Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas and philosophy in The Tipping Point, as they apply to Occupy Wall Street Movement Essay Example

Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas and philosophy in The Tipping Point, as they apply to Occupy Wall Street Movement Essay Malcolm Gladwell has attempted to create a unique style of scholarship that navigates between science and popular culture. As a result he has earned the wrath from both quarters. For example, scientists accuse him for being simplistic or lacking in rigor. On the other side, commentators from mainstream media accuse him of bringing esoteric scientific concepts to popular discourse. Yet, his book The Tipping Point has sold more than a 3 million copies. His other titles such as Blink (2005), Outliers (2008), David and Goliath (2013), etc, continue to fascinate and provoke in equal measure. Despite the controversies surrounding some of Gladwell’s inferences, his ideas and philosophies have become assimilated into popular discourse. It is an interesting exercise to study how the most important social movement of recent times – Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS) – measures up in relation to the author’s theories. This essay endeavors to perform the same. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement witnessed in recent years is one of the most significant socio-political events to have taken place in the history of the United States of America. Measuring merely by the weight of popular support and enthusiastic participation evinced by the movement, it could be equated with the Civil Rights movement and the Women’s Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s respectively. But nothing in popular culture currents of recent years would have led to an anticipation of this sudden collective uprising by a majority of American citizens. The protests and public discussions were centered on the flawed policy priorities of the body politic. It also addressed the greed-based actions of Corporate America which put profits ahead of social responsibility. The movement had sprung from the failures of the political and business establishments which have hurt a vast majority of ordinary Americans – the other 99%, as the slogan proclaims. We will write a custom essay sample on Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas and philosophy in The Tipping Point, as they apply to Occupy Wall Street Movement specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas and philosophy in The Tipping Point, as they apply to Occupy Wall Street Movement specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas and philosophy in The Tipping Point, as they apply to Occupy Wall Street Movement specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer One of the famous assertions in The Tipping Point is that â€Å"ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do†. Gladwell equates the birth and progress of social movements to that of epidemics. One of the features of this process is the ‘law of the few’, whereby 80% of the work is done by 20% of the participants. Gladwell deems it necessary to have charismatic leadership for the sustenance of mass movements. He posits that these leaders with â€Å"a particular and rare set of social gifts† will take up responsibility for 80% of the work. (Bush, 2013, p.38) According to Gladwell these leaders could be of three types – connectors, mavens or salesmen. But when we study the birth and spread of OWS, it is difficult to identify who the leaders are. In many ways, the OWS does not fit the description of epidemics that Gladwell posits. In fact, the OWS may not even have a ‘tipping point’, whereby a gathering stream brok e into a forceful torrent. It is a movement characterized by steady sharing of information and gradual increase in collective organization. The OWS is also remarkable for its lack of central leadership. It is just through word of mouth publicity and a shared sense of social solidarity that the mass movement materialized. Eschewing the theories of epidemics formulated by Gladwell, one could even argue that the OWS was nothing short of a nation getting in touch with its revolutionary spirit. After all, the short history of the country, starting with its fight for independence, is studded with movements of public collective action that have induced progressive changes in the political, legal and cultural domains. (Farhat-Holzman, 2011) The OWS movement is the most recent in that noble tradition of civil disobedience and collective public action that the country is so proud of. It is instructive to learn what Gladwell thought of online social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. The Tipping Point was written before OWS, and it fails to foresee the potential for online social media to spur a mass movement. Writing for The New Yorker magazine in 2010 he contrasts â€Å"today’s online activists with the young civil rights leaders who launched lunch counter sit-ins in the South in the early 1960s. What social media are not good at is providing the discipline, strategy, hierarchy, and strong social bonds that successful movements require. Such connections are what gave the four student leaders in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 the courage to defy racial subordination, despite the likelihood of violence. The instigators were two pairs of college roommates. They all lived in the same dorm, and three of them had gone to high school together.† (Gladwell, as quoted by Bush, 2013, p.38) Considering what we now know after the fact, Gladwell had underestimated the power of social media. The Occupy Wall Street movement transpired despite the fact that there are several weaknesses to online social networks. The numerous ‘friends’ we have on Facebook and Twitter are thought of as ‘weak ties’ by sociologists. Though they expose us to a broad range of new ideas and information, our associations with them are not strong. Some even contended that â€Å"the value of social media to the cause of democracy should be measured over the course of ‘years and decades, not weeks and months’. Yet the OWS proved all these presumptions incorrect. What the OWS has shown is that online activists, with the help of new technology, were even capable of toppling authoritarian regimes. The Arab Spring (although it has petered out now) that closely followed OWS is a case in point. Nowhere in The Tipping Point do we see Gladwell predicting such possibi lities let alone recognizing the power of social media for creating large movements. Over time, social media may acquire more capability to enhance civil society and hand over power to the people. In this context it is pertinent to ask what does social media offer that conventional communication modes do not. In response, we can find a set of mass movements in recent years that were built on the back of new digital technology. For example, â€Å"The protesters who brought down Philippine president Joseph Estrada in 2001 spread word of their street demonstrations via text message. Social media are not magical. Insurgents may not always prevail (as in Iran in 2009). But on balance, social media will bring â€Å"a net improvement for democracy,† much as the printing press did.† (â€Å"Tweeting toward Freedom? A,† 2011) His famous quote â€Å"The revolution will not be tweeted† has continued to haunt him since the event. In the Tipping Point he argued that â€Å"social media tools fail to promote the type of strong interpersonal ties necessary for successful social movement organizing†¦ waves of e-petitions and online public comments will swamp federal agencies in low quality, redundant, and generally insubstantial commenting by the public, drowning out more substantive citizen participation.† (Karpf, 2012, p. 8) In the absence of stronger and real democratic participation, the author reckoned, token digital activism was dismissed as ‘slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism’. He reasoned that when all that clicking produces no change, citizens will turn bitter or tune out. For example, â€Å"high-risk social movement tactics, by contrast, are based on strong ties. Ergo, he suggests, online communications tools are of relatively little use to social movements and po litical activism. They leverage the wrong type of social ties.† (Karpf, 2012, p. 118)

Black Infantry in the West essays

Black Infantry in the West essays In May of 1865, Congress faced a problem with the war ending and men being sent home. Where were they going to find men to replace the volunteer units? Another problem that the army faced was keeping the hostile Indians under control and learning how to adapt to their style of warfare. General Sheridan also proved to be an important person during this time period. At the beginning of the Indian wars, from 1866 to 1891, the actual strength of the army was approximately 25,000 men (Fowler, 1971, p. 4). Because of the shortage of men, many commanders found themselves very short on personnel. Sheridan pointed out that he was required to garrison seventy three posts and protect an area of country that extended from Canada in the north to Rio Grande in the south with a force of only 13,468 men (Fowler, 1971, p.5). I could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Sheridan to cover such a vast area of land with such a shortage of personnel. It makes you wonder how he organized his divisions to cover the area required by him. The Indian wars proved to be one of the biggest problems that faced the infantry in the west. The way the Indians fought was impractical to the army. They were used to using large regiments and guns. The Indians hit and run style of fighting devastated the army. This was smart to me. The Indians fought their own war instead of fighting the armys war. If the Indians would have tried to fight the way the army was used to fighting, they would have been slaughtered. The war most likely would not have lasted as long as it did. In my opinion, the Indians were very tactical. Just think, they fought their own war on land that they had lived on forever. They were also very mobile. They could pick up and move their entire tribe at a rate of 55 miles per day (Fowler, 1971 p. 7).The Indians ability to move quickly and endure long marches through rough conditions also proved to be a useful tactic. When reviewing thi...

Best Value Procurement Bids in Council Services

Best Value Procurement Bids in Council Services Empirical Work This paper is an empirical study on the strategic significance that Best Value (BV) Procurement adds to Birmingham City Council. The aim of the proposed research is to quantify the strategic link between the BV and the contemporary strategic Procurement. Then to create a model which will evaluate the contribution of the strategy when applied to Birmingham City Council. Best Value was introduced into the public sector in 1998, announced through the government’s white paper â€Å"Modern Local Government in Touch with the People†. This paper introduced extensive reform of local government, including the new initiative of BV. Within this BV is the e-Government, Community Planning, Strategic Partnerships and new political management structures (White Paper 1998). The theory of Best Value was aimed at improving local government services; this was introduced in the Local Government Act 1999. BV replaced the old system of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), and required local authorities to review over a period of five years, the method in which they conduct all their functions. This would take the form of consultation with the local community to deliver the most effective, economic and efficient services (Local Government Act 1999). The Governments intention to reform local government continued and in 2001 they published a further white paper entitled â€Å"Strong Local Leadership, Quality Public Services†. Addressed within this paper were issues that included strong community leadership, continuous improvement, comprehensive performance assessment, financial freedom and modernisation of finance systems (White Paper 2001). The report in 2001 Delivering Better Services for Citizens, a review of local government procurement in England was published as a consultation paper. The report included the following recommendation; there should be clear political responsibility for procurement, with elected members taking a strategic role in securing outcomes. Best Value is about breaking down the boundaries between the public and private sectors in local service delivery. (The Byatt Report 2001) This research paper is based on the government white papers and reports which initially defined BV in procurement and established Strategic Management tools used to identify strategic choice within local authorities. The conceptual analysis is based on identifying the congruence of strategic links between the BV definition and chosen Strategic Management tools. The focus of the paper is Birmingham City Council’s BV practices, and this will be measured against the resulting model. The output of this research is to measure the strategic worth of Best Value and the strategic worth of Birmingham City Council’s delivery of Best Value. The paper will evaluate the relative merits of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.    Methodology The rationale of this chapter is to compare and discuss the researc h methods that could be used for this empirical research paper. When researching any paper there are numerous methods for collecting data, they do not always produce workable data that is easy to analysis. Therefore it is vital to review and plan the methods that will be employed. Before beginning any of the research a time scale will be composed, this will plan and set targets for the research. This plan is flexible, to allow for any considerable changes to the project due to unexpected research findings. Theoretically, the proposal should draw attention to any difficulties with the research question and the access to the data.

Bearing Capacity of Soils Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bearing Capacity of Soils - Lab Report Example If this is not properly done, then the structures are likely to collapse, resulting in massive catastrophes. Sound engineering principles should be employed in the design of such structures in order to avoid potential loses in human life and property (William Powrie 53).   There are two major types of foundations; shallow and deep. While shallow foundations are located just below the structures they support, deep foundations extend deep into the earth’s crust. Shallow foundations are thus also called footings or mats, whereas deep foundations can also be called piles, or drilled shafts (Braja M. Das 123). The type of foundation used depends on two factors; the size of the structure to be built, and the category of soil on which the structure is to be built. Big structures require bigger foundations than smaller structures. On the other hand, organic soils also require bigger foundations compared to cohesive soils.Problem Description1.  Calculate the required size for a bui lding column footing under a given load.2.  Determine the effect of varying water contents on the compressive strength of the soil.Procedure  The lab was conducted following the following procedure:1.  A test specimen with known percentage of water was selected. The group used soil with 15% water content. This specimen was created by mixing 22.5 grams of water with 127.5 grams of dry clay.2.  The next step involved filling the mold with the soil-water mixture in three equal layers using the tamping device. The top of the first and second layers.

3 marketing strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

3 marketing strategies - Essay Example The market follower strategy makes the new entrant follow the existing technologies or products to maintain its own market share playing the role of counterfeit, cloner, imitator or adaptor. The third major launch strategy is the nichemanship where the new entrants target a small market segment and try to meet the needs of a certain group of customers offering premium price with specialization in the field. Emaar Group of Saudi Arabia entering the hotel business is an example of the market challenge strategy of business launch. Emaar Group is an established brand in the real estate sector in the country. Their offerings include houses, schools, healthcare centres and many more to which they are going to add â€Å"The Address Hotels and Resorts†, their five star premium global brand of leisure and hospitality. The hospitality sector is already a much flourished sector in the Saudi Arabia dominated by Jumeirah’s rep the leading hotel brand in the country. The fast and aggressive strategy of the Emaar Hospitality Group taking control over both business and leisure tourists through its sub brands including Resort, Retreat, Urban and Business with the help of its around 100 newly recruited hotel staff has threatened the business of Jumeirah’s rep. With this aggressive market challenge and attack strategy of launch the Emaar Group expects to control the hospitality marke t in the Middle East, North Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Asia, Europe and America in the next 10 years to come (Anon. â€Å"Joined up†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 2008). E-banking is not a new concept in the banking services when the Samba Financial Group started its business in the Saudi Arabia in 1980 taking over two existing branches of Citibank in the country. Since the beginning it initiated core banking system in its branches following the technology used by the Citibank and customizing it to fit

Terrorism: Media Simplistically Portrays War as Good vs. Evil :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Media Simplistically Portrays War as Good vs. Evil    The morning of September 11, 2001, will be a communal memory for many around the world.   On this morning, peace was threatened by terrorism on United States ¹ soil and the U.S. declared war in defense of peace. The majority of television, print, and internet media coverage of these events have focused around a discussion of good vs. evil.   In this paper, I will address ways in which hegemonic and counterhegemonic forms of media have contributed to the discussion of good vs. evil at war.    The depiction of good (us) vs. evil (them) in the media has justified war in the name of peace.   The United States ¹ first visual of good vs. evil came with television broadcast statements from the leaders of this war.   From this, the American public ascertained that the evil guys are led by Osama bin Laden who promised that  ³America will not live in peaceÃ…  1 ² sitting atop a rock outside a cave.   In turn, the good guys are led by President George W. Bush who, from his leather chair in the White House, asserted  ³We are at war with terrorism.2 ²Ã‚   These broadcasts became proof for many that  ³they ² attacked peace therefore  ³we ² were justified in declaring war. President Bush extended this belief by reminding the American public that,  ³If you ¹re not with us, you ¹re against us.3 ²Ã‚   This statement called all of America to war against terrorism; Bush ¹s comment implied that those in opposition are the enemy.   As one of the most access ible forms of news, television has become the most powerful form of social pedagogy.   With few exceptions, television has succeeded in perpetuating and legitimizing a hegemonic good vs. evil mentality where  ³we ² are good and  ³they ² are bad.   One could argue that few have sufficient media literacy skills to deconstruct dominant messages put forth by the majority of television networks.    Conversely, internet and print media have, on more occasions, provided counterhegemonic alternative readings on the September 11 events.   One can still visit mainstream websites such as NBC, ABC, FOX, and CNN to view hegemonic references of good vs. evil.   A series of clicks on one ¹s mouse can take a web surfer from photos of candlelight vigils and Twin Tower donation centers to sites where one can watch Powell and Bush, singing calypso, about the demise of Osama Bin Laden as well as play an interactive torture game on the leader of evil4.

Mobility essay Essay

The Unites States is the land of opportunities where people pursuit the American dream to have a better life. American life is built on the faith that it is possible to rise from humble origins to economic heights. In that case social mobility plays a big role in todays society. Social mobility refers to the ability to change the positions within a social stratification system. In other words, when people improve or decrease their economic status in the way that it affects their social class, they experience either pward or downward social mobility. With this in mind, the social mobility in United States appears to be stalled or in decline. One of the main reasons is poverty that is causing a decline. Furthermore, the rich-poor gap that widens also has an effect on mobility causing income inequality. Also, European social mobility is much better than that one in the United States. Some other factors that influence social mobility include race, income, mother and father occupation, and ethnicity. Certainly, one of the reasons why social mobility in United States appears to be talled or in decline is because of poverty. The higher the individual starts on the social ladder the more likely that individual will end up higher than where he or she first started. The more income the parents have will guarantee more opportunities for that person. According to Economic Mobility Project, 40% of Americans that are born in the bottom quintile remain stuck there as adults (â€Å"Upper bound†). That means that that almost half of that social group doesn’t change their position within a social stratification system. That doesn’t mean it is their fault because people that are poor start with a disadvantage. For example, according to Eric Wanner, president of the Russell Sage Foundation, â€Å"Upper-income families can invest more in their children’s education and they may have a better understanding of what it takes to get a good education. † (â€Å"Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs† by Jason DeParle). That means that a child that comes from a richer family has more educational opportunities than a child coming from the poor. Furthermore, a child oming from rich family will have a better understanding on how to succeed in school where on the other hand, child from poor family doesn’t have that opportunity. However, Just 8% of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That shows that even though it is difficult it is still possible. Generally speaking, the rich-poor gap that widens also has an effect on mobility causing income inequality. As the gap between rich and the poor has widened since 1970, the odds that a child that is born in poverty will climb to wealth remain stuck. Same goes to child that is born rich will fall into middle class. One reason for mobility gap may be the depth of American poverty which leaves poor children starting especially far behind. Most of the time it is determined by the father and mother occupation. Based on the new data gathered by Bhashkar Mazumder of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, he argued that 60% of a son’s income is determined by the level of income of the father. (â€Å"Goodbye, Horatio Alger†). This means that more than half of men are dependable on their father’s income. Furthermore, this shows that the higher the income ot parents, the more opportunities the child example, researchers now estimate the elasticity of father-son earnings at 0. 5%. That means that for every 1% increase in father’s income, his sons’ income will be increased or expected to increase by about 0. 5%. ((â€Å"Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs†). In other words, the better the income of the father, the better the income of the son. So the family background is very important in social mobility. In contrast, European social mobility is much better than that one in the United States. European countries have made serious investments to create equality of opportunity for all. According to Fareed Zakaria in â€Å"The downward path of upward mobility,† they have extremely good childhood health and nutrition programs, and they have far better public educations systems than the United States does. Furthermore, poor children compete on a more equal footing against the rich and in the United States poor children compete for better education few steps behind then others.