Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Raslila Essay Example for Free

Raslila Essay Raslila has a basic script which has to be followed, but it has enough scope for improvisation as well. Though the emphasis of Raslila is on darshan or the visual appeal, it is important to capture the bhava or the sentiment. This is done through music, dance and drama enacted by the actors. The various raasas or dramatic flavors like friendship, conjugal love, parental love, amazement, compassion, humour, chivalry, fury, fear and dread are expressed through this traditional folk form. The range of the villagers who perform raslila is quite vast. They perform legends that portray different stages of Krishnas youth. In some areas of Uttar Pradesh raslila is performed only by Brahmin boys in the age group of 13 to 14 years. Even now, many roles of sakhis or mother of Radha and Krishna are performed by men disguised as women. Raslila is also performed by mobile troupes moving from village to village. A traditional raslila usually lasts for three and a half hours. The dance form was originated during the amorous encounters of milkmaids with Lord Krishna. Legend goes that when all the milkmaids started demanding Krishna to be their dance partner, Krishna cast a spell so that each of those milkmaid thought Krishna wasdancing with them. This marked the birth of Raslila. Raslila is generally performed by mobile troupes that roam around village to village. This dance is performed primarily on Rasia, a song form that is entirely based on the theme of Krishna-Radha love. Raslila is a folk tradition that has incorporated elements of Indian classical music, drama and dance. This presentation goes beyond professionalism. Though the dramas have basic scripts there is ample room for improvisation and extemporization, only to return to its formal delineation after the inspiration of the creative force is consumed. The emphasis is on seeing through sound (darshan). The visual sense is to enhance, but the ultimate ingredient is the bhava, a particular mood or sentiment conveyed by the music and songs, which along with the action of the drama enable the actors and the audience to personally taste the different dramatic flavors, such as friendship, servitor ship, parental love, conjugal love, amazement, humor, chivalry, compassion, fury, fear and dread.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Slavery :: Slavery Essays

Thesis: Slaves managed to be the main beneficiaries of a movement so entirely unintended for them because, in a series of coincidences brought about by certain effects of Northern progress and improvement, the promotion of their interests became profitable to to the concerns of other classes. Counter-argument: some might argue that slaves could not have been the primary beneficiaries of the progress and improvement taking place in the North in 19th century america b/c there were very few slaves in the north; they were primarily concentrated in the south which was little affected by these changes and with slaves being so remote from the situation, how could they have benefited from it? --while the south obviously did not experience the level of transformation that the north and midwestern regions underwent, it did not go untouched by this era of change--it apparently made southerners even more sealed in their determination to "preserve their way of life based on slavery,"as evidenced by their attempt to secede from the Union. Merely the fact that they reacted so strongly to the changes they perceived in the North indicates the force of the effect that progress had on them. --the very fact that there were few slaves in the north and so many in the south only contributed to the progress-fueled growing distinction between the North and South, the former of whom could not understand--likely because there were so few slaves in the North--the "semifeudal economic and social system" to which the South was "hopelessly attached" due to their dependence on slavery (p. 5, Sheriff). Point: Wage laborers necessary to the realization of improvements in the 19th century began to be perceived as a morally inferior permanent underclass--this elicited fears & changes in opinion involving progress--some (i.e. Bethel society) began to think that one man's (the businessman's) profit came at another's (the worker's) expense--brought about increasing desire for moral reform--leading to 2nd Great Awakening--which in turn led to popularity of abolitionist sentiment. Point: Decreasing reliance on slavery as a necessity to the maintenance of a stable economy, coupled with the still-strong Revolutionary ideals of liberty & equality, drew attention to injustices inherent in slavery. --slaves were necessary before because men were trying to produce huge quantities to ship over to England, at first to pay back their joint-stock companies and then to secure their stability in the "New World." but in the 19th century people were settled into their ways of life, and farmers did not feel such urgency to overproduce.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Corporate Social Responsibility and branding Essay

1. Introduction In this chapter the background of the thesis will be presented and discussed. Moreover, a literature review, research problem and research questions will be introduced in order to get an understanding of the study purpose. This is followed by the limitations and disposition. 1.1 Background The companies of today are very aware of what the public and other stakeholders demand from the companies ´ way of handle their responsibilities (Burchell, 2008). In order to form a strategy for the protection of their brand image and reputation many companies find themselves engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility activities (Kotler and Lee 2005), from now on abbreviated CSR. The desire of doing well and doing good in the society in which the company is operating have been of increasing interest world wide during the last decade. As a result, corporate reporting on social responsibility initiatives can more often be found in companies ´ marketing strategies (Kotler and Lee, 2005). Even though CSR activities are increasing among today ´s organizations there is still lack of a general universally definition of this concept (Crowther and Capaldi, 2008). But in a broad perspective CSR is understood and described as the way companies integrate social, economic and environmental matters into their internal organization (values, culture, decision making and strategy), which leads to establishment of better society, wealth and better practices within the company (Horrigan, 2010). Considering the breadth of CSR it can subsequently be described in many different names: corporate responsibility, corporate sustainability, corporate accountability, corporate citizenship, sustainable development etc (Benn and Bolton, 2011). In a shorter explanation, CSR can therefore be explained as the relationship between a corporation and its stakeholder (Crowther and Capaldi, 2008). Already in 1972 the American professor in Business Administration, Dow Votaw, stated that the amount pages on social responsibility written in our time would fill up a small library. As it turns out, he was right. CSR is here to stay. The idea of taking responsibility beyond what the law demands has increased since the millennial shift (Borglund, DeGeer and Sweet, 2012). Especially big organizations, both in the public and private sectors, are engaging in these kinds of activities (Burchell, 2008). The benefits of a company ´s usage of CSR activities can lead to a better position in the market and a positive return on investment. On top of that of course the benefits for society, such as improvement of life or a cleaner environment (Kotler and Lee, 2005). On the other hand, many view CSR mainly as a step towards a reputation as a responsible business and as good citizens (Burchell, 2008). Either how, risks by avoiding to use this concept can lead to lack of legitimacy for the organization. Meyer and Rowan (1977) also claim that when having a business it is important to be accepted and to be legitimacy in the environment as well as having effective and structured internal processes to survive. According to Grusch (2006) consumers actively scrutinize the local behavior of international companies. Their out-sourced ventures are also being observed, and information regarding possible bad behavior reaches the ears’ of the public much more quickly than it used to. Consequently, to the stakeholders’ awareness and other factors that can have an impact on a company’s survival, it is therefore important for companies to establish competitive advantage. Differentiation is a way to secure competitive advantage. By using a differentiation strategy a company ´s key strengths and core competencies builds up, and this is where CSR has an important role for a company ´s brand as it gets differentiate by incorporating it in the corporate image. This kind of action can generate to better brand attitudes and in the long run this will result in brand loyalty (Grant, 2008). 1.2 Literature review 1.3 Problem discussion As stated in the background, CSR is a burning question among today ´s companies. Stakeholders are starting to put more pressure on companies ´ responsibility in the society they are operating in, therefore, in order to get a competitive advantage CSR has become a major tool in their marketing strategy (Kotler and Lee, 2005). A branding law defined by Werther and Chandler (2005) shows that CSR will evoke attitudes towards the brand. Are these attitudes positive it will be lead to positive purchase decision and loyal customers, which give companies competitive advantage (Roper and Fill 2012). In Kotler and Lee ´s book (2005) Corporate Social Responsibility – Doing the most good for your company and your cause, they are describing examples of well-known organizations that have used CSR to increase their brand value. It has therefore been a shift focus in the CSR debate, nowadays it is more a debate of how CSR activities should be used and how effective it can be used as a branding tool, rather than if companies should use this concept or not (Smith, 2003). Based on the debate the question that arises is therefore: in what way should CSR activities be used in order to be effective for a positive attitude towards the brand? Today there are many studies relating to the area of CSR. Research does suggest there is a positive relationship between CSR and consumer attitudes towards brands and companies (Creyer and Ross 1997; Ellen, Mohr and Webb, 2000; Lacey and Kennet-Hensel, 2010). It is also shown in studies that CSR activities influence how the consumer behave when a certain brand appear in their mind (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Nhattacharya and Sen, 2004). However, most of these studies are focusing on people and brand perception in developed countries. The literatures were more specialized of how the CSR influences image of the brand in the western world and how the western public persuaded the brand of the CSR activities. When doing literature research, the amount of research studies about CSR in developing countries were of a narrow amount. No study could be found about CSR ´s link to branding in a developing ´s countries perspective, further, about how the locals ´ (employers of the company and the consumer in the developing country) brand perception of CSR activities are. As the real life stories in Kotler and Lee ´s book (2005) showed that CSR has an effective link to the brand. However, most of the organizations were conducting the CSR activities in the country they operated in and the society had a good knowledge of what CSR is. Likewise, a study showed that the brand would be â€Å"effected† and look different if the consumers were aware of CSR of the companies (Boulstridge and Carrigan 2000). So the question that can be asked and discussed is if it will appear an effective link to a company ´s brand in a country that is not developed? A research gap is therefore identified. If we place and conduct a study conducted in a western world in a developing country ´s context, would the outcome be the same? Would there be a similar link between CSR and branding there? 1.4 Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to get a deeper understanding of the link between a company ´s CSR and its branding in a developing country. Based on the purpose the following research questions will be presented: 1. What kind of CSR activities are being used to effectively increase positive attitudes towards the company ´s brand? 2. In what way is a company ´s CSR linked to its brand in the Philippines? 3. And how do these attitudes create value for the brand? 2. Methodology In this chapter the research methodology applied in this thesis will be discussed. A description regarding the method design of the study will be explained in the following order: research design, data collection, validity and reliability and data analysis. 2.1 Research approach There are three type of studies identified by Yin (2003): exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. An exploratory research design tries to define the research question and form the hypothesis. A descriptive research in the other hand, tries to describe a different characteristic of a phenomena that arises. When doing a descriptive case study the data collection is being guided by theories. When conducting the explanatory research design it is about how it explains course of events and relate how things happened (Yin, 2003). According to Yin (2003) this thesis can be seen as a descriptive research as it will focus on describing what impact CSR has on branding. When using a descriptive research the problem is structured and understood, which means that existing literature about the topic of CSR and branding (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2010). And this kind of research is mainly done when a researcher wants to gain an even better knowledge of a specific topic (Gill and Johnson, 2010). Due to the research purpose, which is to investigate how CSR influences on a company ´s brand in the Philippines this research method fits the best among the three other ways. 3.2 Research design I chose case studies method, because it enhances the understanding of what is going on in a particular case and it can involve a detailed investigation (Yin, 2009). This information that is gained from case studies are therefore relevant to answer some of my problem and research questions as I want to investigate companies ´ CSR activities and observe these activities in order to understand its impact on the brand which is the data collection in my first section of the study. By a case study approach observations of a companies ´ activities can be captured, which is in a way impossible to capture through questionnaires and interviews (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010). 3.3.1 The case study In the beginning of March I will travel to the Philippines to carry on an eight weeks field study which will give me the opportunity to study some Swedish/International companies ´ CSR activities and how these activities affect their brand perception by interviewing the consumers and workers in country. The case study will therefore obtain information to fulfill my purpose. The choice of companies: The information obtained will be from companies that use CSR activities in the Philippines. In order to fill the research gap I will be aiming for to study companies with well-known CSR activities. 2.3 Data collection A qualitative method will be used in order to collect the information for this thesis. Regarding to Trost (2005) a qualitative method is described as a method where the interviewer gathers the information on the interviewee ´s feelings, thoughts and experiences. Hence, to the search of a deeper understanding of how CSR affects the brand perception, this qualitative approach fit the purpose of the thesis because it can give me a deep information regarding the employees ´ and consumers opinions and feelings towards CSR in the Philippines and the brand which is the aim of this study. 2.3.1 Qualitative interview design Semi-structures face-to-face-interview. 4.4 Validity in qualitative research â€Å"Descriptive validity refers to the degree to which the actual description holds true† (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010 p. 210). Bias: When interviewing the respondents a â€Å"lifting† description of the brand can appear, because they have been chosen to do this certain interview about the companies’ actions. Language is the basic tool of interviewing, and may especially be important in qualitative interviewing (Kvale, 1989). The interviews will be conducted by me in English and since communication is a very important in order to get the information it can appear some small misunderstanding as English is not my mother language. But by conducting a face to face interview, the body language and face expression will increase the validity of the interviews. REFERENCES Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J. and Armstrong, G. (2004). Principles of Marketing, 4th European edition. New Jersey: FT- Prentice Hall. Burchell, J. 2008. The Corporate Social Responsibility Reader. London and New York: Routledge. Kotler, P. and Lee, N. (2005)  ´Corporate Social Responsibility – Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause ´, Hoboken, New Jersey. Crowther, D. and Capaldi, N. (2008). The ashgate research companion to Corporate Social Responsibility. MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Suchman, M. C. (1995) Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review, Vol 20;3, p 571-610. Benn, S. and Bolton, D. (2011). Key Concepts in Corporate Social Responsibility. SAGE Publications Ltd: London Werther, W.B. And Chandler, D. (2005)  ´Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility as Global Brand Insurance ´, Business Horizons 48:317-24. Boulstridge, E and Carrigan, M.†Do consumers really care about corporate responsbility? Highlighting the attitude behavior gap.† Journal of communication management, (2000): 359-360 Gill, J and Johnson, P, 2010, Research Methods for Managers 4th Edition. SAGE Publications Ltd Ghauri, P and Gronhaug, K, 2010, Research Methods in Business Studies 4th edition. Pearson Education Limited. Trost, J, 2005, Kvalitativa intervjuer. Studentlitteratur, Lund. Halvorsen, K. (1989). Samhà ¤llsvetenskaplig Metod. Oslo: Studentlitteratur AB Yin, R.K, 2009, Case Study Research – Design and Method. London: SAGE Ellen, P.S., Webb, D.J. & Mohr, L.A. (2006). Building corporate associations: consumer attributions for corporate socially responsible programs. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34 (2), 147-57. doi: 10.1177/0092070305284976 Creyer, E. H., & Ross, W. T., Jr. (1997). The influence of firm behavior on purchase intention: Do consumers really care about business ethics? Journal of Consumer Marketing, 14(6), 421–32. doi: 10.1108/07363769710185999

Saturday, January 4, 2020

`` Two Treatises Of Government `` By John Locke Essay

Our Revolutionary Army took on the greatest superpower of the time, said Colin Powell, former United States Secretary of State and retired four-star general of the United States Army in an interview discussing the Revolutionary War. The British settlers in America became increasingly self-sufficient and felt the British Crown was forcing high tax and denying them their civil liberties. Clearly, the British saw the colonies as a nation they could threaten. However, with a fresh enlightened perspective American s saw the British Crown s action as unjustly and would rebel against the crown. Eventually, The British superpower would be defeated by an unruly, inexperienced, divided America to prevail over the world s mightiest monarch of that time. With the introduction of the Renaissance period, Europe was introduced to the Scientific Revolution. This new induction would lead people away from their religious views and to a new movement called Enlightenment. The Essay Two Treatises of Government published anonymously by John Locke maintained two plausible positions. The first being, divine rights were not given to Monarchs rather; their powers existed through sheer luck of being born into the monarchy. Secondly, Locke believed that governments should only exist by the approval of those governed. Locke s concepts of freedom, law, and the purpose of government were foundational to the modern conception of democracy. As European philosophers challenged the view ofShow MoreRelatedJohn Locke s Two Treatises Of Government1345 Words   |  6 PagesInstructor: JC Boucher Date: 24 November 2016 Assignment John Locke’s Two Treatises Of Government Most scholarship that links John Locke’s ideas with eighteenth- century representations of childhood approaches children as Lockean pedagogic subjects ready for moral and intellectual education. My essay instead brings to bear on representation of children Locke the political thinker, who articulates in Two Treatises of Government (1689) a person’s right to â€Å"liberty and property.† Locke’sRead MoreClassical Liberalism: Two Treatises on Government by John Locke1152 Words   |  5 Pagesmajority not the rich elite. John Locke, and his book Two Treatises on Government, impacted the Enlightenment by spreading the ideals around the world, which influenced revolutions. Locke wrote that â€Å"the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions† (Locke. sect 6). This ideal was theRead MoreBenjamin Franklin And His Life1281 Words   |  6 Pagesnation that was the United States of America. John Locke was born in 1632 in the small village of Wrington, in southwestern England. 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Locke taught and lectured in Greek, rhetoric, and Moral philosophy. Locke, after reading works of Desca rtes, developed a strong interest in contemporary philosophical and scientific questions and theories. In 1666, Locke met Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, and from then on, this lifelongRead MoreAge Of Enlightenment755 Words   |  4 Pagesintellectual thinkers, such as John Locke, which helped shape and influence modern government and politics. John Locke is recognized as the father of classical liberalism, introducing the Two Treatises of Government, Social Contract, and private property, which formed the basis for the constitutions in westernized democratic powers such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The Two Treatises of Government became the most influential pieces of work that John Locke had created during theRead More The Influence of John Locke Essay examples970 Words   |  4 PagesJohn Locke was someone more than just an ordinary man. He was the son of a country attorney and born on August 29, 1632. He grew up during the civil war and later entered the Church of Christ, Oxford, where he remained as a student and teacher for many years. (Rivitch 23) With a wide variety of political and religious views, he expressed most of his personnel views on education and social and political philosophies. Once he noted the five lasting pleasures throughout his careerRead MoreThe Democratic Republic Which The People Of The Usa Live Under Today1665 Words   |  7 Pagesexample of a political text written to convey the ideals of government. Similarly two historically significant texts, The Federalist No.10 written by James Madison in 1787 addressed to the state of New York and The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke ( an English philosopher) in 1689 make complex assertions about the fundamentals of a government. While Madison and Locke make heavily similar claims on the importance of government in the protection of its members as well as the tenacious emphasis