SOSC 1340/1349 Introduction to Business and Society
Introduction to Business and Society 2018-19
SOSC 1340/1349 A Essay 1
Due: November 28 (through Turnitin on Moodle, and hard copy in lecture)
Length: 6-8 pages double spaced (1500-2000 words)
Value: 20%
Late essays will be subject to a -2% penalty per day.
*[Students will be permitted to resubmit through Turnitin after correcting errors revealed
by the similarity report, subject to late penalty.]
Planning Your Essay: Getting Started, Exploring and Pulling it Together
The essay writing process involves several stages: formulating a working thesis, organizing
your notes and developing an essay plan. For help Getting Started see this SPARK module.
Once you have picked an essay topic and identified the course readings you will use, look
up the reading questions and ‘wikiwords’ in the course outline. Start Exploring by applying
the SQ4R reading method to ‘social scientific’ texts or the ‘levels of reading analysis’
(discussed in lecture) to the ‘creative’ texts. This will help you produce the notes that will
form the raw materials for your essay. Now that you have your notes and your essay plan,
start Pulling it Together. Review the assignment instructions and our expectations before
you start the writing process. Producing a draft at least a few days before the due date will
give you an opportunity to edit your work. The more effort you put into earlier stages of
the essay writing process, the easier it will be to write.
Instructions
Pick one of the essay topics below. Make sure you discuss assignment expectations with
your TA in tutorial. DO NOT simply answer the questions in the order that they appear in
the topic. The order of presentation is something you need to think deeply about: you need
to think about what it is that you want to say and the order that it would be best to say it in
to show how well you understand the concepts, issues and arguments under consideration.
Papers should be double spaced, with 12 point font (such as Times New Roman, Arial or
Cambria) and one inch margins. Use paragraph format and provide a title page and a
bibliography. Each page of your essay (except the title page) must be numbered.
Formal Requirements
Your title page must include your name, student number, TAs name, and submission date.
You will need to find and use two secondary ACADEMIC sources for this essay (no
Wikipedia, dictionary.com, etc.). Include a properly formatted bibliography at the end of
your essay. Your essay must start with a comprehensive introduction which includes: i. The
position the author takes on the key question; ii. Your thesis; and iii. An explanation of how
your essay will be organized. Your essay must have a clear paragraph structure, each
starting with a clear topic sentence.
Prior to starting this essay, students should complete the following two ‘modules’.
*You are required to complete the SPARK module on Academic Integrity
*You are required to complete the SPARK module on Selecting Sources
Essay Topics
1. Did capitalism emerge in the city or the countryside? What ‘social property relations’
were necessary for the development of capitalism? Why did they develop in agrarian
communities? How do these differ from pre-capitalist relations according to Wood?
How did relations between ‘appropriators’ and ‘producers’ become so market
dependent?
2. ‘Is a wealthy nation a prosperous nation?’ What is the ‘division of labour’ and how did it
shape social relations both within and outside the factory? Use Heilbroner’s concept of
the ‘drive for capital’ and how it simultaneously produces ‘wealth’ and ‘misery’ to
analyze EITHER Dickens’ OR Sinclair’s insights into the nature of industrial life in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
3. Are democracy and the ‘free market’ allies or rivals? How does Phillips define ‘political
economy’ and how can it help us understand our ‘everyday life’? What does Waring
mean by the ‘ideology of postwar patriarchy’? What neoliberal arguments are made to
justify privatization, de-regulation and trade liberalization? Critically examine Waring’s
and Phillips’ critique of GDP as a response to these arguments.
4. Is capitalism distinct from slavery, or dependent on it? Why does Williams think Smith’s
argument is irrelevant to the New World context? Why were African slaves preferred
over indigenous (native) slaves and indentured (white European) servants? Compare
and contrast Williams’ analysis of the economic realities of staple crop production in
the New World with the colonial moral ideal of ‘bringing light (civilization) into
darkness (savagery)’ in Conrad’s work.
Introduction to Business and Society
Name:
Institution:
Introduction
People in different parts of the world are focused on achieving economic prosperity and economists hold the views that we are living in the midst of a vast global economic expansion. In almost every country in the world economic growth and development is a policy imperative and a crucial personal motive in nearly every society although it is unclear if economic prosperity enhances and promotes the quality of life. There are individuals who hold the views that materialism distracts countries and individuals from essential and vital issues such as equality and justice. The wealth of a country is determined by its monetary value of the capital, goods, and services which includes the net foreign balance and tangible assets which are owned by a country. Also, wealth may be defined as the accumulation of resources and a wealthy nation is one that is able to accumulate many valuable resources and or goods. On the other side, the prosperity of a country is determined by the overall well-being of its citizens. This paper will examine why a wealthy nation may not be considered a prosperous country and it will also examine the division of labor and evaluate how it shaped social relations.
Wealthy countries are not prosperous countries. There are nations which might be rich in terms of all resources required to promote development but still remain poor on some issues such as the distribution of resources; it is possible to have some parts of a country acquiring development while other parts are left out. It is important to note that social scientists believe that wealth is critical in the development of a country, however, the success in terms of growth and development may not be reflected in peoples’ life.
Additionally, scholars maintain that a wealthy nation may not always be regarded as successful or prosperous for different factors. For example, there are possibilities that a given country may be wealthy in terms of capital and resources but still have imbalanced development (Holcombe, 2014). Ordinarily, unequal development may be an indication that there exists a gap between the poor and the rich and that some services may only be available to a selected group of individuals, this undermines the prosperity of a nation. Unequal societies mean that one segment of the population is held back while supporting and helping the other. Further uneven growth can also be decomposed to inequality of opportunities due to factors that are beyond individual control which also negatively impacts people’s lives. Sociologists also believe that inequality results in a corrosive effect on societies and this makes them unfavorable to live in for both the poor and the rich. This is because inequity reduces social mobility making it hard for the people to climb the economic ladder affects the well-being of the people.
Wealthy countries are likely to have bad leadership which hinders their prosperity. Ordinarily, the leadership systems that are used in governing a country are expected to have solid and strong leadership characteristics such as integrity and compassion. Effective leadership promotes good governance in all levels of private and public organizations and with the increasing complications, difficulties and the necessities that arise from the persistent changes in society together with the constant demand for higher degrees of productivity it necessitates a productive and moral leadership. Good governance and leadership, are fundamental essentials for a nation to be regarded as prosperous. Sometimes a country may have leaders who are corrupt and who do not prioritize of the welfare of their citizens. In this case, where the leadership systems are unreliable, the country becomes overwhelmed by all the undesirable forces such that the wealth of the country does not impact or upgrade the lives of the citizens.
Also, the wealth of a country does not indicate prosperity because there are other factors which determine the quality of life but they cannot be measured in terms of monetary value. The monetary value of a country’s good and services is mostly used by economists in determining how wealth or rich a country is but this approach is not entirely effective because it may not capture everything that is important to the people. For example, individual’s health, family relationships, the environment, and education are essential contributors to the sense of satisfaction in peoples’ lives and when measuring what matters to the people such important factors should also not be left behind. Besides, wealthy countries have a high level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but since some of the things that promote people’s happiness may not be bought or sold, the level of wealth thus becomes an effective tool for computing and quantifying the well-being of the people. For example, even though GDP may include the amount of resources spent on healthcare, education as well as in environmental conservation, it does not include crucial factors such as the level of health, learning and environmental cleanliness (Mumford, 2016). For instance, when computing wealth of a country, it is possible to account for the costs used in buying hospital equipment but it is impossible to determine the quality of healthcare provided to the people. Similarly, the money used in purchasing pollution-control equipment can be calculated but that d...