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

Essential English for Travel and Socializing

Common Phrasal Verbs

• Go out: salir fuera
• Freshen up: lavarse
• Eat out: comer fuera
• Check in: registrarse
• Meet up with: quedar con alguien
• Show someone around: To act as a guide for someone in a new place; enseñar un lugar.
• Pick someone up: To collect someone, typically in a vehicle; recoger a alguien.
• Drop someone off: To take someone to a place and leave them there; dejar a alguien.

Useful Travel Nouns

• Sightseeing: Visiting interesting buildings and places as a tourist.
• Conference: A large meeting where people with the same work or interest come together.
• Venue: The place where a conference or a big event is held.
• Facilities: Space, equipment, and services provided.
• Nightlife: Things to do in the evening.

Vocabulary

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

How does democracy come about? What are the factors to be considered when defining democracy? // There are 3 approaches to democracy: Modernization Theory, Historical Sociology and Transitology. These approaches can be eclectic (they can take things one from another) and to some extent they follow a chronological order and coexist today. The birth of one school doesn’t mean the death of the one before. Modernization Theory: This theory believes there is a relationship between economic development and democracy. The question is: is one the cause of the other? Some authors believe the greater the development, the more probable a society will sustain a democracy. There are 2 approaches: One related to marxism // Another one...

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the ability of individuals to use more than two languages in their everyday life. It exists when multiple languages coexist and are necessary for communication. These languages may have different statuses, such as majority or minority languages, both within the community and internationally. Some languages are primarily used in private domains, while others are used in public domains like work or school.

Factors Influencing Third Language Acquisition (TLA)

Four factors can influence TLA:

• Sociolinguistic Context: Opportunities for language exposure, attitudes towards language learning, the status of different languages in society, and time devoted to different languages at school.
• Psycholinguistic Processes: TLA

In relation to the perspective of creative capital, creative capital theory differs in several respects from human capital theory: (1) it identifies a type of human capital, creative people, as the key to economic growth; and (2) it identifies the underlying factors that determine the location decisions of these people, rather than simply saying that regions are blessed with certain endowments of them.

The creative class begins fundamentally with the people Florida calls the creative class. The creative class includes a core group and creative professionals working in a wide range of knowledge-based occupations in high-tech, financial services sectors...

• Some patterns of the creative class: It's moving away from traditional corporate communities.

Linguistics and Applied Linguistics: A Complex Relationship

One approach to practical and professional language issues involves connecting them to linguistic principles. Linguistics seeks general patterns in language.

Generative Linguistics and Idealization

Generative linguistics, introduced by Noam Chomsky, emphasizes the representation of language in the mind (competence) over actual language use in everyday life (performance).

Sociolinguistics, Functional Linguistics, and Corpus Linguistics

Sociolinguistics focuses on the relationship between language and society. Functional linguistics examines language as a communication tool. Corpus linguistics has become increasingly important in investigating language use.

Prescribing vs. Describing Language:

After 1945, European countries found social and political stability due to several factors. One of the factors include a program called the Marshall Plan. It all started with $13 billion donation from the United States government to Western European countries for food, equipment, and money. This money was meant to restore the regular life of the Western Europeans. Aside from economic assistance, the Marshall Plan was part of the U.S. government containment policy. The Marshall Plan aimed to stop the spread of communism. The idea of the U.S. government was to provide support for war-torn countries in order to make them realize that communism was not the best system to adopt. The Marshall Plan’s goals can be summarized into two points.

1. Increase

MNE Organizational Design Decisions

The Multinational Enterprise (MNE) organizational design decision:

• Considers differentiation and integration, and the proper balance between them. This balance is rooted in the diverse requirements and circumstances of different locals and business units.
• The need for integration comes from the managerial perspective to maintain overall coordination and control, ensuring strategy implementation.

Global Product Structure

Advantages

• Global vision
• Resource leverage
• Strategic focus
• Simplicity
• Accountability
• Standard product introductions
• Enhanced speed and decision quality
• Self-contained product development and introduction
• Development of talent
• Low interference from other divisions

Disadvantages

• Limited cooperation, communication,

Groupthink: Seek Agreement and Effective Leadership

Reasons for groupthink include being out of touch, lack of order and resources, and being overruled. Symptoms of groupthink include omnipotence, closed-mindedness, and pressure toward uniformity.

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership suggests that there is no specific best style, but rather the best style is the one adapted to the situation at hand. One way of situational leadership is the leader's flexibility in adapting their behaviors to the demands of the situation. Another way is the leader's ability to read a situation and select the appropriate behaviors for that specific circumstance. An example of situational leadership is Hersey and Blanchard's model, which focuses on the leader'...

The empirical research of Pettigrew and Whipp

In a series of research studies between 1985 and 1990, the UK-based researchers Pettigrew and Whipp analysed how strategic change occurred in four sectors of UK industry. Their evidence did not extend beyond the UK but their conclusions are likely to be applicable to other geographic areas. They suggested that strategic change can most usefully be seen as a continuous process, rather than one with distinct stages, such as the formulation of strategy and then its implementation. In this sense, they argued that strategy was not a linear movement with discrete stages but an experimental, iterative process where the outcomes of each stage were uncertain. A first small step might be actioned and then...

Four Visions of Music History

Music history can be viewed through four different lenses, each offering a unique perspective on what constitutes the primary substance of music and the appropriate methodology for its study:

• Functional

  Dominant in the 16th and 17th centuries, this perspective emphasizes the function of music. Genre was viewed as a substantive feature, defined by a fixed relationship between the purpose the music served and the techniques employed. Studying music history through this lens involves understanding it as a division of technical and institutional history. However, it may neglect other aspects and interrelationships.

• Representative

  This view posits that music's power lies in its representative capacity, distinct from expression.