New England vs. Chesapeake: Religion and People

Throughout the 17th century opusy volume of English ancestry flooded into the new world with the thought of a new beginning. In suppose to start their new lives, the English began compensatetling in ii main areas known as the new-fashioned England and Chesapeake regions. Although these areas were colonized by the like type of people, many differences existed amongst them. Religion was a main aspect in the differences amidst New England and Chesapeake. New England was founded for the purpose of spectral freedom.The Puritans who first stepped polish by the Mayflower and landed in New England arrived with a perfect mess of what they believed their church would be like. They left England for the reason that they didnt agree on the principles of the Church of England. This liquidation all in allowed them to worship whomever they chose. Although they had started a new life in a new place they remained faithful to the powerfulness of England. In order to become a saint one had to go through the passage process which include declaring your sins in front of your community. This granted church membership, which included the right to suffrage.Unlike New England, faith wasnt a main fair game in the Chesapeake society. Religion in the Chesapeake region was not at all common, except in a few areas. The colony of Maryland was think as a sanctuary for Catholics after being mistreated when the Catholic Church separated from the Church of England. Some Virginians who were still religious remained Anglican. These differences between the colonies developed because of the people who settled in that location. New England was compromised of families who came to the New World in search of religious freedom musical composition the Chesapeake Region consisted of young custody whose only concentre was money.This proves that the types of people that settled in these regions, led to the religious diversity between them. Furthermore the political trunks that existe d in the New England and Chesapeake regions were in like manner different. The political sympathies in New England changed many times through history, starting time with the Mayflower Compact. It stated how the Puritans would establish a civil government while still being loyal to the power. Later the colonists demanded a court system known as General Court and a representative government. The king appointed a royal governor for each colony. These governors followed the orders of the king.They had a deuce-chambered legislative one which was appointed by the king and the other by the people. The local government involved the county court system which dealt with issues in the present(prenominal) town. These issues were discussed in the town meeting which only men were allowed to attend. E precise man was given a freedom of speech during the town meetings. The right to vote was found on church membership. In the Chesapeake region every colony had a royal governor appointed by the king. They convinced the king to let them have an elected assembly but only if they pay for colonies by taxes.This assembly was known as the House of Burgesses and if elected it was a lifetime position. The local government consisted of a county court system which could set local tax rates and build roads. The right to vote was based on land ownership. The reasons the governments were different is because of the beliefs the inhabitants of each area had. The New Englanders believed religion was the key which led to more of a democratic type of government where they have more say. The people of the Chesapeake region revolved around make money. These differences in beliefs led to the variations in the types of governments.In addition to religion and political systems, the types of people that settled in these regions contributed to the differences. In the New England region the main focus was religion and family. People who first settled here were Puritans who broke off from the Chu rch of England looking for religious freedom. New England attracted many families at the time. Since there were an equal number of males and females the birth rate was through the roof. They believed public training was key to resist the devil, which resulted in the Old Deluders act.Most New Englanders were loggers, fishers, or shipbuilders since the colony didnt have a suitable geography and climate for agriculture. neighborly reciprocity was also common where everything was equal among people. The Chesapeake region was inhabited broadly by young men who come to the New World in pursuit of money. Since women were rare they had a larger influence than in New England. Tobacco was responsible for the success of some of these men. Tobacco became a very popular crop and required lots of land and labor. Indentured servants were employ to grow the tobacco.Settlers started replacing indentured servants with slaves because they could be driven harder with little to no compensation. Thes e differences between the people of these colonies were based on their principles. New Englanders was centered on religion and family while Chesapeake revolved around young men arduous to make money. The settlers principles led to the variances between the types of people that active in these colonies. Religion, political systems, and the types of people who occupied the New England and the Chesapeake regions, contributed to why they had evolved into two distinct societies over time.

The Information of Different Needs of Different User Groups

1 Introduction to write up Introduction n this opening chapter we father by worry ining the convictsumption of write up. We sh all told master that it erect be a invalu equal to(p) in like mannerl for end-making. We shall identify the main users of history and m acetary reading and talk e actuallyplace the r show upes in which this reading lavatory im professional personfessionalfessionalfessional personve the gauge of finiss that those users make. We shall consequently go on to consider the completeiceicular role of financial score and the fights betwixt financial and trouble accountancy formation.Since this book is concur-to doe with with story and financial decision making for private-selectroconvulsive therapyor lineage concern organizati sensations, we shall oerly examine the main forms of personalized credit line enterprise and consider what argon seeming to be the key objectives of a chore. I Learning disclose get bys When y ou feature completed this chapter, you should be able to ? explain the record and roles of story ? identify the main users of financial study and discuss their indigencefully ? distinguish among financial and management bill ? explain the intent of a subscriber line and describe how clientelees argon organised and structured. 2 CHAPTER 1 access TO invoice What is explanation? ? Accounting is concerned with collecting, analysing and communicating ? nancial randomness. The use is to help passel who use this nurture to make more than than informed decisions. If the ? nancial knowledge that is communicated is non capable of improving the eccentric of decisions do, in that respect would be no send in producing it. almost meters the impression is given that the purpose of report is hardly to prep ar ? nancial reports on a fifty-fifty basis. While it is true that accountants get this kind of officiate, it does not up to now despatch an end in itself.The ultimate purpose of the accountants work is to give people better ? nancial breeding on which to base their decisions. This decision-making perspective of chronicle ? ts in with the theme of this book and shapes the way in which we deal with each topic. Who ar the users of story selective study? For be breeding to be efficacious, the accountant must be vindicated for whom the schooling is cosmos prep atomic subject 18d and for what purpose the teaching leave be utilise. on that point argon credibly to be variant assemblys of people (k nowaold agen as user groups) with an invade in a cross organisation, in the adept of needing to make decisions almost it.For the typical private-sector backing, the more substantial of these groups argon shown in picture 1. 1. Take a look at this ? gure and then filter action 1. 1. envision 1. 1 Main users of financial reading relating to a profession Several user groups prep be an interest in accounting reading relat ing to a assembly line. The majority of these be byside the argumentation save, neverthe little, do a stake in it. This is not signifyt to be an exhaustive disceptation of cap strength users however, the groups determine atomic number 18 normally the most central. W HO ARE THE USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION? jural action 1. 1 Ptarmigan Insurance plc (PI) is a bighearted motor insurance argumentation. Taking the user groups determine in think 1. 1, call forth, for each group, the sorts of decisions belike to be made fairish nigh(predicate) PI and the factors to be taken into account when making these decisions. Your answer whitethorn be along the following lines User group Decision Customers Whether to take gain ground motor policies with PI. This king enquire an legal opinion of PIs skill to capture-to doe with in business and to meet their require, particularly in lever of whatsoever(prenominal) insurance claims made. CompetitorsHow best to st ruggle against PI or, perhaps, whether to leave the securities indus turn in on the grounds that it is not possible to compete profitably with PI. This might involve competitors using PIs machinery outance in versatile aspects as a benchmark when evaluating their own performance. They might in addition try to assess PIs financial strength and to identify strong changes that whitethorn signal PIs approaching processs (for simulation, raising bills as a prelude to market place expansion). Employees Whether to continue working for PI and, if so, whether to demand soaringer rewards for doing so.The future plans, profits and financial strength of the business argon liable(predicate) to be of particular interest when making these decisions. g e very(prenominal)placening body Whether PI should pay tax and, if so, how such(prenominal), whether it complies with agree pricing policies, whether financial hurt is unavoidable and so on. In making these decisions an assessment o f its profits, sales tax in enters and financial strength would be made. Community Whether to allow PI to expand its premise and/or whether to stand formatives frugal support for the business.PIs ability to continue to domiciliate employment for the companionship, the extent to which it is likely to use community resources and its likely leave aloneingness to help fund environsal improvements be likely to be considered when arriving at much(prenominal) decisions. Investment Whether to advise clients to put in in PI. This would involve an analysts assessment of the likely risks and future returns associated with PI. Suppliers Whether to continue to sum up PI and, if so, whether to supply on credit. This would involve an assessment of PIs ability to pay for any goods and services supplied.Lenders Whether to lend money to PI and/or whether to require refund of any existing loans. PIs ability to pay the interest and to repay the headliner sum would be important factors in such decisions. Managers Whether the performance of the business take to be improved. Performance to learn would be comp ard with earlier plans or both(prenominal) new(prenominal)(a) benchmark to mold whether action needs to be taken. Managers may excessively wish to decide whether there should be a change in PIs future trainion. This would involve looking at PIs ability to perform and at the opportunities in stock(predicate) to it.Owners Whether to induct more in PI or to sell all, or part, of the coronation actually held. This would involve an assessment of the likely risks and returns associated with PI. Owners may also be involved with decisions on rewarding major(postnominal) handlers. The financial performance of the business would normally be considered when making such a decision. Although this answer covers many of the key points, you may score identified other(a)(a) decisions and/or other factors to be taken into account by each group. 3 4 CHAPTER 1 interpolation TO ACCOUNTING The hostile interests of usersWe arrive at seen above that each user group looks at a business from a different perspective and has its own particular interests. This philia that there is always the risk that the interests of one group will clash with those of somewhat other group. Con? ict betwixt user groups is most likely to progress over the way in which the wealthiness of the business is generated and/or distri saveed. A good example is the con? ict that may arise between the managers and the owners of the business. Although managers ar appointed to act in the best interests of the owners, there is always a danger that they will not do so.Instead, managers may use the wealth of the business to award themselves to a great extent(a)-scale pay rises, to furnish large of? ces or to deprave expensive cars for their own use. Accounting information has an important role to play in describe the extent to which mingled groups deport bene? t ed from the business. Thus, owners may rely on accounting information to check whether the pay and bene? ts of managers are in line with agreed policy. A further example is the potency con? ict of interest between lenders and owners. in that respect is a risk that the coin loaned to a business will not be used for purposes that concord been agreed.Lenders may, therefrom, rely on accounting information to check that the silver assimilate been utilise in an appropriate look and that the terms of the loan obligation are not being broken. bodily function 1. 2 Can you turn over of other examples where accounting information may be used to monitor potential conflicts of interest between the various user groups identified? dickens possible examples that spring to mind are ? ? employees (or their re payatives) wishing to check that they are receiving a fair share of the wealth created by the business and that agreed profit-sharing schemes are being adhered to overnment wishin g to check that the profits made from a contract that it has given to a business are not excessive. You may thrust thought of other examples. How useful is accounting information? No one would earnestly claim that accounting information fully meets all of the needs of each of the various user groups. Accounting is still a maturation subject and we still have much to learn about user needs and the ways in which these needs should be met. Neverthe slight, the information behaveed in accounting reports should help users make decisions relating to the business.The information should reduce perplexity about the ? nancial position and performance of the business. It should help to answer school principals concerning the availability of funds to pay owners a return, to repay loans, to reward employees and so on. Typically, there is no close substitute for the information generated by the ? nancial arguments. Thus, if users cannot glean the necessitate information from the ? nancia l statements, it is frequently unavailable to them. Other sources of information concerning the ? nancial health of a business are normally uch less useful. HOW USEFUL IS ACCOUNTING INFORMATION? Activity 1. 3 What other sources of information might, say, an investment analayst use in an look for to gain an impression of the financial position and performance of a business? What kind of information might be gleaned from these sources? Other sources of information available include ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? meetings with managers of the business public announcements made by the business publisher and magazine articles websites, including the website of the business adio and TV reports information-gathering agencies (for example, agencies that assess businesses credideucerthiness or credit ratings) exertion reports scrimping-wide reports. These sources can cater information on various aspects of the business, such as new products or services being offered, management changes, new contracts offered or awarded, the competitive environment within which the business operates, the impact of new technology, changes in legislation, changes in interest rates and future takes of inflation.However, the various sources of information identified are not authentically substitutes for accounting reports. Rather, they are best used in conjunction with the reports in order to obtain a drop deader take to of the financial health of a business. Evidence on the usefulness of accounting ? There are arguments and convincing essay that accounting information is at least perceived as being useful to users. Numerous investigate surveys have asked users to rank the brilliance of accounting information, in relation to other sources of information, for decision-making purposes. across-the-tablely speaking, these studies have found that users rank accounting information very(prenominal)(prenominal) passing. There is also large try that businesses choose to generate accounting info rmation that exceeds the minimum requirements imposed by accounting regulations. (For example, businesses often aim a considerable amount of accounting information for managers, which is not required by any regulations. ) Presumably, the approach of producing this additional accounting information is justi? ed on the grounds that users ? nd it useful.Such arguments and evidence, however, leave unanswered the question of whether the information produced is real used for decision-making purposes, that is does it affect peoples behaviour? It is normally very dif? cult to assess the impact of accounting on decision making. unmatched situation arises, however, where the impact of accounting information can be spy and measured. This is where the shares (portions of self-control of a business) are traded on a stock exchange. The evidence reveals that, when a business makes an announcement concerning its accounting pro? s, the prices at which shares are traded and the volume of share s traded often change signi? inclinely. This suggests that investors are changing their interprets about the future prospects of the business as a result of this new information fair available to them and that this, in turn, leads them to make a decision either to buy or to sell shares in the business. Although there is evidence that accounting reports are perceived as being useful and are used for decision-making purposes, it is unimaginable to measure just how useful 5 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING ccounting reports are to users. As a result we cannot say with matter of course whether the court of producing those reports represents determine for money. Accounting information will usually represent hardly one input to a particular decision and so the precise weight attached to the accounting information by the decision maker and the bene? ts which ? ow as a result cannot be accurately assessed. We shall now go on to see, however, that it is at least possible to id entify the kinds of qualities which accounting information must possess in order to be useful.Where these qualities are lacking, the usefulness of the information will be diminished. Providing a service maven way of cover accounting is as a form of service. Accountants provide sparing information to their clients, who are the various users identi? ed in Figure 1. 1. The quality of the service provided is determined by the extent to which the needs of the various user groups have been met. To meet these users needs, it can be argued that accounting information should possess certain key qualities, or characteristics relevance, reindebtedness, comparability and understandability. ? ? Relevance. Accounting information must have the ability to in? uence decisions. Unless this characteristic is present, there is really no point in producing the information. The information may be applicable to the prediction of future events (for example, in predicting how much pro? t is likely to b e acquire next year) or applicable in share to con? rm past events (for example, in establishing how much pro? t was earned lowest year). The role of accounting in con? rming past events is important because users often wish to check the true statement of earlier predictions that they have made.The accuracy (or inaccuracy) of earlier predictions may help users to judge the accuracy of current predictions. To in? uence a decision, the information must, of course, be available when the decision is being made. Thus, applicable information must be timely. ? Reliability. Accounting should be free from signi? cant error or bias. It should be capable of being relied upon by managers to represent what it is supposed to represent. Though both relevance and reliability are very important, the problem that we often face in accounting is that information that is highly relevant may not be very rock-steady.Similarly, that which is reliable may not be very relevant. Activity 1. 4 To embell ish this last point, let us assume that a manager has to sell a custom-built machine owned by their business and has recently veritable a bid for it. This machine is very unusual and there is no ready market for it. What information would be relevant to the manager when decision making whether to accept the bid? How reliable would that information be? The manager would likely like to know the current market lever of the machine in the beginning deciding whether or not to accept the bid.The current market nurture would be highly relevant to the final decision, further it might not be very reliable because the machine is unique and there is likely to be little information concerning market values. BUT IS IT MATERIAL? When seeking to strike the right balance between relevance and reliability, the needs of users should be the overriding consideration. ? ? ? Comparability. This quality will enable users to identify changes in the business over time (for example, the trend in sales revenue over the past ? ve geezerhood).It will also help them to evaluate the performance of the business in relation to similar businesses. Comparability is achieved by treating items that are essentially the homogeneous in the comparable manner for accounting purposes. Comparability may also be fired by making percipient the policies that have been adopted in measuring and presenting the information. ? Understandability. Accounting reports should be expressed as pop offly as possible and should be understood by those at whom the information is aimed. Activity 1. 5 Do you gestate that accounting reports should be understandable to those who have not studied accounting?It would be very useful if accounting reports could be understood by everyone. This, however, is unrealistic as complex financial events and transactions cannot normally be expressed in simple terms. It is probably best that we regard accounting reports in the same(p) way that we regard a report written in a foreign language. To understand either of these, we need to have had some preparation. Generally speaking, accounting reports assume that the user not only has a tenable knowledge of business and accounting but is also prepared to invest some time in studying the reports.Despite the answer to Activity 1. 5, the encumbrance is diely on accountants to provide information in a way that makes it as understandable as possible to non-accountants. But . . . is it material? ? The qualities, or characteristics, that have just been described will help us to decide whether accounting information is potentially useful. If a particular component part of information has these qualities then it may be useful. However, this does not automatically mean that it should be reported to users. We also have to consider whether the information is material, or signi? cant.This agent that we should ask whether its omission or misrepresentation in the accounting reports would really fake the decisions t hat users make. Thus, in addition to possessing the characteristics mentioned above, accounting information must also cross the threshold of materiality. If the information is not regarded as material, it should not be included within the reports as it will merely clutter them up and, perhaps, interfere with the users ability to interpret the ? nancial results. The type of information and amounts involved will normally determine whether it is material. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING weigh up the cost and gain grounds Having read the previous sections you may feel that, when considering a piece of accounting information, provided the four main qualities identi? ed are present and it is material it should be gathered and made available to users. Unfortunately, there is one more hurdle to jump. Something may still exclude a piece of accounting information from the reports even when it is considered to be useful. Consider Activity 1. 6. Activity 1. 6 Suppose an item of informa tion is capable of being provided. It is relevant o a particular decision it is also reliable, comparable, can be understood by the decision maker concerned and is material. Can you think of a reason why, in perpetrate, you might choose not to produce the information? The reason that you may decide not to produce, or discover, the information is that you judge the cost of doing so to be greater than the potential benefit of having the information. This costbenefit issue will make the extent to which accounting information is provided. In theory, a particular item of accounting information should only be produced if the costs of providing it are less than the bene? s, or value, to be derived from its use. Figure 1. 2 shows the relationship between the costs and value of providing additional accounting information. Figure 1. 2 Relationship between costs and the value of providing additional accounting information The benefits of accounting information eventually decline. The cost of providing information, however, will rise with each additional piece of information. The optimal direct of information provision is where the gap between the value of the information and the cost of providing it is at its grea bear witness. WEIGHING UP THE COSTS AND BENEFITS The ? ure shows how the value of information accredited by the decision maker eventually begins to decline. This is, perhaps, because additional information executes less relevant, or because of the problems that a decision maker may have in processing the sheer quantity of information provided. The costs of providing the information, however, will growth with each additional piece of information. The broken line indicates the point at which the gap between the value of information and the cost of providing that information is at its greatest. This represents the optimal amount of information that can be provided.This theoretical model, however, poses a number of problems in practice. We shall now go on to discuss these. To illustrate the practical problems of establishing the value of information, let us assume that someone has collided with our car in a car park and dented and scraped the paint from one of the doors. We wish to have the dent taken out and the door resprayed at a local service department. We know that the nearest garage would charge ? 250 but believe that other local garages may offer to do the stemma for a let down price. The only way of ? nding out the prices at other garages is to visit them, so that they can see the extent of the damage.Visiting the garages will involve using some petrol and will take up some of our time. Is it worth the cost of ? nding out the price for the job at the various local garages? The answer, as we have seen, is that if the cost of discovering the price is less than the potential bene? t, it is worth having that information. To identify the various prices for the job, there are several points to be considered, including ? How many ga rages shall we visit? ? What is the cost of petrol to visit each garage? ? How long will it take to make all the garage visits? ? At what price do we value our time? The economic bene? of having the information on the price of the job is probably even harder to assess. The following points need to be considered ? What is the cheapest price that we might be quoted for the job? ? How likely is it that we shall be quoted a price cheaper than ? 250? As we can imagine, the answers to these questions may be far from clear remember that we have only contacted the local garage so far. When assessing the value of accounting information we are confronted with similar problems. The provision of accounting information can be very costly however, the costs are often dif? cult to quantify.The direct, out-of-pocket, costs such as salaries of accounting staff are not really a problem to identify, but these are only part of the get costs involved. There are also less direct costs such as the cost of the users time spent on analysing and interpret the information contained in reports. The economic bene? t of having accounting information is even harder to assess. It is possible to apply some science to the problem of weighing the costs and bene? ts, but a freshet of subjective judgement is likely to be involved. No one would seriously advocate that the typical business should produce no accounting information.At the same time, no one would advocate that every item of information that could be seen as possessing one or more of the key characteristics should be produced, regardless of the cost of producing it. The characteristics that in? uence the usefulness of accounting information and which have been discussed in this section and the preceding section are set out in Figure 1. 3. 9 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Figure 1. 3 The characteristics that influence the usefulness of accounting information There are four main qualitative characteristics that influence th e usefulness of accounting information.In addition, however, accounting information should be material and the benefits of providing the information should outweigh the costs. Accounting as an information system ? We have already seen that accounting can be seen as the provision of a service to clients. Another way of viewing accounting is as a part of the businesss total information system. Users, both inside and outside the business, have to make decisions concerning the parceling of scarce economic resources. To ensure that these resources are ef? ciently allocated, users need economic information on which to base decisions.It is the role of the accounting system to provide that information and this will involve information gathering and communication. The accounting information system should have certain features that are common to all valid information systems within a business. These are ? identifying and capturing relevant information (in this case ? nancial information) ? recording the information amass in a systematic manner ? analysing and interpreting the information collected ? account the information in a manner that suits the needs of users. The relationship between these features is set out in Figure 1. . ACCOUNTING AS AN INFORMATION SYSTEM Figure 1. 4 The accounting information system There are four sequential stages of an accounting information system. The first two stages are concerned with preparation, whereas the last two stages are concerned with using the information collected. Given the decision-making emphasis of this book, we shall be concerned primarily with the ? nal two elements of the process the analysis and reporting of accounting information. We shall consider the way in which information is used by, and is useful to, users earlier than the way in which it is identi? ed and recorded. Ef? ient accounting systems are an essential fraction of an ef? cient business. When the accounting systems fail, the results can be disastr ous. certain World 1. 1 provides an example of a systems failure when two businesses combined and then attempted to desegregate their respective systems. Real World 1. 1 Blaming the system FT When Sir visual sense Morrison bought Safeway for ? 3. 35bn in March 2004, he almost doubled the size of his supermarket twine overnight and went from being a regional actor to a case force. His plan was simple enough. He had to sell off some Safeway stores Morrison has to date sold off 184 stores for an estimated ? . 3bn and convert the remaining 230 Safeway stores into Morrisons. Sir Ken has about another 50 to sell. But, nearly fifteen months on, and the integration process is proving harder in practice than it looked on paper. Morrison, once known for its robust performance, has issued four profit archetypes in the past ten months. Each time the retailer has blamed Safeway. coating July, it was because of a faster-thanexpected sales decline in Safeway stores. In March there were t wo warnings that month it was the fault of Safeways accounting systems, which left Morrison with lower supplier incomes.This months warning was put down to higher-than-expected costs from course parallel store systems. At the time of the first warning last July, Simon Procter, of the stockbrokers Charles Stanley, noted that the news has blown all profit forecasts out of the water and visibility is very poor from here on out. But if it was difficult then to predict where Morrisons profits were heading, it is unacceptable now. Morrison itself cannot give guidance. No one envisaged this, says Mr Procter. When I made that comment about visibility last July, I was thinking on a twelve-month time frame, not a two-year one. Morrison says the complexity of the Safeway deal has put a significant strain on its ability to cope with managing national accounts. This is impacting the ability of the senesce to forecast likely trends in profitability and the directors are therefore not current ly in a position to provide reliable guidance on the level of profitability as a whole, admits the retailer. witness Morrison in uphill battle to integrate Safeway, Elizabeth Rigby, financial Times, 26 may 2005. As a footnote to Real World 1. 1, though Morrison had its problems, these were speedily overcome and the Safeway takeover has proved to be a success. 1 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING centering accounting and financial accounting Accounting is usually seen as having two distinct strands. These are ? ? ? management accounting, which seeks to meet the accounting needs of managers and ? financial accounting, which seeks to meet the accounting needs of all of the other users identi? ed earlier in the chapter (see Figure 1. 1). The difference in their targeted user groups has led to each strand of accounting developing along different lines. The main areas of difference are as follows. ? nature of the reports produced.Financial accounting reports tend to be command - ? ? ? ? ? purpose, that is, they contain ? nancial information that will be useful for a broad commit of users and decisions or else than being speci? cally intentional for the needs of a particular group or set of decisions. centering accounting reports, on the other hand, are often speci? c-purpose reports. They are designed with a particular decision in mind and/or for a particular manager. Level of position. Financial accounting reports provide users with a broad overview of the performance and position of the business for a end.As a result, information is aggregate and exposit is often lost. Management accounting reports, however, often provide managers with considerable detail to help them with a particular operational decision. Regulations. Financial accounting reports, for many businesses, are subject to accounting regulations that try to ensure they are produced with standard content and in a standard format. The law of nature and accounting manage makers impos e these regulations. As management accounting reports are for internal use only, there are no regulations from out-of-door sources concerning the form and content of the reports.They can be designed to meet the needs of particular managers. reportage interval. For most businesses, ? nancial accounting reports are produced on an annual basis, though some large businesses produce half-yearly reports and a few produce quarterly ones. Management accounting reports may be produced as frequently as required by managers. In many businesses, managers are provided with certain reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, which allows them to check progress frequently. In addition, special-purpose reports will be prepared when required (for example, to evaluate a intent to purchase a piece of equipment).Time orientation. Financial accounting reports re? ect the performance and position of the business for the past period. In essence, they are feebleminded looking. Management accounting rep orts, on the other hand, often provide information concerning future performance as well as past performance. It is an oversimpli? cation, however, to suggest that ? nancial accounting reports never incorporate expectations concerning the future. Occasionally, businesses will release projected information to other users in an attempt to put together capital or to ? ght off unwanted takeover bids. Even preparation of the routine ? ancial accounting reports typically requires making some judgements about the future, as we shall see in Chapter 3. race and quality of information. Financial accounting reports concentrate on information that can be quanti? ed in monetary terms. Management accounting also produces such reports, but is also more likely to produce reports that contain information of a non-? nancial nature, such as physical volume of inventories, number of sales orders received, number of new products launched, physical output per employee and so on. Financial accounting pl aces greater emphasis on the use of objective, veri? ble evidence when preparing reports. Management accounting reports may use information that is less objective and veri? able, but nevertheless provide managers with the information they need. SCOPE OF THIS BOOK We can see from this that management accounting is less constrained than ? nancial accounting. It may draw from a variety of sources and use information that has varying degrees of reliability. The only real test to be applied when assessing the value of the information produced for managers is whether or not it improves the quality of the decisions made.The billets between management and ? nancial accounting suggest that there are differences between the information needs of managers and those of other users. While differences undoubtedly exist, there is also a good deal of overlap between these needs. Activity 1. 7 Can you think of any areas of overlap between the information needs of managers and those of other users? W e thought of two points ? ? Managers will, at times, be interested in receiving a historical overview of business operations of the sort provided to other users.Other users would be interested in receiving information relating to the future, such as the planned level of profits and non-financial information such as the state of the sales order book and the extent of product innovations. The distinction between the two areas of accounting re? ects, to some extent, the differences in access to ? nancial information. Managers have much more control over the form and content of information they receive. Other users have to rely on what managers are prepared to provide or what the ? nancial reporting regulations require to be provided. Though the scope of ? ancial accounting reports has increased over time, fears concerning loss of competitive advantage and user ignorance concerning the reliability of forecast entropy have led businesses to resist providing other users with the same det ailed and big information available to managers. In the past, it has been argued that accounting systems are far too geared to meeting the regulatory requirements of ? nancial accounting to be able to provide the information most helpful to managers. This is to say that ? nancial accounting requirements have been the main priority and management accounting has suffered as a result.Recent survey evidence suggests, however, that this argument has lost its force. Modern management accounting systems tend to provide managers with information that is relevant to their needs rather than what is determined by external reporting requirements. Financial reporting cycles, however, retain some in? uence over management accounting and managers are aware of expectations of external users (see the reference at the end of the chapter). Scope of this book This book is concerned with ? nancial accounting rather than management accounting. In Chapter 2 we begin by introducing the trey principal ? a ncial statements ? the statement of ? nancial position (sometimes known as the balance sheet) ? the income statement (also called the pro? t and loss account) and ? the statement of money ? ows. 13 14 CHAPTER 1 ? INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING These statements are brie? y reviewed before we go on to consider the statement of ? nancial position in more detail. We shall see that the statement of ? nancial position provides information concerning the wealth held by a business at a particular point in time and the claims against this wealth. Included in our consideration of the statement of ? ancial position will be an introduction to the conventions of accounting. Conventions are the generally accepted rules that accountants tend to follow when preparing ? nancial statements. Chapter 3 introduces the second of the major ? nancial statements, the income statement. This provides information concerning the wealth created by a business during a period. In this chapter we shall be looking at s uch issues as how pro? t is measured, the point in time at which we recognise that a pro? t has been made and the accounting conventions that apply to this particular statement.In the UK and throughout much of the industrialised humans, the confine confederacy is the major form of business unit. In Chapter 4 we consider the accounting aspects of express companies. Although there is nothing of essence that makes the accounting aspects of companies different from other types of private-sector business, there are some points of detail that we need to consider. In Chapter 5 we continue our examination of moderate companies and, in particular, consider the framework of rules that must be adhered to when presenting accounting reports to owners and external users.Chapter 6 deals with the last of the three principal ? nancial statements, the statement of cash ? ows. This ? nancial statement is important in identifying the ? nancing and investing activities of the business over a period . It sets out how cash was generated and how cash was used during a period. Reading the three statements will provide information about the performance and position of a business. It is possible, however, to gain even more helpful insights about the business by analysing the statements using ? nancial ratios and other techniques. Combining two ? ures in the ? nancial statements in a ratio and canvas this with a similar ratio for, say, another business, can often sound out us much more than just reading the ? gures themselves. Chapters 7 and 8 are concerned with techniques for analysing ? nancial statements. The typical large business in the UK is a group of companies rather than just a single troupe. A group of companies will exist where one smart set controls one or more other companies. In Chapter 9 we shall see why groups exist and consider the accounting issues raised by the combination of companies into groups.The scope of ? nancial reporting has tended to alter over the yea rs. In Chapter 10 we shall consider where ? nancial reporting has come from and how it seems to be developing. Finally, in Chapter 11, we shall consider the way in which larger businesses are managed and how directors and other senior managers are accountable to the owners and to other groups with an interest in the business. Has accounting create too interesting? In recent years, accounting has become front-page news and has been a major talking point among those machine-accessible with the world of business.Unfortunately, the attention that accounting has attracted has been for all the wrong reasons. We have seen that investors rely on ? nancial reports to help to keep an eye both on their investment and on the performance of the managers. What, though, if the managers provide misleading ? nancial reports to investors? Recent revelations suggest that the managers of some large businesses have been doing just this. HAS ACCOUNTING BECOME TOO INTERESTING? devil of the most notorio us cases have been those of ? Enron, an energy-trading business based in Texas, which was charge of entering into complicated ? ancial arrangements in an attempt to obscure losses and to in? ate pro? ts and ? WorldCom, a major long-distance telephone operator in the US, which was charge of reclassifying $3. 9 billion of expenses so as to incorrectly in? ate the pro? t ? gures that the business reported to its owners (shareholders) and to others. In the wake of these scandals, there was much closer scrutiny by investment analysts and investors of the ? nancial reports that businesses produce. This led to further businesses, in both the US and Europe, being accused of using dubious accounting practices to bolster reported pro? ts.Accounting scandals can have a profound effect on all those connected with the business. The Enron scandal, for example, ultimately led to the collapse of the company, which, in turn, resulted in lost jobs and large ? nancial losses for lenders, suppliers a nd investors. Con? dence in the world of business can be crowingly shaken by such events and this can pose problems for hostel as a whole. Not surprisingly, therefore, the relevant authorities tend to be severe on those who perpetrate such scandals. In the US, Bernie Ebbers, the former antique executive director of WorldCom, received 25 years in prison for his part in the fraud. motley reasons have been put forward to explain this spate of scandals. Some may have been caused by the air pressures on managers to meet unrealistic expectations of investors for continually rising pro? ts, others by the greed of unscrupulous executives whose pay is coupled to ? nancial performance. However, they may all re? ect a particular economic environment. Real World 1. 2 gives some comments suggesting that when all appears to be expiration well with a business, people can be kinda a fleeceable and over-trusting. Real World 1. 2 The thoughts of Warren BuffettWarren Buffett is one of the wo rlds shrewdest and most successful investors. He believes that the accounting scandals mentioned above were perpetrated during the new economy boom of the late 1990s when confidence was high and exaggerated predictions were being made concerning the future. He states that during that period You had an erosion of accounting standards. You had an erosion, to some extent, of executive behaviour. But during a period when everybody believes, people who are inclined to take advantage of other people can get away with a lot.He believes that the worst is now over and that the dirty laundry created during this heady period is being washed away and that the washing machine is now in the rinse cycle. Source The Times, Business Section, 26 September 2002, p. 25. nisyndication. com. whatsoever the causes, the result of these accounting scandals has been to undermine the credibility of ? nancial statements and to introduce much stricter regulations concerning the quality of ? nancial information . We shall return to this issue in later chapters when we consider the ? nancial statements. 15 16 CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING The changing face of accounting Over the past 25 years, the environment within which businesses operate has become increasely turbulent and competitive. Various reasons have been identi? ed to explain these changes, including ? the increasing sophistication of customers ? the development of a global economy where national frontiers become less important ? speedy changes in technology ? the deregulation of domestic markets (for example, electricity, water and gas) ? increasing pressure from owners (shareholders) for competitive economic returns ? he increasing volatility of ? nancial markets. This new, more complex, environment has brought new challenges for managers and other users of accounting information. Their needs have changed and both ? nancial accounting and management accounting have had to respond. To meet the changing needs of users there has been a radical review of the kind of information to be reported. The changing business environment has given added impetus to the search for a clear framework and principles upon which to base ? nancial accounting reports. Various attempts have been made to shed light on the purpose of ? ancial accounting reports and to provide a more solid rear end for the development of accounting rules. The frameworks and principles that have been developed try to address fundamental questions such as ? Who are the users of ? nancial accounting information? ? What kinds of ? nancial accounting reports should be prepared and what should they contain? ? How should items (such as pro? t and asset values) be measured? In response to criticisms that the ? nancial reports of some businesses are not clear enough to users, accounting rule makers have tried to improve reporting rules to ensure that the accounting policies of businesses are ore comparable and more transparent, and that they portray economic reality more faithfully. While this has had a generally bene? cial effect, the recent accounting scandals have highlighted the limitations of accounting rules in protecting investors and others. The internationalisation of businesses has created a need for accounting rules to have an international reach. It can no longer be assumed that users of accounting information relating to a particular business are based in the country in which the business operates or are familiar with the accounting rules of that country.Thus, there has been increasing harmonisation of accounting rules across national frontiers. A more detailed review of these developments is included in Chapter 5. Management accounting has also changed by becoming more superficial looking in its digest. In the past, information provided to managers has been largely restricted to that collected within the business. However, the attitude and behaviour of customers and rival businesses have now become the object o f much information gathering. Increasingly, successful businesses are those that are able to secure and maintain competitive advantage over their rivals.To obtain this advantage, businesses have become more customer driven (that is, concerned with satisfying customer needs). This has led to management accounting information that provides details of customers and the market, such as customer evaluation of services provided and market share. In addition, information about the costs and pro? ts of rival businesses, which can be used as benchmarks by which to gauge competitiveness, is gathered and reported. WHAT KINDS OF BUSINESS OWNERSHIP EXIST? To compete successfully, businesses must also ? d ways of managing costs. The cost base of innovative businesses is under continual review and this, in turn, has led to the development of more sophisticated methods of measuring and controlling costs. What kinds of business willpower exist? The particular form of business ownership has importa nt implications for accounting purposes and so it is useful to be clear about the main forms of ownership that can arise. There are basically three arrangements ? sole proprietorship ? coalition and ? throttle company. Each of these is considered below. Sole proprietorship ?Sole proprietorship, as the bring in suggests, is where an psyche is the sole owner of a business. This type of business is often quite small in terms of size (as measured, for example, by sales revenue generated or number of staff employed) however, the number of such businesses is very large indeed. Examples of sole-proprietor businesses can be found in most industrial sectors but particularly within the service sector. Hence, services such as galvanic repairs, picture framing, photography, driving instruction, retail shops and hotels have a large rest of sole-proprietor businesses.The sole-proprietor business is easy to set up. No formal procedures are required and operations can often commence immediate ly (unless special authorization is required because of the nature of the trade or service, such as running licensed premises). The owner can decide the way in which the business is to be conducted and has the ? exibility to restructure or dissolve the business whenever it suits. The law does not recognise the sole-proprietor business as being separate from the owner, so the business will cease on the death of the owner.Although the owner must produce accounting information to satisfy the taxation authorities, there is no legal requirement to produce accounting information relating to the business for other user groups. However, some user groups may demand accounting information about the business and may be in a position to have their demands met (for example, a bank requiring accounting information on a regular basis as a condition of a loan). The sole proprietor will have unlimited liability which means that no distinction will be made between the proprietors personal wealth and that of the business if there are business debts that must be paid. component league ? A partnership exists where at least two individuals carry on a business together with the intention of making a pro? t. Partnerships have much in common with sole-proprietor businesses. They are usually quite small in size (although some, such as partnerships of accountants and solicitors, can be large). Partnerships are also easy to set up as no formal procedures are required (and it is not even necessary to have a written agreement between the partners). The partners can agree whatever arrangements suit them concerning the ? nancial and management aspects of the business.Similarly, the partnership can be restructured or dissolve by agreement between the partners. 17 18 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Partnerships are not recognised in law as separate entities and so contracts with third parties must be entered into in the name of individual partners. The partners of a business usually hav e unlimited liability. Activity 1. 8 What are the main advantages and disadvantages that should be considered when deciding between a sole proprietorship and a partnership? The main advantages of a partnership over a sole-proprietor business are ? ? ? sharing the burden of ownership he fortune to specialise rather than cover the whole range of services (for example, in a solicitors practice each partner may specialise in a different aspect of the law) the ability to raise capital where this is beyond the capacity of a single individual. The main disadvantages of a partnership compared with a sole proprietorship are ? ? the risks of sharing ownership of a business with unsuitable individuals the limits placed on individual decision making that a partnership will impose. circumscribed company ? Limited companies can range in size from quite small to very large.The number of individuals who subscribe capital and become the owners may be unlimited, which provides the opportunity to cr eate a very large-scale business. The liability of owners, however, is limited (hence limited company), which means that those individuals subscribing capital to the company are liable only for debts incurred by the company up to the amount that they have agreed to invest. This cap on the liability of the owners is designed to limit risk and to produce greater con? dence to invest. Without such limits on owner liability, it is dif? cult to see how a ripe capitalist economy could operate.In many cases, the owners of a limited company are not involved in the day-to-day running of the business and will, therefore, invest in a business only if there is a clear limit set on the level of investment risk. The bene? t of limited liability, however, imposes certain obligations on such companies. To start up a limited company, documents of incorporation must be prepared that set out, among other things, the objectives of the business. Furthermore, a framework of regulations exists that place s obligations on limited companies concerning the way in which they conduct their affairs. Part of this regulatory framework requires annual ? ancial reports to be made available to owners and lenders and usually an annual general meeting of the owners has to be held to approve the reports. In addition, a copy of the annual ? nancial reports must be lodged with the Registrar of Companies for public inspection. In this way, the ? nancial affairs of a limited company enter the public domain. With the exception of small companies, there is also a requirement for the annual ? nancial reports to be subject to an audit. This involves an independent ? rm of accountants examining the annual reports and underlying records to see whether the reports provide a true and fair view of the ? ancial health of the company and whether they comply with the relevant accounting rules established by law and by accounting rule makers. All of the large household-name UK businesses (Marks and Spencer, Tesco , Shell, BSkyB, BA, BT, easyJet and so on) are limited companies. Limited companies are considered in more detail in Chapters 4 and 5. HOW ARE BUSINESSES organise? Activity 1. 9 What are the main advantages and disadvantages that should be considered when deciding between a partnership business and a limited liability company?The main advantages of a partnership over a limited company are ? ? ? ? the ease of setting up the business the degree of tractableness concerning the way in which the business is conducted the degree of flexibility concerning restructuring and dissolution of the business freedom from administrative burdens imposed by law (for example, the annual general meeting and the need for an independent audit). The main disadvantage of a partnership compared with a limited company is the fact that it is not possible to limit the liability of all of the partners.This book concentrates on the accounting aspects of limited liability companies because this type of business is by far the most important in economic terms. The early chapters will introduce accounting concepts through examples that do not draw a distinction between the different types of business. at once we have dealt with the basic accounting principles, which are the same for all three types of business, we can then go on to see how they are applied to limited companies. It must be emphasised that there are no differences in the way that these three forms of business keep their day-to-day accounting records.In preparing their periodic ? nancial statements, there are certain differences that need to be considered. These differences are not ones of principle, however, but of detail. How are businesses organised? As we have just seen, nearly all businesses that involve more than a few owners and/or employees are set up as limited companies. This means that the ? cigarette will come from the owners (shareholders) both in the form of a direct cash investment to buy shares (in the ownersh ip of the business) and through the owners allowing past pro? s, which belong to them, to be reinvested in the business. Finance will also come from lenders (banks, for example), who earn interest on their loans and from suppliers of goods and services being prepared to supply on credit, with payment occurring a month or so after the date of supply, usually on an interest-free basis. In larger limited companies, the owners (shareholders) are not involved in the daily running of the business or else they appoint a board of directors to manage the business on their behalf. The board is charged with three major tasks ? etting the overall direction and strategy for the business ? monitoring and controlling its activities and ? communicating with owners and others connected with the business. Each board has a chairman, elected by the directors, who is responsible for running the board in an ef? cient manner. In addition, each board has a chief executive of? cer ( chief executive officer ), or managing director, who is responsible for running the business on a dayto-day basis. Occasionally, the roles of chairman and CEO are combined, although it is usually considered to be a good idea to eparate them in order to prevent a single individual having excessive power. We shall come back to consider the relationship between directors and shareholders in more detail in Chapter 4. 19 20 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING The board of directors represents the most senior level of management. Below this level, managers are employed, with each manager given responsibility for a particular part of the businesss operations. What is the financial objective of a business? A business is created to enhance the wealth of its owners.Throughout this book we shall assume that this is its main objective. This may come as a surprise, as there are other objectives that a business may pursue that are related to the needs of others associated with the business. For example, a business may seek to provide good working conditions for its employees, or it may seek to conserve the environment for the local community. While a business may pursue these objectives, it is normally set up with a view to increasing the wealth of its owners. In practice, the behaviour of businesses over time appears to be consistent with this objective.Real World 1. 3 reveals how one well-known business has changed its focus in order to improve pro? tability. Real World 1. 3 Profiting from change It speaks volumes for the work done by Kate Swann in turning some W H metalworker that when she became chief executive five years ago, the company was being spoken of in similar tems to Woolworths. Comments such as You wouldnt invent it if you were starting out today and What is it actually for these days? were typical among analysts, as they were with Woolies.Indeed, many thought that W H Smith was beyond help and argued that the supermarkets were eating away at sales. Ms Swann has defied the scepti cs, achieving an imposing turnaround. The companys magazine and newspaper distribution division was hived off as a separate entity and new outlets were opened at airports and railroad track stations so much so that sales by W H Smiths travel unit now jeopardize to overtake those of its traditional high path stores. Lower-profit-margin lines, such as CDs and DVDs, have been cleared from the shelves to make way for higher-margin items, such as stationery.The last fatten up of the strategy was in evidence again in yesterdays update, in which Ms Swann reported that sales in the nine weeks to January 17 were down by 7 per cent in the high street stores and by 2 per cent in the travel stores, partly because W H Smith is continuing to reduce its exposure to the entertainment category. That was the bad news. The good news was that, although sales overall were down, the reduced focus on entertainment was good for profits. W H Smith made an superfluous 2p of profit in every ? 1 of sale s, compared with the same period a year earlier, a stunning achievement given the deflation hitting the high street.Source Business big shot, Ian King, The Times, 27 January 2009, p. 39. nisyndication. com. Within a market economy there are strong competitive forces at work that ensure that failure to enhance owners wealth will not be tolerated for long. Competition for the funds provided by the owners and competition for managers jobs will normally mean that the owners interests will prevail. If the managers do not provide the expected increase in ownership wealth, the owners have the power to replace the existing management team with a new team that is more responsive to owners needs. WHAT IS THE FINANCIAL accusatory OF A BUSINESS?Does this mean that the needs of other groups associated with the business (employees, customers, suppliers, the community and so on) are not really important? The answer to this question is certainly no, if the business wishes to survive and prosper ov er the longer term. gratifying the needs of other groups will normally be consistent with increasing the wealth of the owners over the longer term. The importance of customers to a business cannot be overstated. Dissatis? ed customers will take their business to another supplier and this will, in turn, lead to a loss of wealth for the owners of the business losing the customers.Real World 1. 4 provides an illustration of the way in which one business acknowledges the link between customer satisfaction and creating wealth for its owners. Real World 1. 4 Checking out Sainsburys objectives J Sainsbury plc is a leading food retailer that recognises the importance of customers to increasing the wealth of the owners (shareholders) as follows Our objective is to serve customers well and thereby provide shareholders with good, sustainable financial returns. Source Investor FAQs, www. j-sainsbury. co. uk, 8 January 2009, p. 1. A dissatis? d workforce may result in low productivity, strikes and so forth, which will in turn have an adverse effect on owners wealth. Similarly, a business that upsets the local community by unacceptable behaviour, such as polluting the environment, may attract bad publicity, resulting in a loss of customers and heavy ? nes. Real World 1. 5 provides an example of how two businesses responded to potentially minus allegations. Real World 1. 5 The price of clothes FT US clothing and sportswear manufacturers crack cocaine and Nike have many of their clothes produced in Asia where labour tends to be cheap.However, some of the contractors that produce clothes on behalf of the two companies have been accused of unacceptable practices. Campaigners visited the factories and came up with damaging allegations. The factories were employing minors, they said, and managers were harassing female employees. Nike and Gap reacted by allowing independent inspectors into the factories. They promised to ensure their contractors obeyed minimum standards of empl oyment. Earlier this year, Nike took the extraordinary shade of publishing the names and addresses of all its contractors factories on the internet.The company said it could not be sure all the abuse had stopped. It said that if campaigners visited its contractors factories and found examples of act malpractice, it would take action. Nike and Gap said the approach made business sense. They needed societys approval if they were to prosper. Nike said it was concerned about the response of potential US recruits to the campaigners allegations. They would not want to work for a company that was constantly in the news because of the allegedly cruel treatment of those who made its products. Source Fair shares? , Michael Skapinker, Financial Times, 11 June 2005. 21 22 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING It is important to recognise that generating wealth for the owners is not the same as seeking to maximise the current years pro? t. Wealth creation is a longer-term concept, which relate s not only to this years pro? t but to that of future years as well. In the short term, corners can be cut and risks taken that improve current pro? t at the expense of future pro? t. Real World 1. 6 gives some examples of how emphasis on short-term pro? t can be damaging. Real World 1. 6 short-term gains, long-term problemsFT Human beings are bad at learning and changing. It takes a good crisis to drive home what may have been staring us in the face. So what in particular are the lessons for all those concerned with saving, investment, borrowing and lending? For many years, under the guise of defending capitalism, we have been allowing ourselves to degrade it. We have been poisoning the well from which we have drawn wealth. We have misunderstood the importance of values to capitalism. We have surrendered to the idea that success is engage by making as much money as the law allowed without regard to how it was made.Thirty years ago, retailers would b

Of Mice and Men: The Failure of the American Dream Essay

thesis Statement The novel Of Mice and Men was John Steinbeck a message to the creation of how the American inhalation is dead and un gatherable. The nation had seen maven of the biggest spending sprees in the nineteen twenties and the following decade the results were crashing down on the nation. lot were losing everything that they owned and starving. The American ambition is defined as The American pipe dreaming is that dream of a land in which keep should be collapse and richer and fuller for every adept, with opportunity for from each one according to ability or contactment. (What Is the American Dream)Because of that, it seemed like the American Dream was dead and there was never a better novel to illustrate it than Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie, the co protagonist of the novel, aspire to the American Dream, that because few people believe in its attainability, few argon surprised when they fall short of its achievement. To understand how the American Dream is shown to be unattainable in the novel Of Mice and Men, it must be understood. in that respect atomic number 18 several definitions of the American Dream.According to Merriam Websters an American social high-minded that stresses egalitarianism and especially material prosperity also the prosperity or life that is the realization of this ideal. (Merriam Webster). The separate part of that materialistic idea is that if one officiates intemperately enough, he/she can achieve absolutely anything. George and Lennie collect a dream that comp allowely embodies the concept of the American Dream. They are deuce men who are migratory stoolers during the Great Depression who take a crap a dream of owning their own off the beaten track(predicate)m.The actual ownership of the elicit is only a small part of the dream. The fact that they will non be owned by another person is the allure of the dream. All kins a vegetable in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a f ew eggs or something, or some milk. Wed jus live there. Wed be coherent there. There wouldnt be no more(prenominal) runnin round the coun deliver and gettin fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, wed have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house. (Steinbeck p. 63)Because of their situation of being migrant workers, every aspect of their lives were dictated by their boss. Their need for currency to survive, mickle them up for ownership as if they were slaves. George realized this more than Lennie. Lennie brought innocence to the dream. He wanted nothing more than to tend the rabbits because petting soft things brought him pleasure. He did not care astir(predicate) materialism or having control of his life. joyfulness of the moment was his goal for life and the American Dream took on its purest plaster bandage through him. They remind themselves daily of this dream.Lennie begs for George to tell him the story even though he knows it as if hearing it will make it so. G eorge tells it as if each time he tells it the dream will be puzzle more and more real. Yet they are chasing an illusion. The characters have survived in the world so far because of their belief that the American Dream is alive and well. George and Lennie cannot imagine that their hard work will not pay off in the end. Society had told children for generations that hard work would take an individual to the top of society and many clock it did.Then came the Great Depression and everything changed. People worked hard and they did what they thought was right, only at that time it did not take them anywhere but backward. George and Lennie try to save, but it takes every dime to survive. Once they meet Candy, who offers to add money to the cause, they know that with the money they have coming, they will be able to have their dream, but still as it was time to make their purchase, tragedy strikes. Their work has gotten them nowhere. It is apparent throughout the novel that the dream is not attainable.From the incident in weed to the killing of the puppy, everything that George and Lennie do ends up becoming a disaster. It is open that the dream of the farm will be as well. As George says -I call I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed wed never do her. He usta like to hear about it so practically I got to thinking maybe we would (103). The unattainable American Dream is not limited to George and Lennie and that is symbolic that most people will not attain it. There are other characters who also have their American Dream crushed. Curlys wife had a dream of fame and fortune.She also wants to be loved. She married a man who was to inherit his fathers farm and he seemed to want her, but after she marries him, she realizes that he only cares about himself. She does everything in her power to get his attending because of her need. He is jealous of other men, but not because of the love for his wife. Love, marriage, and producing a family is part of the Ameri can Dream and all Curly and his wife have is the legal part of the institution. The dream that she imagined did not materialize with her marriage and that left her lonely and seeking the attention of other men.If I catch any one man, and hes alone, I get along fine with him. But just let two of the guys get together an you wont talk. Jus nothing but mad. Youre all scared of each other, thats what. Ever one of yous scared the rest is goin to get something on you (85). Crooks wants his part of the American Dream where all men will be equal and he thinks that he gets close to this the night Lennie and Candy end up in his room and share the dream of the farm with him. It does not take long for him to have to face the reality that there is no equality in the world.George and Lennie prove that the American Dream is unattainable. To obtain it ones life would be perfect and there is no perfection in the world. There are always going to problems and hardships in life and this makes the dream just that a dream. Of course the American Dream has become less of a reality in this country since the beginning of the Great Depression, but it was very just a fantasy from the start. There were always people who seemed to achieve it, yet underlying problems were always present. George and Lennie prove that problems will always come to the surface.

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall Essay

Theres an honest graft and, Im an manikin of how it worksIve seen my opportunities and I took em (3). An excerpt that defines the confident and policy-making leader George Washington Plunkitt. As a brilliant and successful man of affairs Plunkitt managed to use his method of machine politics to win the heart and perpetration of peck and political force- erupt. In the novel Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, author William L. Riordon, Plunkitts political reporter who records the many lectures Plunkitt presented at Tammany Hall. The book emphasizes on Plunkitts advocacy for political control and the political machine that helped him gain wealth and a political seat in Tammany Hall.In novel, Plunkitt defends the political machine by explaining the difference mingled with honest graft and dishonest graft. many a(prenominal) accused the political leaders of Tammany Hall of gaining wealth from graft. Plunkitt describes the difference between the two terms. He describes dishonest graft as bl ackmailin gamblers, saloonkeepers, and disorderly state (3). In other words, the corruption of gaining political or business power used from bribery. Plunkitts term for honest graft has to do with the exercise of purchasing and selling off land for business projects. For example, if the town begins discussing a specific piece of land to be used for a fellowship park, Plunkitt would buy that piece of land, inflate the price, and sell the property to the project developer. Plunkitt finds his port of profiting honest I call this taking advantage of ones political power. As an honest Irish-American Plunkitt knows how to take advantage of the game and he will embrace to play it until sand turns into stone.With the ability to win everywhere voters hearts and gain political support Plunkitt comfortably knows how to keep a seat in Tammany Hall. One of his, again, honest tactics, Plunkitt knows how to target specific types of voters. In the chapter To Hold Your District, Plunkett claim s how to target the lower class people. He would give out house fires so that the poor would not have any vestments or food. Then Plunkitt would act as a friend to the people giving them quarters for clothing and food to win the heart of the people. In other words, he was gaining a vote. Plunkitt would even hand out glaze over to children to promise to make sure their parents were voting for him in elections. As a corruption to society, Plunkitt knew how fake the political act and win people over with friendships. According to Plunkitt in order to become a politico in Tammany Hall one must know how to bluff. Everything was about winning a vote, whether it was taking someone to a baseball game or handing out candy to children. What ever it took.As a business and political man, Plunkitt knew the political game inside and out. With corruption, he managed to continue to remain in subroutine for countless years. Even though Plunkitts grammar was inferior to a professors or college gr aduate, it had nothing to do with being a political powerhouse. A politician had to have common sense and know how to gain ones trust, even if it meant dishonesty. By selling himself and taking advantage of political and business opportunities with honest or dishonest graft, Plunkitt attentiveness always kept himself in front with wealth and politically.

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology Essay

Chapter 3 mannerological analysis and asylumChapter 3 explore see and methodological analysis3.1 AimsThis investigating was concerned gener tout ensembley to see how tender technologies come into the normal lives of assorted pack, and how in turn these large subdue engage with these saturnineerings the port they be appropriated, including sufferance, culture and struggling, just excessively almost some some different(a)(a) strategies for non- bankers acceptance, or arms property appropriation. exceptional issues include the stoop of k at a durationledge, h doddering and resource on ICT appropriation deep dash off and surrounded by domains of the invigoration- infinite, addressing both opportunities for encompass e re tout ensembleyplace and reinforcement of boundaries. More broadly it asked how the appropriation of technologies, such(prenominal) as the PC, the mobile ph star and the Internet is proceeding now that certain adept elements and skill s absorb left the domain of the early adopter. The view started from three pauperisms1. To study everyday case and context of engine room in its broad rather than narrow definition, c overing the full-page of the intent story post. This seek to overcome the limitations of previous inquiry that foc manipulations rather unsh bedly on the base, or bunk, or clubs lone(prenominal), and generally neglects crossovers, (except when melt comes in to the billet in the shimmy of tele-work). It is alike sought to explore how the reckoner and few other(a)(a) technologies cross over mingled with domains, and the supposed convergence of television, ready reckoner and telecommunications technologies.2. A soul centred fire to aliveness with applied science, rather than an arti incident centred approach. With so umteen products universe au in that locationforetic, rather than follow the up backpack of a precise selected applied science, which whitethorn fail, or succeed, this study looks at what is actually appropriated or engaged with by the answerings in opposite circumstances during a completion of intense technological wobble. 3. A socio skilful approach to appropriation, establishon three levels. Rather than creation artefact or system centred, the study recognises the socio- hea on that pointfore nature of innovation in the development society. It seeks to recordChapter 3 methodology and practicea) The biographies and appropriation of things or artefacts themselves. b) The biography and appropriation and reinvention of proposed hires, programmes and visions that accompany artefacts. much a bulge officular engine room whitethorn fail, entirely it is provided a step on the federal agency to acceptation and development of a class of work such as home shopping, or the mobile office, computers in education. In an age of nonuple competing technologies and service providers, the class of service is a nonher get word l evel of analysis. Reinvention of service and metamorphoses in attitude frequently occurs ahead of technical innovation, only if just back be seen as part of the innovation move.c) A trine level is that of issues on the macro scale, just affect somebodyistics and communities issues such as privacy, belief on engineering, the usualation on the sores media, on content identity, the approximation of progress done engine room and so forth This includes tales of technological u pass a hankerianism (Kling and S., 1988) and dystopianism, as well as to a greater extent concrete issues such as copyright. These may be harder to grasp, but they ar central to the idea of the affirmation society, argon the subject of extensive academic line of descent and insurance policy work, and ar debates that atomic number 18 accessible to everyone. They be overly represented by station products such as politics legislation, which is in its turn consumed in its make appearan ce.3.1.1 Research QuestionsFrom these general aims, a bet of specialized query top dogs and issues emerged and were further down in the course of maturation the enquiry excogitate. The main questions argon summarised downstairs1. What argon the crossovers between work and home and other domains of bearing in the be intimate and appropriation of raw ICTs? How does technology uphold breakdown boundaries, or substance ab utilization to reinforce them?2. What are the issues that devise adoption and employ of ICTs difficult, such at they create ambivalence between benefits and problems, and inquire applicative and genial resources to cope with them3. How of import is the local brotherly interlock as resource and factor in the diffusion of technologies, and the appropriation exhibit? (This question was particularly interesting since just round of the technologies in question are vane technologies, and their part depends on having other batch to go for them with) .4. Why do deal non adopt new ICTs that are becoming common all roughly them, and what does it mean to be a non-adopter? Can we as well ask how people resist technical change?Chapter 3 methodological analysis and DesignThese questions throw light on the greater issue of whether we merchant ship question an individualistic consumption and ownership determine.Two secondary questions that motivate the query, but are non examined in this thesis in dilate are1. How are people experiencing the convergence of technologies, industries etc, and engaging with the manufacturing set development of new classes of service and uses. Are in that respect types of classes of uses developed by users, or parts of everyday vivification that are non part of the indus generate and policy agenda. How are, and may people respond to the key services that are creation developed for new technical platforms, and what applications and services bulge out to be proving most relevant and popular?2. How do the academic and policy issues roughly the innovation and appropriation of new ICTs form part of the get word of people non necessarily engaged with them channelizely? How do these issues beat apparent and how do people engage with them?In these questions issues of ain, social, functional and technical context is be central. The Social Shaping of Technology perspective signals a social constructivist perspective on one hand the way thattechnologies, uses, concepts and agencys are constructed in context and in use, but on the other hand stresses the enamour of the characteristics of the technology, and in this case encyclopedism and communications, in organization the meanings and context. While the meanings of technologies may be shaped by the broader social and cultural context, and discourse, the technology itself has a provideful reverse effect.Most studies of technology and innovations obligate erect the same broad trends in use and adoption of ICTs, with age, gender, funds and occupation organism important predictors of attitudes, use and rate of adoption. Assumptions are shape some the difference between the way men and women, or the adolescent and the old, approach technology, and are addressed by industry. However as ICTs buy the farm less technological, and digital computing technology becomes more and more ubiquitous, I wanted to take a criticalChapter 3 methodological analysis and Designstance, not feel for stereotypes but trying to see from rear end up observation how and wherefore there may be diametric approaches to new ICT between people, establish not only on demographics, but also on a dictate of other influencing factors. Do changes in employment, education and expectations along human face changes in technology challenge our stereotypes of women and men, or the old and the young?In ordinance to tackle this sort of issue I bringed to study a number of divers(prenominal) milieu, with a range of people of va rious ages, occupations, resources, attitudes to technology etc, in order of magnitude to get a range of antithetical examples to spatevas and contrast. However the number of people I could interview would be limited by my prison term and the type of look method I chose.3.2 Designing the Field tapThis interrogation image builds on explore done into use of technology and media in the home in the various other spaces utilize a soft research method1. This raillery of the methodology secures to present some of the specific tools and experiences utilise to inform the design of the research and the development of an interpretation.3.2.1 Studying the Process of Adoption and jejunity few studies of technology are aimed at building up a get a line of the use of technologies in a social system at a particular cartridge holder in a generally unchange adapted power. early(a)s inquire the process of domestic helpation from the moment a technology is adopted. The processes tether up to adoption are generally investigated in hindsight. Diffusion studies hightail it to look in hindsight at the diffusion of an innovation though a community, following one particular technology. Adoption studies, even those concentrating on word-of-mouth, and own(prenominal) form, do not look closely at the actual process of interactions in dilate, and seldom use qualitative research methods.In my research I wanted to look at natural setting over a detail of term, to try and see what natural encounters there were with technologies, why and how these occurred, and how people engaged not only with technologies, but with ideas around them too. I wanted to see how people affaireed innovations into their existent cultural and technical orbit, how disparate technologies were interpreted, and how they were appropriated. I wantedChapter 3 methodological analysis and Designto peril this process and seek to empathise in the context of the everyday activities, alike(p) ityships, minimise and causes of the respondent. In particular, I wanted to see how processes at bottom the social mesh played a role in the way people encountered and coped with innovations.I developed a method of research, more elements of which I were reinforced by observations from number of detectives from different disciplines. Rogers (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971) suggests that diffusion research needs to be more more processoriented than is general. It should be qualitative, and follow sequences of display cases over eon, to try and get scalelike to reading the actually adoption process. He also suggests that instead of counseling on mavin innovations, we should see them as part of clusters, with adoption of one linked to others, peculiarly when boundaries between technologies is not very clear.These clusters or complexes need to be investigated in anevolutionary sequence. He suggests we pass water to look for how these golf links are made by potential adopters, and not rely on the classification of experts. In particular, he suggest not falling for the evacuate vessel fallacy, assuming that potential adopters do already control the cognition and skills (indigenous familiarity systems) to evaluate and use innovations relevant to their lives. In fact this is the approach of sociology of technology and of consumption to understand how interpretations of an innovation are letd at in the culture in which it emerges or is introduced.Developing research out of the consumer research paradigm, Mick and Fournier (Mick and Fournier, 1995) criticise the lack of research that centralizees on the on the context of consumption, the pre- and post-adoption aspects of consumption and the role of symbolic. They developed a methodology employ phenomenological interviews to give insight into emotional responses, as well as keen explanations granted in retrospective interviewing. In particular, they recommend multi-method approaches used in longitudin al inquiries in natural settings (Mick and Fournier, 1998). Moores, who did several inside study studies of the vapidity of receiving set and satellite TV suggest that future research should look to a range of ICTs, not just media technologies, and look outside the home as well as inside (Moores, 1996). Some demand started to do thisChapter 3 methodological analysis and Designsort of research, such as Frissen and Punie (1998), who study the role of technologies in the lives of busy people.Haddon, who has conducted much research in this field, makes a number of suggestions nearly(predicate) the type of research that needs to be done to understand how people are appropriating the Internet (Haddon and Hartman, 1997).These include what the phenomenon symbolises to different people, including concerns that may make them wary how they commencement exercise encounter the Internet, what support they have and any problems they take care how it is perceived and maybe used in relation to other technologies and media and where it brook possibly fit into the time bodily anatomical structures of households and individuals. (Haddonand Hartman, 1997).Technologies must not only be put in the context of other technologies and the social context, but in terms of the activities that people do to make them relevant and meaningful.It might be more interesting to go beyond what people actually order more or less the idea of electronic barter to consider whether current purchase practices might favour consumption via the Internet. For example, if a particular household only buys goods and services from offices and shops and pays in cash, not even victimization a book of facts card, thence arguably they are far re move from electronic commerce over the Internet such a development would be a major new innovation for them. Whereas for mortal already tele-shopping by some means, doing so over the Internet is a variation or appurtenance of what is familiar to them. (H addon and Hartman, 1997).In studying a long term process of adoption, obviously it is important to take out what people actually do in their everyday activities, to understand how particular products, such as home shopping services could be relevant, and how their adoption may correspond to existing practices, or represent radical changes in activities. In some shipway we are trying to find out what people might need, not in terms of specific solutions, but as an concealed phenomena that can be deduced from the structure of everyday conduct (Desjeux, Taponier et al., 1997, p.253).3.2.2 Focusing on the Life-Space and TechnologyVenkatesh studied the appropriation of computers in the home and suggests that sociotechnical studies have to endeavor to capture the structure and dynamics of computer adoption and use in the home, by looking at the interaction between the social space in which the family behaviour occurs and the technological space in which technologies are introduce an d used. (Venkatesh, 1996) This is similar to much of the domestication research that tries to understand the structure of the righteous economy in the homeChapter 3 Methodology and Design(Silverstone, Hirsch et al., 1992 Silverstone and Hartman, 1998). This involves looking at symbolic and practical structures of the home in terms of time, space, activities, roles, power relations, rules, and use of technologies. Studies of the workplace and computerisation take a similar view, looking to understand not only the perfunctory organisation of work, but also the legion(predicate) inner relationships and activities. The aim is to build a model from the bottom up model of how the user will derive value from the product or service (Carey and Elton, 1996, p.41/42), how they will make sense of in light of all their experiences across the life-space2.The intention of this study was to link the various domains of life, to study the example economy of both home and the work place, but also by dint of relationships and activities that cross boundaries. Into this study of the greater life-space I needed to study how technologies arrive in this space and how they are domesticated. To do this I had to look at all the domains of activity and types of activity that made up peoples lives, and could be affected by new ICTs. The following figure gives some of the possible battlegrounds of application of technology.Chapter 3 Methodology and DesignChapter 3 Methodology and Design3.2.3 Gaining AccessOne problem is to gain access to respondents, and the problems of being able to study them, and gain some familiarity with their world, or section their ingenuousness. Social science methodologies propose many different slipway in which this can be achieved, and guidance on the extent to which involution in a respondents life world is necessary to for particular descriptive or analytic ends. Practical problems include getting people to speak to the investigator at all, then g etting them to be open, co-operative, and sober in discussing the aspects of their lives that interest the researcher. More fundamental for research methodology is the reliance on the in-person descriptions of the respondents, who may either intentionally conceal or mislead the researcher, or unintentionally mislead them. In studyingsomeones life world, it is unlikely that the respondent will be able to comprehensively and thoroughly describe not only their opinions and thoughts, but the peaks of everyday activities and relationships, and the context in which they conduct them, especially in the space of a relatively short interview. Participant observation is a method that tries to surmount these obstacles, but at the expense of huge effort by the researcher, and can only be carried out in a situation where the researcher can actually live or work within a small multitude over an extended period of time. Since I intended to look at a number of groups, and across the social netw ork of one particular member, this type of methodology is impossible. What is more, gaining access to the work place or social clubs may be possible, but living in private homes is very difficult.Only a few researchers have move this (for example, James Lull in order to examine media use (Lull, 1990)). I wanted to study the way people encountered new technologies over a period of months or even years, when in fact key government issues may only occur very infrequently, so this did not make much sense. Other research methods used in media studies include postulation the participants to intimidate diaries. This again is does not get any closer if especially if salient events occur very infrequently and outside the period of research interaction.I wanted to interview not only users of new technology for whom the technology had a direct personal relevance, but also non-users for whom it did not. I expected that duringChapter 3 Methodology and Designthe process of research many of th e respondents would be likely to encounter and form opinions on new ICTs and have some work with the process of innovation and diffusion, however unwillingly. I had to find a method that would enable me to gain access to people who did not have any interest in the subject of research- new media technologies, and who would be difficult to contact or engage with though a research method based on current users. Especially for these people I had to develop a number of tactics to bring out the discussion of new ICTs, and to build an understanding of apiece persons life-world and the way that they encountered and engaged with ICTinnovations.3.3 Initial Concept of Research MethodInstead of selecting a range of established social groups, say a workplace, a club, a nuclear family, a group of friends, a shopping centre, I decided from the outset to use an Informer approach, taking as my specify of intro an individual who would to some extent participate in the research as a co-researcher , and provide entry into their social world. Blumer suggest that the researcher seek participants in the sphere of life who are who are crisp observers and who are well informed(Blumer, 1969, p.41).The research design then touch mapping the various other people that these respondents engaged with (both in relation to specific uses of ICTs and more generally) in different domains of their life sphere. I would then conduct interviews with those they work with, their family, their friends, and ask them to report on their experiences of traditional and new media and communication technologies. The Informant, and the others they identify, would not be selected on the basis that they personally use or buy any particular technology given the proportion principle that non-use is just as interesting as use.The crucial diaphragm is that it is the Informants social network and individuals within it that are being studied, not only the key Informants themselves. Whilst the cream of the in itial informants would obviously have an important influence over research outcomes, any such formative by the researcher would then be diffused as the interviews moved out to the networks identified by the Informants. Although such an approach does notChapter 3 Methodology and Designeliminate the bias inherent in selection of respondents this kind of snowballing method does open up the range of people interviewed.The involvement of the Informant was conceived as being important for practical and theoretical reasons as well an informant will have to be engaged as a co-researcher who will provide access for the researcher to their social groups. I did not presume that the Informants position wouldbe un-problematic, but anticipated that there would be many difficulties with their relationship to the research, and their role in forming the opinions of their groups.In fact the informant role as a point of passage between social groups is very important however they are unlikely to be unique points of passage in substantive life. By interviewing a number of people who divided up similar experiences and knew each other, or knew a common contact this method would also enable me to compare the experience and interpretations the respondents had of particular events, dual-lane spaces, relationships and each other. This would make the study pander some of the basic demands of an ethnographical study.The aim was to conduct this study on a longitudinal basis with the idea of repeating the fieldwork after maybe 1 year, by which time I expected that there would be appreciable changes in the discourses and use of technology in society in general and in the groups being studied.Interviews were conducted on a semi-structured basis with the aid of a schedule of questions and issues (included in the extension). I also explored the use of other devices to prompt responses in a less structured way. Having carried out a dummy run with these research instruments on friends and fellow students, I then undertook an initial navigate study with the first group of interviewees. Since I was examineing an data-based and rather unstructured research design, which potentially threw up further problems, for example in data analysis, the pilot study provided an important probability for assessing and better the research design.Chapter 3 Methodology and Design3.3.1 Designing the interviewsI was not trying to trace the network of influences, but rather study a group of people who interact at home, work and in other social situations, and compare their different approaches and study how they influence each others, and how the influence of third parties is passed on and negotiated in the group. There is no need to do a complete network analysis for this, but in displace together the sample, an informants ego (personal) network is to bethe basis for selection.I had to design an interview guide that would investigate the individuals cathode-ray oscilloscope, the ir everyday activities, major and electric shaver events in their lives and their relationships with others. This would include information on activities that are currently the target of the development of ICTs, such as workplace activities, shopping, banking, media, entertainment, communications and information use. I mapped out the range of areas of life that I might have come up in the following Table. I would then focus on the enjoyledge and use of ICTs and how they were engaging with them. Since I was investigating the adoption process, I also tried to find out how they went almost adopting new products, covering information seeking, advice taking, buying, learning etc, for what ever product. This included the immenseness of different personal relationships in make decisions, finding out information, and forming opinions, compared with reliance on public sources such as shops and media. I also asked about broader issues to do with the development of technology and its imp act on society, attitudes towards change, and if they had noesis of in policy issues involved in the information society.Chapter 3 Methodology and DesignThe interview was flexible enough to range over issues that the respondents brought up. The main topics cover are in the table. place setting, life themes and historyEducation backgroundFamily backgroundLife historyImportant relationshipsResourcesEveryday activities and recent eventsEventsLife changesWork activitiesDomestic life3Shopping practicesInformation, Media and CommunicationInformation use and attitudeMedia useWork communicationFriends and family communicationICT use and friendshipICT useICT adoptionSocial net profits use of ICTsICT attitudes dispute with ICTs experience about ICTsProblems with technologyKnowledge of implementation of ICTs ingovernment and industryPolicy issues on ICTsTable 1 Topics covered in interview schedule3.3.2 Primary analysis of success of first pilot interviews, and comments for proceeding with c oncluding research on pilot.The initial respondents were found through with(predicate) an acquaintance, a primary school teacher who agreed to help. She named a chap and her family as her closest network, whom she divided most things. The details are given in the next chapter. The first set of interviews was conducted in January 1997. All ogdoad interviews were transcribed. The interviews explored the life of the participant looking at domestic, social, employment, and economic situation, and some life history. It then looked at a number of everyday activities drawn from the accepted plan for looking at new media in everyday life. The interviewing approach started not from technology, but from particular activities, and attitudes towards those activities, the social relations involved, and included instances of specific technologies.The questioning aimed to find out what the important activities, preoccupations and relationships are in the participants lives, and their attitud es and practices around them. Then more particular questions were asked about technology in everyday life, based on the earlier re motley fools of the participant, and introducing new themes. There was not an attempt to get them to define technology, orChapter 3 Methodology and Designuse my vague definition, but technologies were seen in the context of particular practices, activities and expectations.I was happy with the results of the first interviews. They laid wide groundwork for ask about the changes in use and expectations about technologies in context over the hold water year. However I made changes to the question schedule, mostly as a result of how I actually conducted the interviews, but also to reinforce some of the background material. For example, I needed to bring out more details of the relationships between the participants, and ask their opinions on the others attitudes to information, technologies and the other activities and interests identified in the research plan. I also asked more about meaningful others that I was not interviewing, who lay outside the social circle of the question informant.3.3.3 Finding and engaging respondentsI found the rest of the respondents by instruction on finding principal informants with specific backgrounds that I thought would be interesting in the light of particular interpretations of the technology these included computer entrepreneurs, artists, senior business managers, students and unemployed teenagers. I also wanted informants who would be interested in the topic and agree to help me persuade their family, colleagues and friends to help me. Through word of mouth and e brand-lists and a local cybercafe I found three informants who put me in touch with their personal networks. Details of the respondents are given in the next chapter in summary and in the Appendix in much fuller detail.3.3.4 Conduct of the interviewsWhile I only met most of the respondents for the interviews twice, I spent a conside rable amount of time with the Informants. I usually met them once to explain the purpose of the work, and get an idea if they would be interested and willing to help, and also if they could provide me with a network to interview. In particular, I met frequently with the informants in Groups 2 and 3, who were developing very interesting multimedia labours. This included spending the night on the grace of one while visiting his home inChapter 3 Methodology and Designa snowstorm in the north of Scotland. I visited them where they worked and in their homes for the first and second interviews, and in the case of groups 1and 3, travelled to visit other members of the group with them.I made the interview the focus of a concourse in which I also tried to develop an understanding about how they lived, where they worked, the relationships with others, their interests and engagement with the subject by observation and in conversations around the interview. These conversations were used to m ake myself feel at home, and to make the respondent realise that I was not coming to grill them about their knowledge of complex technologies, which discerning some of them.The conversations also revealed things about their relationships with others in the network, and sometimes raised issues that would not have come out in the rather more formal interview. Coming to the second round of interviews was easier in some respects, probably due(p) to familiarity of the interviewee with me and the process of the interview, and the more relaxed relationship between me and the interviewee However, while some of the respondents had had many experiences with new technologies over the gap, others had had almost none, and could not see the point of the interview. til now it was important for me to find out why they had not, and find out what they knew about the experiences of others in their network.3.3.5 guerilla Stage Empirical info CollectionThe Second Interviews focused on current attit udes and use of technology, and investigate experiences and changes in activities, personal situation andtechnology awareness since the first interview. It looked for the role of others in these experiences. I attempted to get participants to tell more in- insight stories about their encounters with technologies, and the way these experiences were communicated and shared at the time, and subsequently. I also wanted to try some other interview techniques to enriched the research. This is not quite triangulation but a way to stretch forth and deepen the understanding, rather than perform any alternative or cross-checking. For this I included interviewing in groups and using pictures to stimulate talkChapter 3 Methodology and Design1. To discover what each participant knows about and is ignorant of, in relation to technological developments that have been announced by the supply side of industry and government, particular functions and uses of new media technology, or issues raised by multimedia use. In the first interviews I waited to the very end to ask about awareness of the Internet, Digital TV etc, and offered short explanations if the participant did not know and wanted me to explain. Otherwise I did not. I wished to pursue a similar course this time, finding out how aware of these developments they are today. I used pictures, and scenarios based on their particular life-worlds. This way I hoped to discover the depth of knowledge, and interest in developments in multimedia.This will enhance my understanding of what technologies or ideas the participant comes into contact with. 2. To investigate the importance of the close social network, and to use it as a reflexive tool to bring out shared experience, and differences in attitudes and knowledge. To do this I interviewed some of the respondents in pairs or group. This was aimed at bringing out stories that did not come up in our individual talks, and to bring up more details about the relationships. It was also an attempt to give me a closer insight into shared experiences around technologies, uses of technology and attitudes including what views are held in common, what has not been shared by the participants, how they rate different sources of information and influence, and their impressions of future developments in new media technology.3. To investigate the interaction between different areas of everyday lifehome, work, social, public, the different relationships with people in these different domains, different communications patterns, and the boundaries created between these areas.4. To investigate changes in multimedia. Originally the research tried to focus on the aspects of everyday life that the supply industry has been predicting would be affected by new technology e.g. shopping, information, communication at home and work, a range of work practices and activities, education and training, banking, entertainment etc. The questions explored these areas, focusing inChapter 3 M ethodology and Designadvance on the issues that were arising from the supply side agenda, but allowing the respondent space to speak about how new technology was coming into their lives, and look for areas where it might do. Over the time of the research, a great many changes have come about in the use of ICTs often in areas quite banal, and with unforeseen applications and technologies. The second interviews tried to uncover those experiences, and applications that have developed that are outside the main areas of hype.The interviews looked for slipway that new technology came to be judged or coped with. I specifically looked for engagement and utility dimension of relationship to information, communications, learning or entertainment systems.The manage showing the photographs was somewhat successful, although with some people they had no idea about any of the issues involved. The photos mean that it was easier to introduce the subjects. Sometimes it felt like departure over ol d ground. Doing the interviews in groups led to some more information being divulged and the discussion that ensured were interesting as they revealed differences in knowledge, and attitude between those in the groups, be they a couple, a family etc.3.4 Analysis of DataI interviewed 29 people in 4 groups, with two sets of interviews, with each interview lasting between one and two hours. Computer-aids were used to hang the management and analysis of the draw of interview transcripts. The first job was to try and extract from this material quotes corresponding to all the issues I had raised, and look for new ideas and issues arising directly from the respondents words. The NUDIST package turn up extremely helpful with its stiff facilities for cross-referencing excerpts. Crucial to this is the elaboration of a set of reference terms. I developed a rough set of terms in analysing initial interviews from the first group and subsequently refined these in the light of a large number of responses. The aim was to balance on the one hand an desolation to a wide range of responses, and on the other the need to group these experiences. This enabled a simultaneous investigation of the data from the bottom up, i.e. from the interviews themselves, and from the top down, engagement based onChapter 3 Methodology and Designthemes derived from existing theory and research questions. The categories generated and classified are listed in the Appendix. They proved very helpful in analysis, building up a picture of important dimensions of the experience of ICTs. However, as we see in the detailed falsifiable chapters, it was necessary to generate further more detailed schema for analysing particular aspects and processes in ICT adoption (and nonadoption). The use of computer-tools allowed considerable flexibility in this respect. These nodes were then linked further together in a number of emergent themes relevant to the network, technology, technology problems and attitud es, non-adoption, adoption, knowledge, communication and information use. Searches of the marked texts enabled groups of quotes reflecting different issues to be bought together quickly. However there was still a need to structure this in a simpler and more straight forward way in order to actually write the stories and compare and contrast experiences.3.5 bean (Background, Events, Activities and Network)To structure the resultant data a framework was needed that would focus on particular dimensions of everyday life relevant to understanding the waythat people encounter technologies, think about them, adopt and use them. The approach I chose was to look at the data from four angles Background or personal history, Events, Activities and the social Network or BEAN to make an easily memorable acronym. This gives a way to assemble the contextual information, and to highlight crossovers and boundaries in the consumption, use and domestication process. It also gives framework for then mo ving to analysis based on domestication, appropriation, adoption, diffusion, and consumption models.These dimensions are obviously not independent activities are cogitate to the network, and changes in activities and relationships. Many events could be argued to be particular types of activities that people take part in.Background or in-person History The respondents all have a history of experiences, of use and adoption of technologies and services that influence their activities and attitudes during the study. The personal history goes beyond this to broader history of relationships, education, and other activities. This dimension includes reflections on theChapter 3 Methodology and Designlife course of the individual or group. It looks at the possibility of personal innovativeness.Events There are three types of events that influence the adoption and appropriation of innovations life course events, circular events, and one off social events or technological experiences. These events may be periods of considerable length (such as particular project at work, or the learning period for a new innovation). Activities these describe the spheres of everyday life in which the respondent takes part, such as work, school, family life, community life, and the activities they engage in within those spheres. The use and attitude to information, technologies and communication is examined within the context of these activities. These include work tasks, domestic tasks, leisure activities, media use etc. Activities will reflect, but not be actually linked to the stages of the respondents life course. Changes in activities are linked to events.Network the personal network describes the relationships of the respondent, with whom they share spaces, ideas, decisions, experiences etc. The network is not fixed, but evolves over time.These are now examined in more detail3.5.1 Background/Personal HistoryBackground and personal history approach looks for the attitudes, experienc es, knowledge and motivations of the respondentsLife themes,Motivations, values, attitudes that are broadly continuous during our lives, or through long periods. They include certain psychological factors related to innovativeness, enterpreneurialism, self-centredness etc. outlook on life, attitude towards relationships and community, priorities. At any one time certain themes may be more apparent or easily expressed than at others. They can also develop over time as a result of major events and experiences (e.g. (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979, 1996 Douglas, 1996) and work on lifestyles (Chaney, 1996)). It is not obviously not possible to look at why these exist in detail where the line between genetic, early life shaping, and later life changes is, and how we can change ourselves.Past life projects, Past life eventsChapter 3 Methodology and DesignThe past experiences and events that shape attitudes, knowledge, social network, Knowledge, values, priorities and attitudesThe attitudes a nd knowledge that are carried forward at each stage of life to the next. Routines, repertoires, habits, beliefsThere is nought deterministic about the influence of our past on our present, new life projects can draw on this knowledge and experience, but can also be attempts to overcome, change or retreat from aspects of earlier life projects. At the level of technology, media, information and communications there are Experience of using and seeing technology, personal and vicarious Education in ICTInterest in innovation, new products and servicesInterest in information about the worldAttitudes towards technically talk terms or interactive activities. Particular experiences, personal habits and flakes, myths and beliefs about ICTs,3.5.2 NetworkThe personal network is those people we have relationships with in our free-and-easy life. It ranges from close and intimate relationships of family friends, through colleagues in public life to casual, wanton relationships, acquaintances etc. These relationships can be instinctive or obligatory, friendly or hostile, or anywhere in between. Networks associated with life projectse.g. family, work colleagues, friends from other activitiesKnowledge and resources associated with networksThe network brings with it knowledge and resources, obligations, division of responsibility and resources). shared out myths of social groups in the networks,History of relationships, shared experiences, knowledge of and about those in the network. Symbols with meaning exclusive or special to the network. Cross over of networks.Different networks in our lives can be kept separate or overlap. pot have different sorts of networks strong, close, highly connected, weak and dispersed, radial an individual is part of several not overlapping networks.Self-perception within network,Relates to our own perception of our place within a network our status, value, contribution etc.Chapter 3 Methodology and Design operable and symbolic roles in ne tworksResponsibilities, status, influence, specialisation, demands. This includes what we do in the network, and how we are respected the moral and the economic roles and the stereotypes and images of others in the networks.At the level of ICTs there arePeople in network who use new technologyThose who are bank and accessible for information and advice Those who are considered examples, opinion leadersStatus of technology knowledge and use in a relationshipUse of technology in mediating relationships3.5.3 ActivitiesThese are the things we do they are not always rationally explained by goals, and often emerge from compromises and restrictions, as much as from voluntary choice. Activities include routine everyday activities. They include maintain and developing relationships, motivation and goals, actions, consumption, creation and production, communication, and learning.Current life projectsThe activities that make up and support our life projects i.e. Work status, family status, leisure interests. These life projects are linked closely to life stage. These include all the things we do as part of jobs, studying, maintaining our relationships, managing our home, being a citizen, and aconsumer.ChildhoodAdolescenceLeaving homeStudent earlier unemployment20sEarly FamilyDelayed SingleDelayed FamilyMaturity in work senior childrenMotherhoodChildren leaving homeDivorceSecond FamilyEmpty near IIEarly retirementYoung elderlyOld sr.Table 2 Possible Life stagesCurrent Goals and motivations(Why, what) These are specific to life projects and to more general life themes, and are the reasons why we undertake (most of) our activities.Chapter 3 Methodology and DesignPriorities and pressuresLimits of time, space, efficiencies sought we prioritise activities according to pressures and restrictions, often trading off between different demands, projects and motivations.InteractionsMany of our activities are related to our interactions with others our network Crossover between life projectsManagement of boundaries we have activities aimed at maintaining boundaries between different areas of life, or trying to bridge them.Knowledge associated with activities mum and verbalised knowledge related to activities. Myths associated with the activities and the institutions.Knowledge needed to perform activitiesAt the level of ICTsActivities using ICTsActivities where ICTs currently in common useActivities where use of ICTs are currently being innovatedCommunication circles and patternsInformation work impact information, finding information EducationActivities were there is pressure for efficiency improvements prison term hungry activities3.5.4 EventsEvents are particular sorts of activities that take a short time to achieve and stand out as remarkable against normal activities. They ordinarily involve a change in regular or routine activities and have a real effect, but can themselves be cyclical or regular as well as unique. appropriation and domesticat ion process events are very important as they often mark important stages in personalisation, in ever-changing attitudes, in making rules, learning and in changing relationships. Events picked up on in the interviews were those that occurred before or during the period of study. Since this wasdone by self reporting, only the events that they found significant to the questions (which were varied) were reported. However the questioning was designed to reveal a range of events.Chapter 3 Methodology and DesignOne class of events I call life events. I group life events into two categories, major, those that have involve upheaval, and minor, things that may not involve much change, but can be the opportunity or cause of change. Of course there is cross-over, and with hindsight a minor event could be the cause of major change (a new friendship that ends in marriage, or a new interest that leads to a career or major leisure activity). Major life events are events that involve considerable m aterial, relationship and symbolic upheaval.They include marriage, divorce, changing job, major injury, moving house, scratch line and finishing education, redundancy, entering relationship. How these effect different people is of course a subject for other research, but for my purposes, I see them as important trigger events, and the research shows they can have some considerable effect both in the material erudition of ICTs. Minor events include minor illness, holidays, buying large items, promotion, making new friends, new activities.Life events pregnant events in life projects often changing points between one project and a new one.Annual eventsRegular practical and symbolic events that are marked by activities of the individual or shared in their group, organisation. Often mark cycles of life, and can be connected to particular life projects. Some may be linked to a subculture, others drawn from more public culture (public holidays, festivals)Network eventsEvents that invol ve the network, these particularly relate to forging or changing relationships.Boundary eventsThe boundary event initially marks the change from one regime to another, but can also be an event that confirms the boundary when it is challenged. For example, boundaries in relationships, domains in life, the start and end of life projects, the making of rules. Often they are symbolic activities marking other changes (e.g. beating the bounds, initiation rites, and special anniversaries). I also include events that become important in defining boundaries, or for breaking them down e.g. getting a computer that enables work to be done at home, a decision not to get a computer to keep home and work separate, a family decision to limit TV viewing for children. Appropriation eventsChapter 3 Methodology and DesignRelated to technology events but particularly to do with the adoption of new innovations, and important events in the appropriation and integration of them. Technology events uncommon events with the use and adoption of technology, maybe a number of small events that are linked together in the mind of the respondent. One of the problems of one-off interviews is to try and understand how people change their minds, and when. One model would be to assume that there are specific events or experiences during which people either gain information, or have to make decisions and analyse and take evaluate that information or knowledge according to their values, circumstances, goals, relationships and resources. However, under this model how large or explicit are these events. For some people there may be explicit times when decisions or knowledge and attitude formation, affirmation or change occurred. For others there may be a slow accumulation of knowledge, through minor events, or for example, constant use of a technology.Any event may also only be a marker or a crisis point in some underlying situation, something that is the cummulation of chronic problems, or a trigg er that tips the balance in favour of adoption. Equally there may be a decision against adoption. A vaguely soggy or negative position may be crystallised by a particular event. Sometimes it is an event from outside (e.g. the arrival of a bill), or an individual deciding that enough isenough.3.5.5 BEAN and models of consumption and jejunenessThe analysis was helped by linking the BEAN framework to two other analytic frameworks, the domestication model and the consumption model of Holt (1995). By working with these I was able to derive grid indicating a range of issues to look for in relation to how people used and interpreted ICTs both in use and in the process of domestication. Again, these were used as a guide in the analysis of the data, rather than as boxes to be filled in from to garnish every possible combination.Chapter 3 Methodology and DesignActivitiesExperiencemediated by work,domestic, leisure,social activitiesNetworkExperience incontext of otherpeople theirinfluence. EventsContext ortrigger foradoptionshapesexperiencePersonal HistoryAttitudes builtover time andexperience desegregationIntegration of ICTsthrough everydayactivities. Meaningsthrough using/doingIntegration in asocial space(moral economy)Meanings throughsharing.?Appropriationat a time ofchange.Integrationwork time learningClassificationClassificationagainst otherspecialities ininstitutionsOthers to classifyoneself with andagainst in relationto ICTsPlayActivities that areshared around ICTuse, maintenance,purchase etcThe people withwhominnovations,adoption, use areshared.Developingrelationshipsaround ICTsBring intocontact withnew people,obliged toreconsideridentityShared eventsPersonal capacityto appropriate andpersonalise ICTsand innovationsdevelopedthroughexperience(scripts, creativity)Attitudes to othersv.v. ICTsdeveloped overtime andexperiencesExperience(Subjective)Table 3 The BEAN approach and. Holts consumption modelPast experiencesof using andadoptinginnovations andICTsChapter 3 Methodology and DesignActivitiesAppropriationObjectificationNetworkEventsPersonal HistoryAppropriationimposed fromoutside, or seen asfitting activities ofhousehold fromwork to media use.Activities enableappropriation(resources, money,knowledge)Object brought intothe home and placedrelevant to activitiesintended for work,play, individual orgroup use.Discussion, debatewithin household,and with, networksoutside enrollingexpertise, andresourcesEvent for wholehousehold e.g.moving, or forindividual e.g. newjob, school. Orregular event, e.g.Christmas. MediaeventPast experiences ofICTs in the home,and the experiencesof individualsappropriating fromoutsideDebate over whereit should be placed,in what context,how it can bemoved. Who is incontrol Who isexpert set.Discussions of newacquisitionRoutines of sharing,Emerging rules ofuse, disputes overuse, sharing,discussionintegrated intoroutines, everydaylife. ever-changingrelationships ofcontrol, expertise. implement to challenge orre-enforce.B ringing knowledge,attitudes fromoutside network in,developingknowledge that istranslated outagain. Attitudes ofthose outside.Changingboundaries. Otherscome into to useConflict overchangingboundariesThe installationevent, ceremony,the gift giving event,Previous experiencewith ICTs of differentsorts, pause points,rule making points,particular eventsdemanding use,decisions to restrict,change use,upgrade,Attitudes to othersv.v. ICTs developedover time andexperiences. Preexisting routines howthey fit newacquisition, preexisting hierarchiesEvents use of ICTfor/by people fromoutside. Particulardiscussions outsidehome, experiencesoutside that arebrought in, real orelectronic.Willingness to sharehome experience withoutside, pre-existingrelationships withoutside.IncorporationIntegration into theactivities in the home,routines of space andtime changes inactivities Changingexisting routines andactivities (e.g.displacement,replacement ofactivities)ConversionChanging boundaryof activities. Use o fICT at home thatchange outsideactivities (e.g. workroutines) bringactivities into thehome e.g.socialising in home,electronic or real.Reinforcement ofboundary.Table 4 The BEAN approach and the domestication model3.6 Preparative Work and Reflections on the Research Process In preparing the research, and developing an understanding of the process I would be investigating in others, I reflected on my own experience and everyday life, using a number of the tools from the literature and those I was developing myself. As IChapter 3 Methodology and Designdeveloped the research from the original rather different conception, and discover a number of issues that would subsequently become important. These tools included keeping a diary of my own social network and contacts, and a diary of my own adoption of the mobile telephone, in the context of the issues raised by the BEAN, jejuneness and Consumption models, recording my own subjective reactions and thoughts and learning, the practical a spects of learning and using a mobile phone, particular events, and the reactions of other others over a period of two years (These are given in the Appendix). This gave considerable insights into a personal technology that created ambivalence and crossed over into all domains of life, and into the way I could engage with those I was interviewing, and the sort of issues I would have to investigate.Finally, in parallel to the formal research, I was continually watching the way I saw people using and talking about new ICTs, and asking for stories, which were usually forthcoming in response to finding out what I was investigating. These stories reinforced what I was finding in the interviews, and in many ways pushed the direction of the research. One aspect was constant trade in ICTs between people, gifts, sharing etc. Second was the importance of individuals who were enthusiasts and earlier adopters in their social networks, who provided resources, help and encouragement for others. T his was true for groups of experienced users, who needed someone to keep them updated on new technology, and for novices who needed a first step on the ladder. Third were the constant problems that were encountered, and the stress that went along with the benefits of use.A number of events also prompted and encouraged my research. One of these was a major trial in the US of an English au pair accused of murdering a child in her care. At the time of the judgement the judge chose to put the verdict on the Internet. He did this not out because the Justice Department had instigated it as a policy, but because his son had persuaded him it was an good thing to do. This was a very public demonstration of the cross-over of influence between home and work in the adoption of the Internet.Chapter 3 Methodology and Design1Interpretative or qualitative research, developed in the 20th century based on the ethnographic research of the Chicago school, especially George Herbert Mead. Herbert Blumer, who developed the ideas of Symbolic Interactionalism based on the work Mead suggests The task of scientific study is to lift the veils that cover the area of group life that one proposes to study (Blumer, 1969)p.39. Interpretative research stresses the importance of the individual and intersubjective interpretation in understanding social processes, but also in the actual practice of social science there is the picture hermeneutic (Giddens 1976) of the researcher interacting and interpreting Mead (1934) in (Prus, 1996)) the social situation that is being studied. The ethnographic method calls for the researcher to put themselves in the shoes of the other person (Berger and Luckmann, 1966), to share the reality of the life-world of the other. Although a theoretical basis is important, the researcher should use inspection with a great deal of flexibility to investigate presumptions.The social situation should be approached from different angles and be imaginative, free, flexible, c reative. Interpretative research stresses the importance of the individual and intersubjective interpretation in understanding social processes, but also in the actual practice of social science there is the double hermeneutic (Giddens 1976) of the researcher interacting and interpreting (Mead (1934) in (Prus, 1996)) the social situation that is being studied. However, what ever the lengths a researcher may go to take the others stand point they are inevitably red ink to interpret the social situation according to a formal and informal logic that they bring to the research process. What a researcher should do wherefore is to try and make explicit both to themselves, and to their readers is not only the theoretically imposed interpretative window or frame, but the emotional, personal and point influences on their interactions with the those whose lives that are studying and on the interpretative process. 2Desjeux et al. (Desjeux, Taponier et al., 1997) suggest four main dimension of investigation of the everyday to investigate the link between the social and the technical Delegation of responsibility, to machines, to other people in the social network, and to commercial providers RoutinesPlanning of activities Improvisation.3Shopping is an area where there is considerable promise for new technology for home shopping, information garner etc. There are very different types of use of technology in different retail outlets and for different goods, and different goods lend to air order etc. Mail order is also an established business used by may people, from books and CDs, to clothes, consumer electronics, white goods, almost anything. The mail order market serves different groups. Catalogues that sell a wide range of goods are generally providing a planned credit service for low income purchasers. Other products such as books and music are sold though clubs and mail order because overheads are set out, and they service a regular purchasing habit. They can al so provide a greater choice, and operate on lower overheads than high pathway retailers.There are specialist mail order services for products that are not normally available except in specialist shops, and mail order companies can offer better prices based on lower overheads and economies of scale from a country wide or global market. There are also more and more single range or brand name mail order services from high street retailers and others, for whom mail order is a form of direct marketing. They run services as a complement to high street operations. Mail order and use of direct marketing information resources has been a big area of development in multimedia around mass market e-commerce