Friday, September 25, 2009
The price of gasoline is an emotive issue for the American public. The recent rise in gasoline prices over the past two years has alarmed the average American. Gasoline prices have tripled in just one year. The Great American Dream is fuelled by gasoline. The average American has always been used to cheap gasoline historically except for a few years in the 1970s. A hike in price of gasoline would make a severe dent in the income budget of Americans. Gasoline is at the very foundation of America’s industrial, technological and military complex. The entire American economy would come to a standstill. The reduction of supply with the war in Iraq and major demand for energy by China and India has caused the price hike. OPEC cartel has once again become powerful. Venezuela and Iran, both, are hostile to the U.S., and are members of this cartel. There has been a debate going on whether a gasoline tax should be imposed or not. There has also been an argument for putting a price cap on gasoline. The consumption of gasoline is scheduled to run out in 30 years time. There is also the major externality of pollution from consumption of gasoline and subsequently global warming. Hence, there has also been a discussion about raising fuel economy standards such that less gasoline is consumed per mile and thereby less exhaust.
1.
Not suitable for today’s dynamic and complex organizations. Viewed employees as tools rather than resources. Prescribed universal procedures that are not appropriate in some settings.
Scientific Management (Classical Management)
Frederick Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, Lillian Gilbreth.
Aimed at improving the performance of individual workers. Put an end to the practice of soldiering. Piecework pay system. Job specialization.
2.
Not suitable for today’s dynamic and complex organizations. Viewed employees as tools rather than resources. Prescribed universal procedures that are not appropriate in some settings.
Administrative Management (Classical Management)
Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick, Max Weber.
Focused on managing the total organization. Established managerial functions such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Concept of bureaucracy laid the foundation for contemporary organization theory.
3.
Many of their assertions were simplistic and provided inadequate descriptions of work behavior.
Behavioral Management
Perspective
Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo
Placed much more emphasis on individual attitudes and behaviors and on group processes and recognized the importance of behavioral processes in the workplace.
4.
Many of their assertions were simplistic and provided inadequate descriptions of work behavior.
Human Relations Movement
Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor.
Proposed that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace including social conditioning, group norms and interpersonal dynamics. A basic assumption of the human relations movement was that the manager’s concern for workers would lead to increased satisfaction, which in turn would improve performance.
5.
Relatively imprecise in its ability to predict the behavior of specific individuals.
Organizational Behavior
Human behavior in organizations is complex. It takes a holistic view of behavior and addresses individual, group and organization processes.
6.
Cannot fully explain or predict the behavior of people in organizations.
Quantitative Management Perspective
Applies quantitative techniques to management. It focuses on decision making, economic effectiveness, mathematical models and the use of computers.
7.
Models may require unrealistic or unfounded assumptions.
Management science
Focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models. Focuses on models, equations and similar representations of reality.
Not suitable for today’s dynamic and complex organizations. Viewed employees as tools rather than resources. Prescribed universal procedures that are not appropriate in some settings.
Scientific Management (Classical Management)
Frederick Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, Lillian Gilbreth.
Aimed at improving the performance of individual workers. Put an end to the practice of soldiering. Piecework pay system. Job specialization.
2.
Not suitable for today’s dynamic and complex organizations. Viewed employees as tools rather than resources. Prescribed universal procedures that are not appropriate in some settings.
Administrative Management (Classical Management)
Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick, Max Weber.
Focused on managing the total organization. Established managerial functions such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Concept of bureaucracy laid the foundation for contemporary organization theory.
3.
Many of their assertions were simplistic and provided inadequate descriptions of work behavior.
Behavioral Management
Perspective
Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo
Placed much more emphasis on individual attitudes and behaviors and on group processes and recognized the importance of behavioral processes in the workplace.
4.
Many of their assertions were simplistic and provided inadequate descriptions of work behavior.
Human Relations Movement
Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor.
Proposed that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace including social conditioning, group norms and interpersonal dynamics. A basic assumption of the human relations movement was that the manager’s concern for workers would lead to increased satisfaction, which in turn would improve performance.
5.
Relatively imprecise in its ability to predict the behavior of specific individuals.
Organizational Behavior
Human behavior in organizations is complex. It takes a holistic view of behavior and addresses individual, group and organization processes.
6.
Cannot fully explain or predict the behavior of people in organizations.
Quantitative Management Perspective
Applies quantitative techniques to management. It focuses on decision making, economic effectiveness, mathematical models and the use of computers.
7.
Models may require unrealistic or unfounded assumptions.
Management science
Focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models. Focuses on models, equations and similar representations of reality.
Theory of Comparative Advantage
Trade is carried out primarily for the exchange of goods and services. It takes place within the different regions of a country as well as between different countries. The trade within a nation’s confines is known as domestic trade. The trade conducted with other countries is foreign trade. It has been practiced for eons. It is a necessary economic activity, as every country is not endowed with all the resources to produce all the goods and services that it needs. It obtains its needs from other countries through exchange of goods and services that it produces with those it requires but which are produced by others.
Trade, whether taking place at an intra-country or inter-country level, is an economic instrument through which a province or country acquires specialization in the production of a commodity. Theories promoting trade have evolved over time. The theory of comparative advantage is a widely popular and accepted trade theory. However, it had its predecessors. The theory came into being as a result of the shortcomings of mercantilist and absolute advantage theories. Modern trade between countries is based on the principle of comparative advantage. The principle of comparative advantage is based on a comparison of relative prices of two commodities at home and a foreign country. It underscores specialization. Models of free trade are based on this principle. It determines the commodity composition of free trade.
The English economist David Ricardo gave the principle of comparative advantage in the nineteenth century. It is inversely stated as comparative cost. The principle of comparative advantage investigates the relative cost-price positions of two countries in two commodities. It utilizes the medium of exchange rate to compare the relative prices in two countries. The exchange rate is itself determined by the relative cost-price positions in the two countries.
The theory is a highly simplified model in economics. It advocates the promotion of trade. The theory is grounded in many assumptions. In this model there are only two countries. There are only two goods produced by both the countries. There is only one factor of production (input) namely labor. The value of the good is created solely by labor. Labor is perfectly mobile between the two goods industries domestically but on the other hand is perfectly immobile internationally between the two countries. The two goods produced by the two countries can move freely between countries and there are no trade restrictions. There is absence of transport costs and absence of other barriers to trade. Technology is assumed to remain constant in both countries.
The theory’s rationale is that in a two-country world where one common international factor of production in homogeneous labor is used to produce two identical goods in both countries, even if one country has absolute advantage in production of both goods, trade between the two countries must take place. This is based on the underpinning that for the wheels of trade to take place advantages have to be comparative or relative and not absolute.
Let us illustrate the theory lucidly through the medium of a tabular scheme. :
Scheme 1
1 man-day of labor
Wheat
Textiles
United States
60 bushels
20 yards
United Kingdom
20 bushels
10 yards
In this example United States has an absolute advantage over United Kingdom in production of both goods, wheat and textiles. However the degree of advantage differs in the two industries. In the wheat industry United States has a 3: 1 advantage over United Kingdom whereas in the textile industry United States has only a 2: 1 advantage over United Kingdom. Clearly United States has a greater degree of advantage or comparative (relative) advantage in the wheat industry. On the other hand United States has a less degree of advantage or comparative (relative) disadvantage in the textile industry.
The United Kingdom on the other hand has an absolute disadvantage in both the industries. However, the degree of disadvantage it has in the wheat industry is 3:1 whereas in the textile industry is 2:1. Clearly the degree of disadvantage is less in the textile industry. The United Kingdom has therefore a less degree of disadvantage or comparative (relative) advantage in the textile industry. On the other hand in the wheat industry it has a greater degree of disadvantage or comparative (relative) disadvantage.
Therefore United States, having comparative advantage in wheat should produce and export only wheat. On the other hand the United Kingdom having comparative advantage in textiles should only produce and export textiles. In this way the United States specializes in wheat while the United Kingdom specializes in textiles.
Specialization also increases the producer surplus in wheat but reduces it in textiles. Previously in autarky 2 man-days of labor resulted in 80 bushels of wheat and 30 yards of textiles combined in both countries. After trade 2 man-days of labor resulted in 120 bushels of wheat and 20 yards of textiles. Thus there is an increase in 40 bushels of wheat and a reduction in 10 yards of textiles.
Another way to state the principle of comparative advantage is through opportunity cost principle. One unit of textiles costs three units of wheat in the United States and two units of wheat in the United Kingdom. Therefore textiles are cheaper to produce in terms of wheat in the United Kingdom and United Kingdom consequently has a comparative advantage in textile production because production of textiles has a lower opportunity cost in United Kingdom than United States.
One unit of wheat costs one-third unit of textiles in the United States and one-half unit of textiles in the United Kingdom. Therefore wheat is cheaper to produce in terms of textiles in the United States and United States consequently has a comparative advantage in wheat production because production of wheat has a lower opportunity cost in United States than United Kingdom.
Each country specializes in the commodity that it can produce more cheaply (in terms of less sacrifice of production of other commodity) relative to the other country. It obtains the other commodity through trade.
The appropriate comparison for each country is between the opportunity cost of the commodity produced at home and the opportunity cost of the commodity when it is produced abroad. The country, which has a less opportunity cost in producing the commodity has a comparative advantage in the commodity and specializes in the production of the commodity. It obtains the other commodity through trade.
Trade is carried out primarily for the exchange of goods and services. It takes place within the different regions of a country as well as between different countries. The trade within a nation’s confines is known as domestic trade. The trade conducted with other countries is foreign trade. It has been practiced for eons. It is a necessary economic activity, as every country is not endowed with all the resources to produce all the goods and services that it needs. It obtains its needs from other countries through exchange of goods and services that it produces with those it requires but which are produced by others.
Trade, whether taking place at an intra-country or inter-country level, is an economic instrument through which a province or country acquires specialization in the production of a commodity. Theories promoting trade have evolved over time. The theory of comparative advantage is a widely popular and accepted trade theory. However, it had its predecessors. The theory came into being as a result of the shortcomings of mercantilist and absolute advantage theories. Modern trade between countries is based on the principle of comparative advantage. The principle of comparative advantage is based on a comparison of relative prices of two commodities at home and a foreign country. It underscores specialization. Models of free trade are based on this principle. It determines the commodity composition of free trade.
The English economist David Ricardo gave the principle of comparative advantage in the nineteenth century. It is inversely stated as comparative cost. The principle of comparative advantage investigates the relative cost-price positions of two countries in two commodities. It utilizes the medium of exchange rate to compare the relative prices in two countries. The exchange rate is itself determined by the relative cost-price positions in the two countries.
The theory is a highly simplified model in economics. It advocates the promotion of trade. The theory is grounded in many assumptions. In this model there are only two countries. There are only two goods produced by both the countries. There is only one factor of production (input) namely labor. The value of the good is created solely by labor. Labor is perfectly mobile between the two goods industries domestically but on the other hand is perfectly immobile internationally between the two countries. The two goods produced by the two countries can move freely between countries and there are no trade restrictions. There is absence of transport costs and absence of other barriers to trade. Technology is assumed to remain constant in both countries.
The theory’s rationale is that in a two-country world where one common international factor of production in homogeneous labor is used to produce two identical goods in both countries, even if one country has absolute advantage in production of both goods, trade between the two countries must take place. This is based on the underpinning that for the wheels of trade to take place advantages have to be comparative or relative and not absolute.
Let us illustrate the theory lucidly through the medium of a tabular scheme. :
Scheme 1
1 man-day of labor
Wheat
Textiles
United States
60 bushels
20 yards
United Kingdom
20 bushels
10 yards
In this example United States has an absolute advantage over United Kingdom in production of both goods, wheat and textiles. However the degree of advantage differs in the two industries. In the wheat industry United States has a 3: 1 advantage over United Kingdom whereas in the textile industry United States has only a 2: 1 advantage over United Kingdom. Clearly United States has a greater degree of advantage or comparative (relative) advantage in the wheat industry. On the other hand United States has a less degree of advantage or comparative (relative) disadvantage in the textile industry.
The United Kingdom on the other hand has an absolute disadvantage in both the industries. However, the degree of disadvantage it has in the wheat industry is 3:1 whereas in the textile industry is 2:1. Clearly the degree of disadvantage is less in the textile industry. The United Kingdom has therefore a less degree of disadvantage or comparative (relative) advantage in the textile industry. On the other hand in the wheat industry it has a greater degree of disadvantage or comparative (relative) disadvantage.
Therefore United States, having comparative advantage in wheat should produce and export only wheat. On the other hand the United Kingdom having comparative advantage in textiles should only produce and export textiles. In this way the United States specializes in wheat while the United Kingdom specializes in textiles.
Specialization also increases the producer surplus in wheat but reduces it in textiles. Previously in autarky 2 man-days of labor resulted in 80 bushels of wheat and 30 yards of textiles combined in both countries. After trade 2 man-days of labor resulted in 120 bushels of wheat and 20 yards of textiles. Thus there is an increase in 40 bushels of wheat and a reduction in 10 yards of textiles.
Another way to state the principle of comparative advantage is through opportunity cost principle. One unit of textiles costs three units of wheat in the United States and two units of wheat in the United Kingdom. Therefore textiles are cheaper to produce in terms of wheat in the United Kingdom and United Kingdom consequently has a comparative advantage in textile production because production of textiles has a lower opportunity cost in United Kingdom than United States.
One unit of wheat costs one-third unit of textiles in the United States and one-half unit of textiles in the United Kingdom. Therefore wheat is cheaper to produce in terms of textiles in the United States and United States consequently has a comparative advantage in wheat production because production of wheat has a lower opportunity cost in United States than United Kingdom.
Each country specializes in the commodity that it can produce more cheaply (in terms of less sacrifice of production of other commodity) relative to the other country. It obtains the other commodity through trade.
The appropriate comparison for each country is between the opportunity cost of the commodity produced at home and the opportunity cost of the commodity when it is produced abroad. The country, which has a less opportunity cost in producing the commodity has a comparative advantage in the commodity and specializes in the production of the commodity. It obtains the other commodity through trade.
Toll Brothers is one of the largest home construction firms in the United States. The different time frames for planning at Toll are long-range plans, intermediate plans and short-range plans. Its long-range plans are to expand the company beyond its current markets and products and to dominate the home building industry. Its other long-range plans are to grow at 15% to 20% each year. Developing new community housing concepts, entering new regions and keeping expenses low are the other long-range plans. Identifying growth communities is an intermediate plan. Other intermediate plans are looking at customer buying patterns and competitors’ designs to determine regional design preferences. Finding out about upgrades customers want is also an intermediate plan. Toll hires through sub-contractors and builds many of its own subcomponents such as roof trusses. This is an intermediate plan. Toll’s short-range plans are to comply with building codes, provide roads and parks, and integrate with emergency services and schools. Scouting for desirable properties is a short-range plan. Working with mayors and planning boards to design a development that will meet with community approval is a short-range plan. Finally, giving buyers a few home models to choose from is another short-range plan.
Middle level managers within Toll have the responsibility for identifying growth communities. Design teams look at customer buying patterns and competitors’ designs to determine regional design preferences. Designers also want to know which upgrades customers select. Toll has a team of buyers who scout for desirable properties. After purchase other managers work with mayors and planning boards to design a development that will meet with community approval. These managers are implementing operational goals. If a new design is needed it can be created in weeks by designers who tweak a floor plan and adapt the exterior to meet local tastes.
Today, Bob Toll’s vision is a company that could build any luxury home in any style in any place where there is opportunity. This vision translates into a set of strategic goals, which then inform Toll’s tactical and operational goals. The most striking element of Toll’s strategy is its national reach. An important set of strategic goals at Toll relates to growth. The company would like to grow by 15% to 20% each year. Other strategic goals relate to developing new community housing concepts, entering new regions and keeping expenses low. Tactical goals support these strategic goals. Middle-level managers within Toll have the responsibility for identifying growth communities. Design teams look at customer buying patterns and competitors’ designs to determine regional design preferences. These are the tactical goals. For the operational goals Toll has a team of buyers who scout for desirable properties. After purchase other managers work with mayors and planning boards to design a development that will meet with community approval. These managers are implementing operational goals.
Middle level managers within Toll have the responsibility for identifying growth communities. Design teams look at customer buying patterns and competitors’ designs to determine regional design preferences. Designers also want to know which upgrades customers select. Toll has a team of buyers who scout for desirable properties. After purchase other managers work with mayors and planning boards to design a development that will meet with community approval. These managers are implementing operational goals. If a new design is needed it can be created in weeks by designers who tweak a floor plan and adapt the exterior to meet local tastes.
Today, Bob Toll’s vision is a company that could build any luxury home in any style in any place where there is opportunity. This vision translates into a set of strategic goals, which then inform Toll’s tactical and operational goals. The most striking element of Toll’s strategy is its national reach. An important set of strategic goals at Toll relates to growth. The company would like to grow by 15% to 20% each year. Other strategic goals relate to developing new community housing concepts, entering new regions and keeping expenses low. Tactical goals support these strategic goals. Middle-level managers within Toll have the responsibility for identifying growth communities. Design teams look at customer buying patterns and competitors’ designs to determine regional design preferences. These are the tactical goals. For the operational goals Toll has a team of buyers who scout for desirable properties. After purchase other managers work with mayors and planning boards to design a development that will meet with community approval. These managers are implementing operational goals.
Globalization and culture
Culture refers to those aspects of a civilization that are not meant to satisfy material needs but aesthetic and intellectual needs. It encapsulates diverse features like language, literature, religion, customs, attitudes, music, food, clothing, ideas, movies, theater, books and sports. In a stagnant and autarkic world with cultural isolation the cultures of different ethnic groups would be static and immune from other cultural influences. However, in a world where the dynamic nature of capitalism and globalization has become a reality, no culture can remain immune from outside influence. This can be easily inferred when we look at some of the fastest growing categories of exports and imports in today’s world. For instance “weightless goods” such as Hollywood films, music, videos, etc., constitute one of the largest export categories from the US.
The argument that some critics of globalization make is that this form of cultural globalization is inevitably leading to a form of cultural imperialism, which is destroying the cultural ethos of developing countries. In countries like India this has led to major agitations and protest from die-hard detractors of globalization.
When we look at the world today, however, we see that this cultural globalization is not a one-way flow. Cultures are constantly evolving and being modified as they interact with each other. The movement of weightless goods like ideas, movies, music, TV programs, books, religious ideas, language, taste in food and clothing etc. is happening constantly and in different directions. Thus even developing countries like India export Bollywood films, Yoga, different forms of meditation techniques to the West. While critics of globalization fear that the globalization of culture will ultimately result in cultural imperialism, in reality globalization leads to a two-way cultural flow. It does not lead to cultural subjugation. It rather leads to cultural adaptation even in the midst of so - called Macdonaldization of culture. The two-way flow is amply demonstrated through the exportation of Bollywood, bhangra, Yoga and meditation to the West from India even while Western fashion, western music, western style of dressing spread all over India
At some level those who fear cultural onslaught from the developed world are perhaps underestimating the robustness of culture in the developing world. Culture develops over centuries and is therefore too deep rooted to be uprooted by a few decades of globalization. In fact globalization will ultimately result in an international cultural melting pot or a globalized potpourri of cultures leading to democratization of culture, enhancing people’s options and the evolution of richer cultures, which take the best from all worlds. Even in all the years of colonial rule Asian and African nations retained most of their cultural traditions, while absorbing elements of the colonizing culture as well. Culture cannot be supplanted easily. It will be enriched rather than fossilized.
Culture refers to those aspects of a civilization that are not meant to satisfy material needs but aesthetic and intellectual needs. It encapsulates diverse features like language, literature, religion, customs, attitudes, music, food, clothing, ideas, movies, theater, books and sports. In a stagnant and autarkic world with cultural isolation the cultures of different ethnic groups would be static and immune from other cultural influences. However, in a world where the dynamic nature of capitalism and globalization has become a reality, no culture can remain immune from outside influence. This can be easily inferred when we look at some of the fastest growing categories of exports and imports in today’s world. For instance “weightless goods” such as Hollywood films, music, videos, etc., constitute one of the largest export categories from the US.
The argument that some critics of globalization make is that this form of cultural globalization is inevitably leading to a form of cultural imperialism, which is destroying the cultural ethos of developing countries. In countries like India this has led to major agitations and protest from die-hard detractors of globalization.
When we look at the world today, however, we see that this cultural globalization is not a one-way flow. Cultures are constantly evolving and being modified as they interact with each other. The movement of weightless goods like ideas, movies, music, TV programs, books, religious ideas, language, taste in food and clothing etc. is happening constantly and in different directions. Thus even developing countries like India export Bollywood films, Yoga, different forms of meditation techniques to the West. While critics of globalization fear that the globalization of culture will ultimately result in cultural imperialism, in reality globalization leads to a two-way cultural flow. It does not lead to cultural subjugation. It rather leads to cultural adaptation even in the midst of so - called Macdonaldization of culture. The two-way flow is amply demonstrated through the exportation of Bollywood, bhangra, Yoga and meditation to the West from India even while Western fashion, western music, western style of dressing spread all over India
At some level those who fear cultural onslaught from the developed world are perhaps underestimating the robustness of culture in the developing world. Culture develops over centuries and is therefore too deep rooted to be uprooted by a few decades of globalization. In fact globalization will ultimately result in an international cultural melting pot or a globalized potpourri of cultures leading to democratization of culture, enhancing people’s options and the evolution of richer cultures, which take the best from all worlds. Even in all the years of colonial rule Asian and African nations retained most of their cultural traditions, while absorbing elements of the colonizing culture as well. Culture cannot be supplanted easily. It will be enriched rather than fossilized.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Colonization of the life world
Colonization of the Life World
1. Theoretical Significance and Implications
The conflict between instrumental or strategic rationality and communicative rationality has been a recurrent one as modern capitalist society has developed. What has intensified the debate and has impacted human society profoundly is the rise of organizations for capitalist production and bureaucracies for governance often resulting in complete subversion of communicative rationality and all norms inherent therein.
According to Jurgen Habermas of the Frankfurt School all social systems consist of two worlds: a life world and a systems world. The term life world refers to the whole horizon or backdrop of human existence represented by community values, culture, and norms and shared beliefs evolved through a process of interaction, communication and consensus building among people. The system world consists of the institutional structures, policies, rules, and management systems that become necessary initially to preserve and reproduce the life world as human society moves from primitive tribal existence to modern capitalist organization. As society evolves, with the deepening of capitalism, the system world (Weber’s capitalist and bureaucratic institutions) meant to protect and reproduce the life world values starts to influence, reshape and determine these very values. Habermas describes this as one of the fundamental malaises of the late capitalist world: namely the “colonization of the life world by the systems world” via system imperatives (Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon Press 1984). Thus even an area like school education in India is today highly commercialized being perceived as a profitable area in metro cities especially if the medium of instruction is English. While the life world determines how students interact with their teachers and amongst themselves, admission to the school is a highly competitive and expensive rat race among parents especially if the school turns out so called high performers. This pressure in turn makes the systems world of rules, policies and bureaucracy very important in this school as if it were a factory! (David Stader: ibid)
The system world values of profit and efficiency, backed by money and power (Habermas calls it the media of money and power) start subverting the life world values of truth, rightness and mutual cooperation. Democratic communication and communicative rationality is ‘colonized” by strategic or instrumental rationality where efficient attainment of ends is the highest form of rationality. “Distinctly human patterns of communication and interaction are under threat, progressively squeezed to the margins of communal life by the more instrumental or manipulative model of interactions appropriate to technology or to impersonal systems.” (Paul Lukeland: http://www.rosscurrents.org/lakeland2.htm ). The question that the situation begs is what happens when people are thrown from their life world spheres into system world organizations guided by solely instrumentalist norms seeking to steer them to their goals whether in terms of profit making or maintaining public order. As Habermas says “Persons are as members, (of such system world institutions which are legally legitimized) stripped of personality structures and neutralized into bearers of certain performances.” (Theory of Communicative Action: Habermas 1984) The challenge is in trying to disentangle and solve questions in which both rationales seem to be operative, by working between life world and system world imperatives. (Ron Rowe: ibid) According to Habermas, the process cannot be reversed completely as capitalist logic constantly reproduces system world imperatives. However human beings can partially restore communicative value oriented spaces through democratic action and mobilization and understanding and retrieving cultural values in the midst of imperatives of profit and power..
2. Role of Mass Media in Colonization of the Life World
This “Habermasian” struggle is best played out when it comes to the public sphere of mass media. In this struggle between strategic and communicative action, mass media plays a role that belies its expected performance as an institution of communicative action and consensus building. The increased utilization of media as vehicles of strategic action hides their natural function as vehicles for communicative action or action for understanding. As Habermas analyzes, media also itself gets colonized and subordinated by the strategic or functionalist reason of “market and administrative forces through exposure to capitalist system imperatives.” (Ron Rowe: Between System and Life World: Purdue University, 2003). Media messages and products are no longer determined by democratic consensus but by the motives of profit and accumulation of power by the few. Therefore mass media itself becomes an intrinsic part and an ally of the system world that colonizes the life world. The complete subjugation of electronic media by business interests propagating unbridled consumerism is something people have almost become blasé about. The manipulation of media by political interests to snuff out democratic dissent is also an all too frequent occurrence. While the Iraq war and post 9/11 are times when all this became too brazen, across countries and culture, this is an everyday reality and its blind acceptance an everyday casualty.
Culture Jamming and other Forms of Protest
Fortunately, however, media itself is one of those potential spaces, Habermas spoke about which can be freed up for democratic discourse and retrieval of communicative values. Journalistic ethics and integrity and public broadcasting have been known to rise up in challenge time and again. Interactive media, viz., cyberspace is a gift of technology that offers one of the best tools to resist the tyranny of technology and money power. Ron Rowe describes Napster and different list serves and discussion groups as amongst those Habermasian spaces for communicative action challenging the corporate world.
A particular, albeit somewhat extreme, form of protest is known as culture jamming. This is the act of using existing mass media and its communication medium and forms to question the images and messages of the same media. It is a form of activism, also called “ guerilla communication” which seeks to use the same airwaves, billboards, and even corporate logos to propagate an alternative message or ridicule or lampoon the corporate one. It is a sort of witty art form, which parodies adverts to convey a different value. An advertisement I had seen showing the American flag where the Stars have been replaced by corporate logos is a particularly telling example of this art form.
Personal Experiences: Examples of Resistance
For me as I reflect, the shift from life world imperatives to system world imperatives have happened, primarily in the sphere of education. As a child in a school in the Eastern part of India, I was taught on values of goodness, integrity, love, compassion and truth, which were constantly reinforced by my family at home. As I moved into adolescence, I changed into a high performance high school in a prosperous Delhi neighborhood and before I knew, the discourse in school was focusing on professional careers and competitive examinations. My school even boasted of an “Ability Section” which comprised top performers being groomed for professional excellence. The school had a management system, which was quite elaborate and distant from the students. All this affected interaction between students: I remember animated discussions amongst us regarding the number of cars our parents had and their respective models! The purpose of education as I was taught and brought up to understand, as a child, seems to have been completely lost somewhere along the way. I won’t say there are no islands of resistance. In that very school we began class singing the national anthem, our friendships have sustained physical distances and, sometimes, different levels of performance and differing stations in life. However, I am not sure if this can be ascribed to the lingering life world values of school life or to the strong life world values inculcated within our families. When I look at the content of college curriculum, whether in politics or economics, I find attempts to present a balanced worldview and to question the stranglehold of corporate America. I read two books called “If the Gods .Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates” and “ Another Turn of the Crank” both refreshingly questioning and iconoclastic. The answer to the Habermasian struggle is not to lose perspective and the way to do it is to develop our faculties of critical thinking and democratic values so that we don’t fall into the trap of blind acceptance.
References:
Jurgen Habermas: Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon Press 1984
Ron Rowe: Between System and Life World: Purdue University, 2003
Paul Lukeland: http://www.rosscurrents.org/lakeland2.htm
http://www.quinon.com/words
David Cox: Notes on Culture Jamming: http://www.sniggle.net
Notes on Habermas: http://www.ucalgary.ca
David Stader: Life World and System: http://www.ncacasi.org
1. Theoretical Significance and Implications
The conflict between instrumental or strategic rationality and communicative rationality has been a recurrent one as modern capitalist society has developed. What has intensified the debate and has impacted human society profoundly is the rise of organizations for capitalist production and bureaucracies for governance often resulting in complete subversion of communicative rationality and all norms inherent therein.
According to Jurgen Habermas of the Frankfurt School all social systems consist of two worlds: a life world and a systems world. The term life world refers to the whole horizon or backdrop of human existence represented by community values, culture, and norms and shared beliefs evolved through a process of interaction, communication and consensus building among people. The system world consists of the institutional structures, policies, rules, and management systems that become necessary initially to preserve and reproduce the life world as human society moves from primitive tribal existence to modern capitalist organization. As society evolves, with the deepening of capitalism, the system world (Weber’s capitalist and bureaucratic institutions) meant to protect and reproduce the life world values starts to influence, reshape and determine these very values. Habermas describes this as one of the fundamental malaises of the late capitalist world: namely the “colonization of the life world by the systems world” via system imperatives (Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon Press 1984). Thus even an area like school education in India is today highly commercialized being perceived as a profitable area in metro cities especially if the medium of instruction is English. While the life world determines how students interact with their teachers and amongst themselves, admission to the school is a highly competitive and expensive rat race among parents especially if the school turns out so called high performers. This pressure in turn makes the systems world of rules, policies and bureaucracy very important in this school as if it were a factory! (David Stader: ibid)
The system world values of profit and efficiency, backed by money and power (Habermas calls it the media of money and power) start subverting the life world values of truth, rightness and mutual cooperation. Democratic communication and communicative rationality is ‘colonized” by strategic or instrumental rationality where efficient attainment of ends is the highest form of rationality. “Distinctly human patterns of communication and interaction are under threat, progressively squeezed to the margins of communal life by the more instrumental or manipulative model of interactions appropriate to technology or to impersonal systems.” (Paul Lukeland: http://www.rosscurrents.org/lakeland2.htm ). The question that the situation begs is what happens when people are thrown from their life world spheres into system world organizations guided by solely instrumentalist norms seeking to steer them to their goals whether in terms of profit making or maintaining public order. As Habermas says “Persons are as members, (of such system world institutions which are legally legitimized) stripped of personality structures and neutralized into bearers of certain performances.” (Theory of Communicative Action: Habermas 1984) The challenge is in trying to disentangle and solve questions in which both rationales seem to be operative, by working between life world and system world imperatives. (Ron Rowe: ibid) According to Habermas, the process cannot be reversed completely as capitalist logic constantly reproduces system world imperatives. However human beings can partially restore communicative value oriented spaces through democratic action and mobilization and understanding and retrieving cultural values in the midst of imperatives of profit and power..
2. Role of Mass Media in Colonization of the Life World
This “Habermasian” struggle is best played out when it comes to the public sphere of mass media. In this struggle between strategic and communicative action, mass media plays a role that belies its expected performance as an institution of communicative action and consensus building. The increased utilization of media as vehicles of strategic action hides their natural function as vehicles for communicative action or action for understanding. As Habermas analyzes, media also itself gets colonized and subordinated by the strategic or functionalist reason of “market and administrative forces through exposure to capitalist system imperatives.” (Ron Rowe: Between System and Life World: Purdue University, 2003). Media messages and products are no longer determined by democratic consensus but by the motives of profit and accumulation of power by the few. Therefore mass media itself becomes an intrinsic part and an ally of the system world that colonizes the life world. The complete subjugation of electronic media by business interests propagating unbridled consumerism is something people have almost become blasé about. The manipulation of media by political interests to snuff out democratic dissent is also an all too frequent occurrence. While the Iraq war and post 9/11 are times when all this became too brazen, across countries and culture, this is an everyday reality and its blind acceptance an everyday casualty.
Culture Jamming and other Forms of Protest
Fortunately, however, media itself is one of those potential spaces, Habermas spoke about which can be freed up for democratic discourse and retrieval of communicative values. Journalistic ethics and integrity and public broadcasting have been known to rise up in challenge time and again. Interactive media, viz., cyberspace is a gift of technology that offers one of the best tools to resist the tyranny of technology and money power. Ron Rowe describes Napster and different list serves and discussion groups as amongst those Habermasian spaces for communicative action challenging the corporate world.
A particular, albeit somewhat extreme, form of protest is known as culture jamming. This is the act of using existing mass media and its communication medium and forms to question the images and messages of the same media. It is a form of activism, also called “ guerilla communication” which seeks to use the same airwaves, billboards, and even corporate logos to propagate an alternative message or ridicule or lampoon the corporate one. It is a sort of witty art form, which parodies adverts to convey a different value. An advertisement I had seen showing the American flag where the Stars have been replaced by corporate logos is a particularly telling example of this art form.
Personal Experiences: Examples of Resistance
For me as I reflect, the shift from life world imperatives to system world imperatives have happened, primarily in the sphere of education. As a child in a school in the Eastern part of India, I was taught on values of goodness, integrity, love, compassion and truth, which were constantly reinforced by my family at home. As I moved into adolescence, I changed into a high performance high school in a prosperous Delhi neighborhood and before I knew, the discourse in school was focusing on professional careers and competitive examinations. My school even boasted of an “Ability Section” which comprised top performers being groomed for professional excellence. The school had a management system, which was quite elaborate and distant from the students. All this affected interaction between students: I remember animated discussions amongst us regarding the number of cars our parents had and their respective models! The purpose of education as I was taught and brought up to understand, as a child, seems to have been completely lost somewhere along the way. I won’t say there are no islands of resistance. In that very school we began class singing the national anthem, our friendships have sustained physical distances and, sometimes, different levels of performance and differing stations in life. However, I am not sure if this can be ascribed to the lingering life world values of school life or to the strong life world values inculcated within our families. When I look at the content of college curriculum, whether in politics or economics, I find attempts to present a balanced worldview and to question the stranglehold of corporate America. I read two books called “If the Gods .Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates” and “ Another Turn of the Crank” both refreshingly questioning and iconoclastic. The answer to the Habermasian struggle is not to lose perspective and the way to do it is to develop our faculties of critical thinking and democratic values so that we don’t fall into the trap of blind acceptance.
References:
Jurgen Habermas: Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon Press 1984
Ron Rowe: Between System and Life World: Purdue University, 2003
Paul Lukeland: http://www.rosscurrents.org/lakeland2.htm
http://www.quinon.com/words
David Cox: Notes on Culture Jamming: http://www.sniggle.net
Notes on Habermas: http://www.ucalgary.ca
David Stader: Life World and System: http://www.ncacasi.org
Management Definitions
Global Environment
Domestic business – A business that acquires all of its resources and sells all of its products or services within a single country.
International business – A business that is based primarily in a single country but acquires some meaningful share of its resources or revenues from other countries.
Multinational business – A business that has a worldwide marketplace from which it buys raw materials, borrows money, and manufactures its products and to which it subsequently sells its products.
Global business – A business that transcends national boundaries and is not committed to a single home country.
Exporting – Making a product in the firm’s domestic marketplace and selling it in another country.
Importing – Bringing a good, service or capital into the home country from abroad.
Licensing – An arrangement whereby one company allows another company to use its brand name, trademark, technology, patent, copyright or other assets in exchange for a royalty based on sales.
Strategic alliance – A cooperative arrangement between two or more firms for mutual gain.
Joint venture – A special type of strategic alliance in which the partners share in the ownership of an operation on an equity basis.
Direct investment – When a firm headquartered in one country builds or purchases operating facilities or subsidiaries in a foreign country.
Maquiladoras – Light assembly plants built in northern Mexico close to the U.S. border that are given special tax breaks by the Mexican government.
Market economy – An economy based on the private ownership of business that allows market factors such as supply and demand to determine business strategy.
Market systems – Clusters of countries that engage in high levels of trade with one another.
NAFTA – An agreement made by the United States, Canada and Mexico to promote trade with one another.
EU – An agreement between several European countries to promote trade with one another.
Pacific Asia – An agreement between several countries in East and South-East Asia to promote trade.
GATT – A trade agreement intended to promote international trade by reducing trade barriers and making it easier for all nations to compete in international markets.
WTO – An organization which currently includes 140 member nations and 32 observer countries that requires members to open their markets to international trade and follow WTO rules.
Infrastructure – The schools, hospitals, power plants, railroads, highways, ports, communication systems, airfields and commercial distribution systems of a country.
Nationalized – Industries taken over by the government.
Tariff – A tax collected on goods shipped across national boundaries.
Quota – A limit on the number or value of goods that can be traded.
Export restraint agreements – Accords reached by governments in which countries voluntarily limit the volume or value of goods they export to or import from one another.
Economic community – A set of countries that agree to markedly reduce or eliminate trade barriers among member nations.
Social orientation – A person’s beliefs about the relative importance of the individual versus groups to which that person belongs.
Power orientation – The beliefs that people in a culture hold about the appropriateness of power and authority differences in hierarchies such as business organizations.
Uncertainty orientation – The feelings individuals have regarding uncertain and ambiguous situations.
Goal orientation – The manner in which people are motivated to work toward different kind of goals.
Time orientation – The extent to which members of a culture adopt a long-term versus a short-term outlook on work, life and other elements of society.
Domestic business – A business that acquires all of its resources and sells all of its products or services within a single country.
International business – A business that is based primarily in a single country but acquires some meaningful share of its resources or revenues from other countries.
Multinational business – A business that has a worldwide marketplace from which it buys raw materials, borrows money, and manufactures its products and to which it subsequently sells its products.
Global business – A business that transcends national boundaries and is not committed to a single home country.
Exporting – Making a product in the firm’s domestic marketplace and selling it in another country.
Importing – Bringing a good, service or capital into the home country from abroad.
Licensing – An arrangement whereby one company allows another company to use its brand name, trademark, technology, patent, copyright or other assets in exchange for a royalty based on sales.
Strategic alliance – A cooperative arrangement between two or more firms for mutual gain.
Joint venture – A special type of strategic alliance in which the partners share in the ownership of an operation on an equity basis.
Direct investment – When a firm headquartered in one country builds or purchases operating facilities or subsidiaries in a foreign country.
Maquiladoras – Light assembly plants built in northern Mexico close to the U.S. border that are given special tax breaks by the Mexican government.
Market economy – An economy based on the private ownership of business that allows market factors such as supply and demand to determine business strategy.
Market systems – Clusters of countries that engage in high levels of trade with one another.
NAFTA – An agreement made by the United States, Canada and Mexico to promote trade with one another.
EU – An agreement between several European countries to promote trade with one another.
Pacific Asia – An agreement between several countries in East and South-East Asia to promote trade.
GATT – A trade agreement intended to promote international trade by reducing trade barriers and making it easier for all nations to compete in international markets.
WTO – An organization which currently includes 140 member nations and 32 observer countries that requires members to open their markets to international trade and follow WTO rules.
Infrastructure – The schools, hospitals, power plants, railroads, highways, ports, communication systems, airfields and commercial distribution systems of a country.
Nationalized – Industries taken over by the government.
Tariff – A tax collected on goods shipped across national boundaries.
Quota – A limit on the number or value of goods that can be traded.
Export restraint agreements – Accords reached by governments in which countries voluntarily limit the volume or value of goods they export to or import from one another.
Economic community – A set of countries that agree to markedly reduce or eliminate trade barriers among member nations.
Social orientation – A person’s beliefs about the relative importance of the individual versus groups to which that person belongs.
Power orientation – The beliefs that people in a culture hold about the appropriateness of power and authority differences in hierarchies such as business organizations.
Uncertainty orientation – The feelings individuals have regarding uncertain and ambiguous situations.
Goal orientation – The manner in which people are motivated to work toward different kind of goals.
Time orientation – The extent to which members of a culture adopt a long-term versus a short-term outlook on work, life and other elements of society.
Partition of India: A Political Gamble Gone
The New York Times carried the news item that India and Pakistan had finally declared ceasefire after over 14 years of incessant cross border skirmishes and loss of many lives over the burning issue of Kashmir. The armistice has come about as a culmination of recent peace overtures being made by both countries. The welcome news however had two significant undertones. First given the volatile nature of India-Pakistan relations, the durability of the truce is anybody’s guess. The aura of apprehension and pessimism surrounding this current stoppage of hostilities emanates from the fact that even earlier ceasefires have failed to be sustainable. Secondly a not too subtle point and something more fundamental made by the newspaper was the fact that Kashmir was the only Muslim majority state in India begging the almost existential question as to whether Hindus and Muslims can co-habit together: a question which had been posed almost one century ago and answered through what had seemed the as the only political solution: the partition of India and creation of Pakistan. Subsequent history has however continued to give “dusty answers”.
In fact the communal violence in the sub continent in the twentieth century, which had presented such a question, persists even today. In fact the communalization of society was reinforced by the partition of India. It witnessed ghoulish communal riots. It intensified the communal divide in India and Pakistan and accelerated the communalization of society at a rabid pace in both countries. The debacle of the partition continues to haunt the polity and society of India and Pakistan. Many thought that the partition would solve the issue of communalism but instead of solving, it has heightened communal tensions.
There have been quite a few Hindu-Muslim riots in India since Independence. There were attacks on Muslims in some parts of India after the Partition. Since then till 1996 there have been 21,000 incidents of rioting in different parts of India. 16,000 people have lost their lives while over one hundred thousand people have been injured. The Muslims have borne the brunt in most riots in India. Such riots have resulted in persecution and mass killings of Hindus in Pakistan. Some of the most brutal Hindu-Muslim riots in India have taken place in Meerut, Bhagalpur, Calcutta, Mumbai and recently in Gujarat. Any Hindu-Muslim conflict in one nation has reverberations on the other nation. The Hindu minority in Pakistan and the Muslim minority in India have invariably been at the receiving end of retaliatory action by the majority community. The question as to whether the two communities can live together continues to haunt us.
In this context it is important to recall how the British colonial politics of divide and rule and the communal politics of the Muslim League combined with the harsh rhetoric of Hindu communal organizations continued to drive a wedge between communities in pre-independence India. It is necessary to remember that even after independence, the riots have been invariably the handiwork of communal forces within the country manifest in organizations like the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena. In some cases the Pakistani-sponsored terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others have incited almost all of the communal riots. Even in democratic India, unfortunately, since the 1990s, communal governments have replaced the secular governments at the center and the states in India.
In fact in a study conducted by Prof. Ashutosh Varshney only eight cities in India have been identified as the scene of a majority of riots proving the point that it is politics, which is at the root of this cancer. Another interesting aspect of the same study notes that riots are concentrated almost exclusively in cities. Villages are not affected by riots to that extent. Therefore although the post independence violence and communalism of the recent times across both sides of the border have revived the same existential debate about Hindus and Muslims living together it is politics and not any intrinsic difference between human beings that brought about and is continuing to deepen the fracture between the two communities. The communal divide is basically a urban phenomenon brought about by divisive politics, first practiced by the British and then perpetuated by the political class which emerged in the nineties sidelining the secular elements which had spearheaded the freedom movement. Millions and millions of Hindus and Muslims still live in amity in countless villages across the length and breadth of India. The issues they face are real ones: issues of hunger and malnutrition, unemployment, squalor, safe drinking water, health. What is necessary today is a transformation of the politics of the day so that it focuses on problems and concerns of the millions and not on divisive power play that communalism symbolizes.
It would be advisable to ban and outlaw all the Hindu communal organizations from participating in politics. All the schools and cultural institutions run by them must be metamorphosed into secular institutions through help provided by secular parties and non-governmental and civil society organizations. Local civic associations like trade unions, clubs and municipal associations must be nurtured in way that they can cut across religious lines, improve communication and defeat the machinations of vested political interests.
It must be remembered that in India, Muslims have been members of parliament, leaders of the armed forces and even the head of state. Many Muslims have distinguished themselves in the fields of art, literature, films as well as sports. This has been possible entirely because of the secular and democratic fabric of India. On the contrary, Pakistan is a theocratic military regime where Hindus neither participate in politics nor dare to vie for leadership positions. Clearly communalism in India is an aberration born of politics, not symptomatic of any irreconcilable difference amongst people and partition was not the answer.
The New York Times carried the news item that India and Pakistan had finally declared ceasefire after over 14 years of incessant cross border skirmishes and loss of many lives over the burning issue of Kashmir. The armistice has come about as a culmination of recent peace overtures being made by both countries. The welcome news however had two significant undertones. First given the volatile nature of India-Pakistan relations, the durability of the truce is anybody’s guess. The aura of apprehension and pessimism surrounding this current stoppage of hostilities emanates from the fact that even earlier ceasefires have failed to be sustainable. Secondly a not too subtle point and something more fundamental made by the newspaper was the fact that Kashmir was the only Muslim majority state in India begging the almost existential question as to whether Hindus and Muslims can co-habit together: a question which had been posed almost one century ago and answered through what had seemed the as the only political solution: the partition of India and creation of Pakistan. Subsequent history has however continued to give “dusty answers”.
In fact the communal violence in the sub continent in the twentieth century, which had presented such a question, persists even today. In fact the communalization of society was reinforced by the partition of India. It witnessed ghoulish communal riots. It intensified the communal divide in India and Pakistan and accelerated the communalization of society at a rabid pace in both countries. The debacle of the partition continues to haunt the polity and society of India and Pakistan. Many thought that the partition would solve the issue of communalism but instead of solving, it has heightened communal tensions.
There have been quite a few Hindu-Muslim riots in India since Independence. There were attacks on Muslims in some parts of India after the Partition. Since then till 1996 there have been 21,000 incidents of rioting in different parts of India. 16,000 people have lost their lives while over one hundred thousand people have been injured. The Muslims have borne the brunt in most riots in India. Such riots have resulted in persecution and mass killings of Hindus in Pakistan. Some of the most brutal Hindu-Muslim riots in India have taken place in Meerut, Bhagalpur, Calcutta, Mumbai and recently in Gujarat. Any Hindu-Muslim conflict in one nation has reverberations on the other nation. The Hindu minority in Pakistan and the Muslim minority in India have invariably been at the receiving end of retaliatory action by the majority community. The question as to whether the two communities can live together continues to haunt us.
In this context it is important to recall how the British colonial politics of divide and rule and the communal politics of the Muslim League combined with the harsh rhetoric of Hindu communal organizations continued to drive a wedge between communities in pre-independence India. It is necessary to remember that even after independence, the riots have been invariably the handiwork of communal forces within the country manifest in organizations like the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena. In some cases the Pakistani-sponsored terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others have incited almost all of the communal riots. Even in democratic India, unfortunately, since the 1990s, communal governments have replaced the secular governments at the center and the states in India.
In fact in a study conducted by Prof. Ashutosh Varshney only eight cities in India have been identified as the scene of a majority of riots proving the point that it is politics, which is at the root of this cancer. Another interesting aspect of the same study notes that riots are concentrated almost exclusively in cities. Villages are not affected by riots to that extent. Therefore although the post independence violence and communalism of the recent times across both sides of the border have revived the same existential debate about Hindus and Muslims living together it is politics and not any intrinsic difference between human beings that brought about and is continuing to deepen the fracture between the two communities. The communal divide is basically a urban phenomenon brought about by divisive politics, first practiced by the British and then perpetuated by the political class which emerged in the nineties sidelining the secular elements which had spearheaded the freedom movement. Millions and millions of Hindus and Muslims still live in amity in countless villages across the length and breadth of India. The issues they face are real ones: issues of hunger and malnutrition, unemployment, squalor, safe drinking water, health. What is necessary today is a transformation of the politics of the day so that it focuses on problems and concerns of the millions and not on divisive power play that communalism symbolizes.
It would be advisable to ban and outlaw all the Hindu communal organizations from participating in politics. All the schools and cultural institutions run by them must be metamorphosed into secular institutions through help provided by secular parties and non-governmental and civil society organizations. Local civic associations like trade unions, clubs and municipal associations must be nurtured in way that they can cut across religious lines, improve communication and defeat the machinations of vested political interests.
It must be remembered that in India, Muslims have been members of parliament, leaders of the armed forces and even the head of state. Many Muslims have distinguished themselves in the fields of art, literature, films as well as sports. This has been possible entirely because of the secular and democratic fabric of India. On the contrary, Pakistan is a theocratic military regime where Hindus neither participate in politics nor dare to vie for leadership positions. Clearly communalism in India is an aberration born of politics, not symptomatic of any irreconcilable difference amongst people and partition was not the answer.
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