The Setting Of Dracula Essay Example For Students

The Setting Of Dracula Essay OverviewDracula has appealed to readers for almost a century, at least in part because it deals with one of the great human conflicts: the struggle between good and evil. Stoker acknowledges the complexity of this conflict by showing good characters attracted to evil. For example, Jonathan Harker, the lawyer who journeys to Transylvania, is almost attacked at Draculas castle by three young female vampires. In fact, he seems to be actually welcoming the attack before it is interrupted by the count. In this scene, as well as others, Stoker suggests that evil, represented by the vampires, is an almost irresistible force which requires great spiritual strength to overcome. It eventually takes the combined forces of a band of men, representing different countries, to defeat the vampiric count. Stokers novel is a symbolic exploration of a conflict which has long troubled humankind. We will write a custom essay on The Setting Of Dracula specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Dracula also has considerable cultural importance. Stoker was not the first writer to make use of the vampire legend. Throughout the 19th century vampires appeared in a number of works, including Sheridan LeFanus Carmilla (1872), which Stoker read as a young man. But it is Stokers version of the vampire legend that has had the most enduring popular appeal and the greatest influence on modern writers and filmmakers. In his book Vampires Unearthed, Martin Riccardo tells the story of a survey taken by Madame Tussauds Wax Museum to determine the worlds most hated person. Dracula ranked fifth. Clearly, Stokers creation continues to capture readers imaginations. SETTING Stoker uses a circular structure for his novel, incorporating two settings. Transylvania is the setting for the beginning and end of the novel, and, since he had never been there, Stoker had to rely on research for his description of the country and its people. The rest of the novel takes place in England, a setting familiar to Stoker and his audience. The novel begins with Jonathan Harkers journey to Transylvania on May 3 of an unspecified year. Harker later states that seven years elapse between the events themselves and his compilation of them, so we may assume that the action of the novel takes place from May to November in 1890. Harkers initial enjoyment of a country filled with wonderful new sights, people, and food contrasts sharply with his apprehension as he approaches the counts castle and his terror when he finally realizes he is Draculas prisoner. This section, the first four chapters of the novel, has been highly praised for its accurate descriptions of the region and its use of those descriptions to create suspense and terror. In the novels final chapter, which begins on November 1, All Saints Day, the setting is again Count Draculas Transylvania. Most of the novels events, however, take place in England, primarily in the northeastern coastal city of Whitby, itself a reminder of Englands island isolation and its vulnerability to attack. Whitbys history also contributes to its effectiveness as a setting. It is the site of a 7th-century abbey, traces of which still remain, at which the Synod of Whitby, an important church meeting, was held in 664. The presence of abbey ruins is a typical element of the popular Gothic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries. Moreover, Whitbys role in the history of English Christianity relates the setting to the thematic conflict of good and evil. THEMES AND CHARACTERS Stoker explores the conflict of good and evil throughout the novel and does not allow good to triumph until the last few pages. In the meantime, all of the characters are drawn into the conflict and divided into two camps: the good forces led by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and the evil forces by Count Dracula. .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .postImageUrl , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:hover , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:visited , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:active { border:0!important; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:active , .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u3bf203f4a2b2b2360d2529a5e354da8c:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Men and women Persuasive EssayThe first and larger group, the good characters, forms around Van Helsing, a doctor of medicine, philosophy, literature, and more. He arrives from Amsterdam at the request of his former student Dr. John Seward to help with the diagnosis and treatment of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing is older and more educated than the rest of the group, and he becomes a father figure and leader. Unlike the others, he is familiar with the folk stories about vampires and the ways to combat them. He is assisted by a band of young men, most of whom have some relationship to Lucy. Dr. John Seward, an unsuccessful suitor for Lucys hand, is the director of an insane asylum. Another unsuccessful suitor is Quincey Morris, a Texan whose major characteristic is his physical courage. The final suitorLucy receives the three proposals in a single dayis Arthur Holmwood, whom she accepts. Arthurs father dies during Lucys illness, and Arthur inherits his title and becomes Lord Godalming. These three young men have shared adventures in the past and are drawn closer together because of their love for Lucy. The last member of the group is Jonathan Harker, the lawyer whose journal of his trip to Draculas castle forms the first part of the novel. After his recovery, he marries Lucys friend Mina. Harkers earlier experiences with Dracula make him particularly helpful to the group. The groups two young women are introduced by means of their letters, which follow Harkers journal. Although they are associated with Van Helsing and his band, both are pulled over to Draculas side. Lucy is extremely beautiful but has little strength of character; after Dracula transforms her into a vampire, her sweetness changes into seductiveness. Her friend Mina, more firmly under male protection because of her marriage to Jonathan, manages to survive Draculas attack and serves as the groups secretary and inspiration. Her exchange of blood with Dracula actually has positive consequences because it provides the band with information about Draculas actions and whereabouts. Draculas death frees her completely from his influence. The characters on the side of evil are all related to Dracula. As the novel begins, he has been a vampire for many centuries and has great strength and power. He accomplishes his evil purposes mainly through weak links: women, an insane man, and an unsuspecting, unprotected foreigner. His children, the vampires he has created, are all women, including the lovely female vampires who live with him at his castle. They are presented as unnatural women. They prey on children and behave aggressively and seductively toward men. Lucy acts in this manner after she becomes a vampire. Draculas major accomplice is Renfield, a patient at Sewards asylum. Renfield is obsessed with the idea of the food chain, feeding flies to spiders and spiders to birds, and so is an appropriate admirer of Dracula, who in feeding on humans belongs at the top of the food chain. While Renfield at first welcomes Dracula, becoming increasingly more excited the closer Dracula gets to the asylum, he later recovers his sanity and is fatally injured in attempting to stop the count. The evil characters are not only defeated but also redeemed by the good characters, illustrating Stokers theme that good is ultimately more powerful than evil. Dracula seems at first invincible, but his weaknesses become apparent throughout the novel. He can be stopped by consecrated wafers (literally, in the Roman Catholic Church, the body of Christ) and by other religious symbols, such as the crucifix. In the end he is destroyed by knives. Moreover, characters with sufficient spiritual strength can survive his attacks, suggesting Stokers view of an individuals control over his soul as well as his life.

Joseph Cambell & Our Lack of Myth essays

Joseph Cambell & Our Lack of Myth essays Are we becoming grandmothers and grandfathers to a legacy of faceless nobodies who will one day populate this post-modern vacuum of human isolation? Do myths have the power to halt this cycle weve been sucked into? Are they a way of rekindling that fascination about life that the future is draining us of? Joseph Campbell would argue in the book The Power of Myth that yes, with a psychological interpretation of myths we can find meaning in our lives, or even more so, the experience of living. Myths are important to the betterment of society because, according to Campbell, they bolster the rituals that define it. Campbell says initiations and rituals are necessary to make one feel like part of a great social order. And what if that great order included everyone, if we were all a part of it? Then would we not all feel like a part of nothing? What good is it to be part of a club if everyone is in it? Campbell would argue that that is the lack of myth speaking. A unified world would be a "club" in the sense that it is a privilege to be a part of it. But with all of us in it as one, we are not all on the same level. Rites serve as a way of "promoting" us and defining our position in society. Without myth it is as though we are all wading aimlessly around in the same bowl of gumbo. When one goes through rituals and initiation rites, he first becomes a part of something bigger, and then also crosses a barrier of maturity. The latter is key. It is a natural desire to want to be accepted, and rituals serve as a segway to reaching that ultimate goal and achieving status. They mark the trans ition between two different roles in the community and lay emphasis on the value of their existence as it continues to progress. He states, ...kids have their own gangs and their own initiations and their own morality, and theyre doing the best they can. But theyre dangerous because their own laws are not those of the city. ...

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl Movie Review

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl - Movie Review Example She was, in other words, a wonderful filmmaker and an admirable survivor, whose fatal flaw was a horrible sense of judgment and an even more horrible tendency to glorify power, irrespective of the ideology it represented. "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" compels mixed reactions to its protagonist, evoking both admiration and aversion towards Riefenstahl. In one of the scenes, she is depicted as walking on a pier, carrying her own, undoubtedly heavy, scuba diving gear. Her much younger companions are walking ahead of her and neither offers to help her with her equipment and, indeed, her demeanour suggests that she would have rejected any offers of help. This scene would not have been remarkable were it not for the fact that Riefenstahl was over 90 at the time. This scene, which only occupies a few moments in a very lengthy three hour documentary, captures the essence of the woman. She is not one to concede to weaknesses, human frailties and recognises absolutely no boundaries or limitations. Had she done so, she would not have been directing an underwater documentary at the age of 91. Hence, in this single scene the filmmakers do more than countless verbal testimonies could have ever done - they show the audiences who Riefenstahl is and, who she is evokes admiration. While it exposes her admirable qualities, the film exposes an infinitely less attractive dimension to Riefenstahl's personality. She is self-defensive and over-brimming with self-justification, not to mention unwaveringly unapologetic about the services she rendered to, or her association with, Hitler and the Nazi party. The film shows her defending the association and services in artistic and professional terms; she was not a member of the Nazi Party and did not touch upon anti-Semitism in her work. In her defence and self-justification, Riefenstahl seemingly deliberately overlooks, as Downing (2008: para 1) points out, the propagandist nature of her "Triumph of Will," and the extent to which it affected mass perceptions of Hitler as a national hero and Nazism as the answer to all of Germany's problems. Her defence of her works, as presented in the documentary, indicates that either Riefenstahl did not understand the consequences of her propagandist documentaries, which is hardly be lievable, or quite unapologetically believes that the end justifies the means. In the final analysis, the documentary is objective. It presents both sides of Leni Riefenstahl and, more importantly, allows her to speak for herself. In so doing, it gives the audience the opportunity to witness the good and the bad and, accordingly, arrive at their own judgement. If that judgement is not in Riefenstahl's favour that is not because of the filmmakers' prejudices but because of Riefenstahl's presentation of her own self. Works Cited Downing, T. (2008) "Nazis and the Cinema." History Today, 58(3), 63. Rentschler, E. (1985) "The Use and Abuse of Memory: New German Film and the Discourse of Bitburg." New German Critique, 36, 67-91. Tegel, S. (2006) "Leni Riefenstahl: Art and Politics." Quarterly Review of Film & Video, 23(3),

People's Behaviour in the Quality of Service or Care Essay

People's Behaviour in the Quality of Service or Care - Essay Example A health assistant acts in the delegation from a health professional. The health assistant, therefore, does not belong to a distinct profession. Correspondingly, a health assistant works according to guidelines that the NMC conduct codes put forward. The NMC code of performance requires that every HCA have a qualification that also has evidence. The evidence enumerate the list of certificates that illustrate the educational level, the place of education and the specific skills that the HCA is capable of performing. Working in the community, I have been taking care of an 18-year-old patient in his home. The patient was suffering from a chronic lung disease and so had to use a tracheostomy tube to help with his breathing difficulty. The function of the tube is to clear and remove secretions from the patient’s airways and provide easy and safe delivery of oxygen to his lungs. There is this particular morning that I was looking after him as recommended that he undergoes saline neb ulizer every morning. This clears off the thick mucus he produces to make it easy for him to breathe easily. In addition, I give him colomycin, which is an antibiotic that helps kill bacteria. This is necessary for him as he is at risk of catching bacterial infections. Most of the times he is always asleep as this is done in the early morning hours. On this day, just as I was done with his saline nebulizer, he was up. I then began to try to connect the chamber to his trachea to start the colomycin nebulizer. He started shouting that he did not want the procedure done. He wanted to be left alone. He pulled the chamber off his trachea and kept shouting.

Women and Stress at the Workplace. Why Do Women Face More Workplace Research Paper

Women and Stress at the Workplace. Why Do Women Face More Workplace Stress Than Men - Research Paper Example Therefore, work-related stress takes place when there is a disparity between the demands of the job and the potentials of an individual to meet those demands (Blaug, Kenyon and Lekhi, 2007). This paper seeks to illustrate the difference between stress faced by female and male managers as well as address the consequences of stress. The paper will also examine the role played by gender in stress at the workplace. The effects of work-related stress on healthy individuals are felt at most levels of a being such as physiological, cognitive, emotional and behavioural. There exist clear links between work-related stress and a variety of physical and mental disorders, which illustrate how one’s health can deteriorate in the presence of strain. In 2010, women in corporate boards of 100 companies constituted 12.5%, which was a 9.4% increase, and per the American Psychological Association, 69% of employees reported work as a significant source of stress, with some indicating being less p roductive at work because of stress (American Psychological Association, 2010). ... Married women are more likely to report higher levels of stress compared to single women; with 56% of them indicating an increase in stress levels over the past 5 years compared to 41% of single women. Research indicates suggest that both genders, women and men, handle stress in a different manner all together. Response to stress by men is characterized by the fight -flight notion while in women; response leans towards tend-and-befriend. It is for this difference that creates different professional interactions, which defines how they function both at home and in the workplace. Consequently, gender makes a great deal of difference in life and business. Unfortunately, men seem not to be persuaded by the tend-and-befriend approach, thus arises a conflict that exerts pressure on women, which contributes to work-related stress. When faced with a stressing situation, a man’s response is strategic and will assess how best the situation can be salvaged while doubts crop up to questio n his capacity to handle the situation. The response to his doubts is normally influenced by personal confidence and knowledge. On the hand, women are naturally more communal in their thinking and often involve others to assist in solving a stressing situation. Women tend to build a community around them from which they seek advice, social support, and alliances that their safety is dependent on. The cause of stress at workplaces may be attributed to the workload present. The workload in the public sector is considered greater than that in the private sector, and all is dependent on the work being done. Some stressors are based on the work itself, with those that pose a significant risk being achievement, overload, and downsizing. Other sources of stress can be categorized as the role and

Theories on Multinational Companies

Theories on Multinational Companies 2.1.1. Introduction In the process of studying the existence, growth and business activities of multinational companies, various theoretical approaches have been developed in the past forty years, depending on the scholars` fields of specialization, perspective and objectives. It is particularly important to distinguish economic approaches to the study of multinationals, strategic management approaches, and finally, cultural approaches to the study of multinational companies. Furthermore, the second part of the literature review will be dedicated to the study of various kinds of spillovers which multinational companies create while operating in the given country, a subject which is of particular importance for the topic of this thesis. 2.1.2. Economic Approaches to the Study of Multinational Companies When reviewing the literature on multinational companies, it is evident that economists find themselves at the forefront of the research on multinational companies. According to Cantwell (1991: 17-18), they are approaching the topic from three perspectives: microeconomic (which deals with cross-border interactions of individual firms), mesoeconomic (which deals with the cross-border interactions of firms at the industry level), and macroeconomic (dealing with the growth and trend of multinationals at national and international level). All of these categories have one thing in common: they all tend to explain the existence of international production. The economic approaches to the study of international business have been dominant in the fields of microeconomics, industrial economics and macroeconomics. These include the theory of the firm by Coase (1937, 1987), as well as internalization theory by Buckley and Casson (1976) and Rugman (1980, 1980 and 1982). Other famous theories on multinational enterprises refer to markets and hierarchies approach by Williamson (1975, 1985), furthermore, market power approach or the theory of international operations by Hymer (1960, 1976), and the approaches of industrial organization by Bain (1959), Caves (1971, 1982), Hirsch (1976), Johnson (1970) and Lall (1980a). As a starting point for his research, Ronald Coase (1937) departed from the traditional microeconomic assumption which states that economic activity is determined freely by the price mechanism and that the economic system works itself. In practice this means that suppliers respond to demand changes, and buyers respond to supply changes through the open market system, which is viewed as an automatic, responsive process. According to him, opposed to the traditional thinking that the economic system is being coordinated by the price mechanisms, Coase argues: This coordination of the various factors of production is, however, normally carried out without the intervention of the price mechanism. As is evident, the amount of vertical integration, involving as it does the supersession of the price mechanism, varies greatly from industry to industry, and from firm to firm. It can, I think, be assumed that the distinguishing mark of the firm is the supersession of the price mechanism. (Coase, 1937 in Williamson and Winter 1991:20). Furthermore, Coase (in Williamson and Winter 1991:30) suggests that at the margin, the costs of organizing within the firm will be equal either to the costs of organizing in another firm or to the costs involved in leaving the transaction to be organized by the price mechanism. Even though the theory of Coase was predominantly meant for the domestic horizon, it later served as the bases of the internalization theory. The concept of internalization has its origins in the theory of industrial relations. Bain (1959) pursues the proposition that there will be possibilities of integration by the firm (acquiring and combining with supplier firms or customer firms) which, among others, have positive economies or savings in cost. Additionally, he stresses that atomistic market structures with unrestricted competition will tend to force or make automatic efficiency increasing integration, and likewise tend to deter inefficient integration. Bain further claims that no particular type of integration will be fully forced in an oligopolistic situation, but there should be a tendency for oligopolistic firms to integrate if there are other advantages (other than costs) to the integration that will not result in inefficiency. He asserts that even inefficient integration is possible if it has offsetting advantages (Bain, 1959:168). Hirsch (1976) suggested that the optimal choice between international trade and international production is determined by the firms specific knowledge advantages and other intangible assets. Rugman (1981: 45) uses Hirsch`s model and interprets it as one that treats knowledge as an intermediate product which is internalized in the structure of multinational enterprise. These ownership advantages impose effective barriers to entry to rival firms. They enable temporary monopoly power to the company by allowing it a possibility to earn profit above the prevailing industry level. Hirsch (1976) states that the greater ownership advantages are, the more economics of production and marketing prefer foreign location and therefore foreign direct investment. Authors Buckley and Casson (1976:33) give their significant contribution to the theory of internalization based upon three presumptions: Companies maximize profit in a world of imperfect markets The imperfect nature of the markets for intermediate goods urges companies to avoid them by creating internal markets Internalization of markets across national boundaries creates multinational enterprises. The main thesis of Buckley and Casson is that attempts to improve the organization of these markets have led to a radical change in business organization, one aspect of which is the growth of MNE. Therefore, a multinational enterprise is perceived as an instrument used for raising efficiency by replacing foreign markets via exploitation of internalization advantages within the framework of transaction costs and exchange. Furthermore, they insist that an MNE is created whenever markets are internalized across national boundaries, and a market in an intermediate good will be internalized only in the situation when benefits outweigh costs. The authors stress the following: Vertical integration of production will give rise to MNEs because different stages of production require different combinations of factors and are therefore best carried out in different countries, according to factor availability and the law of comparative advantage. Moreover, there is a special reason for believing that internalization of the knowledge market will generate a high degree of multinationality among forms (Buckley and Casson 1976, 44-45). Theory of internalization has been additionally advanced by Rugman (1981:28) who pointed out that internalization is the process of making a market within a company. He suggests that company creates an internal market as a replacement for the missing regular (or external) market and in order to overcome the problems of allocation and distribution by the use of administrative fiat. Furthermore, he states that the internal prices (or transfer prices) of the firm lubricate the organization as a potential (but unrealized) regular market. In reality, the internalization theory pursued by Rugman tries to explain the reasons why a company wishes to go into international production across national boundaries. On this particular subject, Rugman (1981:29) states the following: A firm will wish to locate itself abroad to gain access to foreign markets. It will choose foreign direct investment when exporting and licensing are unreliable, inferior, or more costly options. Internalization is a device for keeping a firm specific advantage over a worldwide scale. The MNE is an organization able to monitor the use of its firm specific advantage in knowledge by establishing abroad miniature replicas of the parent firm. These foreign subsidiaries supply each foreign market and permit the MNE to segment national markets and use price discrimination to maximize worldwide profits. Internalization allows the multinational to control its affiliates and to regulate the use of the system specific advantage on a global basis. The concept of creating an internal market within a company in order to avoid relatively high transaction costs of the market system is additionally researched by Williamson (1975). In his work Markets and Hierarchies, he suggests that the economics of transaction costs and in general, new institutional economics explains why companies choose to conduct hierarchical expansion instead of conducting economic activity through the market mechanisms. Williamson states that multinational enterprises choose vertical integration or hierarchy for various reasons: in comparison to the market system, hierarchy extends boundaries on rationality by allowing the specialization of decision-making and economizing on communication expense. Furthermore, hierarchy permits additional incentives and control measures to discipline opportunism. Interdependent units are adapted to uncertainties and unexpected events more easily. Hierarchy also offers more constitutional possibilities for effective monitoring and auditing jobs, which consequently narrows down the information gap which appears in the case of autonomous agents. Finally, hierarchy provides a less calculative exchange atmosphere or environment (Williamson 1975:258). Scholars like Kay (1991) and Lee (1994) acknowledged Williamsons emphasis on asset specificity as a key environmental factor, coupled with uncertainty, which leads to hierarchy or vertical integration. Asset specificity actually represents specialization of assets with respect to use or user. It appears when one or both parties to the transaction invest in equipment, which has been designed especially to perform the transaction and has lower value when used for other purpose. Williamson (1985) states that spot markets will probably fail under the condition of asset specificity. This occurs because party making transaction-specific investments, and for whom the costs of switching partners are consequently high, will fear that one flexible party will opportunistically renegotiate the terms of trade. Asset specificity as a determinant of vertical integration is crucial in relation to given conditions of bounded rationality, opportunism and uncertainty. Asset specificity is the big locomotive to which transaction cost economies owes much of its predictive content. Its neglect is largely responsible for the monopoly preoccupation of earlier contract traditions (Williamson 1985: 54-56). One of the gurus of theory on multinational enterprises is certainly Richard Caves. Caves (1971, 1982) presumed that founding of subsidiary by a multinational enterprise amounts to entry into one national market by a going enterprise based on another geographic market. One possibility of entry is horizontal expansion, when a subsidiary produces the same type of product as the parent company. Other type of entry is vertical expansion or integration across national boundaries either backward to produce raw materials or intermediate products used in its home operations or forward to provide a distribution channel for its exports (Caves 1974a, 117). Additionally, Caves assumed that foreign direct investment appears mostly in industries characterized by certain market structures in both home or host countries. He concludes that differentiated oligopoly prevails mostly in the case when companies opt for horizontal expansion. On the other hand, oligopoly, not necessarily differentiated, in the home market is typical in industries which undertake vertical expansion across national boundaries. Direct investment tends to involve market conduct that extends the recognition of mutual market dependence the essence of oligopoly beyond national boundaries (Caves 1971:1). Additionally, in order to explain the presence of multinational companies, Caves distinguished and explained three types of multiplant companies horizontally integrated company which produces the same line of products from its plants in each geographic market, vertically integrated, which produces outputs in some of the plants that serve as inputs for other plants, and finally a diversified company whose plants outputs are neither horizontally nor vertically related to one another (Caves 1982a:2). With his theory of international operations, Hymer (1960, 1976) emphasized two major causes of international operations: exploitation of oligopolistic advantages and suspension of conflicts between companies in order to strengthen market power by means of collusion. Therefore, Hymer states the following: It frequently happens that enterprises in different countries compete with each other because they sell in the same market or because some of the firms sell to other firms. If the markets are imperfect, that is, if horizontal or bilateral monopoly or oligopoly, some form of collusion will be profitable. One form of collusion is to have the various enterprises owned and controlled by one firm. This is one motivation for firms to control enterprises in foreign countries (Hymer 1976:25). Furthermore, he states that FDI could not be explained as if it were portfolio investments that is, inter country movements of capital responding to differential rates of return on capital. If this direct investment is motivated by a desire to earn higher interest rates abroad, this practice of borrowing substantially abroad seems strange(Hymer 1976:13). Hymer emphasized that international operations type of investment does not depend on the interest rate. The direct investor is motivated by profits that are obtained from controlling the foreign enterprise, not by higher interest rates abroad (Hymer 1976: 26-30). He suggested that direct investments are the capital movements associated with the international operations of companies. According to him there are several types of motivation. The underlying motivation for controlling the foreign enterprise is to eliminate competition between that foreign enterprise and enterprises in other countries, and to form a profitable collusion among them. Another motivation is control which is desired in order to appropriate completely the returns on certain skills and abilities. The other motivation arises from the fact that a firm with advantages over other firms in production of a particular product may find it profitable to undertake the production of this product in a foreign country as well (Hymer 1976: 25-26). Another contribution which is even more fundamental made by Hymer, was to argue for the link between market failure and FDI. Hymer pioneered an oligopolistic theory of the growth of production networks across national boundaries, through collusion and exploitation of ownership advantages in a market power context, instead of a location theory context. The market power school of thought pursues that internationalization lowers the extent of competition and increases collusion among firms, in general (Cantwell 1991a:30). Due to their relative abundance of capital but scarcity of labor, traditional neo-classical economics assumes that countries which are economically developed have low profit or interest rates but high wage rates prior to international operations. Therefore, capital intensive goods go from economically developed countries to less developed labor abundant countries. There can also be a tendency for capital rich countries to export capital directly through foreign direct investment in developing countries. In the same manner, economists that belong to the Marxist school of thought, advocate the idea that there is a tendency for the rate of profit to decline in capital rich countries, due to the intensity of competition. Consequently, foreign investment in less developed or underdeveloped countries serves as an outlet for surplus capital (Cantwell in Pitelis and Sygden 1991:20). Recent historical data, however, reveal a trend which challenges stipulations of the traditional neo-classical and Marxist theories. Before 1939, imperialistic and colonial influences have been determining factors which influenced international trade and investment between hegemonic countries and developing countries. Similar trade and investment patterns prevailed in 1950s, but the trend started to change in the past few decades. In 1950, around three fifths of manufacturing exports from Europe, North America or Japan were directed to the developing countries across the world, but by 1971, only just over one third (Armstrong et al., 1984:251). Additionally, Dunning (1983b:88) acknowledged that two thirds of the worlds stock of FDI was located in developing countries in 1938. This amount has fallen to just little over a quarter by 1970s (cited by Cantwell in Pitelis Sugden 1991:20). During 1980s and 1990s significant capital mobility among developed countries overshadowed foreign direct investment in the developing countries. Mergers and acquisitions were the main trade mark of multinational production activities across the industrialized world during this period. At the time, in the developing world FDI have been characterized by joint ventures, privatization ventures and pioneering projects in the field of manufacturing and infrastructure (World Economic Forum 1997:28). During the 1990s, economically developed countries were still the most favorable destination of FDIs. However, this period has been significant since a large flow of capital invaded emerging markets, especially the ones in Asia where incentives for foreign investments have been extremely attractive. China, for instance, received $42.3 billion in 1996, which accounted for 38 percent of total FDI flows to the emerging markets in that year. Additionally, other emerging markets in Asia, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand became increasingly significant recipients of foreign direct investment (World Economic Forum 1997:28-30). On a macroeconomic level, different approaches have been developed in order to explain cross-border activities of multinational companies. The most important ones are the following: the product cycle model by Vernon (1966), trade and direct foreign investment model of Kojima (1978), location theories of the division of labor as analysed by Buckley and Casson (1976), Casson (1979,1986), Casson et al. (1986) and Buckley (1988), investment-development cycle advanced by Dunning (1982), stages of development approach by Cantwell and Tolentino (1987) and the eclectic paradigm by Dunning (1977, 1981, 1988, 1993a, 1995a, 1995b). Product cycle model, as defined by Vernon (1966) represents a combination of a three-stage theory of innovation, growth and maturing of a new product with the RD factor theory (Kojima 1978:61). The latter theory presumes where a new product or technology is most likely to be created. In this new phase stage, design of the product is often being changed and therefore, its production is technologically unstable and the market is not enough acquainted with the product. Consequently, the sales will not grow rapidly and the demand for the product will remain price-inelastic. In this phase, research and development activities of scientists and technicians are of crucial importance for the introduction of inventions and changes in design. Theoretically, the introduction of the RD factor in the product cycle theory represents the addition of a factor of production to the conventional two-commodity, two-factor model. If this approach is accepted, it follows that one may add new factors of production one by one in a similar manner. At the growth phase which comes after the first one, sales of products increase. Mass production and bulk sales methods are introduced. At the same time, entries in the industry increase and competition grows among producers. Demand becomes price-elastic and therefore, sales of each firm become more responsive to the price. Under these circumstances, the realization of economies of scale and managerial ability of the company play important role (Kojima 1978: 62). Finally, when the mature phase is reached, the product becomes standardized and its production technologically stabile. Instead of the crucial role that is played by research and development activities or managerial abilities in the new-phase stage and growth stage, unskilled and semi-skilled labor become important. Therefore, through foreign investment production location is being directed to low-wage, developing countries. The expenses of marketing or exporting the product from these countries may be lower compared to other commodities, since the commodity is standardized. Kojima (1978) gave several comments on Vernons product cycle theory. Firstly, the theory is not founded on the principle of comparative costs. Vernon himself elaborates that his theory discusses one promising line of generalization and synthesis, which appears to have been neglected by the main stream of trade theory. It does not stress the comparative cost doctrine but instead emphasizes more the timing of innovation, the effects of scale of economies, and the roles of ignorance and uncertainty in influencing trade patterns. Secondly, this theory tries to explain the location of production of one commodity by a firm growing through monopolistic or oligopolistic behavior (Kojima 1978:63). Kojima (1978) suggested the so-called trade and deficit foreign investment theory as an alternative approach to the study of multinationals. Furthermore, he suggested that foreign direct investment should complement comparative advantage patterns in different countries. Such advantage has to originate from the comparatively disadvantaged industry of the source country, which leads to lower-cost and expanded volume of exports from the host country. Significant criticism of Kojima`s theory is the manner in which import-substituting investments are referred to as anti-trade oriented. While import-substituting investments could be considered as anti-trade oriented at the microeconomic level, they are not anti-trade oriented at the macroeconomic level. In fact, an increasing level of exports usually follows the growth of FDI from USA, Germany and Japan. There are proofs which suggest that export-oriented investments may have a less significant impact in industrial adjustment or in increasing the welfare of the host country since these investments are likely to be an enclave kind (Dunning and Cantwell 1990 as cited in Tolentino 1993:51). Rugman (1981:47) suggested his main objection with Kojima`s analysis is that it is set in the static framework of trade theory, meaning that his model requires perfect markets. It is obviously a mistake to observe technology as a homogenous product over time and to ignore the dynamic nature of the technology cycle. It is probable that the United States have a comparative advantage, not in technology itself but in the generation of new knowledge. Consequently, it is feasible for US FDI in technology to take place to secure new markets on a continuous basis, as successive stages of the technology cycle are used, firstly in domestic markets and than in foreign ones. Dunning (1982, 1986) contributed to the investment-development cycle model with his suggestion that the level of inward and outward investment of different countries, and the balance of the two, is a function of their stage of development as measured by GNP (gross national product) per capita. After threshold phase of development, outward investment increases for countries at yet higher levels of development. The balance between inward and outward investment in developed countries results in the return of their net outward investment to zero. The continued growth of their outward investment at a later phase results in a positive net outward investment (NOI). Tolentino(1993) offered empirical evidence for the period since the mid-1970s which imply that the existence of a structural change in the relationship between NOI and the countrys relative stage of development as a consequence of the general rise in the internationalization of firms from countries at lower stages of development. The growth of newer multinationals from Japan, Germany and smaller developed countries, as well as some of the richer developing economies, implies their firms` capacity to follow the earlier outward multinational expansion of the traditional source countries, the USA and the UK, at a much earlier stage of their national development. The enhanced significance of outward investments from these newer source countries enables firm evidence of the general trend towards internationalization do that the national stage development no longer becomes a good predictor of a countrys overall net outward investment position. Cantwell and Tolentino (1987) suggested the stages of development approach to the study of multinationals. They posed a hypothesis that the character and composition of outward direct investment changes as development proceeds. Additionally, the say the following: Countries` outward direct investment generally follows a developmental or evolutionary course over time which is initially predominant in resource-based or simple forms of manufacturing production which embody limited technological requirements in the earlier stages of development and then evolve towards more technologically sophisticated forms of manufacturing investments. The developmental course of the most recent outward investors from the Third World has been faster and has a distinctive technological nature compared to the more mature multinationals from Europe, USA and Japan, owing to the different stages of their national development. Dunning (1977, 1981, 1988, 1993a, 1995a, 1995b) and his eclectic paradigm tends to explain the ability and willingness of companies to serve markets across national borders. Furthermore, the eclectic paradigm attempts to elaborate why they opt for the exploitation of any available advantages through foreign production instead of using domestic production, exports or portfolio resource flows. He hypothesized that a company will go for international production or engage in foreign direct investment if it owns net ownership advantages (mostly in the form of intangible assets) vis-Ã  -vis firms of other nationalities in serving particular markets. These ownership advantages, accompanied by internalization and location possibilities, will enable a company to benefit when using or internalizing a particular foreign market itself, instead of selling, renting or leasing them to foreign companies. Location possibility in this context means locating a multinational firms production activity in a foreign country that possesses competitive advantages in terms of factor endowments. If these three conditions (ownership, location and internalization) are not present, the firm can instead serve its local market through domestic production and expand it to serve foreign markets through international trade. The bigger the ownership advantages of multinational companies, the more incentive they have to use these themselves. The more the economics of production and marketing favor a foreign location, the more they are likely to engage in foreign direct investment. The propensity of a particular country to engage in international production is then dependent of the extent to which its enterprises possess these advantages and the location attractions of its endowments compared with those offered by other countries (Dunning 1981:79). According to Dunning eclectic paradigm is perhaps, the dominant paradigm of international production. It presumes ownership specific advantages as endogenous variables, i.e. to be a determinant of foreign production. This means that the paradigm is not only involved with answering the question of why firms go for FDI, in preference to other modes of cross-border transactions. It is also concerned with why these firms possess unique resources and competencies relative to their competitors or other nationalities and why they choose to use at least some of these advantages together with portfolio of foreign-based immobile assets. This makes it different from the internalization model, which regards ownership advantages as exogenous variables (Dunning, 1993a:252). As perceived by Dunning, the eclectic paradigm is meant to capture all approaches to the study of international production. In his opinion the model represents a good starting point to discover the global explanation of MNE`s existence and growth since it synthesizes the explanations of the existence and nature of international production. Dunning states that his eclectic paradigm can give an adequate analytical framework which enables understanding of all kinds of foreign production in services. Stressing the interdependence between services and goods industries, he asserts that it makes no sense to try to develop a new paradigm to explain the transnationality of the service sector (Dunning 1993a:248-284). In his scholarly research, Dunning was assertive to find all possible explanations of the existence of multinational enterprise in his eclectic paradigm. As the years went by, he tried to expand knowledge in the framework of his eclectic paradigm by attempting to accommodate possible additional explanations to multinational production activity that come to his knowledge. As an example, for instance, he argues that the advent of collaborative alliances among multinational firms does not lead to the development of a new multinational theory. Therefore, he has incorporated alliance capitalism in his model. In his renewed version of the eclectic paradigm in the light of alliance capitalism, Dunning(1995a) considers that inter-firm alliances (with clear reference to American multinationals) in innovation-led production systems are emerging as dominant forms of market-based capitalism, and are overtaking the global influence of hierarchical capitalism. Dunning has focused on the narrow view of the value-adding activity of innovation-led capitalism, and has considered other joint ventures, not wholly owned production operations, dominate the multinational enterprise involvement in less developed countries (Vaupel and Curhan 1973). Both in theory or in practice, internalizing a foreign market and going for a joint venture alliance with a foreign partner are just two possible options that a multinational company can choose in international business activities. Therefore, alliance as a strategy can be the dependent variable, just like international production, that needs further explanations. Explanations to joint ventures overseas could also include ownership, location and internalization considerations. Border lines between the three levels of economic analysis microeconomic, mesoeconomic and macroeconomic have to be neglected in order to synthesize the various economic approaches to the research of multinationals. Modern economic explanations of cross-border production activities of multinational firms are mostly reflected in the configuration of ownership, internalization and location advantages. Dunning has integrated those three fractions under the wing of his eclectic paradigm, but his primary objective in doing so is still to find eclectic explanations to the phenomenon of international production. Despite the differences in academic specialism, perspectives and objectives of economists who pursued the study of the existence of multinational companies and made significant contributions this field, they have one thing in common: they all targeted the explanation of the phenomenon of international production activity across national boundaries. 2.1.3. Strategic Management Approa

Free Hamlet Essays: The Message of Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

The Message of Hamlet Hamlet shows a lot of sadness and also contemplates suicide. He is very confused with his feelings and his depression has brought down his spirits, but Hamlet uses a mask of pride to hide all of this from the naked eye. The many event’s which have occurred, has made thinking straight for Hamlet difficult. His plans of avenging his fathers death are unraveling beforehis eyes; and he is not in the right state of mind to fix things. Hamlet may be very proud; but it is obvious he is very depressed and confused with life; "O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" (I; ii; 32-34) First of all, Hamlet comes home to a dead father and the re-marriage of his mother to his uncle, Claudius; "We pray you throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us as a father, for let the world take note you are the most immediate to our throne." (I; ii, 106-109) All of this has been a huge negative shock to Hamlet. He does not understand the event’s which have taken place. Hamlet’s mother re-marring makes mourning his father’s death all the more difficult. He does not understand why his mother would re-marry so soon after the death of her husband; especially the fact that it’s to his uncle, Claudius. All of this has caused a lot of anger and sadness inside of Hamlet. All of his feelings have become unbearable and bottled up. He begins to lose control of his life. It has also caused him to feel a lot of hatred towards his mother. He also feels hatred towards Claudius and blames him, for their marriage. Hamlet’s hatred does not stop with his mother and Claudius; he begins to see women as less due to his mothers’ actions. When Hamlet thought things could not get any worse, the ghost of his father appears, revealing his murderer; "The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown" (I; v; 39-40) Hamlet was not at all surprised to find that his father’s murderer was his own uncle; "O my prophetic soul!" (I; v; 41) Although Hamlet and two others saw the ghost with their own eyes, Hamlet was still reluctant to believing. Hamlet was the only one to hear the words of his father’s ghost.

How Procter and Gamble Moved to Electronic Documents

The Business Problem P&G faced problems managing the vast amounts of paper required for a company that develops drugs and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Regulatory issues, research and development (R&D), and potential litigation generate even more paper documents and files. As a result, P&G wanted to gain control of its company documents, reduce administrative oversight of its paper documents, reduce costs, accelerate R&D initiatives, and improve tracking and signature compliance. P&G decided to adopt an electronic document management system.When P&G moved to electronic documents, it had to ensure that it could authenticate digital signatures and build signing and storage processes into its daily workflow. Further, P&G’s legal department wanted to ensure that it had a legally enforceable signature on file. The IT Solution P&G turned to IT integrator Cardinal Solutions (www. cardinalsolutions. com) to implement Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions and Adobe LiveCycle PDF Gene rator (www. adobe. com), which would function with P&G’s eLab Notebook program.These software packages would manage, review, approve, and sign the huge volume of R&D information, including files created with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. P&G adopted the pharmaceutical industry’s Signatures and Authentication for Everyone (SAFE) BioPharma Association standard. This standard was established to help companies go paperless and still interact with regulatory authorities on a global scale. P&G’s initiative focused on implementing methods to manage digital signatures and creating a method to confirm the identity of the signer.The company’s IT and legal departments agreed that the standard met the company’s business needs and risk requirements. Instead of recording information from experiments in paper notebooks – along with numbering each page, signing it and having a witness sign it – researchers can now use word processing program s, spreadsheets, presentation software, and similar tools to generate project notes and other necessary documentation. After a researcher has collected all the data, LiveCycle PDG Generator creates a PDF document and prompts the person creating the file to add a digital signature.The system requires the use of a USB token for authentication. At that point, LiveCycle Reader Extensions embeds usage rights within the document. The Result Today, once a digital signature is added to a file, an auditor can immediately view the document and all activity related to the document. The auditor right-clicks on the signature and views the entire audit trail. The signature can also be appended as a last page of the file so that it can be shared externally when necessary, such as in a court of law.The system saves P&G time and money. Researchers no longer have to spend several hours per week archiving paper files from their experiments. In addition, P&G is able to quickly retrieve large volumes of data that may be needed for government regulators or business partners. P&G projects that it will achieve tens of millions of dollars in productivity gains by using the system. The typical employee will save approximately 30 minutes of signing and archiving time per week..

Remo And Juilet Essays - West Side Story, Sharks, Maria, Borth

Remo And Juilet Essays - West Side Story, Sharks, Maria, Borth Remo and Juilet There are three ways that remo and juilet are the same and three ways there are differnt.One way is the groups that they are divied into.Another way there are the same is both of the main charters fall in love.The third way they are the same is the fighting.The three was they are differnt are maria didnt die Juilet did, borth place,and the setting. The first way there are the same is they both had groups that they where in.The two groups that they were fighting in,remo and Juilet where the montagooes and the caplets.In westside story the two groups that where fighting were the sharks and the jets.The mantagooes and the caplets where fighting because the famlies didnt like each other.The sharks and the jets where fighting because the jets wanted the sharks off there turf. The second way there are the same both of the main harters fall in love.In Remo and Juilet are the main charters and they fall in love.In westside story the two main charters are Tony and Maria.Remo and Juilet want to be together but ther families are fighting.Tony and Maria want to be together but the sharks and the jets are fighting.Maria is antanos brother and he is with the sharks Tony is with the jets. The third way they are the same is all the fighting that is goning on.The sharks and the jets are fighting.Also the mantooges and the caplets are fighting.The jets want the sharks off there turf because they are puricans and they dont like puricans.The mantoogues and hte caplets are fighting because the two families dont like each other. The first wat they are differnt is the borth place Remo and Juilet and the sharks and the jets.Remo and Juilet took place in Italy.The sharks where born in puardo rico.The jets where in new york.Remo and Juilet and the sharks and the jets where all born in differnt places. The second way ther are differnt is the setting where Remo and Juilet and westside story took place.Remo and Juilet took place in Italy.Westside stroy took place in New York.REMo and Juilet mainly took place in the garden by juilets window.Westside story mainly took place at some tennis courts. Third way they are differnt is that Juilet died maria didnt die.Juilet died because she saw that remo drank some poisn and killed himself so juilet didnt want to be alone so sh drank the poisn and killed herself.Maria wasnt as dumb as juilet when tony got shoot she didnt kill herself she cryed alot.The reason she didnt die was that the buillet missed herv and got tony.Thats how juilet died and maria didnt. In conclusion there are three contrasts that i picked I thought was mainly about the two storys.Maria didnt die,the borth place,and the setting.Also this is why I picked these three comparsions that I thought was manily about the two storys,the groups that they where in,the two main charterfall in love,and all the fighting.This is how they are the same and this ids how they are differnt.

Philadelphia Freedom Award- Fredrick Douglass essays

Philadelphia Freedom Award- Fredrick Douglass essays Philadelphia, July 3, 2002- As a student that has much to achieve in life, I believe that this years Freedom Award should be Awarded to Fredrick Douglass. Fredrick Douglass individualism and heroism reminded me of the self-reliance piece. Douglass was born into slavery and turned his life into something great for the future to observe. Douglas felt that slavery was unacceptable in his as well as in America. He used this unacceptability as a driving force to educate himself and to become free. As, a black man of his time, Fredrick Douglass was able to read and write which made him a very influential person. Fredrick Douglass was known as the African- American who did it all. Douglass was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and spent his adolescence as a houseboy in Baltimore. He escaped to Massachusetts, were he began a career as an abolitionist after giving an important speech at an antislavery convention. Douglas did much through his travel to protest slavery. Douglass used his skills over the years to lecture in the northern star against slavery. He also helped slaves escape to the North while working with the Underground Railroad. Douglass established the abolitionist paper The North Star on December 3, 1847, and also developed it into the most popular, influential black antislavery paper published during the antebellum era. The North Star was used to not only denounce slaver, but to fight for the women and other oppressed groups. The North Star reached up to 4,000 readers in the United Sates, Europe, and the West Indies. The North Star merged with the Liberty Party Paper of Syracuse, and renamed his paper to Fredrick Douglass Paper. Douglass devoted the next three year of his life after this exciting event in publishing and abolitionist magazine called Douglass Monthly. A weekly established in Washington, D.C. to serve former slaves. He renamed this magazine to The New National Era., and published it unt...

Operations management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 3

Operations management - Essay Example The research considers the ways that these companies can improve their operations management by reducing a bottleneck that has identified in the process. The case study considered a two main forms of production processes that are notable in terms of the input transformation output model. The first production transformation process involved the transformation of lettuce into consumer goods. Following this model the occurrence with the lettuce has a number of inputs. Of course, the primary input in the transformation process is the lettuce itself. However, the comprehensive nature of the model involves a host of other inputs that contribute to overarching understandings regarding the organization’s production and output. The first input in these regards is the labor involved in the transformation of the lettuce into a consumer good. The labor costs can begin with the costs associated with the agricultural production of the lettuce. In terms of the specific labor costs associated with the case study, these labor costs include paying the individual to physically remove the lettuce from the field. This lettuce is then placed onto a conveyor belt that rotates around the production facility. In addition to this human resource cost, there is also a human resource cost associated with the individuals packaging boxes at the production plant. Rather than having the boxes pre-made, these production processes of constructing boxes are put-together at the plant itself. Another associated labor costs are those related to the truck drivers at the production plant. The truck drivers at the production plant wait for the packages to be placed into the trucks and then leave after the trucks are filled. In addition to human resource inputs, production at the treatment plant involves a variety of other miscellaneous elements. Energy costs are one major element. Energy costs involve the utilities associated with the conveyor belt that is one of the elements on the production cycle.

Variations on the Modern Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Variations on the Modern - Essay Example Some of the major political and societal changes which brought about the modernism were the post world wars situation. The huge developments and transformations in industry and technology coupled with the cultural exchanges, transportation and communication developments and influences from the West. The period of modernism in Scandinavia and Italy was both progressive and optimistic. It stems from the renaissance for the historians and was a cultural movement which impacted the Scandinavian and Italian art, architecture, music and literature. The breaking away from the conventional styles to newer representations in the period, where there was a shift from the traditional values. The period also marked growth and innovations in science, ethics, philosophy and psychology besides the previously mentioned art, architecture, music and literature. Different countries have had their share of influencing modernism. This period saw a change in the style and ideology of art during this era. T he philosophy of art was transformed during this period in terms of the themes and subject matter, and also the use of colours, shapes and lines. The intellectual underpinnings of modernism emerge during the Renaissance period when, through the study of the art, poetry, philosophy, and science of ancient Greece and Rome, humanists revived the notion that man, rather than God, is the measure of all things, and promoted through education ideas of citizenship and civic consciousness. The period also gave rise to ‘utopian’ visions of a more perfect society.1 Below is a modernism timeline which shows the significant events between 1920- 1970. Modernism in Scandinavia Scandinavia had a mixed dynamics of cultures, language and politics. This gave birth to a versatile and multi dimensional philosophy of art and design which became more assertive. The movement from Europe enveloped Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland within its fold. The Scandinavian countries had their own unique, yet impactful role in the move towards modernism. The response to the stimuli from the modern world was distinctive. The countries were experiencing the same changes in the modern life- social equality, industrialization and urbanization. Nonetheless, the outcomes and impact showed the unique natures of art and skills that evolved, which gave individuality and characteristic art and design to each of the countries. Yet the distinctiveness was combined with features which were common to all the Scandinavian countries which include a unifying touch in terms of humanism, tradition, moderation, handcrafted perfectionism, modesty, quietude and purposefulness, 2 which came to know as the style of the Scandinavian modern art. Among the European countries, the Scandinavian were able to portray the modern artistic touch in their traditional and conventional craft most expressively. Countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland which had internal dynamics and resources which led to an increased inclination towards the craft industries were most explicit in communicating the modern aesthetic in their art and craft. With the breakdown of the craft guild system in the mid- nineteenth century, they established a number of