Discuss the various ways in which globalisation is affecting the world of work. :: essays research papers

The term globalisation is a particularly elastic concept. Not only does it embrace a wide range of ‘things’, it also straddles the realms of ‘fact’ and ‘value’ of ‘idea’ and ‘reality’, thus to define the word globalisation requires an amalgamation of both moral and material values which may include and encompass events as dynamic as economic, political and social. At its simplest globalisation has tended to denote the idea that societies are becoming increasingly affected by events of other societies, thus the idea of an interconnected world is a central theme for many scholars who have remarked upon the focus of globalisation. It should be noted however that there has been and continues to be schism surrounding what some commentators constitute as being a limitless phenomena as others stand in direct contradiction and consider the globalisation thesis as merely a ‘buzz-word to denote the latest phase of capitali sm.’ The word globalisation is often assumed to be a relatively recent emergence in world history, however although the ancestry and precise timescale of the use of the term is nebulous for ease of analysis many scholars suggest the 1980s to be the era in which the seeds of globalisation were set and subsequently initiated historians and fellow scholars alike to begin to question the existence and effects of globalisation. It is visible that the globalisation thesis is not clear cut therefore in this essay I will not be looking at it in isolation but will also attempt to highlight the issues surrounding globalisation, whilst attempting to find a correlation between the neo-liberal stance of globalisation and how they regard this to be affecting the global domain in regards to employment, before concluding as to if we can conclusively say that globalisation is affecting the world of work in society today. Endeavouring to find a specific definition of globalisation can be onerous as there are a multiplicity of both positive and negative ideas and beliefs of what the term actually implies, however Rosabeth Moss Kanter in ‘Thriving Locally in the Global Ecomony’ (1995) has provided an original explanation of the term, ‘the world is becoming a global shopping mall in which ideas and products are available everywhere at the same time.’ M.Waters has also commented on this issue, but perhaps adopting a less positive stance, ‘a social process in which the constrains of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding.

Don Delillo’s Videotape Essay

The plot of Don Delillo’s Videotape is strange enough as it is; a twelve year old girl is playing with a video camera while in the back seat of their family car. Thinking it is fun to do so, she points the camera out the back window and starts recording the man driving the car behind them. It is not long before the girl and her video camera become witness to the man being fatally shot, and her video becomes widely publicized thereafter. The introduction of the story is with the role of the twelve year old girl in the entire structure of the story. How she gets involved, and the after-effects of her involvement all form the basic concepts and structure of the story. Careful readers will note several complications within the storyline itself that develop surrounding the young girl. The first is her reaction to keep the video camera running even during the actual shooting itself. Being in the process of witnessing a murder in cold blood, the child is faced with the conflict of stopping the recording or satisfying a morbid fascination to continue watching. Ultimately, the child is unable to resist, possibly because of the curiosity that comes with the experience of seeing something new. However, Videotape does not just focus on the child and her story. It tells of the people watching it on television afterwards, specifically of a couple’s reaction to it. In the story, while the wife seems relatively uninterested in the real-life drama going on in the video, the husband displays the same morbid fascination with the murder similar to that earlier demonstrated by the child. The irony of the situation is such that while the idea of seeing the murder of a fellow human being in real life is repulsive enough, seeing it in a different form seems to effectively change the circumstances surrounding it, making it acceptable even. The conclusion of the story ultimately reveals the unfortunate side of man that revels in others’ loss when presented in a manner so usually associated with mass entertainment.

Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian Mathematician

Sofia Kovalevskayas father, Vasily Korvin-Krukovsky, was a general in the Russian Army and was part of Russian nobility. Her mother,  Yelizaveta Shubert,  was from a German family with many scholars; her maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were both mathematicians. She was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1850. Background Known for:first woman to hold a university chair in modern Europefirst woman on the editorial staff of a mathematical journalDates:  January 15, 1850 to February 10, 1891Occupation:  novelist,  mathematicianAlso known as:  Also known as:Sonya KovalevskayaSofya KovalevskayaSophia KovalevskaiaSonia KovelevskayaSonya Korvin-Krukovsky Learning Mathematics As a young child, Sofia Kovalevskaya was fascinated with the unusual wallpaper on the wall of a room on the family estate: the lecture notes of Mikhail Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus. Although her father provided her with private tutoring, he would not allow her to study abroad for further education, and Russian universities would not then admit women. Sofia Kovalevskaya wanted to continue her studies in mathematics, so she found a solution: an amenable young student of paleontology, Vladimir Kovalensky, who entered into a marriage of convenience with her. This allowed her to escape the control of her father. In 1869, they left Russia with her sister, Anyuta. Sonja went to Heidelberg, Germany, Sofia Kovalensky went to Vienna, Austria, and Anyuta went to Paris, France. University Study In Heidelberg, Sofia Kovalevskaya obtained the permission of the mathematics professors to allow her to study at the University of Heidelberg. After two years she went to Berlin to study with Karl Weierstrass. She had to study privately with him, as the university in Berlin would not allow any women to attend class sessions, and Weierstrass was unable to get the university to change the rule. With Weierstrass support, Sofia Kovalevskaya pursued a degree in mathematics elsewhere, and her work earned her a doctorate sum cumma laude from the University of Gà ¶ttingen in 1874. Her doctoral dissertation on partial differential equations is today called the Cauch-Kovelevskaya Theorem. It so impressed the faculty that they awarded Sofia  Kovalevskaya the doctorate without examination and without her having attended any classes at the university. Looking for Work Sofia Kovalevskaya and her husband returned to Russia after she earned her doctorate. They were unable to find the academic positions they desired. They pursued commercial ventures and produced a daughter as well. Sofia Kovalevskaya began writing fiction, including a novella Vera Barantzova which won sufficient acclaim to be translated into several languages. Vladimir Kovalensky, immersed in a financial scandal for which he was about to be prosecuted, committed suicide in 1883. Sofia Kovalevskaya had already returned to Berlin and mathematics, taking their daughter with her. Teaching and Publishing She became a privatdozent at Stockholm University, paid by her students rather than the university. In 1888 Sofia Kovalevskaya won the Prix Bordin from the French Academie Royale des Sciences for research now called the Kovelevskaya top. This research examined how Saturns rings rotated. She also won a prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1889, and that same year was appointed to a chair at the university—the first woman appointed to a chair at a modern European university. She was also elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences as a member that same year. She only published ten papers before her death from influenza in 1891, after a trip to Paris to see Maxim Kovalensky, a relative of her late husband with whom she was having a love affair. A lunar crater on the far side of the moon from Earth and an asteroid were both named in her honor. Sources Ann Hibner Koblitz. A Convergence of Lives: Sofia Kovalevskaia: Scientist, Writer, Revolutionary. 1993 reprint.Roger Cooke. The Mathematics of Sonya Kovalevskaya. 1984.Linda Keene, editor. The Legacy of Sonya Kovalevskaya: Proceedings of a Symposium. 1987.