Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Social sciences for University

The Intertwined Relationship Between Language and Identity

It is widely accepted that language significantly shapes our identity. The role of language within the broader social context is crucial, particularly as a symbolic attachment that reinforces identity. Furthermore, identity is undeniably linked to ethnicity, which can be understood as a sense of group belonging derived from shared bonds like language, race, or religion. While this definition may seem abstract, ethnicity can be clarified by examining its specific characteristics.

The Significance of Ethnic Group Boundaries

We are all members of an ethnic group (ethnos - nation), although dominant groups often do not identify themselves as such. Boundaries between groups are paramount, as...

Administrative Principles and Their Shortcomings

Herbert Simon critiques the following principles of scientific management:

1. Specialization of labor within the group
2. Arrangement of group members in a hierarchy of authority
3. Limiting the scope of control at any point in the hierarchy to a small number
4. Grouping of workers for control purposes by:
   • (a) Purpose
   • (b) Process
   • (c) Customers
   • (d) Place

These guiding principles, intended to "increase administrative efficiency" according to scientific management, are described by Simon as ambiguous and difficult to prove empirically.

Here, we review each principle and present the reasons Simon provides to support his claim.

Specialization

The principle suggests that any advance in specialization would improve administrative...

Proposal Structure

A research proposal seeks resources (human, financial, material) for a specific project. It's a written document outlining activities, specifications, and parameters.

Introduction

This section establishes the relevance, importance, and purpose of the investigation. It includes the working hypothesis and a summary of the methodology, emphasizing the study type, research design, population identification, and sampling method. The final paragraph should summarize the document's structure, outlining chapters and their content.

Theoretical Framework

This section elaborates on the problem's theory, integrating it with research and their interrelations. It analyzes and presents relevant theories, approaches, and background research.

Problem

Organizational Metaphors: Definitions & Examples

• Organizations as Machines: This metaphor refers to an organization designed to operate mechanically. The organization is considered static, like a closed system. It assumes that the behavior of workers can be matched to the operation of machine components.
• Organizations as Organisms: This metaphor refers to an organization designed to adapt to the environment. Organizations are born, grow, decline, and die in variable or changing environments.
• Organizations as Cultures: This metaphor refers to an organization that emphasizes a particular corporate culture. Ideas, values, norms, rituals, and beliefs are dominant.
• Organizations as Brains: This metaphor refers to fractal organizations based on teamwork

Political Representation

The Concept of Political Representation

1. The Taxonomy of Political Representation

Elections are not an end in themselves, but a means of staffing political bodies. Political representation, as a key organizational problem, addresses this staffing process. Birch has outlined three disputes concerning parliamentary representation:

1. Who and what should be represented?
2. How are representatives selected?
3. How should representatives behave?

The first dispute concerns who should be included in the vote. The answer is all adults, excluding those incapacitated or mentally handicapped. However, societies are permeated by various social divisions. The answers to the second and third questions are more complex. The dispute over electoral...

Regarding the difference between a language and a dialect can be confusing. A language is a mental phenomenon, the language lives in the mind because it is a cognitive ability. However, a dialect is a certain type of linguistic variety. It is the way of speaking of a community which is a bit different from the standard one. One problem is dialectal continuum:

The distinction is very broad. If we ask how many languages there are, we will not have an exact answer because there are over 4000 and 6000 languages. It is difficult to say which is a language or which is not. The word 'language' is a concept more political than scientific, the decision in the end is political. For example, the Swedes, Danish, and Norwegians speak highly similar linguistic...

NORMS AFFECTING TRANSLATION: According to Toury Preliminary norms (which includes translation policy and directness of translation) Operational norms (Matricial norms, Textual-linguistic norms).

Worship Level

In-Plane Phonics

Complete and careful articulation, and moderate tone.

On the Morphosyntactic

Periods carefully crafted and comprehensive syntactic, and discourse is coherent.

On the Semantic Lexicon

Vocabulary ownership, use of neologisms and foreign words (with a limit!).

Scientific-Technical Language

Variety of cultural language, limited to different fields of knowledge (medicine, technology, etc.) comes from the lexicon: the usual language, Greek and Latin, and English. The language is denotative, rigorous, rational, and unambiguous.

Jargon

The special language of a particular social group, only used by its speakers as members of this social group, outside the general language speakers. There is slang for: soldiers, criminals (underworld)

Group Operations: Concrete

1. Formation of a Hierarchy of Classes

• a) 7-8 years: Can include classes.
• b) 8-9 years: Can classify to represent flowers in clusters. For example: What will a large branch be? If you cut all the flowers in the garden, would any remain? Can a daisy be in the "Flowers" category without changing the sign? If you take all the daisies from the box, would any flowers remain?
• c) They have difficulty in representing objects that involve mental representation. For example: If all animals died, would any birds remain? If all animals die, would some animals remain? Can these two cells be under the same sign? Children cannot respond to these problems until 10 or 12 years of age.
• d) In the absence of specific references, Piaget found