What is wrong with consumerism

Contemporary consumerism is frequently the target of criticisms by intellectuals, academics, religious spokesmen and commentators. Five of the more common of these criticisms are selected for analysis and examination; these being (a) the need criticism (b) the materialism criticism (c) the addiction criticism (d) the selfishness criticism, and (e) the irrationality criticism. Each is then shown either to be misconceived or to lack empirical support

Developing transferable management skills through Action Learning

There has been increasing criticism of the relevance of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) in developing skills and competencies. Action learning, devised to address problem-solving in the workplace, offers a potential response to such criticism. This paper offers an insight into one university’s attempt to integrate action learning into the curriculum. Sixty-five part-time students were questioned at two points in their final year about their action learning experience and the enhancement of relevant skills and competencies. Results showed a mixed picture. Strong confirmation of the importance of selected skills and competencies contrasted with weaker agreement about the extent to which these were developed by action learning. There was, nonetheless, a firm belief in the positive impact on the learning process. The paper concludes that action learning is not a panacea but has an important role in a repertoire of educational approaches to develop relevant skills and competencies

Terminal conditions as efficent instruments for numerical detection of the saddlepoint paths: a linear algebra non-robustness argument

In this paper, we address a criticism against the usual prescriptions on the introduction of terminal conditions as the principal numerical instruments for detecting the saddlepoint solutions of consistent expectations models. The argumentation is purely theoretical and it is conducted on a canonical linear infinite-time horizon model, approximated by the means of an elementary fixed-value terminal condition. Considering two equivalent algebraic representations of the model, we show that the asymptotic behavior of a backward solution method, associated to the fixed-value terminal condition, depends crucially on the selected algebraic formulation of the model

Clarina Howard Nichols: A rhetorical criticism of selected speeches

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, Communication Studies, 1987

Analysis and Impact of Selected Compositions That Endured Criticism

Throughout the history of Western art music there have been composers who were remarkably successful at creating works that stayed within the guidelines of what was viewed as acceptable . These composers often were greeted with praise from critics and the general public for these works because they were understood and did not stray outside the boundaries of the expected. While these composers were vital to the development of music, they will not be discussed in this paper. Instead the composers who will be discussed are those who stepped outside the lines of what was viewed as customary. Works ranging from those by Claudio Monteverdi to Igor Stravinsky will be analyzed to determine the theoretical aspects such as harsh dissonances and formal discrepancies that listeners found radical and that were criticized by entities from a variety of directions

Object Relation Psychoanalytic Criticism On Selected Works of Tennessee Williams

This study uses the object relation psychoanalytical theory to investigate personality development of the characters in Tennessee Williams’s selected plays The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Sweet Bird of Youth. It unveils how the characters relate with their environment and in cases when they fail to do so, how they escape from the anxieties and fears of annihilation. Since the autobiographical style is dominant in Tennessee Williams’s works, this research probes into the Williams’s personal life in order to find out the relations between the playwright’s life and his works. It attempts to clarify and explicate the meaning and effect of Williams’s life experiences, using Melanie Klein’s and D.W. Winnicott’s theory of object relation on his selected works. Tennessee Williams experienced losing loved object in his life, and consequently tried for reparation. He had a sense of dependency and guilt through out his life as evidenced by the way he responded to life’s events and the works he created. This study seeks to depict how life is handled from childhood and how the mother plays crucial role in personality shaping. The research gives the reader a new understanding of personalities and the relationships between the individuals and their environment. Loss and unsuccessful reparation, which result in loneliness, anxiety, mourning, melancholia and also dependency, caused by false self and not good-enough mothering, are the major concepts of object relation theory that this study looks into

In Search of a Genre: An Analysis of Political Campaign Rhetoric Used in Swing Races in the 2018 Midterm Elections

This study examined one press release and one video ad from six Democratic candidates running for the United States Congress in swing states and districts in the 2018 midterm elections. The purpose of this study was to determine if the rhetoric used by Democratic candidates running for the U.S. Congress in swing races constitutes a specific genre of political communication. Generic criticism was employed as a theoretical frame to determine if there was a common genre within this situated political communication. In addition, Burke’s cluster criticism was used to provide a close reading of the texts to identify key themes in the rhetoric. The two methods suggested the possibility of the development of a genre of communication used by Democratic candidates running in swing races for the United States Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. The rhetorical cluster analysis revealed that themes of justice, inclusivity, bipartisanship, people above politics, and independence were used strategically by all of the candidates included in the study, suggesting strategic thematic language use that may be employed to win over voters in swing districts in midterm elections. The paper upon which this poster was based was written for the Senior Seminar course in Communication Arts. The paper was competitively selected for and subsequently presented at the Northwest Communication Association Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in April 2019

A consideration of the social commentary within D.H. Lawrence's novel The rainbow : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

D.H. Lawrence's critical essay "Why The Novel Matters" contains the personal claim: "Nothing is important but life... For this reason I am a novelist... The novel is the book of life." 1 D.H. Lawrence, "Why The Novel Matters" D.H. Lawrence. Selected Literary Criticism (1956), ed. Anthony Beal, Mercury Books, London. 1961. pp. 104, 105. This claim is elaborated upon in "Morality And The Novel": "The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his circumambient universe at the living moment... If we think about it, we find that our life consists in this achieving of a pure relationship between ourselves and the living universe about us." 2 D.H. Lawrence, "Morality and The Novel" D.H. Lawrence. Selected Literary Criticism pp. 108, 109. Arnold Kettle, writing in An Introduction to the English Novel suggests that The Rainbow contains within it a manifestation of these assertions. He contends: "The search, the passionate, desperate search of the characters of The Rainbow is to achieve personal relationships which make them at one with the universe." 3 Arnold Kettle, An Introduction to the English Novel Volume II (1953) Hutchinson University Library, London. 1965. p. 109. He adds to this contention his conviction that this novel is firmly grounded in reality, that within The Rainbow Lawrence is concerned with "actual human social issues". 4 ibid., p. 111. Some of these issues he then indicates: " ...there is the whole question of the relationship between work and personality; there is an examination of the social set-up of Cossethay and Beldover, the position of the squire and the vicar and the schoolmaster; there is the problem of industrialism, the significance of the canal and the railways and the pits; there is a great deal and from many points of view about the English educational system; there is the question of the impact of the English Midlands on the Polish émigrés; above all there is all that is implied in the phrase 'the emancipation of women'."