SAM 340 UNIT 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SAM 340 UNIT 5 - Essay Example The sports industry in the United States is developing at a high rate owing to use of improved technology and massive support from the government and sporting fraternities. Professional Sports. Professional sports entail athletes competing as a team or as individuals, and the reward system is based solely on performance. A professional sport is a major international recreational activity that contributes billions of dollars to the economy every year. North America has been able to develop many international players, and this has made the region lead in the world of sports. The use of improved technology and increased demand for sports programming have also made North American sports a hit in markets abroad. North America holds five major international leagues namely, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the Major League Baseball and the Major League Soccer (Rosner and Kenneth, 496). There are other international leagues that are played in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and they include: American football, baseball, soccer, rugby, cricket, basketball, hockey and volleyball. There are also other professional sporting events that involve individual sportsmen and women, and these include action sports like tennis, track events like relays, and field games like javelin. The NASCAR, Nextel and Professional Golfers Association, organize these events and act as the key management of the sport industry. Sport Agency. Representation of athletes in competition by individuals led to the emergence of sports agency. The sports agency evolved and developed due to high competition as sports agency tried to market their clients in the world of sports. International Marketing Group was the first sports agency to represent athletes in competitions back in 1960 when it first represented Arnold Palmer. There are over 4,300

Thoreau, Henry D, Walden Essay Example for Free

Thoreau, Henry D, Walden Essay Henry David Thoreau, who deals with nature, remains to this day something of a mystery. He was an American essayist, poet, and sensible philosopher, best known for his autobiographical story of life in the woods, WALDEN (1854). Thoreau became one of the leading personalities in New England Transcendentalism. Thoreaus primary genre was essay, and his fascination with his natural surroundings is reflected in many of his writings dealing with totally different subjects. Natural History of Massachusetts includes poetry, describes the Merrimack River, and discusses the best technique for spear fishing. Although he has had more interpreters than any of our other writers on nature, his complex personality has eluded an ever-gathering host of sentimental disciples, whom he would have been the first to spurn , and nearly all his ingenious critics from Lowell and Stevenson to those of his centenary in 1917. He has been regarded as an American Diogenes and a rural Barnum; as a narrow Puritan, as a rebel against Puritanism, as a German-Puritan romanticist; as a sentimentalist; as a poet-naturalist; as a hermit worshiping Nature; as an anarchistic dreamer; as a loafer, Where, amid these bewildering and often equally plausible interpretations, are we to find what he himself called his true centre, if indeed he has one? Obviously, the answer should lie within the twenty volumes of his collected writings; in part, however, it should be revealed by an examination of the influences that were most important in making him what he was. John Thoreau-one of Carlyles sincere, silent fathers of genius, who, in his manufacture of pencils and plumbago, was more intent on excellence than on pecuniary gain-and of Cynthia Dunbar, handsome and spirited, one of the most unceasing talkers ever seen in Concord, whom her staid community was inclined not altogether to approve. His love of nature seems to have been adumbrated in his mother; certainly it was evoked very early, since he tells of the keen impression produced on his imagination, when he was only four or five years old, by the sight of Waldens fair waters and woods, which, he says, for a long time made the drapery of my dreams. Early, too, came the tendency to reverie and the love of solitude, although for some years he lived, like Wordsworth, mainly the life of glad animal movements, wandering over the countryside, to woods, lakes, and rivers-hunting, fishing, berry-picking, boating, swimming. Thoreau was associating with men on other grounds than the raptures of youth in contact with nature; and this habit grew until, at Harvard College, he paid little heed to the curriculum, and He embarked upon a long voyage of unchartered reading that profoundly influenced his outlook on nature and on human life . For the field observations of a student of nature Thoreau was admirably endowed. There was a wonderful fitness, said Emerson, of body and mind. He had in high degree a species of dexterity not uncommon in the Yankee. He understood the relation between sensuous vigour and subtlety and the life of a naturalist: The true man of science, he wrote in the Journal, will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, taste, see, hear, feel, better than other men. Accurate perception in the metaphysical as well as the physical sphere he believed to be dependent on a fit body. The whole duty of man is to make to oneself a perfect body, a fit companion for the soul, since the bodily senses are channels through which we may receive ineffable messages-subservient still to moral purposes, auxiliar to divine. This relation between body and soul he was almost incessantly conscious of; certainly he never cultivated body for the sake of body, and, being a good New Englander, had no erotic strain. Nothing was more foreign to his nature than the sensuality of a certain type of vigorous masculinity to be found in all ages, notably in the Renaissance, when poet and painter, as well as philosopher, had ground for saying that not all the snows of Caucasus could avail to allay the fires within me. Driven to choose between body and soul, Thoreau would have had no hesitation: I must confess there is nothing so strange to me as my own body, he wrote in his Journal. I love any other piece of nature, almost, better. That is his view of body as body, but body as minister of the divine he could not value too highly, and, if not of the Renaissance, he was equally not of the Middle Ages. He was indeed all- sentient. Other poets of nature have not been so fortunate. Thoreaus Taking nature as his province, Thoreau studied her faithfully, acquainting himself with her multitudinous facts, her exact rules and laws, her endless diversity and loveliness of form and movement, till he was prone to forget that knowledge of the part was but a means to knowledge of the whole. Yet inwardly he knew and remembered that to attain the true end, to penetrate to the reality beneath the show, he must stir the deeper currents of his own being, rouse himself out of that somnambulism which, according to Carlyle, is what we please to call life. How could he hope to read rightly the holy book of nature if he brought to it nothing better than the unreal light of the dream world in which the ordinary man lives without knowing it-that ordinary man of whom Plato says, dreaming and slumbering in this life, before he will awake here he arrives at the world below, and has his final quietus . Thoreaus subtle and ambiguous synthesis is founded on a fiction. His account of his tax resistance in the essay revises his tax resistance in the world, in his community of Concord. Thoreau tells us he finds in himself an instinct toward the higher, or spiritual, life, and another toward a primitive and savage one. He reverences them both: ‘I love the wild no less than the good. ’ For wildness and goodness must ever be separate. Thoreau repudiates the physical life with the astounding statement— in Walden of all books—‘Nature is hard to be overcome but she must be overcome. ’ In this new context it appears that Nature is abruptly aligned with the feminine, the carnivorous, and the carnal; though a mans spiritual life is ‘startlingly moral’ one is nonetheless susceptible to temptations from the merely physical, or feminine; urges to indulge in a ‘slimy beastly life’ of eating, drinking, and undifferentiated sensuality. Thoreau speaks as a man to other men, in the hectoring tone of a Puritan preacher, warning his readers not against damnation (in which he cannot believe-he is too canny, too Yankee) but against succumbing to their own lower natures: ‘We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. ’ Sensuality takes many forms but it is all one-one vice. All purity is one. Though sexuality of any kind is foreign to Walden, chastity is evoked as a value, and a chapter which began with an extravagant paean to wildness concludes with a denunciation of the unnamed sexual instincts. ‘I hesitate to say these things, but it is not because of the subject, I care not how obscene my words are, but because I cannot speak of them without betraying my impurity Thoreaus extensive accounts of his house in Walden demonstrate a lively appreciation of issues in current architectural thought. Pinning down his intellectual sources, however, often proves difficult, and it is uncertain whether or not he knew the villa books firsthand. There is some evidence that he was familiar with Downing, albeit at a later date than the Walden experiment. He mentions Downings A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841) and The Fruits and Fruit Trees of North America (1845) in a brief enumeration of books on a friends shelf in 1857, and in a journal entry of 1852, he critiques the notion that one should take up a handful of the earth at your feet paint your house that colour, a conceit that had appeared in Downings writings in 1846 and 1850. Joseph J.  Moldenhauer argues, however, that Thoreaus source was instead William Wordsworths Guide to the Lakes (1810), a copy of which Thoreau owned (the fifth edition, of 1835, is an American compilation), in which the handful of the earth conceit is attributed to Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) in conversation. Moldenhauer stresses that Thoreaus knowledge of Downing is circumstantial rather than documentary; nonetheless, the circumstantial evidence seems strong, given that Downing was at the height of his popularity and influence at the very moment of Thoreaus 1852 remarks . Elsewhere Thoreaus Nature is unsentimental, existentialist. In ‘Brute Neighbours,’ for instance, Thoreau observes an ant war of nearly Homeric proportions and examines two maimed soldier ants under a microscope; the analogue with the human world is too obvious to be emphasized . Although Thoreau introduces the irreconcilability of man and Nature in Walden, in The Maine Woods (1864) he gives the inscrutability of Nature its fullest treatment. In each of Thoreaus three quests into the forest of Maine he foregrounds an epistemological crisis which ultimately reveals the inscrutability of Nature, and the inability of man, as Melville might suggest, to pierce through the pasteboard mask of Nature. In Ktaadn, Thoreau introduces the epistemological themes that he will develop further in Chesuncook and Allegash and East Branch. Each of these three excursions is an extravagant wandering from civilization out into the wild interior of Maine, and then back to civilization (although it must be noted that none of the three excursions is completely circular: in the first and third journeys. Thoreau and his companions leave from Boston, but only return as far as Bangor; in the second journey Thoreau leaves from Boston and returns to Oldtown, just a bit past Bangor). The central opposition at work in all three excursions is the contrast between civilization and Nature, the tamed and the primitive. The hallmarks of civilization are money, property, politics, and machines, such as the railroad and steamboat; the wilderness features wild animals, tangled plants, bugs, mountains, rivers, and Mount Ktaadn. Ktaadn, the first excursion, takes place in 1846. The themes of Ktaadn are grounded in the relationship between civilized man and primitive Nature. Thoreau sets out from Boston into the wilderness of Maine in order to ascend Mount Ktaadn in an effort to re-establish an original relation with Nature, to push beyond boundaries into the realm of the Indian storm-bird Pomolawho, according to Penobscot legend, lives on Mount Ktaadn-where man and Nature unite and ultimate truths are revealed. He never reaches the summit of Mount Ktaadn, however, and Thoreau makes it clear that Nature remains ultimately inscrutable. Speaking of Ktaadn, Thoreau writes: It was vast, Titanic, and such as man never inhabits. Some part of the beholder, even some vital part, seems to escape through the loose grating of his ribs as he ascends. He is more alone than you can imagine. There is less of substantial thought and fair understanding in him than in the plains where men inhabit. His reason is dispersed and shadowy, more thin and subtle, like the air. Vast, Titanic, inhuman. Nature has got him at disadvantage, caught him alone and pilfers him of some of his divine faculty. She does not smile on him as in the plains. She seems to say sternly, Why came here before your time. This ground is not prepared for you. Thoreau writes: Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature, daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks. Having sought the unification of man and Nature, and failed. But, just as Thoreau fails to reach the top of Ktaadn, none have gone high enough up the mountain to find the origin of the spring. Thoreaus second journey into the wilderness of Maine occurs in 1853. Thoreau more fully develops a series of oppositions introduced in Ktaadn. In Chesuncook Thoreau explores the contrast between civilization and wilderness, the civilized and the primitive, the present and the past, lower uses of Nature and higher laws, the indiscriminate hunter and the poet, and commodity and discipline. In his excursion, Thoreau wishes to recapture the past-to relive what the Jesuit missionaries experienced when travelling through the primitive wilderness untouched by civilized man-but he is unable to: he is tainted by the corrosive effect of civilization. Thoreau makes this clear central crisis: the destruction of the moose by Thoreaus band of indiscriminate hunters. Framed by suggestive allusions to Mount Ktaadn, Thoreaus participation in the killing of the moose provokes the wrath of Nature against Thoreau, thereby cutting off any chance. Thoreau may have had of succeeding where he failed in Ktaadn: to establish an original relation with Nature, to go beyond boundaries and express truth . In Chesuncook Thoreau laments his only half-willed participation in the destruction of Nature; in A Minor Bird the narrator tries to understand what there is within man that would cause him to silence any song of Nature, whether that song be in-or-out of key. The suggestion in A Minor Bird is that there is some mysterious separation between man and Nature, a disharmony. Thoreau reflects on the relentless, inevitable advance of civilization, and the destruction of Nature, which this advance brings with it. This poses a serious problem, for the Poet, notes Thoreau, and draws power and inspiration from contact with primitive Nature. In the end Thoreau suggests that perhaps man can preserve some of the raw wilderness left in America (through some form of park system or similar venture). This solution is Thoreaus problematic attempt at a mediating compromise between the relentless progress of civilization and the need of the Poet to tap into the inscrutable power within Nature, the Poets muse. In the past, Nature was untouched and available to the Poet; in the present, Nature is quickly receding. Thoreau introduces the idea of Nature as Muse in Chesuncook. Thoreau is doubly-damned: the mythological tablets that only the poet can read are being destroyed by civilization, and the poet himself has been so corrupted by civilization that even he can no longer read the few glowing wood chips that remain. The poet yearns for communication with Nature, but he cannot bridge the gulf, which separates them. In the end, Thoreau symbolically resigns himself to his fate: when hop and Indian Joe pass by Ktaadn on their way back home, they do not even attempt to climb. Thoreau complains testily in his Journal (1852). One needs distance to be able to focus his vision. One needs space and freedom of movement to refocus his vision, keep it unconstrained by familiarity, habit and custom. In Thoreaus view, lack of originality and morning freshness amounts to near blindness. What makes nature nonhuman, but, for that very reason, also a perfect conversationalist is that nature is ever original, lacking intention and memory. Both, in Thoreaus eyes, are socially conditioned and therefore suspect, the first associated with private interest, the second, with the bonds of tradition. Natural existence, on the other hand, is superior to petty concerns and designs, it unfolds spontaneously moment-by-moment, offering itself to man as a pure tonic. Vista and novelty are what Thoreau treasures most in relationships and communication, and these natures would provide amply . Until recently, Thoreaus scientific interests and pursuits were dismissed by critics as amateur and sloppy science coupled with a declined prose style. Only recently, with the 1993 publication of Faith in a Seed—a collection of not just his late natural history essays but also including the first publicat ion of his unfinished manuscripts—has it become apparent that Thoreau had accomplished something important. In Faith, he demonstrated by observation, experimentation and analysis, how 99 percent of forest seeds are dispersed; and how forests change over time, and regenerate after fire or human destruction. Thoreau worked at his familys pencil factory in 1837-38, 1844, and 1849-50. He had a natural gift for mechanics. According to Henry Petroski, Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite by using clay as the binder; this invention improved upon graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar. Later, Thoreau converted the factory to producing plumbago, used to ink typesetting machines. Frequent contact with minute particles of graphite may have weakened his lungs. He travelled to Quebec once, Cape Cod twice, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his excursion essays, A Yankee in Canada, Cape Cod, and The Maine Woods, in which travel intineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history and philosophy. Thoreau was not without his critics. Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson judged Thoreaus endorsement of living alone in natural simplicity, apart from modern society to be a mark of effeminacy: Thoreaus content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker. He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself. He left all for the sake of certain virtuous self-indulgences. Stevenson was sickly much of his life, bed-ridden and cared for by his mother and wife, but craved a life of adventure and travel. However, English novelist George Eliot, writing in the Westminster Review, characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded: People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every mans life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may discourage Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy. Throughout the 19th century, Thoreau was dismissed as a cranky provincial, hostile to material progress. In a later era, his devotion to the causes of abolition, Native Americans, and wilderness preservation have marked him as a visionary.

Interest Groups :: essays research papers

Interest Groups Help More Than Hurt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voter turnout has declined since 1960 but participation in interest groups has been growing. Participating in interest groups allows people to take action on issues that are most important to them. Unlike some linkage institutions, interest groups have a very close connection to government. Interest groups are an essential part of the democratic system because they allow the public to enter the political system, bring up specific issues in government, and help congress in various ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Interest groups specialize in policies where as interest groups are policy generalists. Statistics show that most Americans are neither radically conservative or liberal but in between or moderate. Both parties have lately tried to conform to the moderate view, but this makes it hard for voters to commit to one party. Many people are split-ticket voters. Both candidates and parties are hard to agree with totally because there are so many different issues. Interest groups give people the chance to support specifically what they care about most. These groups are significant to the democratic system because they allow the public to get involved and in their political system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Political parties (policy generalists) have a great amount of issues on their agenda to be concerned with while interest groups get to concentrate on a single issue. Interest groups can call attention to an issue that could be ignored otherwise. Since groups know more about specific issues than the government, they can make sure that an issue is not overlooked. Interest groups bring attention to the issues that government should focus on. Thus, the government can determine which issues have priority.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Through interacting with congress, interest groups motivate the House and Senate to concentrate on their issue. The relationship between congress and interest groups is one where both benefit. Groups interact with congress with lobbying, electioneering and litigation. Groups help congress by giving them information, doing research, providing money, helping with political strategy, helping with campaign strategy, or other chores that congressmen do not have time for. Congress, in turn, helps interest groups by supporting their issues in congress.

Legality of Suicide and Assisted Suicide :: essays research papers

Suicide has become a big part of American society, year after year more people are taking their own lives for many different reasons. A lot of philosophers have broken down all the reasons of suicides into two different categories, rational suicide and irrational suicide. A rational suicide has been given five basic criteria that usually must be met for the person's act to be considered rational. The five criteria which a person must show for their suicide to be considered rational are, "the ability to reason, realistic world view, adequacy of information, avoidance of harm, and accordance with fundamental interests."(Battin 132) Another opinion of rationality of suicide is, "it is the best thing for him from the point of view of his own welfare-or whether it is the best thing for someone being advised, from the point of view of that person's welfare"(Brandt 118). People have to characterize suicides because a lot of times they don't understand what that person is going through so by grouping them and placing criteria on them it allows them to accept it in an easier manner. A lot of suicides are grouped in the rational category because they are committed so the person can be saved from the pain they may be experiencing from a terminal disease. This seems to be just about the only true rational and morally correct reason why a person should commit suicide. Yet a lot of times these patients are "heavily sedated, so that it is impossible for the mental processes of decision leading to action to occur."(Brandt 123) In other words these patients have a rational reason to commit suicide, yet their mind is not capable of making that decision. So if terminally ill patients are the only ones who have a good rational reason to commit suicide, then where does that leave everyone else? Well just about everyone else commits suicide because of a little thing that enters everyone's life at some time and that thing is called depression. Depression can come from several different things, such as a loss of something like a job, a loved one, a limb such as an arm or leg, or anything else that might be held dear to that person. Other things could be rejection at home or in the work place, abuse, and sometimes even the thought of getting old and not wanting to know what tomorrow holds in store.

DBQ for AP World History

he printing press was transformed by Johann Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, and more than 8 million books were printed in Western Europe between 1456 and 1500. This invention had an effect with the Protestant Reformation. It not only furthered the knowledge of geography, but it also expanded knowledge throughout the countries and whether you were wealthy or poor, printing made books available to the general public.By 1560, many people were either Catholic, Protestant, or mixed (Doc. 5). Non-Catholic Western European Christians were the followers of Luther. Luther’s goal was to stir debate around the issue of indulgences. He believed that is was wrong how the churches would encourage indulgences onto the people. Written in one of the 95 Theses, if people bought indulgences, then they would be â€Å"eternally damned† and because of the printing press, the 95 Theses were known throughout Europe (Doc. 3). Luther would compare criminals to the Popes to get his point across. I n document 4, Luther used the word â€Å"robbers†.Robbers steal and he used this word against the popes. The popes were taking money from the people in exchange of an indulgence. Lucas Cranach, a close friend of Luther, made a woodcut to demonstrate not only the comparison between a pope and Jesus, but also how money was a key factor (Doc. 4). Having a point of view from a Catholic German pope in 1521 could give details and evidence of how indulgences were for the better of the people and not for the pope himself.In 1471, the printing press was not known widely. About thirty years later, the invention spread and along with it was a letter (Doc. 2). Christopher Columbus wrote about his experience of inhabited islands he found in the letter and because of the printing press, his letter spread throughout Western Europe (Doc. 6). He wrote this to keep the king of Spain updated and to let the public know his findings. Columbus was a skilled voyager. He wanted to find new routes an d to bring back goods. In 1489, Martellus, a German, was able to create a world map and Columbus was able to improve the map accurately with his travels.Then almost a hundred years later, Abraham Ortelius, a German, was able to create an accurate world map (Doc. 7). In document 6, it is noted that Columbus was believed to have written most of the letter coming back from America. Having a statement from an eyewitness  boarding Christopher’s vessel between 1492 and 1493 could provide a detailed or accurate description on when he wrote the letter.At first, a scribe would be writing a book by hand from the dictation of a scholar. Then in the mid-1500s, print shops would be built (Doc. 1). Just like the evolving of printing and books, knowledge was expanded and it evolved as well. Isaac Newton was able to use previous knowledge of other scholars to become a mathematician himself. He was able to make the world more understanding by expanding on other philosophers like Galileo (Do c. 10).And other scientific individuals were able to do that as well. For example, Johannes Kepler described how lenses work and was able to create an astronomical telescope. After him, Robert Hooke was able to use a microscope to further his observations (Doc. 10). Everything was wrote down and because of the printing press, things got to be published. Publishers were able to print books in different languages and this expanded the ancient ideas even more (Doc. 8). When the books were open to the general public, the ideas spread quickly on a grand scale (Doc. 9).The printing press helped people understand better. It helped Luther spread his opinions throughout Europe and it resulted in Protestant Reformation. Printing furthered geography and it evolved and expanded knowledge. The printing press was able to write things down permanently for all to see and read; now and then.

Research Paper on Feminism

Research Paper on Feminism Introduction A feminism critique of science and technology springs out from the Foucauldian insights of the intimate relations between knowledge and power. Knowing the world is, through naming it, a way to control it, and it has real effects of oppression and control. Representations work on the represented, and thus, epistemology not only to an extent determines ontology, but by the same token it is a tool to change a world of inequalities. A feminist critique seeks both to unveil actual structures of inequality, such as underrepresentation of women in important and world-shaping  discourses of science and technology, and to criticise the culture of it, or the ideology, that invests it with meaning and hides power relationships. It is a project of criticising both the underrepresentation of women in science and technology, and the more or less dubious rationalisations and naturalisations of science and of womens place in it (see Kember 1996). Science and technology are extremely central areas for the production and use of contemporary knowledge. Both being matters of knowledge, they are social, cultural and historical entities, and not neutral or separate spheres from the rest of society. Feminist critics have called for a new and better successor science (Stanley Wise 1990), to replace what is seen as an essentially old, masculine, logo- and phallocentric one, and they have tried to say something about what this science should be. However, traps of essentialising the feminine have been lurking, in effect continuing the older preconceptions of essential qualities of woman. Alternative and non-essentialistic conceptualisations of the relations across boundaries of machine and body, human and animal were in the beginning not very sophisticatedly explored by feminists of the 70s and 80s. Via an increasing awareness to unpack problematic categories of `women and `technology, a more recent (80s and 90s ) direction of a postmodern bending of boundaries and shifting subject positions was explored by radical, post-modern scientists or feminists. Theorists such as Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti have tried to open up for a nomadic and embodied localised and contextualised definition of women and female experience, nevertheless keeping a political agenda for social change. I will reflect on their contributions to feminist criticism of science and technology after an outline of some criticisms that preceeded them. Feminism critique of science and technology Women have been underrepresented in what is criticised as being an masculine endavour, a dominating and totalising science. Western epistemology and its oppositions between mind / body, rational thought / emotion, culture / nature, man / woman, modern / traditional are hierarchically structured to evaluate the terms to the left as superior and there to control the ones on the right. Judy Wajcman (1991) delineates a history of feminist critiques of science and technology, and notes that since science, technology and medicine provide us with our icons of progress, we revere the rational over the emotional and judge scientific and technological development as an index of societys advancement. However, this century has ruptured our securities as to whether science endowes society with solutions or is itself the reason for destruction and crisis. A concern about gender, science and technology continues the scepticism, but is fairly recent. Early critique from the 60s and 70s questioned the meagre access of women to scientific institutions and revealed structural barriers that hindered their participation. They also turned their attention to questions of how science had been abused by men to suppress women, for instance by providing scientific support for biological sex roles. In this view, science produced knowledge consistently smothered in male bias, but could quite possibly be put to better uses in the right hands. In these case, the motive was getting more women into science and the unfulfilment were seen to lie in women themselves and how their motivations were wrongfully shaped by expectations to feminine `natural interests. Science itself was not the problem. A similar essentially value-free science was seen as a possibility for radicals in the 60s and 70s, but continuing Marxist analysis revealed how the neutral ideal of science was itself a piece of ideology shaped by history and power, being as much a figment of ideology as were the essentialisms that placed women as `unfit to do sober, scientific work. In the 80s, seeing science as patriarchal rose from problematisations of science within feminism itself. Whether science and technology was inherently masculine, or essentially neutral but male biased, it resulted in an inherent patriarchality and made feminists ask the question of how a science apparetly so deeply involved in distinctively masculine projects can possibly be used for emancipatory ends (Harding, ref. in Wajcman 1991:5). In each case, what followed were attempts to find out what a better science would be either an entirely new and feminist one or one cleansed of its male bias. In order not to just put more biological women into a masculine, power-driven and authoritiative science, science itself had got to be changed. Re-examining the scientific revolution and arguing that the emerging science wsa fundamentally based on the masculine projects of reason and objectivity, the dichotomies between culture and nature, mind and body, objectivity and subjectivity and public and private were seen as hierarchically evaluated and gendered in that the latter part were systematically associated with the feminine. (Wajcman 1991:5) Feminists have argued for a feminisation of science, for a new successor science to replace the old masculinist one. The problem comes when one argues against dominating, oppressive and exclusive ideologies of women-not-in-technology, and at the same time tries to ground a new and bett er science on perceived `feminist values, as opposed to the `bad masculine ones. The pitfalls of a continuation of dichotomies and essentialism are still there. Eco-feminists celebrated conventional qualities of the feminine of holism, care, empathy and being in tune with nature, and a psychoanalytically informed critique would posit that childhood separation put in men essential cognitive characteristics of establishing masculine power and identity through rigid control and separation between self and other thus shaping science into an objectifying power game. Haraways critique of feminism against origin stories Donna Haraway (1991) criticises feminism for continuing a just as totalising project of taxonomy of its own history and of women, as the ones conventionally conducted by Western science. She identifies traditions of `Western science and politics as being the tradition of racist, male-dominant capitalism; the tradition of progress; the tradition of the appropriation of nature as resource for the productions of culture, and writes that her Cyborg Manifesto is an effort to contribute to socialist-feminist culture and theory in a postmodernist, non-naturalist mode [] imagining a world without gender. (1991:150) She is deconstructive and radical in her criticisms of Western capitalism as well as of certain versions of feminism put forward by some feminists. They are both caught up in a dualistic world-view, where one either is or isnt, for instance, `woman, `black, or `human, and she points out that feminists have constituted themselves as totalities; how else could the `Western author incorporate its others? (160) A polyvocality, of feminisms and of women, disappeared into attempts to establish genealogies of essences. All such quests for essence are articuations of West ern humanisms inclination to origin myths, where an original state of balance, fullness and unity was disrupted. A project of changing the world would in this vein be to search to reestablish the unity and posit essential shared but subject to evolution or disruption features between people. Haraway blames both Marxism and psychoanalysis of positing such stories of initial bliss and following rupture. We can draw the parallel further to colonial and anthropological divisions between the West and the Rest, or modern and traditional society, where the project was ordering a messy world of the First Encounter through representation of the other. Walter Benjamins concerns with mimesis, alterity and modernity is, writes Michael Taussig, fully congruent with [] the (Euroamerican) culture of modernity as a sudden rejuxtaposition of the very old with the very new. (Taussig 1993:20). A dualistic world-view, where `traditional society sometimes seen as a lost Arcadia, sometimes as a savage earlier stage of evolution is in opposition to modernity, as staticness is opposed to change.Destroying the other simultaneously with conquering them is the colonialist legacy and goes together with the anthropologys world of a withering mosaic of tribes. Whether one sees modernity and Western science and technology as disrupting the world as breach of a unity between nature and humans or as the pinnacle of knowledge and the appliance of rational thought to lift the world from savagery and magic into Enlightenment and well-being for all what is common is a dualistic world view positing origin stories and which through hierarchy, control and difference subjugates nature and other Others. Feminist criticism have deconstructed the museums of scientific knowledge and the veils of naturalisations of womens subordination.The structures of what meaning is given to `feminine and `masculine change through time, history and discourse, and science and technology cannot be seen to be in any way set apart from sociological power structures and semiotic meaning processes. It is not so that power or economic structures determine meaning processes they influence one another, yet frequently cooperate to create ideology and underwrite hegemony. Getting out of ideology, of dichotomies that have shaped knowledge of the world and thus the world itself, doesnt happen quickly or painlessly. Difficulties with getting away from essentialising a feminine identity, thus continuing connotations real and symbolic to subjugation, illustrates this general point. However, there is still a feminist project. Defining femininity based on hierarchy or one shared experience of being `woman spurring a pan-global identity is out of place, but further unwrapping of the concepts of `man, `woman and `technology entails a beginning and a need for relativisation and localisation of definition and experience. The next step, reconstruction of a common feminine identity on which to base political struggle, have often stranded. Because in these attempts to recasts epistemology, they are out of touch with an ontological reality of different experiences, of a multiplicity of subjects who as a rule dont subscribe to just one identity and one identity fully. As Wajcman concludes (with Harding) there is no `woman to whose social experience the feminist empiricist and standpoint approaches can appeal; there are instead the `fractured identities of women' (1991:11). The fractured identities come from social experience of gender as well as of class, race and culture. That the Western / humanist / Enlightenment ways of viewing, dividing and ruling the world now should be well out of place, is illustrated in a delineation of the ontology of our contemporary world system, what Donna Haraway terms the informatics of domination (1991:161). A movement from an organic, industrial society or the White Capitalist Patriarchy to a polymorphous information system entails fundamental changes. Boundary-keeping absolute dualisms have been replaced by boundary-transgressing, relative positions in information systems. Science and technology lie behind blurrings of boundaries; biology and evolutionary theory questions the rigid division between human and animal. Information processing and reproductive technologies brings organism and machine, the physical and non-physical closer. These are deadly machines, because they are about the simulation of consciuosness. A crucial feature of biologics and communications sciences in the informatics of domination is their t ranslation of the world into a problem of coding (164), parallel to the general trends of world economic systems who depend on uninterrupted circulation of information. This radical rearrangement in world-wide social relations tied to science and technology entails that if it ever was possible to define the world and gain knowledge about it in dualistic and positive terms before, it certainly isnt now. In this system, connections and affinity takes over the roles of belonging and identity, and are both necessary and possible; The consequences of the informatics of domination on the home, workplace, market, public arena, the body itself dispersing and interfaced in myriad ways makes potent oppositional movements difficult to imagine and essential for survival (163) As a fresh, clean slate unmarred by culture and history is not available, how can existing cultural signifiers of femininity, of technology be put to use, not essentialising, but still focus on womens subjectivity and feminist politics? For Haraway, the figure of the cyborg provides a fiction to illustrate and put to strategic use in this process of survival. Cyborgs are wary of holism b ut needy for connection (151). An ironic political myth Donna Haraways cyborg, the figuration set up in A Cyborg Manifesto is first of all ontologically grounded: By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs. (150) A cyborg being a cybernetic organism, an interface of machine and organism, and we cannot separate ourselves from technology or science that produces it. Moreover, our ontological cyborg-ness gives us our politics. The cyborg is a fiction, an image, of humanness in a world where boundaries are broken, and the metaphor for a world of non-bounded entities, where shifting identities rise from positions in the matrices of economies, biologies and epistemologies. It is a fiction which is both imaginary and materially real. The informatics of domination is the life-world of the cyborg, and this world system is frighteningly feminising (making extremely vulnerable) work and people. Haraway sees the cybernetic system of informatics of domination as a massive intensificaion of social and cultural insecurity and impoverishment (172), without positing Marxist dualisms of base and superstructure. She thereby escapes a rigid understanding of domination and false consciuosness and can go on to look for subtler connections, emerging pleasures and experiences. The dualistic world-view mentioned before, incorporating Enlightenment science as well as Marxism, focus on modernity as loss or break from an earlier s tage of harmony, or savagery. It has serious problems saying anything about postmodernist experience other as further fragmentation, and is not the theoretical framework to articulate emerging meanings of contemporary practices. Haraway spots the lack of sufficiently subtle connections for collectively building effective theories of experience (173), but still sees hope if we are able to learn from our fusions and boundary-transgressions instead of just being made vulnerable by them. Western capitalism, science and technology have produced an illigitemate offspring, the cyborg. Being the typical entity of the informatics of domination, it embodies difference and transgressions and inhabits a possibility f or strategic, political use. Communications technologies and biotechnologies are crucial tools defining our bodies (164) and they hover somewhere between tools to embody new social relations for women and as myths enforcing essentialised meanings. Haraway, being a scientist hersel f, does not see science in itself as inherently or essentially masculine. The boundaries are permeable, the knowledge is constructed and technology are really social relations, and therein lies the possibility to navigate structures of knowledge to seize the tools that marked women as other (175). Bricolage seizing the tools Cyborgs were created in a complex scientific-technological industry of military and medical science, serving as interfaces to enhance control, vision and violence. Seizing these tools, using the image of cyborgs, means working against the science that conceives itself of making objective tools to work on the world to create disembodied knowledge and instrumental technology. Structures and idioms of oppression and dominance have produced the elements of cyborg imagery, but they can be put to alternative use. I would like to parallel this with the opposition between Claude Levi-Strauss ideal types Ingenieur and the Bricoleur. Levi-Strauss (1972) treated science and bricolage as being two different but parallel modes of acquiring knowledge, that is, epistemologies. The ingenieur is the one who makes new knowledge out of `nothing. His tools and concepts are transparent means to an end, removed from the concrete world, and they are not bound up in previous practice or attached with meaning. Of course, contrary to what western science would like to think of itself, the bricoleur can be spotted as well. He builds on old meanings and of structures of power he is creating knowledge out of fragments of meaning already found in the world. Bricolage was identified with magic and myth, and the bricoleur is adept in a large number of diverse tasks, even though the repertoire of tools is limited to whatever is at hand. They are finite and heterogenous and bears no relation to the current project. In discussing Haraways cyborg, it should be clear that meanings are given to gender, work and difference through the praxis of the social relations of technology in the informatics of domination. Mythical thought is a kind of intellectual `bricolage, writes Levi- Strauss, and Haraways cyborg is a myth about identity and boundaries made up of the remnants of industrial society and the continued capitalism of the informatics of domination. Levi-Strauss pinned the difference down to being compliant with literate societies versus pre-literate ones. The literate, scientific Western side is reflected in Haraways discussion of the writing and the name as being masculine and phallocentric. (175) Origin stories are phallocentric, but the cyborg writing is different. In a world where the boundary between the `primitive and the `civilized no longer holds, cyborg writing is not about searching for the perfect name of the singular work. To seize the tools that marked women as other to gain back a power to survival is the basis for cyborg writing, not original innocence. (175) Western science has been based on the ideology of the rational ingenieur who creates anew, while overlooking the continuities, the guesswork, the axioms of mathematical rules and discriminatory gender differences, overlooking the bricoleur in it who thrives on connotation, ideology and culture. Feminism critique of science and technology has helped revealing and debunking these structures, because they are dubious in their foundation and have excluded women from production of knowledge and technology. Assessing western science as cultural bricolage has been deconstructing its knowledge, in feminist and other critiques. However, stating that bricolage takes place, is not necessary to call for an abandonment of science altogether on the reason that it fails to live up to its objectivist claims. A bricolage does not result in pure relativism or subjectivity from lack of being objective, it is objective in its being intersubjective. In using the cyborg imagery in order to construct a n ew feminist science, we are not trying to search out a new monistically objective science, but using `whatever is at hand politically, ironically and pragmatically to create a new epistemology that values different experiences. If science has produced disembodied knowledge, or at least certainly told the story of objectivity and neutrality to itself, a new and feminist science is still possible according to Haraway. This is, as I have tried to show, grounded in old tools as well as contemporary experiences of fluid identities and contingencies. The cyborg is ironic and produces no monistic truth. Because it is a hybrid, it embodies difference, and the notion of partial perspectives provides a new basis of scientific objectivity, and this objectivity is enhanced, not weakened, by multiple standpoints and partial views. Sarah Kember (1996) points out that embodied knowledge incorporates experience, desires and politics of the self, and therefore cannot make universalist truth claims. It can tell of others standpoints as well as ones own, and recognise a multiplicity of equally valid feminist standpoints . They are put to the task of undermining existing epistemological structures and scientific hierarchical separations. Experiences of whom are named as `black, `lesbians, `old are embodied and can be told. Even though we try to avoid essentialising categories and names for peoples identities or differences it is quite possible to take these categories and names (`black, `woman) as a starting point, with the connotations they already have. They will include their own transgressions and contestations around labelling, escaping, meaning, identity and lack of identity, and become stories others can hear and share, and accept as some of many possible and equally valid feminisms and femininities. There i s no drive in cyborgs to produce total theory (181) but experience of boundaries, their construction and deconstruction. Donna Haraway argues against origin myths, dreams of original wholeness and future oneness. Cyborg politics is about revelling in boundary stories and transgressions, thus reversing and displacing the hierarchical dualisms of naturalised identities. Haraway stresses the cyborg subject position as partial, ironic and faithful to blasphemy. Cyborgs are always on the move, always embodying difference differently, and the only thing it takes for granted is irony. Irony mocks power and the dualisms in which we have explained our bodies and our tools to ourselves. (1991:181) Science and technology have pushed their projects to the limits, revealing the blurred boundaries of mind and machine. She takes inspiration from the anthropologist Mary Douglas, who explores the connections between bodily boundaries and social boundaries. Body imagery provides idioms for a world view, and is thus a political language and a narration of society itself. She is Durkheimian in that the rituals and boundary-myths are all, really, about society and its perpetuation and wholeness. Bodily inscribed notions of pollution, purity and danger is at stake in the maintenance of social boundaries, and in primitive society as well as in our own, bodily functions are socially treated; women are separated in menstrual huts, or they are being subjected to controlled choices surrounding conception and childbirth. The cyborg embraces the possibilities inherent in the breakdown of clean distinctions between organism and machine, and finds pleasure in these potent and taboo fusions. Science and technology needs to be positively recast not written off and the boundary-transgression involves being (in) the machine in opposition to what earth mothers and technophobic feminists think; machines can be prosthetic devices, intimate components, friendly selves. We dont need organic holism (Haraway 1991:178). The imagery of implants and oneness with the machine is motivated by a political need to reconcile women with science. Science is not going to go away, and it is useful in that it still can provide objective views of the world they give accounts of the world that can check arbitrary power (Penley Ross 1991:2). About longing for enchantment and unity Why introduce the image of the cyborg? As Judith Squires (1996) has pointed out, Haraways feminist critique is really sufficient without it; one can reject the homogenising strategies of grand narratvies and challenge the universal pretensions of modernist thought [] one can explore the possibilities of flexible, transitory identities without ever making recourse to cyborg imagery. (Squires 1996:206) She identifies the lure of the cyborg image as feeding the old will to transcend the bodily nature of the female and exist purely in the cerebral realm of individual autonomy. If Haraway herself never lost sight of the nitty-gritty of lived social relations (Squires 1996:207), her ungendered unconsciuos-less cyborg may be, as a myth and an image, too ephemeral to separate itself from an interpretation of a bodyless mind. The cyborgian transgression of boundaries entails both both pleasure and responsibility in their constructions, but it may seem that the construction that takes place n ext to deconstruction, and the political responsibility following affinities by choice could be overlooked. Separating good and bad cyborgs is essential to Haraways political project; cyborgs that mock and check power are good, and the military-medical ones are bad. But these boundaries are, ironically, themselves blurred. The cyborg as it is found in medicine and military technology and in popular culture (e.g personalities of science fiction such as Terminator, Robocop and the like) are quite different from Haraways ideals, and give rise to speculation. One is the fetishistic use of body- or vision-enhancing technology, reinforcing a hierarchical relationship between self and other (Kember 1996:240), and intensifying the old opposition between mind and matter. For cyberpunks, it is a matter of getting out of the meat, the complete opposite to embodiment of female experience. The breakdown of boundaries is at issue here as well, but results in a pleasurable reinforcement of them instead of transgressing them to redefine difference. That [the simultaneity of] the breakdown of clean distinc tions between organism and machine and similar distinctions structure in the Western self [] cracks the matrices of domination and opens geometric possibilities (Haraway 1991:174), that is somewhat inherent contradictions and paradoxes in the informatics of domination, give rise to speculations of a feminine revenge of technology on human patriarchy. Associations of the female to the technological matrix (which is the word for the webs of interconnected pieces of information technology as well as having the etymologies of `mother and `womb (Springer 1991:306)) and a natural force is known from ecofeminism as well as industrialisms linking of women to machines capable of vast, uncontrollable destruction (Springer 1991). `Old, industrial age paradoxes of fear and love for technology are analogue to the paradoxical status of the image of the cyborg in the information age, and the object of the thrill and the fears has shifted from huge, thrusting machines to sleek microchips and the th rill of control over information [and] the thrill of escape from the confines of the body. As such, cyborg imagery serves to reinforce patriarchy, and as Claudia Springer goes on to note in an essay critical of the masculinist phantasies and the pleasure of the interface, uncertainty is a central characteristic of postmodernism and the essence of the cyborg. But [] patriarchy continues to uphold gender difference. (Springer 1991:310) Haraways political myth is apparently still waiting to become reality. There is a danger in the production of myths and ideals, navigating in popular and scientific culture to put existing signifiers in new relations. That problem is of course that the project fails, in that old meanings that structures old social relations persist. The evoking of an elusive concept, urging it to be employed without giving any strict recipies is of course a great asset, and provides goods to think with. Being a Manifesto, Haraways article throws out new idea(l)s, and avoiding gendering her cyborg, or providing it with an unconscious, she escapes a couple of essentialisms of `women and identity. The paradoxical nature of the cyborg is, as Constance Penley puts it a suggestive and productive one, but she and Andrew Ross, in an interview with Donna Haraway (1991) wonder how a philosophy of partialism can become beat mainstream sciences promise for completion and become popular for people who want to resolve a sense of loss or absence in their lives. Popular culture seems t o be more about looking for identity and wholeness than what vanguard theorists see as contingencies. Haraway still rejects holisms as denying mortality and a deadly fantasy (PenleyRoss 1991:16), but considers the question perhaps to be related to ones of psychoanalysis which she in her Manifesto excluded from the image of the cyborg. However, in retrospective, she reconsiders the limitations of both the ungenderedness and the absence of an unconscious from her cyborg. She admits that a resistance towards psychoanalysis perhaps made the unconscious disappear when it was really the Oedipal stories about split subjects she wanted to avoid. An unconscious may account for a lived subjectivity and would add to the genderless cyborg a differentiation on the basis of sexuality, which could add a bit more `meat, as it were, on the ideal cyborg. As Jaqueline Rose points out, the feminine unconscious is not a given original harmonious state then ruptured and split it is a constant `failure endlessly repeated and relived moment by moment throughout our individual histories. Coupling feminism and psychoanalysis, she holds that feminisms affinity with psychoanalysis rests above all with this recognition that there is a resistance to identity at the very heart of psychic life (Rose 1986:91). While Haraway resists the Oedipal stories because their persuasive power and their stories are all to familiar and the narratives of the unconscious much too conservative, muych too heterosexual, much to familial, much too exclusive (PenleyRoss 1991:9), she would be open for more localised and alternative Oedipal stories. Braidotti the nomad Rosi Braidotti takes inspiration from Haraways cyborg in developing her own `nomadic subject as another feminist figuration, but in contrast to Haraways cyborg, the nomad is equipped with gender and an unconscious. Her nomadic consciousness is one feminists should cultivate, and it develops the notion of a corporeal materiality by emphasizing the embodied and therefore sexually differentiated structure of the speaking subject. (Braidotti 1994:3) Braidotti thus adds body and sexuality to the cyborg, and in stressing that the nomadic project allows for internal contradicyiton and attempts to negotiate between unconscious structures of desire and consciuos political choices, she equips it with a psychoanalytic unconsious, which consequently lets the nomadic thinking take in consideration of the pain involved in processes of change and transformation (1994:31). Change is desired, and to slowly transform representations, her method is to repeat them, to mime them. She evokes Levi-Strauss bricolage as an ideal method, also providing a way to transdisciplinarity crossing the borders of phallocentric, monistic sciences. Her bricolage steals notions and concepts lying around from earlier contexts, and deliberately uses them outside those contexts. The mimesis involved in the reworking of established representation will expose them and consume them from within. The mimesis is a praxis of as if, based on the subversive potential of repetitions. Michael Taussig evokes the mimesis as a kind of sympathetic magic defined in the late 19th century by James Frazer in his huge ethnological synthesis The Golden Bough and captured in the notion that In some way or another one can protect oneself from the spirits by portraying them (Taussig 1993:1). A need to set up a discontinuity, grab and hold, and then to scrutinise and reactivate a strange culture in ones own terms is the anthropological Western mimetic project. As explained by Michael Taussig, mimesis is a double process of reification-and-fetishization (Taussig 1993:13), of copying a unique existence and bring it in contact with ones own body, and [t]he ability to mime, and mime well [] is the capacity to Other (1993:19). For Braidotti, the project is to Other back because the copy is not just a copy, but reveals and displays connections and details never seen before, as in the photograph, it is a power tool. It is also a project of positive mimesis, of recreation and new co nstruction of positive feminist nomadic figurations. The knowledge / power relation is still at work in Braidottis mimetic ventures; in the chapter Mothers, Monsters and Machines (1994), she states her nomadic style is best suited to make adequate representations of female experience. To mime representations without regard for disciplinary boundaries, she conjures up a history of intersecting historic conceptualisations of women, and treats them as discourses, not definite objects. The normative and controlling association of female difference with negative, monstrous, deviant distance is analysed, and Braidotti thus uncovers ideologies of essentialism, the ascriptions of womens monstrosity out of lack, displacement; as sign of the in between areas, of the indefinite, the ambiguous (1994:83). Evoking machines, Braidotti shows that the conceptualisations of negative female otherness were embedded in scientific, political and discursive field of technology, and adding biotechnology, t odays links between the mother, the monster and the machine becomes obvious. Thus, she has traced historical roots to contemporary manipulation of life and mechanizing of the matenal function and images of the feminine in relation to reproductive and bio-technology. Conclusion Feminist critiques of science and technology have struggled with old essentialist concepts of womanhood. References to nature and sexuality are never unproblematic as they are always embedded and made by social relations of power and work. The task has been shown to be to go to work on epistemology, through deconstructing ideologies of gender and technology. Hopes for a feminist successor science have been problematic, in that science itself has been held by many to embody patriarchial ideas of power and monolithic knowledge. Even though a common experience of woman has not been defined, a common sense of marginalisation and of not being happy about the ascribed categories of identity lies behind any attempt to reconstruct feminism and science. Haraways cyborg is a good tool to think with, in that it stresses radical irony and faithlessness in established scientific projects that can be seen to threaten the survival of humans (as well as animals). It is grounded on a hope for a bette r science, not one that produces more knowledge, more data, but one which uncovers power structures awaiting a genderless society. As such, it is problematic and Utopian. Genderless cyborgs are not real cyborgs, but ideals. Braidottis additions of sexuality and the unconscious can in addition to writing similar revealing stories as the cyborg ones, account for lived experiences of subjectivity, of sexuality, of bodies and of the double desire and fear of change. Both represent blueprints for more stories situated, `thick, speculative, ethnographic or autobiographic accounts that ironically and non-essentially can rework representations of women. The figurations of cyborgs and nomadic subjects are often vague and cannot be discovered without a context of cultural discourse of technology and womanhood. Some, such as Haraway and Braidotti excel on mapping them out, but finding concrete embodiments of a sort of ideal cyborg is rather hard. The issue is not about making perfect heroes, but illuminating aspects of subjective experience of being a woman (or something differently gendered or othered) in a technological society. Social relations of science and technology form knowledge about the world and they also provide metaphors and reference points for drawing out a postmodern map of categories, sex and difference. Laurie Anderson is mentioned both by Kember as a nomad who is perhaps as close to being a cyborg as anyone[243] and by Braidotti as a great example of effective parodic nomadic style, in the as-if mode. Her incorporation of high technology into subjective stories about attempts to gain control and backfiring, being a humorous prankster reversing situations and people as well as telling stories of loss, her deceptively simple performances and texts embodies one way of telling cyborg stories.

Strategic management review for SAB Essay Example

Strategic management review for SAB Essay Example Strategic management review for SAB Essay Strategic management review for SAB Essay Essay Topic: Marketing The following strategic review aims at assessing the strategic situation of South African Breweries Group. We will start with an external analysis of the environment in which SAB operates, we will continue with an internal analysis of its resources and capabilities, and then we will outline and appraise the group current strategy. Additionally we will study the companys strategy implementation issues, and we will finish giving some recommendations to SAB. In order to carry out this analysis different analysis tools were used, which are included in the Appendices. In the main body of the report we will only focus on the conclusions we have obtained, hence, if further information about how we got to these findings is required the appendices should be consulted. Different tools were used (Porters five forces, analysis of industrys life cycle, and PEST analysis) in order to assess the environment in which SAB operates. Based on the analysis conducted using Porters five forces (Appendix A) the following was found: the brewing industry in the developed world is not clearly attractive; its performance depends on the ability to consolidate and exploit opportunities in the emerging markets. However, the brewing industry in the emerging markets, where SAB operates, is highly attractive. We have observed good points such as the low level of power within suppliers and buyers, a lack of substitutes, and a relatively low level of rivalry because emerging markets are supplied by small-scaled local brewers offering low quality beer. However, there is a significant threat of new entrants coming from other geographical areas (International breweries). We have also analysed the industry life cycle (Appendix B). We have got to the conclusion that the brewing industry in the developed world is in the maturity stage. It is very important for SAB to be aware of this issue, because it means that the market situation will force breweries based in mature markets to look for new opportunities for growth by entering the emerging markets where SAB operates. In the less developed world and in the emerging economies the brewing industry is still in its growth stage. Growth in beer consumption in these markets is driven by an increase in population and economic prosperity which indicates that SAB can achieve its own growth through the growth in the marketplace. The brewing industry is highly fragmented, and the market is supplied by small breweries offering low quality beer, meaning that rivalry between local breweries and SAB is not intense. SAB has successfully captured market share through acquisitions and joint ventures and differentiated its brand portfolio, by offering a high quality beer. However, entry of international competitors is expected to intensify the competition as well as the fight for market share. With the PEST analysis (Appendix C) we outlined how political, economical, social and technological factors affect the company. The emerging market attractiveness (like other markets) is determined by the following: market potential, which is influenced by the market size, market growth prospects and customer preferences. Market growth is clearly correlated to economic growth and wealth distribution. Additionally, economic growth and wealth distribution influence whether customers seek economy or premium beers. Drinking norms and societal attitudes to alcohol consumption also affect market attractiveness. All the above mentioned issues are analysed in order to gain a better understanding of SABs environment. Regarding competitors we do not think we have enough information to get to any relevant conclusions, however, we know the degree of rivalry is likely to increase (international brewers based in mature markets are moving out of their geographic areas to the emerging markets). In order to assess competition, it is critical that SAB recognises the strategic group to which it belongs which is the international breweries strategic group, seeking consolidation and competing for development opportunities throughout the world. It is very important to do a deeper analysis of the competitive landscape; a good study should include the following steps (Porter, 1998): * Identify competitors current strategy. * Identify their future goals. * Identify their assumptions about the company. * Identify their resources and capabilities. This approach provides valuable information, and helps the company predicting competitors moves. At this point we are going to focus on the importance of the Resource-based strategy. It is based on the assumption that the company achieves its competitive advantages by developing a strategy based on its organisational capabilities and the key success factors of the industry; thus, a key issue for SAB is to identify and develop these capabilities in order to achieve a competitive advantage. It is very important to understand the process of turning resources into capabilities and to identify the core competences; those capabilities fundamental to its performance and strategy, done better than its competitors. Resources are inputs into the production process; a capability is the capacity of a team of resources to perform some task or activity. We have identified some resources and capabilities of SAB in (Appendix D); however, the company should do a deeper analysis. It is important to note here that SABs capabilities are not the result of superior resource endowments; however, the key issue here is the firms ability to leverage its resources. SAB has achieved resource leverage using the following fundamental ways: first, concentrating resources on key strategic goals. SAB focuses attention on a few operational goals in the acquired breweries at any one time, and then it moves to other goals. It first focuses on upgrading quality, then comes improvement to marketing and distribution, afterwards, the improvement of productivity and capacity. Second, SAB has used the resources accumulation method to leverage resources. SAB has borrowed the resources of other breweries through acquisitions, and joint ventures (CREB in China), which gave SAB a smooth and quick penetration into the emerging markets. SAB also used the resource conserving method, through the process of recycling resources. The more often SAB expertise in running breweries was used in different emerging markets, the greater the resource leverage was. To conclude, we think SAB has valuable resources and capabilities so as to achieve and maintain competitive advantage in the emerging markets. Nevertheless, the company must investigate at this point whether these capabilities are transferable to the developed world, where it needs to have a major brand according to many commentators. At this point we will define the nature of the strategy carried out by SAB. We will distinguish between the Corporate, the Business and the Functional level, in order to draw a more accurate picture on this issue. Once the strategy is defined, we will use a strategic tool (Rumelts Test) in order to assess the convenience of the strategy. * Corporate Strategy: SAB has developed a strategy of growth in the emerging economies via acquisitions. Its acquisition policy has been acquiring breweries that would increase SABs market share and at the same time could be improved by exploiting synergies and economies of scale. SAB also follows a related diversification strategy in order to spread risk. In addition to the geographic diversification strategy which tends to increase the companys overall profitability, SAB adopted a business diversification strategy by going into the hotel and entertainment business. * Business strategy. The strategy is to differentiate products on the basis of quality, in order to achieve higher market shares than competitors and enhance profit margins through charging slightly higher prices (see Appendix E, The strategy clock). The strategy also includes adjusting to local needs; SAB kept the local brands of acquired breweries. Moreover, the company realised the regional differences in China and treated each region in which it operates as an independent self-contained market. * Functional strategy. The strategy evolves around growth (through sales increase), and costs reduction (automation and modernisation of breweries and large production runs economies of scale). We have used Rumelts Test to assess if the different strategies are appropriate (see Appendix F). It is evident that all strategies are appropriate. However, this does not necessary mean that they can still work in the future, SAB should be aware of changes in environment, demand, strategies of other competitors, etc. Strategy implementation is an action-oriented, operation-driven activity revolving around managing people, within the organizational structure and its culture. At this stage we will identify the structure of the company and the key aspects of its culture. In the case of SAB, limited information was provided about the type of the organizational structure. However, from the analysis conducted in Appendix E, we can define SABs organizational structure. According to Mintzbergs structure configuration analysis (Appendix E), SAB follows a pattern of a divisionalised organization, adopting a geographically based vertical corporate structure for its international operations. Such a structure allows each of its country units or divisions to operate fairly autonomously from the other areas. The key part in this type of organization is the middle line managers. As a strategy for developing countries this is a definite benefit for SAB because it allows it to maintain expertise in each of its different countries. Moreover, this kind of structure is appropriate in market diversity as it spreads risk and reduces setbacks (e.g. setbacks in Mozambique and Tanzania were offset by the growth in China and Poland); it also allows the company to divest from any market easier than functional (machine) structures. However, it is argued that divisions can be seen as less effective than independent businesses. Organization culture: Divisional cultures: the differences between divisions may be particularly evident in organizations that have grown through acquisition (Exploring corporate strategy, Jerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes, 6th Ed, 2002). Having adopted a growth strategy through acquisition, and being a divisionalized organization, SAB has generated a difference in its geographical as well as in its functional divisions, creating subcultures. However, there is one main dominant culture for the whole group. Handy characterized culture in terms of the relationship between the organization and individuals and also the importance of power and hierarchy (Johnson and Scholes, Exploring corporate strategy, 6th Ed, Prentice Hall). Based on Handys analysis, SABs organizational culture could be the closest to the Task Culture seeking to achieve integration and synergy through acquisition. We will closely identify the characteristics of SABs culture by looking at its cultural web (Johnson 1998) these are: * Stories and myths: no information provided. * Rituals and routines: SAB has a consistent high quality brands and services, meeting customers needs (consistency could be considered as an operational routine). * Control system: no information provided. * Organization structure: SABs management structure is decentralized, reflecting its power structure and its divisionalization. Collaboration is very important. * Power structure: SABs power structure is decentralized. While strategic decisions are kept at the head-quarter, the power is not only based in the hands Graham Mackay the CE, but also delegation of the strategic planning is done at other managerial levels, reflecting SABs growth strategy. Moreover, operations in each country are run autonomously. * Symbols: no information provided. * The paradigm: SAB seems to be working not only to maximize long-term shareholders value like any other multi-national organization, but also seeks to maximize all stakeholder value. Moreover, despite the political, racial and economical problems faced in South Africa, SAB unlike other companies, continued to invest where it had initially started showing its commitment. SAB also respects the values and cultures of the communities in which it operates. Differentiation and high quality beer is on of the main key aspects in SABs paradigm.

Lord of the Flies vs. the Destructors Essay Essays

Lord of the Flies vs. the Destructors Essay Essays Lord of the Flies vs. the Destructors Essay Paper Lord of the Flies vs. the Destructors Essay Paper Fiction looks at all scopes of subjects through the eyes of so many diverse characters. Lord of the Fliess and The Destructors is no different in the sense you see two highly dramatic state of affairss through the eyes of surprising characters. These narratives both take a expression at society and the crude facets it can hold. The chief characters in the narrative are both kids of immature ages exhibiting surprising and sometimes highly flooring behaviour exposing a loss of artlessness. They differ in the sense that Lord of Flies looks at how barbarian a homo can acquire in despairing state of affairss while the other is how barbarian a individual can acquire against a society that feel victimized against. These two novels have similarities that can be easy identified. They both display groups of striplings that are interacting with utmost state of affairss. Lord of Flies depicts kids stranded on an island and they must come together in order to happen these solutions. Desperation sets in which motivates them to get down moving more and more barbarian as clip goes on. This is similar to The Destructors because the short narrative displays a similar group of immature kids who display savage behaviour to a community. While one is a residential community and another is an island. the island represents a community for these male childs for the clip of the narrative because they are stranded upon it. Both narratives display a power battle through two characters in them. Lord of The Flies shows this through Jack and Ralph and In the Destructors this is seen through Trevor and Blackie. Jack and Ralph both attempted to go head of the new folk. Ralph winning by a few ballots. However. as clip goes on their crude behaviours shine through making a divide between the kids and Jack develops his ain folk. Jack’s influence motivates the kids to go violent and barbarous toward Ralph and his group. ensuing in killing one of Ralph’s friend. Piggy. All of the teamwork and civil behaviour that Ralph represents is easy gone until the kids all turn into monsters. which Jack represents. Ralph was about construction and happening a deliverance. which is apparent in his design of two groups. one for nutrient and one for a fire signal while doodly-squat was all about barbarian behaviour and power over the other kids. In the Destructors. Blackie and Trevor both have potency to be the leader of the Wormsley Common Gang and it can be seen through their duologue that they are both cognizant that they want it. Blackie tries to expose this by trying to forestall Trevor from voting on what sort of problem they get into when he tardily to their meeting but Trevor do es non let him. The extremum of this battle is when are discoursing thoughts and Trevor tells them about destructing Old Misery’s house from the interior. Blackie attempts his best to deter with the potency of constabulary and the inability to carry through this but Trevor continue to force the thought until it is voted for and chosen. This symbolized the terminal of Blackie’s reign of the group and when one member asks â€Å"How do we get down? † Blackie merely walks away stating. â€Å" He’ll Tell you. † Implying that he knows what has occurred and recognizing his function of leading is taken over. Both groups in each narrative displayed how easy a dynamic can alter through Power. When you look at the narratives from another angle. you can see that the messages they have differ highly. Lord of the Flies was all about human nature and the terminals it can travel. This novel is a timeless one because of the message it sends through the least likely characters. immature male childs. The Destructors is a more credible narrative because the type of force that is seen in the narrative. While harm to someone’s place is atrocious and the mode in which they did it was highly particular. Lord of The Flies uses force against one another and consequences in psychotic interruptions and kids losing their lives at the custodies of others. The longer these kids are with one another. they start to lose more of their humanity and derive more cardinal inherent aptitudes in ways of moving. Jack is the best campaigner to expose this because of how he grows more and more corrupt. After get downing his ain folk. he has enabled himself to order what he feels his followings should make. He allowed them to go barbarian every bit good. If he felt that other kids needed to be punished. he felt non vacillation and even was to the point of slaying another kid. He started have oning clay masks. which represents the symbolism of holding a new more cardinal facade. The novel wraps up with Ralph being rescued but shouting because he reflects on everything that has happened and how far these immature kids have fallen and to what points they all reached. The Destructors truly depicts a group of kids who aim to destruct a vicinity go forthing an old man’s house for last. These kids differ from the 1s in Lord of The Flies because though they do some reasonably questionable Acts of the Apostless. it is more delinquency instead than cardinal Acts of the Apostless. These male childs are making violent actions because of the force through the war they witness around them. With World War II traveling on. these kids are witness to bombardments frequently go forthing them experiencing with the demand to make something. They decide to go a pack that will do their grade around London. doing offense one more extreme than the following. Trevor motivates these male childs to destruct an old man’s house but alternatively of usually destructing it while he is off. they decide to bust up it from the interior out. Trevor says. â€Å"We’d be like worms. don’t you see. in an apple. † ( pg. 12 ) However. mid building the old adult male. Old Misery. comes place unexpected and is locked off until the occupation is finished. The stoping shows Old Misery sobbing as his house is destroyed and the lorry that was about ended the narrative by express joying stating â€Å"There’s nil personal but you got to acknowledge it’s good story. † ( pg. 22 ) This is really the exact opposite reaction of what Lord of The Flies displayed because even though Mr. Thomas was sobbing at his loss similar to Ralph’s reaction. the Lorry laughed at the comedy of the state of affairs. These narratives all depict kids making things that typically we would non anticipate to see in society. However. the deficiency of a society in both novels has allowed behaviour of this magnitude to happen. These narratives show us that though they are different sorts of offenses and in different context. society is what can be considered the common yarn through both narratives. Society and it’s influence can truly consequence the people that are in it and if you are in a society that doesn’t supply a positive construction. you could expose the actions seen in Lord of The Flies or The Destructors.

Air Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Air Pollution - Essay Example As urbanization and industrialization continued to elevate, the rate of release of wastes into the atmosphere by the humans elevated to a level that nature could no longer cope with it. From that time air, pollution has elevates to a higher level because of pollution from the industrial, home and commercial sources. Since these sources are mainly found in the large cities, the air that surrounds them is usually having a high concentration of pollutant gases. When these concentrated gases go beyond the secure limits, then that is the time when they suit a pollution trouble. The graph below is an instance of the way the level of air pollution elevates.Air pollution results from various causes most of which are preventable. Smog that hangs in the atmospheres surrounding the cities is the most common air pollution form. However, there are different causes of this pollution. These pollutions cause elevate global warming. An instance via which air pollution causes global warming is when su rplus carbon dioxide goes into the air, and it depletes the ozone layer. Moreover, carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, is considered the chief pollutant of Earth warming. Despite the living things emitting carbon dioxide during breathing this gas is in most situations considered a pollutant when industries, power plants, vehicles, and planes produce it. In the current years, these activities have injected much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere thereby raising it levels to a higher rate than it had been thousands of years ago.

Postmodernism - The War on Terror Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Postmodernism - The War on Terror - Essay Example The paper "Postmodernism - The War on Terror" discusses how media influences on society in the era of postmodernism. The media has presented the Iraq war in a very different way in America, as compared to the way in which it is viewed over the rest of the world. Dissenting opinions offered against the Iraq war were presented sparingly in the media during the initial stages of the war, since it became â€Å"unpatriotic† to discuss the negative aspects of the war. Support for the war has been largely garnered through the kind of images presented in the media, which have capitalized on the fear generated after the 9/11 attacks to capture public support for the war in Iraq. The â€Å"war on terror† has been touted in the media as the war against terrorism and has successfully created a culture of fear in America. It has successfully linked the traumatic events of 9/11 and the terrorist attack on the world trade center with the war in Iraq. The image of a nation at war was a lso responsible for the re-election of President Bush, since a Commander in chief is not changed midstream. The slogan of the war on terror has created an all-pervasive culture of fear, which in turn has intensified the emotions of the public and has made it easier to mobilize support within the United States. Repeated portrayal of images in the media of the crashing of the terrorist airplanes flying into the World Trade Center and the mayhem and destruction that resulted were instrumental in hyping up the fear against terrorists in the minds of public.

Theories and Techniques of Coaching Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Theories and Techniques of Coaching - Essay Example The coach was an active and vociferous person who had a strong voice. His overall style of coaching appeared to be a domineering style in which he expected total compliance with his instructions leaving no ground to implement any suggestions from the participating players or managers that stood y the sidelines. On many occasions during the practice session the coach overruled placement of at least three players away from positions where they were apparently not performing well. The coach also appeared to have a control philosophy in that he had extra cordial interactions with a few players -two of these were the players that he insisted on retaining in fixed positions through out the practice session. It was also clear that the coach was brusque with few other players-these were particularly those that were in the university team as reserve players. In addition the coach was ignoring another set of players with only few of his instructions being addressed to them. This exception phil osophy was, strangely, not related to performance as most players that appeared close to him were not performing exceptionally-as yet the coach did not make specific and sufficient attempts to spur such players on. On the contrary the better players appeared to experience and feel the discrimination and in the matter of proper positioning they expressed often their exasperation at achieving no ground with the coach. These players were positioned invariably for long runs that costed them stamina and energy. This was an example of unclean play. This discrimination was apparently eating both ways into the morale and motivation of the divided team. Favorite players appeared to have turned complacent whereas the better performing players appeared frustrated by the discrimination. This discrimination was not only unethical but also an ineffective way of controlling the team towards learning objectives and performance. There was an intense feeling of having ended a routine session of game practice after the session was called off; encourse the session several passes and tackles-particularly from the favorite players-remained uncorrected. In a tell tale reflection of the divisionary practices of the coach ,at the end of practice session, the three groups of players departed three ways.-with the reserve players hurrying outside ,the better performing but slighted players going with the managers and the favorite players accompanying the coach to locker area where apparently they had an impromptu close group celebration. The same team was witnessed again in the major game they ha a few days later. It was almost a replication of the practice session with the team playing in three groups. The coach gave short running positions to his favorites and long running positions to better players-who were good at shots and shooting. The coach gave full exposures to his favorites ad the entire set of such players were retained through out the match ;whereas better players were chang ed with reserves to the maximum allowable extent. The overall morale and motivation of the team appeared very low and the team lost 6-2.The two goals were also scored by better players who were extra to do the jobs of favorite players who were not found in position. Discrimination and groupism cannot help

Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Facebook - Essay Example The internet has a variety of different social networking websites such as MySpace, Netlog, Hi5, Yahoo and Facebook. This essay will examine and scrutinize Facebook and its varied features. It will begin with Facebook as a business and determining its industry from different aspects. Second, it will move to some information about Facebook, as well as details, such as Facebook background and some other facts. Third, this paper will go through a rundown of different business theories and strategies that Facebook uses like SWOT and PEST analysis, for instance. Fourth, this piece will take a look at Facebook data via explaining market share and financial issues. Fifth, we’ll be defining the different application of theories and strategies to data being used by the Facebook management. Ant then finally, this document will conclude with  looking at Facebook as a new business field, and how technology has been an effective aspect in that field, and not to forget, going through priv acy and risk management in this organization.   According to Techterms (2011), Facebook is a web site and a social network service, which means that it is an online service and platform that mirrors and builds social relations among people, for example, sharing interests and common activities. In February 2004 Facebook was launched, and it was operated privately and owned by Facebook. The name was acquired through papers that were given to new students and staff. By July 2011, Facebook had reached more than 800 million users. An American 23, Mark Zuckerberg born in 14th of May 1984 founded Facebook by following and associating computers, with fellow students Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, all of whom were his roommates. Zuckerberg is an Internet entrepreneur and computer programmer. A number of social networking websites were already developed by Mark Zuckerberg while he was still studying Psychology at Harvard University. The idea of

Self-Assessment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Self-Assessment - Research Paper Example Discussion In the modern demanding workstation, leaders are extremely constraint to find new and creative ways to engage and encourage their workers and affect positive change to enhance the bottom line of their organizations. Similarly, organization leadership program of study needs practical professional skills that are required to develop and maintain the organization in order to realize change, (Kuglin and Hook, 2002). Communication and leadership concepts are critical to teach employees and leaders importance of leadership and other crucial interpersonal communication skills. Communication skill is required for teams’ communication, management of conflicts in an organization, intercultural communication, and organizational change management. Experts agree communication is an interaction among people to convey different kinds of messages. Managers and leaders in organizational leadership program of study need communication skills, leadership and management skills to manage organizational information, behavior and ensure free flow of information and better communication in the organization. Therefore, an effective communication skill is crucial to achieve organizational goals and create better reputation. I have learned that leadership competency is all about having the ability to operate and lead people in a diverse organization structures, skills, cultures, and contexts; it is the ability to work or function with external and internal teams across various time zones, human resource policies and locations, (Agor, 2009). This capability makes a manager or a leader adaptive to alterations in working conditions and able to develop effective teams. Therefore, a leader needs motivation, commitment, and understanding. This is because one is managing different people, with diverse cultural backgrounds, tradition, opinions, and goals, is not easy. The group is motivated in diverse ways, and every teacher expects a different thing from an assistant manager. T herefore, as a leader one needs to be a team builder, motivator, coacher to ensure divergent views are integrated, and needs met to achieve common goals. Efficient listening is crucial for leaders. Without listening skills, a leader cannot get a response and opinions from teachers and principals and as sense of what members prefer about the teaching activities and projects. Listening will allow integration of different team members’ opinions to facilitate project success. A leader must have the ability to facilitate communication among the team members in an honest and open manner. Efficient interpersonal communication is evident when group members listen to each other and try to build on each other's contributions. Members of the group attain efficient interpersonal communication through strong leadership and self-regulation so that every member has an equal chance to contribute in the project. Resolving the conflict and decision-making are two key functions that are crucial for leaders. For successful team development, I believe the ability to make the group function, devise methods, and techniques for problem solving and decision-making is critical. Absence of consensus strategies for decision-making and conflict management may result in inconveniences,

Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Facebook - Essay Example The internet has a variety of different social networking websites such as MySpace, Netlog, Hi5, Yahoo and Facebook. This essay will examine and scrutinize Facebook and its varied features. It will begin with Facebook as a business and determining its industry from different aspects. Second, it will move to some information about Facebook, as well as details, such as Facebook background and some other facts. Third, this paper will go through a rundown of different business theories and strategies that Facebook uses like SWOT and PEST analysis, for instance. Fourth, this piece will take a look at Facebook data via explaining market share and financial issues. Fifth, we’ll be defining the different application of theories and strategies to data being used by the Facebook management. Ant then finally, this document will conclude with  looking at Facebook as a new business field, and how technology has been an effective aspect in that field, and not to forget, going through priv acy and risk management in this organization.   According to Techterms (2011), Facebook is a web site and a social network service, which means that it is an online service and platform that mirrors and builds social relations among people, for example, sharing interests and common activities. In February 2004 Facebook was launched, and it was operated privately and owned by Facebook. The name was acquired through papers that were given to new students and staff. By July 2011, Facebook had reached more than 800 million users. An American 23, Mark Zuckerberg born in 14th of May 1984 founded Facebook by following and associating computers, with fellow students Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, all of whom were his roommates. Zuckerberg is an Internet entrepreneur and computer programmer. A number of social networking websites were already developed by Mark Zuckerberg while he was still studying Psychology at Harvard University. The idea of