The Firestone Tire Controversy

In May 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States issued a letter to the Ford Motor Co. and Firestone Inc. asking for information about the high incidence of tire failures on the Ford Explorer Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). During July, Ford analyzed the data on tire failures. The analysis revealed that Firestone Radial 15 inch ATX and ATX II tires produced in North America and Wilderness AT tires produced at Decatur, Illinois Plant had very high failure rates with the treads peeling off.When the tires failed, the vehicle often rolled over and killed the occupants. Firestone amid concerns over tread separation, accidents, injury and death announced a voluntary recall of all Radial ATX and ATX II and Wilderness AT tires. Around 6. 5 million tires were recalled. These tires were original equipment on certain Ford Explorer SUVs, Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Ranger pick up trucks and Mazda Navajo and B-series pick up trucks. The Firestone tire reca ll was perhaps the biggest auto safety crisis in the US history.NHTSA put the death figure in February 2001 at 174 which has risen from 101 deaths reported in September 2000. However, analysts felt that there were as many as 250 deaths and more than 3000 injuries associated with the defective tires. Most of the deaths occurred in accidents involving the Ford Explorer and the victims and their families filed hundreds of lawsuits. In May 2001, Firestone announced that it was severing its ties with Ford and alleged that the problems in the Ford Explorer caused 174 deaths.Firestone alleged that Ford was trying to divert attention from the problems with Explorer. Ford and Firestone seemed to have known about the flaws in the tires for almost a year prior to the recall but it wasn't until NHTSA launched a preliminary investigation that Firestone announced a voluntary recall. Questions were raised about how Ford and Firestone responded to the first evidence of tire problems. Ford officials said that the issue first surfaced in Saudi Arabia, where drivers were prone to deflate their tires for better traction while driving in the desert sand.When they returned to hard pavement, they failed to reinflate the tires and the combination of low pressure and extreme climate led to tire disintegration. Ford replaced the tires on some 45,000 vehicles in the Middle East and in several other countries with extreme temperatures. NHTSA officials felt that Explorers were too heavy for the 15-inch tires. However, there was no definitive evidence to indicate that Ford's design specification for Explorer's tires was to blame.A lawyer representing some of the victims said, â€Å"There are a lot of smoke and mirrors going on, Ford can say it's Firestone's fault, and Firestone can say it's Ford's fault. â€Å"5 John Lampe, Executive vice president, Firestone, said that Firestone would replace any tires found to be unsafe. Susan Sizemore, public relations manager at Bridgestone's US head quarters in Nashville said, â€Å"This is not a recall. It's a customer satisfaction initiative. If necessary, we are replacing those tires with either our tires or a competitor's. Firestone alleged that Ford Explorer without Firestone tires were still experiencing rollover problems. Officials conceded that some of the Firestone tires involved in the recall were apparently world class tires and did not appear to have safety problems but said the tires needed to be included in the recall because of loss of customer confidence in the Firestone tires. The committee investigating the case after hearing from both sides said that there was a need for further analysis by an independent source such as NHTSA about both the Explorer and the tires.In 2001, Firestone announced that it would shut down one of its US plants, which could be its Decatur, Illinois, plant by no later than December 31, 2001. This would eliminate some 1, 500 jobs. Bridgestone recorded a net loss of $ 250. 3 million for the first half of 2001 because of the tire recall. In the first half of 2000, Bridgestone recorded a net profit of 18. 90 billion yen. An extraordinary loss of $ 570 million taken by Firestone in June 2001 to pay lawsuits and clear up other costs related to the tire recall was the main reason behind the loss.Company sourced said that they would try to revive their North American operations by shifting focus to the Bridgestone brand. Shigeo Watanabe, president of Bridgestone said, â€Å"I don't think the Firestone brand will disappear, but the Bridgestone brand will grow. † The recall of 6. 5 million Firestone tires on the Ford Explorer in August 2000 cost Ford about $ 500 million. Explorer sales had plunged 21% in 2001. The company's earnings were expected to sink by 65% in 2001. Ford's share of the US automobile market had fallen by 1. 7 percentage points in 2001 to 23. 1%.Officials at Ford felt that the future of Ford (Explorer) would depend on how customers responded to F ord's reaction to the crisis. One official said, â€Å"My message to consumers is, if you don't think we have behaved in the way the world's leading consumer company should behave, then tell us, because we want to earn that loyalty and respect. â€Å"7 Commenting on Ford's future relationship with Firestone, that official said, â€Å"Given the importance of the relationship between tires and vehicle safety, and the importance of brand perception, how can you put Firestone tires on the new Explorer that comes out next year? â€Å"

Finance in International Markets Essay

Describe the tradeoffs that are involved for each method (such as exporting, direct foreign investment, etc. ) that Snyder could use to achieve its goal. ANSWER: Snyder can export the clubs, but the transportation expenses may be high. If could establish a subsidiary in Brazil to produce and sell the clubs, but this may require a large investment of funds. It could use licensing, in which it specifies to a Brazilian firm how to produce the clubs. In this way, it does not have to establish its own subsidiary there. b. Which method would you recommend for this firm? Justify your recommendation. ANSWER: If the amount of golf clubs to be sold in Brazil is small, it may decide to export. However, if the expected sales level is high, it may benefit from licensing. If it is confident that the expected sales level will remain high, it may be willing to establish a subsidiary. The wages are lower in Brazil, and the large investment needed to establish a subsidiary may be worthwhile. 15. Impact of Political Risk. Explain why political risk may discourage international business. Some foreign projects would have been feasible if there was no political risk, but will not be feasible because of political risk. 17. International Joint Venture. Anheuser-Busch, the producer of Budweiser and other beers, has recently expanded into Japan by engaging in a joint venture with Kirin Brewery, the largest brewery in Japan. The joint venture enables Anheuser-Busch to have its beer distributed through Kirin’s distribution channels in Japan. In addition, it can utilize Kirin’s facilities to produce beer that will be sold locally. In return, Anheuser-Busch provides information about the American beer market to Kirin. . Explain how the joint venture can enable Anheuser-Busch to achieve its objective of maximizing shareholder wealth. ANSWER: The joint venture creates a way for Anheuser-Busch to distribute Budweiser throughout Japan. It enables Anheuser-Busch to penetrate the Japanese market without requiring a substantial investment in Japan. b. Explain how the jo int venture can limit the risk of the international business. ANSWER: The joint venture has limited risk because Anheuser-Busch does not need to establish its own distribution network in Japan. Thus, Anheuser-Busch may be able to use a smaller investment for the international business, and there is a higher probability that the international business will be successful. c. Many international joint ventures are intended to circumvent barriers that normally prevent foreign competition. What barrier in Japan is Anheuser-Busch circumventing as a result of the joint venture? What barrier in the United States is Kirin circumventing as a result of the joint venture? ANSWER: Anheuser-Busch is able to benefit from Kirin’s distribution system in Japan, which would not normally be so accessible. Kirin is able to learn more about how Anheuser-Busch expanded its product across numerous countries, and therefore breaks through an â€Å"information† barrier. d. Explain how Anheuser-Busch could lose some of its market share in countries outside Japan as a result of this particular joint venture. ANSWER: Anheuser-Busch could lose some of its market share to Kirin as a result of explaining its worldwide expansion strategies to Kirin. However, it appears that Anheuser-Busch expects the potential benefits of the joint venture to outweigh any potential adverse effects.

Market Structures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Market Structures - Essay Example There are many firms. Each firm owns a percentage of the total market share. Furthermore, products are differentiated in pricing strategies, style, brand name, advertisement, and packaging. Here are no barriers to entry and exit. Monopoly There is a single seller such that the industry and firm are synonymous. Monopoly markets have unique services and products that do not have close substitutes. The firm in a monopoly market is the price maker and has considerable control over the price as it can control the supply of the product. Monopoly markets have barriers to entry and exit. Oligopoly There few large firms with each firm considerate of their rivals’ decisions and reactions to its decisions regarding output, advertising, and prices. Products in an oligopoly market are differentiated. There are barriers to entry in this market due to the requirement of huge capital investments and economies of scales. Demand Perfect Competition Individual firms in a perfectly competitive ma rket view their demand as perfectly elastic that is a horizontal line at the market price level. However, the industry demand curve is not perfectly elastic. The demand curve is perfectly elastic for individual firms because they are price takers regardless of the quantities they produce. This explains why the demand curve for firms in a competitive market is a horizontal line at the market price. Monopolistic The demand curve of firms in a monopolistic market is highly elastic, but not perfectly elastic.

Design a Marketing Plan for a Tourist Attraction Essay

Design a Marketing Plan for a Tourist Attraction - Essay Example Many departments are there in the museum which showcases the collections from different nations. This museum is a public body. The expenses of the museum are sponsored by Department of Media, Culture, and Sports of UK. A huge number of visitors daily comes in British Museum. The accesses of this museum are from Goodge Street stations and Russell Square. British Museum is considered as one of the popular places in attracting tourists. The main purpose of this Museum is to provide knowledge to the visitors about different collections. This knowledge will help the visitors to understand many things about history and present environment. All the collections are well presented in the museum which attracts a large number of tourist from different places of the world. The British Museum also holds many educational programs and exhibitions. Learning facilities are provided by the museum to common people regarding different time, culture, and places. The museum is continuously improving its m anagement qualities for providing a better experience to the visitors. It is enhancing many facilities for encouraging curatorial endeavor. The museum has a wide range of target visitors. Students, tourists, professional people come to visit the museum. The main target market of this museum is mainly London. But people from all over the world come to the museum. To encourage the visitor's museum do not charge entry fees from the people. British Museum conducts different workshops for which it charges entry fees from the people. The ticket price of different workshops varies. The British Museum is perceived as a center of learning by many people. The visitors think that the museum has showcased all of its collecting in a very interesting and unique way. The museum has utilized its area effectively by blending history, technology, and modern culture.  

Describe the structures and regulatory mechanisms essential for both Essay

Describe the structures and regulatory mechanisms essential for both quiet and heavy breathing - Essay Example As diaphragm contracts and moves down, the chest cavity is enlarged reducing lung pressure. Air moves in to equalize the pressure. When the diaphragm relaxes, it moves back to its original position pushing air out due to the increased pressure in the chest cavity. In heavy breathing, many other muscles are involved. During the inspiration process, the lower ribs are raised up and out by the external intercostal muscles. The process increases lateral as well as anterposterior proportions of the thorax. Sternomastoids and the scalene muscles also aid the process by helping raise and push the sternum and the upper ribs2. This creates a pressure gradient which draws air into the alveoli. Unlike quiet expiration which is predominantly passive, heavy expiration requires the functioning of several muscles. The most important muscles here are the ones making up the abdominal wall. They include the internal and external obliques and the rectus abdominus. The transverse abdominus also plays a role in the process. These abdominal wall muscles raise the intra- abdominal pressure by contracting3. It results in the pushing up of the diagram. The upward movement raises the pleural and alveolar pressure thus driving air out. The ribs are also pushed down and in during heavy expiration by the internal intercostals. The breathing rate is controlled by the respiratory center in the brainstem. It is responsible for sending signals to the various respiratory muscles thus dictating when to breathe. The spinal cord is directed to maintain breathing by the medulla4. A part of the brain called the pons, located near the medulla, is key in smoothening the breathing and respiration pattern. Synchronization occurs between the involved neural centers and the muscle movement in order to ensure smooth breathing. The control occurs automatically and continuously. One

Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Technology - Essay Example Nevertheless, at the time most people used the commercial phones such as telephones to communicate especially in businesses and other related matters. Such kind of communication was extremely expensive and only a small percentage of businesses could afford. Consequently, those who were able to purchase or own these kinds of phones used them with extreme caution and for very important reasons. Conversely, private entities such as homes used the phones for communication although this was only present to those who could afford such kind of luxury at the time (Miller & Horst, 2006). Eventually, mobile phones were discovered by an inventor known as Martin Cooper in 1973 while he worked as a senior development engineer in the mobile equipment group. According to Cooper, the invention of a portable phone was driven by the necessity he saw from people to communicate in a more private manner as compared to the then phone communication where privacy was not upheld. Furthermore, Cooper argued that apart from the privacy issue, people needed phones that they would use anytime and anywhere without necessarily having to be connected to immobile places such as office desks, homes or even persons who traded with phones for communication (Miller & Horst, 2006). In this regard, Ling (2004) articulates that the use of mobile phones is highest across the world. According to a recent research, there are approximately six billion mobile subscribers out of the seven billion people population across the world. Moreover, more people continue to embrace the information and communication technology by becoming mobile subscribers. For instance, Asia is argued to be a region with the highest number of mobile subscribers across the globe. Therefore, importances of mobile phones are numerous and continue to increase by the day. Firstly, mobile phones are being used in modern society to keep in touchà © with

Gendered art critique - Midterm essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Gendered art critique - Midterm - Essay Example In this piece of art, the artistic talks about the Chibinda Ilunga sculpture, being a composition of the Chokwe people of Central Africa. The sculpture is a depiction of a legendary leader that was a masterful hunter, a successful king, and one that was a descendant of a deity. Gender refers to a person’s sense of self and inner identity, unlike sex that biologically defines feminism or masculinity of an individual. Gender cuts across all the social aspects of life including art. The kind of male-dominated culture that existed before and now its effect remains in various issues in the current society. In arts, many artists have tried to explore, reinforce and challenge the gender distinctions promoted by the traditions. Many artists through presenting their personal experiences on historical and political agenda encourage us to question the assumptions commonly made about gender. The differences in gender considerations manifest in various artworks done by various artists. The artworks depicted men as always possessing the powerful body and great leadership skills. From a different perspective, the artworks depict females as passive, eroticized subjects meant for the viewer’s pleasure. For example by looking at Chibinda Ilunga sculpture below , it shows a reflection of a powerful person as he wears a leadership hat, holding a stick, and a horn. The male nude is one of the artworks one will hardly find in the general art exhibitions. Most of the artists lack the urge of using male nudes as a subject matter to their art productions. The male nude is an artwork written and drawn by the artist and author Kyra Belan. It follows her interest in the exploration of the male nude in the field of art. The understanding of freedom of art fuels my analysis of Belan’s work. Belan narrates about her challenges in exhibiting her images of the male nude in the public and the associated criticism. The display of male nude

Reflection of the Vision Module Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflection of the Vision Module - Essay Example However, I soon realized that creativity is a funny thing. What sounds wildly creative and imaginative to one person sounds like a mess of silliness to another. Our first mistake as a group was not sorting out our differences from the beginning as to the very nature of the project itself. One idea that was pitched was a creative use of technology that involved newspaper headlines that were projected on a screen. This was my idea. Others in the group wanted a more traditional presentation of ideas through a featured lecturer set-up. Another faction of the group wanted to create a fully realized dramatic presentation complete with singing, poetry and props. We spent much energy and time trying to accommodate everyone’s ideas. There was a lot of conflict at this stage of the project, but that is to be expected. I kept thinking after each meeting that we would soon find something to do that everyone would be happy with, but after a while, I gave up hope. One of the biggest problem s was the fact that several group members refused to do anything that was not part of their original idea. Anything dramatic or any sort of performance was out of the question for these group members. We could not resolve this rift in the group, so we did something that in the end would prove to be unwise. We moved on with a hybrid of ideas that excluded these members. Basically, through frustration, the majority of the group sent a â€Å"like it or lump it† message to the minority that objected to the performance. This caused considerable problems. One is the fact that the few members that were marginalized failed to keep commitments and did not contribute much work towards the final product. This is understandable, but it really harmed our final product. We decided to write a dramatic performance that included technology I was in charge of utilizing. Just before the performance, some members wanted to make last minute changes to the script. There was a falling out among mem bers. Two members of the group sabotaged the performance by drawing the curtain and hiding behind it. Needless to say, the message of our presentation was somewhat lost among the chaos. Reflecting on this group learning activity really has been a thought provoking exercise. It has been a great opportunity to try something new, reflect on the possible mistakes and note how they could be avoided in the future. Themes that came up continually when I was thinking about this experience include group dynamics, group decision making, leadership styles and styles of communication. Reading about how groups form and share ideas has really helped me to better understand how this group learning activity could have been improved. Actually, the learning activity was great, it was the final product that needed to be improved. The idea that groups go through phases such as storming, norming and performing is interesting. Understanding that there will be differences of opinions in a group is powerfu l information that I do not think all of the members of our group understood. Looking back on the experience, too many people took criticism and critique personally, causing the group to stall in the storming phase. We never really established the norms of how the group should work. As a result, the person or people with the stormiest personalities got their way while the soft-spoken members were pushed to the side. Better resolution of the first phase of team formation would have led to a better end

Project Manager to develop a project plan for 4. A fund raising event Assignment

Project Manager to develop a project plan for 4. A fund raising event in Singapore for a charity organization - Assignment Example The scope of this project is to raise funds to these charity organizations. So far we have raised a total of five hundred thousand US dollars ant the estimated cost of constructing the accommodation house is one million US dollar. The money comes from grants from the governments and organizations small business and individuals (Murthy & Mohle, 2001, pp. 123-189). Moreover, public members contributes funds via reaching out to the individual members of the public either through house to house visits; soliciting in streets; an appeal made through the telephone or the media such as the Internet and newspapers; appeal letters by post; or approaching potential donors with a formal proposal. Fundraising have organized within community places. The technical requirements for this project includes expertise in building and construction , quantity surveyors, financial professional accountants who will give how these funds are going to be used. Fundraising will entail putting up a complete accommodation house with associated furniture, beddings but excluding provision of services by the mother organization. For fund-raising appeal to door-to-door assortment or lobbying within the public homes, and Street Gathering Permit ought to be attained from corresponding Police (Murthy & Mohle, 2001, pp. 123-189). A license is never required if it is a private collection that is confined to friends or relatives, appeals made through the telephone or the media such as the Internet and newspapers, appeal letters by post or approaching individual donors. There exist particular permits an individual ought to apply for the pertinent organizations in case an individual is undertaking a fund collection event within the public premises. For any assembly comprising five individuals or more within any public premise to broadcast a basis and campaign, a manager require to apply for the permit from the Singapore

Symbolic Interactionism Essay Example for Free

Symbolic Interactionism Essay Living in the modern feverish world with its unprecedented level of change which is generating new developments in social, political, cultural, technological, and other spheres of our life, one may easily become engulfed by the dynamics of our social environment but remain ignorant of the actual mechanisms and hidden driving forces behind social processes. In their turn, various branches of social science have never abandoned attempts to establish and elaborate proper accounts that would explain how societies function, and what laws govern them. This ambitious task is on one hand made more difficult by the mentioned ever accelerating dynamics of our modern social environment, as the rapid pace of changes produces new phenomena that social theories must accommodate or be amended. On the other hand, the modern dynamic world serves as a kind of a laboratory that can test the validity of some fundamental and influential theoretical perspectives. One such major school of sociology is symbolic interactionism, the theoretical perspective which suggests that attention to the subjective aspects of social relationships is necessary to understand that people are pragmatic players who have to correlate their actions with behaviour of other people, and that such adjustment is done through assignation to our actions, actions of other people, and even to ourselves of symbolic meaning that influences not only our behaviour and attitudes but existing social structures as well (Gingrich, 2000). However, despite the firm place that this perspective holds in the field of social sciences, it has been suggested that explanations that symbolic interactionism gives for the influence of social structures on behaviour and attitudes are unconvincing. In this regard, let us take a closer look at the basic postulates of symbolic interactionism, and try to find out whether it indeed is incapable of proving itself out. For this purpose we should establish in what ways social structures can influence our behaviour and attitudes from the point of view of symbolic interactionism, and then critically examine whether symbolic interactionist’s explanations are always adequate. Symbolic interactionism has a long history of development that can be traced to the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), and to the American scholar George H. Mead (1863-1931). Both of them accentuated the importance of pragmatism as the factor that influences social processes, and of subjective meanings ascribed to social processes and human behaviour. In 1902 Charles Cooley (1864-1929) detailed the way people tend to perceive themselves, and introduced the concept of the looking glass self under which people construct self-images as if through eyes of others. In 1934 George H. Mead in frames of his investigation of deviance proposed a theory that was focused on processes of differentiation of the conventional and denounced behaviour. One of the important conclusions of Mead was that our self-perception is always placed in the larger social context, and that the self has to be treated as the product of processing of social interactions and symbols by an individual mind (Denzin, 1992, pp.2-21). In fact, the further studies of deviance greatly contributed to the development of symbolic interactionism. For example, another influential social theorist Howard Becker (born 1928) also elaborated the view of deviance as of not merely some type of behaviour, but as of a product of social interaction. Becker criticised theories of deviance that conformed to the commonly accepted values, and pointed out that it was not that crucial to examine concrete individual deviant actions because deviance is only a behaviour that breaks rules and leads to the attachment of labels by opinions of the majority (Becker, 1997). Finally, the very term symbolic interactionism was introduced by Herbert Blumer (1900-1987), who also formulated one of leading versions of this perspective (Gingrich, 2000). In general terms, symbolic interactionists are devoted to microsociology and mostly explore interpersonal everyday interaction. The symbolic interactionist perspective is concerned with the task to understand how people behave individually, and how they influence one another in the social environment. Naturally, for this perspective macro elements of society like government and the economy are not interesting. For interactionists, their attention to the interaction of individuals and groups is the tool to obtain new useful perspectives, to confirm or disprove expectations, and to define the boundaries of that pertaining to an individual and to a group. Simply put, this sociological perspective, in contrast to macro perspectives, analyses societies from bottom up, as for it society emerges out of interaction between individuals and small groups, which makes society inherently dynamic and constantly changing. Thus, for the interactionist perspective it is constant change, instead of fixed patterns, that defines the true nature of society, and these are acting people who constitute the true social basis. All other formations present in societies are simply human creations that emerge out of the mentioned interaction. What adds dynamics to this perspective is the ensuing conclusion that society is actually permanently being re-created, which makes symbolic interactionist perspective indeterministic. In many cases interaction that is interesting for symbolic interactionists is occurring in the so-called reference groups – various professional organisations, like for example doctors or teachers, groups based on friendship, groups united by education, groups formed within communities we live in, etc. While some groups are more cohesive, and others do not last long, dynamics and change that emerge when people communicate is what is common between them. When taken together, such reference groups represent society. In this connection, a branch of symbolic interactionism termed ethnomethodology raises a relevant question of how it is possible that interaction between people, who do not always have a complete understanding of each other and who have different world views, can produce what is seen as a social order. Harold Garfinkel highlighted problems that ethnomethodology deals with by conducting series of the so-called breaching experiments, when students, among other things, were for instance trying to essentially prevent the possibility of maintenance of common conversations as they refused to accept as fact that they could be sure that they understood what their conversational partners were saying (Garfinkel, 1985, pp.35-75). This demonstrates that what is normally viewed as a routine social procedure of communication is based on sets of social instructions that govern our behaviour, and that violation of such rules may break social order and prevent meaningful interaction between people. Considering the interest of symbolic interactionists in immediate communication, in their investigations they favour the methodology of participant observation instead of traditional sociological surveys. They believe that to properly comprehend actions of people and of social situations it is necessary to get immersed as much as possible in lives of subjects of studies. On ground of what we have observed, it is not surprising then that the notion of symbolic interaction holds a very important place within the field of social sciences because it draws our attention to the fact that the interaction between people and groups takes place via symbols and symbolic representations of social reality. In fact, what forms the basis of symbolic interactionism is the concept of symbol. In this case symbol can be defined as something that can properly represent some other element of reality. In this way, symbolic interactionist perspective introduces into the social life a set of widely spread conventional traditions and customs, and thus deals not only with the immediate interaction between people and groups, but at the same time studies common meanings that people instill in society as they interact. Therefore, one of the key features of symbolic interactionism is its interpretation of social structures, which in the general sense can be defined as social formations and groups that stand in a certain relation to each other, as growing out of the symbolic perception of reality by human beings. The importance of this quality of human interaction is hard to overestimate, as symbolic part of social life often substitutes reality, as exemplified by an observation of W. I. Thomas that if people define situations as real, then consequences of those situations are real (Denzin, 1992, pp.16,18). And as Erving Goffman (1922-1982) put it, there can be no ultimate truth but only its interpretations. Goffman also viewed humans as actors, thus turning the adoption of social roles into a principal means of symbolic interaction between people that enables us to share alternative perspectives and understand how our actions might be construed by other actors in our field of communication. This justifies Goffman`s view of society as an inhomogeneous theatre-like formation in which we have to behave differently in different situations, so that there is no one grand context that society is placed in, but a lot of specific contexts (Goffman, 2004, pp.238-252). Now, I believe that our above considerations should somewhat change our perception of possible accusations of symbolic interactionism in its inability to provide a convincing explanation of the influence of social structures on behaviour and attitudes. Indeed, as long as we agree that it is the propensity of human beings to attachment of widely accepted symbolic meanings not only to material object but as well to patterns of social behaviour that underlies social structures which are being constantly recreated from bottom up, then symbolic interactionism is clearly a perspective that seems to confirm on the micro level the existence of inseparable link between social structures and behaviour of people. In fact, it places actions of human agents prior to formation of social structures, and is mostly focused on the influence of the immediate interaction between people on larger social formations that emerge from it. Thus, this perspective tips the scale of macro-micro opposition in soc ial sciences towards the micro sociological methodologies. However, if we agree with Goffman`s comparison of society with a theatre, we should also not forget that as there is something behind the scene there equally is a larger context behind symbolic interaction between people. So, symbolic interactionism may be rightfully accused in overemphasising subjective factor, which deprives this perspective of the traditional methodological strictness of social sciences. Moreover, the ascription of pragmatic, and hence rational, qualities to human actors by symbolic interactionism cannot fully interpret new developments that open possibilities for conflicts. For instance, culture shocks that happen in the modern globalised world demonstrate that there are incompatible elements of social and cultural structures symbolically transmitted by each participant of intercultural communication that interfere into the face-to-face communication between people and shape its patterns, but which can be rationally modified by communicating pragmatic agents only to a limited degree. This observation may be construed as demanding the return of social studies to macrosociological theories as in this case the problem is not only to explain how social structures are re-created in symbolic interaction, but what types of symbols and social and cultural structures that correspond to them interacting agents should make sense of in the first place to be able to interact effectively at all (Ward, 2001, pp.61-63), which commands the reversal of the direction of symbolic interactionism`s research from bottom up. Still, I suppose that even though the doubts about the persuasiveness of symbolic interactionism`s explanation cannot be completely disproved, this perspective is very effective within its realm of microsociological studies, so all the difficulties that symbolic interactionism experiences may be attributed to the difficulties in bridging the conceptual gap between micro and macro views of society. Finally, coming back to the mentioned dynamics of social environment that has become the hallmark of modernity, the attention that symbolic interactionism pays to change as an inevitable and natural consequence of interaction between agents within societies, in any case makes this perspective especially urgent for our better understanding of the complex social world we live in. Sources Becker, H., S., (1997), Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, Free Press Blumer, H., (1986). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method, University of California Press Denzin, N., K., (1992), Symbolic Interactionism and Cultural Studies: The Politics of Interpretation, Blackwell Publishers Garfinkel, H., (1985), Studies in Ethnomethodology, Polity Press Gingrich, P., (2000), â€Å"Symbolic Interactionism†, University of Regina Department of Sociology and Social Studies, viewed 11 May, 2006, http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/f10 0.htm. Goffman, E., (2004), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Gardners Books Ward, C., (2001), Psychology of Culture Shock, Routledge

Should Turkey be allowed to join the European Union?

Should Turkey be allowed to join the European Union? Executive Summary The membership of Turkey is one of the most controversial external relations issues of the European Union (EU).   Turkey is an important trading partner for the EU and provides many economic advantages to the union.   Additionally, it has a strategic location, allowing it to play an important regional and foreign policy role.   However, there are issues related to Turkey’s accession, such as large migration flows to more economically developed EU-15 countries as well as a substandard human rights situation within the country (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 751).   Overall, this policy note recommends that Turkey should be allowed to join the EU on the basis of EU economic development and foreign policy advantages.   Despite the issues related to accession of Turkey into the EU, this paper argues that EU-membership will work as a catalyst for Turkish institutional reforms. Introduction Turkish entry into the European Union is a highly contentious issue.   Turkey has progressed on the way to EU membership in spite of persistent and increasing divergence of membership preferences (Schimmelfennig, 2009: 413-415).   Turkey, with its large, dynamic economy, is an important trading partner for the EU, it also has a strategic location, including on energy security, and plays an important regional role. Equally, the EU remains an important anchor for Turkey’s economic and political reform (Progress Report, 2013: 1).   This paper will first provide an analysis and outline of the different factors relating to the accession of Turkey into the EU.   It will explore economic factors, cultural factors and political factors.   Finally, this paper will recommend that Turkey should be allowed to join the EU due to its positive affect on EU economic development, as well as the fact that Turkey has made good progress in meeting a lot of the Accession criteria set out in the Copenhagen agreement.   This paper will also make recommendations on what Turkey must do in order to fully meet EU standards for accession. Context Turkey first became affiliated with the EU in 1963 after signing an associate membership agreement with the then European Community.   The decisions to give Turkey a membership perspective and to open accession negotiations have been highly controversial among member state governments and have tended to produce long and conflictive negotiations as well as uneasy compromises (Schimmelfennig, 2009: 414).   A major breakthrough came at the Helsinki meeting of the European Council in 1999, when Turkey attained status as a candidate for membership. It now has a so-called Accession Partnership with the EU, which means that the EU is working together with Turkey to enable it to adopt the acquis communautaire, which is the legal framework of the EU (Togan, 2004: 1013). The Copenhagen Criteria cover a state’s ability to take on the acquis communautaire, the economic criteria for a functional market economy, and above all, ‘stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities’ (Schimmelfennig, 2009: 420).   Overall, Turkey has made significant efforts to fulfil requested accession criteria through socio-economic and cultural convergence with EU Member States. Analysis Economic Factors Many studies have shown that economic factors play a significant role in shaping attitudes towards different aspects of European integration. Turkey’s progress on meeting the requirements of the Copenhagen Criteria is confirmed by socioeconomic indicators that describe the level of modernization of the country (Alber, 2007).   Turkey is the 17th largest economy globally, and the most current EU progress report states that Turkey has sufficient macroeconomic stability and the medium-term capability for integration into the single European market (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 744).   Turkey is a large and fast expanding market, it is the largest market in the Middle East, Balkans and Caucasus. According to the World Bank, Turkish GDP is as large as 80 per cent of Russian GDP (Togan, 2004: 1043).   Turkey, located at the crossroads between Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East, has the potential to act as a major link between these markets.   With harmonization of commercial legislation, EU companies will be able to use Turkey as a joint investment and export base for the Middle East and Eurasia.   Moreover, Istanbul is emerging as transnational corporations’ headquarters for operations in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The EU will derive potential gains from increased trade in the region (Togan, 2004: 1043-1044). Overall, the Progress Report on Turkey’s EU Accession (2013: 4) states that Turkey is a functioning market economy, and should therefore be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term.   Additionally, with Turkish accession current members will derive welfare gains from standard comparative advantage sources and also from growth effects of integration. This report argues that accession of Turkey to the EU will bring economic benefits for Turkey as well as to the EU itself.   The largest economic gains can be obtained through reforms of national institutions in Turkey that improve the functioning of the public sector and provide transparency to investors and traders (Lejour and Mooij, 2005: 117).   Integration will remove the distortions in the price system, boosting the allocative efï ¬ ciency in the economy, which in turn will make the country a better place to invest.   Furthermore, with accession Turkey will be eligible for EU structural funds. The increase in infrastructural investments will contribute to economic growth in Turkey. In addition, Turkey will reap beneï ¬ ts from monetary integration, and ï ¬ nally, Turkey will beneï ¬ t from migration of Turkish labour to the EU (Togan, 2004: 1042). The key theoretical constructs investigated to explain opposition to Turkey’s EU membership are related to rational economic self-interest and group-level interests and concerns (McClaren, 2007: 251).   Turkey is relatively poor and agricultural, it can therefore be argued that Turkish membership is likely to increase the divergence of living standards in the EU, create a high potential for labour migration and instigate demand for high net payments from the structural and agricultural funds.   Welfare gains that will be derived by Turkey from integration will have a price. The price will be the adjustment costs associated with the attainment of macroeconomic stability, adoption of CAP, liberalization of services and network industries, and complying with EU environmental directives (Togan, 2004: 1042). Migration/Cultural Factors In addition to direct fiscal implications, EU member states are subject to another possible economic consequence of Turkish accession, immigration.   Hostility to Turkey’s candidacy can be explained by the threatening context of Turkish migration (McClaren, 2007: 251).   It can be argued that migration flows could have negative economic consequences, such as increased competition in particular segments of the labour market.   In particular, countries in the more economically developed EU-15 are likely to be affected to the highest degree (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 751), moreover it will likely take decades before Turkey attains an income level comparable to these countries.   This will continue to be a strong incentive for migration from Turkey to other EU countries, EU-15 countries fear that the immigrants will ‘depress wages, boost unemployment and cause social friction and political upheavals’ (Togan, 2004: 1031-1032). However, one assumption in the analysis of Turkish migration is that all labour is homogenous.   In reality labour is highly differentiated according to many factors, which results in the effects of migration for income distribution and social welfare becoming less clear-cut.   The empirical research on the economic effects of immigration indicates fairly small and on the whole positive effects.   ‘Employment opportunities are not affected much, the wage of low skilled labour is depressed somewhat but that of skilled labour is raised, and the net present value of public transfers is positive’ (Togan, 2004: 1043).   Therefore, this paper argues that with appropriate measures, immigration is not necessarily a negative consequence of Turkey’s accession into the EU. It is not just the threat to resources presented by Turks that affects feelings about the Turkish candidacy, threats to culture and way of life are likely to be particularly strong in the Turkish case (Ivarsflaten, 2005).   In addition to the possible problem of being perceived as traditional or backward, Turkey faces the potential difficulty of being predominantly Muslim (McClaren, 2007: 258).   The recent drawbacks in the negotiations of the EU with Croatia, Serbia, and Turkey have been caused by issues of national identity related to legacies of ethnic conflict that are likely to create high political costs to the target governments. As a result, whereas consistency has remained high, effectiveness is reduced (Schimmelfennig, 2004: 918).   Nevertheless, sociostructural differences between Turkey and the EU Member States have been shrinking.   The percentage of the Turkish population working in agriculture has sunk, education levels have risen and the overall standard of living has increased (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 744). The commission critiques Turkey on its human rights situation, on its limited freedom of speech and on its lack of gender equality.   However, according to the Freedom House Index, Turkey has improved consistently in its level of democratization, political freedom and civil liberties over recent years (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 744).   Overall, these improvements represent measurable developments regarding Turkey’s convergence with the EU and its fulfilment of EU accession criteria.   Additionally, Freedom in the Press has improved, however, it still has a long way to go in order to reach the levels of freedom held by EU-15 countries.   Key provisions of the Turkish legal framework and their interpretation by members of the judiciary continue to hamper freedom of expression, including freedom of the media (Progress Report, 2013: 2). Foreign Policy The commission emphasized Turkey’s increasingly important foreign policy significance for Europe, for example its intermediary role between Syria and Israel, its diplomatic approaches with Armenia, and above all, its role in the military conflict between Russia and Georgia (Schmid, 2008).   Turkey has continued to play an important role in its wider neighbourhood, for example expanding its activities as a non-traditional donor in the Horn of Africa, supporting democratic transition in North Africa, and enhancing cooperation with and between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has played a particularly important role on Syria, supporting the development of a more unified opposition and providing vital humanitarian assistance to large numbers of Syrians fleeing their country (Progress Report, 2013: 3).   This suggests Turkey is meeting criteria of the Copenhagen Agreement such as the rule of law and the respect for and protection of minorities.   According to the Commission (2008b), expansion in general and Turkish membership specifically would strengthen the EU’s foreign policy weight in the world.   Furthermore, Turkey’s geographic location makes it well-suited as a transit country for oil and natural gas and it could therefore play a strategic role in securing the EU’s energy supply (Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 744).   Turkish membership could help to secure stability and security in the Balkans and Caucasus. The EU could then increase its energy security and also decrease its defence expenditures (Togan, 2004: 1043-1044).   This paper argues that this is indication that Turkey should be allowed to join the EU. Recommendations In order to maintain its impact on political reform under the conditions of political unrest, the EU will need to reassure applicant governments of the credibility of its commitment to enlargement and move negotiations with Turkey closer to the endgame.   Creating uncertainty about admission even after full compliance destroys this credibility and will reduce the effectiveness of conditionality even further (schimmelfennig, 2008: 933).   Overall, this policy note recommends that Turkey should be allowed to join the EU on the basis of EU economic development and foreign policy advantages provided it agrees to make continued efforts in the realm of human rights.   The issues with regards to human rights in Turkey underline the importance for the EU to enhance its engagement with Turkey.   This paper recommends that the overall legal framework and practice on the intervention of law enforcement officers should be brought in line with European standards to guarantee under all circumstances the right to freedom of assembly.   Additionally, an ECHR-compatible legal framework has yet to be established on matters of faith and conscientious objection.   Substantial efforts are needed to effectively guarantee the rights of women, children and LGBT individuals (Progress Report, 2013: 2).   These shortcomings need to be addressed in order for Turkey to be a successful member of the EU. In regards to immigration associated with the accession of Turkey to the EU, this paper recommends that government leaders will need to adopt measures to allay fears among EU citizens, perhaps including provision for a waiting period on the free movement of labour provision (McClaren, 2007: 274, Gerhards and Hans, 2011: 763). In conclusion, this report argues that EU-membership will work as a catalyst for Turkish institutional reforms.   Turkey has made progress towards meeting a good amount of the accession criteria, and by becoming a member of the EU, Turkey has to conform to all EU legislation and enforcement by the European Court of Justice.   Furthemore, via the method of open coordination, Turkey will regularly be assessed by the European Commission and other member countries on its economic policies.   EU membership can thus trigger institutional reform in Turkey and reduce widespread corruption (Lejour and de Mooij, 2005: 101).   Bibliography Alber, J. 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