Improving the Educational System Essays -- Education Teaching Learning

Improving the Educational System ï » ¿Teachers are committed to challenging all students to succeed, whatever their abilities, interests, social and cultural background, gender, prior attainment or aspirations. As future teachers, we need to know the aspects of society, so that we can ensure that each one of our students is successful and achieves his or her potential through the education provided. In this paper, I will be using the articles from the Social Class/Race and School Finance section of the class to evaluate the effects of social stratification, cultural capital, and social reproduction, school financing, and school environment. Social stratification lies at the core of society and of the discipline of sociology. Social inequality is a fundamental aspect of virtually all social processes, and a person's position in the stratification system is the most consistent predictor of his or her behavior, attitudes, and life chances. Social stratification links almost all aspects of society together, and therefore understanding what is happening to social stratification helps us understand a wide range of other changes in society. In the article â€Å"Social Class Differences In Family-School Relationships: The Importance of Cultural Capital† by Annette Laureau, summarizes a study of family-school relations and cultural capital. The results(of the study) suggest that social class position and class culture becomes a form of cultural capital in the school setting(Laureau, 1987). The families of working class lacked money, time, individual educational attainment, value of education, and high expectation on their children where as the middle-class families had all the advantages to support their children’s achievement at school. Lareau shows the effortful evidence that parents with resources will be able help their children attain much higher aspiration. This research uses the concepts of social and cultural capital to student behavior. Social capital may take the form of information-sharing channels and networks, as well as social norms, values, and expected behaviors. High status cultural signals include the attitudes, preferences, knowledge, behaviors, possessions, and credentials that function as informal academic standards, and that are generally defined by the dominant class. Individuals who lack the required cultura... ...help to improve the education these students receive. Improving the learning environment is the first step to rebuilding our inner city schools. More importantly, programs for the students and families will improve their future. The educational systems in America have many faults, but if more people become aware, things can only improve. It is hard to make any pinpoint decisions to improve the educational system because it is such a epic problem. I believe as a future teacher, I may be able change things, and with time maybe equal education for everyone won’t be just a far away dream. Bibliography: References Kozol, J.(1991). Life on the Mississippi. In Save inequalities: Children in American’s schools. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Kozol, J.(1991) Other people’s children. In Save inequalities: Children in American’s schools. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Laureau, A(1987) Social class differences in family-school relationships: The importance of cutural capital. Sociology of education, 60, 73-85 MacLeod, J. (1995). Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and attainment in a low-income neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press Revised Edition

Feminism in the Late 20th Century

Chapter 4: A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist- Feminism in the Late 20th Century* DONNA HARAWAY History of Consciousness Program, University of California, at Santa Cruz 1. AN IRONIC DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR WOMEN IN THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT This chapter is an effort to build an ironic political myth faithful to feminism, socialism, and materialism. Perhaps more faithful as blasphemy is faithful, than as reverent worship and identification. Blasphemy has always seemed to require taking things very seriously.I know no better stance to adopt from within the secular-religious, evangelical traditions of United States politics, including the politics of socialist-feminism. Blasphemy protects one from the moral majority within, while still insisting on the need for community. Blas- phemy is not apostasy. Irony is about contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about the tension of holding incompatible things together because both or all are necessary and true. Irony is about hu- mor and serious play.It is also a rhetorical strategy and a political method, one I would like to see more honoured within socialist-feminism. At the center of my ironic faith, my blasphemy, is the image of the cyborg. A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction. The international women’s movements have constructed â€Å"women’s experience†, as well as uncovered or discovered this crucial collective ob- ject.This experience is a fiction and fact of the most crucial, political kind. Liberation rests on the construction of the consciousness, the imaginative ap- prehension, of oppression, and so of possibility. The cyborg is a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes what counts as women’s experience in the late 20th century. This is a struggle over life and death, but the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion. Contemporary science fiction is full of cyborgs—creatures simultaneously animal and machine, who populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted.Modern medicine is also full of cyborgs, of couplings between organism and machine, each conceived as coded devices, in an intimacy and with a power that was not generated in the history of sexuality. Cyborg â€Å"sex† restores some of the lovely replicative baroque of ferns and invertebrates (such nice * Originally published as Manifesto for cyborgs: science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s. Socialist Review, no. 80 (1985): 65–108. Reprinted with permission of the author. 117 J. Weiss et al. eds. ), The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments, 117–158. o C 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands. organic prophylactics against heterosexis m). Cyborg replication is uncou- pled from organic reproduction. Modern production seems like a dream of cyborg colonization work, a dream that makes the nightmare of Taylorism seem idyllic. And modern war is a cyborg orgy, coded by C3I, command- control-communication-intelligence, an $84 billion item in 1984s US defence budget.I am making an argument for the cyborg as a fiction mapping our so- cial and bodily reality and as an imaginative resource suggesting some very fruitful couplings. Michael Foucault’s biopolitics is a flaccid pre-monition of cyborg politics, a very open field. By the late 20th century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized, and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs. This cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics.The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined cen- ters structuring any possibility of historical transformation. In the traditions of â€Å"West ern† science and politics—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; the tradition of reproduction of the self from the reflections of the other— the relation between organism and machine has been a border war.The stakes in the border war have been the territories of production, reproduction, and imagination. This chapter is an argument for pleasure in the confusion of boundaries and for responsibility in their construction. It is also an effort to contribute to socialist-feminist culture and theory in a post-modernist, nonnaturalist mode and in the utopian tradi- tion of imagining a world without gender, which is perhaps a world without genesis, but maybe also a world without end. The cyborg incarnation is outside salvation history. Nor does it mark time on an oral symbiotic utopia or post- oedipal apocalypse.As Zoe Sofoulis argues in her u npublished manuscript on Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, and nuclear culture, Lacklein, the most terrible and perhaps the most promising monsters in cyborg worlds are embodied in non-oedipal narratives with a different logic of repression, which we need to understand for our survival. The cyborg is a creature in a post-gender world; it has no truck with bisexu- ality, preoedipal symbiosis, unalienated labor, or other seductions to organic wholeness through a final appropriation of all the powers of the parts into a higher unity.In a sense, the cyborg has no origin story in the Western sense—a â€Å"final† irony since the cyborg is also the awful apocalyptictelosof the â€Å"West’s† escalating dominations of abstract individuation, an ultimate self untied at last from all dependency, a man in space. An origin story in the â€Å"Western†, hu- manist sense depends on the myth of original unity, fullness, bliss, and terror, represented by the phallic mot her from whom all humans must separate, the task of individual development and of history, the twin potent myths inscribed most powerfully for us in psychoanalysis and Marxism.Hilary Klein (1989) has argued that both Marxism and psychoanalysis, in their concepts of labor and of individuation and gender formation, depend on the plot of original 118 unity out of which difference must be produced and enlisted in a drama of escalating domination of woman/nature. The cyborg skips the step of original unity, of identification with nature in the Western sense. This is an illegitimate promise that might lead to subversion of its teleology as star wars. The cyborg is resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and per- versity.It is oppositional, utopian, and completely without innocence. No longer structured by the polarity of public and private, the cyborg defines a technologicalpolisbased partly on a revolution of social relations in theoikos, the household. Nature and culture ar e reworked; the one can no longer be the resource for appropriation or incorporation by the other. The relationships for forming wholes from parts, including those of polarity and hierarchical dom- ination, are at issue in the cyborg world.Unlike the hopes of Frankenstein’s monster, the cyborg does not expect its father to save it through a restoration of the garden; that is, through the fabrication of a heterosexual mate, through its completion in a finished whole, a city and cosmos. The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust. Perhaps that is why I want to see if cyborgs can subvert the apocalypse of returning to nuclear dust in the manic compulsion to name the Enemy.Cyborgs are not reverent; they do not remember the cosmos. They are wary of holism, but needy for connection—they seem to ha ve a natural feel for united front politics, but without the vanguard party. The main trouble with cyborgs, of course, is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mention state socialism. But illegitimate offspring are often exceedingly unfaithful to their origins. Their fathers, after all, are inessential. I want to signal three crucial boundary breakdowns that make the following politicalfictional (political-scientific) analysis possible.By the late 20th cen- tury in United States scientific culture, the boundary between human and ani- mal is thoroughly breached. The last beachheads of uniqueness have been pol- luted if not turned into amusement parks—language, tool use, social behavior, mental events, nothing really convincingly settles the separation of human and animal. And many people no longer feel the need for such a separation; indeed, many branches of feminist culture affirm the pleasure of connection of human and oth er living creatures.Movements for animal rights are not irrational de- nials of human uniqueness; they are a clear-sighted recognition of connection across the discredited breach of nature and culture. Biology and evolutionary theory over the last two centuries have simultaneously produced modern or- ganisms as objects of knowledge and reduced the line between humans and animals to a faint trace re-etched in ideological struggle or professional dis- putes between life and social science. Within this framework, teaching modern Christian creationism should be fought as a form of child abuse.Biological-determinist ideology is only one position opened up in scien- tific culture for arguing the meanings of human animality. There is much 119 room for radical political people to contest the meanings of the breached boundary. 1 The cyborg appears in myth precisely where the boundary be- tween human and animal is transgressed. Far from signaling a walling off of people from other living bein gs, cyborgs signal disturbingly and plea- surably tight coupling. Bestiality has a new status in this cycle of marriage exchange.The second leaky distinction is between animal-human (organism) and machine. Precybernetic machines could be haunted; there was always the spectre of the ghost in the machine. This dualism structured the dialogue between materialism and idealism that was settled by a dialectical progeny, called spirit or history, according to taste. But basically machines were not self- moving, self-designing, autonomous. They could not achieve man’s dream, only mock it. They were not man, an author himself, but only a caricature of that masculinist reproductive dream.To think they were otherwise was paranoid. Now we are not so sure. Late 20th-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. O ur machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert. Technological determination is only one ideological space opened up by the reconceptions of machine and organism as coded texts through which we engage in the play of writing and reading the world. â€Å"Textualization† of everything in post-structuralist, post-modernist theory has been damned by Marxists and socialist-feminists for its utopian disregard for the lived relations of domination that ground the â€Å"play† of arbitrary reading. 3 It is certainly true that post-modernist strategies, like my cyborg myth, subvert myriad organic wholes (for example, the poem, the primitive culture, the biological organ- ism). In short, the certainty of what counts as nature— a source of insight and promise of innocence—is undermined, probably fatally.The transcendent authorization of interpretation is lost, and with it the ontology grounding â€Å"Western† epistemology. But the alte rnative is not cynicism or faithlessness, that is, some version of abstract existence, like the accounts of technologi- cal determinism destroying â€Å"man† by the â€Å"machine† or â€Å"meaningful political action† by the â€Å"text†. Who cyborgs will be is a radical question; the answers are a matter of survival. Both chimpanzees and artifacts have politics, so why shouldn’t we? (de Waal, 1982; Winner, 1980).The third distinction is a subset of the second: The boundary between physical and nonphysical is very imprecise for us. Pop physics books on the consequences of quantum theory and the indeterminacy principle are a kind of popular scientific equivalent to Harlequin romances as a marker of radical change in American white heterosexuality: They get it wrong, but they are on the right subject. Modern machines are quintessentially microelectronic devices: They are everywhere and they are invisible.Modern machinery is an irreverent upstart god, mocking the Father’s ubiquity and spirituality. The 120 silicon chip is a surface for writing; it is etched in molecular scales disturbed only by atomic noise, the ultimate interference for nuclear scores. Writing, power, and technology are old partners in Western stories of the origin of civilization, but miniaturization has changed our experience of mechanism. Miniaturization has turned out to be about power; small is not so much beau- tiful as pre-eminently dangerous, as in cruise missiles.Contrast the TV sets of the 1950s or the news cameras of the 1970s with the TV wrist bands or hand-sized video cameras now advertised. Our best machines are made of sunshine; they are all light and clean because they are nothing but sig- nals, electromagnetic waves, a section of a spectrum, and these machines are eminently portable, mobile—a matter of immense human pain in Detroit and Singapore. People are nowhere near so fluid, being both material and opaque. Cyborgs are ether, q uintessence.The ubiquity and invisibility of cyborgs is precisely why these sunshine- belt machines are so deadly. They are as hard to see politically as materially. They are about consciousness— or its simulation. 4 They are floating signifiers moving in pickup trucks across Europe, blocked more effectively by the witch- weavings of the displaced and so unnatural Greenham women, who read the cyborg webs of power so very well, than by the militant labor of older mas- culinist politics, whose natural constituency needs defence jobs.Ultimately the â€Å"hardest† science is about the realm of greatest boundary confusion, the realm of pure number, pure spirit, C3I, cryptography, and the preservation of potent secrets. The new machines are so clean and light. Their engineers are sun-worshippers mediating a new scientific revolution associated with the night dream of post-industrial society. The diseases evoked by these clean machines are â€Å"no more† than the minus cule coding changes of an antigen in the immune system, â€Å"no more† than the experience of stress.The nimble fin- gers of â€Å"Oriental† women, the old fascination of little Anglo-Saxon Victorian girls with doll’s houses, women’s enforced attention to the small take on quite new dimensions in this world. There might be a cyborg Alice taking account of these new dimensions. Ironically, it might be the unnatural cyborg women making chips in Asia and spiral dancing in Santa Rita jail5 whose constructed unities will guide effective oppositional strategies. So my cyborg myth is about transgressed boundaries, potent fusions, and dangerous possibilities which progressive people might explore as one part of needed political work.One of my premises is that most American so- cialists and feminists see deepened dualisms of mind and body, animal and machine, idealism and materialism in the social practices, symbolic formula- tions, and physical artifacts associat ed with â€Å"high technology† and scientific culture. FromOne-Dimensional Man(Marcuse, 1964) toThe Death of Nature (Merchant, 1980), the analytic resources developed by progressives have in- sisted on the necessary domination of technics and recalled us to an imag- ined organic body to integrate our resistance.Another of my premises is that the need for unity of people trying to resist worldwide intensification of 121 domination has never been more acute. But a slightly perverse shift of per- spective might better enable us to contest for meanings, as well as for other forms of power and pleasure in technologically mediated societies. From one perspective, a cyborg world is about the final imposition of a grid of control on the planet, about the final abstraction embodied in a Star Wars apocalypse waged in the name of defence, about the final appropri- ation of women’s bodies in a masculinist orgy of war (Sofia, 1984).From another perspective, a cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory stand- points. The political struggle is to see from both perspectives at once because each reveals both dominations and possibilities unimaginable from the other vantage point. Single vision produces worse illusions than double vision or many-headed monsters.Cyborg unities are monstrous and illegitimate; in our present political circumstances, we could hardly hope for more potent myths for resistance and recoupling. I like to imagine LAG, the Livermore Action Group, as a kind of cyborg society, dedicated to realistically converting the laboratories that most fiercely embody and spew out the tools of technological apocalypse, and committed to building a political form that actually manages to hold together witches, engineers, elders, perverts, Christians, mothers, and Leninists long enough to disarm th e state.Fission Impossible is the name of the affinity group in my town. (Affinity: Related not by blood but by choice, the appeal of one chemical nuclear group for another, avidity. )6 2. FRACTURED IDENTITIES It has become difficult to name one’s feminism by a single adjective—or even to insist in every circumstance upon the noun. Consciousness of exclusion through naming is acute. Identities seem contradictory, partial, and strategic. With the hard-won recognition of their social and historical constitution, gen- der, race, and class cannot provide the basis for belief in â€Å"essential† unity.There is nothing about being â€Å"female† that naturally binds women. There is not even such a state as â€Å"being† female, itself a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social prac- tices. Gender, race, or class-consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the co ntradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. And who counts as â€Å"us† in my own rhetoric? Which identities are available to ground such a potent political myth called â€Å"us†, and what could motivate enlistment in this collectivity?Painful fragmentation among feminists (not to mention among women) along every possible fault line has made the concept of woman elusive, an excuse for the matrix of women’s dominations of each other. For me—and for many who share a similar historical location in white, professional middle-class, female, 122 radical, North American, mid-adult bodies—the sources of a crisis in political identity are legion. The recent history for much of the US left and US femi- nism has been a response to this kind of crisis by endless splitting and searches for a new essential unity.But there has also been a growing recognition of another response through coalition—affinity, not identity. 7 Chela Sandoval (n. d. , 1984), from a consideration of specific historical mo- ments in the formation of the new political voice called women of color, has theorized a hopeful model of political identity called â€Å"oppositional conscious- ness†, born of the skills for reading webs of power by those refused stable membership in the social categories of race, sex, or class. Women of color†, a name contested at its origins by those whom it would incorporate, as well as a historical consciousness marking systematic breakdown of all the signs of Man in â€Å"Western† traditions, constructs a kind of post-modernist identity out of otherness, difference, and specificity. This post-modernist identity is fully political, whatever might be said abut other possible post-modernisms. Sandoval’s oppositional consciousness is about contradictory locations and heterochronic calendars, not about relativisms and pluralisms.Sandoval emphasizes the lack of any essential criterion for identifying who is a woman of color. She notes that the definition of a group has been by conscious appropriation of negation. For example, a Chicana or US black woman has not been able to speak as a woman or as a black person or as a Chicano. Thus, she was at the bottom of a cascade of negative identities, left out of even the privileged oppressed authorial categories called â€Å"women and blacks†, who claimed to make the important revolutions.The category â€Å"woman† negated all non-white women; â€Å"black† negated all non-black people, as well as all black women. But there was also no â€Å"she†, no singularity, but a sea of differences among US women who have affirmed their historical identity as US women of color. This identity marks out a self-consciously constructed space that cannot affirm the capacity to act on the basis of natural identification, but only on the basis of conscious coalition, of affinity, of political kinship. Unlike the â€Å"woman† of some streams of the white women’s movement in the United States, there is no naturalization of the matrix, or at least this is what Sandoval argues is uniquely available through the power of oppositional consciousness. Sandoval’s argument has to be seen as one potent formulation for feminists out of the worldwide development of anti-colonialist discourse; that is to say, discourse dissolving the â€Å"West† and its highest product—the one who is not animal, barbarian, or woman; man, that is, the author of a cosmos called history.As orientalism is deconstructed politically and semiotically, the identities of the occident destabilize, including those of feminists. 9 Sandoval argues that â€Å"women of colour† have a chance to build an effective unity that does not replicate the imperializing, totalizing revolutionary subjects of previous Marxisms and feminisms which had not faced the consequences of the disorderly polyphony eme rging from decolonization. 123 Katie King has emphasized the limits of identification and the politi- cal/poetic mechanics of identification built into reading â€Å"the poem†, that generative core of cultural feminism.King criticizes the persistent tendency among contemporary feminists from different â€Å"moments† or â€Å"conversations† in feminist practice to taxonomize the women’s movement to make one’s own political tendencies appear to be the telos of the whole. These taxonomies tend to remake feminist history so that it appears to be an ideological strug- gle among coherent types persisting over time, especially those typical units called radical, liberal, and socialist-feminist. Literally, all other feminisms are either incorporated or marginalized, usually by building an explicit ontol- ogy and epistemology. 0 Taxonomies of feminism produce epistemologies to police deviation from official women’s experience. And of course, â€Å"w omen’s culture†, like women of color, is consciously created by mechanisms inducing affinity. The rituals of poetry, music, and certain forms of academic practice have been pre-eminent. The politics of race and culture in the US women’s movements are intimately interwoven. The common achievement of King and Sandoval is learning how to craft a poetic/political unity without relying on a logic of appropriation, incorporation, and taxonomic identification.The theoretical and practical struggle against unity-through-domination or unity-throughincorporation ironically not only undermines the justifications for patriarchy, colonialism, humanism, positivism, essentialism, scientism, and other unlamented -isms, but all claims for an organic or natural stand- point. I think that radical and socialist/Marxist-feminisms have also under- mined their/our own epistemological strategies and that this is a crucially valuable step in imagining possible unities. It remains to be s een whether all â€Å"epistemologies† as Western political people have known them fail us in the task to build effective affinities.It is important to note that the effort to construct revolutionary standpoints, epistemologies as achievements of people committed to changing the world, has been part of the process showing the limits of identification. The acid tools of post-modernist theory and the constructive tools of ontological discourse about revolutionary subjects might be seen as ironic allies in dissolving West- ern selves in the interests of survival. We are excruciatingly conscious of what it means to have a historically constituted body. But with the loss of innocence in our origin, there is no expulsion from the Garden either.Our politics lose the indulgence of guilt with the naivet ? e of innocence. But what would an- other political myth for socialist-feminism look like? What kind of politics could embrace partial, contradictory, permanently unclosed construction s of personal and collective selves and still be faithful, effective—and, ironically, socialist-feminist? I do not know of any other time in history when there was greater need for political unity to confront effectively the dominations of â€Å"race†, â€Å"gender†, â€Å"sexuality†, and â€Å"class†. I also do not know of any other time when the kind of unity we might help build could have been possible.None of â€Å"us† have 124 any longer the symbolic or material capability of dictating the shape of reality to any of â€Å"them†. Or at least â€Å"we† cannot claim innocence from practicing such dominations. White women, including socialist-feminists, discovered the non-innocence of the category â€Å"woman†. That consciousness changes the geography of all previous categories; it denatures them as heat denatures a fragile protein. Cyborg feminists have to argue that â€Å"we† do not want any more natural matrix of unity and that no construction is whole. Innocence, and the corollary insistence on victimhood as the only ground for nsight, has done enough damage. But the constructed revolutionary subject must give late 20th-century people pause as well. In the fraying of identities and in the reflexive strategies for constructing them, the possibility opens up for weaving something other than a shroud for the day after the apocalypse that so prophetically ends salvation history. Both Marxist/socialist-feminisms and radical feminisms have simultane- ously naturalized and denatured the category â€Å"woman† and consciousness of the social lives of â€Å"women†. Perhaps a schematic caricature can highlight both kinds of moves.Marxian-socialism is rooted in an analysis of wage labor which reveals class structure. The consequence of the wage relationship is systematic alienation, as the worker is dissociated from his [sic] product. Ab- straction and illusion rule in knowledge, domi nation rules in practice. Labor is the pre-eminently privileged category enabling the Marxist to overcome illusion and find that point of view which is necessary for changing the world. Labor is the humanizing activity that makes man; labor is an ontological category permitting the knowledge of a subject, and so the knowledge of subjugation and alienation.In faithful filiation, socialist-feminism is advanced by allying itself with the basic analytic strategies of Marxism. The main achievement of both Marxist- feminists and socialist-feminists was to expand the category of labor to ac- commodate what (some) women did, even when the wage relation was subor- dinated to a more comprehensive view of labor under capitalist patriarchy. In particular, women’s labor in the household and women’s activity as mothers generally (that is, reproduction in the socialist-feminist sense), entered theory on the authority of analogy to the Marxian concept of labor.The unity of women here rests on an epistemology based on the ontological structure of â€Å"labor†. Marxist/socialist-feminism does not â€Å"naturalize† unity; it is a pos- sible achievement based on a possible standpoint rooted in social relations. The essentializing move is in the ontological structure of labor or of its ana- logue, women’s activity. 11 The inheritance of Marxian-humanism, with its pre-eminently Western self, is the difficulty for me. The contribution from these formulations has been the emphasis on the daily responsibility of real women o build unities, rather than to naturalize them. Catherine MacKinnon’s (1982, 1987) version of radical feminism is itself a caricature of the appropriating, incorporating, totalizing tendencies of Western theories of identity grounding action. 12 It is factually and politically wrong to 125 assimilate all of the diverse â€Å"moments† or â€Å"conversations† in recent women’s politics named radical femin ism to MacKinnon’s version. But the teleological logic of her theory shows how an epistemology and ontology—including their negations—erase or police difference.Only one of the effects of MacKinnon’s theory is the rewriting of the history of the polymorphous field called radical feminism. The major effect is the production of a theory of experience, of women’s identity, that is a kind of apocalypse for all revolutionary standpoints. That is, the totalization built into this tale of radical feminism achieves its end—the unity of women—by enforcing the experience of and testimony to radical non-being. As for the Marxist/socialist-feminist, consciousness is an achievement, not a natural fact.And MacKinnon’s theory eliminates some of the difficulties built into humanist revolutionary subjects, but at the cost of radical reductionism. MacKinnon argues that feminism necessarily adopted a different analyti- cal strategy from Marxism, looking first not at the structure of class, but at the structure of sex/gender and its generative relationship, men’s constitution and appropriation of women sexually. Ironically, MacKinnon’s â€Å"ontology† constructs a non-subject, a non-being. Another’s desire, not the self’s labor, is the origin of â€Å"woman†.She therefore develops a theory of consciousness that enforces what can count as â€Å"women’s† experience—anything that names sexual violation, indeed, sex itself as far as â€Å"women† can be concerned. Fem- inist practice is the construction of this form of consciousness; that is, the self-knowledge of a self-who-is-not. Perversely, sexual appropriation in this feminism still has the epistemolog- ical status of labor; that is to say, the point from which an analysis able to contribute to changing the world must flow. But sexual objectification, not alienation, is the consequence of the structure of sex/ gender.In the realm of knowledge, the result of sexual objectification is illusion and abstraction. However, a woman is not simply alienated from her product, but in a deep sense does not exist as a subject, or even potential subject, since she owes her existence as a woman to sexual appropriation. To be constituted by another’s desire is not the same thing as to be alienated in the violent separation of the laborer from his product. MacKinnon’s radical theory of experience is totalizing in the extreme; it does not so much marginalize as obliterate the authority of any other women’s political speech and action.It is a totalization producing what West- ern patriarchy itself never succeeded in doing—feminists’ consciousness of the non-existence of women, except as products of men’s desire. I think MacKinnon correctly argues that no Marxian version of identity can firmly ground women’s unity. But in solving the problem of the contra dictions of any Western revolutionary subject for feminist purposes, she develops an even more authoritarian doctrine of experience. If my complaint about social- ist/Marxian standpoints is their unintended erasure of polyvocal, unassimil- able, radical difference made visible in anti-colonial discourse and practice, 126

What Judges Look for in a Science Fair Project

How do you know what makes a great science fair project? Here are some pointers for making sure you have a good project, based on what science fair judges are looking for in your project. Be Original: Science fair judges are looking for inventions and innovations. Try to come up with an original idea for your science fair project. Find a new way to test something or a fresh application for a product or a novel way to process data. Look at something old in a new way. For example, rather than compare different types of coffee filters, you could compare different household materials (paper towels, napkins, toilet paper) for use as coffee filters if you ever ran out.Be Clear: Have a well-defined, easy-to-understand goal or objective. Make sure the title of your project is related to your purpose. Make it crystal clear what you are doing and why.Understand Your Science Fair Project: Its not enough to have an easy-to-understand poster or presentation. Judges will ask you questions about your project, in part to see whether or not you understand what you have done. This weeds out people who basically had their parents, friends, or teacher do their project for them. You need to understand what you did, why you did it, and what conclusions you could make based on your results.Be Professional: Have a neat, professional-looking poster and dress nicely for the science fair. While you should do your project yourself, its fine to enlist help from a parent or teacher in putting together a poster and an outfit. You are not being graded on your appearance, but taking pride in your appearance will help you radiate confidence. Neatness counts with your project since good organization will be  making it easier for the science fair judge to follow what you have done.Time Effort: Science fair judges reward effort. You can get excellent marks on a science fair project that only took you an hour to do, but you should realize investing time and energy in your project will give you an edge over other good projects. A project does not need to be time-consuming or complicated, but one which requires you to collect data over time will do better than a project you whipped out in a weekend. Spending time on your project demonstrates your interest in it, plus taking the time to think about it usually means you come out of the project with a better understanding of how science works.Answer Questions: You can impress science fair judges by answering their questions politely and completely. Try to radiate confidence. If you dont know the answer to a question, admit it and try to offer a way you could come up with the answer. Here are some common questions asked by science fair judges:How did you come up with the idea for this science fair project?How long did you spend on the project?What background research did you conduct? What did you learn from it?Did anyone help you with the project?Does this project have any practical applications?Did you try anything that did not work or did not give you expected results? If so, what did you learn from this?What would be the next step in this experiment or study if you wanted to continue your work?

The Minoan Civilization An Aegean Bronze Age Civilization

The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization that was rich with culture, art and architecture. They were so intellectually advanced for their time period, that they have made a significant contribution to the development of the Western European civilization. The Mycenaean civilization flourished in the late Bronze Age. Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaeans were militaristic and more calculating people. They had very specific reasons behind their actions. Both civilizations had differences and similarities in their technology, trade, military, and society. Being in close proximity of other ancient civilizations, both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans learned from others to fortify their own identity as a society. The Minoan civilization developed rapidly during the middle of the Bronze Age in 2000 BCE until 1500 BCE in the island of Crete. The Minoans were a sophisticated culture that had a unique palette in art and architecture. We know from archeological discoveries, that they had complex settlements and structures, but there were no fortifications, suggesting that they were peaceful and harmonious. This harmony carried through to their art giving it literary and mythological essence that questions, who exactly were the Minoans? Their lack of walled citadels, temples, and unclear kings and priests, suggests that there was an absence of male domination in this society. This leads to believe that the females played an important role in the Minoan society. In manyShow MoreRelatedAncient Mediterranean Art Essays1098 Words   |  5 PagesAncient Mediterranean Art I. Description of a Cycladic female figurine Cycladic civilization is divided into three periods: Early Cycladic (3000-2000 BC), Middle Cycladic (2000-1500 BC), and Late Cycladic (1500-1100 BC). The large amount of white marble sculptures located in the Cycladic islands, especially Naxos and Paros, a place exclusively made up of female folded-arm figures. These impressive marbles seem to be a symbol of Cycladic art. These figures are the best-knownRead MoreCauses Of Minoan Civilization993 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Civilization is an important part of people’s live. It develops when the environment of a region can support a large and productive population. Civilization is a social, economic, and political entity distinguished by the ability to express itself through images and written language (H.Sayre, 2011, P.1). Minoan civilization is the first advanced civilization of the prehistoric Aegean region that was developed on a small island of Crete, where Sir Arthur Evans an English archaeologistRead Morehis112 r3 Ancient Civilizations and the Greek World Matrix1457 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿University of Phoenix Material Ancient Civilizations and the Greek World Matrix Complete the matrix by entering cultural, political, and economic developments that had lasting effects or that are significant of each civilization. The table includes one example. Civilization Cultural Developments Political Developments Economic Developments Mesopotamian Developed the beginnings of astronomy and mathematics Believed in many gods not just one. Emergence of Kings, exercised distinct political ratherRead MoreThe Aegean Bronze Age Essay1516 Words   |  7 PagesThe Aegean Bronze age displayed a proliferation of beliefs manifested in social practices, and material culture. Among these practices, the display of idols became substantial in epitomizing social realities. The Minoan civilization, being one of the most momentous urbanization formed during this period, established the use of icons to exemplify their cultural and societal views. Emblems in the form of deities, monstrous creatures, hybrids and composites were prominent, alluding to the ways in whichRead MoreThe Collapse Of The Minoan2114 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Minoans? Well they are considered by many Historians and Archeologists to be the first great European Civilization. Some people believed that this was the mythical land of Atlantis. They were located near the Aegean Sea and lands such as Greece, Troy and Asia Minor. One interesting fact is that these people n ever called themselves the Minoans. There wasn’t any name listed in the history books for these people but the Ancient Crete Civilization. They were known as the Crete Civilization becauseRead MoreThe Minoans and Mycenaeans Essay842 Words   |  4 PagesThe Minoans and Mycenaeans were both from the Greek era. They differentiated quite a bit between each other. While the Minoans were peaceful people, the Mycenaeans were brutal and warlike. These two civilizations help the people of today learn about ancient culture. Although the two places were varied much from one another, the cultures wrote the most understandable historical evidence about themselves. This paper will tell how these close regions compared and contrasted. The Mycenaeans existedRead MoreCollapse of Bronze Age Greece Essay1955 Words   |  8 PagesThe Bronze Age in Greece was a period of time in which their civilization flourished. They were a main power at the time and seemed to have everything they wanted in the palm of their hands. Many other civilizations have a period of time also known as the Bronze Age, however, the bronze age of Greece is widely known to be the most prolific and dominant in history. The Greece Bronze Age is estimated to have lasted from between 8th to 6th century BC to about 146BC. Nobody knows for sure the exactRead MoreSimilarities And Differences Between Minos And Mycenaean On The Sea By Trade Essay920 Words   |  4 Pagesimpresses and honor to this masterpiece. The Minoan built an unusual and distinctive type of column. It referred to as an â€Å"inverted column because unlike the later Greek column, it tapers downward, the diameter being smaller at the bottom than at the top. And the columns were m ade of wood rather than stone and were painted bright red. Minoan civilization that developed on the island of Crete around 3000 B.C.E. â€Å"According to later Greek myth, the Minoan civilization was created by an off scoring god ZeusRead MoreGreek Culture : Ancient Greece1688 Words   |  7 Pagesand Bronze Age to the Twentieth century. The Stone Age is the first age in the Greece history, which dates all the way back to 11,000 BC. This age goes all the way until 3,000 BC. The reason that archaeologists call this the Stone Age is because during this time the population started to develop stone tools and basic agriculture skills (history of Greece). Greeka says between 3,500 BC and 3,000 BC larger villages and special organization started to form a high elite group. The next Age is theRead MoreThe Minoan Civilization2030 Words   |  9 PagesHistory Of Architecture Building: Palace Of Minos. Dates: 1700-1400 BC. Time period : Bronze Age. Location: Knossos,Crete. Civilization :The Minoans. In the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, South of Greece, lays the island of Crete refuge of the lost civilization of the minions.The island is first refereed as Kaptara at the Syrian city of Mani dating from 18 000 BC; Also known as Keftiu† from the fresco of the Tomb of Rekhmire in the valley of the kings in Egypt. The islands length is 260 km

Short Story - 1150 Words

â€Å"Thank you, sir.† my dad said calmly to the man handing us our food from the wide rectangle window. My dad places the bags on my lap and the warmth of the food sinks into my skin. I sat there staring out the window at the bright blue and cloudless sky, welcoming the heat, wondering why we drove all the way out here when there’s a McDonalds right next to our house. The man at the window gives us a quick nod as we drive off. The food smelt delightful and mouth watering. I could almost taste it even though I havent even touched it. Everyone and everything was quiet as a mouse except for the quiet music we havent turned up yet. Even Carter was silent, and that was very rare. Then when my dad turned onto the road, something grabbed my†¦show more content†¦Green light. â€Å"Both of them are just fine,† he reassured us, â€Å"but Sam might come a little early.† My heart started racing. At this point, we were already about to pull into the parking lot. Just the sight of the hospital made me worried. What if they’re not okay? My palms were clammy, my neck and forehead were showing prickles of sweat, and my cheeks were turning to a bright rosy color. So much for keeping my cool. I kept my head down as we walked in and I held my dad’s hand. The AC blew right on me as I stepped in and it automatically felt amazing. But, the smell of over-used cleaning supplies was nauseating. Breathing through my mouth was my only escape from the smell, although it even tasted a little too clean. It was nearly all the way quiet, but the typing of keys on a keyboard filled the room a feeling of work, business, and seriousness. The woman in at the desk didn’t look up, so we passed by silently and quickly. We watched the small circular button lit up and my brother and I competed to see which would open first to pass time. Ding. The elevator opens up and we take a step back for anyone who is coming out. But, no one came out, so we stepped in. My brother clicked the button to the third floor and it lit up like a tiny light bulb. The elevator took us up slowly but smoothly. The ride was silent until another ding came out of the speakers. We’re all quiet again wh ile we walk towardsShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 W ords   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of eventsRead MoreRacism in the Short Stories1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intr uding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narrator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. In

Fundamentals of Infection Risk Management-Free-Samples for Students

Quetion: Write an Essay on Fundamentals of infection risk management. Answer: The essay aims to discuss the four common microorganisms responsible for the hospital acquired infection and highlight the prevalence rate in health care settings. The essay further evaluates the rate and impact of these infections on the staff, facility and the patient. It also critically analyses the national and international guidelines to combat infection due to one of the microorganisms. The critical analysis also includes the state of current infection, control and prevention for one of the organism. The essay then provides review on how the current infection and control practices have historically developed and improved the current practices. Various organisms have been found to be the contributing factor of the hospital acquired infection. The four microorganisms that are dealt in the essay areMethicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), E.coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. According to CDC (Centre of disease control) these are the most common pathogens causing the hospital acquired infections (Ehagroup.com, 2017). In New Zealand or NZ the highest reported hospital acquired infection is due to Staphylococcus aureus and the incidence is due to strain of methicillin-resistantS. aureus that caused the epidemic spread. It mainly causes soft tissue and skin infection, gastrointestinal, nosocomial, and systemic infections. The prevalence of infection due to this pathogen is high in New Zealand than in any developed country. Studies and reports from the period 2000-2001 revealed that S. aureusbacteraemiawas 4 times more likely among the Pacific Peoples and two times more likely among the Maori patients. It occurs at rate of 25/100000 population (Williamson et al., 2017). It is confined to affecting children. Only one specific aspect of disease is commonly reported in NZ that is MRSA infection. MRSA is also known as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (McMullan et al., 2016). Pseudomonas aeruginosa is responsible for 11% of all the hospital acquired i nfections. The fatality rate of the infection caused by this micro-organism is 50%. It is resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. It is highly diagnosed in patients with AIDS, and Cancer. It mainly causes urinary tract infections. In blood stream infection cases, 96% were found to be noscomial (Pfaller, Bassetti, Duncan, Castanheira, 2017). Hospital acquired pneumonia caused by Klebsiella pneumonia is the second most commonly reported hospital acquired infection. This infection comprises of 15-20% of total hospital acquired infections. It occurs at the rate of more than 15 cases/ hospital admissions (Pitout, Nordmann, Poirel, 2015). The E.coli strain that is dangerous and contributor of most hospital acquired infections is E. coli O157: H7. Children and older adults are highly susceptible to this infection. This pathogen is highly prevalent in bloodstream infections and occurs at rate of 35/100000 population (Martelius et al., 2016). These infections have adverse effect on ov erall health system. These infections are increasing the cost of the health care. Each year 100 million procedures are performed in NZ hospitals. These infections are increasing the litigation nationwide. There is high chance of the acquisition of infection in other hospitals, rehabilitation centres and nursing home. The group of patients who are highly susceptible to these infections are young children and older adults and immunocompromised patients (Khan, Ahmad, Mehboob, 2015). After admission to the hospital, around 5-10% of the patients acquire an infection. It is difficult to measure the exact cost. The annual cost was found to be in excess of NZ$50 million for medical admissions and $85 millionfor surgical admissions. The additional cost is due to diagnosis and treatment of hospital acquired infection (Moura, Baylina, Moreira, 2017). It leads to added burden on the health care staff due to work overload and job stress. Even the staffs acquire these infections which lead to attrition and poor qual ity of care. Extended length of stay in hospital adds to anxiety and stress in patients (Williamson et al., 2014). Hospital acquired infections were investigated over several years and was concluded to be caused by unclean and non-sterile environmental surfaces, breach of infection control procedures and practices (Ehagroup.com, 2017). Based on this evidence several strategies were developed to control the hospital acquired infection due to these micro-organisms. One of the above identified micro-organism for which the current infection, control and prevention and the national and international guidelines will be discussed is MRSA. To control MRSA various prevention and control guidelines were developed. However, the implementation does not seem to be serious enough as there is still a prevalence of MRSA infection. The surveillance of MRSA and the methodology is provided by CDC. There is a large gap between the existence of guidelines and the actual implementation (Cdc.gov, 2017). The prevention and control guidelines for MRSA in many countries are similar. The fundamental recommendation in every guideline is screening and early detection, patient isolation, hand hygiene, and decolonization. In low prevalence countries these guidelines were found to keep the health care facilities MRSA free and prevent the infection. Failure to adhere to the national guidelines makes countries like NZ MRSA-endemic that has high prevalence rate (Williamson Heffernan, 2014). The National Clinical Guideline developed by the RCPI Clinical Advisory Group on HCAI - Subgroup MRSA Guideline Committee is based on series of recommendations. The guidelines reflect the best international practice. It is disseminated through the HSE networks and is effective in many facilities in combating infection (HPSC, 2017). The subject of debate is Antibiotic stewardship. It is effective to use local antibiotic susceptibility data for effective results (Guharoy et al., 2016). As per the Ministry of Health, NZ, guidelines developed should be used for formulating own MRSA policy. It also states that the key infection controlling procedure includes hygiene practices being rigorously followed in hospitals. In NZ these procedures and guidelines along with comprehensive MRSA surveillance has helped in defining the mostly transmitted MRSA strains. It aided in extra stringent infection control (Ministry of Health NZ, 2017). However, some strains are highly transmissible and were foun d to be difficult to control. Prudent antibiotic use was found effective. According to EHA (Environmental and public health consultants), MRSA is most susceptible to beta-lactamase resistant penicillins. Vancomycin is the highly preferred drug for MRSA infections (Guardabassi, 2017). The above mentioned guidelines and recommendations were made based on changing epidemiology of MRSA in NZ and other countries. These guidelines were made based on old and new literature, previous guidelines, local and epidemiological data. International guidelines were made based on epidemiological data from different countries and putting various draft guidelines for consultation. NZ MRSA surveillance was started ever since first reported case in 1975. ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited) conducts annual surveys in laboratories of NZ every year. These surveys monitor changes and help develop new prevention strategies (ESR, 2017). This helped in identifying the infection pattern and epidemiology which gave birth to national and international guidelines mainly in period 2000-2011 (Williamson et al., 2014). Owing to these efforts there has been stable rate and prevalence of MRSA infection in NZ since last three years. In conclusion, health care facilities are the places that may turn dangerous due to Hospital acquired infections also called as nosocomial infections. Various organisms have been found to be the contributing factor of the hospital acquired infection. Four of them have been discussed in this essay. MRSA is discussed in details as it is highly prevalent infection in NZ and in other countries. Stringent guidelines, surveillance, adherence and antibiotic stewardship are key factors to prevent and control MRSA. References Cdc.gov. (2017).Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Cdc.gov. Retrieved 11 December 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/community/index.html Ehagroup.com. (2017).Nosocomial Infections and Hospital-Acquired Illness.Ehagroup.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017, from https://www.ehagroup.com/epidemiology/nosocomial-infections ESR. (2017).Annual Survey of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2013.Surv.esr.cri.nz. Retrieved 12 December 2017, from https://surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/Antimicrobial/MRSA/MRSA_2013.pdf Guardabassi, L. (2017). Antimicrobial resistance: a global threat with remarkable geographical differences. vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 57-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2017.1270645 Guharoy, R., Seggerman, J., Groves, C., Daragjati, F., Leffler, D., Sebastian, D., Fakih, M. (2016, December). Anti-Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Anti-MRSA) Agents Use in the Era of Active Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Is There a Difference Based on Hospital Size?. InOpen Forum Infectious Diseases(Vol. 3, No. suppl_1). Oxford University Press. HPSC. (2017).Prevention and Control Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) National Clinical Guideline No. 2.www.hpsc.ie/az. Retrieved 12 December 2017, from https://www.hpsc.ie/az/microbiologyantimicrobialresistance/infectioncontrolandhai/guidelines/File,14479 Khan, H. A., Ahmad, A., Mehboob, R. (2015). Nosocomial infections and their control strategies.Asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine,vol. 5, no.7, pp.509-514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2015.05.001 Martelius, T., Jalava, J., Krki, T., Mttnen, T., Ollgren, J., Lyytikinen, O., Hospital Infection Surveillance team. (2016). Nosocomial bloodstream infections caused by Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, Finland, 19992013: trends, patient characteristics and mortality.Infectious Diseases,vol. 48, no. 3, 229-234. https://doi.org/10.3109/23744235.2015.1109135 McMullan, B. J., Bowen, A., Blyth, C. C., Van Hal, S., Korman, T. M., Buttery, J., ... Turnidge, J. (2016). Epidemiology and mortality of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in Australian and New Zealand children.JAMA pediatrics,vol. 170, no. 10, pp. 979-986. Retrieved from: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2543280 Ministry of Health NZ. (2017).Ministry of Health NZ.health.govt.nz. Retrieved 19 December 2017, from https://www.health.govt.nz/ Moura, J., Baylina, P., Moreira, P. (2017). Exploring the real costs of healthcare-associated infections: an international review.International Journal of Healthcare Management, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2017.1330729 Pfaller, M. A., Bassetti, M., Duncan, L. R., Castanheira, M. (2017). Ceftolozane/tazobactam activity against drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa causing urinary tract and intraabdominal infections in Europe: report from an antimicrobial surveillance programme (201215).Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy,vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 1386-1395. https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkx009 Pitout, J. D., Nordmann, P., Poirel, L. (2015). Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, a key pathogen set for global nosocomial dominance.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy,vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 5873-5884. Retrieved from: https://aac.asm.org/content/59/10/5873.short Williamson, D. A., Heffernan, H. (2014). The changing landscape of antimicrobial resistance in New Zealand.The New Zealand Medical Journal (Online),vol. 127, no. 1403, p.42. Retrieved from: https://search.proquest.com/openview/4f1219dff1a4cf0d65938a098e05976a/1?pq-origsite=gscholarcbl=1056335 Williamson, D. A., Ritchie, S. R., Roberts, S. A., Coombs, G. W., Thomas, M. G., Hannaford, O., ... Fraser, J. D. (2014). Clinical and molecular epidemiology of community-onset invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection in New Zealand children.Epidemiology Infection,vol. 142, no. 8, pp. 1713-1721. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268814000053 Williamson, D. A., Zhang, J., Ritchie, S. R., Roberts, S. A., Fraser, J. D., Baker, M. G. (2014). Staphylococcus aureus infections in New Zealand, 20002011.Emerging infectious diseases,vol. 20, no., 7, pp. 1157. doi:10.3201/eid2007.131923

Market Entry Options for Chery Cars China

Introduction The ultimate goal of a business corporation is to maximise profits. In order to achieve this goal, some crucial factors are always in place and business managers ought to keep them under control as they determine the success of a corporation in attaining its goal.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Market Entry Options for Chery Cars China specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Among the most crucial factors is the new market entry strategy, which is often a tasking operation as different markets pose different challenges to the business operations, and hence the ultimate goal of making and maximising profits (Gillespie et al. 2007). A new market entry is done is various ways depending on the nature of products and customers’ tastes and preferences. Therefore, business managers should understand these factors when making the choice of the method with which to enter a new market. This paper focuses on the challenges that foreign automobile makers face when entering the US market, with Cherry Automobile Company, China, as the case study. Market Challenges that are faced by Foreign Automobile Makers in US The US automobile industry is normally challenging for new market entrants due to various factors, which include customers’ tastes and preferences, traditional beliefs that some countries produce cars of inferior qualities, product pricing, and competition from both local and international automobile makers. The challenges make it difficult for new entrants to access the market, and thus some automobiles opt to settle for other international markets first in order for US customers to gain confidence in the products by learning from international customers’ satisfaction. Beginning with customers’ tastes and preferences, the US automobile market is the most competitive in the world due to the presence of many international and local automobile industry players ( Kotler Keller 2012).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The car market is large enough to accommodate new entrants, but customers’ tastes and preferences play a major role in determining the success of a player in the market (Brady2010). Traditionally, Americans believed in buying local cars, which were often made by the world’s leading automaker – the General Motors, until after the Second World War when they gained confidence in the Japanese automobile products (Nargundkar2009). Since the entry of the Japanese automobile products in the US market, many other international automobile makers have entered the market, but surprisingly, they all fight against the conservative customers’ tastes of Japanese and local automobile products (Kerin 2012). Japanese cars have stood out as competent in terms of affordability and high quality in the US market an d they are second most purchased cars after the General Motors. The majority of customers do not use luxury cars, and thus they buy affordable and high quality vehicles. Fuel efficiency is a major factor that a majority of customers consider before buying cars and this aspect explains why the Japanese cars gained popularity amongst the US customers. Hence, the management of Chery Cars China should ensure that its cars adhere to the tastes and preferences of the US customers before getting into the market (MarkmanPhan2011). Another challenge that new entrants face in the US market is the traditional belief that some countries produce inferior quality products, and thus customers tend to shun products from such countries (Anderson Svensson 2009). The majority of the US customers do not have confidence in Chinese machineries and automobiles as they are perceived to last for a short time and they do not perform well as opposed to the Japanese products (Terpstra et al. 2006).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Market Entry Options for Chery Cars China specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The problem with the US customers is that they perceive ‘products’ as a nation-related issue rather than company-related, and thus even a Chinese company producing quality products may undergo challenges simply for carrying the ‘Chinese’ tag (Vietor2007). It is very difficult to change the attitude that the US customers have towards Chinese-made products. They strongly believe that Chinese companies imitate other international products and consequently they produce inferior quality, which they sell at cheap prices. China is a fast growing economy in the global market and a majority of its manufacturers produce affordable products for nearly all forms of global markets. Hence, other developed nations perceive Chinese products as goods designed for third world economies. In a bid to end this misconception, Chery automobile makers should prove to the US customers that its cars are of high quality and suitable for the developed world markets. New entrants into the US market encounter challenges in product pricing. Unlike many other markets across the world, the US has many subsidiary automobile making companies drawn from the world leading players in the industry. Local manufacturing plays a major role in ensuring that products are priced competitively after considering that production cost is fully met and price set within the affordability bracket (Johansson 2006). Hence, new entrants prefer to export their fully assembled cars into the US market and sell them at local competitive prices. Alternatively, they can set up a subsidiary firm in the US in a bid to minimise production and shipping costs incurred during exportation (Czinkota Ronkainen 2012). The US car market is often regarded as the most competitive in the world as buyers look out for affordability and qualit y as the basic factors in determining the model to choose (Goldstein Lee 2005). Hence, automobile makers tend to produce high quality cars and sell them at lowest prices possible.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This aspect implies that market forces in the US pull the price to the lowest limit unlike in other international markets where sellers set up their own prices. Therefore, the management of Chery Automobile should choose the market entrant method that will lower the cost of production in order to set car prices at the lowest level, while retaining the original quality (Cateora Graham 2006). Lastly, competition from both local and international automobile makers poses a great challenge to new market entrants in the US automobile industry. Established automobile makers have an added advantage over the new entrants as they have already earned the customers’ confidence and learned the types of products that sell fast in the market (Hochbaum et al. 2011). Hence, the already established industry players pose stiff competition to the new entrants because they understand the market out of experience as well as the customers’ tastes and preferences. Hence, a new market entrant should choose the entrant method that would foster the winning of customers’ confidence easily in a competitive market (Hitt et al. 2008). The Majority of cars driven on the US roads are locally manufactured through international franchises and subsidiaries, due to the stiff competition between local and international automobile makers. This observation implies that the market is large enough to accommodate other players, but a new entrant should overcome the threats posed by the market competition through choosing the entrant strategy that would favour the acquisition of competitive strategies equal to the market players (Jones Khanna 2006). Hence, Chery Automobile should consider the best entrant strategy based on the issues highlighted so far. Market entry methods available to Chery Automobile in regard to the US Market Various entry methods are available for Chery Automobile in the US market. As aforementioned, the market is competitive and it has many established autom obile makers that have acquired customers’ confidence by producing high quality, but affordable cars. In addition, a majority of the automobile makers has franchise companies and subsidiaries that do local car manufacturing in the US market. Hence, Chery should focus on the viability of entering the US market through setting up local manufacturing factory, assembling plant, or transporting fully assembled cars from China. The company has used different entry modes in other parts of the country like in Israel where it formed a joint venture with Israel Corps. In Malaysia, it formed an assembling plant. Therefore, the company has a variety of entry mode options, but this paper will propose the best-suited mode for the US entry. Considering the first option of setting up a local manufacturing plant in the US, it is very costly to the company, but very important for enabling the company to compete with locally produced brands. The majority of competitive automobile makers in the world like Toyota, Mercedes, and BMW have subsidiary companies in the US that manufactures some brands not produced in other subsidiaries in a bid to open the world market (Dev Schultz 2005). This strategy will enable the US citizens to have confidence in Chery Automobiles for then they qualify as locally made cars (Gielens Dekimpe 2007). In addition, the company can opt to open a local manufacturing plant that is in line with other company’s brands as the case of Landrover Jaguar, whereby the UK based Landrover automobile company leased the Jaguar brand to the Chery in order to boost its competitiveness in international markets. This strategy helps the new brand to sell in a new market as the already established brand boosts the new entrant’s marketability to customers may lack confidence in the brand. In addition, the above strategies would allow the company to offer job opportunities for the locals, which would be an added advantage to the country. Secondly, Chery Automobiles may consider the second option of setting up an assembling plant whereby it will import unfinished cars into the market for further finishing. This option will help the company to offer job opportunities to the US citizens, but the large bit of car manufacturing will be done in overseas plants. The major problem associated with this option is the inability to earn the confidence of customers who demand locally produced products. In addition, the company will still run at higher costs due to shipping costs incurred. Hence, this option does not seem to guarantee the effectiveness for entering a competitive market like the US. Thirdly, Chery Automobiles may consider entering the US market by shipping fully assembled cars to the US showrooms from producing factories in China. This option is very effective for a majority of world markets where product pricing is the sole obligation of the manufacturer (Hollensen2014). However, this strategy may pose some threats to Chery Auto mobiles if used in the US market where product pricing is determined by market forces and customers have a conviction that Chinese products are of inferior qualities. Hence, this option may not be suitable for the US market due to the great risks it poses to the company. Looking critically into the US automobile market, the established players are of two main types, which include the luxurious carmakers and the ordinary carmakers. Luxurious carmakers include brands such as Lamborghini, which deals with luxurious sports cars only, and thus it targets the rich and celebrities. Its market is already well established unlike in the case of ordinary carmakers that have to compete with numerous players in the market. Hence, Chery Automobiles fit in the group of ordinary carmakers where competition is inevitable. Hence, it is recommendable for Chery Automobiles to choose the option of opening a subsidiary car producing plant whereby it will acquire competitive advantage as a local player, a nd in the end, it may introduce brands that target different market segments as other well-established players like General Motors. Conclusion Chery Automobiles as a new entrant in the market will inevitable face competition form well-established market players in the US automobile market. Hence, it is necessary for its managers to recommend the market entry strategies, which when implemented will enable the company’s cars to compete effectively against locally made products that exist in the US market. The best entry option that the company should choose is opening a subsidiary in the US market in order for the made cars to gain the confidence of the locals. Lastly, newly produced cars will require marketing strategies that are competitive and capable of outreaching a large proportion of US citizens in order to increase market size upon entry in the market. Reference List Brady, D 2010, Essentials of International Marketing, M.E. Sharpe, Boston. Cateora, P Graham, J 2006, In ternational Marketing, Thirteenth Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York. Czinkota, M Ronkainen, I 2012, International Marketing, Cengage, New York. Dev, C Schultz, E 2005, ‘A customer-focused approach can bring the current marketing mix into the 21st century’, Marketing Management, vol.14 no.1, pp. 18-23. Gielens, K Dekimpe, G 2007, ‘The Entry Strategy of Retail Firms into Transition Economies’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 71 no. 2, pp. 196-212. Gillespie, K, Jean-Pierre, J Hennessy, H 2007, Global Marketing, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Goldstein, D Lee, Y 2005, ‘The rise of right-time marketing’, The Journal of Database Marketing Customer Strategy Management, vol.12. no.3, pp. 212–225 Hitt, M, Ireland, D Hoskisson, R 2008, Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalisation, Concepts, Cengage Learning, New York. Hochbaum, D, Moreno-Centeno, E, Yelland, P Catena, R 2011, ‘Rating customers according to their promptness to adopt ne w products’, Operations Research, vol.59 no.5, pp.1171-1183. Hollensen, S 2014, Global Marketing, Pearson, New York. Johansson, K 2006, Global Marketing, McGraw-Hill, Irwin. Jones, G Khanna, T 2006, ‘Bringing History (Back) into International Business’, Journal of International Business Studies, vol. 37 no. 3, pp. 453-68. Kerin, R 2012, Marketing: The Core, McGaw-Hill, Irwin. Kotler, P Keller, L 2012, Marketing Management, Pearson Education, London. Markman, G Phan, P 2011, The Competitive Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Market Entry, Edward Elgar Publishing, London. Nargundkar, R 2009, International Marketing, Excel Books, New Delhi. Anderson, S Svensson, G 2009, Glocal Marketing: think globally and act locally, Studentlitteratur AB, Sweden. Terpstra, V, Ravi, S Llyod, R 2006, International Marketing, North Coast Publishers: Garfield Heights. Vietor, R 2007, How Countries Compete, Harvard Business School Press, Boston. This report on Market Entry Options for Chery Cars China was written and submitted by user Aiyana Hurst to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.