Italian Culture and Work Ethics Essay Example for Free

Italian Culture and Work Ethics Essay History teaches us that it is through the family that new generations are equipped with ethics and values regarding work. The advent of bourgeois society, with its characteristic openness towards other social classes, appears to have relegated the promotion of working values by families to the background. This study sets out to test the hypothesis according to which the family continues to maintain an important role in the transmission of working values. Based on data from the Work Importance Study (Super and Sverko, 1995: Life Roles, Values, a n d Careers, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass), two subgroups were compared (working adults, and high school and university students), considered as representing two different generations (youths vs adults). Some results from cluster anatysis show how substantial similarity exists between adults and youths in terms of ideal values, expressing what would be important in an ideal world. The difference between the subgroups lies in expectations (termed expected values) relating to what would be important in my actual work environment. Here, relatively more important values for young people are relatively less important for working adults. Another result presented concerns the relationship existing betiveen value typobgies (classed into six categories) and personal character associated with birth order. What emerges is that the only children are prevalently the tough type, while the first bom, considered by some to be custodians of family traditions, tum out to be more independent than the second or third bom, identified above all by their calm and sociable characters. Introduction: the work ethic and the family ethic This study presents the results of a survey conducted nationaUy in 1995 on a sample of 1523 subjects (represendng the three main geo-cultural areas of Italy: North, Centre and South—see BeUotto, 1997). The objecdve of the survey was to determine values associated with work. For this a quesdonnaire, a values scale (VS) was used, devised by an intemadonal team pardcipadng in a world-wide survey called the Work Importance Study—WIS (Super and Sverko 1995). With the data coUected, a profile of the value judgements of Italian families was formulated. The importance of working values within the family context has been little explored from a psychological point of view. Yet the family is characterized by the ethical nature of the reladonships it contains, hence its values (Boszormeny-Nagy and Spark, 1973; Cigoli, 1992). The family is rightly placed in that class of insdtudons that Hegel indicated as the ethical horizon of human society. There are very few Italian studies on the processes of value transmission within families, not to mendon the handing down of working values. While one of the principal funcdons recognized as typical of families is the socializadon of the individual, studies regarding the socializadon by families with regard to work are rarely encountered. 1351-1610/99/040583-13 Â © 1999 Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences 584 Massimo Bellotto and Alberto ^atti The lack of research in this field can be partly explained by the relatively recent history of the concept of the family as a scientific subject for study in social psychology. At least until the end of the 1940s, families were considered as a group typology (Lewin, 1951). Successively, interest focused on the pathology of family relationships (Bateson et al. , 1956; Epstein et al. , 1982; Bamhill, 1979; Watzlawick et al. , 1967). It was only in die 1970s that the so-called normal family was considered worthy of psychological investigation as a scientific subject (Scabini, 1985). In recent years, however, the theme of values and the ethical importance of families has emerged strongly in a variety of fields, from individual and family psychotherapy to organizational psychology. In this article we would like to propose that a terminological distinction be made between ethics and morality. Ethics are, as the etymology of the word suggests, the study of the customs (ethos), the social habits, the relational practices of a people or social grouping. Morality relates more to the theme of how much certain behaviour corresponds to a reference model. In this sense, it is important to distinguish between ethics and morality when studying the customs and habits, in a word, the ethics of families (and not their morality). This is to avoid the pitfalls associated with referring to a particular set of values held by the family being analysed. What exacdy are the working values held by families? What relationship exists between these values and family needs? What are the motivations that stir the family organization? And which family values can be linked, even indirecdy, with work? Let us seek some answers to these important questions. Families in history have also been units of production. The peasant family, craft guilds, the factory worker families of the first and second industrial revolutions (Manoukian, 1976) are the most emblematic examples. In medieval society the chances of changing ones profession from the one inherited from the family were rather hmited. Children continued the working traditions of the family without having much choice in the matter. The transmission of working values within family groups, historically speaking, seemed to go without saying. However, it would be worthwhile to pose the question of how families educate their members today with regard to work. Families in Westem society have changed profoundly. The social mobility intrinsic to the very idea of bourgeois society (Weber, 1904) has led to the privatization of family relationships (Aries, 1960) and to the specialization of family practices to the sentimental sphere. The educational role of families is becoming more and more marginal, being delegated to collective institutions such as schools. Moreover, from the viewpoint of economic history, families have become increasingly characterized as units of consumption, losing in part their role as units of production. From a macrosocial perspective, a fundamental problem emerges in Italy: the percentage of youth unemployment is one of the highest in Europe, especially in the South. Working Values and the Italian Family 585 majority of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 live at home: 82. 4% of males and 72. 5% of females. In the next age bracket, 25-34, many more young men sdU live at home with their parents (33. 6%) compared with young women of the same age (22. 9%). According to some demographic projecdons to the year 2000, these percentages wiU touch 36. 3% for young males and 34. 2% for young females. There are cultural and ideological reasons for this phenomenon, such as the idea that marriage is the only proper route towards adult independence (8 males out of 10 and 9 women out of 10 leave the family only foUowing marriage). However, social factors also make a contribudon, in particular, high youth unemployment and a shortage of rental accommodadon. The result is that families coundng a young adult as a member are a socially significant category. Psychological factors and value systems also play an important role. The working values tradidonaUy handed down in Italian families place heavy emphasis on permanent and full-dme employment. The definidve departure from the family is often condidonal on minimizing the risks of independence. Among others, for these two factors (permanent fuU-dme employment and minimum risk of independence), life-dme employment in government and union employment policies have come to be considered as a necessary and sufficient prerequisite for the attainment of adulthood. The quest for so-caUed guaranteed employment has led Italian society to one of the most cridcal paradoxes in its history: the creadon of a barrier to occupadonal access for youth. Thus, the one prerequisite considered a vital and sufficient condidon for the evoludon of Italian families, life-dme employment, has become one of the major obstacles to the same end. By disallowing generational change in employment, it has become impossible for young generadons to enter the workforce, and hence to reach independence. * Following on these consideradons, we decided to use the results of a study on working values (WIS 1995) to shed some light on value differences between young students and adult workers. As mendoned above, very few studies have been carried out in Italy on the transmission of values within families. While the WIS study was not designed for this purpose, we believed that it could give some indicadons regarding the generadon gap (youths vs adults) and differences in social status (students vs workers). The underlying hypothesis to tjiis study is therefore that working adult values can be considered as being similar to those of parents; likewise, those held by young students can be considered as being similar to those of offspring. The WIS survey.

Freedom of Choice in Steinbecks East of Eden Essay -- John Steinbeck

Our circumstances do not determine our lives. Instead, our lives are determined by our choices. That is not to say that our lives are not impacted by the country in which we were born, the family which we were born to, or the tragedies which touched our lives. We are given a choice of how we respond to those things, and the power of choice means that the lessons and value of our lives is not determined by outside influences, but instead it is determined by our reaction to those influences. In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck theorizes that all individuals have the freedom to make choices in order to triumph over evil. Steinbeck demonstrates this by his use of the word timshel, the word, which translates to â€Å"thou mayest,† is used in the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. God t... Freedom of Choice in Steinbeck's East of Eden Essay -- John Steinbeck Our circumstances do not determine our lives. Instead, our lives are determined by our choices. That is not to say that our lives are not impacted by the country in which we were born, the family which we were born to, or the tragedies which touched our lives. We are given a choice of how we respond to those things, and the power of choice means that the lessons and value of our lives is not determined by outside influences, but instead it is determined by our reaction to those influences. In the novel, East of Eden by John Steinbeck theorizes that all individuals have the freedom to make choices in order to triumph over evil. Steinbeck demonstrates this by his use of the word timshel, the word, which translates to â€Å"thou mayest,† is used in the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. God t...

History of Globalization

Globalization history Name: Institution: Scientist may approximate when the world was formed but people do not know how true this is. However, one thing is very clear; the way of our lives have changed from the most primitive to very a very advanced. Presently in the world there are sectors that are more developed more than others owing to some reasons. Globalization is responsible for all these developments that have occurred at different paces (Appadurai, 2003). Globalization is the difference of time and the evolution of world.Hence its’ a term used to explain how the world is today, and changes that have occurred right from the ancient days to the present day. In a superficial description, globalization is a phenomenon that has produced fundamental changes within societies. It covers a range of social, economic and political changes. Thus, global history focuses on the human history and historic developments from many past decades, though to some people it is a product of modern forces of change which cannot be projected all the way back to the old decades.Globalization is no more set in stone than global history and concept; it is accompanied by other concepts like information society, post industrial age, post modern age, and so on. Globalization is not a member of an archive in history, but it remains more of an explanatory, overarching concept for a series of actual processes of transformation. Globalization is a process that, for a long time, has been evolving. Different ideas and new developments are discovered as time pass (Teichmann, 2003). The economy, politics culture and military complexes follow their trends.Though all these depend on where they are situated, the time and social class. Therefore globalization is an open process that transforms the economic, political, social, cultural and military institutions, which may be organizations like the church, state, family, companies and so forth. The major roles of globalization are the expan sion concentration and acceleration of worldwide relations. One of its characteristics is its influence on everything covered by rubric of culture. The cultural globalization is normally driven by the communication technology and worldwide marketing of western cultural industries.This was understood at the first process of normalization, as the global domination of Americans. It was at the expense of the traditional diversity. Then there was a difference and movements that started protesting against globalization and supporting local uniqueness, individuality and identity. The movements used same technologies to pursue their own goal and they would ask for the world’s opinion. Roland Robertson termed this as â€Å"Univesalization† (Global policy forum, 2005). Globalization is traced far back in the emergence of Homo sapiens and the migration out of Africa to the world.Globalization is suggested as the process of migration was the central globalization driver, as it lin ked processes of demographic expansion and increasing density of human habitation. Through this, the population increased and the intermingling of different people brought some old behaviors to an end. There is a near endless array of things that can be done to deal with global political problems, but space constraints have always limited us to issues of accountability and transparency. And people adapted to new adaptations, which are not constant and they vary with time.Through globalization the results of cultural change can be interpreted as hybridity. This means that new cultural elements being creatively adapted to mesh with existing ones and the people gradually adopt to the swiftly changing behavior. Most authors have described globalization as a fundamental change of categories of time and space, extensive use of electronic mail and the reduction in telephone fees has created and shared immediacy and a virtual togetherness, produces fundamentals for worldwide social relation s. This has increased speed of communication.In the economic globalization, there has been advancement in modes of transportation and technology, which have given free market ideology which has brought about fair trades and services. Supply and demand have become very effective due to the liberation of market sources from governmental regulations. Most countries have taken the advantage of globalization. There is also the advantageous use of the international financial institutions and regional trade agreements for assisting poor countries to reduce tariffs, to privatize state enterprises, and relax environmental and labor standards.The results increase in profits for investors but offered pittances to laborers (Ritzer, 2010). There has been improvement in the world of agriculture as compared to historic days for instance the people of Mesopotamia used to use the ‘shadoff’ method of irrigation, through globalization better methods have been researched and developed like the use of water sprinklers, drip irrigation method just to mention. More so there has been the development of high breed seed that assist the farmers get high yields of harvest.There are machinery powers that are used like the use tractors in ploughing the land and use combined harvesters to harvest wheat. This has drastically slowed down some cruel businesses like the slave trade and also slavery. In the traditional era, politics was conducted by the national governments, who were responsible for maintaining security and economic welfare of its citizens, land issues and also the human rights. Through globalization changes have occurred and this has forced the political activity to change also.Politics has taken place through political integration schemes like united nations (U. N), European Union NGOs ,World bank and international monetary fund, just to mention, more so civil societies organizations act all over the world by forming alliances with organizations in other countries instead of working through their governments. There will always be differences of the globalization ideas, being a series of academic literatures, across political, economy and social science that are more specifically concerned with post second international economic development and politics.Globalization theories see the process as driven by multiple transformations in human life, and it’s very difficult to unpick the factor which tends to be a key driver. Though that does not mean we at times are militant opponents of globalization. Globalization is reflexive to people; people self consciously orient themselves to the world. For example, in businesses people explore global markets. People meet in trade fairs. There are inter marriages, inter social mingling, people change ideas and also communication sighs.Globalization contributes to human trafficking, most people through migrations, as people form 3rd world countries want to migrate to well develop countries in such of employment. Then if they fail to get the job they involve themselves with immorality. Also globalization encourages conflicts among different communities, as some communities wants to pose greater than others. This superiority and minority complexes leads to misunderstandings amongst people which lead to tribal wars and so on.On the merit side of globalization, it has brought people through intermingling and there is advancement of communication and information technologies in that References Appadurai, A. (2003). Globalization. Durham [u. a. : Duke Univ. Press. Global policy forum. (2005). Globalization of the Economy. Retrieved March 29, 2013 from http://www. globalpolicy. org/globalization/globalization-of-the-economy-2-1. html Ritzer, G. (2010). Globalization: A basic text. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Teichmann, I. (2003). Globalization. North Mankato, Minn: Smart Apple Media.

A Comparison of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Of Mice...

A Comparison of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck I will be comparing the novels ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley and ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. I will focus on how the main outcasts in each book feel and how their emotions are presented and what effects this has on the reader. The novel Frankenstein is about a man Victor Frankenstein, who grew up in Geneva, Switzerland as an eldest son of a quite wealthy and happy family. His parents adopted an orphan Elizabeth, who later becomes his wife. Frankenstein wasn’t very popular although he had a good friend called Henry Cleval. At a young age he found the need to learn and at 19 he went to a University in†¦show more content†¦He then found refuge in the country side and stayed in a small hovel next to a house occupied by a blind man and his two children. Here he learnt to speak and read by reading the family’s books. Then longing for some companions he speaks to the blind man which he knows won’t judge him on appearance. He gets in a friendly conversation but then the man’s children come back and it all goes wrong. The monster filled with anger and rage then runs of into the forest Here he meets Frankenstein’s younger brother who he strangles, knowing that it will hurt Frankenstein. The monster has only has request from Frankenstein, that he makes him a wife so he won’t be lonely all his life. Frankenstein is moved by this and agrees, knowing that the monster will carry on killing if he doesn’t. Victor leaves for England with Henry Cleval to finish off his work, promising to Elizabeth that he will marry her on his return. Victor started to work on his second creation when he starts to get doubts and destroys his work while the monster is secretly watching. The monster then swears revenge and tells Victor that he will be with him on his wedding night. The next day the body of Henry Cleval is found and Victor is accused of murder. He sees the body and eventually gets cleared of