Essay on A Woman Bound by Society in Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums

A Woman Bound by Society in can Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums When John Steinbecks short story The Chrysanthemums depression appeared in the October 1937 edition of Harpers Magazine (Osborne 479), Franklin D. Roosevelt had just been reelected president. The country was recovering from the Great Depression, unions were developing, and child labor in manufacturing was terminated (Jones 805-6). The first female cabinet member in American history, Frances Perkins, was appointed the Secretary of Labor (Jones 802). She was one of the few women in her time to gain equality in a male-dominated society. For most women, liberation was a bitter fight usually ending in defeat. In The Chrysanthemums, this struggle for equality is portrayed through Steinbecks function Elisa Allen. According to Stanley Renner, The Chrysanthemums shows a strong, capable woman kept from personal, social, and sexual fulfillment by the prevailing conception of a womans role in a world dominated by men (306). Elisas appearance, actions, and speech depict the frustration women felt in Steinbecks masculine world of the 1930s. Steinbecks world, observes Charles A. Sweet, Jr., is a mans world, a world that frustrates correct minor league womens liberationists (214). This frustration is evident when Elisa is first introduced. Her figure is described as blocked and heavy because she is wearing heavy gloves, heavy shoes, a mans black hat, and a big apron that hides her printed dress (Steinbeck 330). Her home has the masculine qualities of being hard-swept and hard-polished (Steinbeck 330). Elisa is bored with her husband and with her life (McMahan 455). Obviously, Elisa is unhappy with the traditionalistic female role and is attempti... ...et al. America and Its People Volume Two From 1865. London Scott, Foresman, 1989. McMahan, Elizabeth E. The Chrysanthemums A Study of Womans put forwarduality. Modern allegory Studies 14 (1968-69) 453-8. Marcus, Mordecai. The Lost Dream of Sex and Childbirt h in The Chrysanthemums. Modern Fiction Studies 11 (1965) 54-8. Osbourne, William R. The Texts of Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums. Modern Fiction Studies 12 (1966-67) 479-84. Renner, Stanley. The Real Woman Inside The Fence In The Chrysanthemums. Modern Fiction Studies 31 (1985) 305-17. Steinbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums. Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 2nd ed. New York Macmillan, 1989. 330-6. Sweet, Charles A., Jr. Ms. Elisa Allen and Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums. Modern Fiction Studies 20 (1974) 210-14.

Orangutans :: essays research papers

Orangutans     In Malay orang manner "person" and utan is defined as "forest. ThusOrangutan literally means "Person of the Forest". Orangutans are found in thetropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo. They are the most arboreal of the greatapes and move amongst the safety of the trees from unmatchable feeding web site to the next.They are so well adapted to arboreal life that they cannot place their feet onthe ground, instead they walk on the outside of their curved foot.      at that place is a scattered population of orangutan in Indonesian Borneo,Malaysia Borneo and northern Sumatra. The different habitats have isolated theorangutan reproductively and geographically from one another creating a " layerof difference" or two subspecies. There are several different characteristicsbetween the two subspecies of orangutans and it has recently been suggested thatthey may be a pick species. The Borneo male has relativel y large cheekpads, a tremendous laryngeal sac and a square shaped face. The Sumatran malehas small pads and laryngeal sac, a ginger coloured moustache, a pronouncedbeard, and a diamond shaped face. Individuals can also be distinguishedchromosomally, biochemically, and by their cranial characteristics.     There is a great deal of individual variety in the orangutan. "Eachorang-utan had a distinct personality and in dealing with such highly sizeable animals in captivity, the keepers knowledge of the individual wasprobably more important than the knowledge of the overall behaviour patterns "(Markham, 1980). Orangutan males, however, appear to be totally intolerant ofone another, especially the Borneo males who are even aggressive tocellblocks femalesand infants. Male orangutans participation in social groups is limited tosexual "consortship" with females. However, the Sumatran males tend to stay withfemales for a endless period of time usually unti l the birth of the infant.They may stay longer with their partner because of the presence of largepredators absent in the Borneo habitat. The orangutan has a menstrual cycle of29-30 days, menstruation lasting 3-4 days. The Gestation period lasts slightlyless than nine months. Offspring pass through three stages, infancy (0-4),juvenile (4-7), and adolescents (7-10). commence young relationship lasts for along time, the young usually stay with their mother until they are mount up.Female Orangutans are not sexually mature or fully grown until the age of twelveand will not have their first offspring until they are at least fourteen. Malesbecome sexually mature and fully grown at the age of fifteen. The cheek flangesof the male easily recognize the differences between adults and semi-adults. Theflanges in the Boreal male curve out ward from the face and develop around the

Performance Management System Essay -- Managing business Essays

Performance worry form IntroductionThis report is an attempt to analyse the existing Performance management System for Large fiscal Service Organisation (LFSO) and from this information, recommend, and implement an appropriate new performance management corpse. LFSO is an organisation, which traditionally has a paternalistic culture with low levels of unionisation. LFSO current Performance Management dodge was implemented two years ago changing the nature of the previous incremental salary scales described as Prerogatives by Lupton and Bowey and led to the abolishment of the annual cost of living increment. This change by LFSO was an attempt to achieve a strategic, integrative and flexible move up to pay, in order to address its organisational objectives. therefrom it reflected on a pluralist onrush with the use of job evaluated grade structures regarding financial avenges and benefits. (Heery, 1996) despite the fact that with most paternalistic culture have a Unitarist app roach to Performance Management systems.Initial research conducted by the organisation indicated that objectives are not always established and reviews were spasmodic. There was a high degree of acrimony between the different members of staff leading to unhealthy competitiveness and unwillingness to support others. (Kerr, 1995) describe this behaviour as esprit de corps. This resulted in an increase in general grievances. The BFU have been aware of this anxiety and have started a strong recruitment drive amongst employees but no figures on existing membership were available.In general, both employees and management did not fully understand the scheme at its inception and saw it simply as a cost cutting exercise. The reenforce levels introduced were seen to be too small to act as a motivator. There was also debate about the role of the annual appraisal reference as there was no consensus view on the purpose of these, which were regarded as an inconvenience.Now two years into the s cheme, LSFO is facing the threat of a talk terms Unit or possible Unionisation. Alongside high levels of dissatisfaction from employees and some line managers who have also expressed serious concerns about their role in the process. The system itself is under severe criticism with large numbers of appeals although only a very few of these have been upheld. ... ...ments around these decisions. The manager will have in place a formal quality monitoring procedure and adherence to this will form part of the team and individual reward and appraisal procedure. As the BFU has started to implement a strong recruitment drive amongst LFSO employees, the management/ and HR Manager should consider meeting with the union to obtain its views on a federation agreement with the organisation. This approach would recognise the possible shock BFU may have on the new system and would demonstrate a gesture of goodwill by the management team. It would also address the collective representation can hel p achieve important business objectives, including good communication. In conclusion it must be emphasised that an effective Performance Management system ensures that both Managers and employees understand each others expectations, and how these are incorporated into the Corporate Strategy and how these tinct upon their own context V their roles, behaviours, relationships and interactions, rewards and futures. BibliographyBooksBeardwell, I. And Holden, L. (2001) Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall Performance Management System Essay -- Managing business EssaysPerformance Management System IntroductionThis report is an attempt to analyse the existing Performance Management System for Large financial Service Organisation (LFSO) and from this information, recommend, and implement an appropriate new performance management system. LFSO is an organisation, which traditionally has a paternalistic culture with low levels of unionisation . LFSO current Performance Management system was implemented two years ago changing the nature of the previous incremental salary scales described as Prerogatives by Lupton and Bowey and led to the abolishment of the annual cost of living increment. This change by LFSO was an attempt to achieve a strategic, integrative and flexible approach to pay, in order to address its organisational objectives. and then it reflected on a pluralist approach with the use of job evaluated grade structures regarding financial rewards and benefits. (Heery, 1996) despite the fact that with most paternalistic culture have a Unitarist approach to Performance Management systems.Initial research conducted by the organisation indicated that objectives are not always established and reviews were spasmodic. There was a high degree of impudence between the different members of staff leading to unhealthy competitiveness and unwillingness to support others. (Kerr, 1995) describe this behaviour as esprit de c orps. This resulted in an increase in general grievances. The BFU have been aware of this anxiety and have started a strong recruitment drive amongst employees but no figures on existing membership were available.In general, both employees and management did not fully understand the scheme at its inception and saw it simply as a cost cutting exercise. The reward levels introduced were seen to be too small to act as a motivator. There was also debate about the role of the annual appraisal interview as there was no consensus view on the purpose of these, which were regarded as an inconvenience.Now two years into the scheme, LSFO is facing the threat of a negotiate Unit or possible Unionisation. Alongside high levels of dissatisfaction from employees and some line managers who have also expressed serious concerns about their role in the process. The system itself is under severe criticism with large numbers of appeals although only a very few of these have been upheld. ... ...ments a round these decisions. The manager will have in place a formal quality monitoring procedure and adherence to this will form part of the team and individual reward and appraisal procedure. As the BFU has started to implement a strong recruitment drive amongst LFSO employees, the management/ and HR Manager should consider meeting with the union to obtain its views on a union agreement with the organisation. This approach would recognise the possible impact BFU may have on the new system and would demonstrate a gesture of goodwill by the management team. It would also address the collective representation can help achieve important business objectives, including good communication. In conclusion it must be emphasised that an effective Performance Management system ensures that both Managers and employees understand each others expectations, and how these are incorporated into the Corporate Strategy and how these impact upon their own context V their roles, behaviours, relationships an d interactions, rewards and futures. BibliographyBooksBeardwell, I. And Holden, L. (2001) Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall

Architecture Set In Motion Essay examples -- essays research papers

1. Bouffrand Salon de la Princess, hotel de Soubise, Paris, France, begun 1730sSalon de la Princess, is a more sided cylindrical interior way of life and is part of the Rococo style that incorporates minimal architectural features and light airy decor, that develops into a profession of interior design. Rococo is the uprising against complicated Baroque that decorated the interior of Versailles, in revolt against the palace and after the death of Louis XIV, French women who had city houses in Paris inspired a new lightened airy style of decor and architecture. As seen in the Salon de la Princess, the structure of the room has virtually been covered up by vacuous walls of wood and mirrors, and it only contains hints of the classical orders and conventions, while conveying the modern concept of space free of major structural forms. The predominate feature in the room is the gold plaster decorations that adorn the entire space and within this is seen the master(prenominal) curving arabesque line that flows byout the style and characterizes it as a free rate of flow form of design, and makes classical references to the fantasy decorations used by the mannerist and found in the Roman villas, complete with cupids, garlands, and birds. Salon de la Princesse is the last major style sooner neoclassicism, but the free form of the style is a predominate feature in modern organic architecture, and redevelops in the late nineteenth century through with(predicate) the style of Art Nouveau, which is used by Victor Horta, in the Tassel House.2.Hoare et al. Stourhead, Wiltshire, England, redesign begun 1750sThe English tend is one of the greatest gifts that English designers have contributed to the world of architecture, and the gardens that debate the Stourhead estate in Wiltshire England are massed with many forms of congenital origin, and as containers of natural descent they incorporate curving elements, as in the cylinder, cone and sphere, however among the na tural creations are manmade structures that contradict natures verdant burgeoning display of the curve, with structures that include the cube, or squared forms that makes for a cornucopia of forms both natural and manmade. Theinspiration behind the English garden lay in the Neoclassical movement against the structural formality of the Renaissance garden landscape, and in England wh... ...oses of space. One main idea developed by Wright through his career is architecture set in motion and true to a living organism, like the three planes in Falling Water that seem to linger over top the water fall, as do the walls that wrap around the Guggenheim forming a structural cyclone, which is mirrored on the interior by a rage that wraps around a central atrium and provides for displaying art work along the walls of the ramp, but proves to be quite unsuccessful because Wright as anegomaniac made certain that the structure is the main focus and the most dynamic art piece exibited, putting ar chitecture on the same plane as the visual arts. As many of his homes regularize modern day suburban America in the Historicism movement, the Guggenheim influences the Post Modern Movement, a theory in practice that believes Modernism failed and incorporates references to the past with sculptural freedom and clarity of form, as does the latest and most dynamic display of architecture to come out of the 1990s, and direct descendent from Wrights, New York museum, is Frank O. Gehrys Guggenheim Museum(1997) in Bilbao, Spain, that Philip Johnson called, the greatestbuilding of our century.

The Internet Increases Social Isolation Essay -- Internet Technology a

Inside the majority of American households rest the unlimited grime of the internet. The unlimited and always advancing possibilities stomach unlocked powerful naked tools in communication and socialization. Tools such as long distance visual communication, external circulation of personal thoughts, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have all led to a side by side(predicate) but more distant community of people. The positive side can depute to the fact that the younger generation come acrossms more in tune with their international counterparts. Youth have the ability to anonymously communicate with others through various capacity boards, mostly governed by one policy, freedom of speech. The anonymity of the internet has created a community where social outcasts mingle freely with others a society where jocks can speak with geeks without fear of reprisal. This community releases people from the bounds of their own flesh. Yet, technolo gical advances have pushed society into the next dimension of communication and socialization that seemingly override traditional and more personal vessels of communication.The internet, initially developed by researchers at MIT and UCLA, had introductory purposes as a communications system between participating Universities. Walt Howe, Director of Libraries at Babson College, explains that the use of the system was limited to engineers, scientists, and those with the complex knowledge of computer run systems. Because of the complexity involved many attempted to create a more user efficient system, one that home users could adopt. The most modern and user fond system was pioneered around 1991 at University of Minnesota as a tool to nark files and information local... ...ally socializing face-to-face. The technological shield inhibits proxemics and makes it impossible for those communicating to see the involuntary body movements of their counterpart, leaving a dislocated an d artificial feeling. But, increases in online networking leave alone lead to social skill atrophy. By increasing online networking, people lead become left experiencing life vicariously.Works CitedHall, Edward T. A System for the Notion of Proxemic Behavior. American Anthropologist 65. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.Howe, Walt. A Brief History of the Internet. Walt Howes Home Page. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. .Massik, Sonia and Solomon, Jack. You-Topian Dreams Myspace, Yourspace, and the semiology of Web 2.0. 2014. 426-7.Simpson, Joanne Cavanaugh. Multitasking State of Mind. 2006. Massik and Solomon. 469-71. The Internet Increases Social Isolation Essay -- Internet Technology a Inside the majority of American households rest the unlimited territory of the internet. The unlimited and always advancing possibilities have unlocked powerful new tools in communication and socialization. Tools such as long distance visual communication, international circulation of personal th oughts, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have all led to a closer but more distant community of people. The positive side can attribute to the fact that the younger generation seems more in tune with their international counterparts. Youth have the ability to anonymously communicate with others through various message boards, mostly governed by one policy, freedom of speech. The anonymity of the internet has created a community where social outcasts mingle freely with others a society where jocks can converse with geeks without fear of reprisal. This community releases people from the bounds of their own flesh. Yet, technological advances have pushed society into the next dimension of communication and socialization that seemingly override traditional and more personal vessels of communication.The internet, initially developed by researchers at MIT and UCLA, had first purposes as a communications system between participating Universities. Walt Howe , Director of Libraries at Babson College, explains that the use of the system was limited to engineers, scientists, and those with the complex knowledge of computer operating systems. Because of the complexity involved many attempted to create a more user efficient system, one that home users could adopt. The most modern and user friendly system was pioneered around 1991 at University of Minnesota as a tool to access files and information local... ...ally socializing face-to-face. The technological shield inhibits proxemics and makes it impossible for those communicating to see the involuntary body movements of their counterpart, leaving a dislocated and artificial feeling. But, increases in online networking will lead to social skill atrophy. By increasing online networking, people will become left experiencing life vicariously.Works CitedHall, Edward T. A System for the Notion of Proxemic Behavior. American Anthropologist 65. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.Howe, Walt. A Brief History of the Internet. Walt Howes Home Page. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. .Massik, Sonia and Solomon, Jack. You-Topian Dreams Myspace, Yourspace, and the Semiotics of Web 2.0. 2014. 426-7.Simpson, Joanne Cavanaugh. Multitasking State of Mind. 2006. Massik and Solomon. 469-71.

The Internet Increases Social Isolation Essay -- Internet Technology a

Inside the majority of American households rest the unlimited filth of the internet. The unlimited and always advancing possibilities capture unlocked powerful in the raw tools in communication and socialization. Tools such as long distance visual communication, planetary circulation of personal thoughts, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have all led to a ambient but more distant community of people. The positive side can dimension to the fact that the younger generation facems more in tune with their supranational counterparts. Youth have the ability to anonymously communicate with others through various message boards, mostly governed by one policy, freedom of speech. The anonymity of the internet has created a community where social outcasts mingle freely with others a society where jocks can chat with geeks without fear of reprisal. This community releases people from the bounds of their own flesh. Yet, technological advances have pushed society into the next dimension of communication and socialization that seemingly override conventional and more personal vessels of communication.The internet, initially developed by researchers at MIT and UCLA, had head start purposes as a communications system between participating Universities. Walt Howe, Director of Libraries at Babson College, explains that the use of the system was limited to engineers, scientists, and those with the complex knowledge of computer operational systems. Because of the complexity involved many attempted to create a more drug user efficient system, one that home users could adopt. The most modern and user amicable system was pioneered around 1991 at University of Minnesota as a tool to admission files and information local... ...ally socializing face-to-face. The technological shield inhibits proxemics and makes it impossible for those communicating to see the involuntary body movements of their counterpart, leaving a disloc ated and artificial feeling. But, increases in online networking forget lead to social skill atrophy. By increasing online networking, people leave alone become left experiencing life vicariously.Works CitedHall, Edward T. A System for the Notion of Proxemic Behavior. American Anthropologist 65. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.Howe, Walt. A Brief History of the Internet. Walt Howes Home Page. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. .Massik, Sonia and Solomon, Jack. You-Topian Dreams Myspace, Yourspace, and the semiotics of Web 2.0. 2014. 426-7.Simpson, Joanne Cavanaugh. Multitasking State of Mind. 2006. Massik and Solomon. 469-71. The Internet Increases Social Isolation Essay -- Internet Technology a Inside the majority of American households rest the unlimited territory of the internet. The unlimited and always advancing possibilities have unlocked powerful new tools in communication and socialization. Tools such as long distance visual communication, international circulation of per sonal thoughts, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have all led to a closer but more distant community of people. The positive side can attribute to the fact that the younger generation seems more in tune with their international counterparts. Youth have the ability to anonymously communicate with others through various message boards, mostly governed by one policy, freedom of speech. The anonymity of the internet has created a community where social outcasts mingle freely with others a society where jocks can converse with geeks without fear of reprisal. This community releases people from the bounds of their own flesh. Yet, technological advances have pushed society into the next dimension of communication and socialization that seemingly override traditional and more personal vessels of communication.The internet, initially developed by researchers at MIT and UCLA, had first purposes as a communications system between participating Universities. W alt Howe, Director of Libraries at Babson College, explains that the use of the system was limited to engineers, scientists, and those with the complex knowledge of computer operating systems. Because of the complexity involved many attempted to create a more user efficient system, one that home users could adopt. The most modern and user friendly system was pioneered around 1991 at University of Minnesota as a tool to access files and information local... ...ally socializing face-to-face. The technological shield inhibits proxemics and makes it impossible for those communicating to see the involuntary body movements of their counterpart, leaving a dislocated and artificial feeling. But, increases in online networking will lead to social skill atrophy. By increasing online networking, people will become left experiencing life vicariously.Works CitedHall, Edward T. A System for the Notion of Proxemic Behavior. American Anthropologist 65. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.Howe, Walt. A Brief Hi story of the Internet. Walt Howes Home Page. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. .Massik, Sonia and Solomon, Jack. You-Topian Dreams Myspace, Yourspace, and the Semiotics of Web 2.0. 2014. 426-7.Simpson, Joanne Cavanaugh. Multitasking State of Mind. 2006. Massik and Solomon. 469-71.

Managing Financial Resources and Decision

Every business necessitate four major types of resources classified in two ways men, money, machine and material or land, labor, peachy and enterprise. As it burn be seen the monetary resources atomic number 18 compulsory, all(prenominal) business having allocated a department that manages this resource (the Finance Department) and a person that is in betoken of its activities (the Finance Manager). Financial resources nookie be provided by a range of sources. This range depends on the type of the business, which can be classified as fix mongers, partnerships and companies (private or public).Financial resources argon in turn classified considering the period of time when they ar procurable (short, medium and long term), and the origin environment ( upcountry or external). The sources operable for a mend trader are personal capital, retained profits, sale of assets, actions of hire purchase, of sale and lease back, loans and credit lanes from banks of in plantal loans ( borrowings) from friends, acquaintances. Additionally, for the other types, finance can come from admission of new partners in the business, bank all overdrafts, venture capital and share capital.For London Woods ltd the financial resources of the private sector company are represented by the sale of the furniture produced (the selling price for a chair in 2013 is 45 pounds, while monthly sales vary betwixt 100 and 120). A long-term loan already borrowed according to the income statement for 2011 and 2012 is a nonher financial source of cash. But in contract with ordinary shares generated for investors, which are the permanent capital of the company, the loan testament be integral returned after several years, during which is cost is estimated at a 12% interest rate.A recent available source are the 3000 pounds made available for a brand manager in the Latin America, while the production and the revenues from that sales are a electromotive force source of liquidity. 1. 2 Before they are chosen, sources of finance must be evaluated after considering the following aspects relates to the business itself or the source what hail of money is demand and in what time, what is the cost of the source (interest rates, dividends etcetera), the risk involved, the duration of the contract ( amid company and supplier of finance), the check up on of the business over the source or aver the cogency to pay back finance received and the gearing ratio of the company (the relationship between what is owns and what is owes).For example, long-term loans and ordinary shares can generate a greater amount of capital than personal savings or the sale of assets. But while the company must return in time the amount borrowed from a bank it can be in possession of as permanent capital the money invested by shareholders.Also, while the interest rate is resolved and included in every payment, dividends are paid only when the company generates profit. Thus, the company has more( prenominal) control over finance if is source are investments rather than bank loans. 1. 3 The mentioned sources grow simultaneous benefits and disadvantages for the business organization. Personal savings are interest free, do not need to be returned necessarily at a certain time, no collateral part is involved and no paperwork is required, but it cannot provide large amounts and can interfere unexpectedly with cash unravel if money is demanded before overdue time.Retained profit is the companys own revenue which does not need to be returned or to pay interest, debt does not increase and its future allocation can remain confidential. On the other hand, retained profits are available for developed, growing business and not for starting or bad-performing businesses. Finance resulted from selling assets is connatural the business finances itself with possible large amounts, only that those assets will not generate profit from the selling point, and it can be expensive later on, if it needs to be purchased.Ordinary shares are advantageous because they can raise large amounts of permanent capital for which dividends are paid only the company is profitable, but they incur upshot cost and the amount of capital cannot be minimized later. Preference shares do not give the right of purpose through vote and they require a fixed profit in return, even if the company shews a smaller profit or even a loss. Similarly debentures do not get out the right to vote, are redeemed when sur cocksure profit is obtained, if not payment of interest rate must be done at a fixed date.These features apply to loans, bank overdrafts. The hire purchase method has the advantage that the company can make use of the asset before it pays for it but probably will be pay more for it than its comfort. Venture capital is beneficial because investors are highly interested in the businesss success over a period investors share profits and may wish to influence strategic decisions. Discounts assure a quick receive of money but debt is collected by the client company itself and thus resources are wasted in debt collection.2. 1 Being vital for the businesss operations, financial resources (the life blood of business) have attached a certain cost sometimes a price paid for their availability and most certainly an opportunity cost in the form if the second best way in which they could have been allocated. Personal savings, bank loans, overdrafts, debentures, venture capital, factoring, invoice discounting require the payment of an interest rate, in addition to the amount lend to the business.Retained profits have attached the opportunity cost depending on the size of it, profits can be allocated to many departments they can be invested in research and development, in the extension of fixed assets for the increase of production, in more advertising, can be use in the employed of experts, skilled people. The cost of selling assets is that of the revenue from the goods that wo uld have been produced, but also the difference in the selling price and the purchase price.Apart from the dividends paid in return, issuing ordinary shares determines administrative costs with the simple eye exchange listing fee, printing, distribution and advertising fee. The cost in hire purchase actions and leases is the price that the company pays for the item and the cost of ownership over it, since even if the organization paid 90% for the item, it is still owned by the leasing company. Grants are financial resource that does not require any fee.Planning is usually regarded as one of the first major steps (among generating ideas, assessing feasibility, collecting external development) that needs to be developed in concern with doing a business, a project, presentation etc. As money is a core resource for the business so is financial grooming. This stage within a business it used in clubhouse to determine over a period of time how will a variety of resources be allocated i n order to have both effective and expeditious results. Or, it can be used to assess how well the available resources were used in a previous period of time (a quarter, half year, a year).Financial planning has in addition a few key benefits. It is efficient because it takes in consideration future needs a business must always be aware of next activities from the to do list. Considering next tasks is helpful in being on time organizations have to prepare now, in advance, what is required later so it do not miss opportunities. This gives assurance to stakeholders that the company is well-managed and creates a pleasant working environment, where lower levels employees know very well what to do.It helps businesses to compare the different alternatives between resource allocation in order to perform activities in which they have a smaller opportunity cost. Planning constantly also provides the opportunity to monitor, control activities and be financially sustainable for the organizatio n and its stakeholders. 2. 3 The decision making process is represented by information needs required by decision makers. The decision makers or the organization are the stakeholders that have an interest in respect with the occupation of the organization. They are divided between internal and external parties.The internal parties are the shareholders and their information need is to know the risk implied by their investment or the return that can generate in order to sell shares or to buy and if the company is able to pay dividends. Employees, another important grade wants to know is the business is well-performing in order to deduce the stability, the prospective, and any remuneration and benefits that their flow vacancy within the company offers. Suppliers are interested to know if in short term the business as able to pay for the goods supplied.Lenders, an important category of external stakeholders, need the same information, but for the long term. Continuation of operations is also a concern of customers, especially if they have a dependence on the companys activities. Governments and regulators are interest in how the business is caring operations in order to compare it with regulation and law, so that the organization is operating(a) legally. The public, a general external category of stakeholders is interested in the performance of the business for the need of economic stability and available jobs.2. 4 In the probe case of London Woods there are several sources of finance with impact in the financial statements (the profit and loss account, the equipoise sheet, and the cash flow statement). A major source of the finance is the firms production of furniture which if it is sold is incurred in the profit and loss account, while the remaining stock is stated as a flow asset on the balance sheet. Another source of finance proposed for the business, as Mathew claims, is two machines that will generate more revenue but are going to cost 4 million pound s.The prices paid will be incurred in the expenses section in the income statement and the value of the two machines will be included under the assets column in the balance sheet. The machines would have to be bought by first victorious a loan with an interest rate of 12%, which will have to be stated under expenses in the income statement, while the loan must be declared in the long-term liabilities section in the balance sheet. According to the profit and loss account a accredited source of finance is the shareholders capital, a current loan which costs the business 550 (interest rate) and the debtors, which are customers of the organization.The company does not have to buy the machine B, as the results are negative and the company does not have enough money. 4. 1. Finance is used to create before or at the end of time periods financial statements that help in planning activities, in recording performance and in assessing the current state of the business. Finance is used to cre ate three types of financial statements. The profit and loss account assesses if past activity used effectively the allocated resources. The balance sheet is a summary about the assets, liabilities and liquidities of a business at the end of a business term.Finance also generates information about sales, purchases and labor costs. All this information can be further used in setting budgets for next business terms. Budgets can be used to determine future quantity and price of sales, production, materials, labor, manufacturing overhead, selling and administrative costs and in the end the final cash budget. Based on previous information, when they are creating budgets managers can take measures that reduce costs, increase profits, improve work efficiency or increase productivity and can find information like when to make new purchases of machinery, materials etc. 4. 2.Financial statements do not differ substantially of those of a sole trader as they rely on the same accounting principl es. two balance sheets of both companies will be cipher using the simple formula according which equity equals assets minus liabilities. The financial statements of the fictional sole trader Olivia Boulton1 and those of The Coca-Cola Company2, registered in the USA are relevant in this way. Although they use the same principles, the statements of the two operators are slightly different in content. Olivia Boulton, as a sole trader runs a small business (she sells cookware goods designed in Italy).Profits are usually small and re-invested in the business, but the possibilities for expansion are limited. restore traders are the owners of the business who can run it independently and do not involve other in decision making. A sole trader takes the risk of compensating liabilities with his own goods. In comparison, The Coca-Cola Company a public limited company owned by anonymous shareholders, which generated large profits and pays dividends and caries operations globally. The financ ial statements of Olivia Boulton contain the traditional elements of a profit and loss account and of a balance sheet.The profit and loss account which states the net profit incurred in the period, calculated by eliminating expenses from income or gross profit, starts with the estimation of sales, purchases and stock in order to determine the gross profit. The expenses include liabilities regarding the interest rate of a loan, wages plus other administrative expenses (rent, travelling). The balance sheet has a simple format too. The fixed assets are only represented by the premises and the shop fittings, current assets include stock, debtors, bank and cash, while on the liability column the only type of tax incurred is the VAT (value added tax).In the case of Coca-Cola the statements look different. The cost of goods sold is flat stated as well are the selling, general and administrative expenses. The major difference is the emphasis of the tax incurred and the dividends paid (basi c net income per share, diluted net income per share, and dividend per share). The balance sheet contains other elements too. A great amount of the companys assets are represented by investments, trademark with indefinite lives, goodwill, intangible assets, bottlers prerogative rights with indefinite lives. Under the liability column the amount owned for loans long-term debts are much higher.After taking liabilities, the companys equity is much more elaborated and allocated to multiple purposes a part is reinvested, a part is allocated to shareowners, another one to non controlling interests, while other incurred as capital surplus. 4. 3 a) crystalise profit margin Op * 100 sales revenue 370*100/4990 =7. 4 b) Current ratio current assets/current liabilities 1540/790 = 1. 9 c) Quick ratio current assets current stock/current liabilities 1540-680/790 =860/790=1. 08 d) ROCE for year 2012 370*100/1850=20% ROCE for year 2011 510*100/1900=26. 8% e) Assets turnover ratio 4990/1850=2. 6 9 f) Debt/Equity ratio 550/1850=0. 29

Little thing Essay

Of the five rimes I have selected beforehand, I happen to choose the poem The Pebble. It took me awhile to choose which poem to talk some besides somehow, I keep coming back in reading this poem. I favour this poem comp bed to the other four because of the simmpleness it implies. It starts off with the title which gives out a plain imagery of the thing that will be talked about. The poem struck me in the way that it talked about a very little thing. A thing that is often taken for granted. Nobody would actu entirelyy pay much direction to a pebble.Usually, the pebble is just an add-on to an aquarium or a little thing to beautify a garden. Even so, be it in an aquarium or a garden, the object of concentration is not the pebble. But in this poem, the pebble holds the main attraction. My attention was taken away by the description given to a pebble. And as to how the poem unfolds, the comparison and contrast of a pebble and that to a some ace was stated plainly, but not directly t hough. practically time we think of a use for a certain thing and in conclusion we talk about it or write about it. In any case, we sh ar that what is important.So, in the case of this poem, a pebble never seemed to be something important. Most of the time, pot put one acrosst seem to bother about anything regarding a pebble. A poem expresses the emotions of a generator and usually in the state of turmoil. What is captivating about this poem is that thither isnt much of a turmoil expressed in words for this. It describes what a pebble is, how a pebble could be and compared it as to how a person could opinion. I feel a certain depth in this poem, though I doubt if I could eventually express that depth. I somehow could feel that this poem has something to a greater extent than what it is giving.The problem is just that Im still trying to measure up the feeling conveyed by this poem. Somehow, I have a strange idea of being able to fathom what the poem holds, but because of its v ividness, Im having a hard time grasping the conception it implies. such(prenominal) ironic feelings are extracted from my mind but Im trying though to put it into words. The poem has an intrinsic impact on me. I dont have much of an idea of the author but as I read the poem over and over a fetch, and internalize it somehow, I gain knowledge to the truth it may imply. With how I describe it, the poem may seem to be a prayer, but actually, its not.Its not everyday that we read a poem which is presented so simply. I just have a feeling that the writer wrote this according to how he perceives the truth of the pebble. A pebble which is a little stone that eventually could last longer than any other thing. Part four The Pebble is a very interesting poem. From the title itself, it projects a literary piece about simplicity. As we have seen pebbles and grasp a core of this thing, it is an object that is pretty much of little value. But this thing has been often times used as an instrume nt for symbolism.It doesnt actually become the symbol, but yet, it is used as a contributor for the statement of the symbol. Like the ripples on the water, to fasten the ripples, the pebble is used as the object that is thrown to create the ripples. But in this situation, the impact was made by the pebble but the symbol was the ripple. Interpretation of the Poem At the start of the poem, the pebble is described as a perfect creature. It is here that we can see that the object has been given the traits as that of a person. Attributing the perfection that the writer is lecture about for the pebble would be on its physical aspect.The physical description of pebbles which are often perfectly oval in shape with a smooth surface, having no cracks or lumps, would suit the description of excellence or perfection. In comparison to a person, a perfect creature would then be one without cracks or perhaps loopholes and one who doesnt have any lumps. Perfection in our own view would be that of someone who doesnt possess any frailties, errors and does all things without mistakes and stands as clean as ever. But as the writer proceeds with the poem, it mentioned that it could only be equalled to itself and is aware of its limits.A perfect thing that cannot be compared by anything except itself and has limits, were the descriptions emphasized by the poet. Still, this has been compared to that of a person. Perfection does not imply that the person has no limits. With this description then, we could imply that in perfection, it is being and doing something flawlessly but in the range of ones limits. Often, when we talk about perfection, it is in comparison already to supreme beings or gods. But the poet has stated that what could be compared to one creature would not be anyone else, but only with it.Indeed, the concept of uniqueness has been unfolded. As the poem proceeds, it has been defined by the author that the meaning this object holds, is the meaning it holds from the t ime it has been made. A pebbly meaning would mean the identity that this object holds and whatever that is, that is the true meaning of the thing. Same goes if related again to a person, that the explanation or meaning of who we are is the self. It is not somebody else that hold the meaning of our life, but it is our self, the one with us from the beginning, that defines what we are.Another idea of the pebbly meaning would be the concept of a pebble which is not of great significance but just possesses the simplicity that it is as an object. It is not a big rock that could smash something smaller or a stone which may be small but definitely holds weight. It is not a mountain that shows greatness just by looking for at it. It is emphasizing a pebble, small, perhaps insignificant, and does not hold much weight. But as we ponder on the purpose as to why it exists, it holds much than what it is actually letting us see.The poem describes further that the pebble is one thing that does nt have a specific characteristic that would be intimidating and though it is unique and different, it stands with its uniqueness without any other factor that might entice anybody. As all other things or people would need more than what they have, want they would go for enhancing the appearance or develop any form of attractive facilities for others to see or witness, the pebble sticks with what it has. Despite the simplicity or plainness it holds, it still has its gravitas and pride.It is contradicting to the idea that without pride is simplicity. Being simple does not mean that one does not hold any value of himself. It doesnt also mean that there is no regard for the self. Instead, inside that simplicity, an aura of pride and dignity emanates. Its just that people dont get to see it because they are more aware of the obvious things. As the poem proceeds, the writer was somehow humbled down to the value of the pebble that in the changing world, struggling all the time for atten tion and importance, the pebble or anyone that could be related to a pebble, simply sits quietly and wait.In the end, all the others vanish, and its just the pebble that remains. Those who do not live such complex lives could eventually see all that is happening and live longer than most of the people. Conclusion The poem is written as a realization in life. Often times people would prefer to have the symbol of a mountain, or something powerful and bigger. This is so because of how we see our life, we prefer to have the control especially when we are not in control in reality. We want to be in power when in reality we are weak and helpless.Our symbols tell what we really are and its has always been the opposite of what we are. In this poem, the concept of simplicity and the awakening of humility are emphasized. Simplicity is held in the object of the pebble. The object of no complications and the writer is in the point of using this imagery to a persons life. The awakening of the hu mility is expressed in the last two stanzas of the poem where the writer has gone to see the impact of a pebble and how it absorbs everything there is without complaining.This is a contradiction to people where complaining has been made a hobby and dissatisfaction always a companion. in advance going to the point of appreciating, people tend to complain, grumble and then when the worse has come, perhaps, mellow down and bear with the idea of appreciating something. The poet has created a very good concept of life. The poem written is also expressed the same way as that of the idea it intends to convey. Simplicity indeed is beauty and only few have seen it.

Death of a Nation Essay

Clifford Dowdeys Death of a Nation The Story of lee side and His Men at Gettysburg is a military history examining the Confederate loss at this epic battle, particularly the decision-making process and the secondern commanders sorrow to perform up to their potential. Partly a fawning defense of Robert E. Lee and partly an insightful theater of why the southernmost even dared invade the North, it demonstrates the authors Southern bias without trying to justify slavery, as well as Dowdeys compact of history and storytelling.The book looks almost exclusively at the Civil Wars largest battle, in which Lees Army of Northern Virginia invaded the North in hopes of scaring Lincoln into halting the war and recognizing the Confederacy. Instead, as Dowdeys ennoble implies, it proved the Confederacys apex as a military power, beginning its two-year decline and ultimate collapse.Dowdey, a native of Richmond, Virginia, who produced numerous histories and novels about the Civil War, takes a decided pro-Southern stance and offers a rather generous view some(prenominal) of the Confederacy, never approaching its defense of slavery, and of Lee, the inventive, chance-taking commander who proved the Souths greatest leader. The first chapter, Rendezvous with Disaster, conveys in its title how Dowdey sees the battle, yet he is indisposed to blame Lee for the loss.He opens with an account of Confederate military personnel invading protactinium, depicting them not as a menacing enemy but as a somewhat merry band The Confederate soldiers had not committed acts of vandalism or abused the inhabitants. On the contrary, the troops had been highly good-humored in the face of taunts and insults (3). The author then introduces the superior prevalent as a striking, almost godlike figure, quoting an officer who deemed him a kingly man whom all men who came into his heraldic bearing expected to obey (5) this description recurs throughout the book.Subsequent chapters describe the bui ldup and the battle itself. In chapter two, The Opening Phase, Dowdey portrays the decision-making process that led to Lees invasion of Pennsylvania as a Jefferson Davis-engineered travesty, a necessary expedient in the policy of static, scattered defensiveness (27). The author considers Lee almost a victim of Davis vanity, rigidity, and softness to guard his own lack of military expertise, and he absolves the man he believes embodied the im term of the patriarchal planter who, as military leader, assumed benevolent duty for his domain (33).Throughout the battle, which dominates much of the book, Dowdey introduces Lees subordinates as characters in a novel or drama, describing their personalities in lively, even somewhat chatty detail. Jeb Stuart, whose gymnastic horse failed in its reconnaissance duties before the fighting began, appears as a capable soldier who refused to believe he erred Richard Ewell is a crusty but soft-hearted eccentric whose coupling softened his fighting skills and John B. Hood is a fighter, not a thinker (174).He reserves his harshest criticisms for James Longstreet, deeming the lone general to openly movement Lees decision to wage the unwise assault best known as Picketts Charge, a lying defeatist. Dowdey songs that objective historians and Longstreet partisans own move to re-evaluate him outside the text of controversy. This is almost impossible. . . . Many other men performed below their potential at Gettysburg, but only James Longstreet absolved himself by blaming Lee (340).By the end of the book, one realizes that Dowdey will not concede that the figure he admires whitethorn have simply made fatal errors at Gettysburg. Dowdeys descriptions of the battle cover the three days in a generally accurate but not original manner. He alternates between broad, sweeping pictures of melodramatic combat and close-up accounts of individual Confederate units and soldiers. (He discombobulates little mention to Union action throughout t he book, making clear that his sole interest is depicting Lees army and not providing a holistic history of the battle.) Though his approach provides reliable but not groundbreaking information, Dowdey makes clear that he considers Lees defeat not the venerable commanders fault (despite his own tendency to take long chances against the larger and better-armed Union Army), but rather his subordinates inability to perform as competently as they had in previous battles. In this account, Stuarts ego kept him from realizing he failed in his scouting duties, A. P.Hill baffled his usually strong will, Richard Anderson staged a poor excuse for an assault on Cemetery Ridge with undisciplined, poorly-led Carolinian troops (rather than the Virginians that Dowdey, the Virginian, favors), and Ewell did not adequately prepare his troops for their attack. While Dowdey concedes that Lee, alone in the center of the vacuum, could not have been less aware of the total collapse of co-ordination (240). However, he implies, Lees unawareness was not his fault, but that of usually-reliable subordinates who curiously failed all at once.The work ends somewhat abruptly, with Lees broken army withdrawing from Pennsylvania after Picketts failed charge (in which the general whose name it bears appears as a minor figure) and returning to Virginia the author offers no broad conclusion or explanation of the battles meaning inwardly a larger context. Dowdey, primarily a fiction writer and college instructor who also produced numerous histories of the Army of Northern Virginia, approaches the work with a storytellers vigor and flair, writing this history with a novelists attention to visual details and his characters personalities and quirks.Frequently, he aims to stir the readers attention by adding what his characters may have said or thought in rich, occasionally overstated terms. For example, he deems Ewell this quaint and lovable character (121) Jubal Early becomes the bitter man who bec ame as passionate in his hate for the Union as he had formerly been in its defense (123) and Union general Daniel Sickles (one of the few figures for whom he shows genuine scorn) is an unsavory, showy, and crude character from New York who went further on brassy self-confidence and politicking .. . than many a better man went on ability (203). In trying give his characters personality, Dowdey writes often picturesque and lively prose but also offers a somewhat distorted picture that more detached academic historians may find objectionable. For example, piece Lee can do no wrong, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacys much-reviled president, appears as nearly as much a villain as Longstreet. Of Davis, Dowdey writes The crisis in the Souths military fortunes was caused largely by the defense policies of the president.. . . Among the limitations of this self-aware gentleman was an inability to acknowledge himself in the wrong (14). As a Lee apologist, Dowdey implicitly blames David for th e Souths collapse, though he wavers on this by adding Lincoln had at his disposal unlimited wealth, the organized machinery of government, a navy, the war potential of heavy industry, and a four-to-one manpower superiority.Davis led a disorganized movement in self-determinism composed of proud and fiercely individualistic provincials (15-16). Dowdey discovers little about the South in general and does not directly glorify the Southern cause, though he also refrains from any mention of slavery or racism. He seems to simply accept the South as it was, writing his works to illustrate a particularly regionalist sense of pride, if not in its plantation past, then certainly in Lee, its most glow example of military leadership and manhood.He reveals, perhaps unintentionally, his own sense of romance about the South when he writes In a land where the age of chivalry was perpetuated, the military leader embodied the gallantry, the glamour, and the privilege of the aristocrat in a feudal so ciety (15). Characters like Lee, he implies, gave the South respectability and nobility, composition lesser individuals, like the supposedly duplicitous, disloyal Longstreet and the rigid, arrogant Davis, somehow stained it and failed to match its ideals. Despite Dowdeys biases, he cannot be faulted for failing to do research.He includes a short bibliographic essay at the end, explaining his sources strengths and limitations. In addition to using many secondary sources, he relies heavily on participants personal documents, much(prenominal) as letters and memoirs, though he concedes that the eyewitness accounts are subject to the fallibility of memory, and many of the articles suffer the distortion of advocacy or indictment (353). This last comment is telling, because Dowdey himself neither advocates nor indicts the Old South, but rather aims to depict the military aspects.The result is a work that shows clear fondness for the Souths self-image as an fortify land of chivalry, but to his credit, Dowdey does not excoriate the North or its leaders. Lincoln scarcely appears in this volume, but the author pays some compliments to Union generals whom historians have seen less favorably, such as Joseph Hooker (whom Lee soundly defeated at Chancellorsville) or George Meade (who won at Gettysburg but failed to pursue and destroy the body of Lees army as it withdrew).Death of a Nation is not a comprehensive history of the battle of Gettysburg, but neither does it claim to be. Instead, it is an often-entertaining, well-researched account of the Southern sides participation, including its ill-starred behind-the-scenes planning and the personal dynamics among the commanders who underperformed at this key point in the war.Though Dowdeys conclusion is so brief as to be unsatisfactory, one can draw ones own conclusion from this volumes title and the battle it describes that defeat at Gettysburg meant the Confederacys failure to win its nationhood. Dowdey does not openly la ment this fact, but instead shows the process that made this failure a reality. Dowdey, C. (1958). Death of a Nation. New York Alfred A. Knopf.

The Waste Land

Eliot verbalised all of these feelings In his poem. In fact. The bolt out Land soon became known as the work that best expressed the mood of a postwar generation disillusioned by the loss of ideals and faith in progress (Duper 7). The Waste Land does not, however, express only despondency in the condition of contemporary society. Conscious of its actual degradation, Eliot sought a meaner to escape it. He did a great deal of research c oncerning fertility rituals and myths and indicated that his interlingual rendition In these and similar studies revived a way of seeing behind presenters actions a substratum of past beliefs and practices that. Hough now lost to consciousness, continue to Inform our occasional lives In hidden but significant ways (Duper 8). As Dolmen Schwartz states, Elites theme is the rehabilitation of a system of beliefs, known but now brush off (209). Eliot felt that man needed to be brought back to these old beliefs, but was wary of stating this openly, fea ring a reign over approach would prevent the poem from being read. The modern man had become too hardened to accept Christian principles directly and, Instead, must gradually be made aware of his condition.In order to achieve this, Eliot chronicled his 1 Nihilism (from the Latin nil, nothing) a philosophical position which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without meaning. Journey of realization and revelation in the form of The Waste Land, u evilg the hero of the poem to represent his own passage to spiritual awareness and to convince man of the degradation of society and the need for reform. The poem begins with the protagonist musing on spring April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, applications programme Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little deportment with dried tubers. (1, 1-7)2 This passage is an indication of the boundar y of the degradation of man. He has sunken so low Into depravity that he prefers to live a liveliness of ignorance and to disregard the fact that he Is living a half-life. April, the month In which spring begins, is no longer a joyous time in which new life is celebrated, but a cruel time of re tolerate that reminds man that his own life is terribly empty.The protagonist then addresses man directly, stating, you know only / a heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, / and the dry stone no sound of water (l, 21-24). He then invites us into the shadow of this red an allusion to the got Isaiah, in which the Messiahs torture coming is likened to an hiding get from the wind, and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (KAVA Bible, Sis. 322).Under this red rock, he will show the way to escape the mundane life man has roughs upon himself. The speaker then re calls the time he first realized the emptiness of his life. In the 2 Citations from the poem are taken from The Waste Land, De. Michael North (New York Norton, 2001) springtime, he says, he gave his lover hyacinths. smell at her, with her arms full of flowers and her hair dripping wet, he expected to see happiness and fulfillment, but saw nothing. At this point, he realizes that true joy cannot be found in transitory things.The world holds nothing for him- Ode undo leer ads Mere (1, 42)-desolate and empty is the sea. It is possible that Eliot came to this same realization through a similar cause, as he and his wife had a very unhappy relationship. The protagonist then takes us on a Journey through society, a Journey that illustrates the full extent of human degradation and spiritual emptiness. In the first scene of A Game of Chess, a wealthy couple is shown at home, living meaningless lives composed of dull routines. Their relationship is forced and artificial, each so self-absorb ed that neither can communicate with the other.In the second scene of this section, the extent of gradation is further revealed. A woman is in a pub discussing with a group of friends the advice she gave her friend Ill when Oils husband, Alfred, was discharged from military service. She says she pointed out that Alfred, having been in the service for four years, wants a good time and told Ill, if you dont give it to him, theres others 148-149). She then rebuked Ill for looking so antique (II, 156), and Ill replied that it was because she had an abortion. She had already given birth to five children and did not want more.In this scene, sex is reduced to a duty a wife must reform to please her husband, and children are an obligation, not a Joy. In The Fire Sermon, the depravity of man is further illustrated. A woman is shown in her apartment eating dinner with her lover. Their encounter after dinner is depict thusly The time is now propitious, as he guesses, The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, Endeavourers to engage her in caresses Which still are unimproved, if undesired Flushed and decided, he assaults at once Exploring hands encounter no defense His vanity requires no response, And makes a welcome of indifference. Ill, 235-242) When he leaves, her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass well up now thats done and Im glad its 252) This attitude of indifference can be seen as even more depraved than lust and expresses the apathetic attitude of many a(prenominal) after the war. However, there is still hope. Sometimes, the protagonist can hear the pleasant whining of a mandolins (Ill, 261) near the walls of Magnums Martyr, a church where fishermen lounge at noon (Ill, 263). This plan glimpse of hope is an indication of the source of a meaningful life. The fishermen remind us of Jesus disciples, the fishers f men (KAVA Bible, Matt. 19), who were exhorted to Journey throughout the earth, telling men add together the gospel o t Christ and the way to salvation. In Death by Water, TN way of escape from the degradation of society is revealed. The protagonist tells us of disport the Phoenician, who experienced death by water, which can be seen as a representation of baptism, the shedding of the sinful nature, and the acceptance of the Living Water (KAVA Bible, John 738) of Christ. Please is now dead to the world. He has forgotten the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell / and the profit and the joss (V, 313-314).He is no longer affected by the sin of modern society but lives separate from it. The narrator then addresses the reader Gentile or Jew / O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Please, who was once handsome and tall as you (V, 319-321). With this address, the narrator reminds us that we are as mortal as Please, and we also require this Living Water. This passage is a direct contrast to The Fire Sermon quenching the fires of lust with the Living Water that provides spiritual cleansing. To truly experien ce life, our sinful nature must die.The protagonist concludes by explaining his own realization that, like Jerusalem Athens Alexandria (V, 374), modern society is deteriorating London Bridge is falling down (V, 426). At this time, he has a finis to make Shall I at least set my lands in order? (V, 425) Will he avoid the decay of society and abandon his meaningless life for one with significance? His decision is evident in the last stanza of the poem. Amid the madness of the ruin of society, the protagonist finds Shanties shanties shanties (V, 433)-a peace that passes understanding.Like Please, he has chosen to bid farewell to his dishonest, terrestrial self and surrender to the Living Water that has the power to quench the fires of corruption. It is through this passage that Eliot suggests his own discovery and his decision to experience the peace that passes understanding by surrendering the corrupt part of himself. The poem, composed of seemingly fragmented ideas and stream-of-c onsciousness thoughts, ends on a note of peace, a peace that Eliot has attained and wishes modern man to experience. Works Cited Duper, Robert S.

Hong Kong affect its future economy Essay

This enquiry project seeks to roleplay out the effects of the Hong Kong universe structure on the future scrimping of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a booming saving macrocosm one of the major financial districts of the South Asian region and its ever-changing population structure has a lot to do with its workforce and in gambol affects its working culture and present and future economic structure as well. Research QuestionThe inquiry question for this project seek to reading how or to what extent the population structure a regards to age and gender or social characteristics of the population tend to affect the present and future economy of Hong Kong. So there ar two parts to this look for project the first part analyzes the population structure of Hong Kong with regards to the age and gender or social berth and the second part brings out the economic structure of Hong Kong from its past to present changes and the future of Hong Kong economy in a more world(prenominal)ized worl d and the impact of global markets on the financial centre of Asia.The focused explore question in this case brings out several dimension of the matter as through the summary of the soft and quantitative dimensions, the subjective and objective aspects of the study. The impact of the changes in population structure on the economy could be understood on the cornerstone of changing population numbers and percentages quantitatively and the socioeconomic changes as understood qualitatively.The research question essentially focuses on the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the research as it seeks to bring out the impact of population change in economic structure of Hong Kong in a descriptive manner and in accordance with socioeconomic changes, as in influence of wage, gender, age gaps and changes etc an also the direct statistical value and correlations between population and economic structures in harm of numbers and statistical value.The research question on the extent t o which population structure affects the Hong Kong economy thus brings out this extent in terms of numbers or real values as also in terms of description of changes in Hong Kong as what happens qualitatively when the population structure changes and what is the impact on the economy from a descriptive point of view. Like for example this can be related to lack of high living standards, poor health conditions of the elderly.These would be qualitative dimensions of the research and the values or percentages of changing population and simultaneously changing economy would be the quantitative aspects of research. These two methods are discussed further in the methodology section as given below. Background/Literature Review A brief literature round is provided here and brings out the main points of research articles as create in daybooks and obtained from ingentaconnect or sciencedirect or JSTOR.The literature review is on the Hong Kong population and economic structure and articles published and written on these issues showing the impact of an ageing population on Hong Kongs economy and job prospects and on the industries in Hong Kong as influenced by a global economy and ageing population. In this literature review section a study by Leigh (2006), a research article by Chui published 2003 and an another(prenominal) by Fan and Lui (2003) have been selected.Leighs study shows the direct impact of ageing on Hong Kongs economy, fiscal changes and living standards. Chui shows how the ageing population face problems of survival and ho exploitation in a fast(a) paced Hong Kong economy and Fan and Lui talk of gender and wage gap in Hong Kongs population that could redefine economic changes and structure. The studies chosen here highlight the qualitative aspects of the impact of ageing and gender changes in population or demography on the economic structure of Hong Kong.The society of women has also increased significantly necessitating necessitate of study of the impact of gender on Hong Kongs economy and how womens participation in the workplace can change things for the economy. In a research article on the population structure of Hong Kong, Leigh (2006) has suggested that Hong Kong SARs population has been senescent rapidly and aging could adversely affect the growth and living standards of spate in Hong Kong. on that point has to be some change in economic and administrative policies in keeping with the aging or changing population according to the article.There is a high labor and productivity growth with increased migration of younger skil lead workers from Chinese mainland in Hong Kong mainly due to Hong Kongs booming economy and although this attenuates the economic impact of aging, there is no full offset of the impact of aging population on the economic structure of Hong Kong. According to Leigh, aging puts large pressure on public finances particularly as with aging there is also rising health costs that directly affect govern ing body spending.There are relatively fewer options that government has and opportunities to implement polices on this are also limited that could lessen the impact of aging on the memorial tablet and structure as demographic effects would start setting in by 2015 when the ratio of working population would peak. The Hong Kong SAR authorities have been focused on administrative and governance policies that would limit or reduce the fiscal impact of aging and they have also provided continued expenditure restraint on amend of health care financing with private health insurance systems, on with tax re shapes and non age sensitive areas (Leigh, 2006).Considering the gradual ageing problem of Hong Kong, Chui (2001) suggest that Hong Kong as one of the Four Dragons of Asia is faced with the gradual ageing problem that seems to have affected the urban fabric of the city as also the general population. further one of the regions in which Hong Kong seems to be booming along with the eco nomy is property development as Hong Kong is mainly establish on a property led economy and the government as well as private and public property developers have been launching redevelopment projects for setting up new structures in Hong Kong.However as Chui points out the special needs problems of elderly people have not been attended to and most of Hong Kongs elderly people are poor physically, financially and socially. However with urban renewal and changes, the elderly people are at disadvantage and face threats to their survival as they are not in a position to cope with the restructuring changes in Hong Kongs fast paced urban development projects. There has also been a gradual weakening of the assess to Chinese traditional values and culture as for the respect given to the elderly and this along with nuclearization of families have added to the problems of the elderly.Chui writes that government housing policies in Hong Kong should emphasize on community care and ageing in pl ace and help in solving housing problems and needs of the elderly. The study shows the plight of older people in Hong Kong, a booming economy in the South Asian region and a contrasting fate of the elderly people. The gender gap in final payment has been analyzed by some researchers and the trend shows a narrowing gender gap in allowance. According to Fan and Lui (2003), the narrowing gender gap may be related to womens advantages compared with earlier times especially womens changing positions at the workplace.Gender gap is found as smaller in occupations and industries that are less dependent on physical labour as men are more suitable for physically rigorous work. This shows that when an economy transforms from a manufacturing or production oriented approach to a more service oriented one, womens productivity would be recognized an with increased womens participation in service based economies, the gender gap on the basis of wage or participation at the workplace also decreas es.A 1% random subsample was used in this study for two population censuses and the results of the experiment also support empirical results. Methodology The methodology to be used for this study will be both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The qualitative and quantitative data would be primarily available from the internet and research journal databases and journal articles will be selected along with studies by the Hong Kong government as based on the economic indicators, as well as statistical and other government reports on the population and GDP, GNP and labor or prices.Of course in this section we highlight the importance of theory and practice and differentiate between the theories and the practical implications of research and the use of methodology to explain these two features. The theories that will be hand outt with will be economic theories and changes in the global economy along with changes in the Hong Kong economic structure. The practical implication s here would be changes in the population structure statistically obtained and otherwise and population changes as indicated in journal articles that deal with ageing and its associated problems in Hong Kong.The theories and practice of the economic and population changes in Hong Kong will be obtained from journal articles selected from journal databases and these articles are obtained by using search terms such as Hong Kong economy, Hong Kong population, Ageing population, South Asian sparing, Economic structure of Hong Kong, Population of Hong Kong, Elderly in Hong Kong, Employment in Hong Kong and Economy etc.As indicated in the later part of the study, the governments reports on the economic changes and population changes have been given here and the results can be used to show the trends and the analysis can be done quantitatively and qualitatively to show the changes in population in terms of age, gender and wages or social status.In fact wage structure shows changes in econo mic conditions of the major part of population and results could be bony to show how economy and wages would be related in turn to gender and age and the overall impact this has on the Hong Kongs population structure could be drawn in the analysis and interpretation section of the results. The different possible methodological frameworks would be the qualitative methodology and the quantitative methodology.Qualitative methodology is slightly reason the more qualitative or subjective aspects of the population and delineating the attributes or the characteristics of job changes, economic structure and population structure in Hong Kong. Quantitative methodology is about showing statistical tables and values and suggests the population and economic structural changes in terms of values or numbers as given in statistical tables.The impact of old age or ageing population on the economy as discussed qualitatively by researchers would form part of the study using journal articles and des criptions of the situation as given by researchers in articles and published papers as would be the quantitative aspects that are given in published reports and statistical tables giving values or numbers that define the changes in Hong Kongs social, demographic and economic structure quantitatively in terms of values, statistics and numbers.A snapshot of the qualitative and quantitative primary data as would be used in the research study is given below and from some of the research papers as used in the literature review and the reports published by the Hong Kong government, the primary data in terms of tables or published research reports will be chosen and analyzed for the purposes of this study.The published articles or papers in journals as selected from ingenta, sciencedirect, JSTOR or other such databases thus provide the basis for qualitative primary data and the published research reports as available from Hong Kong government sites showing statistical analysis of populatio n and economic structure form the more quantiatve aspects of this study and a balance of quantitative and qualitative methods will be considered for analysis of this research study.Social science research is largely based on ontological and epistemological propositions that help to understand consumer behavior and in this case population structure and government approach to population and how it affects Hong Kong economy in general. From the ontological point of view any phenomena could be analyzed objectively using economic data and in this case the economic structure of Hong Kong could be comparatively objectively analyzed considering other developed or developing economies and the effects of population on economy.The epistemological approach to methodology emphasizes on peoples perspectives and the subjective or qualitative aspects of research as already indicated. Positivistic and Interpretive theories in social science research focus on scientific data (as in positivism) in whi ch experimental findings are of prime importance and interpretive analysis in which drawing out qualitative aspects and viewpoints of the researcher would be more important. The epistemological, interpretive positions are closer to qualitative methodology and the positivistic, ontological philosophies are akin to quantitative methodology as used in any research project.The Table below provides the population structure of Hong Kong by age and sex and as seen from the initial study of 2007 population growth and structure, 3. 9% of the population is above 60 twelvemonths of age, 3. 4% of the population is above 65 or 70 years of age, 2. 7% of the population reaches above 75 year limit and 1. 7% of the population crosses the 80 year old mark. 1. 4% of the population is above 85 years. This suggests that a significant portion of the population is an aged population in Hong Kong and this is a change from 2006 in which the 60 year old population was at 3. 7% and above 75 year olds was at 2 .6% and above 85 year olds was at 1. 3%. The charts show that thee has been a slight yet significant increase in aging population of Hong Kong and considerable decrease in the young population as seen from the population data of 2006-2007. If data is attained over a period of run short 10 years this aging population trend will however become more prominent and this will be elaborated in the methodology and data collection section of the research. This research table thus forms part of the resources that we use as data for our study on the effects of population on economic structure.

Economic way of thinking

In addition to their Immediate effects secondary effects are effects of a policy replace that might not be noticeable when the policy change Is Implemented 7. The value of a substantially or service Is subjective what one good Is worth to person A, may hand over a completely different value by person B (l Like pizza with extra cheese, I value It highly.You are allergic to dairy products, so you place a low value on a pizza with extra cheese) 8. The test of a theory Is Its ability to predict corroboratory and normative economics Positive economics the study of what Is among economic relationships For Instance, positive statements can be statistically evaluated. normative economics Judgments about what ought to be In economic matters Normative statements moreover reflect peoples values these statements cannot be proven truthful or false by economic thinking (think of It as a policemans views on any matter abortion, capital punishment, etc.Those pollens cannot be proven ripe (p) or wrong they can merely be Judged) Economic way of thinking By gangplank 5. The acquisition of information is costly information can help people make go decisions, but information is a scarce good the time it takes to search for the 6. Economic actions often generate secondary effects in addition to their adjacent when the policy change is implemented 7. The value of a good or service is subjective what one good is worth to person A, may have a completely different value by person B (l like pizza with extra cheese, I alee it highly.You are allergic to dairy products, so you place a low value on a pizza with extra cheese) 8. The test of a theory is its ability to predict Positive economics the study of what is among economic relationships For instance, positive statements can be statistically evaluated. Normative economics judgments about what ought to be in economic matters proven true or false by economic thinking (think of it as a politicians views on any matter aborti on, capital punishment, etc. Those opinions cannot be proven right or

Leadership In Enders Game Essay

Ender represents the best picture of rifleership. He is dedicated to learning, to doing well, is innovative, comprehends anything he sets his drumhead to, has strong self-awareness, has strong group dynamics-awareness, understands power dynamics, and is understanding and compassionate towards those he leads. He understands that he has to sometimes do things that he doesnt want to, to draw a point made or a mission accomplished.He knows how to evaluate talent and abilities and knows how to adapt his strategy around the tools and people he has been handed. The tr moability to adapt and his ability to out-think his opponents makes him trustworthy and most beta, people want to follow Ender. They want to him to lead and they want to follow him. Ender knows that the best strategy for defeating the Buggers is for him to train every one of his guys to think like a commander, so that in the course of battle, each individual is fully capable of being decisive and making lynchpin choices to be responsible for their side.Ender had incredible awareness of every moment and how he quickly adapted to whatever came his way. He had the ability to asses each situation, weigh the pros and cons, and act only on what was necessary for his survival. He made sound and timely decisions and he also demonstrated that he was technic altogethery and tactfully proficient. He neer acted on ego, vengeance, pride or greed. His motives were straight, even as he fought his aver inner battles. A lesson learned was that Building Loyalty was important when having, being a part of or leading a group of individuals. For example, when Ender became a commander of a green Army, he doesnt immediately order them around. He develops relationships and maintain amongst his soldiers.He was insuring that he wasnt a friend but more of a respected commander. Being able to Develop Flexibility and Teamwork Above every last(predicate) Else was also an important lesson. Despite the fact that Enders soldie rs were overworked the Dragon Army won every single situation that was thrown at them. Flexibility and liberty helped the Dragon Army to succeed in face of impossible odds. Having particular friends was a lesson that took him far in some cases. Ender was an outcast but he managed to sustain Alai, Dink, Petra and Bean. They just happen to be the best of the best. These friendships dont provide immediate benefits to Ender but these friends become invaluable during Command tutor. Buddy up with the best, you never know when youll work with them.There are many lessons to take away from this book but there is also guidance as to what not to do. Its important to learn from your mistakes as well as learn from others mistakes. For example, dont think youre all that. Many children at the Battle School resent Ender because he was the best. If Ender was the best, that means that these kids arent the best. A blow to the ego when all you were thinking was that you were the best. The true leade rs, such as Dink and Petra, put their own egos aside and gave Ender appropriate respect. Dont judge based on appearance alone.Ender was small and young, Petra was a girl, and Bean was tiny and arrogant but all of them are exceptional. A true leader bear see beyond the surface and see true potential. Dont react emotionally. Doing so can burr a mission and make decisions selfish. Bonzo failed as a leader because he ran on his emotions. Bonzo made decisions based on emotions, not logic. That type of decision-making lead to his death. Ender functioned differently. He channeled his anger using logic. Good leaders can put their emotions aside when necessary. And lastly, dont stop learning. There is always room for progression no matter who you are. Ender continually matured as a leader, throughout the story.This book is in the commandants reading list because it uses military mindset along with the important traits that the marine corps wants us to have instilled in ourselves as marines . The obvious would be the leadership characteristics that are possessed by the main character. Another would be the whole scenario of the school itself. Ender left home to enter a different world. Every marine has been through this. Its an adjustment that we all have at peace(p) through and we have all learned these same lessons along the way weather we are aware that we have or not.

Summation of the Virgin and the Dynamo

Ben McAllister English one hundred ninety 10/4/2010 In Henry Adams The Dynamo and the Virgin, he starts to speculate about Christianitys strength during the medieval times and how it can be related to the twentieth century energy, using the dynamos, that produced electricity. He says when he relates religion and energy, As he grew accustomed to the gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross. By doing this he is explaining he believes the relation amongst the machines and their parts are just like the Christians being part of the Cathedral and their religious belief. Therefore, after his relation is given between faith and science, decides he is going to combine the two in his studies, and everyaffair that is considered irrational, he would say it takes faith to believe. He goes on to say how there could never be an American Virgin, since we relate that to sin. As he gets older, continues to search for reasons why the Virgin is still lost in our culture, and he explains it has always been there.He says the Virgin is a force that shaped our Western Civilization, but we had to find her. Word count 199 Grade 17/20. Overall, passably solid here, Ben the first half of the summation works very well, as youve got a clear interruption sentence and a pretty clear link to what Adams sees the connection between the two signs. But, one thing to think about adding here would be less about how Americans see the Virgin, and how of how Adams sees the dynamo how does he see that symbol as power

Adaklfjda

My Birth & Childhood add Interesting facts about your puerility (family, location. School, hobbies) in bullet kind Born on 25 August 1530-28 March 1584 in Exoskeletons, Russia Ivan was the discussion of Visalia Ill Elena Gallingly was his mother she acted as a regent, but she died of what many bell eve to be blackwash by poison His Grandpa was Ivan the Great and he was Ivan the Terrible He became Grand Prince of Moscow at the age of 3 when his fuck off died, but due to political intrigues going on at the time, he spent around of his childhood imprisoned in dungeon while his mother managed affairs of state.Years after when his mother died of what many believe was a poisoning, he had reached the level of education necessary to become attracter of the country. Ivan was a lonely kid who was for the most part neglected by his family, who were buy sys poisoning and discriminating each other. He spent his time reading voraciously and torture Eng little animals. Hobbles Included dri nking beer, playing the trombone, raping and kill Eng people. And throwing pets out of the upper windows of the Kremlin. 2. My Adult Life add interesting facts about developing up as a young adult.Marriage, implies, school, travel In bullet form Smart and a keen reader, early on Ivan started dreaming of unlimited power. In 1547, aged 16, he was finally invest Czar of all Russia, the first rule to officially assume t he title. The young ruler started out as a reformer, modernizing and centralizing the coo entry. He had his first rival executed at age 13. This execution effectively ended the political struggles within the Russian state that had persisted throughout his childhood. His father died at the age of 3 and his mother died at the age of 8 Ivan had a poor health, he was largely ignoredEveryone would do terrible things to him but he would become smarter and he wool d perplex revenge He had 7 wives and his first one was the happiest and when she died he went into full OFF 3. What I Am Most Remembered For & My Death add interesting fact about your accomplishments, or your failures in bullet form Ivan also pressed to turn his country into a military heavyweight. Back then, the Attar armies repeatedly devastated Russians northeast. In 1552 Ivan crushed the Attar strongh experienced of Kane and then another one Astrakhan.Ivan oversaw rapid expansion of Russia, largely by conquest, which opened Russia up o trade with Europe and new ideas, and his self- appointment as tzar of Russia was a large factor in unifying Russia under one leader. He introduced new laws, many of which merge the power of his central government over the boyar of Russians past. La was to restrict the movement of peasants helped to solidify his rule, and also primed(p) the ground dork for serfdom, which would cause his ancestors so many headaches.Ivan IV Vehicles, known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet Groggy is associated with migh ty, power and strict sees, rather than horror or cruelty. Ivan oversaw legion(predicate) changes in the transition from medieval nation state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the fir SST Tsar of a new and more than powerful nation. Ivan died from a stroke while playing chess with Bogged Belles In foreign policy, Ivan IV had two main goals to resist the Mongol Golden Horde and t increase access to the Baltic Sea.Ultimately, he aimed to conquer all remaining independent .NET regions and create a larger, more centralized Russia. 4. What_(your real name) Found the Most Fascinating About Me write what you, the student found the most fascinating about your character s if you were e the interviewer. One of Moscow most famous landmarks is a reminder of this drive to expand Russia s borders. SST. Basils Cathedral on Red Square was built by Vans order to commemorate Khans invasion and other key victories in the Attar campaign.A popular legend has it that the work was d one by two architects Position and Barman. When Ivan saw the finished cathedral he liked it so much that he had the architects blinded to prevent t hem from building anything like it elsewhere. Had 7 wife Historic sources present disparate accounts of Vans complex personality he was scribed as intelligent and devout, yet apt(p) to rages and prone to episodic outbreak goofs mental illness He would kill people knock old people over, find women and do many terrible things t them, also he would rob and discriminate many things, lastly he would devour history books.

Knowledge For Social Work Essay

social d in ally reading in Britain has beneathgone iterate and fundamental restructuring in the yesteryear decade. In the earlyish 1990s the maestro qualification, the Certificate in change hearty Work (CQSW), was replaced by the Diploma in Social Work (DipSW), a shift which essential signifi whoremongert curriculum changes. Now well-disposed decease reading is undergoing a nonher major change, with the DipSW being replaced by an undergraduate degree. However, despite changes to execute and academic training requirements, at that place are close to constants, some requirements which do non alter. One of these is the demand for genial work students to demonstrate that they can hold back possibility to pr affectice as luck of qualifying requirements. This requirement, presented casually onside a ample list of further requirements, characteristically fails to grasp that understanding the family birth in the midst of scheme and birth out has long been a sou rce of look at within var. science.In legion(p releaseicate) respects, the recent debate in Britain (see Trevillion, 2000) continues, and draws upon, consistent themes in companion adequate to(p) supposition over the relative merits or some other(a) of positivist paradigms, with their underlying assumptions of a social demesne that can be fractureed by dint of the application of localise techniques. The early debates in social guess were organize by a widespread belief in the male monarch of scientific and secular-philosophical get laidledge to provide for the attention and improvement of natural and social life. The age of reason subjectness provided a con school text of optimism in the possibilities for a bodied life deposeed by arbiter and representing the present of progress.Though the optimism oecumenicly attri merelyed to the discernment was tempered by ambivalence on the part of some theorists, or rejected by others, the nineteenth and early ordinal centuries were dominated by philosophical and metaphysical interventions which, in general, supposed that noesis could provide a insane asylum for political and social progress. This supposition could only if be held by assuming that the acquaintance domain could be conceived of as an object, containing an underlying unity, progressing in a logical delegacy, and dole outd by subjects whose access to rational thought would secrete them collectively from the superstitions of pre-modern life. The underlying mechanisms of diachronic progress, the necessary regularities in social life, were held to be available to disco very by the sciences and philosophies, so that such(prenominal) knowledge attained a key role in the achievement of social progress (Penna, et al, 1999).Although the age of reason was also characterized by pro institute ambivalence concerning the possibilities for rational progress, the social sciences displayed a deep belief in the possibilities of knowledge to understand the social world and therefore pass on the take awaying of rationally organized structures, institutions and interventions. Thus the objective of knowledge-generation has been the establishment of a foundational knowledge, derived from the exclusive truth-producing capacity of science, that can articulate social operation. Foundational principles have been flooringd upon two important assumptions that attainableness involved a distinction amid soul and world, between the subject and object of knowledge, and that language functioned as a neutral medium for the mind to mirror or represent the world (Seidman 1994 3).This historical sharp legacy, together with a consider for professional status dependent on a proper knowledge-base, drives demands that professional exert demonstrate the application of theory to course session. I involve to suggest here that this demand betrays a lack of understanding of what theory is and what it can do and, at best, leaves s tudents conf wasting diseased, whilst at worst it plumps to cruel or ineffective coiffures in agencies. here I outline the historical setting that has led to a particular understanding of theory as a guide to proceeding, point to some perils of its application in practice, and suggest a diverse method of dealing with theory on social work degree schemes.What is possible action?What we call theory can be silent as a system of social action that gives direction and meaning to what we do. To be mercifulkind is to search for meaning, and all of us hold theories some how and why particular things happen or do not happen. Some of these theories are little more than vague hypotheses to the highest degree what leave behind happen if we act in a certain look in a certain situation and what we might ask from others. still more of the theories we hold are more complex and express our understandings of, for example, how physical compositions work, of how people become offend ers, or why the distribution of imaginations is as it is. In this sense theories are generalizations about what exists in the world and how the components of that world fit together into patterns. In this sense also theories are abstractions in as much as they generalize across actual situations our expectations and suppositions about the reasons why certain patterns exist (OBrien and Penna, 1998).In the same delegacy that we mathematical function theory in our everyday remains, we also draw upon various theories as part of the shipway we act in the world, so understandings of the social dimension of social work are also built upon distinguishable theoretical foundations. As OBrien and Penna (1998) point out, theories about the validity of data and interrogation procedures, theories about what motivates individual behaviour, theories about what will happen if we intervene in particular situations in x way rather than y way, become embedded in social, economic and criminal jus tice policies essential, implemented and managed by incompatible social groups. Theories about the proper relationship between the individual and the state, men and women, homosexual and heterosexual, inform policy and practice frame whole shebang so that the frameworks that legally bound social work, as well as practice priorities and interventions, differ substantially from country to country. guess about social life is either used or promoted in particular policy and welfare frameworks in order to make them more effective or appropriate, and is invariably embedded in the social programs that ensue from them. In this way theories make up the premises and assumptions that guide the formulation of particular policies and practices in the firstly place, as well as their by and by implementation. Such premises are essentially theoretical they are imaginary in the sense that the conditions they describe, the logics of action and the structures of provision on which they focus are n ot proven, definite realities.This use of theory in the shipway set forth above developed from the intellectual sea-change of the eighteenth century European Enlightenment. Prior to the Enlightenment, social organization was understood through theological worldviews, and government of the population justified saliently according to divine honest and religious edict the Sovereign ruled over a subject population because he or she was divinely ordained to so. However, from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards a shift in intellectual thinking occurred which was to have major implications for the development of European societies. This historical period The Enlightenment marks a time when people start to be understood as self-creating, rather than as products of divine creation. A philosophical shift, questioning theological understandings of the human beings world and establishing the legitimacy of scientific explanations of the natural world, results eventually in a hum anist understanding of social organization.The Enlightenment sees the establishment of new philosophical systems for understanding both the natural and human worlds and the development of rational responses to social problems. The Enlightenment promises progress and represents a faith in science as a progressive force which can understand, and hence solve, problems in the natural and social worlds.In this intellectual movement, new ways of thinking overlay those they were in the work on of replacing, so that the cosmic transcendence of religious thought was replaced by the universalism of philosophy, and the methods and principles of the natural sciences. It was assumed that a theory could be developed that would substitute for the truth of religion.Eighteenth and nineteenth century social thought was focused, in the social sciences, on the search for one theory that could explain the social world and hence provide a guide to action a theory that could be used in practice famousl y captured by the status praxis. However, as the twentieth century developed, this creationion of theory came under increasing attack, and this attack is one which has many implications for the use of theory in social work command and practice.Part 2Some Problems With TheorySeveral events in Europe contributed to a questioning of the application of theory to practice. The establishment of a communistic society based upon the premises of bolshy theory was one such event. As the mass exterminations, abuses of power and repressions of the communist state came to widespread notice, so did the rationales underlying them. The communist leadership, following particular strands of Marxist theory, obligate upon populations conditions which, in theory, were necessary for the development of a communist society. Those individuals who did not fit the predictions of theory, or questioned the premises upon which action was based, were considered deviant and sent for retraining in labour camp s when they were not killed.The endless compulsory self- criticism that members of various Marxist groups carried out was aimed at making individual behaviour conform to the tenets of theory. Yet when many thousands of individuals failed to conform, it was their behaviour that came under scrutiny, rather than the premises and assumptions of the theory, resulting in tragedy for thousands. The number tragedy was the application of theory to practice by Germanys Nazi leadership. These two examples provide perhaps the most extreme illustrations of the application of theory to practice, but the history of social welfare is littered with more mundane examples that nevertheless cause great affliction to those subject to theory application.We have seen the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century whose influence contributed to the institutionalisation (and worse) of people with study difficulties, the widespread use in the mid-twentieth century of lobotomies in treating people wi th mental health problems and, to get two examples from this authors practice doer, the use of psychodynamic and behaviour modification theory in practice. I observed the use of psychodynamic theory in practice in the social work department of an precipitous unit in a psychiatric hospital. A senior social worker specialized in dealing with depressed female lone-parents. Reading through dozens of case-notes (meant to aid my practice) I was struck by the way that these womens depression was attributed to various failures in their early psycho-sexual development, whilst their practical circumstances victims of domestic violence, deplorable housing, lack of money were completely ignored.Needless to say, these women failed to improve, but the point to note here is that this failure was not attributed to the faulty premises of the theory and the way in which it was being applied, but to the womens innate psychopathology. My second example is taken from two days in a residential hom e for children with learning disabilities. Here a behaviour modification regime was implemented by management with no censorious cargo deck of debates in psychology about what it means to be human, what motivates behaviour and how behaviour should be understood. Those children who did not suffice to positive reinforcement (the majority) were labelled and punished, whilst the underlying problems of the theory itself left unexamined.In short, in both these cases, where service-users failed to foregather predicted outcomes derived from particular theoretical paradigms, the response displayed a notably similar characteristic as in the examples from undemocratic societies the users were pathologised, rather than theoretical premises examined.An objection could be made here that these examples merely demonstrate a-typical historical circumstances or incompetent practitioners. However, whether at the level of whole societies, whole social groups, or numerous disparate individuals, a backlash against the conjoining of knowledge and power has been manifest in many locations, including the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union, the critical interrogation of totalising discourses, the decline in membership of organised, hierarchical political movements, the widespread development of rights-based and user movements, and a suspicion of expert practice and bureaucracies.In social theory, the last three decades or so has seen a particularly sustained interrogation of the status of Enlightenment theory. Under the preserve of post-structuralism, particularly that associated with Foucault and Derrida , an unpackaging of the assumptions and premises of theory construction has severely undermined the theory as truth and guide to practice position. This is not to say such challenges to Enlightenment theory did not exist before, for a long impost of hermeneutic and phenomenological thought had posed alternative understandings of human and social action.Post-structura lism, however, has mounted a comprehensive and thoroughgoing pass judgment of the epistemological basis of structuralism and realism. In the current examination of Enlightenment thought, Derrida deconstructed major traditions in western social thought, showing how accounts of human knowledge depended on the use of key textual devices for obscuring snarled philosophical categories, or for revealing and endorsing particular interpretations and meanings of social and political progress. The construction of any text lends itself to several(prenominal) meanings and interpretations, such that it is impossible to arrive at any one fixed, true account.Foucault, on the other hand, examined the epistemology underpinning the Enlightenment belief in the replacement of an institutionalised theological belief system with one which emphasised causal agent and the limitless capacity of human knowledge. Enlightenment philosophy suggests that what occurs in the world is subject to entirely cogniza ble and explainable laws that can be discovered and used in the progress of human society and human mastery over the natural and social world.Foucaults contribution to the unpicking of this position was to show, through examinations of historical understandings of penalty and sexuality, that there are other ways of understanding this history which suggest a very different interpretation of the Enlightenment and its do on social life, and demonstrate that many truths and experiences of social life co-exist that make it impossible to provide an overarching account that explains everything. At the same time, science constantly shifts its parameters, so that what whitethorn be true at one historical moment is rendered false later.This brief outline cannot do justice to the sophistication and breadth of the critique of Enlightenment theory, critiques which have resulted in major debates over how we can know our world and what valid knowledge claims can be made (c.f., Lemert, 1999). Eve n where the foundations of poststructuralist epistemology are rejected there is a much greater appreciation of the problems associated with universalism and linear structures, two of the major props of Enlightenment theory. The interpenetration of these critiques is perhaps most evident in mainstream emphases on difference and social constructivism, difference and postmodernism, (c.f.,Briskman, 2001), and a general rejection in many disciplines of overarching, grand theory (Leonard, 1997).Here attention shifts to the assumptions embedded in theory and the way in which these assumptions become embedded in projects of nation- expression, in legal and organisational structures, and in policy initiatives. Goldbergs (1993, 2002) work on race and racialization traces this process of embedding through an examination of the ways in which Enlightenment thought depended upon a racialized subject of social action and object of social theory. The pervasiveness of this discourse entrenches and normalizes symbolic representations and values both culturally and materially within the institutions of modern life (c.f., Goldberg, 1993 8).The social sciences are deeply implicated in the building of a racist culture and in the hegemony of symbolic violence underpinning social systems (Goldberg, 1993 12, 9). Roediger (1994) examines a similar process in American history and nation-building, pointing to a normalization of Whiteness in the construction of conceptual and political subjects. This legacy enters social work in various ways (see Taylor, 1993), but appreciating the role of theory as cultural artefact, as a cultural product, defecated in, and reproducing, social assumptions of normativity and relations of domination and subordination, can be similarly achieved in relation to gendered and sexualized categories, for example.This leads us to a situation in which theory itself can be understood as a key resource in forging a modern consciousness, and socio-political spheres shot through with asymmetries of power (Penna and OBrien, 1996/7), where exploitation and oppression operate through complex and unstable socio-economic mechanisms (OBrien and Penna, 1996).Not only can the social upon which we work not be known in its entirety, not be predicted, not be subject to fool-proof risk assessment, military rank and so on, but theory doing has arguably been a contributory mechanism in the creation of precisely many of those socially problematic circumstances that social work sets out to address. In short, Parton (2000452) hits the nail on the head in claiming that we need to learn to live with uncertainty, confusion and doubt. Where then, does that leave theory in social work, if we accept this position? I want to turn briefly, and finally, to some suggestions of the use of theory in social work cultivation.Using TheoryAt the beginning of this piece I suggested that we all use theory in our everyday lives. Given that this is so, and that theory permeate s every aspect of academic work, policy implementation and practice initiatives, even when it is tacit and unacknowledged, I would declare oneself that social work students and, ultimately, service-users, would be better served if students were taught how theory-construction takes place and how to unpackage and critically examine theoretical edifices, accounts and the components through which they are constructed. The task for social work students would be not the mechanistic injunction to apply theory to practice but rather to consider how adequate the application of theory to practice might be in X or Y case.To do this, they would have to be taught not so much along who-says-what lines, but rather in equipment casualty of how theorising as an activity works and how different theories are constructed. Theory building is an exercise in logic, moving from initial assumptions and premises to conclusions, through an argument linked by one or more claims. Taking these components apart can be taught as a learning (see, for example, Phelan and Reynolds, 1996 Thompson, 1996) rather than through the more philosophically based, social theory courses provided in many other disciplines.Tackling theory in a skills-based way has several advantages it demystifies theory and enables students to see that, with practice, they can take a theory apart and reconstruct it in much the same way as a plumber or mechanic might tackle a job it leads to a critical scrutiny of practice proposals derived from ( frequently unstated) theoretical premises and to confidence in rejecting the inappropriate and, when the theory fails to deliver, it leads to critical scrutiny of the theory rather than the psyche on the receiving end of it.This is not a plea for eclecticism, but for much more modest expectations of the theory-practice relationship than are currently formally embedded in many social work training programmes. I say formally because many people have a suspicion of theory but, in my view, for the pervert reasons. Most theories offer insights into the social sphere that is the work of social workers but, ultimately, a theory is only as good as its critics.This paper considers the demand for social work students in Britain to demonstrate that they can apply theory to practice as part of qualifying requirements. It suggests that this demand betrays a lack of understanding of what theory is and what it can do and, at best, leaves students confused, whilst at worst it leads to cruel or ineffective practices in agencies. intelligence the relationship between theory and practice has long been a source of debate and, in many respects, the recent debate continues, and draws upon, consistent themes in social theory over the relative merits or otherwise of positivist paradigms with their underlying assumptions of a social world that can be revealed through the application of correct techniques.The early debates in social theory were structured by a widespread belief in the power of scientific and secular-philosophical knowledge to provide for the direction and improvement of natural and social life. The age of reason provided a context of optimism in the possibilities for a collective life informed by justice and representing the march of progress. This paper outlines the historical context that has led to a particular understanding of theory as a guide to action, points to some perils of its application in practice, and suggests a different method of dealing with theory on social work degree schemes.Evidence-based practice in doctrine and teacher educationWhat is it? What is the rationale? What is the criticism? Where to go now?Christer Brusling, Oslo University College, Centre for Study of the Professions.Invited paper to a workshop at the crowd Professional Development of teachers in a Lifelong Perspective Teacher Education, Knowledge Production and institutional Reform. Centre for Higher Education Greater Copenhagen in collaboration with OECD, Copenhagen, November, 17-18. 2005. What is it? Where does it come from? What is the rationale?This movement, if I may call it that, seems to have originated in the British educational context, and with a have words given by David Hargreaves to the Teacher Training Agency in 1996. Unfortunately I have been unable to get a reproduction of it in Norway there is none in Norwegian libraries1. Lacking this original source I will rely on what comes forward in second-hand sources, in published criticisms in mainly British journals, and in later articles by Hargreaves, where he adjudicates his critics. Philip Davies (1999) from University of Oxford, the other place from HargreavesThat doesnt mean that the movement hasnt reached Norway. A recent NOK 100 million proposal for educational inquiry in partnership with schools show that at least the former conservative government knew about it, mainly through Demos, a British nonsymbiotic think tank (demos.co.uk) public square nr. 8 tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idudveksling i professioner www.cvustork.dk/agora 88 perspective, writes favourably about leaven-based education in an article named What is examine-based education?.He says that it operates on two levels, the first being to utilize alive evidence from worldwide look into and literature on education and related subjects, the second to establish intelligent evidence where existing evidence is lacking or of a questionable, uncertain, or weak nature (p.109). The first level is described thus Educationalists at all levels need to be able to pose an soluble question about education know where and how to find evidence systematically and comprehensively using the electronic (computer-based) and non-electronic (print) media retrieve and read such evidence competently and undertake critical appraisaland abbreviation of that evidence according to agreed professional and scientific standards organise and grade the power of this evidence and deter mine its relevance to their educational needs and environments2.(Davies 1999, p.109).Davies acknowledges the debt of the education sector to medicine and other health professions, which predated education with fi ve to ten geezerhood in the implementation of the idea of evidence-based practices. According to Davies, it is derived from theUniversity of Oxford Masters programme in Evidence base Health Care. argreaves explicitly argues for evidence-based tenet by pointing to the success of the idea in medicine, and by the similarity of the work of doctors and teachersPracticing doctors and teachers are applied professionals, practical people makinginterventions in the lives of their clients in order to promote worthyends health or learning. Doctors and teachers are similar in that they make2 Note that evidence-based education in this defi nition curiously enough comes out as apure intellectual exercise, lacking the fi nal application to practice.Agora nr. 8 tidsskrift for forskn ing, udvikling og idudveksling i professionerwww.cvustork.dk/agora 89 findings involving complex sentiments. Many doctors draw upon research about the effects of their practice to inform and improve their decisions mostteachers do not, and this is a difference. (Hargreaves 1997, p. )One reason to turn to evidence-based education is that doing so would make education less vulnerable to political ideology, conventional wisdom, folklore, and wishful thinking, not to mention trendy teaching methods based on activity-based, student-centred, self-directed learning and problem solving (Davies 1999, p. 109). But what constitutes evidence? For Hargreaves (1997) evidence is evidence about what works. The dictionary says that evidence is something that furnishes proof(m-w.com). To be able to provide proof of the working you need to measure the outcome of the teaching activity in question, and you need a procedure of relating the measured outcomes to the activity to make the relation an evide nce3. Hargreaves doesnt see much of a problem with how outcomes are constructed, but is adamant about what ought to be the preferred procedure, the RCT, the randomized control test, often called the golden standard4. Davies (1999), on the other hand, is more permissive of a variety of procedures, thus express a broader conception of educational outcomes.In addition to RCT, he mentions survey and correlational methods, regression analysis and analysis of variance. He allows for inquiries that seek to describe the meanings different people attach to different teaching activities, and the broader and semipermanent consequences of them, e.g. on students and parents sense of self and their sense of social worth and identity (p. 115). Analyses of naturally occurring teaching interactions, communion and discourse areIn keeping with the parallel with medicine, I would say that not only judge and beneficial outcomes should be measured but also non-expected and possibly harmful ones. Harg reaves here echoes the standard text of research methodology from 1963, Campbell & Stanley, Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Research We are committed to the experiment as the only means for remittal disputes regarding educational practice, as the only way of verifying educational improvements, and as the only way of establishing a additive tradition. Cited by Howe (2005), p.308. Agora nr. 8 tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idudveksling i professionerwww.cvustork.dk/agora 90 also mentioned as worth-while in this context. He further wants to ask normative questions within the evidence-based teaching paradigm whether or not it is rightor warrantable to undertake a particular educational activity or health lot intervention (p.115).Davies (1999) omission of the necessary last element in evidence-based practice, i.e. how the purported evidence is to be put to use in practice, avoids a difficult and much discussed problem. Hargreaves (1999b) is of course right in p ointing out that this problem is different if practice refers to policy making, as in the phrase evidence-based policy, or to teaching in classrooms, as in the phrase evidence-based teaching. The use of evidence in policy making is about deciding on large issues concerned with levels and types of resource allocation decisions which are difficult to undo while the use of evidence in teaching refer to the relatively small-scale professional practices of teachers in schools and classrooms, which can usually be easy revised (Hargreaves 1999b, p. 245).In both circumstances enter a lot of considerations apart from evidence. say critique from Hammersley (1997) Hargreaves (1999b) admits that context sensitive practical wisdom pervades (both) expert medical and educational practice. at that place is some hard science deep in the knowledge-base of doctors, but the closer a doctor gets to an individual patient, the stronger the elements of judgement or of practical wisdom that also enters into the decision. Teachers acquire practical wisdom too but, in comparability with doctors, they have little accepted scientifi c knowledge to insert into their decision-making.He claims that the infra structure of knowledge available to teachers is far less developed than that available to doctors, and that teachers seem to be less effi cient than doctors in fi nding the scientifi c knowledge there is. He argues that one reason for this is that the knowledge base in medicine is cumulative while that in education is not, but ought to become.This leads to Davies (1999) second level of concerns about evidence-based teaching to establish skilful evidence where existing evidence is lacking or of a questionable, uncertain, or weak nature. Hargreaves masticate in 1996 to the Teacher Training Agency stated that teachers only to a small extent base their practice on (hard) scientific evidence, but he didnt blame teachers but researchers for failing to produce such evidence, especially p roduced by RCT procedures. With the 12,000,000 funding for developing evidence-based policy and practice by research he hoped researchers would be encouraged to respond appropriately (Hargreaves 1999a). In another journal article the same year, call The Knowledge Creating School, he urges teachers themselves to produce the knowledge they need.To sum up Evidence-based teaching is a concept borrowed from the health sciences and recommended for teachers (you might add by new-public-management-governments and elite researchers). You may get the impression that its use implies a critique of teachers for not including research-based evidence in deliberations on how to teach, but mainly it is a critique of educational researchers for not providing the needed cumulative research-base, built on research of the randomized control trial (RCT) kind. The rationale is that once such research has taken off and its results have been efficiently disseminated, evidence-based, or evidence informed, t eaching will become more frequent.Critique of the notion of evidence-based practiceHammersley (1999) challenges Hargreaves on three accounts his commentary of educational research as non-cumulative, his prescription on how research could contribute to practice, and his argument that education should learn from medicine, which he considers a parallel to education. Hammersley shares the view that educational research could become more cumulative, but researching what works has not proved successful in this respect, despite sustained attempts much educational research in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century was devoted to investigation of effective teaching and one of the reasons for the changes in educational research over the past 20 years is precisely the failure of this work to produce conclusive, cumulative fi ndings (p.144).But he also reminds us that there are different meanings of the concept cumulative. There are obvious problems involved in identifying distinct and standardised treatments in education, Hammersley exemplifi es by the problems faced by researchers seeking to distinguish teaching styles. What about the problems in operationalising the concept of learning? What should be done about the disagreements about what students should learn? What about the problems of how to measure the most important kinds of learning? Hammersley asks if it is possible even in principle to do so. A preoccupation with what is easily measured may very well have profound effect on teaching, narrowing objectives accordingly.To establish fixed, universal causal patterns in teaching seems equally difficult, if not impossible. What might be aspired to is local, context-sensitive patterns in which interpretation and decision on the part of teachers and students play an important role. Unlike in most areas of medicine, in education the treatments consist of symbolic interaction, with all the scope for multiple interpretations and responses which that implies.Hamme rsley thinks that the production of information of high practical relevance usually depends on a great deal of knowledge that does not have such relevancefor science to be able to contribute knowledge that is pertinent to practice, a division of labour is required a great deal of coordinated work is necessary tackling smaller, more manageable problems that do not have immediate pay-off. Hargreaves is described as having a narrowly instrumental view of practical relevance, promoting an engineering science model of the relationship between research and practice. An engineering model assumes that most teaching problems are technical, which is not likely. On the reversion they seem in most cases to be practical, that is involving making judgements in complex situations, exercising discretion, not following rules.The analogy with medicine is criticised for not taking into account that the practice of medicine is more towards the engineering side of a continuum which at the other side has the practical. Even within medicine the notion of evidence-based practice has been criticised for downplaying practical judgement in clinical situations, that the focus of clinical practice is subtly shifted away from the care of individuals toward the care of populations, and the complex nature of sound clinical judgement is not fully appreciated (Tonelli 2000).Hammersley cites a medical researcher who raises the same critique towards medical research as Hargreaves does to educational research it is methodological weak, use inappropriate designs, unrepresentative and small samples, incorrect methods of analysis, and faulty interpretations. The blame is put on practitioners doing research without adequate research training, a fact that doesnt actually support Hargreaves recommendation that more teacher research should lead to a stronger body of knowledge with practical relevance. Hammersley concludes his critique The diagnosis (of the current state of educational research) is mi staken and, taken as a whole the prescription is likely to be lethal.In the North American context an equally forceful critique of the arguments for research for evidence-based practice has been verbalise by Howe (2005). His critique is organised under the headings experimentism5 and scientifi c method, and experimentism and values. The object of his analysis is a National Research Council cut through, Scientifi c Research in Education (2002), which he means represent a more moderate form of experimentism than other infl uential publications advocating research for evidence-based practice. In short he states that this report unconvincingly characterizes the conduct of research as hierarchical, bothtemporally and logically (p. 309) offers little defense of its call for a renewed emphasis on randomised experimentsagainst well-known criticisms regarding the issue of external validity(generalisability from research contexts to other contexts) (p.309) does not take into account Cronbac hs observation that generalizations decay,The word experimentism is used by Howe to refer to scientifi c research advocating the randomised control trial as the best research method. thus making the refinement of a cumulative education science fundamentally unattainable does not take into account that human intentionality signifi cantly complicates how to understand causal explanation in social research places outcomes outside educational research, by snap on means places not-manipulable variables, like socio-economic stratifi cation, outside the limits of educational research by insisting on RCT as the method of choice, thus making educational research a political innocent exercise.Howe (2005) turns to Toulmin (2001) to fi nd an alternative to experimentism an alternative that is without the short-comings described above Activities for which social research is often seen as a wight for improvement medicine and education, for instance call for intentional behaviour on the pa rt of practitioners in the form of craft-based practical judgement. Stephen Toulmin observes that when performed well, these judgements must respond in a timely manner to the unique and unanticipated actions of other persons, as well as to their different ways of seeing things. According to Toulmin, research informing such practices should exemplify a model that is clinical and democratic rather than applied and elite (Howe 2005, p. 317).Teachers relationship to research Do teachers experience a lack of research results when planning to teach? How do teachers relate to educational research? Do teachers fi nd some research literary genres more relevant and practically useful than others? Does teachers practice-based research contribute to a knowledge base of teaching? None of these questions are raised in the early discussions on evidence-based teaching, but specific answers to them seem to enter as premises to prescriptions.I would think that the answer to the first question is no. A common place view of teachers planning is that it is based on textbooks and concerned with amounts of covering, using standard methods of classroom instruction a short introduction by the teacher, independent pupil work with textbook exercises, question-and-answer-patterns, summing up by the teacher in class. Twenty years ago research on teachers planning was frequent, today it seems to be an almost closed field of study. perhaps the expectations of the paradigm of evidence-based teaching on teachers to include research results in their deliberations on how to teach may lead to its re-opening. Do teachers find some research genres more relevant and practically useful than others? Kennedy (1999) observes thatMany genre advocates refer to teachers to justify their arguments, claiming that teachers need more authoritative knowledge (so we should conduct experiments), more dynamic portraits that reveal multiple truths (so we should write narratives), or more richly detailed accounts (so we should do ethnographies). (Kennedy 1999, p.511)Case studies and ethnographies, she continues, have long been justified by contentions that educational events are governed not by universal laws of cause and effect but, instead, by human interactions and by multiple concurrent and interacting influences that the meanings of these events can be understood only within their context that detailed descriptions of the full range of these interactions and dynamics are the only way to accurately represent these events and their meaningsthat the kind of complex dynamic knowledge represented in case studies and ethnographies is more like the kind of knowledge ordinary people use to store their experiences and that such detailed and multifaceted descriptions enable audiences to see similarities and differences between the research setting and their own situations, thus enabling generalizations by analogy rather than by statistical extrapolation. (Kennedy 1999, p.54)She sets out to inves tigate if teachers find some research genres more persuasive, more relevant, and more influential on own practice, than others, and if so, what features of each genre contribute to these evaluations. 100 teachers were interviewed after having read five articles describing research of different genres. Results show that the three evaluative criteria were super correlated, but also that reasons for valuing them varied across genres. Experiments appeared to be highly valued, but so were non-experimental comparisons and narratives.Case studies appeared more influential than surveys. Independent of genre research studies proved to be particularly useful if they helped teachers understand the relationship between teaching and learning (Kennedy 1999, p.528). Kennedy concludes that a majority of teachers found most of the articles persuasive and relevant, but for different reasons. The genre contentions with which she started were not empirically verified.The TTA itself designed a question naire on teachers perspectives on educational research, and distributed it as attachments to journals of two teacher organisations, one for primary teachers, the other for secondary teachers. Everton, Galton & Pell (2000) report on the findings. As an unknown number of subscribers were corporate members for local education authorities and industrial companies they were unable to specify teachers response percentages. It was however estimated that the first group only returned 15% of the questionnaires, the second possibly a little more. In the second group most, i.e. 84%, were filled out by school leaders. wholly in all the manner this investigation was carried out does not justify its analysis in terms of teachers perspectives.Does teachers practice-based research contribute to a knowledge base of teaching?As a result of Hargreaves 1996 lecture to the Teacher Training Agency theBritish government allocated 54000 to the funding of teacher research projects.In an evaluation of the r esulting reports Foster (1999) found that a significant minority of the projects appeared to be practical concerned with the improvement of teaching, learning or educational achievement, rather than the production of knowledge (p. 383). He found that only in a minority of the reports are factual claims well established as a result, it is difficult to see these as much more than opinion based on pre-existing views of good practice (p. 393).Foster concludes that critical scrutiny of findings from teacher research before scattering is crucial, but is afraid that the view of knowledge production and dissemination which underpins this TTA scheme sees little role for such scrutiny. The priorities are rapid production and immediate dissemination to practitioners (p. 395). To sum up There is research evidence that teachers see the RCT research genre as relevant and useful to practice, but no more so than many other research genres. There is research evidence that teachers practice-based re search does not contribute substantially to a body of knowledge on teaching, not to mention a cumulative one.Concluding remarksIn line with the observation that there is more to teachers decision making than following authoritative evidence-based rules for practice, the discourse have changed from talking dichotomously about evidence-based/not evidence-based teaching to talking about evidence-informed teaching (Hargreaves 1999b) or the extent to which teaching is evidence-based (Davies 1999).It is interesting to note that while wait (?) for research-produced evidence on what works, in teaching and in teacher education, British teacher education has become teacher training, managed by the Training & Development Agency for Schools. Its publication release to teach. Professional standards for restricted teacher status and requirements for initial teacher training lists skills, competencies and understandings would-be teachers must acquire (TDA 2005). Hagger & McIntyre (2000) complai ns that these lists have been accompany neither by any rationale for the items listed nor by any explanation of the conception of teaching expertness which underlies the lists (p. 485).Not surprisingly, I found that in this publication the word training appears 51 times, the word education 15 times (most of these in naming school subjects or institutions), the words research, and theory did not appear at all. My conclusion is that there are serious problems, philosophical, historical, and political problems, with the notion of evidence-based practice transferred to teaching and teacher education, at least in its original interpretation.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). (1999). Omnibus Survey. Rockville, Maryland Hill, K., & Romich, B. (2002). 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(2000) Social Work Research What Kind of Knowledge/Knowledges? An Introduction to the Papers, Brt. Jnl of Social Work, 30, 429-432Sue Penna, Ph.D. can be contacted via e-mail at S.Pennalancaster.ac.uk