoner theres an emergency bell that dont work, her bed bolted to the ground, no windows and a ventilator that goes straight in to Dr Roylotts room. But the biggest false clue to me was the title itself the Speckled Band and it was pure genius for Conan Doyle to use a title like this because some people read the story purely out of curiosity to find out what the speckled band was. So by using mysterious deaths, mysterious characters, atmospheres, locations false clues the writer is able to draw the reader in the story, use tension to create questions in the mind of the reader but it also helps the writer stay 5 steps ahead to create a classic detective story.

Social, economic and political factors of crime

Social, economic and political factors of crime For many, there is the belief that the existence of punishment is linked to the problem of crime, and that the extent of crime is the key factor in determining the level of punishment. But some of the most important sociologists (and penologists) such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Michel Foucault argue that crime is relatively trivial, and that the form and degree of punishment in society must be understood through its relationship with other greater social, economic and political factors. Karl Marx was a 19th century sociologist and economist whom were interested in the role punishment held in class-based social and economic regulation. He criticized the failure of penal theory to consider the social factors, especially economic inequality and poverty, which underlay criminal activity. Using this framework, others such as Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer, in Punishment and Social Structure (1939), looked at the formation of different forms of punishment in the context of the labor markets fluctuating needs, from the Middle Ages through to contemporary society. For example, imprisonment serves as both a practical source of inexpensive labor for the state and, during periods of high unemployment, as a method of incapacitating dangerous offenders from doing public harm. These Marxist ideals influenced historical changes in penology in Western Europe beginning in the Middle Ages into the Mercantilist Era. During the early middle ages, there was a bot (betterment) paid by the criminal to the offended party which gave rise to the idea of compensation and a wite was a fine paid to the King. These fines were forms of tiered punishments that varied depending on ones socioeconomic class. For upper-class/freed citizens, punishment was given in compensation fines, but for lower-class/slaves punishment was much more brutal in the form of corporal death. These practices carried into the late middle ages and into the Mercantilist Era (1400-1700s). As middle-age feudalism declined, capitalism (as focused on by Marx) and international trade rose and expanded to new heights. These economic changes influenced the creation of new, wealth merchant class and the vagabond poor. Vagabonds were displaced workers from the former agricultural-run society of feudalism, who were now non-productive in a commercially dominant Western culture. This led to the widespread belief that work was to be associated with morality (17, BL). The poor, criminal vagabond social class we re exploited and sentenced as laborers. Karl Marx asserted that punishment could be used to force people to work as here in the case where vagabonds worked in galleys as reliable workforce, served in workhouses in Great Britain to help change and reform their character, and transportation where criminals were sent away for manual labor to help meet the needs of growing American and European colonization. Durkheim The Father of Sociology published several works during his time, however, none has had more impact than his book, The Division of Labor in Society written in 1893. Here he rejected the idea that punishment must break away from either vengeance or the emotional satisfaction it gives. Durkheim believed that the social function of punishment was to give effect to the moral and emotional outrage of a society whose norms have been violated by the criminal act. A criminal act is therefore identified as that which affects the communitys collective conscience; criminality serves as a way to explain the moral limitations of the social group. Punishment is the reciprocal effect of a collective moral outrage, creating and sustaining a type of solidarity crucial to the existence of a functional society. From these ideas arises Durkheims theory of social solidarity, as shown in his work The Two Laws of Penal Evolution, (1902) whereby he states that despite changing penal methods overtime , the underlying mechanisms and functions of punishment remain constant. Social solidairty insisted that rather than focusing on either the crime (or the criminal), one should observe the after-affect of crime on victims and the community as a whole. Offenders must be held accountable to these victims, and part of their penalty may involve direct restitution. The goal is begin a process of restoring the trust and solidarity that is broken by criminal activity by focusing on the social relationships that have been harmed as a result of crime. Durkheims scientific study of penology led to the conclusion that the severity of punishment was diminishing, and that solidarity could be broken into two categories: mechanical and organic solidarity. He called mechanical solidarity the solidarity of sameness which organic solidarity was made up of differences. The idea behind this is that organisms are made up of parts that serve different functions but manage to work together. In relation to society, Durkheim stated society was based on the division of labor, and is reliant on the communitys mutual dependency on one another. Although before the time of Durkheim, these same theoretical ideas can be seen in Colonial and Federalist America. This period included the early settling of colonists in areas such as Massachusetts and Virginia (17th and late 18th centuries), where society was dominated by the institutions of church, family and most importantly community. While religion played an important role in determining punishment, punishment was more so based on the social reaction to crime. Crime was religiously reflected as sin and as a moral matter of right versus wrong. Methods of punishment included fines (to victims most commonly), whippings, mutilation, shaming and banishment. Discipline and punishment held a significant role in social solidarity by publicly demonstrating rules, and expressing moral outrage over wrongful acts in a collective manner. These principles can also be applied to provide insight in the American Temperance Movement of the 1830s. As democratization increased as the nation expand ed economically and socially, religion still held a high importance that reflected in how crime was seen. Crime was viewed a moral disease, and more specifically alcoholism was becoming a national epidemic. The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance declared that, all temperate people should remain so and that the others should kill themselves off (50 BL). Alcoholism was collectively viewed as having a linkage to crime that caused labor to decrease which consequently affected American economic prosperities. These abolition and temperance movements of the 1800s were representative of social and moral reform going on within American culture. Michel Foucault was a 20th century French sociologist who argued that punishment is a threat to society, and that discipline is power-knowledge mechanism for domination. Foucault is well-renowned for his 1977 book entitled, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, where he questioned how penology has changed in the way criminals are punished (in France) and introduces disciplinary punishment as the dominating practice in the modern world. He identified a qualitative shift in punishment from 1750 and 1820 in Europe and the U.S, pointing out three major changes: (1) punishment changed from body to soul/psyche, (2) from vengeance to transformation and (3) from punishment to corrections. In the second part of his book, Foucault marks the prison as the template for the technology of modern discipline. Disciplinary punishment gives professionals (psychologists, program facilitators, parole officers, etc.) power over the prisoner, most notably in that the prisoners length of stay dep ends on the professionals judgment. Foucault goes on to argue that Disciplinary punishment leads to self-policing by the populace as opposed to brutal displays of authority from the earlier eras. He utilized supervision, assessments, timetables and detailed attention to efficiency as tools for his studies of penology. Such ideas influenced the technology used in prisons such as Jeremy Benthams Panopitcon. The Panopticon, usually located in the center of a prison floor consisted of a single guard who could watch over many prisoners while remaining hidden. Ancient prisons have been replaced by clear and visible ones, but Foucault cautions that visibility is a trap. It is through this visibility, Foucault claims, that modern society exercises its controlling systems of power and knowledge. Increasing visibility leads to power located on an individualized level as shown by the possibility for judicial institutions to monitor individuals throughout their lives. Foucault suggests that a carceral continuum or a carceral archipelago runs through modern society, from the maximum security prison, through secure accommodation, probation, social workers, police, and so on into our daily working and home lives. All are joined together by the supervision (surveillance, application of social/moral norms of acceptable behavior) of some humans by others. Although the methods in which these sociological theorists approached penology, their ideas helped influence and change the way in which we [as society] view crime and the correlation it holds with punishment. These dominant theories shaped the evolution of American and European penal history which reflected the social, cultural and moral reforms of their times in relation to crime and the administration of punishment. Essay Two Punishment in Ancient European society was brutal and based primarily on private vengeance. Retaliation was violent and often community participation was encouraged. These tribal communities settled their conflicts through blood feuds held in public areas. These feuds, however, did not follow every crime. By 700 A.D. people mediated their offenses through fines. These were called bots (meaning betterment) and were paid to the offended party, while wites referred to fines paid to the King. These fines were highly discriminatory based on social-class structure. Penology practices then began to evolve as attempts were made to match the severity of offenses with the severity of the punishment itself such as in the Roman Justinian Code of 529 A.D. Punishment served as a way to uncover the truth behind crimes, sometimes through compurgation where witnesses were presented on behalf of the accused through trials by ordeal. Punishment was administered through torture if found guilty. The Early Middle Ages (700-1000) was defined as a power struggle between the church and society. The church was so powerful at the time that it had its own system of justice governed by the bishops and clergy. During this time, the church introduced the benefit of the clergy that gave protection from prosecution for church members and leniency to other related groups. Punishment was issued in the form of confinement rather than corporal punishment because the church believed that, such punishment would inevitably lead to the offenders despair, which impeded the ability to repent (15, BL). Only secular courts had the right to executions or any blood shed. Mutilation was popular to match the sanction with the crime (e.g. liars tongues cut out). Banishment and fines were still present. The Late Middle Ages (1100-1300s) signified a time of change in European history as the Church (sacred) power began to decline in daily social life, and with this, began the rise of the secular State pow er. Despite this decline, the church continued to use even more torturous, brutal punishment especially during the period of the Inquisition (13th-15th centuries) to weed out heretics. The end of the medieval period is marked within the social and economic changes brought on by the Mercantilist Era from 1400s-1700s. This era represented a decline of feudalism amongst society hierarchy, and gave birth to the rise of capitalism. Capitalism spread as globalization and commercial activity and trade increased. Power passed into the hands of the wealthy, known as the merchant class. This dissolution of feudalism and a once, agriculturally dominated society brought forward a number of displaced, non-productive people who were very poor called the vagabond poor. These people were focalized in crime and punishment, which gave rise to the understanding the conditions of this social class by learning how they became to be vagabonds. This questioning reflected the importance of work, for work was associated with morality. These vagabonds thus threatened society as a result they were exploited to working within the galley, workhouses and transportation. Transportation especiall y served as a means for states to solve crime problems by sending criminals away to the new colonies for indentured labor. There are several historical trends that can be identified from Ancient society to the end of the Medieval ages. First, there was a decline in direct participation by the community and by victims in primitive European societies. Secondly, there was a direct shift from private vengeance to church power during the Early Middle Ages. The Middle-Ages was a time where general deterrence was essential to preventing crime by instilling fear within the people after witnessing brutal, torturous penal practices. The Late Middle Ages through the Mercantilist Era was characterized by the growing popularity of state and secular justice over the church, and the rise of crime and punishment focused on labor. By the end of the 1700s, secular authorities controlled social classes by transporting criminals and vagabonds overseas to colonies, or by holding them in galleys and workhouses where they were incapacitated to extensive labor. Changing gears from Europe to Colonial America (1600-1790), the new nation was dominated by three primary social institutions which included church, family and community. Crime was viewed as sin and punishments mostly served religious ends, directly or indirectly in nature to reflect the laws and morals of the time. Colonial American society was centered on religion, where there was the mentality of, God wants people to behave a certain way, and it is the peoples job to set morality and justice. Punishment was administered for many common offenses and resulted in fines, shaming, whippings and sometimes exile. Executions were made public in order to have an educational purpose where community was intended to learn, however, intentional cruelty behind corporal punishment decline. The rise of the new nation could not have evolved without the presence of European Enlightenment Ideas in the American colonies. The prominence of human reason served as a tool to battle ignorance, superstition and tyranny targeted mainly in religious and hereditary aristocracy. Crime and punishment evolved to becoming a philosophy of understanding the offender. This gave birth to the first modes of classical criminology that assumed all people were rational beings that must be equated with a balance between crime and punishment. Ideas such as these enlightened moderation of punishment to focus on rationality and more importantly, efficiency. Punishment was concealed behind bars in prisons where criminals were to be held separate from society as a means of incapacitation. Early prisons and other penal institutions, such as the penitentiaries increased incarceration in America. Together the Colonial Ages and American Federalist period (1790-1830) marked a time of social reform where there was the suppression of the emotional purposes of punishments and execution to a newfound emphasis on their instrumental purpose instead. Criminals were to be understood rationally taking into account human reason, and crimes were to be administered fairly with a balance between offense and sanction. Punishment was morally defined. Punishment and reform in 19th century America (1830-1880s) prospered with the shift from prison-to-penitentiary. Societal influences included: alcoholism, gangs, and immigration. The Temperance and Abolitionist movement deemed alcohol use as moral failings/disease in society. Punishment revolutionized out of Enlightenment ideals that focused on democratization where society was governed by the people. Crime was spreading and was soon viewed as moral and social pathology. It was believed that crime could be combated with the help of penitentiaries. The goals of these institutions were to reform criminals through routine, surveillance and discipline. Blomberg and Lucken best define crime as: criminal activity was attributed to human interactions with a morally depraved environment (61). This penal ideology spread into Progressive America where crime and punishment were studied with science to understand criminality through biological, psychological and sociological reforms. From the Pr ogressive Movement into 20th century America, there flourished the proliferation of penal services (parole, probation, indeterminate sentencing, prison specialization min., med., max.). This ideology focused on social and moral reform as well by introducing reformatories (not vengeance), specializing and professionalization in prisons and a growing focus on juvenile and female offenders. Academic and medical questioning ruled criminology, the understanding of offenders and how to treat prisoners which lasted until the 1960s. The 1970s is best defined as a time of American Liberalism. Within society there were cultural changes taking placing as social activism and protest amongst all groups civil rights, women, prisoners, etc. Growing emphasis was put on prisoners issues and rights and through this we [society] made attempts to understand the internal and external relations of offenders with society. Decentralization emerged with the idea of Less is Better where importance was aimed at the criminal justice system through reforms such as net-widening that identified people who were at high risks to commit crimes, and deinstitutionalization of juveniles (not behavior that determines crime, age status instead). The 20th century was a change to rehabilitative and specific deterrence amongst criminals. From the 1980s to the present, crime increased as political and social turmoil grew in America. The war on crime that evolved with the staggering drug use of the 80s was counteracted with the conservative backlash by the government that installed harsher prison sentences focused on retribution, deterrence and incapacitation (three-strikes rule, mandatory minimums, etc). Increasingly so, social inequality is the underlying factor of high imprisonment rates amongst the poor and minorities. Privatization of prisons and companies led to a culture of greed that resulted in growing crime rates. This soon led to the collapse of the rehabilitative ideal into the era of get tough punishment and law and order punishment that was termed Neo-Conservative criminology. Essay Three Jails and prisons were among the first public structures built in colonial America. Besides serving as a place for emigrants, jails were an essential part of the system of bondage that existed in America. At a time where the dominating institutions consisted of the church, community and family, any crime committed was viewed as sin. Criminal activity was reflecting religiously onto the community as a whole. Executions were carried out for ordinary crimes other than murder, under local rather that state authority, and were made public. Punishments focused on retribution rather than understanding the crime, or the criminal. There began a shift from the 18th century to 1789 after the ideas of the Enlightenment reached the western world. The belief in human reason and rationality governed all aspects of life, especially penology. As a new nation emerged, penal practices changed to view criminals as rational beings, and an increased notion that there should be a balance between crime and punishment so it can be efficient. In regards to capital punishment, people felt it did not equate with the democratic ideals founded within our nation and it was in fact ineffective as a deterrent. From this point until the 1900s into the Progressive Era, crime changed and adapted according to the cultural changes that corresponded. Americas growing population boom, immigration increase, industrialization and urbanization were all factors in growing incarceration rates. Over time, prisons trended towards becoming more pervasive, more secure, and more permanent. In contemporary America there is a growing sense that the cost of fighting of crime, incarceration and rehabilitative services is spiraling out of control. There are more criminals, more courts, more prisoners and more anger as society focuses on the criminal as the cause for the economic collapse and downturn. The most recent historical factors that have led to todays conditions begin in the 1960s the age of disconnect where many significant changes to societal norms started. These included the civil rights movement, freedom of the individual, increased used of illegal substances, changing attitudes to sex and sex education, and in general, a focus on a more liberal and less-controlled societal model. During this period America experienced a debilitating military conflict (Vietnam), a break-down of the family unit as defined in separation statistics, and a core change in the role of women in society. At this time there was substantial focus upon prisoner rights, focus upon rehabilitative rather than punitive punishment ideals and a number of inside-prison demonstrations and even rioting against the methods of incarceration being used. Americas death penalty collapsed after the Furman v. Georgia decision where it was nullified and made unconstitutional. By the end of the 60s and 70s this era of liberalism was being pointed to as the cause of other significant societal problems crime being one of the most prominent. The 1980s witnessed a major shift back towards a more conservative America. The war on crime changed from one focusing on rehabilitative and (what caused) criminal activity to one that called for substantially-increased reliance on incarceration and an almost sole focus upon stopping the activities of criminals. Through a combination of sentencing guidelines (mandatory minimums, truth-in sentencing, three strikes) the aim was clear. By incarceration, clearly, the activities of the individual criminal were curtailed through incapacitation. There was little, if any concern, on rehabilitation and many argue upon humane treatment. Against this trend American society experienced large swings towards materialism, a lifestyle of financial improvement without concern for the morality of society as a whole (Boesky). These changes led America to become entrenched in a culture of greed where inequality between social and economic classes rose enormously, and so began the widespread politicization of criminal justice as crime was brought to political form. Beginning with the Reagan administration, the political goals, reflecting societys attitudes were quite evident. There were to be more incarcerations for more criminals for more offenses with greater sentences and less focus on parole provisions and rehabilitative treatments. These Get Tough penal philosophies exploded after the war on drugs invaded America as more people (many minorities) were being arrested and placed in prisons for much harsher sentences. Because of the increased prison population numbers, there was the need to specialize prisons based on the type of crime/the incarceration period imposed. This included a tiering, or separation of prisons into three divisions: minimum, medium and maximum facilities. The societal shift continued through the Bush (senior) administration and into the 1990s, where theories of penology are characterized by culture of control (BL). Control, in this context means: reinforcing more rigid guidelines for sentencing, more inflexible guidelin es towards rehabilitative treatments, and in general, a harsher, punitive mindset towards criminals. The changing economic climate has now introduced a move towards privatization. Privatization is a desire to outsource the management of prisons and criminals away from the state. Because the goals of private enterprise are profit-based, this suggests a shift to penology model with even less of a concern upon prisoners rights, rehabilitative treatments and any actions outside strict profit-based incarceration. Essay Four From colonial times to contemporary society, American penal history has undergone significant changes. Various penal innovations have been presented, some of which have had major impact on penology as a whole. Many of the thoughts and beliefs from Europes Age of Enlightenment carried onto the new-world, which helped birth the flourishing democratic ideals founded in the United States. The Enlightenment (18th century to 1789) was characterized by the belief in human reason and rationality. In regards to judicial reform, the goals of this era were to form a better world by using human reason to combat the negativities of ignorance, susperstition and tyranny that governed old monarchial practices. It also sought to target religious and hereditary aristocracy to create a more socially and economically equal society. The Enlightenment gave American penal policy and practices the push it needed to moderate punishment on the basis of rationality and efficiency. As a result most notably criminals were viewed as rational beings; punishment was to be efficient and logical, discipline changed from being public to conceal all factors which led to the early emergency of the prison and growing incarcer ation. The presence of enlightenment ideas in America influenced sociologists of the early 20th century such as Max Weber and Norbert Elias. Both sociologists studied the science of punishment by observing penal and other worldly changes from 19th century onwards leading towards rationality. Elias in particular held the notion that Western societies have become more civilized. This notion followed the trends of punishment, which he believed were reflected in the changing sensibilities in the civilizing evolution of Western culture. Despite there being a tension between moral imperative and bureaucratic management of the more highly privatized modern world, discipline was starting to be rationalized in a scientific, logical manner for means of justifying penal practices. Such social and moral reforms influenced the rise of one of the most prominent penal innovations the American penitentiaries of the 1800s. During such times crime was seen as a moral and social pathology. In the 1820s, two variants, the Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System competed for the role of best in the handling of the incarcerated population in America. The silent method of the Pennsylvania System required absolute silence, complete lock down in a solitary environment and produced mental problems at a rapid rate. It was espoused by the religious zeals such as the Quakers who felt that prisoners would be rehabilitated by that system. The belief was that silence and isolation helped criminals reflect on their crime alone. The Auburn System was seen as more cost effective because it required labor which offset the cost of prison housing. Auburn introduced uniforms, the lockstep and harsh punishment for minor infractions. The idea in the Auburn system was that silence, working together and discipline could yield reform in criminals. These two great penitentiaries were based on the ideas enveloped within each giv en region in America. In the North, rehabilitative ideals aimed to change/transform individuals, while the South adopted a convict lease system built on the slavery model that influenced penal reform to exploit labor to satisfy economic and political means. In truth, neither penitentiary created a model prisoner or one that entirely rehabilitated. The debate continues today between those that argue in long sentences and those that want reform. The importance in such an innovation was that it reflected the beliefs and ideals of democratization and moral reform of the 19th century. It exemplified the prisoner as a rational being that could and must be studied to explain criminality, diagnose and treat and then correct the criminal through rehabilitation. The second penal innovation grew out of former rehabilitative penal practices into the Progressive American Era (1880s-1930s) that theorized crime through biological, psychological and sociological factors for better understanding. These beliefs introduced positivist criminology, which asserted faith in the scientific study of criminals and crime through classification. In relation to penal ideology, it created reformatories, indeterminate sentencing, parole and probation. Punishment was less punitive and searched for the causes, treatment and corrections of criminals, especially juveniles. This movement led to the Juvenile Court Reform Movement. The Juvenile Court Movement lasted for nearly sixty years, beginning in 1900. Juveniles were seen as lost children who required guidance and whose crimes were subject to indeterminate sentencing to show leniency on the behalf of courts in hopes that treatment could help transform the characters of such offenders. This movement revolved around the rehabilitative ideal centralized in society as this time that claimed human behavior was a product of antecedent causes which could be identified, classified in accordance to specific scientific treatment, which could then be treated therapeutically. The importance behind the juvenile court movement is that it launched the specialization of penal practices. For example, the term prison guard expired and advanced to corrections officer. The term corrections emerged as professionalization and bureaucratization was introduced (as seen in Weber). Next, the treatment of offenders was individualized and penal services were broadened to accompany f or the various causes of criminal behavior, and was more accessible than ever before. Prison specialization led to the classification and division of these institutions into minimum, medium and maximum facilities governed by corrections officers with the aid of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, vocational counselors, etc. Although the innovations of the juvenile reform movement and the progressive era were promising, by the late-20th century, America was headed towards decentralization. Criminologists and penologists created labeling theories that took focus away from the offender and onto the criminal justice system as an entity. Net-widening occurred in penal reforms that formed programs that identified people who were considered at high-risk to commit crimes. There began an academic focus on social control that influenced the contemporary penal model characterized by Get Tough punishment. Policy makers have implemented multiple-strategies approach to combat crime including: retribution, incapacitation (search for habitual offender), deterrence (escalation of penalties), restoration and rehabilitation (214). Present-day America has evolved to become a culture of control and greed (211, BL). Truth-in-Sentencing standards and Three-Strikes Laws were some of the few penal methods introduced in the 1980s to curb crime rates and put habitual offenders away for longer periods of time. Truth-in-sentencing refers to policies and legislation that aim to abolish or curb parole, so that convicts serve the period that they have been sentenced to. Three-Strikes law statutes enacted by state governments in the UHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_StatesS require the state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. Restorative justice has also been implemented recently that puts criminals up against the state, holding the criminal accountable through highly retributive means. These various methods comb

Organ Transplant Essay -- Health, Diseases, Organ Donation

An organ transplant is a surgical operation conducted to replace an organ unable to function properly with a new one. An organ, in turn, is an accumulation of cells and tissues gathered to perform the functions of body. Therefore, any part of the body which acts as a performer of specific function is called an organ. There are two possible ways of how the organ donation (OD) can take place. The first is the donation of cadaveric organs (organs from recently deceased people). The decision to donate in this way requires the consent of a person in the form of an indication on the driver license, like in the USA (Gruessner, Benedetti, 2008, 54) or health care document as an organ donor card, in Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, for example (Hareyan, 2007). The second option is the organ donation from the living person. This usually occurs in regard to the close people who need an organ, but also takes place in regard to strangers. Although procedure of organ donation developed rapidly in the recent half a century, it can hardly be claimed good enough to manage supply and demand, well-organized and perfect (World Health Organization, 2010). The dramatic character of the situation can be revealed in the statistics of the waiting list for organs, for example kidney. To understand whether the mismatch of supply and demand for organs have sharpened over time, it would be useful to look at the state of affairs in a particular region, such as EU, for instance. There was a significant increase in the demand for kidney in the EU: from 1980s with just above 2000 candidates to 11082 in 2008. Meanwhile, the amount of transplants which have taken place also increased, but not so profoundly: from 1000 (only from deceased donors) to 4000 (from living an... ... organs can be injected in human body to perform the functions of human body’s organ. But there is a critique to this option as there is no guarantee that artificial organs can be an effective substitute the human organs and there is a probability of the next operations which will be needed to normalize the body condition and to reduce the possible rejection (ibid). Nonetheless, if there is even no trial on how to improve the state of affairs, there is a low chance on progress and future success in this sphere. Consequently, the practice of new methods of treatment can ensure the needed effects and identify possible problems, which then, can be avoided in the real operations. The work of the specialists in the Center for Bioethics might demonstrate that there can be several ways of how to increase organ donation rates to diminish current weaknesses in this sphere.