Joint Medical Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Joint Medical Program - Essay Example This recommends all encompassing advancement for understudies like me who expect to get moral, esteem driven, and sympathetic clinical experts later on. This craving to create clinical understudy comprehensively is in like manner reflected in their way to deal with clinical appraisal, where the understudy is relied upon not exclusively to assess the patient’s clinical manifestations, yet those in different aspects also, including intellectual, passionate, and social working. In actuality, the understudy isn't just compelled to being experimental and research-driven yet considers the â€Å"whole† individual in his finding and treatment. Toward the day's end, my definitive target in seeking after a profession in medication is to have the option to stretch out magnanimous support of the less blessed, with whom I have been presented to right off the bat. I can identify with their torment and their communities’ critical requirement for clinical consideration. I value the utilization of â€Å"case-based issue arranged learning†¦that contextualizes and completely coordinates the essential, clinical, and social sciences.† This program again exhibits the all encompassing methodology of JMP to creating clinical understudies. They have likewise checked on and attempted booking changes to upgrade the educating of examination abilities, and permit the understudies adequate opportunity to take a shot at their Masters propositions. This is perfect in helping clinical understudies like me to deal with their time viably. Besides, the utilization of the more novel and maybe progressively successful case-focused, little gathering instructional exercise model would permit more coordinated effort and cooperation among class individuals.

How far could ancient tribal traditions and religious beliefs be held Thesis

How far could old innate conventions and strict convictions be held to fault for the issues between African countries for sure - Thesis Example ’ I accept that the proposed task has a lot of importance in the current setting where the universal connections between countries are in question and the fold of war is experiencing in numerous nations. As an understudy I am highly intrigued by the global relations of the countries. Despite the fact that I don’t have a lot of information in it, I accept that if the worldwide ties between the countries are reinforced up, a significant part of the issues among the countries will descend. The worldwide court has an overwhelming job to manage the countries through harmony and security. In the field of worldwide equity, step by step, numerous issues identified with the infringing, fear based oppression, regional question, and unfortunate rivalries between and among countries are ascending to a scary level. As this point is managing the current circumstances of the world and it has become a concentration for intrigue, I wish to take up this task. I accept that this investiga tion has some significance for considering. Most definitely I wish to have an exhaustive report on the subject. The information about the different components of universal law and the execution of it in the current circumstance are to be examined. ... I accept that the part of worldwide law and the techniques for settling the debates among the countries is a significant worry that the law should glance through. At ordinarily the global law has neglected to judicially execute the debates that rose up out of various pieces of the world. There ought to be sufficient explanation in the usage of law by the various offices. I intend to give more weight on this perspective in my examination. It is certain that if at any time I get an opportunity to meet a specialist regarding this matter I would pose certain inquiries which is confusing in my psyche. Obviously the significant questions of mine will be in the transforming of the worldwide law. I need to know the how this law can take changes and how this law will discretionarily settle on choices on various issues that are coming up step by step. I might want to drill down a portion of the inquiries that I pose to the master. I will get some information about the move in that happened in the universal level as the amazing countries think about this as an instrument of their incomparability. It is likewise acceptable to get some information about the cutting edge changes that are to be there in the worldwide law. I propose to ask on how the worldwide court can practice power in managing the predominant countries of the world. I will ask him what the changes are proposed by the worldwide law council with respect to the forthcoming components of fear based oppression in every nation. By posing numerous inquiries I accept that I will get an obvious thought on the worldwide law and its job in keeping up harmony among countries of the world. If at any point I was approached to get a book on their changes of International law I would recommend the article, ‘International Law in Times of Hegemony: Unequal Power and the

Beyond Business Why Socializing is Not Just for the Holidays

Beyond Business Why Socializing is Not Just for the Holidays The holiday season is upon us. There seems to be a celebratory business networking event to attend every night of the week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the second week of December my party of choice was the Dane Buy Local holiday social, a gathering of local business owners in Madison, WI. For many of us at that event, the operating word was “social.” It struck me that most of the people I spoke to, though originally met as business contacts, have become friends. For most of the evening, I felt like I was gabbing with my girlfriends, just like I would at a birthday or Halloween party at one of their homes (which I have attended). We talked about relationships, personal growth, families, health … and, well, even a smattering of business (but not much). This sort of socializing was not what I ever would have predicted when I first became a “businesswoman.” When I first started my business, I thought I needed to keep my communications to business. But it wasn’t long before I learned that revealing my personality and just the right amount of my personal life in my communications created relationships that drew people into my sphere. Here’s what Joan Stewart, media consultant and author of the online newsletter, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” says about the subject: On sites like Facebook and Twitter, the social networking conversation should include your personal and business lives. Sharing information about things like your pets, hobbies and special interests will endear you to those who are following you. When the time comes to use these sites to discuss a new product, your followers will be more receptive because they’ll feel they already know something about you. Revealing personal information endears people in person too. More and more, in my networking meetings and coffee dates, I share about my personal life: my quirky beliefs in astrology, my uncharacteristic interest in reality TV, my dietary choices, and my relationships. I have yet to have anyone respond with anything but delight that we were able to share on a deeper level than they expected. The same goes with clients. My biggest fans and repeat clients are people I’ve talked to about personal topics, not just their writing projects. It’s human nature to trust and want to interact with people who know us for all aspects of our personalities and lives. I’m not planning to post a profile photo of me and my Chihuahua any time soon (even if I do acquire one, which is very unlikely). But I will likely keep talking about kale, The Bachelorette, and maybe even conversations with my mother, for the foreseeable future. Woody Allen quotes and pictures of my family will show up on my Facebook page. And while I’ll talk business at networking events, business will most definitely not be all I talk about. Life is so much more fun and engaging this way! And at this time of yearâ€"and really all year ‘roundâ€"that’s what it’s all about.

Essay on The Common Core State Standards - 1431 Words

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being deceitfully sold to the general public as a state-led initiative to reform the current curriculum taught in our public schools. In the standards there are very specific objectives that need to be met by the end of each school year for all grades Kindergarten through twelfth grade. So far the only subjects that have seen any change are mathematics, reading, writing, and literature. The standards are advertised as school, teacher, and administration led along with heavy collaboration between feedback groups and the public. This is just not true. The Common Core State Standards were produced by organizations and corporations for their own interests. As a repercussion students are†¦show more content†¦Interestingly enough all five companies lead to the same place. Millions of dollars have been funneled to these companies by the same foundation and consequently the same man. Thats right, one man; Bill Gates via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has donated close to $62.6 million to just these five companies alone. He also gave the NGA and CCSSO a combined amount of $104.7 million (Schneider). There are dozens upon dozens of major education organizations, think tanks, state education departments, local districts, universities, foundations, and institutes that have all accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from Gates. For example organizations such as the PTA and American Federation of teachers are both advocates for the CCSS and unsurprisingly they too have their hand in Gates pockets. The PTA received $2,005,000 alone while the American Federation of Teachers received $1 million (Ohanian). These organizations are more than willing to sell out their integrity and the free will of public education just as long as the money keeps flowing. Some may disagree and argue that Bill Gates is a philanthropist and his intentions are purely of those to ensure the future of education. But something does not seem right. There is a trend throughout common core; itShow MoreRelatedThe Common Core State Standards764 Words   |  4 PagesThe Common Core State Standards are a state attempt to create strong educational standards. The standard are created to ensure that students in the country are learning and grasping the information that are given in the classrooms for them to succeed academically. The Common Core plan included governors and education commissioners form forty-eight states and the District of Columbia. They wanted to make sure the standards are relevant, logical and sequential. For content all subjects must have critical-thinkingRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards 1791 Words   |  7 Pagesnew Common Core State Standards for Mathematics bring a new opportunity to the classrooms of the United States that many peop le view as a controversial. According to the NCTM (2013) â€Å"The Common Core State Standards offer a foundation for the development of more rigorous, focused, and coherent mathematics curricula, instruction, and assessments that promote conceptual understanding and reasoning as well as skill fluency† (par. 1). While some people believe that the Common Core State Standards mayRead MoreThe Common Core State Standard1492 Words   |  6 PagesWhen looking over the Loveless article, the paper seemed to have a very negative view of the Common Core State Standard. The part that was most interesting to me throughout the reading was when Loveless referred to the furthering of teacher development with the Common Core Standard. The article was very persuasive for someone who had not known a great deal about the Common Core and led me to believe that it was not a helpful tool to the teaching community. Nonetheless, once I did some deeper researchRead MoreThe Common Core State Standa rds1733 Words   |  7 PagesCommon Core, these two words have come to mean more, in the past four years, than two words with no similarities. 43 out of 50 states are signed on to the Common Core State Standards as of now (Khadaroo). This paper will review the good, the bad and the alternatives to the Common Core, from the eyes of a student that is affected by these standards everyday. Through researching this topic, it has become apparent that the common core has good intentions, however bad implementations. Forty PercentRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards Essay1433 Words   |  6 Pagesyour life? The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) not only standardizes education, but it makes comprehension and intricate tool of the learning process. When it comes to American public education, the diagnosis has been offered that our schools suffer from a lack of consistent standards from coast to coast about what our kids should leave school knowing. The fix that has been adopted in a number of states in the last few years is a set of standards called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), whichRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards881 Words   |  4 PagesIn 2009, states around the country began adopting the Common Core State Standards. These standards were put in place to ensure that each child was on the same academic level by high school graduation. As the global marketplace becomes increasingly more competitive, the United States hopes that Common Core will enable the coming generati ons to be better prepared. As of right now, my working thesis is Common Core is overall unsuccessful in its effort, and discontinuing or, at the least, replacingRead MoreCommon Core State Standards760 Words   |  3 PagesCommon Core State Standards, or Common Core for short, has been making headlines in 2014. Not a curriculum, Common Core is a set of standards defining the skills in which students from kindergarten through 12th grade need to have each year in order to be prepared for the next grade. Creating these national academic standards was a state-led initiative that included a coalition of educators and governors. Administrators, educators and parents participated in the developement of the actual standardsRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards Essay1271 Words   |  6 Pages2009 the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, was initiated, and since then has become a large part of education today. News shows in multiple states have shown students protesting these new standa rds by skipping classes and school all together. These actions obviously show their refusal to work with the new standards. While there are many teachers who are happy with these standards, students still need to be convinced, and teachers can help this by supporting Common Core State Standards. This inRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards937 Words   |  4 Pages Forty-two states, along with the District of Columbia have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. An effect of states adopting Common Core State Standards is that all other subjects taught in school were emphasized less. History, Science, and many other subjects are no longer stressed; therefore students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areasRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards1298 Words   |  6 Pagesterms of core subject content, as well as though social activity and elective/activity courses. However, there has often been a disconnect between different states and districts over what exactly should be in the curriculum for various grades and what is needed to prepare students for life beyond school, as well as providing little basis for comparing the US to other countries. That’s where Common Core State St andards (CCSS) come in. According to Teaching in the Middle School (2012), the Common Core

Early Childhood Education More About Care Than Education...

Is early childhood education more about care than education? Is early childhood more about free-play than learning? The late 1980s saw the campaign for quality early childhood education and is now seen as a site for early intervention and for the maximisation of the child’s potential from the earliest possible age (Duhn, 2009). Over the years early childhood has become a foundation for children from birth to 5 years of age making it a quality based learning which will make a life time difference. In this essay I will be talking about four issues over the history of New Zealand education around early childhood: first I will talk about baby farming. Secondly care versus education, thirdly the quality of qualified teachers versus non-qualified teachers and lastly the impact government has made on early childhood education. Single and married women used to pay people to care for their children, because they had to work to get by. These babysitters were also known as â€Å"baby farmers† due to the fact they had so many children under their watch. This was a service to New Zealanders that was of great need. Easting (1994, p.48) said in relation to the nineteenth century: â€Å"the stigma of ‘care’ being a service for problem children from ‘scarce’ families (for example where the mother went out to work) developed very early on. Gradually the governments of the time began to provide some support for ‘educational’ activities [kindergartens].† These caregivers were sometimes called ‘babyShow MoreRelatedDevelopment Of Exceptional And Special Needs Children Essay1672 Words   |  7 PagesThe early childhood sector is increasing rapidly across the Caribbean. Some of these centres just came about in an ad hoc manner due to the demand for day care servi ces; recognising how important early childhood development is, governments and other officials are being faced with the task of ensuring that quality early childhood education is provided. This essay seeks to discuss teachers’ expectations, sensitivities, priorities and values that contribute to the quality of all pupils learning andRead MoreBenefits Of Low Salaries For Early Childhood Education1197 Words   |  5 Pagesnecessity of early childhood education has increased as research indicated all the beneficiary effects on the child’s developmental learning capacity in their early years. However, low salaries negatively affect many early childhood educators who dedicated time and effort to continue higher education and trainings to ensure the best practices for the children. With the efforts to raise salaries for early childhood teachers, many professionals and educators in the field voiced their opinion about the raisesRead MoreThe State Of Georgia Have Quality Earl y Childhood Education1447 Words   |  6 Pages†¢ Purpose The purpose of this policy is to ensure that all children in the state of Georgia have quality Early Childhood Programs that are accessible, affordable, comprehensive, and sustainable. Crafting strategic and thoughtful policy in the forefront will ensure the academic achievement, social development and future success of the state’s youth. †¢ Scope This policy will aim to address the social, academic and general health needs of all children from birth to the age of 8 years in the state ofRead MoreThe Career Field Of Early Childhood Education1746 Words   |  7 PagesAccording to Careers in Early Childhood Education, the field of early childhood education deals with teaching and education young children, commonly at a preschool level. Early childhood education appeared as a separate branch of education after several studies were conducted and told us that the time before a child goes to kindergarten are the most important for developing their learning abilities and social skills. Studies were conducted by the Department of Education, and many other governmentRead MoreHuman History Literacy Rates Have Continued Essay1699 Words   |  7 PagesHuman history literacy rates have continued to hike. Children now attend school than at any other point in history. Although nations have made immense progress, many are still far from rea ching the universal goals of education. The importance of early education cannot be emphasized enough. As famous scholars had noted in human history, education is the precondition for success and unconstrained prospects. Educated citizens are the foundation for a nation’s sustainable economic and social developmentRead MoreChildren With Multicultural And Diverse Experiences849 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Early childhood providers do many difficult tasks. The hardest task is to provide the children with multicultural and diverse experiences. Since the beginning of time, the extended families, clans, and the communities raised the young children. Even today, many early childhood programs and family child care institutions tend to be similar and homogeneous to the children’s home backgrounds. The common criteria parents use to choose the early childhood programs, and the child care facilitiesRead MoreDeveloping A Safe And Healthy Environment1471 Words   |  6 Pageschild (Early Learning for, 2007, p. 3). In November 2004, the Ontario administration created a great plan called the â€Å"Early Learning for Every Child Today† (ELECT). By launching this plan, Ontario fulfilled its dream. In addition, the ELECT document contains comprehensive and rich sources of information that enhances, rather than modifies, planned curriculum in all Ontario’s care centers operating under the Day Nurseries Act. As long as early childhood professionals working in early childhood settingsRead MorePromoting a Healthy and Safety Environment in an Early Childhood Education Setting1353 Words   |  6 Pageshealthy environment in early childhood education. Learning and developments of children are greatly enhanced by a healthy environment. It will also explain three policies that relate to these aspects. Strategies will also be mentioned to elaborate on the aspects and policies. Families, communities and centres should work together to provide and promote a healthy upbringing of young children. It will also include the areas needed to be improving further in the early childhood healthy environment andRead MoreChildren s Academic And Social Competencies1549 Words   |  7 Pagesstart school tend to be more at-risk (considered to have a higher probability of failing academically or dropping out of school) than their advantaged peers, come from lower socioeconomic hom es, and are more likely to have developmental challenges that limit their attentiveness for instruction (Jeon, H., Peterson, et al., 2011). This gap in development is evident at the earliest stages of growth and the effects of poverty on children s development typically appear at about the age of 2 and by ageRead MoreEssay on 20th Century Approaches in Early Childhood Education861 Words   |  4 Pagesthere are many kinds of programs and approaches used in early childhood education? The 20th century was the start of inclusive classrooms and about the idea of education for all. Education in the early preschool years boomed with early childhood development programs. While there are many popular approaches, I find that Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner have the reliable strait forward and captivating approaches to early childhood education. Maria Montessori has an educational method that is in

Help Write Thesis Paper: the Ultimate Convenience!

Help Write Thesis Paper: the Ultimate Convenience! The Argument About Help Write Thesis Paper It's also wise to consider readers of your thesis that are not specialists in your area. The thesis statement tells the reader precisely what the remaining portion of the paper is all about. Normally a couple of sentences, a thesis unifies and supplies direction for a bit of writing. Thesis on-line service is an excellent solution if you're writing your own thesis. Get the Scoop on Help Write Thesis Paper Before You're Too Late The thesis statement is easily the most important sentence in your whole essay. Writing a thesis paper is a difficult job. Definitely writing a thesis paper is not simple, but we'll comprehend a few of the measures to compose a thesis paper that will permit you to write and produce excellent thesis papers. Writing an excellent paper or any thesis statement is usually not an easy work. Your thesis abstract is an essential part of your paper. The goal of yo ur thesis paper will accurately fill up the gaps which were not presented. You might discover that you wish to compose your own paper. Hire our writers to learn what really flawless thesis paper resembles! The Help Write Thesis Paper Cover Up Doing it convincingly and keeping up the premium quality of writing throughout your paper is no simple undertaking. There are 3 keys resulting in success. Thesis help online services are becoming increasingly more popular, and it's getting harder to seek out a reliable one from the huge variety of sites that search engines offer you. After getting success in a lot of other courses, you receive the permission of making a thesis statement. Things You Should Know About Help Write Thesis Paper Writing a thesis statement can develop into a true headache for every single student, because it's the focus of the paper, which shows how well you've mastered the subject. It is no mean feat. It is crucial to many college classes. Ok, I Think I U nderstand Help Write Thesis Paper, Now Tell Me About Help Write Thesis Paper! Keep in mind that every one of the data in your thesis ought to be credible and you want to make certain you can back it with evidence if necessary. Basically, thesis statant is the very first thing your tutor is likely to check. Thesis statement gives a general notion to the readers about what they are likely to read. The thesis statement is vital since it tells the audience what they'll be reading about. Help Write Thesis Paper - Dead or Alive? If you are in possession of a thorough understanding of what it is you're likely to write about but not certain how to shape it in the suitable form, our talented writers are always here to provide urgent and reasonably priced thesis help. When thesis papers are involved, the majority of the students seek help from several resources. The very best help with thesis is currently available easily. Students who aren't conscious of writing seek for thesis assis tance and assistance from an expert writer the most. Assistance with thesis formatting If you aren't sure about the best way to format a thesis paper, we can assist you with that. The task looks like an easy one. For a student who isn't acquainted with the necessary elements of a thesis statement, such a task could end up being insurmountable. Hence a proper writing place is going to be the starting of thesis paper help that has a dedicated workstation. Use a brief anecdote, a brief you're writing. The thesis may be restated in the closing paragraph utilizing different words. Usually every topic can be split into hundreds of smaller issues. Writing in college often requires the shape of persuasionconvincing others that you've got an interesting, logical standpoint on the subject you're studying. From the opposite side, sometimes students become lost in the stream of their ideas. Don't depart from your thesis paper needs to a company which will not even supply a live perso n to talk with. Writing a thesis paper enhances your knowledge alongside securing your focus on the topic issue. It is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Thesis writing services can satisfy the tightest deadlines and still offer quality results for you as well as your thesis paper requirements.

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia Comparison Essay free essay sample

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia both developed in river valleys. These first civilizations in the Middle East, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates and Egypt by the Nile River. They are early civilizations that relied heavily on geographies and their surrounding environment. Mesopotamia featured distinctive cultures and was also the home of the worlds first set of laws. The Egyptian civilization formed near the Nile River and in the Sahara desert, so a strong society was needed to prosper in this harsh environment. As both civilizations formed close to important rivers and fertile land, they developed similarly (Ecks, 2012). Mesopotamia and Egypt both relied on their rivers to survive their everyday lives. Mesopotamia was divided into two lands, Sumer and Akkad and then both of the lands got together and became Babylonian , a flat country. Also, Sargon which is the king the Mesopotamians worshipped , king of Sumer which Akkad symbolized the claim of Universal domain. We will write a custom essay sample on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia Comparison Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mesopotamia and egypt were also very agricultural. Mesopotamia had little to no natural defenses. They were open to invasions and got took advantage of quit often. The Assyrians were the last to take over before the Persians conquered them. They built pyramids called Ziggurats. Cuneiform was the Mesopotamians writing system. They created Cuneiform around 3500 B.C.E and it also became a system of pictographs. Mesopotamia went into a decline and ended around 2300 B.C.E . Ancient Egypt lasted around 3000 B.C.E until the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. Egypt was a civilization based on irrigation. Its also a civilization that arises through the need for flood control and irrigation. Which leads to a strong central government. The Egyptian state centered on the king, often known by the knew term Pharaoh , from an Egyptian phrase meaning â€Å"palace†. The religous beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians were the dominating influence in the development of their culture.The Egyptian faith was based on a collection of ancient myths, nature worship. Sumerian lives were spent  serving the gods in the form of man-made statues. There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs, which were the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian religion. Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk. While the Mesopotamians didnt have anything quit to scale with the pyramids, they did use and build ziggurats for religious purpose.Both civilizations were centered on religion. Egypt believed in many gods. The gods of Mesopotamia believed in tended to be absolute rulers to whom the people owed total devotion. In both civilizations religious leaders were given very high status and held in high regard. Mesopotamia and Ancient E gypt are two religions that believed in monotheism. Ancient Egpyt and Mesoptomia both relied on river for survival. They also had similar religous role which led into their different life styles. Ancient Egyptian religous beliefs were more demanding than Mesoptomia. Well , they were more into their religous beliefs. In conclusion, the Ancient Egypt and Mesoptomia share these similarities; Both Egypt and Mesopotamia emphasized social stratification, with a noble, landowning class on top and masses of peasants and slaves at the bottom. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt changed only slowly by the standards of more modern societies. Both civilizations demonstrated extraordinary durability. Both civilizations, left an important heritage in their region and adjacent territories. References Asbell, M. (2007). Comparison between mesopotamia and egypt. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia both developed in river valleys. These first civilizations in the Middle East, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates and Egypt by the Nile River. They are early civilizations that relied heavily on geographies and their surrounding environment. Mesopotamia featured distinctive cultures and was also the home of the worlds first set  of laws. The Egyptian civilization formed near the Nile River and in the Sahara desert, so a strong society was needed to prosper in this harsh environment. As both civilizations formed close to important rivers and fertile land, they developed similarly (Ecks, 2012). Mesopotamia and Egypt both relied on their rivers to survive their everyday lives. Mesopotamia was divided into two lands, Sumer and Akkad and then both of the lands got together and became Babylonian , a flat country. Also, Sargon which is the king the Mesopotamians worshipped , king of Sumer which Akkad symbolized the claim of Universal domain. Mesopotamia and egypt were also very agricultural. Mesopotamia had little to no natural defenses. They were open to invasions and got took advantage of quit often. The Assyrians were the last to take over before the Persians conquered them. They built pyramids called Ziggurats. Cuneiform was the Mesopotamians writing system. They created Cuneiform around 3500 B.C.E and it also became a system of pictographs. Mesopotamia went into a decline and ended around 2300 B.C.E . Ancient Egypt lasted around 3000 B.C.E until the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. Egypt was a civilization based on irrigation. Its also a civilization that arises through the need for flood control and irrigation. Which leads to a strong central government. The Egyptian state centered on the king, often known by the knew term Pharaoh , from an Egyptian phrase meaning â€Å"palace†. The religous beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians were the dominating influence in the development of their culture.The Egyptian faith was based on a collection of ancient myths, nature worship. Sumerian lives were spent serving the gods in the form of man-made statues. There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs, which were the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian religion. Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk. While the Mesopotamians didnt have anything quit to scale with the pyramids, they did use and build ziggurats for religious purpose.Both civilizations were centered on religion. Egypt believed in many gods. The gods of Mesopotamia believed in  tended to be absolute rulers to whom the people owed total devotion. In both civilizations religious leaders were given very high status and held in high regard. Mesopotamia and Ancient E gypt are two religions that believed in monotheism. Ancient Egpyt and Mesoptomia both relied on river for survival. They also had similar religous role which led into their different life styles. Ancient Egyptian religous beliefs were more demanding than Mesoptomia. Well , they were more into their religous beliefs. In conclusion, the Ancient Egypt and Mesoptomia share these similarities; Both Egypt and Mesopotamia emphasized social stratification, with a noble, landowning class on top and masses of peasants and slaves at the bottom. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt changed only slowly by the standards of more modern societies. Both civilizations demonstrated extraordinary durability. Both civilizations, left an important heritage in their region and adjacent territories.

How does Shakespeare create an atmosphere of evil and disorder in Act 1 of Macbeth Essay Example

How does Shakespeare create an atmosphere of evil and disorder in Act 1 of Macbeth Paper Shakespeare is renowned worldwide as one of the greatest playwrights that ever lived, and is known for many of his wonderful techniques. However one of the best things about his play Macbeth is the wonderful sense of atmosphere obtained throughout. He does this both in very subtle ways that one may not notice when first watching or reading Macbeth, and in more obvious ways that are clear to all. In act 1 scene 1 we are first introduced to the witches, they are the first people we meet and would have received a strong reaction from an Elizabethan audience. The witches are situated in a battlefield, so already a sense of conflict and unrest is being created. There is a storm raging throughout this scene, which carries through the idea of conflict but this time in nature and indicates that these witches have this effect on the world and create strong disorder. Already we are led to believe that the witches are associated with Macbeth, we know this as the third witch says There to meet with Macbeth. We dont yet know who Macbeth is but from this introduction an audience might assume he is of bad character to be associating with such outcasts. We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare create an atmosphere of evil and disorder in Act 1 of Macbeth specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare create an atmosphere of evil and disorder in Act 1 of Macbeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare create an atmosphere of evil and disorder in Act 1 of Macbeth specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer According to their description the witches look like hags and are deeply unnatural, both to look at, and in the way they affect the their surroundings. One of the most famous quotes from one of Shakespeares plays is the witches chant, Fair is foul, and foul is fair. This just paints a stronger picture; that these witches are outcasts and dont conform to the same rules as the rest of society. It shows they have different values and morals, if any at all. This chant also gives us reason to be wary of the witches and to tread with caution. Another interesting point about this scene is one of Shakespeares more subtle devices, but one that is really very clever. Shakespeare uses ten syllables per line for his characters, but note, in this scene the witches are given shorter lines with only seven syllables. An example of this is the opening line When shall we three meet again, it has a completely different rhythm to the lines of his other roles. This is just another way a sense of unrest and unnaturalness is portrayed here. In act 1 scene 2 and we are amidst the Kings camp. There has been an incident of treachery and lies; this could possibly be seen as a challenge between good and evil; however it would appear good has won over as the traitor is found out. The King was believed by Jacobeans to be a direct link to God that puts the King above everyone on earth. This is known as the divine right of Kings. The first we are told about Macbeth is when he is described as a good honourable man, but we are also made aware of what violence and destruction he is capable of when in battle. He is compared to a lion; majestic and respected, but able to cause devastation incredibly easily if provoked. The audience watching this probably would have seen this as all the markings of a fine man. A good warrior is looked up to; honour and courage are qualities anyone would admire. There is another disturbance in nature when we meet the witches for the second time in scene 3. We learn of something the witches have done to a human. The witches seem proud of torturing a young man whos wife happened to upset the second witch. This would have alarmed the Elizabethans, as they would no doubt feel uncomfortable that witches could interfere with human affairs. We are told how petty, cruel and violent the witches can be in this scene. The second witch moans that a sailors wife refused to share some chestnuts with her. She then goes on to brag of the torture they put her husband through. They cast some sort of spell which disallows the sailor from sleeping. Sleep is seen even now as a natural good as much of a necessity as food and water are, there is also certain innocence about it. Yet the witches have taken it away from the sailor without a moments hesitation. They see it as a bit of light entertainment, this illustrates the different morals the witches appear to have to humans. There is definitely an air of dramatic irony about it. This attack the witches make also shows how evil is associated with an attack on what is naturally good. Within this scene Macbeth is told he is the new thane of Cawdor, as the witches previously predicted. This is an awfully alarming clarification for the audience of its time that the witches can be right. This would be a frightening concept to anyone watching, especially an Elizabethan audience. Act 1 scene 4 sees King Duncan announcing his new successor, Malcolm. Of course this is the obvious choice to anyone else but it is not what Macbeth was expecting. It comes as a surprise to Macbeth as the witches foretold to him that he would be king. This meant that Macbeth assumed he would be Duncans successor. Macbeth has already got evil thoughts creeping at his conscience by now and sparks what is to be a really quite tragic chain of events. Further proof of how Macbeth is starting to contemplate terrible things like crimes against the divine right of Kings is when he says, Stars hide your fires meaning whatever awful things he plans to carry out, he wants the darkness to be his shield. There are several references throughout the play to this simile of light symbolising all that is good, and dark being a hiding place for evil. This means that our darker characters such as Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and even the witches often refer to it. So already in the first act, the struggle between good and evil in Macbeths rampant mind means cracks are starting to appear in his character. So Macbeths desire for power is causing him to contemplate awful things against the social order; questioning the great chain of being and the divine right of kings. Where as a striking contrast King Duncan, who has been portrayed as a good character throughout, says, Signs of nobleness like stars shine on all deservers this basically means good people get their rewards. So the battle between good and evil, and light and dark is waging. Scene 5 opens with Lady Macbeth reading aloud a letter from Macbeth. However before this scene even really begins something quite odd has happened, so far the sequence of scenes has involved the witches in every other scene, now when it should be the witches we cut to Lady Macbeth. Is this a link between the witches and Lady Macbeth? The letter is explaining what the witches told Macbeth, about him being thane and eventually king. Lady Macbeths reaction to this is quite surprising, she believes he shall be the thane of Cawdor and would be good at it too, but fears that he is too full othmilk of human kindness. This seems to imply she thinks he is not tough enough and is weak in character. Now this in itself is startling to the Elizabethans, how dare a woman say this about her husband! Women were meant to obey their husbands and hold no real opinion, and here is Lady Macbeth is calling her husband weak and too soft! She is saying this as of it is a bad thing to show natural compassion. Then after a messenger has come to tell her that the King is coming with her husband she launches into another soliloquy. She summons spirits and says unsex me here she asks them to take away everything that makes her a woman. This is unnatural and quite disturbing imagery being used here. When she says this it shows a very unnatural desire and is proof of her callousness. If she took away everything that made her a woman she would be unable to bear a child, and yet she seems completely unbothered by this. This shows she has absolutely no maternal instinct, and is therefore lacking in compassion, but she also proves that in other ways. She also says come to my womans breasts and take my milk for gall this further demonstrates my point about her lack of maternal instinct. She also refers again here to milk, milk being equated to innocence, a baby depends on it and it is all it needs to live and grow, but Lady Macbeth wants none of it. Next she goes on to say come thick night and nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark showing she is evil as she is using this similie of light and dark and good and evil again. The blanket comment is also another reference to sleep. The Macbeths and the witches are associated with evil and destruction whilst good characters like king Duncan are associated with natural goods like food and sleep. Lady Macbeth seems interrupted when Macbeth appears but goes on to greet him anyway. She tells him he needs to kill the King, and says he should look like thinnocent flower, But be the serpent undert She is saying he should act like the genial host but act cunning as not to raise any suspicions. The look like and the but be are examples of alliteration which adds a rhythm, urgency and a power to the sentence. It makes the sentence more of a command as well. This could also be linked to when Eve led Adam astray in the garden of Eden, Lady Macbeth is tempting Macbeth to evil now, sinning just like Adam and Eve. Then Lady Macbeth instructs her husband to leave everything to her. The effect she has on him is quite mesmerising, she can tell him what to do and will hear no word of complaint; she has him wrapped round her little finger. In scene 6 Lady Macbeth welcomes the guests as if everything was perfectly normal. Duncan shows his appreciation for her kindness and hospitality and we are left thinking if only he knew. Scene 7 is another scene with just Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in. Macbeth is saying to his wife he doesnt think he can do it, that Duncan is too trusting and it would be wrong. He tells her he simply wont do it, but of course Lady Macbeth persuades him. She insults him by saying he is not acting like a man and is a coward. He tries to calm her by saying if he did it then that would make him not a man. She goes on to say that she would do it and then displays violent imagery and says How tender tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluckd my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this this is a really horrible picture, and she is using this all to prove her point that she would do anything she had given her word to. This is another example of her unnaturalness and lack of maternity. She tells Macbeth to be brave and do it, and that if he does it right none ever needs to know. And there it ends, and one again Lady Macbeth has got her way. She is quite clever and you can tell she is not satisfied with the system, that she wants a higher status, and that until then she will need to be like the puppet master of the puppet that is Macbeth.

Identifying a Bug vs Insect

Identifying a Bug vs Insect The word bug is often used as a generic term to refer to any type of small crawling critter, and it is not only kids and unknowing adults who use the term this way. Many scientific experts, even trained entomologists, will use the term bug to refer to a wide range of small creatures, especially when they are speaking conversationally to the general public.   The Technical Definition of a Bug Technically, or taxonomically, a bug is a creature that belongs to the insect order Hemiptera, known commonly as the true bugs. Aphids, cicadas, assassin bugs, ants, and a variety of other insects can claim rightful membership in the order Hemiptera. True bugs are defined by the types of mouthparts they possess, which are modified for piercing and sucking. Many members of this order feed on plant fluids, and so their mouths have the structures necessary to penetrate plant tissues. Some Hemipterans, such as aphids, can badly damage or kill plants by feeding in this way. The wings on Hemipterans, the true bugs, fold over one another when at rest; some members lack hind wings altogether. Finally, true bugs always have compound eyes. All Bugs Are Insects, but Not All Insects Are Bugs By the official definition, a large group of insects arent considered bugs, although in common usage they are often lumped together under the same label. Beetles, for example, are not true bugs. Beetles are structurally different from the true bugs of the Hemiptera order, in that their mouthparts are designed for chewing, not piercing. And beetles, which belong to the Coleoptera order, have sheath wings that form hard, shell-like protection for the insect, not the membrane-like wings of the true bugs.   Other common insects that do not qualify as bugs include moths, butterflies, and bees. Again, this has to do with structural differences in the body parts of these insects.   Finally, there are a number of small crawling creatures that are not insects at all, and so cannot be official bugs. MIllipedes, earthworms, and spiders, for example, do not possess the six legs and body segment structures found in insects, and are instead members of different animal orders- spiders are arachnids, while millipedes are myriapods. They may be creepy, crawly critters, but they are not bugs.   Common Usage Calling all insects and all small crawling creatures bugs is a colloquial use of the term, and when scientists and otherwise knowledgeable people use the word in such a way, they are usually doing it to be down-to-earth and folksy. Many highly respected sources use the word bug when they are writing or teaching certain audiences:   Gilbert Waldbauer is a respected entomologist from the University of Illinois. He authored an excellent volume called The Handy Bug Answer Book  which covers everything from scorpions to silverfish.The University of Kentuckys entomology department hosts a website called the  Kentucky Bug Connection. They include information on keeping pet bugs, including tarantulas, mantids, and cockroaches, none of which are actually bugs.The  University of Floridas entomology department  has sponsored a Best of the Bugs award honoring for outstanding insect-related websites. Among their honorees are sites on ants, beetles, flies, and butterflies- no actual true bugs.Iowa States entomology department hosts one of the best arthropod sites around- Bugguide. The site is a database of information and photographs collected by amateur naturalists, covering virtually every North American arthropod. Only a small portion of the species listed belong to the order Hemiptera. A bug is an insect, but not all insects are bugs; some non-insects that are called bugs are neither bugs nor are they insects.  Is everything clear now?

Evaluation of Zara's fashion marketing performance Term Paper

Evaluation of Zara's fashion marketing performance - Term Paper Example ithin the Singapore apparel industry is almost one point three percent and it occupies the sixth position after the other international brands such as Mango, Guess, Espirit and the like (Burgen, 2014). Its vision is to satisfy the customer’s desires and needs and therefore they keep on renovating business so that it may be able to improve the condition of the business and satisfy the customers. Zara’s mission statement includes the ideals of contributing to the world in which they interact so that it may lead to sustainable development of the entire society (Jacob & Mamgain, 2011). The brand actually deals with clothing, footwear and accessories designed for men, women and children. The main advantage that Zara has in comparison to the other retailers on the market is that they do not define their segmentation into ages, therefore they are able to cater a broader range of market and capture more customers. Values that are mostly associated with the brand Zara are modern , trendy, glamorous and the likes (Zara.com, 2010). Typically a Zara customer is mostly a young, trendy fashion conscious individual who is also seeking value in the products that he or she is buying. Moreover the customer is highly related and updated with the latest fashion trends and is keen on purchasing products which carry a highly fashionable outlook or design but a reasonable price tag. The ultimate value that they want from these products are that they should be sophisticated, impressive and should add a glamor quotient to their wardrobe. Zara is such a brand which is proud of its decision to avoid mass production. In the domain of style and design, it offers its customers with the latest style and designer products. It aims at achieving high fashion with a low price intent. . The customers who buy Zara are mostly young, fashion conscious and they are also very conscious of the value of products. They are also highly aware of the latest fashion trends in the

Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Concerning Internet Essay

Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Concerning Internet - Essay Example As workplace use of internet and reliance on e-mail grows, employers are spending more and more energy monitoring and regulating their employees' e-mails and other computer communications to avoid potential liability under hostile environment law. Even if antidiscrimination law were not a factor, employers would engage in a certain level of monitoring and regulation to ensure that their workers were not frittering away the workday instant-messaging their friends and Web surfing. But many employers are going well beyond what is needed to maximize productivity, and are using sophisticated surveillance tools to monitor employee e-mail to head off potential discrimination complaints. One-quarter of all large corporations, for example, perform keyword or phrase searches to censor employee e-mails, usually looking for sexual, scatological, or racist language (Rotenberg, M. 1993). Thus, the issue for all employees in the Internet age is the lack of safety in venting gripes online. "If you v ent to your best friends and your spouse, the boss never finds out," Houston Labor lawyer Linda Wills remarked. "If you vent in the hallway or on the Internet, you're asking for trouble". Of course, Internet monitoring is just one way employers track employees. "Most people who work for private employers have their constitutional rights put in the garbage for eight to ten hours a day".Basically, it is believed that Performance monitoring has been critical to organizational effectiveness for centuries. Monitoring enables organizations to obtain information that can be used to assess and improve employee performance. Motivated by the variety of benefits that may accrue from monitoring, organizations have sought to improve the effectiveness of their monitoring efforts by assessing employees’ e mail and websites which they browse. (Jerry Adler, 1998) It is also said that Employers are using these techniques in response to a wave of hostile environment lawsuits brought by women and others who either received sexually suggestive e-mails, or who were simply offended to discover that their coworkers had swapped such e-mails among themselves. Almost every hostile environment case contains allegations of offensive workplace e-mails. While it is true that few hostile environment cases succeed solely on the basis of allegations that a corporate defendant tolerated offensive e-mails, such e-mails do hostile environment defendants no favors, so it is most sensible to prohibit them completely. As a leading First Amendment scholar points out, as long as e-mails can be used as part of a hostile environment claim, â€Å"the cautious employer must restrict each individual instance of such speech. The employer must say,

Current Challenges Of Bhp Billiton Information Technology Essay

Current Challenges Of Bhp Billiton Information Technology Essay The Present day world is developing rapidly and there is dynamic nature in technology in the market. Due to this development and dynamic nature of the market, it is difficult and hard for organisation to face the competition and to have competitive edge. Organisations have been increased and the competition has also much increased irrespective of different industries. Information Technology has been playing an important role in driving the business for the past few decades .All the organisations are using Information Technology to developed fast in the market and to have online presence which makes them globalised. Every organisation in the world are making use of Information Technology(IT) to drive their business processes .In order to have competitive edge and growth in the market, the business process has to be aligned with Information technology. Organisation having better alignment of business strategy and IT strategy has attained an growth and competitive edge in the market. Go od Alignment between the IT and Business processes is an factor for driving their business growth and to have competitive advantage in the market. Organisations having no better alignment between business and IT have not only lose their competitive edge in the market but also business value. There are many reasons why alignment is not attained? Organisation structure is one of the important factors responsible for that. Organisation structure plays an important role in achieving business-IT alignment. Every organisation will have their own organisation structure and this structure varies from organisation to organisation .Organisation structure depends upon their business processes and how big the organisation is. Organisation structure is a coordination of all departments and it will tell us that how the business process flow. It is an hierarchy of different departments and how they are arranged and aligned ion the organisation. The other most important factor in having bad alignment is too much emphasises on IT rather than core business. This will have the wrong directionality and will leads to failure of the business. Too much spending on IT rather than core business will leads to have failure of alignment which in further leads to collapse of the organisation growth and business. Governance is one of the important factor need to be considered for having better business-IT alignment. Having proper governance, good communication channels, scope will drive the business to achieve their goals and objectives. IT function is most important factor in driving business and to have better alignment. Effective IT function will helps the organisation to have better alignment with their business that will drive towards organisation growth. IT function should be responsive that is IT should follow Business processes but not vice-versa and this will definitely will help the organisation to have better business-IT alignment .Communication should be effective in order to have good alignment of business and IT.IT function should be effective and this should be aligned with business goals and objectives but not vice-versa. That is IT should be in harmony or engaged or should be aligned with business for having competitive edge and good position in the market. IT strategy should be engaged with business strategy for achieving good alignment between business and IT.IT strategy tell the organisation how it is designed effectively for supporting the business needs for achieving business goals and objectives of the organisation. Abstract: BHP Billiton is a product based company consisting of 40,990 employees as June 2009 is one of the world largest diversified natural resource company operating in more than 25 countries. The aim of the company is to premier global company in providing its products and services to its clients.BHP Billiton products compromises of manganese, iron, aluminium, energy coal, copper, nickel, silver etc.BHP Billiton has an net revenue of US $50.2 billion in 2009 febrauary.BHP Billiton company is an merger of two companies called BHP and Billiton in 29 June 2009. BHP company headquarters based in London is an natural resources company has founded long period ago in 1860s has become one of the global leader in metal and mining sector and is strong in copper portfolio which helped the company growth much further. Its a main producer of aluminium and alumina, coal, nickel, silver etc. It has employees of 30,000 people all around the world and perform major operations in Asian Countries. Billiton founded in 29 September 1860s main business was tin and lead smelting and later in 1940 it extended its operations to bauxite mining. The company has an rapid growth in 1970;s through Royal Dutch group of companies. The company operates in different companies and having many portfolios which increased its growth and revenue in the market. Even though the two companies merge under the Dual listed Companies merger, they continue to acts as separate entities thus exploiting the market revenue. Headquarters of BHP Billiton Limited is located in Melbourne Australia.BHP Billiton limited has same group directors for running both the organisations as unity efficiently and effectively. In 2001, BHP Billiton is listed on AXS and LSE and in 2002 it invested in energy source using technology and in 2009,it emerges as the one of the global company in providing its best products in the world. From 2001 to 2009 it has many developments and deals that make company very competitive and powerful globally and this happens by through perfect business-IT alignment. BHP Billiton corporate objective is to create long term value through discovery , development and conversion of natural resources and also in providing innovation customer and market-based solutions.BHP Billiton Limited has developed rapidly by making use of information technology. The company is vast and diversified company and it has many complex projects to deal with and the manpower associated with it is very high. Information Technology has been deployed for their resources and they use it vey efficiently which generates them not only revenue but also competitive edge in the market. Organisational Structure: Organisational Structure is very important for driving the business in right directionality and to achieve organisation goals and objectives. Organisational Structure tells how the departments are arranged and how decisions are made and how to deal with any task to achieve an particular goal. Organisational Structure is explains how authority are distributed to make an effective business decisions. Organisation Structures not only differs from one company to another but also it differs in type of industry as well. Organisation Structure is developed based on type of industry, their goals and objectives. Basically, organisational structure is divided into three types. They are Functional, Divisional and Matrix organisational structure. Functional organisational structure is an hierarchical structure of all departments placing one and other. The communication is not much effective and decision made by only Chief executive of the company. This type of structure applicable to smaller com panies, where as divisional structure refers to each department has head and these head of the department will have their own decision without consulting all. The decision were made individually without consulting all departments, where as matrix or hybrid structure is an combination of both functional and divisional organisational structure where information flow is uniform across the organisation and decision made is collective ,this is including all the people from different functional background and this type of structure is mostly seen in larger multinational companies and there will be effective communication exits which makes them to have better decision-making. The organisational structure of BHP Billiton Company is very effective to drive their business and to get greater revenue from the market. As the company entered into an Dual Listing Company (DLC) ,both the BHP and Billiton companies has certain contractual agreements that put the shareholders of both companies in an position such that they represents as single company(they operate as one), even though they exits separately and is bound to all assets, liabilities ,profits as one.BHP Billiton Limited is an public traded company where it provides all its shareholders an Annual General Meeting(AGM) to attend. The Executive body of BHP Billiton Limited Company has Board of Directors which are selected by Annual General Meeting (AGM). The executive body comprises of 13 directors, 12 non-executive directors and one executive and if this non-executive directors will serve the company for more than 9 years then the same director must again stand for elections at the Annual General Meeting (A GM).It followed by Group Management Committee and senior management group .All these groups will collectively make an decision which helps to increase companies productivity in the market. Business-IT Alignment: Most of the organisation in the world is leveraging the Information Technology to drive their business and to achieve organisational goals and objectives. The competition has been very high in the market and almost all companies depend upon Information Technology to drive their business effectively and efficiently. But not every company has been be benefited from this information technology. Many companies has failed initially in making use of IT for driving their business. In order to drive the business and to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation, IT has to be aligned properly to business strategy. Many companies spend much of the money on Information technology rather than their core business which leads to failure of the organisation. That is too much emphasis on the Information Technology rather than core capabilities of the organisation will leads to not only loosing competitive edge in the market but also failure of the entire business. Business-IT alignment sho uld consists of involving people from different functional backgrounds such as from IT, Management etc to participate in the decision making which will elevate the organisation to new dimensions which in turn will provide higher Rate on Investments (ROI).Almost all the companies in the world are using the IT as a function in driving their business effectively. Current Challenges of BHP Billiton: The Current Challenge of BHP Billiton are mainly petroleum projects and mineral projects. The petroleum projects Macedon Australia has commenced and progress is 3% complete and production capacity is 200 million cubic feet gas per day. The other petroleum project is Angostura gas Phase 2 is on schedule and budget and is 74% complete with an share of US $180 Millions. The other petroleum projects are brait strait kipper and brait strait Turrum k which is scheduled and budget under review and North west shelf CWLG life extension in Australia with 16.67% gas has completed 84% etc The other current mineral projects are Worsley Efficiency and Growth (Alumina as 86%) in Australia is on schedule and budget .The Construction for this project is 38% complete and overall project is 53% complete. The other mineral projects are Iron ore in Western Australia with iron ore as 85% has engineered 98%, construction is 77% complete and the overall project is 79% complete. The other projects are Douglas -Middleburg which is 100% energy coal and MAC20 project which is 100% energy coal. Future Challenges: There were many future challenges for BHP Billiton Limited company. Their main future challenges are to spread their products to each and every corner of the world through constantly researching their growth options. And their main primary objective is to provide larger amounts of their products to resources-hungry world. Through this they has an vision in sustaining the world economic development which helps them in bringing more revenue and growth to their organisation. For example the company has one of the challenges in 2011 to commence the production $625 million Daunia open cut cooking coal mine through BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA coal) where the company has an alliance with Mistisbushi and is one of the Australias largest coal mine exporter and world largest supplier to seaborne coking coal. IT functions: IT function is the important factor for any organisation for driving the business to competitive advantage in the market. IT function if aligned properly to business strategy will drive the company through innovation and helps to get more Return on Investments (ROI).If IT services are properly leverage to business functions then the business of the organisation will grow rapidly thereby eliminating higher cost ,slow cycle etc .IT function should be properly designed such that the life cycle period has to be reduced by eliminating waste of time, money spend on that extra steps etc. IT function is the main factor which drives the business of the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. Factors driving the IT function of BHP Billiton: The factors which were used for driving the IT function of BHP Billiton are cost efficiency ,business-IT relationship, speed responsive time. Cost efficiency: BHP Billiton is very large and global organisation providing natural resources to the world economy. There are many large and complex projects involved in the organisation which they took the help of Information Technology to reduce their cost. By making of IT, they can reduce the much labour cost, cost associated with resources, tracking etc. Business-IT relationship: BHP Billiton has taken the help of information technology to drive their business much faster and efficiently. Information Technology is used differently by different companies according to their business needs. IT can acts as internal service provides just to drive some business needs and also IT can be used to redesign processes and the information flow across the organisation.BHP Billiton has used Information in both ways for developing their business throughout the world. Responsive Times: BHP Billiton is very large and global organisation and it operates many complex and large projects. The company needs effective information technology where it can provide the best responsiveness thereby reducing the period of life cycle and providing better products to the world. Managing IT and IT Strategy in BHP Billiton: The company uses Escondido as an IT function for achieving the strategic business direction. The Escondido is an strategic information systems and information technology that underpins the business strategy of BHP Billiton. This is used for generating massive amount of data where they can process the data much quickly for effective decision making. This IT function will allow them for data mining and this will helps the organisation to have accurate, timely and secured data which can be effective used for better decision making.BHP Billiton will also make use of E-business strategy for transforming work into business. E-business works in three channels such as technology, transitions and transformation of data so that it can be used effectively for data processing which results in good decision making. The technologies that the company uses technology for reducing costs and to improve productivity are wireless networking, video conferencing, webcams, and voice over internet protocol etc for effective communication which in turn increases responsive time for better business. BHP Billiton IT has been formed in 1989 and has office in Melbourne and all around the Australia. The company provides integrated IT solutions which will deliver better business results.BHP Billiton in association with Computer Sciences Corporations (CSC) has gained better IT services.CSC is an provider of an IT solution in various sector and it has been to an agreement that it leverage the best IT solutions to BHP Billiton for increasing its productivity in the market.BHP Billiton has an employees of more than 1700 in IT sector and has the product and services. They Include: Portfolio framework solution ,using this they can provide product and business solutions Enterprise Resource Planning where they can provide good and practical solutions in consulting areas such as business processes innovation, strategic information system which can be used for better decision making, technology infrastructure planning where they can used as an IT strategy in order to have better business and IT alignment which drive the business towards the desired results and systems evaluation which can be used for evaluating the resources required for projects work etc Knowledge management is one part of the information technology where the organisation can effectively used the knowledge for innovation and better business driven results. The knowledge management consists of knowledge consulting , data ware housing and mining where they can store large amounts of data relating to different projects at one place and miming the enormous amounts of data for better decision making, data document management where they can have better document portfolio for sharing among the different functional backgrounds for better decision making and also web services like intranet, online enquiry etc They also provide the supply chain management solutions as they have large number of suppliers providing materials, transportation, resources required for various projects. The various functions and plug-in associated with Supply chain management is tracking systems where they can track their materials or resources and check whether they met the schedule time. And this how they use the IT for driving their business. They can the best transport systems where they rely on that for estimating resources allocation, scheduled time and money. This is very good and analytical tool for processor their time, value and money in driving their business towards the better outcome They provide integrated and sophisticated SAP and enterprise wide solutions for project management.BHP Billiton has very large and complex projects to be deal with and the amount spend fro that also will be high. If the processing time or if they are managed improperly , then it will leads to loss of millions of dollars which will have an bad impact on industry in the market and in the world.SAP provides the better integrated systems with project management where the projects goes on without any risks. Project management is very important when dealing with complex projects like Energy coal, petroleum products etc where management of resources like skilled people, scheduling, task management etc is of high priority. With SAP, they also provide system analysis where they can have an analysis of data in the systems for determining the project plan, design and implementation. It can also be used for data conversion and application support also. One of the most important parts of aligning IT to business is to have better infrastructure management both technically and personally for driving the business.BHP Billiton has enterprise infrastructure management solutions for operating internal business process which will enhances their business towards the goals and objectives of the organisation. Communication plays an important role for any organisation to prosper and grow in the market.BHP Billiton is very large company and if communication fails ,then the company will have an loss of millions of dollars. The company has enterprise communication and network solutions throughout the organisation that will facilitate their communication very high in order to process their business process high in turn bring them greater return on investments. BHP Billiton has sophisticated business solution which helps them to manage their projects effectively and efficiently and to have an competitive edge in the market. The business solutions they provide are inventory management which is used to record each inventory items they purchase from suppliers ,order systems to enter their point of sales and purchases, returns for example such as MYOB or quick books integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, active operation information like call centre to give the right information regards project status, resources information, availability and bulk materials management which can be used to store the information relating to that materials, their safety and procedure to ensure not to have explosion. Business Strategy and Alignment: BHP Billiton company has many products such as petroleum, copper, nickel etc and each category has an its own business strategy. Bill Billiton is very large natural resource organisation and has too many large and complex projects. Business strategy is one of the important factor that every organisation will work for achieving competitive edge in the market and also to achieve organisation goals and objectives. Business strategy is framed on core business components and this business strategy has to be aligned with information technology to drive the business towards the desired results. Business strategy is nothing about the direction of the organisation over the long term and it tell how the organisation should go in order to have an competitive advantage in the market. Business strategy tells the organisation what resources it should have such as skilled people, software, hardware, competencies, technical competencies, skills, assets etc . Strategy exists at all levels of the orga nisation and many strategies will be depending upon the level such as operational strategy, business unit strategy, corporate strategy etc. Based on business strategy the companies has to properly designed IT strategy in order to align to its business strategy for driving the business towards the competitive edge in the market. BHP Billiton Limited Company has very highly and sophisticated IT management described above to be aligned with its business strategy for having better alignment which leads to achieving goals and objectives of the organisation. The company has many strategies and the strategy differs from one resource to another, but the overall strategy is grow strategy.Our strategy is to own life-long, low cost, export-oriented, expandable assets.Since the company is very large company, it makes much emphasis on whether it should put on millions of money on project. For that, BHP Billiton makes an financial strategy how it should go and how to eradicate risks involved. The strategy is described below as follows: Generate Ideas Analyse and Structure ON Time And On Budjet LOW COST OWN IT WELL BHP Billiton company has research and development team where ideas are generated, researched their capabilities, explore the idea with samples and also test their efficiencies. After testing efficiencies, they look at financial opportunities and tax issue concerning the development and funding of ideas. The most important thing they look at is safety. Safety is the most important concern as it is an natural resource company and it look at acquisitions and environmental factors whether they are any side effects that could affect the society and the company as well. After generating the ideas they analyse and structure the ideas. In this phase, they analyse how much capital should it worth is analysed through Capital Project Committee review and they analyse cost savings by looking at shared resources or the project should go for restructuring administration. They integrate the business strategy and plan with IT resources and analyse the risks associated with that project. The project is weekly assessed by senior financial management committee and forecasting will do according to it. They come with the risk assessments of the project. Next phase is on time and on budget where it look all all project management activities and quantifies not only cost and time but also financial impact on project. In this phase, the project is constantly reviewed by Capitals project review committee also assess any risks associate with that. Next phase is low lost where the committee forecast price associated with project. In this process it set out benchmarking of other natural resources companies and checks it with outcome of the project assessment. And it also assesses the general costs and administration costs. The final stage is own it well where it research market value of business units and assets and also assess cash flows and check whether it is compatible with the project or not. And at last it is checked by the Portfolio management team and has meetings with the bank inv estors for funding. IT Governance: Governance is a combination of polices, management practices, procedures, customs, processes, laws, etc that an organisation should be managed and controlled. It is very important part of the organisation as it describes all important relationships among shareholders, directors etc about right and power. IT Governance is very part in driving the business towards the competitive edge in the market. IT governance should enable the Information technology to be perfectly aligned with the business strategy to drive the results in the desired results. IT governance is all about information technology systems, risk management and their performance. The main goal of IT governance is to ensure the business value without any failure. IT governance has much more to do with organisation structure. Effective IT governance will helps to eliminate the risk associate in the project and in turn returns greater return on investments and good productivity. BHP Billiton has highest level of governance and it helpful for the organisation to have great culture that facilitate good values ,rewards, ethical standards etc.BHP Billiton believed high governance can be attained only when there is strong link between governance and shareholders value. The company has very good and high governance that will help their shareholders to have freedom and updated on the projects, company returns on investments, profits and dividends. Governance will set the requirements that the company should have in pursuing very high and reliable governance that can drive the business toward the desired results. The constitution of BHP Billiton Limited has variation of rights, transfer of securities, rules and regulations for all levels of management that will enable the company to great height to drive the business. SCOPE OF IT: Information technology or Information systems is used to store information, process information, transfer or exchange information for better decision making. It is also useful for the organisation to drive their business function based on results provided by the information technology. Without IT , no organisation in the world can survive their business bearing highly competition in the market.BHP Billiton has its own IT department for leveraging their business in the right direction.BHP Billiton is very large natural resources company and is spread across many different countries. Without information technology and its importance in the company, the industry cannot survive due to its large business processes in different sectors of the company. Security is one important thing that need to be taken care when it comes to large companies.BHP Billiton due to its versatile business segments and its diversity, there is large amount of enormous data will be present. All this data has to be protected by making use of the information technology or information systems. Knowledge is very important for any company to progress in the market. Without effective knowledge management, no company can survive in the market and cannot achieve competitive edge as well. Data has to be processes and then converted into information and then again has to be validated so that it can be used as knowledge and this knowledge is very important factor for decision making which in turn drive the business goals and objectives. Without Information technology or information systems this cannot be possible.BHP Billiton has strong information systems for storing huge amount of data in data warehouse which can be use effectively for processing for decision making. Document a management system which helps to maintain documents in reliable format and can be shared by all the departments for decision making. Enterprise Resource planning systems such as SAP and SAAS can be used for processing these hu ge amounts of data so that they can extract the target amount of data which can be used for decision making. Security is one important factor and for this the information technology can provide the security access to its employees only at a certain level and it depends upon their level. They make use of IT for supply chain management where they can effectively develop the relationships between supplier and their clients and costumers etc.BHP Billiton company has huge complex projects and in order to maintain and coordinate the resources , people, technology etc, information technology and information systems is very necessary. It is impossible for them to operate without information technology or information systems. For estimating the resources required and for calculating return on investments, for scheduling etc information technology is very important. For production roll out and for implementation and to check the progress of project and in every life cycle of the project ,info rmation technology and information systems is very necessary .Having effective alignment between Information technology and business function will helps the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. Information technology enabled the business of BHP Billiton and there is much increase in its revenue and ROI(return on investments) as well. The scope of Information Technology in BHP Billiton is very high which drive their business effectively and efficiently. Business Value: Business value is one of the important factors that the company has to be assessing its value on various terms and conditions. Business value describes how the organisation can sustain over the long term on various factors. It just tells how healthy is the organisation running at the moment and its growth in the long-term.BHP Billiton Limited has high business value because of its good planning for sustainability. Business value not include tangible assets but also intangible assets and its effect on the company.BHP Billiton is ensured to have sustainability development where health, safety ,environmental and communities responsibilities are integral part of the business. The business will continue to enhance in the future due to its safety precautions procedures and standards at all levels of the organisation. Sustainability is one important factor that determines the healthy run of the organisation in the future.BHP Billiton is an natural resources company and the r isks associated with this is also very high. Environmental risks need to be eradicated like pollution and it should not affect the people health. Employees working in the organisation need to be taken and their security is most important concern and this will facilitate long run for the employees in the organisation. Developing the people and providing the resources to meet our standards will helps the company to progress in the future.BHP Billiton protects the rights of the people,employees working in the company thus providing them security and freedom so that they get motivation and encouragement thereby minimising the turnoff of employees.BHP Billiton has sustainable framework for successfully running their business and to have well-being in the future. The company has sustainable systems to implement sustainable development policies in accordance with the governance processes. The policy applies to each and every me

steroids :: essays research papers

Twenty years ago, when I was a competing professional athlete, I spoke publicly of the frustration of feeling pressured to use anabolic steroids. I felt pressured to compete in an environment where I and many others believed there was an unbridled problem. I mentioned the prevalence of use in adolescents and commented on the training advantage using these drugs gave competitors. At that time, NFL management denied the extent of the problem and little was done. The NFL, to its credit, in 1987 started its non-punitive testing program and proclaimed it was considering random testing. In 1988, in a Sports Illustrated commentary, I predicted the failure of random testing, citing obvious loopholes, and questioned the overall concern of the fans. I solicited the ire of some in the sports media when I suggested medical supervision as an alternative to faulty drug testing. However, you can't monitor a drug problem medically that society wants to pretend doesn't exist. Another issue I wanted to bring forward was urging people to keep the health effects of these drugs in perspective, as well as the sports world's tendency to define this as primarily a public relations issue. I still wonder why some of the reporting of my situation either ignored or minimized some of my known lifestyle heart risk factors (alcohol abuse, for example) in preference to highlighting steroids. Happily, the severity of my health issues and my former addictions are a thing of the past. In the wake of the BALCO scandal and the revelations in Major League Baseball, do any of these issues ring familiar? None of the BALCO athletes (clients of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) have ever flunked a drug test. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is citing drops in numbers of positive tests in "announced" testing as reasons for optimism. After 20 years of researching this issue, I have earned my pessimism. Has he earned his optimism? For those paying attention at all, the BALCO investigation has reinforced the reality that athletes are using undetectable drugs. Perhaps the optimism in testing is because there is no plan B and Selig is tired of the drug allegations. In 1989, the NFL initiated random testing. This was a smart move for two reasons. First, it showed media and the public that they implemented the strongest policy that technology and the law would allow. Second, it was prior to impending legislation (the 1990 Steroid Anti-Trafficking Act) that re-classified anabolic steroids under Schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act.

Listening to Rap: Cultures of Crime, Cultures of Resistance

Listening to Rap: Cultures of Crime, Cultures of Resistance Julian Tanner, University of Toronto Mark Asbridge, Dalhousie University Scot Wortley, University of Toronto This research compares representations of rap music with the self-reported criminal behavior and resistant artirudes of the music's core audience. Our database is a large sample of Toronro high school studenrs (n = 3,393) from which we identify a group of listeners, whose combination of musical likes and dislikes distinguish them as rap univores. We then examine the relationship between their cultural preference for rap music and involvement in a culture of crime and their perceptions of social injustice and inequity. We find thar the rap univores, also known as urban music enthusiasts, report significantly more delinquent behavior and stronger feelings of inequity and injustice than listeners with other musical tastes. However, we also find thar the nature and strengths of those relationships vary according to rhe racial identity of different groups within urban music enthusiasts. Black and white subgroups align themselves with resistance representations while Asians do not; whites and Asians report significant involvement in crime and delinquency, while blacks do not. Finally, we discuss our findings in light of research on media effects and audience reception, youth subcultures and post-subcultural analysis, and the sociology of cultural consumption. Thinking About Rap The emergence and spectacular growth of rap is probably the most important development in popular music since the rise of rock ‘n' roll in the late 1940s. Radio airplay, music video programming and sales figures are obvious testimonies to its popularity and commercial success. This was made particularly evident in October 2003 when, according to the recording industry bible Billboard mzgnzme, all top 10 acts in the United States were rap or hip-hop artists;' and again in 2006, when the Academy award for Best Song went to It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, a rap song by the group Husde & Flow. Such developments may also signal rap's increasing social acceptance and cultural legitimization (Baumann 2007). However, its reputation and status in the musical field has, hitherto, been a controversial one. Like new music before it (jazz, rock ‘n' roll), rap has been critically reviewed as a corrosive influence on young and impressionable listeners (Best 1990; Tatum 1999; Tanner 2001; Sacco and Kennedy 2002; Alexander 2003). Whether rap has been reviled as much as jazz and rock ‘n' roll once were is a moot point; rather more certain is its pre-eminent role as a problematic contemporary musical genre. Direct correspondence to Julian Tanner, Department of Social Science University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265Military Trail, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, MIC 1A4. Telephone: (416) 287-7293. E-mail: Julian. [email  protected] ca. † rh8 Uniiersily of North Carolina Press Social Forces 88121 693-722, December 2009 694 †¢ Social Forces 88(2) In an important study of representations of popular music. Binder (1993) examined how print journalists wrote about rap and heavy metal in the 1980s and 1990s. While both are devalued genres (Roe 1995), she nevertheless contends that they are framed differently: the presumed harmful effects of heavy metal are limited to the listeners themselves, whereas rap is seen as more socially damaging (for a similar distinction, see Rose 1994). The lyrical content of the two genres is established as one source of this differential framing: rap lyrics are found to be more explicit and provocative (greater usage of â€Å"hard† swear words, for example) than heavy metal lyrics. The second factor involves assumptions made (by journalists) about the racial composition of audiences for heavy metal and rap-the former believed to be white suburban youth, the latter urban black youth. According to Binder, rap invites more public concern and censorious complaint than heavy metal because of what was assumed to be its largely black fan base. At the same time, she identifies an important counter frame, one component of which elevates rap (but not heavy metal) to the status of an art form with serious political content. In both the mainstream press (i. e.. The New York Times) and publications targeting a predominately black readership (i. e.. Ebony and/^i), she finds rap lauded for the salutary lessons that it imparts to black youth regarding the realities of urban living; likewise, rap artists are applauded for their importance as role models and mentors to inner-city black youth. Thus, while rap has been framed negatively, as a contributor to an array of social problems, crime and delinquency in particular, it has also been celebrated and championed as an authentic expression of cultural resistance by underdogs against racial exploitation and disadvantage. How these differing representations of rap might resonate with audience members was not part of Binder's research mandate. ^ Furthermore, while she does acknowledge that ournalistic perceptions of the racial composition of the rap audience are not necessarily accurate-that more white suburban youth, even in the 1980s and 1990s, might have been consuming the music than black inner-city youth-this acknowledgment does not alter her enterprise or her argument. At this point in time, when the listening audience for rap music has both expanded and become increasingly diverse, our research concerns how young black, white and Asian rap fans in Toronto, Canada relate to a musical form still viewed primarily in terms of its criminal and resistant meanings. Researching Rap Much of the early work on audiences preoccupied itself with investigating the harmful effects of media exposure, especially the effects of depictions of violence in movies and TV on real life criminal events. Results have generally been inconclusive, with considerable disagreement in the social science research community regarding the influence of the media on those watching the large ot small screen (Curran 1990; Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998; Freedman 2002; Sacco and Kennedy 2002; Alexander 2003; Newman 2004; Savage 2004; Longhurst 2007). Listening to Rap †¢ 695 Listening to popular music has, on occasion, been said to produce similarly negative effects, although these too have proven difficult to verify. For example, in one high profile case in the 1980s, the heavy metal band Judas Priest was accused of producing recorded material (songs) that contained subliminal messaging diat led to the suicides of two fans. This claim was not, however, legally validated because the judge hearing the case remained unconvinced about a causal linkage between the music and the self-destructive behavior of two individuals (Walser 1993). Strong arguments for the ill effects of media consumption rest on the assumption that audiences are easily and direcdy influenced by the media, with frequent analogies made to hypodermic syringes that inject messages into gullible and homogenous audiences (Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998; Alexander 2003; Longhurst 2007). In contesting this view of audience passivity, critics also propose that texts are open to more than one interpretation. Again, TV udiences have been studied more frequently than audiences for popular music, although research on the latter has illustrated how song lyrics are not necessarily construed the same way by adolescents and adults. Research conducted by Prinsky and Rosenbaum (1987) indicates that songs identified by adults as containing deviant content (references to sex, violence, alcohol and drug use, Satanism) were not similarly categorized by adolescents. Evidence that there are diflferent ways of watching television or listening to recorded music has led to an alternative conception of audiences-one more concerned with what audiences do with the media than what the media does to audiences. The development within communications research of the uses and gratifications model (McQuail 1984) is one result, with TV once more the media form most commonly investigated. Nonetheless, a few studies have documented how young people listen to popular music in order to satisfy needs for entertainment and relaxation (among other priorities), and utilize it as an accompaniment to other everyday activities, such as homework and household chores (Roe 1985; Prinsky and Rosenbaum 1987). More recent research has added identity construction as a need that popular music might fill for young listeners (Roe 1999; Gracyk 2001; Laughey 2006). One particular usage emphasized by British cultural Marxists associated with the now defunct Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies has focused attention on how active media audiences counter dominant cultural messages in their consumption of popular culture. In what has, by now, become a familiar story, a series of music-based, post-war youth cultures (Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Skinheads, Punks) in the United Kingdom have been represented as symbolically resisting the dominant normative order (Hall and Jefferson 1976; Hebdige 1979). This argument has, however, relied on a reading of cultural texts and artifacts for its evidentiary base, rather than observations of, or information from, subcultural participants themselves (Cohen 1980; Frith 1985; Tanner 2001; Bennett 2002; Alexander 2003). 696 †¢ Social Forces 8S(2) More recently, the utility of the term subculture for understanding young people's collective involvements in music has been questioned. The focus of this criticism is, once again, the Birmingham school and its conceptualization of subculture. Its critics argue that, nder conditions of post modernity, music audiences have fragmented, and young people are no longer participants in distinctive subcultural groups (Bennett 1999b; Muggleton 2000). Instead of subcultures, they are now involved v^^ith neo tribes and scenes (i. e. , Bennett 1999b; Bennett and Kahn-Harris 2004; Hesmondhalgh 2005; Longhurst 2007; Hodkinson 2008). Post subcultural research has been much less inclined than the Birmingham era researchers to decode and decipher texts, and much more likely to engage in ethnographic studies of music and youth groups (Bennett 2002). However, while there has been occasional work on modes of (female) resistance in the â€Å"tween scene† (Lowe 2004) and â€Å"riot girrrl scene† (Schily 2004), there has been no equivalent research on rap scenes and resistance. Examinations of audience receptions of rap are not numerous and have been of two main kinds: a few studies have explored how young people perceive and evaluate the music, while others have studied the harmful effects of rap by trying to link consumption of the music with various negative consequences. An early study by Kuwahara (1992) finds rap to be more popular with black than white college students, and more popular among males than females. However, reasons for liking the music varied little by race, with both black and white audience members prioritizing the beat over the message. A more recent study by Sullivan (2003) reports few racial differences in liking the music, although black teenagers were more committed to the genre and more likely to view rap as life affirming (Berry 1994) than those from other racial backgrounds. In a small but important study conducted in California, Mahiri and Connor (2003) investigated 41 black middle school students' perceptions of violence and thoughts about rap music. In focus group sessions and personal interviews, informants revealed a strong liking for rap music, valuing the fact that it spoke to their everyday concerns about growing up in a poorly resourced community. They did not, however, like the way that rap music on occasion (mis)represented the experiences of black people in the United States. They challenged the misogyny evident in some rap videos and rejected what they saw as the glamorization of violence. Overall, their critical and nuanced engagement with rap music fitted poorly with depictions of media audiences as easily swayed by popular culture (Sacco 2005). The search for the harmful effects of rap music has yielded no more definitive results than earlier quests for media effects. While some studies report evidence of increased violence, delinquency, substance use, and unsafe sexual activity resulting from young people's exposure to rap music (Wingood et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2006), other researchers have failed to find such a link or have exercised extreme caution when interpreting apparent links. One review of the literature, conducted in the 1990s, could find a total of only nine investigations-all of them Listening to Rap †¢ 697 mall-scale, none involving the general adolescent population-and concluded that there was an even split hetween those that found some sort of an association between exposure to the music and various deviant or undesirable outcomes, and those that could find no connection at all Moreover, in those studies where the music and the wrongdoing were linked, investigators were very circumspect about whether or not they were observing a causal relationship, and if so, which came first, the music or the violent dispositions (Tatum 1999 ). A mote recent investigation conducted in Montreal is illustrative of such interpretative problems. While a preference for rap was found to predict deviant behavior among 348 Frenchspeaking adolescents, causal ordering could not be established, nor an additional possibility ruled out: that other factors might be responsible for both the musical taste and the deviant behavior (Miranda and Claes 2004). The notion that rap is or can be represented as cultural resistance-the counter frame identified by Binder-has become increasingly prominent in the rap literature over the past 20 years (Rose 1994; Krims 2000; Keyes 2002; Quinn 2005). In his influential book. Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the new Reality ofRace in America, Kitwana (2005) expounds at length on his emancipatory view of rap's history and development. Kitwana sees hip-hop as a form of protest music, offering its listeners a message ofresistance. He also makes the additional claim that the resistive appeal of hip-hop is not restricted to black youth. Indeed, as the tide of his book suggests, he is patticularly interested in the patronage of rap music by white youth, those young people who might be seen as the contemporary equivalents of Mailer's â€Å"White Negro† or Keys' â€Å"Negro Wannabes. (Keyes 2002:250) In his view, the global diffusion of rap rests on the music's capacity for resonating with the experiences ofthe downtrodden and marginalized in a variety of cultural contexts. Quinn (2005) similarly explains the crossover appeal of gangsta rap in the United States in terms ofthe â€Å"common sensibilities and insecurities shated by post Fordist youth. † She continues: â€Å"many young whites, facing bleak labor market prospects, were also eager for stories about fast money and authentic belonging to ward off a creeping sense of placelessness and dispossession. (Quinn 2005:85-86) Thus, rap's appeal is as much about class as it is about race. Nor is the resistive view of rap restricted to the North American continent. At least one French study-conducted in advance ofthe riots in the fall of 2005 -has noted how French Rap has become the music of choice for young people of visible minority descent who have grown up in the suburban ghettos (Les Cities) of major cities. They have been routinely exposed to police harassment on the streets, subjected to prejudice and discrimination at school, and struggled to find decent housing and appropriate jobs (Bouchier 1999, cited in Miranda and Claes 2004). The idea that popular music might serve as an important reference point for rebellious or resistive adolescents is not a new one. As we have already noted, this is how a British school of subcultural analysis once interpreted the cultural activity of wotking-class youth in the United Kingdom (Hall and Jefferson 1976; Hebdige 698 †¢ Social Forces 88(2) 1979). Some attempt has been made to understand rap fandom in similar terms. Bennett's (1999a) ethnographic study, set in Newcastle, reveals how one group of white rappers translate the racial politics of blacks into the language of class divisions in the United Kingdom. However, for the most part there has been limited application of this kind of analysis to young people's involvement with rap music. Rap scholars who construe the music as an authentic expression of cultural resistance directed against exploitation and disadvantages at school, on the streets, or in the labor market, do so primarily without much input from the young people who make up its listening audience. Because they have not often been canvassed for their views about the music, we do not know to what degree they share in or identify with the message of resistance readily ound in content analysis of the rap idiom (Martinez 1997; Negus 1997; Krims 2000; Stephens and Wright 2000; Bennett 2001; Sullivan 2003; Kubrin 2005; Quinn 2005; Lena 2006). Thus contemporary rap scholarship follows British subcultural theory in gleaning evidence of resistance from the texts, not the audience. Resistance is sought, and found, in the words and music rather than in the activities and ideologies of subcultures or audience members. We can suggest, echoing Alexander's (2003) earlier critique of British cultural studies, that the audience for rap music has been theorized rather more thoroughly than it has been investigated. The Present Study The present study is concerned with three key questions: First, is there a relationship between audiences for rap and representations of the music? Second, as compared to other listening audiences, are serious rap fans participants in cultures of crime and resistance? Third, if such a link is found, what are the sources of variation in their participation in these cultures of crime and resistance? The need to address these questions, as we see it, emerges from several limitations in the existing research on rap. These limitations are as follows: First, there is a significant disjuncture between dominant representations of the music as a source of social harms and evidence unambiguously supportive of this proposition. Second, the case for a resistant view of rap music is usually advanced, as we have already intimated, by examination of the designs and intentions of musical creators, both artists and producers, as well as music critics. We do not know whether or not resistant messages register and resonate with those who listen to the music. Third, we do not have an accurate gauging of the sociodemographic composition, particularly racial and ethnic, of the audience for rap music. Rap's dominance of the youth market is widely understood as a crossover effect-the original black audience now joined by legions of white fans (Spiegler 1996; Yousman 2003). However, purchasing habits-the usual arbiter for claims about rap's increasing popularity with white consumers-may not be an entirely reliable measure of either rap's popularity or racial and ethnic variations therein (Krims 2000; Quinn 2005). The system devised by the recording industry to gauge record Listening to Rap †¢ 699 sales-Nielson Soundscape-does not gather data on the race, or indeed any other personal characteristic, of purchasers. What it does do is categorize sales in terms of whether they were made in retail stores in high-income locations or in lowincome locations. Record companies, journalists or academics then choose to equate those high-income sales with white suburban youth, and low-income sales with inner-city black youth, but are doing so without any direct measures of the racial background or identity of buyers (Kitwana 2005). Moreover, it has been argued that sales figures â€Å"under represent the taste preferences of the poor. † (Quinn 2005:83) As Rose (1994) explains it, in the black community, particularly in impoverished neighborhoods, many more rap CDs are listened to than bought-a single purchase being passed on from one fan to another. Similarly, homemade tapes and bootleg CDs are often produced and shared within local fan networks. The implications of this point are clear enough: the appropriation of rap music by suburban white teens might not be as extensive as is commonly supposed. Finally, we do not know whether or how the rap audience relates to the dominant frame of the music as a catalyst for crime and delinquency or to the counter frame of the music as an articulator of social inequity. The mainstreaming of rap may have cost the genre its underground or counter-culture status as protest music, or made it less attractive to delinquent rebels. Rap also may play no part in crime or resistance subcultures because, under post modern conditions, young people have become increasingly eclectic and individualized in their musical tastes; the close relationship between musical tastes and lifestyles, implied by subcultural theory, no longer applies. On this formulation, therefore, we would not expect to find strong connections between a preference for rap music and subcultures of crime and subcultures of resistance. On the other hand, reasons for believing that rap music may be a basis for subcultural lifestyles, at least among black youth, are more compelling. At the time that we were conducting our research there was considerable debate, in the local media and among local politicians, about issues involving race and crime-racial profiling and the desirability of collecting race-based crime statistics, for example. Contributing to this debate were findings from another study, confirming what black youths in Canada have always suspected, namely that they are much more likely to be arbitrarily stopped and searched by police officers than are members of other racial and ethnic groups-even when their own self-repotted deviant activity is statistically controlled for (Wordey and Tanner 2005). In addition, contemporaneous research on the media coverage of race and crime in Toronto newspapers carried out by Wortley (2002), found black people disproportionately portrayed in a narrow range of roles and activities (principally those involving crime, sports and entertainment) than members of other racial and ethnic groups; and when featured in crime stories, depicted primarily as offenders. Capricious policing and media misrepresentation may therefore contribute to a sense of injustice among black youth, a sense of injustice that has them gravitating to rap as an emblem of cultural resistance. 00 †¢ Social Forces SS{2) Commercial success and artistic valorization has not diminished rap music's capacity to provoke moral panic. The music is still seen as threatening, dangerous and socially damaging by many political figures and established authority. ‘ Previous research suggests that negative media coverage ofthe cultural preferences and practices of adolescents often intensifies subcultural identifications (Cohen 1973; Fine and Kleinman 1979; Thornton 1995). Rap based moral panics may therefore tighten connections between the music and delinquent lifestyles and/or resistive attitudes and behaviors. The lack of attention paid to rap's consumers renders these questions relatively open ones, the meaning of rap music still to be discovered. Methods Whereas most contemporary research on rap focuses on those who create the music-artists and producers, and those who write about it, music critics-we pose questions about rap's audience. Further, while audience studies usually employ qualitative data-gathering techniques (for example, Morley 1980; Radway 1984; Shively 1992), we use the methods of survey research. We are more concerned with how audience members interact with the music than with the issue of cause and effect. We are interested in how music might be used as a resource in their everyday lives (Willis 1990; DeNora 2000), how it might contribute to identity formation (Roe 1999) and, especially, how audiences might align themselves with (or distance themselves from) cultures of crime and resistance. Nonetheless, in our analyses, we treat rap fandom as a dependent variable. While there is considerable academic and public debate about whether music produces or is a product of cultural activities, legal or otherwise, existing research has failed to provide a compelling or consistent rationale for any particular causal logic. As we have seen, the idea that exposure to rap music causes crime is not unequivocally supported in the research literature. Research on resistant youth cultures, by contrast, is much more likely to reverse the relationship and see musical style as a result of subcultural activity (Willis 1978; Hebdige 1979). Hebdige, for example, infers that punk rock in the United Kingdom was a cultural response to the subordination of existing working-class youth groups. Laing (1985) has countered that punk the musical genre existed before punk the subculture. In the absence of agreement about the direction of the relationship between musical taste and cultural practices, our decision to operationalize rap appreciation as a dependent variable is made more for pragmatic, heuristic reasons than unassailable theoretical ones. Our strategy is to focus on listening preferences rather than purchasing habits. By asking students to report on and evaluate the music that they like, dislike and in what combinations, we gain a clearer and more detailed picture of where rap is situated in the consumption patterns of groups of students differentiated by, among other factors, their racial identity. Our goals are to: (1. distinguish students with a serious, exclusive taste for rap from more casual fans; (2. to calculate the Listening to Rap †¢ 701 size and racial makeup of rap music's prime audience; and (3. to map relationships between that core audience and resistant and delinquent repertoires. Few surveys of general populations of young people have established any kind of connection between rap and deviancy, net of other factors. We contend that rap's reputation as a corrosive force is validated by that linkage, and that without it that representation becomes more ontestable. A similar logic applies to the relationship between rap and social protest. The claim that the music carries a serious message-that it is an expression of resistant values and perceptions-is substantiated with evidence of a link between the music and a collective sense of inequity, and weakened by its absence. Data The data for this research are drawn from the Toronto Youth Crime and Victimization S tudy, a stratified cross-sectional survey of Toronto adolescents carried out from 1998 through 2000 (Tanner and Wordey 2002). Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 3,393 Toronto students ages 13-18, from 30 Metropolitan Toronto high schools in both die Cadiolic (10 schools) and larger Public School (20 schools) systems. Within each school, one class from each grade, 9 (ages 13 and 14) through 13 (ages 18 and 19), was randomly selected. The overall response rate was 83 percent (83. 4% for Catholic vs. 83. 1% for public schools), and is a conservative estimate as it was based on the number of students enrolled in each class rather than those present the day of the study. Informed consent was given for participation in the study. Surveys were completed during class under the supervision of a member of the research team (and without a teacher present) and took approximately 45 minutes to complete. The survey asked young people about a broad range of topics, including family life, educational experiences, leisure activities, delinquent involvement, victimization experiences and so forth. The survey instrument was designed by members of the research team and evolved out of a series of 11 focus groups with adolescents in Toronto schools. The completed survey was reviewed by a series of institutional ethics boards, including those at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Public School Board and the Catholic School Board. As the survey does not include high school dropouts, institutionalized youth and street youth, it is a school sample and thus any generalizations speak only to the experiences of school-based adolescents. Our sample is ethnically and racially diverse and is representative of the Metropolitan Toronto high school population. Measures Musical Preferences Guided by Bourdieu's work (1984) and Peterson's recasting of musical taste in terms of omnivorous and univorous patterns (1992), we focus our attention on 702 †¢ Social Forces 88(2] how musical choices are combined: if young people liked (or disliked) one style or genre, what other styles or genres did they like or dislike (what Van Eijck 2001 has referred to as â€Å"combinatorial logic†). Indicators of musical taste were derived from the question: â€Å"How much do you like each of the following types of music? Respondents were then asked to evaluate each of 11 contempotary musical genres: Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, Hip/Hop and Rap, Reggae and Dance Hall, Classical and Opera, Country and New Country, Pop, Alternative (including Punk, Grunge), Heavy Metal (Hard Rock), Ethnic Music (traditional/ cultural), and Techno (Dance). Musical tastes were assessed on a five-point Likert scale that addresses whether respondents liked the musical genre very mu ch, quite a lot, a little bit, not very much or not at all. Unlike previous research that dichotomized musical tastes, focusing exclusively on the musical genres most liked (Peterson and Kern 1996) or disliked (Bryson 1996), we target the level of appreciation (or lack of appreciation) each respondent has for a particular musical genre. For space considerations a detailed overview of the clustering procedure has been omitted but is available upon request. We employed a two-stage cluster analysis (hierarchical agglomerative and ^-means) procedure to derive groupings of adolescent musical tastes. Cluster analysis assembles respondents based on their common responses to questions/ measures, and is useful for identifying relatively homogenous groups, groups that are highly intetnally homogenous (members are similar to one another) and highly externally heterogeneous (members are not like members of other clusters) (Aldenderfer and Blashfield 1984). Employing cluster analysis techniques, we uncovered seven musical taste clustets. Table 1 outlines the results of our cluster analysis. The largest group (n = 616) was the Club Kids, composed of those who report an above average enjoyment of techno and dance, mainstream pop, and hip-hop and rap. Next were the Urban Music Enthusiasts (n = 605). Members of this group combined a strong appreciation of Rap and Hip Hop with considerable disinterest in most other musical styles. These adolescents are the primary focus ofthe current study. Then there was a fairly large (n = 482) group of youth, the New Traditionalists, who have an above average liking of classical music and opera, jazz, soul, R&B, country music and mainstream pop. The fourth largest (n = 425) group, the Hard Rockers, comprised a sizeable number of heavy metal and hard rock, alternative, punk and grunge fans. Then there was a surprisingly large (n = 384) group of adolescents, the Musical Abstainers, who are only marginally interested in any kind of music. The group we call the Ethnic Culturalists (n = 380) were so described because of a dominant preference for a quite wide range of ethnic music, as well as a greater than average liking for soul and R&B, jazz, classical music and opera, country music techno and dance, and mainstream pop. The smallest group (n = 338), the Musical Omnivores, was composed of those who have an above average appreciation for all 11 musical genres. These clusters vary considerably, not only in the musical Listening to Rap †¢ 703 Q-CM O O U O O U O O U O O -COIOCOCOCNJCJ>COIO † †¢ ^ – T— c3^ h ^ h†¦ c o 3†² UJ CD o .Si i -T— COCOCDCO s m eu rocMincDco -T— CMC3 co co i Q. CL tu . S o .2 U) o tu tpcooin CNJcOCOCOcdcOCMCOM-‘^COCNI co T—CMOCI5 ? CO en (U ro â€Å"o 0} Q. CL ro â€Å"o en CM CM co â€Å"cD t n tu . 2 2 Oi tn -D C to to CZJ eu co CNI co o tD tu. —. _ 2 CD â€Å"O en ! c: o c: 03 sa | ^ sV ndical . 0011 V CL ro o tu . S P o | idd tn tu V p. 704 †¢ Social Forces 8H2) likes and dislikes, but also with respect to sociodemographic, socioeconomic class indicators, and measures of school experience, cultural capital, leisure patterns and subcultural delinquency (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2008). Social Injustice, Property Crime and Violent Crime The sense of injustice that rap is said to speak to often involves the dealings that young people have with the police and courts. Six items in our questionnaire invited respondents to evaluate their perceptions of the equity of the criminal justice system, fairness in the educational system, and more general perceptions of the equality of opportunity in Canada. Some of the questions addressed racebased inequality, while others invoked age, class- and gender-based discrimination. These six items were condensed into a scale and standardized (alpha = . 65) with higher values indicating greater feelings of social injustice. Respondents were also invited to report their participation in illegal activities. Our measures of crime and delinquency covered a spectrum of activities, varied by type and seriousness. Two scales items are constructed based on the following question: â€Å"How many times in the past year have you done any of the following things? Would you say never, once or twice, several times, or many times? † The first scale captures involvement in property crime, including self-reported property damage, theft under $50, breaking into a car, stealing a car, stealing a bike, breaking and entering a home, drug dealing and theft over $50 (alpha = . 6). The second scale measures violent offending and includes carrying a hidden weapon such as a gun or knife in public, using physical force on another person to get money or other things, attacking someone with the idea of seriously hurting him or her, hitting or threatening to hit a parent or teacher, getting into a physical fight with someone, and taking part in a fight where a group of friends were up against another group (alpha = . 81). SES, School Measures and Cultural Capital The impact of students' sociodemographic backgrounds is initially examined in terms of demographic variables-age, gender, Canadian identity (â€Å"Do you think of yourself as Canadian? â€Å"-a measure of perceived inclusion in Canadian society), and race. Socioeconomic status is captured through indicators of parents and family situation, and includes measures of parental educational attainment (whether or not they had attended postsecondary education), family intactness (whether or not respondents grew up in a two-parent household), a measure of subjective social class based on perceptions of family income. Next we include a set of measures related to educational attainment, experiences and expectations: self-reported grades (proportion receiving mostly As), skipping school, suspension from school, educational stream (general or academic stream) and a more evaluative question about the degree of importance that young people attached to education. Listening to Rap †¢ 705 Finally, we include a measure of respondents' own cultural capital activities. While mainly used as an explanation of educational and occupational attainment (DiMaggio 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr 1995; Aschaffenburg and Maas 1997), measures of cultural capital have also been deployed to uncover dispositions, or orientations, towards the arts (Bourdieu 1984; Swartz 1997). We use it here as a further measure ofthe characteristics and lifestyles ofthe audience for rap-its possession bestowing status upon individuals and the music that they listen to, its absence denoting the opposite. Our seven-item cultural capital index comprises both traditional highbrow pursuits-going to the symphony, visiting museums-and the sorts of respectable leisure activities (playing a musical instrument, attending cultural events, going to the library, reading a book for pleasure and hobbies) that contribute to the cultural resources available to young people. The sum of these seven items is standardized and has an alpha of . 65. Descriptive statistics and other details on all measures can be found in Appendix A. Analytic Procedure Multivariate logistic regression is employed in four separate analyses. First, a strong preference for Rap and Hip/Hop-being an Urban Music Enthusiast-is regressed on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures. Next, we regress being an Urban Music Enthusiast on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures for three racial groups-white, black and Asian/South Asian youth. For each racial group we run four separate models that include baseline measures only, followed by models that add social injustice, property crime and violent crime. All analyses were conducted with the Stata 8. computer program (StataCorp 2001) using the survey commands that account for intra-cluster correlation due to the complex sampling strategy. Results We can quickly confirm the enormous popularity of rap with our respondents. It has the highest average approval rating of any musical genre, with some 33 percent of students saying that they liked it â€Å"very much,† and 21 percent saying that they liked it â€Å"quite a lot. † Rap clearl y appeals to a broad range of young listeners and is, therefore very much part of a common music culture among high school students. But our cluster analysis (Table 1) also isolates a group of students who enjoy rap music and little else. Examining the approval radng for each music genre relative to the cluster means, where scores approaching 1 indicate a strong approval ofthe genre, and scores approaching 5 indicate a strong dislike, demonstrates that Urban Music Enthusiasts have a strong preference for rap and hip-hop, reggae and dance hall; a more moderate liking for soul and R&B, and a below average liking for all other musical genres. We think that our Urban Music Enthusiasts fit the profile of music univores-individuals who appreciate a few musical styles while disliking everything 706 †¢ Social Forces mi) else-as described in the research of Peterson (1992) and Bryson (1997). Bryson links univorous taste among American adults to low status, particular racial and ethnic groups, and regional differences. She also notes that univorous taste, when compared to omnivorous taste, is more likely to be related to what she calls â€Å"subcultural spheres. † (Bryson 1997:147) Our Urban Music Enthusiasts appear to be rap univores who may also be adhering to â€Å"sub-cultural spheres. Of the 605 Urban Music Enthusiasts in our sample, 275 {A6%) are black, 117 (19%) are white, 115 (19%) are Asian or South Asian, and 98 (16%) are from other racial groups. These figures tell us that young black people still comprise the central component of the rap audience; moreover, roughly 57 percent of black youth is Urban Musi c Enthusiasts). At the same time, we observe evidence of a significant racial crossover. White Urban Music Enthusiasts constitute 8. 6 percent of the white students in our sample, while Asian Urban Music Enthusiasts make up 9. 5 percent of all Asian students. The racial composition of the Urban Music Enthusiast taste culture prompts two further questions: Eirst, of the black students surveyed, what factors in addition to race predict their univorous interest in rap? Second, of white and Asian students, what factors encourage their involvement in an essentially black music culture, an involvement that clearly sets them apart from other white and Asian students? Table 2 provides results for Urban Music Enthusiasts membership regressed on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures, with separate analyses for white, black and Asian/South Asian young people. Paying particular attention to the findings for each racial group, what is common to all three groups of Urban Music Enthusiasts is that, compared to other students in our sample, they are poorly endowed with cultural capital and are not especially good students. Few other background factors have any significant or consistent impact upon a disposition towards Urban Music. For white students, parental SES, family structure and subjective social class, have no bearing upon their musical preferences, whereas school suspension and poor grades are strong predictors. For black students. Urban Music enthusiasm is more common among younger students and those less likely to identify as Canadian. Being a black youth identified as an Urban Music Enthusiast is also strongly related to growing up in a single-parent family and skipping school. For their part, Asian/South Asian youth are something of an anomaly-among them. Urban Music Enthusiasm is positively associated with social class and having well-educated mothers-but like other Urban Music Enthusiasts it is also strongly related to school suspension and skipping school. We are less interested, however, in the sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors that may lead to being an Urban Music Enthusiast than in the relationship between being a Urban Music Enthusiast and representations of rap-either as part of a culture of resistance and/or as a basis for subcultural delinquency. Tables 3 through 5 describe the distribution of being an Urban Music Enthusiast across three racial groups (white, black, Asian/South Asian) as shaped by perceptions Listening to Rap †¢ 707 I i I u (O re (/> CO o (U 1. 76 4. 37 ,01a ‘V— re . r; o — U; c n t – – CO CO cr; – ^ †¢ ^ CD – ^ CO CO CD CM CNl T – CD CN? -â€Å"i^ CO CNJ – . CNj CO r-1 †¢2 . o o CO CO c n 0 5 t-~- M – ,59c ,55c I CO ro ro CNl CD c n r— CO CZ> CO CO CNJ cu CD CO CO CNl CO o CNI m E cn o O) T— †¢T— LO r CO CNl CN LO CD CZ> CM LO †¢Ã‚ «Ã¢â‚¬â€ e n LO CO CD LO CM †¢ ‘o ro CNJ †¢ c n CO CO u o O r-. – CO h ~ T— CO CM -sj- CO CO CO ,41 ro CO u o u CO CO CO ^ – CO LO o ro ro CM LO T – CO T— c u LO c n -. 11 -3. 67 Tl- CNl l CO cp h.. – LO cn CO T— LO CO CO †¢ C35 CNJ CNl C D CO h— CJ) †¢ ^ CO CD LO CNl c n CO LO CNl c n CI3 c n r— CO CD – ^ CO CO ‘ ‘ T-^ CU T— CO CO r l CO CD CO h-^ CO J ro c j o LO LO r~- I— CO CT> CO LO CD CO †¢ o> I— co O5 o> lO Tt lO t^ †¢*†¢ CM t ^ co LO r T co CD csi ro g ‘†¢ co E Q: S o 0 ~ ~ CM †¢ 05 EntlNusi ts Memi nd Vioie Prop iociai Stice t-ratlo _o >, 0 E o. E Q. / fV le 0 S ^^ 0  « †¢rat †¢g CO t-~ - «aO5 CIS co co CM r~. – ^ CM r – i r j co cz> †¢ ^ co co OO m LO co r-.. co †¢ ^ T — en lO CM LO † CO o †¢ †¢ – r— cz; CM r— UO OO T l – I— CD ^ 1 – LO CD T— O ‘ CSI CO CO T T- T-^ OO ^ CO oq – ^ †¢ LO O I— ^† 05 †¢ h – co LO C3 CSl i T-^ c s i T-^ ‘ c s i re re 3 s o: 0 CM LO †¢;* O; CD CD CJ C 3 CO T— CO – ^ co Ti† i^.. OO co T – 1 ^ CM CD O ) OO CD co eu r O r co CD ci> u 3 S ice a Bas iViod _o d) ro .? † 5 ‘S V 3 iO r- co CM CM LO CD CD CM LO †¢ < – CD LO co o LO T^ T-^ T^ cri i~~- c o h – †¢>— c o CM – †¢ – o ^ – CD CM OO h-; oq CO csi T-: csi T-^ ‘†¢ CD †¢s c 0 ?ai ir 1 ? ir _3 s oc 0 CSJ T— I— CD CD c o CN – ^ co OO co i csi CSI C3 co CD T t co O; CD o 3 o u 0 coiSS ? 3 (O re à ‚ «^ CL O) O a; ro .^ re 0) Logi! .†¢^ O fe 5 5 ID ? -O ^Et » {‘iyMA-d3. †¢ 1997. â€Å"What About the Univores? Musical Dislikes and Group-Based Identity Construction Among Americans with Low Levels of Education. † Poetics 25(2-3): 141-56. 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Descriptive Statistics for all Measures Variables Independent Measures Age Gender Do you identify yourself as Canadian Race Coding Years Male Female Mean/ Cases Percent 3331 1696 1700 2533 16. 62 49. 9 50. 1 74. 8 25. 39. 4 14. 2 11. 5 19. 3 15. 7 31. 5 68. 4 27. 0 73. 0 76. 7 23. 3 3. 26 Yes No White Black Asian South Asian Other 850 1334 Father Received Postsecondary Education Mother Received Postsecondary Education Two-Parent Family 480 391 653 531 1073 2327 Subjective Social Class 1 (poor) to 5 (rich) Z-score Cultural Capital Leisure (index o f frequency of involvement in playing a musical instrument, attending cultural events, volunteering, going to meetings/ belonging to organizations, going to the library, going to the symphony or opera, going to the museum, reading a book for pleasure, and involvement with hobbies, with an a=. O). Have been suspended from school at least once Have skipped school at least once Primarily receive â€Å"A† Grades Educational Stream Education is Important Part of Life Yes No Yes No Yes No 917 2483 2609 791 3032 3325 Yes No Yes No Yes No Educational General 450 2950 2493 907 1092 2308 2642 13. 2 86. 8 73. 3 26. 7 32. 1 7. 9 78. 0 22. 0 71. 8 28. 2 18. 7 81. 3 736 2309 Yes No 905 605 2625 3277 Dependent Measures Yes ~ Urban Music Enthusiasts No Social Injustice (index of amount of agreement or Z-score disagreement regarding the following statements: people from my racial group are more likely to be unfairly stopped and questioned by the police than people from other racial groups; discrimination makes it hard for people from my racial group to find a good job; discrimination makes it difficult for people from my racial group to get good marks in school; students from rich families have an easier time getting ahead than students from poor families; everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead in Canada; it is rare for an innocent person to be wrongly sent to jail, with an a=. 65). continued on the following page 722 †¢ Social Forces 88(2] Appendix A. ontinued Coding Variables Independent Measures Property Crime (index of frequency of involvement Z-score in breaking into cars, minor theft under $50, property damage, stealing bikes, breaking and entering into homes, ste aling cars, major theft over $50, and drug dealing, with an pi=. 86), _ . ^ Violent Crime (index of frequency of carrying a hidden Z-score weapon like a gun or knife in public, using physical force on another person to get money or other things; attacked someone with the idea of seriously hurting that person, hit or threatened to hit a parent or teacher, getting into a physical fight with someone, and taken part in a fight where a group of friends were up against another arouD. with an a=. 81). Mean/ Cases Percent 3344 3288 Copyright of Social Forces is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or