ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
There are several reasons why architecture is a social practice. The first reason is that architecture is the means through which societies organize spaces. Many of the functions that underpin a society’s social functions take within the spaces designed through architecture. This spans all socio-economic functions and political functions. Secondly, architectural design tends to follow the general forms described by the opinion leaders in society. The opinion leaders influence the commissioning of architectural projects, which in turn define the way that society views itself. It is very easy to know the social organization of a society by observing its architectural choices and uses. For instance, a society defined by financial segregation will have areas frequented by the wealthy and those patronized by the poor. Thirdly, architecture is an emblem of the social aspirations of a society. For instance, the statue of liberty speaks volumes about the aspirations of the people of America. In almost all countries, the landmarks are architectural compositions speaking about the aspirations of the people there. The fourth reason that makes architecture a social practice is that it defines the languages of societies in very distinct ways. Due to the size of architectural projects, there is a tendency to use the process of design and construction metaphorically to present ideas. One of the commonly used phrases, “drawing board”, has strong roots in architecture, but is a popular phrase used to mean planning or strategy phase. Architecture cannot afford to disengage from the social forces shaping society such as globalization. What will drive the social project in our current context will be the forces of globalization expressed as commoditization, or the forces of affirmative action which will seek to right historical wrongs and bring to balance the competing social and financial interests. If architecture pursues commoditization, where its impact only reflects the desire of the bourgeois, then it will participate in the social project as an agent and an opinion leader, but as a collaborative force. On the other hand, a purely affirmative stance will reduce the participation of architecture to activism, which again will not be ideal. The best disposition for architecture is to engage in a social project by referring to the rich heritage of this discipline and rediscovering the values that underpinned the practice of architecture. My role as a designer in the world at large transcends the technical outputs that are primary to design. Technical outputs include the design solutions to the technical challenges that the client presents. They manifest in blueprints, bills of quantities, and technical proposals. I see my role as a social practitioner because of the influe
Introduction During the WW II in America, the government of America forced more than 120, 000 Americans of Japanese descent from the regions of Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona to relocation centers where they lived for the entire period of the WW II. Since the internment process involved all ages among the Japanese American population, the general process of relocation was done by the humane War Relocation Authority (WRA), which spread the Japanese Americans in the relocation centers and US Army facilities. Although all the internees were released by the windfall of 1946, they had lost their businesses, homes besides deleterious effects on their social lives. Thus, this analytical treatise attempts to explicitly review the infamous Japanese Americans internment and what it suggests on the nature of American democracy. Besides, the treatise reviews the historical dynamics that allowed for the internment of Japanese Americans and the impacts of internment in the Japanese American communities during and after the end of WW II. Japanese American internment and the democracy of America during WW2 Basically, the Japanese American communities’ internment during WW2 was justified by the American government that classified it as a military necessity. The period was characterized by an indiscriminate roundup of Japanese and Japanese Americans who lived in
Central Theme Preventing the instances of corporate fraud in the context of the contemporary environment of the global economy is an admittedly challenging task. In the realm of the global economy, where a company is exposed to an array of external factors that cannot possibly be controlled, the threats of its financial data being used for malicious purposes increase exponentially. The introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulation could be viewed as an attempt to prevent the instances of financial fraud from occurring in the companies operating in the environment of the global market. As the further application of the concept to the realm of the global market has shown, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act allows viewing the problems in the contemporary financial landscape of the global market from the societal, economic, and ethic standpoint. As a result, a comprehensive strategy for addressing the issue of financial fraud as a phenomenon can be created. Therefore, the analysis of the effects that the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had on the global market can be viewed as the focus of the paper. The discussion revolves around the opportunities that the regulation opens in front of global companies, especially as far as the prevention of corporate fraud is concerned. The author focuses on determining the advantages and the disadvantages of the regulation as the tool of enhancing the transparency of the financial transactions carried out in the global economy setting. Although the author makes it quite clear that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could use more clarity, they admit that it is likely to change the realm of the global market by preventing the instances of financial fraud successfully (Jasso, 2002). Critical Analysis The theoretical foundation for the article is impeccable. One might argue that applying the theory of commerce to the problem of corporate fraud in the global market might not be the right approach to the assessment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its effects on the target environment. However, a closer look at the way in which the essential tenets of the theory are applied to the issue will reveal that there is a close connection between the theory and the regulation under analysis. Particularly, the identified approach allows focusing on the factors that define the course of actions chosen by the participants involved in market relationships. In other words, the theoretical framework sheds light on the perso
Introduction Art is an essential part of people’s life. Art of different nations differs as these nations have different customs, traditions and history. The theater is one of the art types which can fully represent the viewer with the ethnical peculiarities of that country, which presents its play. Latino America is a country, which traditions are rather special and varied. Ethnical peculiarities of Latino Americans are presented in its art, and theater is one of the main types of art which can show Latino’s traditions and lifestyle fully and broaden. Latino American Theater shows a great variety of customs and traditions, which are represented for the viewers. “Zoot Suit” by Luis Valdez, “Death and the maiden” by Ariel Dorfman, “Poetics of the oppressed” by Augusto Boal and “Miss Margarida’s way” by Roberto Athayde is the least part of Latino American heritage. These pieces of works represent viewers with social and political problems or issues of Latino America, show language and manner of communication, provide the viewers with racial and ethnic problems in Latino American society. Being more concrete, we are going to analyze some of these plays from the point of view of some of the issues, listed above. Main Body Luis Valdez created his play in common with Teatro Campesino and the Center Theater Group of Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum. This play changed Latino American Theater greatly. This play showed that society is interested in cultural and class lines, in ethnic problems of the society. One of the aims of the play was the extension of the audience, showing the existing problems in the society and making people think and not forget about what had happened. (Huerta 2000) “Zoot Suit” by Luis Valdez is a play, which depicts social and racial problems in the Latino American society. The time in the play is 1940s. Injustice and prejudice are the main themes of the play on the racial discrimination background. The play depicts the injustice court which sentenced to jail zoot suit gang. The appearance of this gang in the city made newspapers to write about them. Their names were discussed, and when one Mexican American was killed, there were no doubts, that it was their fault. The play presents us the court trial, during which innocent people were placed under the guard. Social i
The main aim of conflict resolution is to ensure that both opposed parties come to an amicable agreement despite the varied opinions of both groups. A sufficient resolution prevents further worsening of the situation and prolonging a disagreement considering the conflict between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin; we can assess the effectiveness of a conflict resolution process at the following stages (Jones, 2013). The first stage involves having a conversion with both parties as they explain their individual versions of the situation. Giving both persons a chance to say what they think caused the confrontation will provide you with a clear picture of the issue. At this stage, the mediator seeks to understand the parties involved and learns their reasons for disagreeing. He also has a chance of finding out the leading cause of the conflict. If this is clearly done and the cause of the war is well established, then we can say that the first stage was successful (Coleman, 2011). In this case, both sides had credible facts that made them think that they were right and the other party is to be disregarded like in the case of Trayvon Martin who feels that he was wrongly attacked and on the other hand George Zimmerman thinks he was acting within his mandate when he shot Martin (Jones, 2013). The second stage deals with the emotions of both individuals and try to validate these feelings without making either party think that they have a weaker argument. By resolving their emotional issues, the warring persons are given a chance at getting past the feelings of anger, disrespect, and violation. At this stage, when both parties have defended their opinions and agreed that they have a problem, then various avenues of managing the conflict can be proposed. When Zimmerman strongly believes that he was acting for the good of the neighborhood when he followed Martin while on the other hand, Martin feels that his rights as an individual were violated (Ford, 2013). In a bid to understand why they acted the way they did, the character of these individuals is studied. This character critic is related to how they worked during the whole confrontation. More knowledge of their name is sought from their friends and family. These witnesses provide insight into the reputations of the conflicting individuals. Due to the varied emotional effect, the incident had Trayvon had a lot of sympathy from the general public who saw him as the victim, while Zimmerman
Need to analyze Victoria’s Secret marketing strategy? The essay below focuses on customer behavior & segmentation of Victoria’s Secret company. Introduction Victoria’s secret is one of the most popular and exclusive brand of lingerie, fragrances and beauty products in United States, Canada and other countries. Leslie Wexner the founder of Victoria Secret started this brand in 1982 by purchasing a small chain of lingerie products in San Francisco. He made the merchandize to look good and the products were easy to buy and made the environment look relaxed and attractive (Durbin 2002). Victoria Secret Marketing Analysis Victoria’s Secret has implemented a 360 degree marketing strategy. 360 degree is basically creating an exclusive brand philosophy. It is more engaged into customer based media strategy (Gupta 2009). As the company is managing the retail outlets, the web stores and catalogues at the same time and fulfilling the customer’s needs at their best level. Leslie Wexner has made Victoria’s secret the top class brand throughout all channels, catalogues, stores and internet he always said “The same products are launched at the same time, in exactly the same way, with the same quality, and same positioning” (Durbin 2002). From the very first day the company has tried to have a full control on their distribution point. In addition to that Victoria’s Secret has divided their consumers from demographic point of view and they provide specific messages throughout the campaign with the help of emails. As mentioned by Weil “Our goal is to provide the same message to the same customer at the same time, For instance, a customer whose purchase history indicated a preference for swimwear would receive an e-mail promoting a swimsuit sale and would get the most recent swimwear catalogue” (Durbin 2002). Victoria Secret Consumer Demographics Victoria secret is basically targeting girls aged 13-29 years and women aged 30-50 years. Due to wide range of products whenever we think of Victoria’s secret the target market always vary with the age. As if the lady is a mother or grandmother of heavy weight she would obliviously go for the body products and fragrances. Where as a young girl or a mother who is in good shape wi
Introduction: Agricultural Revolutions Even though the four civilizations under analysis are very different and unique, they can be characterized by a set of similar features when it comes to their history and development. In particular, all of them are known as ancient river-valley civilizations which indicate that they were surrounded by rivers (the Nile River in Egypt, Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Indus and Ganges Rivers in India, and the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in China). Due to the plentiful water supply, the civilizations were able to boost their farming activities and start agricultural revolutions – a rapid increase in the crops harvest powering the development of the cities and the population growth. Background: The Rise of Ancient Civilizations (Irrigation, City-States, Etc.) Large city-states became one of the phenomena typical for river-valley civilizations. Due to their size, the citizens had to develop complex and efficient irrigation systems comprised on a multitude of canals delivering water not only to the fields but also to different parts of the cities (“The River Valley Civilizations”). The civilizations rose from the smaller peoples heavily dependent on gathering and hunting who did not tend to build permanent settlements. Due to the closeness of the rivers, the ongoing farming became possible and the civilizations grew fast developing art, communications, technology, and complex institutions. River-Valley Civilizations ( Bronze AGE: 3500 -1000 BC) Mesopotamia & Egypt As specified in the previous sections, the Egyptian river-valley civilization settled at the backs of Nile River, and Mesopotamians successfully located themselves between Tigris and Euphrates. Both locations were prone to floods and often faced armed conflicts with the neighboring nations due to the favorable geographical position and plentiful resources (“Basic features of early civilizations- Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, & Egypt”). Both cultures had patriarchal societies with strict hierarchies and employed slave labor. India Located on the river system formed by the Indus River, the ancient Indian river-valley civilization was surrounded by mountains and turned out to be difficult to reach. For the purpose of communications and trade, the Indians developed Khyber Pass – a road connecting them to some of the trade routes; also, the civilization did not suffer from any military invasions and existed in quite a peaceful environment (“Basic features of early civilizations- Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, & Egypt”). China The territory between the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers was the home to the ancient river-valley civilization in China that used complex irrigation systems to direct their water supplies across the land. The civilization is known for its techniques for smelting metals and creating metal tools and utensils. Also, its society was built on a strict hierarchy and ruled by several royal dynasties throughout the centuries (“Early River Valley Civilizations”). Eurasian Steppe Eurasian Steppe represents a large grassland territory parting the Eastern and Western civilizations in the North hemisphere. For the settled civilizations, the main chall
Introduction History of the mankind is filled with numerous discoveries and inventions. Technological innovations take a special place among them because they facilitated progress and provided for better living conditions for mankind. However, in this respect, there is also a place for an exception, and this exception is called Disruptive Technology. The specialty of this technology lies in its deviance from the mainstream ones in such aspects as performance factors, operation costs, and results of their usage. Thus, disruptive technologies are usually simple in operation as the major aim of their production is the simplification of the already existing ones. They are cheaper in production and operation, and this factor also reflects the purpose of disruptive technology development. However, these two advantages result in a substantial drawback of these technologies – it is their lower productivity and worse quality of the products. Drawing from all these factors, disruptive technologies are used rather rarely as they are viewed as disadvantaged ones. Nevertheless, there are cases of successful implementation of disruptive technologies in industrial companies (Christensen, 2000). Betamax Disruptive Technology To begin with, it is necessary to state that disruptive technologies are mainly observed, according to Christensen (2000), in the four spheres of the industry including information technology, machine building, metallurgy, and car building (Christensen, 2000). Information technology, as the most important branch of the industry in the era of the informational society, has been quickly developing since the middle of the 20th century, and the inventions made by researchers in this sphere have irreversibly changed the face of humanity of today. The pioneer disruptive technologies in the information technology sphere were Betamax and VHS video recording technologies (Betamax, 2003). Betamax was first introduced by Sony Company in 1975 as a progressive way of video data recording and storage. Its major difference from the formerly preferred U-Matic technology lied in the recording time it allowed – 60 minutes compared to several minutes. The quality of the recorder images and pieces of the video was also much better, as experts agree than the quality allowed by any previously introduced innovations. Finally, the smaller size of the Betamax video cassettes also played a great role in their popularization in the market. However, the result of Betamax’s disruptive technology introduction was its complete failure as a commercial product in the world market of the Information Technologies industry. By the late 1980s, the production of Betamax video cassettes had been stooped. Sony reported the construction of the last Betamax recording-reading device in 2002 in Japan. After this year, the market of video recording was completely captured by, at first, VHS technology, and further by the producers of digital decoding technologies (Owen, 2005). Looking back to the 1980s, it can be seen now that the organizational structure of Sony did not allow Betamax technology to become a successful and widely used recording inst
For a long time now, Africa has always been left out, especially when making decisions that would essentially affect the entire world. This paper seeks to outline the principles of African societies as well as highlight the influence of technological innovations on the continent. The views of optimists and pessimists will also be described alongside threats that are facing post-colonial Africa. Eventually, the perception of Africa as a single unit by other continents will also be given consideration. Principles of African Societies Postcolonial Africa is divided into 52 nations, and border integrity has been maintained. All these nations have tried to maintain sovereignty by providing methods of self-governance, including the establishment of democracies and monarchies. The majority of the nations in Africa have established constitutions based on the constitutions of the nations that governed them. For instance, Kenya’s constitution, to a large extent, is a replica of Britain’s constitution. The concept of regionalism has also been given importance, with the continent being divided into five regions; these are North Africa, South Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and Central Africa. Territorial integrity has been established by the respect of established borders, and whenever the integrity of boundaries is interfered with, conflict amongst neighboring nations erupts. This has been seen severally in the central African region involving the movement of rebel forces into the Congo from Uganda. Federalism has been the most acceptable framework in most of the democratic states in Africa (Martin 265). Countries such as Nigeria and Rwanda are headed by an elected head of state under the support of regional leaders. These regional leaders are also elected to the parliament to represent particular constituencies. International humanitarian intervention is welcome in all regions of the continent, and most of the nations around subscribe to the doctrines of international organizations such as the United Nations. Countries that don’t welcome humanitarian inter
The video chosen for the overview in this paper is called “Euromaidan/Kijow 2014”, it was posted on YouTube by a user under the nickname MrMitos1 in the end of February this year, which was the time when the whole world was discussing the events of Ukrainian revolution and the mass protest in the center of Kyiv on the Independence Square or Maidan. The video presents a selection of photographs taken during the most heated moments of the protest. The photographs demonstrate various events and actions that took place on Maidan. The video is quite effective, as it employs powerful images and makes them produce the strongest effect on the audience. For the supporters of the protest this video would serve as a great motivation and a reminder of the “heroic” time and people. The video is accompanied by epic music designed to create a dramatic mood, evoke the viewer’s emotions and connect them to the images. The events of revolution are shown in a one-sided manner. The protesters are portrayed as heroes, and the police and the government – as cruel tyrants. Images of priests participating in Maidan riots demonstrated that god is on the people’s side and images of police only show snipers, framing the police as coldblooded murderers. This propaganda is intended to make the viewers join the protest and rise against the “wrong” power. The of the ideological similarities between a Palestinian Islamic organization called Hamas and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is that both of these movements were created with a purpose to liberate. Hamas intended to free Palestine from its occupation by Israel and ALF’s main function is to liberate animals exploited and used by humans for scientific experiments and other cruel activities (Coronado, 2004). Each of the two organizations functions in more than one country. Finally, the most obvious similarity is that both Animal Liberation Front and Hamas employ violence to achieve their goals. While Hamas uses suicide bombers and rocket attacks, ALF sets facilities on fire and commits acts of vandalism and private property violations. The difference between the organizations is that Hamas is considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union and ALF is often compared to a terrorist organization but