Inspiration and Inerrancy Essay Example for Free

Inspiration and Inerrancy Essay Living in a Fallen world, people tend to search for answers to life’s questions in places they should not be looking. This causes them to belittle the actual source of answers God has provided for us, the Bible. I find it hard to explain God’s authority to an unbelieving individual talk less of the Bible’s authority. If a person doesn’t believe the bible, it can be a task to convince them that it has any authority. It is easy to explain the authority of the government or police, because these are authorities they are subject to and they can see, but when to comes to the authority of God and the bible, it is a different perspective. God has given us the Bible as a gift of love for us His children to follow until He comes back. It is the divine truth to all of humanity. The Bible is God’s revelation in written form to man. That is where the authority of the Bible comes from, the divine revelation of God Himself. Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the bible and what it teaches. Compared to the modern definition of inspiration, which is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something especially to do something creative, biblical inspiration is God breathed, divine influence of the Holy spirit. God revealed Himself to selected people whom he had inspired to write the books of the Bible. In 2 Peter 1:21 the bible says for prophecy never had it’s origin in the human will, but prophets, thou humans spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Inerrancy states that the Bible’s word is accurate, authoritative and free of error. There are four separate arguments for validating that the Bible is error free: Slippery Slope, Epistemological, Historical and Biblical. The slippery Slope Argument is the least important of the four. One of the foundational principles that is a slipping slope is confession of sins. Many scholars have argued whether we need to repent of our sins even after we’ve been saved. Read more: Inspirational Essay About Life New teaching state that we do not need to repent of our sins once we are saved. This is diabolical to what the bible says in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just and He will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The Epistemological Argument says that we shouldn’t trust that the whole bible is error free, that we cannot tell what parts are accurate and what parts aren’t. Some who deny inerrancy say that the presence of errors does not mean we cannot trust it, because we trust our teachers in school even though we know that they are not perfect and theta the make mistakes. The Historical Argument suggests that there is a long lasting organization from Christian forefathers who believed in the Bible’s inerrancy. Princeton theologians made up the Bible’s inerrancy in the 19th century and Feinburg disproved the notion. Lastly, the Biblical Argument, which is the strongest of the four, simply states that we can trust the Scriptures simple because the scripture tell us to. In Titus 1:2, the bible says that God does not lie. In Isaiah 61:1, Isaiah wrote God’s plan for redeeming man under the Inspiration of God and in Luke 4:18, Jesus who had been inspired by the same spirit as His Father quoted the same plan as His Father. With over a millennium between the time of Isaiah and Jesus, we know that the redemption plan is true and inspired by God. This is the relationship between inspiration and inerrancy. Also the fact that God said that it would happen and it did shows that the Bible is true. In the process of explaining to my inquisitive jogger, I would let him or her know about my testimony and the numerous things God has done in my life. Also, I would try and explain some of the other teaching of the bible about confession and how when we confess the things from the Bible, they come to pass if we have faith. People tend to be more convinced when they can relate to you on a personal level. In the way that I live my life, I believe that the word of God is real and infallible. It is the truth and has authority. God breathe and inspired people to write. They wrote things and the things came to pass in due time. The bible instructs us to be faithful to His Great commission and to live our life in a way that pleases Him. These with the other things that He has spoken and have come to pass, I have enough reason to believe Him. Bibliography Elwell, Walter A Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001) Holy Bible NIV, (Copyright Biblica, Inc. 2011, Grand Rapids MI. Zondervan 2011) Towns, Elmer L. Theology for Today, (Cengage Learning, 2008, 2002)

White Collar Crime: The Influences of the Social Class

White Collar Crime: The Influences of the Social Class Introduction When it comes to talk about crime, a lot of people will relate to the street crimes including burglary, robbery, and assault. However, more and more people complain that an increasing number of white-collar crimes exits in our society nowadays, such as false advertising, tax evasion, and insider stock trading. Write-collar crimes are very complicated issues which can harm victims both directly and indirectly without the victims even knowing it (Benson 3). It affects individuals, all levels of government, and all sectors of society, and brings about a considerate impact on the problems and concerns, and fears of the country. According to the sociological textbook Sociology: The Points of the Compass, this paper will use the sociology viewpoint which is from Chapter 5 to analyze how the white-collar crimes influence of the social class. The first section of the paper provides an overview on the concept of white-collar crimes. In the second section we will look at the severity of the white-collar crimes. Finally, we will analyze the social characteristics of white-collar offenders. The definition of white-collar crime The term of white-collar crime is original introduced by Professor Edwin H. Sutherland of Indiana University in 1939, which is crimes committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. (Rosoff 2) Sutherland also defines two important facts of the white-collar crime. First, he points out that the white-collar offenders are in the upper social status and more powerful (Rosoff 2). Second, he refers the fact that the justice system is inclined to employ a very different procedural apparatus for dealing with white-collar offenders (Rosoff 3). Persons who violate laws regarding restraint of trade, advertising, pure food and drugs, and similar practices are not arrested by uniformed policemen, are not tried in criminal courts, and are not committed to prisons; this illegal behavior receives the attention of administrative commissions and of courts operating under civil or equity jurisdiction. (Rosoff 3) White-collar crime is also called commercial crimes committed by people exclusively for personal gain (Hackler 231). Herbert Edelhertz is official at the U.S. Department of Justice in 1970, who points out an offense-based of white-collar crime theory (Benson 7). He defines white-collar crime is an illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non-physical means and by concealment or guile to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantage (Benson 7). However, more and more criminologists argue with the Edelhertzs offense-based approach, in which an increasing number of white-collar crimes also physically harms and violences on their victims, like both the manufacture of dangerous products and the maintenance of unsafe working environments are important types of white-collar-crime (Benson 13). The Severity of the White-Collar Crime Actually, the white-collar crimes have caused much more serious results and damaged more of our society than any other kind of crimes. Even in societies that celebrate the importance of the individual, the power of authority can be surprisingly strong (Wicks 42). The white-collar criminals have more authorization to access cooperations asserts or governments confidential documentation; They build their plan precisely and accurately; They can operate their crime process for a long time because of very hard to be discovered. Therefore, a huge loss and harm have been made, when the police stop their crime eventually in most cases of white-collar crime. Louis R. Mizell, Jr., a former Special Agent and Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Department of State, he refers white-collar criminals exists anywhere in peoples life (Mizell). Consider the following studies: Every year an average of $160 million is stolen or embezzled from schools and colleges all over the country. Insurance fraud property, casualty, and health is a $95 billion-a-year scam Credit card fraud costs taxpayers nearly $3 billion per year. Dishonest lawyers pocket more than $14 billion annually More than $21 billion is being stolen from charities each year. Source from: (Mizell) These survey data shows us the fact that the white-collar crimes cost more serious than the street crime. White-collar crime results in few prosecutions and still fewer convictions for two main reasons. First, much white-collar crime takes place in private and is therefore difficult to detect. Second, corporations can afford legal experts, public relations firms, and advertising agencies that advise their clients on how to bend laws, build up their corporate image in the public mind, and influence lawmakers to pass laws without teeth. Moreover, even when prosecutions are successful, the punishment is usually light. (Brym 138) Furthermore, there are many indirect aspects resulted by white-collar crime in our society which widely cause more damages than the direct impacts. Many white-collar criminals work in backbone enterprises of a country and hold an important position in it, the criminal activities they acted not only hurt their employers, but also created a lot of harm for millions customers using their services. In some cases, it will affect the reputation of the country or cause the international conflict because of their actions. The victims families also are hurt made by those white-collar criminals. Sometimes, this harm is even more virtual than the direct victims themselves, for example, victims children grow up in the shadow of the harm against their family by criminals, they will have more resentment and negative emotions to the society when they gown up. They maybe because next criminal when those resentment explored one day. The public will loss the confidence to the government if the white-collar crime keeps increasing. People always believe it the governments responsibility to maintain the low crime rate in the society especially the white-collar crime which crime is made by the best class of citizens in the society. The Social Characteristics of White-Collar Offenders Social status is a relative term in the sense that people can be ranked as having more or less of it, depending on their income, education, and occupation. (Benson 164). Sutherland focus on persons of the upper socioeconomic classes, and respectability and social status (Benson 163). Most of the white-collar offenders are in the high social status, which have high level education, high occupation, and high income. In the Yale study, they summarize the main conclusions about the white-collar offenders. First, the typical white-collar offender is a middle-aged white male: 85.5% are more likely to be white, the average age of 40, and 85.5% are male (Benson 31). Second, on average white-collar offenders are better educated and more likely to be employed than common criminals: 79.3% are high school graduates, 27.1% are college graduates and 58.4$ are steadily employed (Benson 31). White-collar crime is committed disproportionately by people from middle and upper classes (Brym 138). The social class conflicts also reflect to the white-collar crimes: the abuse of power. The Marxians conflict theory tends to construe every social conflict and every measure of social power as an expression, device, or function of economic struggle (Silverman 173). It indicates white-collar offenders abuse their power and uses their social status advantages to harm victims. Actually they do more harm, cost more money, and ruins more lives than assaults, thefts, and rape (Hackler 231). The upper class offenders exists widespread of institutions, including business, government, the medical profession, even religious organizations; and they role the remarkably diverse set of actors, like captains of industry, politicians, doctors, cops, and computer hackers (Rosoff 19). Conclusion In Chapter 5 of the Sociology: The Points of the Compass summaries that knowledge and high position in society cant guarantee person keep away from white-collar crimes. The more capability the person has the more damage he/she made when this capability is used in commercial criminality. So, it is very important for teaching the public not only just the skills and knowledge which will find a job in future, but also teaching them what is the correct morality and values in society.

How Communication Theory Has Emerged Cultural Studies Essay

How Communication Theory Has Emerged Cultural Studies Essay Communication has been defined in many aspects but central to all these definitions is the expression that communication is the process in which relationships are established, maintained, modified, or terminated through the increase or reduction of meaning. This allows us to examine the process of communication in a way which includes the relateds and how they are always affected as objects which become subjects, affecting and being affected, as well as the changes in meaning and in messages which become filled or voided of meaning as the process, and those related to it, constantly change. Consequently, arguments have been put forward that communication is education, that it is the church. that it is incarnation, and that it is Christianity. While each of these connections contain helpful insights, in a sense, communication is a constituent of everything. The history of communication dates back to prehistory, with significant changes in communication technologies (media and appropriate inscription tools) evolving in tandem with shifts in political and economic systems, and by extension, systems of power. Currently, at least seven major traditions of communication theory can be distinguished, rhetoric being the oldest. From classical rhetoric comes the idea that communication can be studied and cultivated as a practical art of discourse. Whereas the art of rhetoric still refers primarily to the theory and practice of public, persuasive communication, the communication arts more broadly encompass the whole range of communication practices including interpersonal, organizational, and cross-cultural communication, technologically mediated communication, and practices specific to various professions and fields. Modern rhetorical theory has elaborated and problematized the epistemological, sociological, and political dimensions of the class ical tradition in ways that further contribute to communication theory. Consequently, rhetoric performs a variety of different functions as it can be adapted to the different ends of moving, instructing, or pleasing an audience. A second tradition of communication theory, originated in its modern form by Locke, is semiotics, the study of signs. Semiotic theory conceptualizes communication as a process that relies on signs and sign systems to mediate across the gaps between subjective viewpoints. For semiotic theory, communication problems result from barriers to understanding that arise from the slippage between sign-vehicles (physical signs such as spoken or written words, or graphic images) and their meanings, the structure of sign systems, and particular ways of using (or misusing) signs. Distinct traditions of semiotics grew from the pre Christian era as evidenced by Ancient Egypt cave paintings and symbol writings. General Semiotics tends to be formalistic, abstracting signs from the contexts of use whereas Social Semiotics takes the meaning-making process. As such, Social Semiotics is more closely associated with discourse analysis, multimedia analysis, educational research, cultural anthropology, poli tical sociology, e.t.c. We therefore do not exist independently of signs, with our essentially real personal identities and subjective viewpoints, but use signs in order to communicate. We exist meaningfully only in and as signs. A third, phenomenological tradition conceptualizes communication as the experience of self and other in dialogue. The problem of communication for phenomenology, as for semiotics, is that of a gap between subjective viewpoints: One cannot directly experience another consciousness, and the potential for inter-subjective understanding is thereby limited. The two traditions approach this problem in quite different ways, however. Whereas semiotics looks to the mediational properties of signs, phenomenology looks to the authenticity of our ways of experiencing self and other. The basis for communication lies in our common existence with others in a shared world that may be constituted differently in experience. Authentic dialogue requires open self-expression and acceptance of difference while seeking common ground. Barriers to communication can arise from self-unawareness, non-acceptance of difference, or strategic agendas that preclude openness to the other. This hermeneutic phenomenolo gy influenced subsequent existentialist, hermeneutic, and poststructuralist theories that have emphasized the constitutive properties of dialogue. Dialogue, in these theories, is not a essentially a sharing of pre-existing inner meanings; it is engagement with others to negotiate meaning. Fourth, a cybernetic tradition of communication theory grew from the mid-twentieth century. This is actually one of the newest traditions of communication theory, although, as we have noted, it was the first communication theory explicitly named and widely known as such. Cybernetics conceptualizes communication as information processing. All complex systems, including computers and telecommunication devices, DNA molecules and cells, plants and animals, the human brain and nervous system, social groups and organizations, cities, and entire societies, process information, and in that sense communicate. Cybernetic theory downplays the differences between human communication and other kinds of information processing systems. Information storage, transmission, and feedback, network structures, and self-organizing processes occur in every sufficiently complex system. Problems of communication can arise from conflicts among subsystems or glitches in information processing like positive feed back loops that amplify noise. Second-order cybernetics reflexively includes the observer within the system observed and emphasizes the necessary role of the observer in defining, perturbing, and, often in unpredictable ways, changing a system by the very act of observing it. Social psychology, a fifth tradition of communication theory, conceptualizes communication as social interaction and influence. Communication always involves individuals with their distinctive personality traits, attitudes, beliefs, and emotions. Social behavior both displays the influence of these psychological factors and modifies them as participants influence each other, often with little awareness of what is happening. Influence can be essentially a transmission process from source to receiver. If, however, interaction reciprocally changes the participants and leads to collective outcomes that would not otherwise have occurred, communication becomes a constitutive social process. Whether conceived on a transmission or a constitutive model, the problem of communication from a socio-psychological perspective is how to manage social interaction effectively in order to achieve preferred and anticipated outcomes. This requires an understanding, solidly grounded in scientific theory a nd research, of how the communication process works. Social scientific communication research has always been closely identified with social psychology. Sociocultural communication theory, which derives from twentieth century sociological and anthropological thought, is a sixth tradition. Sociocultural theory conceptualizes communication as a symbolic process that produces and reproduces shared meanings, rituals, and social structures. That is, society exists not only by using communication as a necessary tool for transmitting and exchanging information. To communicate as a member of society is to participate in those coordinated, collective activities and shared understandings that constitute society itself. There is a tension in socio-cultural theory between approaches that emphasize macro-social structures and processes and those that emphasize micro-social interaction. On the macro side, structural and functionalist views emphasize the necessary role of stable social structures and cultural patterns in making communication possible. On the micro side, interactionist views emphasize the necessary role of communication as a process that creates and sustains social structures and patterns in everyday contexts of social interaction. From either view, communication involves the coordination of activities among social actors, and communication problems are directly manifested in difficulties and breakdowns of coordination. Communication problems have apparently become more pressing and difficult under modern conditions of societal diversity, complex interdependence, and rapid change. A reasonable conjecture from a socio-cultural point of view is that communication theory developed in modern society as a way of understanding and addressing this new condition in which communication seems to be at once the disease that causes most of our social problems, and the only possible cure. A seventh tradition of communication theory is the critical tradition that defines communication as a reflexive, dialectical discourse essentially involved with the cultural and ideological aspects of power, oppression, and emancipation in society. Dialectic, like its counterpart rhetoric, was first conceptualized in ancient Greece. In the philosophical practice of Socrates as portrayed in Platos Dialogues, dialectic was a method of argumentation through question and answer that, by revealing contradictions and clarifying obscurities, led the interlocutors to higher truth. The dialectical materialism of Karl Marx (1818-1883) initiated the modern conception of dialectic as an inherently social process connecting political economy to cultural practice. In orthodox Marxist theory, ideology and culture were determined by class interests, and dialectic at the level of ideas primarily reflected the underlying struggle between economic classes. The goal of critical theory is then to promote emancipation and enlightenment by lifting ideological blinders that otherwise serve to perpetuate ignorance and oppression. Communication is systematically distorted by power imbalances that affect participation and expression, and critical theory can serve emancipatory interests by reflecting upon the sources of systematically distorted communication. Recent movements in the critical tradition such as postmodernism and critical cultural studies tend to reject both Marxist economic determinism as well as Habermass universalistic ideal of communicative action, but continue to conceptualize communication in ways that emphasize ideology, oppression, critique, and reflexivity. Postmodernist cultural critique primarily addresses ideological discourses of race, class, and gender that suppress differences, preclude or devalue the expression of certain identities, and limit cultural diversity. In postmodernist theory, ideal communication is not, as it was for Plato, a dialectical discourse that leads the way to higher, universal truths. Postmodernism nevertheless implies a similar model of communication: that of a dialectical (that is, critical) discourse that can, if only in limited ways, liberate the participants and expand human possibilities. Other than the seven traditions of communication theory, there are a number of modern theories which have greatly influenced mass communication. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations and mass communication. In the modern era, mass media plays a big role as a result of technological advancement. Propagated through mass media are a number of theories. Agenda setting theory describes a very powerful influence of the media   the ability to tell us what issues are important. Agenda setting postulates that communication has two main elements; awareness and information. Therefore in the public discourse, communication via mass media exerts its influence on public perception of various issues. These may range from politics, economy, and other public matters. Nonetheless, the theory is based on reasoning that: the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the pu blic to perceive those issues as more important than other issues. Agenda-setting theory therefore seems quite appropriate to help us understand the pervasive role of the media (for example on political communication systems). Another notable viewpoint of mass communication in the modern times is the Uses and Gratification theory. This theory explains the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general. In order to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs, it seeks to: Establish what people do with the medial; discover underlying motives for individualsmedia use; identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. At the core of uses and gratifications theory lies the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs. Consequently, a medium will be used more when the existing motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction. The seven traditional theories and the two exemplified mass communication theories include the most prominent intellectual sources that currently influence communication theory but do not, of course, cover the field exhaustively. Ideas about communication are too numerous, diverse, and dynamically evolving to be captured entirely by any simple scheme. The field could certainly be mapped in other ways that would distinguish the main traditions differently. Moreover, no matter how the theories may be defined, they will not be found to have developed independently of one another. Contemporary theory draws from all of the traditions in various ways but is often hard to classify neatly in any one of them. Blends and hybrid varieties are common. Poststructuralist theory, for example, draws from both semiotics and phenomenology, is often regarded as a kind of rhetorical theory, and has significantly influenced recent socio-cultural and critical theory. Similarly, traces of every other tradi tion of communication theory can be found recent rhetorical theory. The academic discipline of communication studies has become like a cauldron in which ideas from across the traditions of communication theory are mixed and stirred in different combinations to make intellectual stock for current debates. In light of these trends in society, it is not surprising that speech and eventually rhetoric increasingly were thought to fall naturally under the general heading of communication. Beginning in the 1960s, communication gradually displaced speech in the titles of academic departments, professional organizations, and scholarly journals, and the speech curriculum was accordingly transformed around a new focus on the theory and practice of communication. As communication became the accepted name of the field as a whole, communication studies ceased to be identified exclusively with the behavioral and social sciences. Although the old tensions between scientific and humanistic approaches continued in new forms in communication departments, and rhetoric itself rose to prominence as an interdisciplinary field, rhetorical studies became, among other things, a branch of communication studies, and rhetorical theory became a tradition of communication theory.

Their Common Enemy :: essays research papers

Their Common Enemy It is known that a number of students dislike school. School is a big topic of conversation in every student's life. Some students enjoy the work but most talk about how horrible it is. Take a random group of students; have an open discussion on school work and you will find that students will be agreeing with each other about how stressed they are. The students found a common enemy and it brought them closer because they could talk bad about school and agree with each other. Just like the students who bond when talking about schoolwork, Linda and Willy from Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, bond when they discuss money. "Well it makes 70 dollars and some pennies, That's very good (35)." Linda says this to Willy after she found out that his pay wasn't as expected. Whenever they talk about paying their mortgage they seem to compromise and have a healthy conversation. Usually when they talk about other important issues, they end up arguing because Willy has a short temper. "You shouldn't have criticized him, Willy, especially after he just got off the train. You mustn't lose your temper with him (15)." Willy has no shame because he will talk about anyone and not care. Talking about their mortgage helps them to stay together by agreeing with one another. Whenever the topic comes up, their moods totally change and even though they might not know it; they act as if paying their mortgage is their favorite thing to discuss. "WILLY: `Well, that's a great thing. To weather a twenty-five year mortgage is ------ .' LINDA: `It's and accomplishment.' (73). When they are almost done paying they are very happy and even Willy makes a comment; but he stops himself from expressing his true feelings. Why? Why does Willy prevent himself from being happy with the good things that he has in his life? He tries to live a life that doesn't exist and ends up agonizing. He should just enjoy what he already has and work with it. What ends up happening is that Willy becomes his own enemy so it's not about the mortgage or money anymore. He is the enemy and Linda, Biff and Happy are the one's that come together to help Willy be content. LINDA: `He's dying Biff.' BIFF: `Why is he dying?' LINDA: `He's been trying to kill himself.' (58)" Linda and Biff come together even more because of Willy trying to commit suicide. Willy is destroying himself because he is too much of a dreamer. Linda talks to Willy realistically and tries to break up his dreams.

The Narcissistic Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

The Narcissistic Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman    Many dilemmas throughout the recent decades are repercussions of an individual's foibles. Arthur Miller represents this problem in society within the actions of Willy Loman in his modern play Death of a Salesman. In this controversial play, Willy is a despicable hero who imposes his false value system upon his family and himself because of his own rueful nature, which is akin to an everyman. This personality was described by Arthur Miller himself who "Believe[s] that the common man is as apt a subject for a tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (Tragedy 1). An additional segment of his common human nature is Willy's self-centeredness. Although one might say that the American Dream is imposed upon him by the society, Willy himself creates his dream. Willy supports this claim when he praises Dave Singleman's career to Howard: "And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want" (Miller 81). His nostalgia for a non-existing future is also proven by the fact that no one else in his environment has a similar, impossible dream: "If he were not wearing the rose colored glasses of the myth of the American Dream, he would see that Charley and his son are successful because of lifelong hard work and not because of the illusions of social popularity and physical appearances" (Spark 11). Surely the false ego and pride predicted to come from his assured success are the bridges that prevents Willy from seeing through his fake dream, pushing him to persuade the rest of his family to worship it along with him. Biff sadly bites the apple when he realizes his fate: Willy! I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, do you hear me? And in the middle of that building and I saw--the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be?

Butler’s Tourism Lifecycle Model Essay

Butler developed a model which shows how any tourist resort may grow. A resort may start off from being a small, low key, destination. He suggests that all resorts go through the same sort of process. The seven stages of tourist development A graph of Butler’s resort life cycle model 1. Exploration – a small number of tourists visit the area. The area is unspoilt and few tourist facilities exist. 2. Involvement – local people start to provide some facilities for tourists. There starts to become a recognised tourist season. 3. Development – the host country starts to develop and advertise the area. The area becomes recognised as a tourist destination. 4. Consolidation – the area continues to attract tourists. The growth in tourist numbers may not be a fast as before. Some tensions develop between the host and the tourists. 5. Stagnation – the facilities for the tourists may decline as they become old and run down. The numbers of tourists may decline too. 6. Rejuvenation – investment and modernisation may occur which leads to improvements and visitor numbers may increase again. 7. Decline – if the resort is not rejuvenated (stage 6) then it will go into decline. People lose their jobs related to tourism. The image of the area suffers. The Butler model is a generalisation, and so not all resorts will follow this process. Application of Butler’s Tourism Lifecycle Model to Calafell & Sitges, Spain (MEDC) Sitges and Calafell are approximately equal-sized settlements lying to the south west of Barcelona. Both rely on tourism as a major source of income and employment and the study aims to compare the relative success of tourism, in its various forms, by employing the Butler Model. 1. SITGES Sitges – a brief history Sitges is a town of approximately 25,000 people and is located about 30 km south of Barcelona. Originally occupied by the Romans on a defensive headland looking out to sea, Sitges’ port was used to trade products from the Penedà ¨s region and other places from the Roman Mediterranean. Despite its direct contact with the sea, the town had more peasant farmers than fishermen, with vineyards being the main economic activity. In the 18th century Catalonia obtained permission to trade directly with the West Indian Spanish colonies and by 1833 more than 27% of the Catalans trading with Cuba were Sitgetans. The fortunes made were invested in the purchase or repair of the town’s old houses. Sitges, although located close to Barcelona, was still hard to access at the time, but began to develop as a summer resort for taking the waters. As early as 1879, there are records showing that baths were already being used as medicinal therapy and spa enthusiasts directly became beach ent husiasts. However, it was not until 1881, with the arrival of the railway line from Barcelona, that tourism in Sitges really began to develop. With the arrival of Santiago Rusià ±ol in 1891 – one of the architects of Modernism – Sitges became the cultural centre of the modernists. In 1909, Sitges was visited by Charles Deering, a North American millionaire who converted a street in the historic core into a palace, the Palau Maricel. This palace and Rusià ±ol’s residence helped launch Sitges to tourist fame. In 1918, the Terramar garden city and the Passeig Maritim or Esplanade were constructed. Atraccià ³n de Forasteros (Tourist Attraction Company) was created in 1928 and the Tourist Information Office in 1934. From then on, Sitges would become a European tourism standard setter. Aerial view of Sitges’ historic core The Butler Model applied to Sitges 1. Sitges Discovery Sitges was discovered early by people from the city of Barcelona. It later began to attract many artists and intellectuals such as Rusià ±ol. Many wealthy Catalans also built second homes in Sitges to escape a much polluted Barcelona. Much of the early wealth of Sitges was based on trade with the West Indies and Cuba in particular. The houses on the southern part of the Esplanade reflect this Cuban influence. 2. Sitges Growth and Development The local tourist industry remained in place until the developments of the 1960’s when tourism from overseas first began to filter into the town. The development of the package holiday whereby passengers booked flights, transfers and accommodation all in one booking made places such as Sitges accessible to people from Northern Europe. Furthermore, the use of jet aircraft made such perceived epic journeys now possible in under half of a day. Sitges responded to these developments with the construction of large hotels such as the Terramar and Calipolis on the sea front. Other smaller hotels were also built, often in converted Cubanesque houses. Restaurants, shops and bars also opened to cater for the needs of the increased number of tourists who visited in the main season extending from mid-May until the end of September. 3. Sitges Success Sitges is now a major tourist resort, perceived as high status and catering for more affluent visitors. It has a wide range of 36 hotels and 12 pensions, totaling 2,540 rooms. It is popular with the gay community, many of whom holiday in Sitges during the summer season. This has added to the success of the town and is further reflected in the range of high status shops and restaurants found there. There are over 150 clothes shops and 175 bars and restaurants, four times more than expected in a town the size of Sitges. Sitges has also attracted many migrants not just to work in the tourist industry but also others to live in the town. These include wealthy people from elsewhere in Spain, as well as others from around the world. The migrants comprise of 63% from Europe and 30% from Latin America. Many of the Europeans are living permanently in Sitges while others own second homes in the town. Proximity to Barcelona airport and the advent of low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair have been an added boost to Sitges in attracting people on short breaks. Today large numbers of the tourists are independent travellers, making all of their own holiday arrangements via the internet rather than using a High Street travel agency. This has been especially important since the economic downturn as the majority of visitors are here for short breaks only. 4 Sitges Stagnation Tourism trends change. Many of the early tourists to Sitges now looked for cheaper alternatives to places they may have visited before or become tired of. New resorts opened as the Mediterranean countries of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and others developed their tourist potential and more established resorts such as Sitges saw a fall in their traditional client base. This phase saw holiday companies such as Thompson remove Sitges from their holiday brochures. 5 Sitges Decline or Rejuvenation The fall in the traditional tourist base has led Sitges to try to develop more sustainable strategies. Many environmental improvements are in progress and the resort has been rebranded as an all-year destination. To this end the calendar of events that Sitges offers extends well beyond the traditional holiday season. The extension of the season has been promoted with the production of a DVD with the theme ‘Sitges the art of living’. This appeals to high income professional groups to make Sitges a permanent base for multiple short breaks in the Mediterranean sun. Sitges has capitalised on its proximity to Barcelona to become one of the main destinations for Business and Conference tourism in Catalonia. Its specialised hotels in this sector include the Dolce Sitges, with over 30 meeting rooms and the Melià ¡ Sitges, with a conference hall seating more than 1,300 delegates and 16 meeting rooms. Furthermore, the Sitges Council is embarking on a project called ‘QUALIA Sitges’ to enhance tourism by exploiting what is called the ‘creative economy’. This refers to the development of activities relating to creativity, art and culture which will compliment Sitges’ tourist based economy. It aims to build upon the earlier role of Sitges as a centre of art and cu lture based upon the works of the artist Rusià ±ol in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It aims to encourage and promote cultural and artistic tradition with new technology. The project is a long term plan covering the next ten years and will see the development of a state of the art campus with a school of music and dance, a University of the Performing Arts and a Design Centre. These facilities will bring in to Sitges up to 2,000 students a year as well as a further 2000 jobs including academic staff and other professionals working in the QUALIA facility. It has been estimated that each student will spend approximately 750â‚ ¬ per month in Sitges of which 150â‚ ¬ will be on tourist and leisure facilities. Added to this are the family and friends of the students coming to see them who are expected to add a further 25,000 guest nights in Sitges and the use of the town’s tourist facilities. Therefore, Sitges can be seen as moving forward in its plans to remain a major leisure destination by diversifying to ensure long term sustainability. 2. CALAFELL Calafell – a brief history Calafell has a population of approximately 25,000 people and lies 50 km south of Barcelona. It owes its origins to a castle and occupied a defensive site on an inland hill. The name Calafell means ‘small castle’ and the earliest reference to it dates from 999AD. For years the economy of Calafell was devoted to agriculture and fishing. Like Sitges, the arrival in the late 1880’s of the railway from Barcelona led to a change in its economic fortunes. Calafell became more accessible and the development of second homes around the railway stations flourished with the 1947 Garden City project known as the Quadra de Segur. At first people lived there only during holiday periods, but now the majority of the population are permanent residents. It was not until the 1960’s that tourism began to develop strongly in Calafell, especially along the 5km of uninterrupted beach where numerous apartment buildings and hotels were constructed. With the blessing of successive city councils, a huge speculative boom in the 1970’s led to an endless row of 6-storey apartments facing the sea. Later regulations prevented excessive vertical growth whilst inland the prohibition of building over two and a half floors led to more green space and a lower population density. Today, the town of Calafell is delimited into three very distinct areas. To the north, narrow streets surround the castle and the old church. To the south, and disconnected from the historic core, the former seafront fishing village has been converted into tourist area. And to the east is Segur de Calafell, a former Garden City of second homes developed on farmland surrounding the railway station. | Calafell castle: the historic core of Calafell is disconnected from the seafront beach resort| | Calafell seafront: 6-storey apartments facing the sea| The Butler Model applied to Calafell 1. Discovery Calafell, like Sitges, benefited from the opening of the railway line but because of its greater distance from Barcelona, there was very slow development until a huge speculative boom in the 1970’s. Developers constructed hotels and apartments to take advantage of the resort’s greatest asset – its long and wide beach. 2. Growth and Development The construction of the promenade and the completion of the sea front apartments and hotels attracted families from Madrid and northern Spain, particularly in the summer months. New businesses opened to cater for the needs of these people. 3. Success The 5 km stretch of coastline comprising the beach resort of Calafell became fully occupied during the high seasons of the 1970’s and 1980’s. However, Calafell never attracted the package tour operators in the way that Sitges has done and the range of hotels is very limited. 4. Problem – Stagnation The speculative boom of the 1970’s and 1980’s resulted in the destruction of nearly all of Calafell’s original seafront. The fishing cottages were replaced by an endless row of 6-storey apartments facing the sea. As a result, the seafront lacks character and charm and with the economic crisis and competition from other resorts in Spain and overseas, the number of hotel rooms has decreased by 17% in the last decade (from 1,690 in 1996 to 1402 in 2006). The immigrant population now represents 20% of the total population of Calafell, having grown rapidly in recent years. However, Calafell has not attracted large numbers of wealthy people from elsewhere in Spain and Europe in the way Sitges has. Instead, approximately 50% of the immigrants are from North Africa, settling in the area of Segur de Calafell. Calafell thus seems to be in stagnation or decline mode. Calafell: only one cottage from the original seafront remains today 5. Decline or Rejuvenation Like Sitges, the fall in the traditional tourist base has led Calafell to try to develop more sustainable strategies. Many environmental improvements are in progress and the resort has been rebranded as an all-year destination. However, tourism in Calafell has taken a rather different path to Sitges. The family-orientated nature of the resort has been promoted, with Calafell earning the ‘Family Holiday Destination certificate’ from the Catalan government in 2007. This recognised the family-oriented accommodation, restaurants and a range of leisure activities provided. Calafell has a Children’s Club in the summer months and, like Sitges, has a tourist train running along the sea front and a second linking the beach area with the historic core inland. Calafell has helped pioneer the trend for more active holiday pursuits and in 2008 became the first resort in Spain to offer Nordic walking. This, together with trekking and mountain biking are provided free of charge, with certified guides. However, despite adopting the slogan ‘Calafell tot l’any’ (‘Calafell, all year’), the resort has struggled to extend the tourist season as effectively as Sitges. Calafell’s 2009 Municipal Urban Plan (POUM) seeks to stop the uncontrolled urban growth of the town, protect the natural and historical heritage and maintain and enhance the tourism that forms its economic base. Calafell needs to widen its tourism offer and new economic activities need to be attracted to diversify its economy if it is to avoid becoming a dormitory town for Barcelona. It can therefore be seen that both Sitges and Calafell cater for tourists but are two very different towns. The proximity of Barcelona has enabled Sitges to grow much more rapidly and diversify its tourism more effectively than Calafell with the result that the two towns have developed and evolved in different ways.

Fashion theory -roland barth

Roland Farther and the End of the Nineteenth Century Roland Farther was a French philosopher, linguistic, critic and theorist. He was also the first begins systematically to think through the intellectual changes in the study of fashion and clothes. His fashion theory has a close relationship to his structuralism and linguistic knowledge, and defined fashion, clothes their origins and functions within the system. First of all, Farther saw fashion as a whole system. Based on the article, system has been defined as ‘a group or set of related materials or immaterial things forming a unity or complex whole.Fashion as a sort of system, has the features of that parts cannot be explained without interpreting the relationship to the whole system. Also, fashion is should be explained by other dimensions in the society too, such as social facts, and so on. So, he summarized the thoughts like fashion system is the totality of social relations and activities that are required for fashion t o come into existence'. He pointed out the systematic society relies on structured human activities, and human economic activities can be divided in three dimensions: Production, strutting and consumption.Respectively, he divided ‘garments' in three dimensions based on the theory: firstly, ‘real garments', which corresponds to the dimension of production; ‘represented garments', corresponds to the dimension of distribution; ‘used garments', relates to the dimension of consumption. So, fashionable garments are not belong to the real garments, instead they are representative garments since they are in the realm of distribution that producers want to ensure that the garments are satisfied the demand of consumers.Followed y the explanation, the chapter focused on the introduction of the three dimensions of garments. Real clothes, which arises to indicate the modality clothing assumes before it is translated into the garment of representation. They do not represen t anything, so Farther defined the real clothes as an object like a prototype. The represented garments can be separated into image clothing and written clothing, which belongs to two systems: system of image and the system of language. He took the example of a fashion magazine that uses each of the two systems to descriptor a cushion garment.He concluded that language is a more powerful system because it more readily renders the physical substance of the ‘real garment' into a set of common, abstract signifier. In addition, image and language has different functions. According to Farther, image clothing provides the potential users with a stencil of the real garment and inflects there traces of real garments in an aesthetic direction while language translated the garments into a system of abstract and intellective meaning and it is closer to the nature of true fashionable garments'.In the other word, loathes have more similarities with language than image, because they are two models of communication. His thoughts included a lot of philosophies from formal chapters, which discuss clothes through sociology and history. Farther admits that clothing is a social phenomenon and seen as a set of garments that have acquired their present for, because of their past. It is also notable that Farther not agreed with the idea that the origin of clothes is decoration. He thoughts this question should be explained from the aspects of systematic.Farther thoughts was highly structured eased on his field. Also, he emphasized the function of language probably because his study on linguistic. It is interesting that in this article I saw more about his structuralism theories from the example of clothing. Highlights of the Article Farther who first begins systematically to think through the intellectual changes that would eventually amount to a ‘paradigm change' in the study of clothes and fashion. Breather's reputation as a fashion thinker' rests mainly upon the docto rate that never was, The Fashion System.The books opening section titled ‘Introduction: Method' is a impressive and lucid demonstration of his methodological approach to the question What is fashion?. System, defined as ‘a group or set of related or associated material or immaterial things forming a unity or complex whole', lay at the heart of the revolution that swept through French intellectual life after the Second World War and one which has come to be known by the generic term ‘structuralism'. ‘System', ‘structure' and totality are all closely related terms intended to signify.They (structuralisms) insist that the whole and the parts can be properly explained only in arms of the relations that exist between the parts. The key assumption at work is the idea that any social fact', such as fashion, should not be regarded as something having a singular identity. The central thrust of the idea of ‘system' is to carefully sort out the differential components of fashion and then see how the complex network of relationships' can Join together these different dimensions into a dynamic whole. Systematic is the process of bringing together different elements into relationships of mutual dependency.The fashion system is the totality of social relations and activities that are required for fashion to come into existence. ‘System', therefore, is a way of conceiving of human existence as something in which a structured collective being precedes, and provides the foundation for, individual being, and this has steadily become a central organizing principle of Western thought. Human action is ‘structured' into patterned networks. In order that the necessities of life be secured and so ensure that social life and the life of the individual will continue, humans have to act in an organized, collective manner.Human economic activity came to be en as comprising of three dimensions. Production – what ensures that stuff gets made; Distribution – what ensures that what is made reaches the people who need it; Consumption – the ways in which what is made is used up. Farther saw the analytical possibilities of extending this model of production, distribution and consumption to social institutions other than economic ones, in particular to dimensions of social life such as art and culture. The first of these distinctions separates clothing into three garments'. These he calls the real garment', the represented garment' and the used garment'.The ‘real garment' corresponds to the dimension of production, the ‘represented garment' corresponds to the dimension of distribution, while the ‘used garment' corresponds to the dimension of consumption. The implication of this is that consumers never encounter the ‘real garment'. What they encounter is the fashionable garment, the garment that is already in the realm of representation. Breather's concept of the revised category of the real garment' arises to indicate the modality clothing assumes before it is translated into the garment of representation.The ‘real garment' is something like a ‘prototype' – that is, the object before it is named. The final distinction made by Farther is in the central category of ‘represented clothing, which he separates into ‘image-clothing and Written clothing. Language, on the other hand, Farther considers to be a ‘purer, more powerful code for the production of meaning because it more readily renders the physical substance of the ‘real garment' into a set of common, abstract signifier. It is clear that image-clothing and written clothing have different functions within representation.Image-clothing provides the potential user with a ‘stencil' of the real garment and, at the same time, inflects these traces of the real garment in an aesthetic direction. Material stuff is being turned into language. The garment is being transl ated into a system of abstract, intellective meanings and it is this final modality of the garment that Farther sees as the true fashionable garment'. In other words, clothing is a social phenomenon. By this he meaner the tendency among previous writers to regard not Just clothes, but social life in general, as a collection of individual traits', each with its own evolutionary pathway into the present.Clothing, in this model, is seen as a set of garments that have acquired their present form because of their past. Farther rejects the conclusion that it is decoration which is the chief motive for clothing. The tendency of all bodily covering to insert itself into an organized, formal and normative system, which is recognized by society. If we are set on explaining the origins of clothing, we have to include in that explanation an account of the coming into being of that aspect of the phenomenon that is collective, organized, formal and normative.Clothing seems to resemble language in a number of ways. Like language, clothing was pre-eminently a collective activity. His final move was of a more general nature and this was to categorize clothes as a mode of communication. Clothes are always a combination of a specific signifier and a general signified that is external to it (epoch, country, social class). The most influential of Brander's methodological advances is his separation of the historical time continuum into three distinct sorts of durations. Clothing does not ‘reflect' anything but it may react in its own way to an external disturbance.