Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay Example for Free

Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay Week-1 The linguistic ideology at work here is founded both on the concept of the ‘mother tongue’ as well as on the ‘one nation, one language’ principle. Communities on the western side of the border are not interested in learning the language of their eastern neighbors. Eastern communities, on the other hand, are strongly motivated to learn western languages. The importance attributed to English as the ‘language of globalization’ is common to both sides. We can actually say that ‘language’ is a very hot and recurrent issue for some communities: namely the German-speaking community in Bernstein (D), the Czech-speaking community in Vejprty (CS), the German-speaking and Slovenian-speaking communities in Eisenkappel/Z? elezna Kapla (A),etc. The term ‘mother tongue’ is often used – forms the ‘way of thinking’ of its speakers, and thus the different ‘mentalities’ and ‘national characters’ are connected with the use of different languages. Many informants are convinced that it is the ‘mother tongue’ which determines thought, social behavior, and exhibition or control of affection and emotions. Thus the confrontation between languages automatically becomes a clash of mentalities. For example, the German-speaking community in Ba? renstein finds there is a relation between the insurmountable difficulty in pronouncing and learning the Czech language and the incomprehensibility of the words Czech-speaking people produce. People in western communities explain this widespread knowledge by saying that ‘the Others’ need to know my language, because my language is the superior One. We can also find indices of implicit prestige in many interview quotes, like ‘my language is useful to find a job’, ‘my language is more international than theirs’, ‘it represents a symbol of upward social mobility’; ‘the importance of my language forces them to learn it, and in this way they show practical sense, intelligence and cleverness, because they well know that the knowledge of the languages spoken on both sides of the border offers more professional and economic opportunities’. People are not generally interested in learning the language of the ‘Other’, and the reason is, as we have already seen, its ‘uselessness’, or its low value on the ‘language market’. They only learn what they need in their commercial transactions. Europe is a multilingual continent in which the tension between linguistic pluralism and assimilation is quite evident at present. Week-2 The topic for this week was â€Å"Creation of a Sense of Belonging through Language†, which we found very much interesting as we have to present our own explanation, views and thoughts. The topic is about Finland, Iceland and Latvia. Firstly we discussed about Finland that Swedish-speaking people along the coastlines, spoke a non-Scandinavian language, namely Finnish. The Finnish language was to become the most effective medium in the nation-building process as well as the most important criterion in creating an awareness of a collective identity. Language became a defining characteristic towards the ‘outside’ and a communicative driving force on the ‘inside’ within the great diversity of local and regional cultures. We could say that for the process of nation-building in Finland during the 19th century two main deficits had to be overcome: sovereign state structures had to be developed and an individual Finnish national consciousness had to be formed. In the process of spreading a Finnish national consciousness – a development often associated with the term ‘awakening’ as in a religious experience – the main focus was directed towards the common people, their language and culture. Finland’s modest cultural life, Finnish had gained the status of a modern cultural and scientific language. The civil servants, scholars, and many artists, continued to use Swedish as their language of communication and publication. But Finnish steadily gained ground. Many people were already, or became, bilingual. The accusation that Finnish was ‘too primitive’ was defeated by generating new terms, which proved that the language was innovative and possessed the potential for development. In the discussion about Iceland by Halfdanarson. The text tells a story of Icelandic nationalism and the struggle for independence of Iceland under Danish rule. Halfdanarson points out the rare case of Icelandic nationalism, and its non-violent nature. In fact, according to the article, both Iceland’s struggle for independence and the Danish reactions to it were both surprisingly pacific in nature, partly because of the idea of shared past and cultural heritage between the two countries. There are certain elements in common with the case study of Iceland and Herders text, such as the idea of mystic, shared past of a nation, the role of the single language of a social group forming the nation and so on. I think especially in cases like Iceland, language and linguistic identity have essential role in formation of national identity. Iceland is isolated, both in geographical terms as an island in the middle of Atlantic ocean and in terms of language. Although Icelandic is a language related to scandinavian languages, it still differes from them quite a lot. And lastly There was a question that is it possible to have a single language in whole Europe? We think its not possible to have a single langage in the whole Europe as there are many different countries with their own languages from last hundreds of years. In Europe, People communicate with each other using the shared language of their group. The group might be as small as a couple (married or unmarried partners, twins, mother and daughter etc. who share a ‘private’ language where only they know the meaning of some words) or as large as a nation, where everyone understands the allusions in their shared language (often allusions to shared history, to contemporary events, to media people of fact or fiction etc). The ‘secret’ language of the smallest group and the ‘public’ language of the national group are two ‘varieties’ of the same language. Every social group, large or small, has its own language variety, (regional groups have varieties of the national language (as opposed to regional or minority languages) which are usually called ‘dialects’) and there is overlap among all the varieties. However there is a possibility to use English as a second language as use of English gives a considerable advantage to the 13 % of EU citizens who are native English speakers, and to speakers of closely related languages (German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish), over all other Europeans. Week-3 In the week 3, we learned about ‘Language and subjective identity’. The two articles were on Franz Kafka and Simone de Beauvoir. Franz Kafka was German though he never lived among the Germans. He was then living in Prague, Czech. Hence Kafka knew both Czech German languages. But, he preferred Czech Language as he was of the view that one could express his/her feeling in a better way in a particular language. In this case, he thought that Czech was a better language than German to express his feelings. Franz Kafka was in love with Czech translator Milena Jesenka. He used to demand Milena to write him letters in Czech language than German. He belived in a approach belongs to a language. When Milena replied his letters in Czech, he believed that Czech was much more affectionate, which removes all the uncertainties, he could see his lover more clearly, the movements of her body, her hands quickly which almost resembled as they both are meeting. This shows how Kafka prefered Czech more than German. Kafka encouraged his favourite sister Ottla in her marriage to Josef David, a Czech Catholic, against the opposition of parents and relatives, and wrote affectionately to his new brother-in-law in fluent Czech. For Prague Jews of Kafkas generation, language and identity could be painfully dissonant. In Kafkas case, this dissonance reached deep into his own family, conferring an alien quality on the most intimate of human relationships. Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924. He is buried beside his parents in the family plot in Pragues New Jewish Cemetery. Simone de Beauvoir is a French Women. She was French writer, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. She gave her whole life for feminine rights and equality with men in Society. Beauvoir was an outstanding student. She did her postgraduate work at the Ecole Normale Superieure, the top postgraduate program in France, where she met Jean Paul Sartre. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Sartre was called for military service. He became a prisoner of war when the French army surrendered, but he was released and both Beauvoir and Sartre participated in the resistance, and after the Vichy Regime dismissed Beauvoir from her teaching position, she began a novel about the resistance. When the war ended, Beauvoir and Sartre became part of a group of leading French intellectuals, who concerned themselves with the perceived failures of modern French society. they founded Les Temps modernes as a means to explain their social and cultural views. At the same time, Sartre suggested to Beauvoir that she undertake a book on the status of women, and she published, La deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex). This was her most famous, and influential book. It became a sourcebook of modern feminism, particularly in the United States for later feminist thinkers such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. De Beauvoir used very specific and effective and powerful words to underline her matter. She is willing to deploy language and words towards others, because she knows about â€Å"a manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself†.

Politics Essays Media Political Protest

Politics Essays Media Political Protest Media Political Protest Politics And The Media Critically consider mainstream New’s treatment of political protest and new social movements. The late 1950’s and early 1960’s brought about political protests and social movements like no other, with martin Luther kings American civil rights movement being remembered as on of the most famous and successful social movements in history. The American civil rights movement gained a considerable amount of coverage from mainstream media resulting in people being largely familiar with the movement and its success. It was then clear that there had always been a dynamic relation between mainstream media, political protests, and new social movements. From the 1960’s onwards sociologists had began to study the theory around social movements and had developed many ideas and research on the relationship between mass media, protests, and movements. When faced with a question such as one discussing mainstream news media, protests and new social movements one would have to define those concepts in order to take into consideration their significance of each other. Mainstream media has always been designed to reach to an extremely large audience across a limitless geographic, it is popularly circulated information distributed by newspapers, television, radio, and magazines. Political protest or protests in general are a form of activism that involves individuals marching, demonstrating, for or against a political policy, action, or legislation. In protesting it is seen as a way of voicing opinion to further change a concept whether to influence public opinion or government policy. And finally new social movements are usually made up of groups of individuals or organisations that focus on certain social or political issues in order to influence social change, weather to cause, prevent or reform social change. The notion (new) social movement was given as they have only been largely recognised since the 1960’s. Diana,(1992) cited in ‘culture and politics in the information age’ byFrank Webster states that a way in which we could see social movements is: ‘A network of informal relationships between a multiplicity of individuals and organisations, who share a distinctive collective identity, mobilise resources on capital issues’. Most critics would agree that the relationship between mainstream media, social movements, and political protests is vital; however their relationship has never been easy and is still considered as difficult by many critics. Social movements need mainstream media for exposure in order to expand and become recognised on behalf of their cause. In some respects the media also needs social movements as a vital news source and it is not surprising that both would exceed to reach their goals as it is apart of their nature and they must exceed to survive. However despite the fact that social movements seem to be useful for the media and are considered to be vital or important to the political landscape, with their ability to intercede with political elites and citizens, it seems that they have a disadvantage compared to mainstream media. As mainstream media have an advantage and the upper hand over social movements. This is elaborated upon by Gamson Wolsfeild, (1993) cited in ‘Media society’’. They state that social movements need the mass media more than the mass media needs them, in publicizing their activities, mainstream media needs to cover social movements so that; they could gain support, validation as a major/important political players, and maximise the attention of spotlight of conflict to attract mediators or potential allies. On the contrary the media have alternatives to having social movements or protestors as a news source. This does not seem to be the only disadvantage movements have with the media. It is argued that political protests and new social movements are covered in a negative light the majority of time. Gamson’s The strategy of social protests cited in ‘socail movements’ states his study that found that groups were more likely to be successful if they were: ‘based on one issue, used violence, disruptive tactics, selective incentrees, and came from a centralized, in factionalized and bureaucratized organisation.’ However this would lead one to think that the coverage of a violent or disruptive protest would be extremely negative as even a non-violent protest gains a negative and violent label under mainstream Media’s coverage the majority of the time critics would argue. This is proven with actual studies such as Halloran’s study. Halloran et al, (1970) studied protestor’s portrayal in the media with focus on the protest against the Vietnam War, he discovered that although it was a predominantly peaceful protest media portrayal of the protest was not positive and conveyed it as violent. This was only one of many studies that revealed similar finding. Another study by Chan Lee, (1984) on the protests had found that the protestor’s weather being violent or non violent, un-peaceful, or peaceful were represented as being ‘the other’ or in a ‘them vs. us’ notion. However in some cases when protestors are not seen as extremely deviant and questioning of the ‘status quo’ they are sometimes covered in a fair light one example of this could be the stop the war coalition in 2003 against the Iraq war, The media can use this frame however more then often chooses not to. There are two main attributes that influence a social movement or a protest being covered. these are the extent to which the movement is ‘extreme’ i.e. challenging in terms of questioning the status quo and how ‘militant’ they are in their tactics McLeod Hertog, (1999) cited in ‘Manufacturing policies: the media’s role in the policy making process’ state that the more militant a social movement is the more negative and ‘critical’ the media coverage. In talking of the word militant one means how much a socail movement is how radical and milantly tactical a movement is. In general the idea is that protestors are more likely to be portrayed as deviant members of society rather than individuals who have a right to voice their opinions The treatment of social movements has not been all that better either some have been covered in a positive light i.e. the civil rights movement, however most would argue that for that past few decades social movements have not been particularly prioritised or covered in a totally positive light either some sociologists such as Marxists would argue that social movements are not covered as it is another way for the ruling elites to keep in control of their social and economical status above the masses and that social movements should be able to vocalise their causes and be recognised. ‘The modern media have become central to the life and death of social movements’.There have been many sociological theories upon the treatment of new social movements by the media. Many critics reemphasise the fact that the media is important for social movements, in particular Kelbowiz and Scherer (1988:72) cited in ‘Frames of protest: social movements and framing perpective’ state that: In some instances, social movements have to compete to legitimize their status and be recognised in the media. Givevitch Lay, (1985) cited in ‘frames of protest’ states that in contemporary societies societal groups such as social movements and ideologies compete for the definition and construction of social reality within the media. It is evident that it is more of a struggle for social movements to gain coverage let alone positive coverage; it is also evident that governmental organisations are far more likely to gain coverage easier and faster. One reason for this is that they are seen as a vital and official news source and that they are very much legislatively based. This is something that the media look to cover as the general population are concerned with and have interest in this aspect this is summarised by the following quote from sociologists who studied movement struggles compared to political organisations ‘In terms of access struggle, institutional sources and political authorities have an ‘increased upper hand or advantage as they are considered as strong news sources’ (White 1950; Galtung and Ruge 1965: Shoemaker 1991). Social movements are coming against a hard opposition which includes collective actors such as counter movements, the state, and the media placing them in a ‘struggle for cultural supremacy’ Tarrow, (1998). social movements struggle includes not one but two battles, the first one being determining mainstream media coverage and the second being the way in which the social movement and the story is formed. This is called framing, Framing is the way in which a story is covered or the way in which it is portrayed in the media. It also means the extent the frame and the interpretation of the movement has been taken over by the media and how favourable the journalistic description bias is. (McCarthy et al 1998, smith et al (2001) cited in ‘frames of protest’ sate that it is regarded as difficult for movements to both gain coverage and do so under an ideal. One concept that is seen as important for mainstream media is news value, social movements and political protest must offer high news value to be covered or framed righteously. They must be able to attain public interest and attention in order for the story to sell. This is because some aspects of journalism mainstream media in particular has become increasingly commercialised today and is more dependant on sales. Herman Chomsky, (1988) carried out research and came up with the propaganda model which consists of five filters that social movements or protest must survive in order to be covered. These include 1) the size, ownership, and profit the media could make from the story 2) advertising 3) sourcing 4) criticism and 5) anti-communist ideology, i.e. keeping the power in the hands of elites and serving their interests. This is seen as a way of emphasising news value and reinforcing authority by some marxist critics. Consecutive to the propaganda model, a lot of research was done into news selection, and it is evident that there is a lot of research indicating that the main priority for media institutions is profit and audience interest. Meyer, (2002) states that there is another filter which is called the rules of stage-managing which (as mentioned before) he says is based on how much the news can attract audience attention. The fact that it is difficult for social movements or protests to obtain coverage means that they have to think of other ways of obtaining coverage one example is through emotion management which includes using concepts that would encourage sympathetic feelings for example sadness. An example of this would be using pictures of victims of hurricane Katrina in 2006 or pictures of children affected by the Iraq war. This is just one of the concepts social movements have to use to gain media interest. Movements and political protestors have to develop all kinds of media strategies such as adopt public relations techniques and strategies to bypass the medias selection bias (Olivier Maney 2000: McCarthy et al. 1998; smith et al.2001; Miphial Schiveingraber 1998) ‘An effective media strategy requires – at least to some extent –a willingness to cater to the often warped priorities and short attention span of the news media’Despite what critics say about social movements having to change their techniques and this being bad, Salzman, (1998:3) in the media handbook for activists cited in ‘Media Society’ says: It is not only Salzman who comments on this, others feel that if social movements adopt proactive planning despite the fact it may alter movement messages, it could lead to favourable media coverage. Therefore sacrifices to social movement messages suggest that all in all the media wins and gains more based on what it needs. It also suggests that general consensus is important when trying to obtain coverage. However one concept that has helped social movement organisations or political protestor activists is of course (the World Wide Web). With independent media sites such as ‘Indymedia’ and ‘Schnews’, it has given social movements and activists the chance to function through the web enabling them to write their own journalistic stories and publicize their movements, beliefs, and causes with the possibility of more visitors every day. These internet sites also most productively enable social movements to be Trans global news sites, as people around the world can have access to their information mediums at the click of a button. Earl Schussman, (2003) cited in ‘Social movements and internetdiscourse’ state that the internet is incredibly useful to movements or activists organisations who want to log on to the web and publicize things such as protest information, they say that in general the internet can be seen as an ‘organisational tool’ for individuals optimistic for social change. Some critics feel that the internet has the ability to excel past mainstream media outlets and centered hierarchical forms of organisations Castello, (2000) says: ‘the net gives networks the capacity to decentralise and adapt the execution of tasks while coordinating purpose and decision.’ The more movements and political protestors go online the more sociologists studying them follow them up and theorise their activities. Almeida and Lichbach, (2003) cited in ‘social movements and internet discourse’ did a study comparing four mainstream media sources with activist based internet data in both their coverage of the anti WTO protests in late 1999. They found that activist based websites had reported a higher number of international protests then mainstream media; they also found that they were less influenced by intense concepts such as large numbers of participants or violence etc then the main media outlets. However they also found some limitations into the activist based websites which includes the variability of content and the necessity to confirm and legitimize occurrences. Therefore there are issues that suggest that while the internet is extremely useful for new social movements and political protests it also has its negatives. Another issue would be that people tend to get enough information from mainstream media outlets and tend not to look to other places for more information. Conclusion In general despite some social and political protest success stories with the media it is evident that mainstream news of political protests and social movements have not been completely positive within the few decades. Parati, (1986) cited in ‘media society’ once said in summary: ‘ discrediting techniques used by the media include down playing content in favour of emphasising the spectacle of an event, painting demonstrators as deviant and portraying under representative balance to a tiny number of counter parts, and undercounting the attendance at demonstrations’ have all determined negative coverage. Because of this it would be impracticable to say that all new social movements and protests could be covered more, or that they could be portrayed in a positive light from today onwards, it is evident the more movements and activists in general questions the status quo the less likely it will gain coverage or positive portrayal (framing). Mainstream media and political protests/social movements have always had a less then easy relationship despite the notion of freedom of speech being denoted in the western world. Marxists socialists critics would argue that one way that movements and activists would be able to voice their opinion more within mainstream media would be that they could fight against it and insist on a media reform i.e. a reconsideration of the way the media is conducted and the stories it publishes resulting in it being mandatory that new social movements and protestors capitalist or communists, right wing or left wing (aimed at positive social change) be recognised. Although un-likely this would enable movements to avoid adopting other messages or techniques to fit media needs. Hackett Carroll, (2004) state that it is about: ‘time for social movements to take collective action. To start with democratic media reform needs to be recast as an end in itself a public good not simply a means by which each movement can get its message out. This suggests that while it seems that mainstream media treatment of social movements and protest is not very positive or accepting, many critics feel that social movements and protests should be made known in the interest of ‘public good’ in order for people to be able to voice more opinions freely and create better chance of realizing Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. In terms of the internet, for activists websites to be more successful as a major information source and to be looked upon as much as mainstream media outlets, more money would have to be invested in them to ensure information is official and promotion ca be maximised. Perhaps the result would be a more balances media of information or people could be aware of hidden causes such as discrimination like unfair trade that some social movements try to publicise as much as possible as these issues are still on going. Bibliography 1, Croteau, D Hoynes, W (2000) ‘Media society  : industries, images, and audiences’.  Second ed, London, sage publication 2, Webster, F (2001). ‘culture and politics in the information age a new politics  ?’. London, Routledge. 3, Anderson, R Gray, J (2008). ‘battleground the media’ United States Of America, Greenwood Press. 4, Branston, G Stafford, R (2006). ‘the media student’s book’.London, Routledge. 5, Brahim, E ‘socail movements’ http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/social_movements/?nid=6789 accessed  : 27/03/06 6, Petit, C Social Movement Networks in Internet Discourse http://www.irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows25/irows25.htm accessed:27/03/08 7, Aton, C News Cultures and New Social Movements: radical journalism and the mainstream media Napier University, UK http://joblog.ru.ac.za/News%20cultures%20and%20new%20social%20movements%20-%20radical%20journalism.pdf accessed  :26/03/08 8, Smith J, Johnston, H Globalization and resistance: Transnational Dimensions of Social http://books.google.com/books?id=9UGLVh4JifkC accessed  :26/03.08 9, R.A. Hackett, W.K. Carroll, (2004) ‘Critical Social Movements and Media Reform’ Media Development, 10, Meyer, T. (2002). Media democracy: how the media colonize politics. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. 11, Barker, M (2005) ‘Manufacturing policies: the media’s role in the policy making process’ Australian School of Environmental Studies. Griffith University http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/jea.papers/Barker.doc accessed: 26/03/08 12, ‘socail movements’ www.wikipedia.com accessed 25/03/08 13, Chan, J. M., and Lee, C. C. (1984) The journalistic paradigm on civil protests: a case study of Hong Kong in A. Arno and W. Dissanayake (eds) The news media in national and international conflict, Boulder: Westview Press. 14, ‘mass media’ www.wikipedia.com accessed:25/03/08 15, (Kleahn. J), ‘A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman andChomsky’s ‘Propaganda Model’ Sage publications, London. 16, Halloran, J. D., Elliott, P. and Murdock, G. (1970) Demonstrations and communication: a case study, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Strategic Alliances In Integrated Supply Chain Management

Strategic Alliances In Integrated Supply Chain Management The objective of the study is to offer a theoretical framework to explain the positive impact of interdependence between strategic alliance partners with regard to the integration of work activities, information and alliance outcomes from the perspective of supply chain management. Methodology This approach adapted is a secondary approach where in the evolution of strategic alliances is comprehensively studied thus establishing the needs of organization across various time periods. Literatures of strategic alliances are approached from a strategic and supply chain perspective. Findings In the dynamic and ever changing business environments, strategic alliance has become an indispensable tool for the effective and efficient performance of a supply chain. With rapidly changing product life cycles and decreased durability of technologies, strategic alliances no longer became a strategic option; it became a necessity for an organization to survive the competition. Research limitation The information in this article is based on a sample literature available in this area. So the scope of information discussed in this article is limited to this literature sample. Practical implications The review of this literature highlight the importance of strategic alliances in supply chain management from the strategic perspective and explain the importance of information technology for effective integration of supply chain. Introduction For the purpose of this study, a strategic alliance is a trading partnership which links certain business processes of two or more companies which may augment effectively the competitive strategies of the firms involved while providing mutual benefits by exchanging technologies, skills, resources, or products. A strategic alliance can vary in form, function and framework. Increasing market competition, reduced product life cycle, high capital investment, increasing demand for innovation and new technologies are bringing additional pressure on companies to come up with new strategies for sustainable competitive environment (Denise Cristina Nishimura, 2010). In addition to these, all the exogenous factors like political, economic, social, technological and ethical factors related to automotive industry were the antecedents for automakers to engage in alliances. With the fundamental shift in power to the customer and customer dictating the terms of the market, issues of interdependence among members of supply chain became more critical. Winning customer loyalty becomes more difficult in this volatile environment and it becomes difficult for firms to compete in this competitive environment with inefficient and ineffective supply chains. So organizations rather than maintaining traditional arms-length relationships and having silo type structures, should strategically segment their supply chain partners and form durable arms-length relationships to allocate different levels of resources to each group (Damien Power, 2004). With ongoing globalization and increased competitiveness in the market place, it becomes difficult for the organization to have foot hold across many countries which require huge investment, technological agility to serve local customers and to overcome various environmental constraints like governmental regulations etc. So companies by forming alliances can share the financial, technological resources and can effectively serve multi-domestic markets. Strategic alliances are an instrument for combining co-operation and competition in corporate strategies. Patterns of co-operation and competition can be categorized into three groups (Nam-Hoon Kang, 2000): Co-operate while competing: Companies may continue to compete while they co-operate in some business areas in order to learn from each other to strengthen weak areas. Co-operate among them and compete with others: Companies may form alliance to compete with strong third parties. Co-operate, then compete: Companies co-operate among themselves to gain competencies and compete once they achieve a common standard. Major Alliances in Automobile Sector Source: Adopted from Kang, N. and K. Sakai (2000), International Strategic Alliances: Their Role in Industrial Globalization. Evolution of Strategic Alliances In the evolution of automotive industry it started with artisan production, passed through Henry Fords mass production to the present state State of the art technologies. Throughout the evolutionary past automakers formed alliances in the form of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Strategic alliances have been formed between firms on a national or international basis. The current form of alliances is distinguished from the past forms. In the new alliances firms remain independent from each other. During the arrangement there are common goals, but each firm has its own strategic goals. The partner firms are frequently collaborating reciprocally in their core areas of their competences rather than in peripheral businesses (Denise Cristina Nishimura, 2010). As on 2004, 80% of the passenger cars have been manufactured by the ten firms of the five industrialized countries. The strategic alliances in the passenger car industry happened mostly among countries like USA, European Union, Japan and Korea. General Motors and Toyota, Ford and Mazda, Chrysler and Mitsubishi have formed strategic alliances (Ayegul Samsunlu, 2006). Out of these only small number of companies leverage on supplier relationships, involving suppliers in their key business processes. Traditionally companies followed multi-supplier model, avoidance of long term contracts to enforce high bargaining power and keep the margins low. In this model organizations view themselves as individuals which are creating value to the customer by producing the deliverables. This is later dominated by a co-operative model where in companies share vital information to the suppliers, recognize areas of common interest, areas of distinctive competence among suppliers to leverage on their resources and integrate suppliers to their business process for effective and efficient performance of supply chain activities. In this organizations view themselves as a part of supply chain which creates value to the customer. This integration process among various partners of the supply chain is further facilitated by development in technological solutions that integrates information that surpasses organizational boundaries. This concept of supply chain further evolved into supply networks where in many firms in the supply chain are a part of different supply chains (Damien Power, 2004). Reasons for Strategic Alliances One of the reasons the automobile industry allies with foreign firms is to survive global competition under a weak relationship between the government and the industry (Hyun Young LEE, 2005). The reasons for forming strategic alliances changed over a period of time. Reasons for Alliances (Source: Adopted from Margarita Isoraite Importance of Strategic Alliances) Strategic alliances are supposed to create value for partner firms and their customers. This value is generated through synergy among the partnered firms. A large number of factors are responsible for creating the value like access to common resources, fit between partners needs, cost sharing, market penetration, scale economies etc (Bing-Sheng Teng, 2003). An alliance can create value in three possible ways. They are (Bing-Sheng Teng, 2003) Increases unit sales Lowering average costs per unit Increasing the customer willingness to pay An alliance along with leveraging on the competencies should also overcome the issues associated with partnering. In August of 1966, Nissan took over Prince. Besides the Nissan-Prince merger, six separate auto producer tie-up arrangements were negotiated in the late 1960s; Toyota-Hino (1966), Toyota-Daihatsu (1967), Fuji-Isuzu (1967), Mitsubishi-Fuji-Isuzu (1967), Mitsubishi-Isuzu (1968), and Nissan-Isuzu (1966). Toyota-Hino and Toyota-Daihatsu mergers materialized. It is notable that the product lines of three companies were complementary; Toyotas passenger cars, Hinos trucks and Daihatsus mini cars. All three firms were profitable in their primary line of products. This alliance created value because the activities in which these firms are competent are complementary, so the companies leveraged on these to generate added value. On the other hand, the four negotiations involving Mitsubishi, Isuzu, and Fuji failed because they could not overcome the various obstacles; product line ov erlapping, management independence, and antagonism between firms (Hyun Young LEE, 2005). The aims of strategic alliances are product differentiation, reduction in development costs, optimization of manufacturing capacity, reduction in time to market, improving productivity, speeding up the product development cycle, spreading the high cost of RD and leveraging know-how where ever. For example, GM has created strategic alliances. It has created strategic alliances with Suzuki for small cars. It has created strategic alliance with Toyota for technology, Honda engines for Hummer, Fiat for regional dominance and Isuzu for diesel engines and trucks (Ayegul Samsunlu, 2006). Some prime reasons for strategic alliances are (John D. Daniels, 2009) To spread and reduce Costs At a small volume of business, it may be caper for companies to contract the work to a specialist rather than handle it internally. A specialist can spread the fixed cost across many companies. Similarly a company having excess production and sales capacity that it can use to produce or sell for another company. Using this capacity for production or selling, the contracting company reduces its costs by not investing in fixed assets. Ford (US) had an alliance with a Japanese carmaker, Mazda. Ford focuses on cost reduction through communalization of car platforms, power trains (Nam-Hoon Kang, 2000). Synergy and competitive advantage Achieving synergy and a competitive advantage may be another reason why firms enter into a strategic alliance. Competition becomes more effective when partners leverage off each others strengths, bringing synergy into the process that would be hard to achieve if attempting to enter a new market or industry alone (Margarita Isoraite, 2009). To specialize in competencies The resource based view of the firm holds that each company has a unique combination of competencies. Companies seek to improve its performance by concentrating on those activities that best fits its competencies, depending on the alliance partners for supply of products, services or support activities for which it has lesser competency. To avoid or counter competition Sometimes markets are not large enough to hold many competitors. So, companies have to band together so as not to compete. To Gain Knowledge Many companies that are open to new ideas and have the capacity to implement innovations, pursues collaborative arrangements to learn partners technology, operational practices, or home markets so that their own competencies will broaden and deepen, making them more competitive in future. To gain location specific Assets Cultural, Economic, Political and competitive differences among countries may create barrier for organizations to operate abroad. Then companies may seek local organizations to collaborate for managing local operations. General Motors and Ford are forming alliances with Japanese firms to build on their capacity and presence in the region. General Motors is jointly developing mini-vehicles for Asian markets with Suzuki and will assemble these vehicles in Suzukis factory in Japan or other Asian countries (Nam-Hoon Kang, 2000). To overcome Governmental Constraints All the countries limit foreign ownership in some sectors. So companies have to partner with local organizations to serve these markets where 100% FDI is not permissible. Fastest means of entering markets Collaborative arrangements offer a faster initial means of entering multiple markets. Moreover, if product conditions favor diversification, it is more compelling to establish a foreign collaborative arrangement. To minimize exposure in risky environments Companies worry that political and economic changes will affect the safety of assets and their earning in their foreign operations. One way to minimize losses is to minimize the asset base in foreign countries by collaborations. Types of Strategic Alliances These alliances range from relatively noncommittal types of short-term, project-based cooperation to more inclusive long-term equity-based cooperation namely mergers and acquisition, joint ownership, joint venture, formal cooperative, informal cooperative. Horizontal Alliances In the automobile industry, horizontal alliances occur when an automaker links with another automaker with reciprocal collaborations in joint activities. Partners can setup joint production/infrastructure to achieve economies of scale, or joint sales in order to gain more market share, or basically to transfer technological knowledge. Licensing (John D. Daniels, 2009) In Licensing, a company (the licensor) grants rights to intangible property to another company (the licensee) to use in a specified geographic area for a specified period. In exchange, the licensee pays a royalty fee to the licensor. Used for Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and other intangible properties. The economic motive behind licensing is for faster start-up, lower costs or access to valuable resources. The advantages of licensing are Licensor can cover many markets in faster speed at low cost Licensor gets tie-ups with local distributors. Understands local market Disadvantages of licensing can be diffusion of technology and losing the market to licensee. The licensee can become a potential competitor. In the alliance between GM and Russian Avtovaz, GMs licensed its technology to Avtovaz, to produce sport utility vehicles in Russia (John D. Daniels, 2009). Joint Ventures A joint venture is defined as a co-operative business activity, formed by two or more separate firms for strategic purposes, which creates a legally independent business entity and allocates ownership, operational responsibilities, and financial risks and rewards to each partner, while preserving each partners separate identity or autonomy (Nam-Hoon Kang, 2000). The independent business entity can either be newly formed or the combination of pre-existing units and/or divisions of the partners. Joint ventures generally aim at making the new company a self-standing entity with its own aims, employees and resources (Nam-Hoon Kang, 2000). Some reasons for joint ventures are Exploiting Capabilities and Expertise (Nishith Desai, 2011) Companies having complementary skills and capabilities engage in mutual co-operations, so that they can contribute to the co-operation. Each of the members concentrates on their competencies and depends on their partner for complementary skills so that the total value generated by the partners will be more than the value generated individually. Leveraging Resources (Nishith Desai, 2011) With the globalization, it became difficult for one company to pool all the resource like financing, skilled manpower to serve various markets. Access to labor, capital and technological resources have become driving forces for modern businesses to withstand the competitive dynamics in the changing environment. Managing the business across the borders became more complex compelling the companies to form alliance by entering into a Joint Venture. Advantages of Joint venture includes entering a foreign country against FDI regulations , sharing risks as well as costs, established channel partners and relations of the partner etc (John D. Daniels, 2009). Disadvantages include conflict of vision/interest, both parties not contributing equally, lack of complete control, Market sharing leading to market contraction etc (John D. Daniels, 2009). Examples: Hero Honda started in 1984 as a joint venture between Hero Cycles of India and Honda of Japan. After that it became the largest two wheeler manufacturer in India. In August 2011 the company was renamed Hero MotoCorp with a new corporate identity after the joint venture dissolved. Acquisition (Eszter Molnar, 2009) The fastest way of entering new markets is by acquisition where the larger firm purchases more that 50% of stake in the smaller firm. It enables the buyer to benefit from existing structures, brand, relations, channels and business knowledge in case of a foreign takeover. Advantages (John D. Daniels, 2009). Saves time and quick to market due to well established distribution and sales channels Competition in the market remains unchanged Disadvantages (John D. Daniels, 2009). Obsolete technology Resources might not be in best class Processes and practices might not be world class Example: Porsches gambit, where in it steadily increased its stake in Volkswagen since 2005 and became the majority stake holder in Volkswagen by October 2008 (Eszter Molnar, 2009). Tata motors after the acquisition of British Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business became a major player in the international automobile market. The main reason for the acquisition would be acquiring intellectual property rights related to the technologies. Merger Merger is an horizontal equity alliance, where two companies often of about the same size, decide to go forward as a single company that remain separately owned and operated. An ominous merger was the DaimlerChrysler when the German based Daimler-Benz merged with US based Chrysler Corporation in 1998. It is known as Merger of Equals, but it didnt last long and they separated in 2007. Later Chrysler made a strategic alliance with Fiat under the terms that Fiat will take 35% of stake in Chrysler in exchange for supplying high fuel-efficient power train technology and small and medium sized vehicle platforms. This alliance helped Chrysler to penetrate European and South American markets and Fiat to get access to US market (Eszter Molnar, April 2009). Vertical Alliances Vertical alliances occur when the automaker builds relationship with suppliers who provide goods and services in any business process along with the vertical chain. Basically vertical relations were mostly based on the decision making process of make-versus-buy. Making decision means that the automaker produces in-house. One of the main reasons behind it is to protect its core competitive advantages. Buying decision means that the automaker purchases or outsources the production of goods or services. The shift in the strategic outlook from organizational view to supply chain view is compelling organizations to produce the core products in-house and contract the production and control of peripheral parts from strategic supply chain partners. Nowadays, in the automobile industry 30% of the parts of a car are produced by automakers, while the other 70% of the parts, which would be assembled in the final product, are produced by suppliers (Denise Cristina Nishimura, 20 10). Contract Manufacturing (John D. Daniels, 2009) In contract manufacturing, the parent company approaches a firm known as contract manufacturer with a design/formula. Once the contract is finalized then the contract manufacturer manufactures the components/products for the hiring company. The company becomes free from managing the labor but technological diffusion will occur but only for manufacturing process. Examples like manufacturing contracts between a major carmaker and a local Chinese firm, Toyota/Tianjian Automotive Industrial and Renault/Dandong Automotive Works. Turnkey Operations (John D. Daniels, 2009) Turnkey operations are a type of collaborative arrangements in which one company contracts with another to build complete, ray to operate facilities. Companies building turnkey operations are frequently industrial-equipment manufacturers and construction companies. Customers for turnkey operations are frequently governmental agencies. Strategic Outsourcing Strategic outsourcing is the alternative way for the company to accomplish its value chain activities rather than performing the entire value chain activities. In the current market place there are quiet a good number of companies that are specialized in some activities. Outsourcing these activities to the specialized companies strengthen the companies business model either by improving the efficiency by decreasing the cost or by enhancing the effectiveness by creating differentiating advantage in terms of quality, variety, speed of the supply chain. Subcontracting is necessary because it facilitates firm to concentrate on its core competencies; it allows for an economic method of production; suppliers are encouraged to specialize, which allows economies of scale in technology; to encourage smooth production by utilizing sources of supply. Economic Dualism theory suggests that large companies create dual economy by subcontracting, in which they can expand their resources in times of fortune and reduce capacity in times of recession, thus using sub-contracting as a cushion against economic cycles. However this theory fails in present conditions where subcontractors are seen as partners sharing risks, rewards and revenues (Paul D Cousins, 2003). This outsourcing can be entire function like Nike outsourced its manufacturing function or it can be a part of the function like many companies outsource the management of their payroll/pension systems while keeping the HRM activities within the system. A survey estimates that some 56% of g lobal product manufacturing is exported to manufacturing specialists (Hill Jones, 2008). What to Outsource With customer being the key focus in these present dynamic environments, companies keeps on trying to increase the total value generated to the customers by increasing the gap between customer willingness to pay and costs associated with the product. To achieve this companies outsource activities that they think the specialized company will generate more value by performing that activity. In the environment of growing customer demand for supply chain efficiency and effectiveness it is recommended for the company to perform the supply chain activities that it has distinctive competence and outsource the rest of activities. In many cases out-sourcing helps companies to obtain better operational expertise that would be difficult for the company to develop in-house. Outsourcing is growing at a rate of 23% per year because companies are discovering that they do not need to do everything themselves. Yet, not all processes are outsourced. Outsourcing the wrong process could be counterproduc tive, expensive, or even fatal to a company (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002). Core vs. Non-Core (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) The most crucial aspect of outsourcing is in making the distinction between the core competencies, which should be kept in-house, and the non-core activities, which are candidates for outsourcing. One element of the core vs. non-core distinction is the issue of controlling ones destiny. Becoming excessively dependent on partners reduces the strategic options available to a company. Processes that nurture the core, protect the core, or help the company exploit its core competencies are also held internally. Companies need to think carefully about what they wish to sow, nurture, and reap in-house in order to harvest long-term profits. Five-Stage Model (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) Prof. Fine enumerated five variables that predict the wisdom of in-sourcing vs. outsourcing. Modularity of components/processes: Modular elements are potential candidates for outsourcing than integral elements of a product or business Quantity of providers: The fewer the number of providers, the less outsourcing makes sense Clock speed: The faster the clock speed, the more you want to in-source. Importance to customer: If the customer cares about it, dont outsource it. Benchmark performance level: if you have best-in-class performance on the process, dont outsource it. Value Equation (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) A value equation used by Unilever to evaluate the added value generated by outsourcing activities to supply chain partners is Net Value = Internal Value from Focus + External Value from Provider Transaction Costs This equation helps only quantitatively where as many qualitative parameters like whether the activity is core or non-core should also be considered. For activities that are non-core, the equation helps the company assess the value of outsourcing that non-core activity. Although the equation looks like a simple financial model, many of the terms have qualitative elements (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002). Value Equation: Internal Value from Focus (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) With outsourcing, management and employees can focus more on what is important. So organizations create more value by focusing their valuable resources on their core activities and thus increase the value to the customer. Value Equation: External Value from Provider (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) Providers can create value by being more efficient, more effective, or more innovative than the internal counterpart. This value is the key part of the value proposition. The source of the providers value can fall into one of two categories: Value from high economies of scale Value from high levels of expertise. Specialist provider achieves scale economies by aggregating volumes of activities from multiple companies through standardization and decreases the unit costs across the supply network. Value from high levels of expertise occurs when the provider can accumulate large quantities of knowledge that would be hard for each client company to replicate. Value Equation: Transaction Costs (Andrea and Dana Meyer, 2002) Transaction costs are inevitable in the outsourcing. Costs of internal transactions which are in general informal are very low and hidden where as the transaction costs with the outsourced company are visible and substantial. Extra transaction costs arise from having to formally specify what the partner is to do, managing that external activity. Companies decompose transaction costs into 3 categories: Oversight costs: Cost of managing the relationship, performance, information exchange etc. Switching costs: Cost of changing from insourcing to outsourcing Risk: The potential costs of problems associated with the outsourcing arrangement Evolution of Outsourcing Subcontracting model has changes drastically over last two decades. One of the most common strategies was Multiple Sourcing, which arises from the principle Not to keep all your eggs in one basket which was adequate when competition is local or national. With companies becoming global, competition has intensified, time to market cycles has to be kept low, increased innovations as customers demanding high quality products, at competitive prices became difficult with multiple sourcing strategy. This shifted the focus of companies towards Parallel Sourcing strategy where companies use single source within model groups and multiple sources for different products. This provides buyer benefits of sole sourcing like closer working relationships, information sharing etc and benefits of multiple sourcing like security of supply and market pricing (Paul D Cousins, 2003). This approach is followed by what is called Network approach which is complemented by concepts of Supplier tiers. In this approach suppliers are organized into Tier I (Major assemblers) followed by Tier II (Sub-assemblers). This kind of supply structure has become popular with in automotive and aerospace industry where in it allowed buyers to work with fewer, sophisticated suppliers. As a result buyers rely on fewer, powerful suppliers for supply of sub-assemblies (Paul D Cousins, 2003). With these high levels of dependencies, scholars are considering near paradigms like agile, lean and mass customization techniques. These paradigms are creating high degrees of integration across supply chain that will require more sophisticated relationship management across supply chain partners. If managed properly firms can reduce costs, decreases time to market and increases responsiveness to customers at lower costs (Paul D Cousins, 2003). Benefits of Out-Sourcing Cost reduction and cost savings Out-sourcing reduces the costs if the price you are paying for the company is less than the costs that you incur if the same activities are performed in-house. Specialist companies are able to perform activities at a lower cost as they can realize economies of scale by performing the same kind of activity for various companies. These specialized companies invest more in efficient-scale manufacturing facilities/processes to spread the costs against large volumes and bring down unit costs. Specialists also save costs through learning effects more rapidly than the clients. These companies learn fast how to operate the processes more efficiently compared to its clients. Since most of the out-sourced companies are based at low-cost global locations, costs can easily drive down (Hill Jones, 2008). Enhanced Differentiation Companies should be able to differentiate its final products by out-sourcing certain noncore activities. These companies can provide more reliable products by strongly focusing and achieving competence in that activity thus decreasing the defect rate. Most of these specialized companies have adopted Six Sigma methodologies and bring down error rates, thereby increasing the reliability of product. For example carmakers outsource specific kinds of vehicle component design activities such as microchips and headlights to the specialists who have earned reputation for design excellence (Hill Jones, 2008). Focus on core business Strategic out-sourcing makes the managers to focus their energies and companies resources in performing the core activities that can create sustainable have more potential to create value and competitive advantage. By this companies enhance their competence and push out the value creation frontier and create more value for their customers (Hill Jones, 2008). Flexibility Companies gain access to new technologies and use suppliers technology to accelerate new product development. Companies can also adapt to changing business environments by changing suppliers if the existing suppliers using technologies that are obsolete. Thus companies mitigate the risk of investing in resources/technologies that have short life cycles (Yijie Dou and Joseph Sarkis, 2010). Local Expertise Partners also bring local expertise to the relationship. Although global companies would like to create economies of scale based on world-wide uniformity, such uniformity is not always possible. Local government regulations impact ingredients or packaging. Local customs and trends affect marketing or product mix. Supplier partners (l

Gullivers Travels :: essays research papers

The Evolution of Gulliver In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the main character, Gulliver, embarks on numerous journeys bringing him to strange lands and affecting his views of the world around him. His response to each voyage differ as do his ideas and reactions to the environment in which he is residing. Gulliver begins his expeditions with a very social and open behavior while possessing a general acceptance of any newly encountered beings. But by the end of the fourth voyage, Gulliver leans toward a more anti-social attitude which was derived from the hatred and disgust he has for human beings, the “Yahoos.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As for the first voyage to Lilliput, Gulliver acts very sociable with all of the different creatures he comes in contact with. Once he arrives on the unknown island, he begins to explore the land around him. After being brought into the city, Gulliver remains subservient towards the Lilliputians by staying chained up near his hut without acting out and attempting to break free which would have most likely been a successful attempt. This subservience created enough trust of the “Man-Mountain'; by the Lilliputian king that it was declared that his liberty hath been granted when he could have easily crushed and killed these little people. Gulliver is also very eager to be able to interact with the creatures and this is evident when in a few weeks he “made a great progress in learning their language'; (68). He is also quite helpful and there are two definitive cases of Gulliver displaying this helpfulness in the country of Lilliput. The first occurs when he obeys the orders of the king to destroy his opposition’s navy and ends up stringing up the navy of Blefuscu rendering them helpless. Then he saves the fiery palace by relieving himself onto it, extinguishing the flames. As you can see throughout the first voyage, Gulliver was very sociable and friendly to those he came in contact with.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An anti-social behavior is then exhibited near the end of the last voyage, after he leaves the country of the Houyhnhnms, because of his new found disgust and hatred for the rest of the world especially the “Yahoos.'; This is evident almost immediately when Gulliver first encounters natives on the new island. Unlike previous encounters with new people, he “made what haste [he] could to the shore'; to quickly retreat from an impromptu meeting (333). His sole purpose after leaving the Houyhnhnm land was “to discover some small island uninhabited, yet sufficient by [his] labour to furnish [himself] with the necessaries of life, which [he] would have thought a greater happiness than to be first Minister in the politest Court of

William Goldings Lord Of The Flies Essay examples -- Lord Flies Goldi

The author, William Golding uses the main characters of Ralph, Jack, and Simon in The Lord of the Flies to portray how their desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise leads to the fall of their society. This desire for leadership and compromise led to the fall of their society just like multiple countries during times of wars. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. One of the main characters, Ralph, was very likeable to everyone and was almost immediately elected as the leader of the tribe, with the only competition being the leader of the choir boys, Jack. Even though Ralph just wants to get home, he remains to look strong and tough to the other boys, to try and keep things as civilized as possible. So, Ralph decides that; "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best a... ...the North and the South, just like the differences between Jack and Ralph in this novel. Chaos broke out in both situations and led to multiple murders. Another example of desire for leadership that led to society downfall was Germany during World War II. Adolph Hitler was the leader of Germany who created a nation that persecuted Jewish persons. He did not give in to anyone or any nation; this led to the breakout of World War II. Jack is an example of Adolph Hitler due to his desire of power over the island. Jack's actions led to a similar situation as Hitler's, however not as extreme or wide spread. So, the desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise usually leads to the fall of a society or at least a drastic change.

Water Aerobics Essay -- Aquatic Fitness Routine

Water Aerobics Water aerobics has been a strong growing type of exercise for many age groups for years. Water aerobics is a combination of arm and leg movements done in water for beginners. This type of aerobic exercise is typically done for less than an hour. This includes the same type of program as land aerobics with warm up and cool down periods. Swimming exercise uses more of the overall muscle mass of the body than almost any other form of exercise. (Water aerobics, â€Å"What is water aerobics† section, para. 1) Doing water aerobics is good for the joints and helps create a wider range of motion in the joints during exercise. It also nearly eliminates injuries in the water because the body is so buoyant. Water aerobics also improves flexibility because it is not causing pressure on the joints. This is because the body is supported by the water. Most water aerobics are done in waist, chest or neck high deep water. The water is supporting from 85 percent to 90 percent of the body in chest deep water. (Water aerobics, â€Å"Who can participate?† section, para. 1) In an advanced water aerobics class you are doing more calisthenics exercises. An individual doing water aerobics can burn anywhere from 450 to 700 calories for an hour of exercise. (Water aerobics, â€Å"How many calories does it burn?† section, para. 1) There is less stress on the joints and a more efficient cardiovascular workout. This is because water aerobics does not put as much of a beating on your bones and jo...

A radical democrat: King’s Last Campaign

The task of this paper is two-fold; first, this paper will trace and explain the evolution of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s belief that war, racism and economic injustice are all intertwined and can be dealt with the restructuring of society’s priorities and addressed the necessity of a revolution of values; second, this paper will also explain how he carried out his beliefs in the Memphis Strike and the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968 [what the author and University of Washington professor, Michael K. Honey called â€Å"Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign†]. At the onset of this paper, it is important to note that King’s ‘background’ [which includes his race, habituation, education and religion among many others] is crucial in his struggle against racial discrimination, violence and economic injustice as experienced by blacks in the United States of America. The son of a minister, he was habituated in the teachings of Christianity and was able to attend and complete his formal education with degrees in sociology, theology and divinity. King was a pastor himself at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in the year 1953 prior to finishing his doctoral degree in systematic theology from Boston University on 1955. What prompted the Memphis Strike? Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic â€Å"plantation mentality† embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty (Honey, 2007). This characterization of the political, economic and social conditions of the blacks in Memphis in 1968 by Honey may be cited as cases of â€Å"manufactured and institutionalized oppression†. By manufactured and institutionalized oppression, I mean oppression which involves the mechanisms of law and power relations the basis of which is against the ‘natural law’. Natural law theorists, following the thoughts of St. Augustine that â€Å"an unjust law is not a law at all† and Aquinas’ notion of â€Å"law as an ordinance of reason†, view morality as essentially tied up with the very essence of law. How does King figure in all of this? How can we explain the evolution of King’s ideological perspective? The point is clear: Oppression and unfair treatment of individuals is not morally valid nor is it morally permissible most especially if the basis of such is the individual’s ethnicity or race. As the Kantians believed, each person has a capacity for rational deliberation and choice and as such, an autonomous being with dignity and therefore, ought to be respected by virtue of being human persons. The evolution of King’s ideological perspective may therefore be construed in such way that it is a product, both of his experiences as a black living in a white-dominated society and his philosophical and political development and this may be inferred from Fairclough’s book, â€Å"Martin Luther King, Jr.†, 1995. King’s speeches very clearly communicate his views: â€Å"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality†¦.I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits[†¦] (as cited by Carson, 1998). Three important points about King and his political thrusts, philosophical orientation and as to why he may be called a â€Å"radical democrat† may be inferred from the aforementioned quotation. First, as a leading figure in â€Å"civil rights movement† King believed in the tenets of democracy and liberalism in the sense that he believed that both white and black Americans must have fair treatment in the realm of the law, for the purpose of law itself is the administration of social justice. Second, he believed in the â€Å"non-necessity of violence†. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s â€Å"civil disobedience†, he believed that there are peaceful ways in and through which the problem of political and economic injustice may be resolved. It may further be inferred that for him, political, economic and social change can best be achieved not through violence [and that the government should not keep itself busy from going to war, as in the case of the Vietnam War] nor by transforming a portion or a sector of society but what is needed is a restructuring of the society as a whole. King believed that a â€Å"revolution of values† is a matter of strict necessity. King’s views may be identified as â€Å"radical† in this sense. He emphasized the need to restructure even how we think about black Americans or African Americans. It may be inferred that racism, the feeling of being superior over another race or ethnic group or nationality is grounded on the wrong premises; wrong modes of thinking and reasoning. It is by transforming our psyche and by appealing through reason and conscience that society as a whole may chart its rightful path towards genuine social change. Third, he believed and fought not only for civil rights but also for economic changes especially labor rights and lobbied for law reforms to be enacted to protect Negroes from exploitation and oppressive schemes adopted by employers. These include fair treatment and equal work opportunity, just compensation, etc. This is how he carried out his beliefs in the Memphis Strike and the Poor People’s Campaign. King served as a voice crying for the emancipation not only of black Americans but also of other human beings from the chains of oppression. Based on the above discussion, we can see why King believed that the problems and conflicts brought about by war, racism and economic injustice are all intertwined. What we can infer from his views is the interweaving and interconnecting patterns brought about by racism itself. But racism is not in itself the root of the problem; it is merely an effect of a traceable cause. This cause, this root of racism, is none other than a distorted value system, a wrong frame of mind resulting to feelings of superiority and even contempt and hate which further results to taking an unfair advantage of other human beings, plus a very materialistic market essentially driven by capital. The fault is, at bottom, deeply embedded with the minds of persons and a wrong value system, a wrong sense of pride and nationality, for it fails, in the Kantian sense, to respect persons for the sake of being human persons, not as mere means and tools that another person or race may use but as ends-in-themselves, possessing the capacity for rational thought, capable of making rational choices and thereby, beings that are autonomous and dignified and for the aforementioned reasons, deserve to be respected. References: Carson, C. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Warner Books; Reprint edition (January 1, 2002). Fairclough, A. Martin Luther King, Jr.: University of Georgia Press, c. 1995. Honey, M. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign: W. W. Norton (January 15, 2007).