Globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Globalisation - Essay Example From this perspective, functionalism describes the social order from a majority viewpoint, as opposed to looking at the fulfillment of every individual within a society. This paper will define the extent to which functionalism explains the main social order within society. Functionalism as Social Order The main attribute of functionalism is based on the attribute of showing what a large group of individuals did within a given culture and how this helped with the overall function within the culture. This is further described by different levels of functions, specifically which are divided by a variety of theorists. For instance, Merton (Harrington, 2005) states that functions can be divided into latent functions and manifest functions. The latent group is based on the social orders which were unintentional and didn’t depict the overall needs or functions within society. The manifest functions are the ones which describe more of the social order because of the institutional rela tionship to the function. The institution is able to show that it is planned, intentional and can be used to manifest specific actions within society. The manifest functions are able to depict the order of society and are used to describe institutional measures over the actions of groups of individuals (Harrington, 2005). Defining Social Action The concept of action as the manifestation of social order then leads into the understanding of what the manifestations include and how they define or are disregarded in understanding structure and functionalism. The concept of social action is one which has to be defined as an act which takes place and which is verified by others who have seen the same social action. More important, the fact has to be something that is done within society. If it is to define order, then it has to show how this particular fact, item or action is done by the majority of society or is something which is repetitive and practiced within the society. Without this, it doesn’t become a function that is within society and isn’t a part of the social order (Parsons, 1949). An example of this is with politics. If the United States has a bill of rights protecting freedom of speech, then this becomes a fact because it is defined by the political institution and the expectation for society to follow this bill. More important, those in society state that they practice freedom of speech through the press or other means. The freedom of speech defines the social order more by the actions which result and relate to this, all which manifest more of the approach taken for this political action and the functionalism which is attributed to the fact. The manifestation and the continuous social actions seen in newspapers, media and other sources show this is a part of the social order. The concept of social action within society is furthered by defining how this relates to different groups in society, some which may not link to the institutions. T here are two ideals which begin to form with social action and the contemporary attributes. When looking at social order from a historical perspective, it is easier to define functionalism, specifically because history only

The effects of healthy and unhealthy food Essay

The effects of healthy and unhealthy food - Essay Example In order to illustrate this, a local television company carried on an experiment in Moscow, Russia. There were two participants: one – who ate every day, starting with breakfast, the so-called â€Å"junk food†, and the second – a person who ate only healthy food. At the beginning of the experiment, both participants were examined by a doctor, who established their state of health. The â€Å"junk food† consumer was nervous, constantly tired, his blood analyses were bad, and his entire state of health was not very good. The second participant, a person who had an equilibrate nutrition, focusing on eating healthily, was in good shape and had no complaints regarding his health. The experiment consisted in switching the food habits between the two participants for one week: instead of eating junk food, the first person was going to adopt an equilibrate nutrition, and, vice versa, the person that was eating healthily, was going to consume only junk food. Beginni ng with the first day of the experiment, the second participant started to feel bad. He was constantly hungry, he felt tired although he did not have a rough day, and he felt his stomach heavy. After seven days, the doctor examined both participants again. To everybody’s surprise, the participant that at the beginning of the experiment had a state of health that could be envied by everybody, after having eaten for one week only unhealthy food, was feeling very bad at that moment and the results of the analyses confirmed it. Similar studies have been carried worldwide and all the results point out to a sole conclusion: unhealthy food can seriously affect our state of mind, health and almost every aspect of our lives. Therefore, it is worth pointing out the effects of unhealthy eating, which are multiple, and if somebody consumes it, he or she should be aware of the effects it has on his or her health. They call it â€Å"junk food† for a