Class and Responsibility: Unterschied zwischen den Versionen
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# History shows that classes didn't only have conflicts (Marx) but could also cooperate. Moreover, society has always only worked as the majority of the people have accept it – including the idea of social inequalities. In England, the majority of people who believe in the triadic concept see themselves as middle class and are proud of it: A nation of “burghers”, tradesmen, reasonable, educated middle-class citizens! | # History shows that classes didn't only have conflicts (Marx) but could also cooperate. Moreover, society has always only worked as the majority of the people have accept it – including the idea of social inequalities. In England, the majority of people who believe in the triadic concept see themselves as middle class and are proud of it: A nation of “burghers”, tradesmen, reasonable, educated middle-class citizens! | ||
# During the industrialization, the system of class divisions changed from one defined by hierarchy to one defined by class which had a huge effect. It divided the people in working class and brought forth the upper-middle class of “gentlemen” Most important for ta gentleman: language => accent and pronunciation. In times before the Industrial Revolution people from poor to rich spoke the accent of their country/region, but then it became the accent of their class. So the upper-middle-class for example began to speak/speaks the “received” or “Oxford” accent, often learned at a “Public School” | # During the industrialization, the system of class divisions changed from one defined by hierarchy to one defined by class which had a huge effect. It divided the people in working class and brought forth the upper-middle class of “gentlemen” Most important for ta gentleman: language => accent and pronunciation. In times before the Industrial Revolution people from poor to rich spoke the accent of their country/region, but then it became the accent of their class. So the upper-middle-class for example began to speak/speaks the “received” or “Oxford” accent, often learned at a “Public School” | ||
| − | # Public-schooling became a distinctive feature | + | # Public-schooling became a distinctive feature ~~> public-school-educated Tony Blair leads Labour. upper- to upper middle-class accent arrived sometime in the eighteenths century and is now departing. ~~> striving english-men like tony blair raise their voices if they speak on tv. |
=Social Exclusion= | =Social Exclusion= | ||
Version vom 23. November 2009, 17:42 Uhr
Inhaltsverzeichnis |
Class in Britain
Vocabulary: Britain has become less class-bound
| l. 1 | toil - hard unpleasant work |
| l. 3 | meritocratic - a ~ system is a social system where people get power / money on the basis of their ability |
| l. 8 | to dilate - verb to become or to make sth larger, wider or more open |
| l. 8 | predecessor – Vorgänger |
| l. 10 | artificial – not natural (künstlich) |
| l. 11 | albeit – although |
| l. 12 | bundle - They bundled her into the back of a car. |
| l.17 | reflection - your written or spoken thoughts about a particular subject or topic |
| l.18 | to absorb - to interest sb very much so that they pay no attention to anything else |
| l.22 | eminent- famous and respected, especially in a particular profession |
| l.25 | distinctive = having a quality or characteristic that makes sth different and easily noticed |
| l.26 | to acknowledge - to accept that sth is true |
| l.28 | occupation - a job or profession |
| l.28 | to observe = to see or notice something |
| l.33 | triadic - divided in three parts |
| l.34 | dichotomous - contrasting |
| l.36 | pedantic - too worried about small details/things |
| l.36 | nicety - precision |
| l.38 | to apply in - to fit in |
| l.39 | extending – cover area/time/distance |
| l.40 | sharply aware – to exactly know sth (sich genau bewusst sein) |
| l.42 | gentry – rich people owning land/upper class; burghers/citizen - middle class; toilers – workers, lower class |
| l. 47 | to undermine = to make sth, especially sb’s confidence or authority, gradually weaker or less effective |
| l. 48 | assertion = a statement saying that you strongly believe sth to be true |
| l. 48 | hitherto = until now; until the particular time you are talking about |
| l. 54 | to acquiesce = to accept sth without arguing, even if you do not really agree with it |
| l. 60 | burgher = a citizen of a particular town |
| l. 62 | wisdom = the ability to make sensible decisions and give good advice because of the experience and knowledge that you have |
| l. 62 | virtue = behaviour or attitudes that show high moral standards |
| l. 64 | crucial = extremely important, because it will affect other things |
| l. 66 | consciousness = the state of being able to use your senses and mental powers to understand what is happening |
| l. 69 | to obsess = to completely fill your mind so that you cannot think of anything else, in a way that is not normal |
| l. 71 | yokel = if you call a person a yokel, you say they do not have much education/ understanding of modern life, because they come from the countryside |
| l. 76 | peculiarity = a feature that only belongs to one particular person, thing, place, etc |
| l. 76 | significance = the importance of sth, especially when this has an effect on what happens in the future |
| l. 77 | distinctions = a clear difference or contrast especially between people or things that are similar or related |
| l. 79 | anachronistic = a person, a custom or an idea that seems old-fashioned and does not belong to the present |
| l. 81 | endeavor = to try very hard to do s.th. |
| l. 83 | hitherto = until now |
| l. 89 | meritocracy = the group of people with power in a social system |
| l. 90 | indication = SYN: remark, sign |
| l. 92 | sham = SYN: false, pseudo |
| l. 93 | heir = legal right to receive sb’s property, money etc. |
| l. 93 | dukedom = Herzogtum |
| l. 93 | audibly = hörbar |
| l. 94 | agonizing = causing great pain |
| l. 95 | striving = to try very hard to achieve s.th. |
| l. 96 | to peter out = to gradually become smaller etc. and then end |
| l. 96 | marsh = an area of low land that is always soft and wet |
| l. 96 | amorphous = having no definite shape; shapeless |
| l. 97 | vaguely = in a way that is not detailed or exact |
| l. 97 | plebeian = uneducated, poor people |
| l. 98 | avocation = SYN: hobby |
| l. 101 | to desert = SYN: to sink |
| l. 102 | clergyman = a male priest or minister in the Christian Church |
Summary of the six main passages of the text:
- Former Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of a growing middle class who sees themselves as working class but have more abilities, opportunities, tolerance and ambition than their ancestors. His predecessor , John Major imagined a classless society but did not succeed, because in a society there will always be differences e.g. in income, power, abilities, so you never achieve a completely classless society. Margaret Thatcher called class a Communist concept, as it only saw the opposition of two classes.
- It is an English obsession to divide the people in classes. As politicians and historians claim the English care much more about class division than other countries. But there will never be a classless society as long as there are differences between people, e.g. in education, personal abilities, salary, jobs etc.
- There are three different kinds of class-systems: hierarchical, triadic and dichotomous. The first one means that every person is part of a chain from highest to lowest and everyone knows exactly where they stand. The Triadic model is the division into three different parts: low, middle and upper class. The dichotomous system divides society in two completely opposed classes (e.g. rich/poor, capitalists – proletarian masses => Marx).
- History shows that classes didn't only have conflicts (Marx) but could also cooperate. Moreover, society has always only worked as the majority of the people have accept it – including the idea of social inequalities. In England, the majority of people who believe in the triadic concept see themselves as middle class and are proud of it: A nation of “burghers”, tradesmen, reasonable, educated middle-class citizens!
- During the industrialization, the system of class divisions changed from one defined by hierarchy to one defined by class which had a huge effect. It divided the people in working class and brought forth the upper-middle class of “gentlemen” Most important for ta gentleman: language => accent and pronunciation. In times before the Industrial Revolution people from poor to rich spoke the accent of their country/region, but then it became the accent of their class. So the upper-middle-class for example began to speak/speaks the “received” or “Oxford” accent, often learned at a “Public School”
- Public-schooling became a distinctive feature ~~> public-school-educated Tony Blair leads Labour. upper- to upper middle-class accent arrived sometime in the eighteenths century and is now departing. ~~> striving english-men like tony blair raise their voices if they speak on tv.
Social Exclusion
See David Batty. Social exclusion: the issue explained
Signs of/factors leading to social exclusion:
- unemployment, poor skills ==> low incomes
- poor housing
- high crime
- bad health, drug addiction
- lack of medical care in deprived areas
- family breakdown
- high teenage pregnancy rate
- homelessness
- high number of young people not in education/training or employment and truancy/school exclusion
Solutions:
Government tries to establish institutions that
- analyse the causes and publish the results in reports.
- critically evaluate local governments' work to improve efforts to help socially excluded groups
- help to improve cooperation of departments / institutions to solve the multi-faceted problem
- initiate programmes to improve health of children, reduce teenage pregnancy and school exclusion and to counsel young people about education and employment
- coordinate efforts to encourage private investment in deprived communities.
Essay - Every child growing up in poverty is a ticking social timebomb
Collection of ideas
These children will often ...
| Thesis Statement | Supporting Points (more general/abstract) | Examples (specific, images) |
|---|---|---|
|
don't have money to buy special things -> steal | girls steal e.g. a Prada handbag |
|
can't express themselves, envy, surroundings are bad -> learn solving conflicts by violence, aggression as a way of getting money | throwing stones at expensive cars/ scratching with keys |
|
unemployed parents -> missing successful role models/ belief in working your way up | girl sees her mother prostituting herself -> role model for her later life |
|
children think they don't have a chance to get out of poverty/bad money situation | parents don't give their children any hopes (no disappointing later)
parents can't afford university -> tell them that from the start |
|
can't afford, what makes your dreams come true; work hard -> nearly no result; often have been rejected | s.o. wants to found a company but he doesn't even get the money from the bank |
|
no money/supporting background | |
|
believing in wrong promises, no achievement of big parties for poor people | total equality (left party), electing the right party against foreigners taking their jobs |
|
-> see violence | |
|
only way of getting money very fast, no need of qualification | |
|
girls want something that loves them, role models -> seeing it as normal |
Writing an introduction
Check if the introduction ...
- introduces the topic (+)
- gives readers an idea of what dirction the essay will take (+)
- provides an overview of the structure/line of argument (+)
- implies/poses a question and creates an expactation/interetst in the readers (+)
- states general truths/defines what needs no definition (-)
- asks questions/announces answers but does not give them (-)
Possible Introductions
- Question:
- Basic thesis/contrast ==> Definition:
- Surprising fact / statistic:
- Quotation:
