Political Philosophy and National Integration Essay Example for Free

Political Philosophy and National Integration Essay 1. Central Quotation â€Å"National integration is partly a by-product of other social and economic developments, partly the result of deliberate government policies.† (Birch, 36) 2. Argument In this text Birch gives a historical overview of national integration process. He discusses different attitudes towards assimilation of minorities that existed in North America and Europe. Before 1960s that it was current believe that national integration could be challenged by the existence of different ethnic groups within the borders of the country and assimilation was desirable. After 1960 however, this attitudes has changed in favour of social pluralism. Birch also presents patterns, which describes common practices of national integration. 3. Question The question raised in this text is â€Å"Whether the process of national integration must be accompanied by wholly or partial assimilation of minorities?† Birch describes both negative and positive effects, which social, economic and political integration of minor ethnic and cultural groups could have on building a sense of nationhood. His argumentation is based on contradictory assertions. One argument is in favour of social homogeneity i.e. stresses the importance of common language and feeling of unity among people for development of democratic institutions. In the same time author mention several scientific works that question the assumption that further integration is required for establishment of representative democracy. 4. Experiential Connection Even thou I grew up in Sweden, I have a lot of friends with different ethnic origin who lives there, mostly 1st or 2nd generation immigrants. All of them had a chance, upon their own will to learn Swedish free of charge as soon as they arrived. That was the part of integration programme established by government in order to facilitate immigration process. That makes it easier for immigrants to interact with local citizens, get the jobs and thus contribute to social, political and economic development of the country. 5. Textual Connection. Birch’s argumentation is quite similar to Will Kymlicka’sagrument in the text â€Å"Western political theory and ethnic relations in eastern Europe†. As well as Birch, Kymlicka stresses that attitudes toward ethnic minorities among democratic liberals in West had changed since 1960 and multiculturalism become more acceptable (Kymlicka, s. 33). Kymlicka focuses on different ethnic groups and describes assimilation attempts made by governments towards these groups. He also emphasizes the importance of different governmental policies that determines integration process (Kymlicka, s. 42). 6. Implications. This text analyses the different ways in which minor groups can be merged into national societies and poses the question of whether national integration is a positive or a negative process. This question must be answered by citizens and representative governments in every country before there will be taken any further action toward national integration or disintegration. I think government have to consider prior experience of integration of minorities in different countries to choose appropriated policies for the particular county. This can be done throughout case studies and with help of patterns of integration drawn up by theorists and scientists.

History of Psychology Essay Example for Free

History of Psychology Essay I declare that this assignment is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another unit, degree or diploma at any university or other institute of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given. I warrant that any disks and/or computer files submitted as part of this assignment have been checked for viruses and reported clean. Student signature: __________________________ Date: __________________________ Abstract This paper aims to trace and analyze the historical development of the subjective nature of truth, the sources and reactions towards the theory. The implications of the theory of subjective truth are vast since a position on the nature of truth permeates one’s personal life goals and purposes, cognition, and morality of individual and hence also affects research methodology and psychotherapy. Subjectivism focuses on individuals’ thoughts and feelings as well as the proposition that knowledge of humans can never be separated from the knower. This literature review covers the existence of truth as being subjective during the time of the early Greek philosophers, present within Hellenistic and Roman psychology and persisting within romantic and existential philosophy, humanistic psychology and the approaches of the postmodernists in the mid-1960s. Keywords: subjective truth, history, postmodernism The Subjective Nature Of Truth: A Historical Development The constant tension of whether truth is objective or subjective has long since existed throughout history and continues to pervade in current schools of psychotherapies. â€Å"Science versus Humanism† is the term Conway (1992) gives to the philosophical dimension along which the values underlying the theories of psychologists differ. A scientific approach to psychology is based on the epistemological tradition of objectivism. Mahoney (1989) summarizes objectivism as beliefs that an objective and separate ‘real world’ lies beyond the organism, independent of perception and that valid knowledge is ultimately rendered from our sensory experiences, and can be totally separated from the knower (Mahoney, 1989 as cited in Conway, 1992). In contrast, the humanistic approach to psychology is based on the epistemological tradition of subjectivism which focuses on thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, knowledge of humans can never be separated from the knower (Conway, 1992). Due to different theories on the nature of truth, methodology for observing consciousness and the role of inner experience differ. The human science approach to psychology seeks to explain behavior in terms of a person’s subjective existence (Kendler, 2005). Humanistic psychology and philosophical phenomenology are two schools of thought that employ the human science interpretation of psychology (Kendler, 2005). The implications of the theory of the relativity of truth is seen in the individuals personal life goals, purpose of life, cognitive styles, morality, ethics, counseling goals, research methodology and conceptualization of definitions. Due to the great relevance of the topic to psychology, this essay traces and analyzes the historical development of the subjective nature of truth, the sources and reactions towards the theory. Early Greek Philosophers and Hellenistic and Roman Psychology The Sophists were a group of philosophers who believed that nothing is inherently right or wrong but that believing something is right makes it right and vice versa (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 41). Protagoras (485-420 B.C.) was the most popular Sophist who proposed that man is the measure of all things, meaning that man determines whether something is true or untrue and hence, truth depends on the perceiver not physical reality (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 41). The context of this perspective of the nature of truth is that Protagoras lived in the Periclean democracy where skills for effective communication were valuable to own especially in the political sphere (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 42) where some beliefs were more advantageous to utilitarian harmony than others. Hence, Protagoras was primarily interested in teaching effective argumentation to demonstrate the practicality of the relativity of truth. Socrates (470-399 B.C.) disagreed with the Sophists’ view that no truth exists beyond personal opinion. In the second century A.D., a school of thought named Skepticism promoted suspension of judgment and preferred to say ‘This is how things appear to me† rather than to claim having arrived at irrevocable truth (Hergenhahn, 2009). They were of the view that dogmatists constantly fought amongst themselves and were always agitated unlike the Skeptics who sought a life of peace and lived by two primary guides: appearances (sensations and feelings) and social convention (Hergenhahn, 2009). Displaying a similarity with the Sophists and the Skeptics, the Cynics such as Diogenes (412-323) advocated individualism and that true happiness depended on self-sufficiency and living a life that was natural, rejecting any type of control, be it bodily or social control. The theme of moving away from absolute truth and towards a relativistic conception of truth, individual feelings, opinions, social convention or whatever ‘truth’ brings gain (e.g., political status or living peaceably with others) will manifest itself again throughout history. Instrumental theory of truth: Profitability as criteria for truth William James (1842-1910) was of the view that ideas become true as long as they help people satisfactorily relate with other parts of one’s experience (De Waal, 2005, p. 43). James proposes that it is far from essential for our thoughts, beliefs or in other words, conceptions of truth, to copy reality. Hence, he opposes the singularity of truth and posits that multiple, though different beliefs are acceptable. In contrast, there can only be one truth for the empiricists and the rationalists since truth is the perfect copy of reality (De Waal, 2005, p. 47). Based on pragmatic principles, James proposes that any hypothesis cannot be rejected if there are useful results that come from it. Pragmatism is hence a principle that views any ‘truth’ as true as long as it profits. In other words, the pragmatist’s notion of truth is that beliefs originating from within one’s self but does not copy anything without the believer will still count as true when these lead people to directions that are worthwhile (De Waal, 2005, p. 50). The theme of moving away from a singular truth independent of the knower and towards whichever concept, idea or belief brings profit is a pattern seen even during the Early Greek Philosophers and Hellenistic and Roman Psychology. A profit-focused approach to handling truth, as proposed by the pragmatists, will strongly permeate and an underlying principle in future philosophies and approaches to psychology such as romanticism, existentialism, humanistic and postmodern psychology. Romantic and existential philosophy: Feelings, human choice and freedom In the late 18th century, an artistic and intellectual movement named Romanticism rebelled against Enlightenment rationality that overemphasized linear and the investigation of causes by trying to add feelings and intuition to rationality (Schneider, 1998). Romanticism emphasized the wholeness of experience via implicit processes such as affect, intuition, kinesthesia, imagination as well as the descriptions of these processes (Schneider, 1998). Rousseau was of the view that facts of history were of less importance than what values can be learned from them and that history should be considered as a collection of fables (Rousseau, 1762 as cited in Robinson, 2008). This type of thinking is seen again in Postmodernist thinking later on in history although to Rousseau, historical facts were not subjective but unknowable because of human error and interpretation. In psychology, romanticism is manifested in orientations of existential-humanistic, hermeneutical, narrative, and transpersonal psychologies (Schneider, 1998). Carl Rogers of the school of humanistic psychology, whose thoughts will be further explored later on in this paper, has much similarity with the romantics since experience is Rogers highest authority and makes decisions based on what feels [emphasis mine] right, valuable or worth doing (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 593). Like romanticism, existentialism stresses subjective experience. The existentialists (18th and 19th centuries) encourage us humans to consider the meaning of living authentically, in ones own personal way (Oaklander, 1992). If one chooses freely, one chooses authentically and leads an authentic life. Since there are no objective values for the existentialist, it depends more on how one chooses rather than what their choice is. An existential philosopher, Kierkegaard proposed that each persons life individually has its own self-determined meaning. Subjectivity is truth, that is, the persons beliefs define that persons reality (Oaklander, 1992, p. 577). Though the existentialist philosophers differ in their views in a few aspects of their thinking, one common theme is the emphasis on human freedom and choice and the related slogan of Sartre that existence precedes essence which means that humans have no prepackaged nature or essence but that we are is what we choose to be (Oaklander, 1992). In other words, subjectivity must be the starting point (Oaklander, 1992). Sartre also says that â€Å"Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism. It is also what is called subjectivity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Influenced by existential philosophy, a brand of contemporary psychology which has the key concepts of freedom, individuality, authenticity and responsibility emerged called existential psychology (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 574). The man who is generally considered to be the bridge between existential philosophy and existential psychology is Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) who is of the view that there is no ‘ultimate truth’ but emphasizes interpretation and that there is no ‘real meaning’ behind a phenomenon (Daitz, 2011). He proposed that humans choose nature of their own existence and it is worthy of notice that Heidegger chose to be committed to Nazism (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 574). The theme of moving away from a singular truth independent of the knower and towards â€Å"personal truth† as self-defined by individuals as well as the unfortunate consequence of individuals freely choosing what they think is right or desirable which may conflict with what society views as desirable. This will manifest itself again with slight differences in humanistic and postmodern psychology. Humanistic psychology: An application of subjective truth In the early 1960s, humanistic psychology, a new human science that would study humans as aware, choosing and emotional beings, appeared in reaction to traditional scientific approaches to psychology (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 571). Unlike the two existing schools of psychology, behaviorism and psychoanalysis, which assume determinism in explaining human behavior, humanistic psychology assumes humans are free to choose their own existence and that subjective reality is the most important cause of behavior (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 571). A basic tenet of humanistic psychology is that subjective reality is the primary guide for human behavior (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 586). Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was of the view that humanistic science should allow the individual to be freer and more inner determined (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 586). What he deemed as self-actualization is what humans achieve when they are true to their own nature (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 587). Carl Rogers (1902-1987) also proposed that a person who is likely to live a fulfilling life is motivated by his true inner feelings instead of beliefs, traditions and values imposed by others outside the individual (Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 593). Rogers started the movement of Person-Centered therapy which stress an essential trust in the experiential world of the client and stress three conditions to promote the client’s growth: congruence (genuineness on the therapist’ part), true empathy, unconditional positive regard. A limitation that Owen (1999) notes in his analysis of both psychoanalysis and person-centred therapy is the conflict for the person-centred therapist to both communicate unconditional positive regard as well as congruence with a negative feeling about a client. In other words, prizing the client and also at the same time, being honest with personal feelings towards client. This poses a question of what a therapist should rightly do when being honest also means being non-empathic and withholding unconditional positive regard from the client. This problem of congruency undeniably stems from the theory of truth and its subjective nature since what the therapist believes to be true and what the client believes to be true are both equally ‘true’ if the assumption is that the individual self-defines truth. Postmodernism approaches: Contemporary development of the theory of truth Modernists believe in objective reality that exists independent of any attempt to observe it whereas postmodernists believe in subjective realities that do not exist independent of observational processes (Corey, 2005). Postmodernism is similar to the romantics, existentialists, the Sophists, and Skeptics and aspects of James’ psychology in that there multiple truths and these vary with individual experience, thus paving the way for postmodernism. According to Schneider (1998), the postmodernist were different from the romantics in that postmodernists promote a relativistic chaos when this conflicted with the sensibility of Romanticism (Schneider, 1998). The Romantics assumed knowledge as determinate and argued for the universality of autonomous experience while postmodernism assumes it as indeterminate and relativistic, thus fragmenting knowledge and experience (Webb, 2006). Similar to James’ pragmatism, the postmodernist is of the view that a problem exists only when people agree there is a problem needing to be addressed. Narrative therapy is an application of the Postmodernist approach to psychology and encourages clients to see their stories from different perspectives (Corey, 2005). The clients reality is focused on without disagreeing whether it is accurate or rational (Weishaar, 1993 as cited in Corey, 2005). Unlike traditional therapists who see the client as the problem, the narrative therapists believe that the problem is the problem (Corey, 2005). This separation of client from problem allows one to take a stance against specific storylines, be hopeful in generating a more positive, healing story and thus reducing self-blame. The therapist searches for times when the client made a choice and times when the client was successful (Corey, 2005, p. 403). Very similar to the assumptions of the Cynics and particularly the Romantics, the Postmodernist approach is based on the optimistic assumption that people are able and that they possess alternative stories that can enhance their lives (Corey, 2005, p. 403). The nature of truth and the approach to psychology: Future research direction Within the United States and internationally, Kirschenbaum and Jourdan (2005) carried out a survey that found an increasing number of therapists who identify themselves as â€Å"eclectic† or â€Å"integrative† amongst Carl Rogers’ client-centered/person-centered therapists over the past 30 years. In his writing on the topic of romanticism’s potential in complementing psychology, Schneider (1998) writes that experimental research, whether in hypothesis-making or verification, cannot fully replace romantic insights and needs to refer back to qualitative data that Romantics emphasize (Schneider, 1998). Hence, there are advantages in employing research as well as therapy methodology that take into account aspects of the intuitive and emotional aspect of human beings that romanticism emphasizes. In view of the advantages, Schneider also writes about the implications for therapists in training. He proposes the provision of rich and sensitive qualitative descriptions of their clients in addition to treatment plans that are problem-oriented or behavioral in focus (Schneider, 1998). Therapists in training should also pay attention to emotional, kinesthetic, and cognitive experiences of clients. Besides just assessing progress toward therapy goals, the meaning of therapy goals for clients should also be considered. Schneider is of the view that therapist with the full range of experiential data about their clients would be in an optimal position to collate essential data for a treatment plan. Hence, research should be done to measure the effectiveness of this approach to therapy in addition to (i.e., eclectic approaches) or instead of traditional approaches. In his comparison of person-centred therapy with psychodynamic therapy, Owen (1999) notes the possibility of conflict that person-centred therapists might face in trying to be congruent to their own personal feelings while at the same time, being non-judgmental and providing unconditional positive regard. Further research should be carried out in the area of long-term consequences to the therapist and to the client as well as strategies that can be employed when there is a conflict in the congruence of the therapist and the therapist’ provision of unconditional positive regard. Research may also include investigating the incorporation of one aspect of the psychodynamic approach which is neutrality (neither making interpretations nor providing unconditional positive regard) towards the client’s sharing of his personal experience or thoughts (Owen, 1999). Neutrality allows for a full range of emotions including negative emotions of the client. Conclusion Whether truth is absolute and independent of the knower and perceiver has been supported and argued against since the period of the early Greek philosophers. Similar themes that focus on the human individual to evaluate and make their own choices, define their own meaning and ultimately, define and act upon what is the nature of truth and the truth itself recur time and time again whether in the form of an emphasis on affect like the Romantics or Postmodernist who selects part of a narrative, whether accurate or true, to put it to good use in helping the individual cope during therapy. The implications of the position taken on the nature of truth have been demonstrated throughout history in major schools of philosophy, psychology and in this paper. Future speculation of this theory of truth is that, after certain negative events that will happen in future times as a result of pragmatic and postmodern thinking, a reaction against relativistic and individualized conceptions of truth that may take a shape of fundamentalism may return to schools of philosophy and the social sciences. References Conway, J. B. (1992). Presidential address: A world of differences among psychologists. Canadian Psychology, 33(1), 1-23. Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (7th ed.). California: Thomson Learning Inc. Daitz, L. (2011). Understanding, truth or resolve? Considering the ‘aim’ of existential psychotherapy and the approaches of van Deurzen and Spinelli. Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis, 22(1), 140-149. De Waal, C. (2005). On Pragmatism. California: Thomson Wadsworth Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An introduction to the history of psychology (6th ed.). California: Cengage learning. Kendler, H. H. (2005). Psychology and phenomenology: A clariï ¬ cation. American Psychologist, 60(4), 318–324 Kirschenbaum, H. Jourdan, A. (2005). The current status of Carl Rogers and the person-centered approach. Educational Publishing Foundation, 42(1), 37–51. doi: 10.1037/0033-3204.42.1.37 Oaklander, L. N. (1992). Existentialist phil osophy: An introduction. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Owen, I. R. (1999). Exploring the similarities and differences between person-centred and psychoanalytic therapies. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 27(2), 165-178 doi: 0306-9885/99/020165-14 Robinson, P. (2008). Jean-Jacques Rousseau and history: Moral truth at the expense of facticity. Rethinking History, 12(3), 417–431. doi: 10.108 0/13642520802193 288 Schneider, K. J. (1998). Toward a science of the heart: Romanticism and the revival of psychology. American Psychologist, 53(3), 277-289 Webb, R. K. (2006). From romantic humanist to postmodern pedagogy: How the alien becomes normative in contemporary education. Radical Pedagogy. Retrieved from http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue8_2/webb.html

The Culture And Cricket Media Essay

The Culture And Cricket Media Essay Sports play an important role in the life of millions across the globe. Not only are the social and political identities shaped through them, but it also mobilizes the emotions and channels the conflicts rooted in the society. Just like the soccer world cup can unite a divided Spanish society, a cricket match can rouse the passions of the thousands of Indian fans thus uniting them across religions. Sports form a part of the worldwide entertainment industry. The corporates have millions riding on the different tournaments and cups in the games and to increase their marketability they hire sports stars to be the brand ambassadors of their products, investing in the saleability of the game and its icon. Distinct social meanings can be constructed and deconstructed through the sports and their interplay with the society. A few sports have now developed into social forces of unprecedented importance. Andrei Markovits has talked about the evolution of the hegemonic sports culture in which only a few sports become a part of the popular culture. It is defined by watching, following, worrying, debating, living, and speaking a sport rather than merely playing it. This is demonstrated in the following that the sports nowdays have huge following, fans live, eat and breathe their favourite sports. Cricket is one of the sports that have been elevated to being a part of the popular culture and it influences the cultural and social milieu and the life of people. Cricket has acquired an unimaginable power over the daily habits of people and as a sport has crossed the immediate consumer-producer relationship. The game of cricket has evolved over a period of time and our focus will be on its development from a gentlemans game to the game of sledging and to the game of gamesmanship behaviour. Cricket has its cultura l and historical roots in Victorian England. The Victorian tradition of the sport defines it as a predominantly male game and its image as a gentlemans game is drawn from it. Cricket was the game associated with aristocracy while soccer has been the game associated with masses. The mark of the game has been the fairplay and the sportsmanship. The values of courtesy and chivalry were seeked to be imbibed in the game. Rules were to be followed on-field and decorum was to be maintained both on and off-field. There are not rules in cricket but laws which have to be followed keeping in spirit with the nature of the game. Britains imperialism and its bourgeoisie capitalistic culture, codified the language of the game and the rules and regulations were universally accepted. As Steve Readhead had put it that it was time to take law and cricket seriously and there is nothing as important as Cricket. A strict application of laws was expected and a spirit of chivalry inundated the game. The 18 th century was important in the spread of the game due to English imperialism. The game was transported to the colonies of the British Commonwealth and the tradition of the game was fully adhered to. Sanskritization was a theory propounded by M.N. Srinivas which postulates that the lower strata of the society seeks upward mobility in the social ladder by emulating the habits and practices of the upper strata. But what followed in cricket was its reverse sanskritization. Initially cricket in the Indian subcontinent was an elitist game patronized by the royalty and played by the upper strata of the society who appreciated the elitist culture of the game. The doyens of cricket included Maharajas of Jamnagar, Maharaja Viji of Vijaynagar, Maharaja of Patiala who belonged to the royal families while the prominent players like Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant belonged to the upper social class. Till the 1930s Cricket remained the gentlemans game and fairplay was of paramount importance. But slowly changes could be observed in the way the game was played. In the era following the first world war chauvinistic sentiments were on the rise. Feelings of nationalism increased in the people which were visible in every domain of life including the sports culture. To win the game became the number one priority of the sportsperson and this change was visible in the game of cricket too. Now winning involved the nations prestige. Cricket is a game worth taking trouble over and playing well, wrote Douglas Jardine, the former England cricket captain, in Cricket: How to Succeed (1936), but like all other games there is a right and a wrong way of playing it (Jardine 1936: 3). The changing times reflected the changing sentiments in the way cricket was played. In 1930 Australia had scored an easy victory over England with the emergence of the legendary batsman Donald Bradman. His brilliant performance in the test series had made the English fearful. In the 1932 test series between England and Australia, the priority of the English bowlers was to contain Bradmans score. Under captain Douglas Jardine, and employed by the England fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce a new technique of bowling was developed whereby a batsman could be contained by limiting the range of his strokes and by encouraging error. This was called the bodyline or fast-leg theory. The bowlers targeted the body of the Australian batsman. The deliveries used to be led provoked the batsman which would then end in a catch to one of the six or more fielders stationed on the leg side. Thus the Australian Board of Cricket lodged a formally protested against the unsportsmanlike behavior by the English players. This test series was controversial as it engendered ill-feeling between the two countries and it also raised among the English and the Australians, questions about the interpretations that codes of cricket mean and could mean. Questions were also raised about the right and wrong way to play and these included the cultural and social interface and their relation with the game. Systems of meanings were explored in the game by both sides that had previously been left implicit. Post the Bodyline series The Australian journalist and cricketer Arthur Mailey pointed that something modern was happening to cricket. Argus newspaper explained bodyline as a portrayal of a new set of values which was a result of the modern age (Mailey 1933: 12; Stoddart 1979: 136). C. L. R. James also read the series in these terms, though he saw Jardines strategy as an escalation of cricketing tendencies already established by Bradman himself. It was the violence and ferocity of our age expressing itself in cricket, he writes in Beyond a Boundary (James 1963: 186). The reverse sanskritization of cricket was palpable, the upper strata of society had adopted the social mores of the lower strata. Aggression became a part of the play and victory became the aim of the players which was to be attained at all costs. As Jardine had put it the right and the wrong way of playing described the ambiguity between the moral and the technical semantics, which defined the aftermath of victories in Australia. Jardine resigned as the English captain after the series, but the game lost its sense of fairplay and sportsmanship. The elitist culture was giving way to mass culture. Sportsmanship slowly gave way to gamesmanship. The spirit of the cricket laws was replaced by the letters. Vinoo Mankad Mankaded Bill Brown. It occurred during Indias tour of Australia on 13 December 1947 in the second test match at Sydney. Mankading is a method of dismissal in which the bowler runs a batsman out in his delivery stride. While it is a statistically rare occurrence in cricket in general, and even rarer in Test cricket, it is the clearest and starkest example of the conflict between legal formalism in cricket and an ideal of the game based on higher or more important ethical norms. Sledging has become a part of contemporary cricket added by the problems of match fixing. The game shifted from being an elitist culture to a game of the masses. The commercialization resulted in the real essence of cricket being lost. Due to commercialization there has been an increase in level of competition between the teams. Though big bucks are being made by people involved yet the quality of the game is being compromised. The gentlemans game became the game of the masses. It is evident that there are two dominant trains of thought, one that believes in the higher order of the game, which was practised in the days gone by. Fairplay was the code of the game and the laws which were to be applied to the game reinforced the higher and truer order of the game. The hegemonic sports culture represents frozen spaces. These spaces are like the ones presented by political parties and political systems which are resistant to any innovation in the system. Changes are resisted by the social and cultural forces. Sports spaces create emotional attachments and collective identifications. Tradition defines these spaces at local, national and regional level. Globalization exerts pressures on the localized sports cultures which they resist. Sports like politics remains local, the love that people have for their sport and their institutions associated with it like the myths, legends, colours and the pubs and bars. Thus change is always resisted due to the fear of losing t hese attachments and the sense of identity. But the post industrial globalization is exerting unprecedented pressure on the sports spaces. The cultural and social spaces are being challenged by the globalization. The identities and allegiances which constitute the differences in the landscape of sports and politics began to blur round the edges. Hegemonic sports cultures are becoming prolific across the globe, at pace with the development of media and pop culture which are interdependent. An example here can be given of the IPL 20-20 which in origin is Indian but has a universal following. The foreign and the Indian players are given equal respect and are admired by all. In the present age sports like cricket present a cosmopolitan culture which cannot be found in the society which is deeply divided on basis of borders and religion. Cricket provides attachments and allegiances and a new form of cosmopolitan identity. This cosmopolitan nature of the sport facilitates an acknowledgeme nt of the best talents and it transforms the collective identities. Like Ronaldinho and Zidane, the greatest and the best known of the soccer players, Sachin Tendulkar too is adored and worshipped by millions of cricket fans across the globe. He too has attained a celebrity status and is a cultural icon. He is a superstar in his own right and is a truly global player. He has a cultural production beyond the playing field. Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God. Is one of the sayings which can describe the mania associated with Tendulkar. Youth not only adore and worship a Tendulkar or a Lara, they try to adopt their aggression, composure, warmth into their personality. Cricketers shape and mould the youth behaviour. They follow their slangs, dress, hairstyle and attitude. Players are globally admired and they are representatives of cultural understandings of the worlds diverse societies. Often the sports spaces are the first through which migrants gain social acceptance and recognition. Hence cricket in a way is a medium of cultural exchange. An other example that can be given is of the infamous Monkeygate Scandal involving the Autralian cricketer Andrew Symonds and Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh. Singh was accused to racially abusing Symonds. This had led to rigorous protests by the Indian fans and there was resentment against Symonds in the Indian cricket followers. But he was accepted and adored by the fans nce he joined the IPL as a member of the Mumbai Indians. Maarten Van Bottenburg and Johan Heilbron have shown in their research on Ultimate fighting and other No Holds Barred Events that these sports had developed in opposition to the overly cosmopolitan and sportized venues. Men wanted a fight without rules without being overly regulated. They wanted to find out who the best was and who would be the last man standing without being hassled any authority and bureaucratic system. They were not there to find out who the best wrestler or the best boxer was, but they wanted to know who the best fighter was. This transformation was visible in cricket too. Cricket has always had a strong male bias among its followers and the masculine idea of the patriarchal Victorian England formed the opinions about cricket being essentially a male game. The effeminate and technical Test cricket slowly lost its sheen to limited 50 over cricket and finally to 20-20. The shorter form of game were considered virile, no hold barred power display and excited the mas ses. From the leisurely gentlemans game cricket became an aggressive sport whose priority was to please the spectators. The contests used to be localized earlier but due to the quick channels of communication, these attained global dimensions by acquiring rules and regulations and television contracts. When Bill Shankly had been asked to explain the importance of soccer, the Liverpool manager had exclaimed: Some people think football is a matter of life or death. I dont like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more important than that. Cricket can easily be substituted for soccer in the context of the Indian subcontinent. The games can vary from country to country yet the social and cultural phenomena associated with each game are the same everywhere.

Elevating Man to the Level of God: Just Do It! :: Philosophy essays

Elevating Man to the Level of God: Just Do It! Deciding what to believe in was easy for Westerners before the Protestant Reformation. There was really only one option in the religion market-- Roman Catholicism. The Eastern Orthodox churches were also in existence for part of the pre-Reformation period, but they had a different geographical sphere of influence, so people in a given area had little choice of faith. The Church was a powerful force in more than people's spiritual lives; it was often involved in politics, science, art, and other secular affairs. Excommunication (exclusion from the Church) was one of the most severe punishments at that time. Before the Reformation, society was like a child. Children accept any beliefs that their parents hand them because they have no experience of their own to make judgements with. Children have no real sense of right and wrong. When they behave well, it is not out of virtuous impulses or a desire to "do the right thing," but out of fear of reprisal from their parents or an immature desire to please the people who have such a large amount of power over their lives. Finally, children need parents to tell them what to do so they don't burn their hands on the stove, drink Liquid Plumber or fall off a cliff and die. Pre-Reformation society was childlike in many ways, and Roman Catholic clergy were the parents to the pre-adolescent society. Religiously, people relied on the clergy to tell them how to act and what to believe, because they had never had to think about whether they agreed with the teachings of the Pope-- the thought of not agreeing never really entered their minds. When Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg in 1517, he began more than he intended or even knew: intending to reform the Catholic church, he thrust wide open the door to freedom of thought and belief, which had been ajar since the Renaissance. With other religions in the market, people had to scrutinize what they had always been told and decide what they really believed. Some people retained their Roman Catholic beliefs, while others became Lutherans, Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, or joined with any of several hundred other Christian denominations. The division of the western Christian church, begun in 1517, is still continuing today.

Analysis of The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes Essay -- The Worl

Analysis of The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes Roland Barthes's essay on "The World of Wrestling" draws analogically on the ancient theatre to contextualize wrestling as a cultural myth where the grandiloquence of the ancient is preserved and the spectacle of excess is displayed. Barthes's critique -- which is above all a rewriting of what was to understand what is -- is useful here insofar as it may be applied back to theatre as another open-air spectacle. But in this case, not the theatre of the ancients, but the Middle English pageant presents the locus for discussing the sport of presentation, or, if you prefer, the performance of the sport. More specifically, what we see by looking at the Harrowing of Hell -- the dramatic moment in the cycle plays that narratizes doctrinal redemption more graphically than any other play in the cycle -- as spectacle offers a matrix for the multiple relationships between performance and audience and the means of producing that performance which, in turn, necessarily produces the audience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of the spectacle could sensibly be applied to the complete texts of the cycle plays, and perhaps more appropriately to the full range of the pageant and its concomitant festivities. The direction of pseudo-historical criticism, especially of the Elizabethan stage, certainly provides a well-plowed ground for advancing the festive and carnivalesque inherently present in the establishment and event of theater. Nevertheless, my discussion here is both more limited and more expansive: its limits are constructed by the choice of an individual play recurrent through the four extant manuscripts of what has come to be called the Corpus Christi plays; its expansion is expressed through a delivery that aims to implicate the particular moment of this play in the operations of a dominant church-state apparatus, which is, ostensibly, a model of maintaining hegemony in Western culture. The Harrowing provides a singular instance in which the mechanisms of control of the apparatus appear to extend and exploit their relationship with the audience (i.e. congregation). The play is constructed beyond the canonized operations of the sacred, originating a narrative beyond (yet within) the authorized vulgate; it is constructed only through church authority yet maint... ...thorizing. It seems we are not merely to claim, as Hardin Craig does, that the plays are "a theological intelligence motivated by structural imagination that lasted from age to age in the development of a great cycle of mystery plays." Instead, we should interrogate the multiple dimensions of artistry and artificiality of the play; our task is to ask how these plays operate as a performative moment coming directly from the dominant arms of orthodoxy while still being influenced by the severely limited mass culture. We may find, then, at the center of the controlling mechanisms of the church-state apparatus, the necessitated desire for community that even Satan validates and proclaims:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nay, I pray the do not so;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vmthynke the better in thy mynde;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Or els let me with the go,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I pray the leyffe me not behynde! The desire, of course, extends past Satan's plea, for the homogenized desire of the congregation ultimately -- which is in history written and yet to be -- is directed toward a different answer from Jesus: one that affirms salvation and again confirms the church's orthodox pageantry of performance. Analysis of The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes Essay -- The Worl Analysis of The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes Roland Barthes's essay on "The World of Wrestling" draws analogically on the ancient theatre to contextualize wrestling as a cultural myth where the grandiloquence of the ancient is preserved and the spectacle of excess is displayed. Barthes's critique -- which is above all a rewriting of what was to understand what is -- is useful here insofar as it may be applied back to theatre as another open-air spectacle. But in this case, not the theatre of the ancients, but the Middle English pageant presents the locus for discussing the sport of presentation, or, if you prefer, the performance of the sport. More specifically, what we see by looking at the Harrowing of Hell -- the dramatic moment in the cycle plays that narratizes doctrinal redemption more graphically than any other play in the cycle -- as spectacle offers a matrix for the multiple relationships between performance and audience and the means of producing that performance which, in turn, necessarily produces the audience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of the spectacle could sensibly be applied to the complete texts of the cycle plays, and perhaps more appropriately to the full range of the pageant and its concomitant festivities. The direction of pseudo-historical criticism, especially of the Elizabethan stage, certainly provides a well-plowed ground for advancing the festive and carnivalesque inherently present in the establishment and event of theater. Nevertheless, my discussion here is both more limited and more expansive: its limits are constructed by the choice of an individual play recurrent through the four extant manuscripts of what has come to be called the Corpus Christi plays; its expansion is expressed through a delivery that aims to implicate the particular moment of this play in the operations of a dominant church-state apparatus, which is, ostensibly, a model of maintaining hegemony in Western culture. The Harrowing provides a singular instance in which the mechanisms of control of the apparatus appear to extend and exploit their relationship with the audience (i.e. congregation). The play is constructed beyond the canonized operations of the sacred, originating a narrative beyond (yet within) the authorized vulgate; it is constructed only through church authority yet maint... ...thorizing. It seems we are not merely to claim, as Hardin Craig does, that the plays are "a theological intelligence motivated by structural imagination that lasted from age to age in the development of a great cycle of mystery plays." Instead, we should interrogate the multiple dimensions of artistry and artificiality of the play; our task is to ask how these plays operate as a performative moment coming directly from the dominant arms of orthodoxy while still being influenced by the severely limited mass culture. We may find, then, at the center of the controlling mechanisms of the church-state apparatus, the necessitated desire for community that even Satan validates and proclaims:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nay, I pray the do not so;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vmthynke the better in thy mynde;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Or els let me with the go,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I pray the leyffe me not behynde! The desire, of course, extends past Satan's plea, for the homogenized desire of the congregation ultimately -- which is in history written and yet to be -- is directed toward a different answer from Jesus: one that affirms salvation and again confirms the church's orthodox pageantry of performance.

Returning to a Pre-Print Culture Understanding of Music :: Web Internet Technology Essays

Returning to a Pre-Print Culture Understanding of Music If the Web technology like Napster is eventually incompatible with the current print based recording industry, which values individual works (i.e. records, CD’s, videos) as commodities, then the paradigm of the current music industry will have to be changed drastically. To bridge the gap, something akin to cable service, which uses a flat rate for basic service and then has add-ons like pay-per-view might be used to curb or at least contain free dissemination of files while still remaining lucrative. This does not change the current industry paradigm so much; it simply awards more commodity status to access than product. Last July, Bertelsmann and Napster CEO's met to discuss a subscription partnership. "Between the two of them, the price for a subscription to the new Napster was floated at somewhere between $4.99 and $15 a month" (Alderman, 171). The problem with this solution is that many people may not be willing to pay for something that they have in the past acquired at no cost. It has been relatively easy to bypass security limitations placed on Napster, and in addition, similar applications have appeared to compete with Napster, or replace it in the event that access is blocked (i.e. Morpheus, Gnutella, Aimster [2]). A more effective solution might be one similar to what Grateful Dead lyricist John Barlow proposed in a 1994 issue of Wired: "Intellectual property law cannot be patched, retrofitted, or expanded to contain the gasses of digitized expression†¦ We will need to develop an entirely new set of methods as befits this entirely new set of circumstances" (Alderman, 20). To completely change the paradigm might involve going back to a pre-individualist, pre-high capitalist system. To keep the industry lucrative, the question that record labels, musicians, and other industry types should be asking themselves is not â€Å"How can we make money using existing copyright laws in the networked environment?† but â€Å"How can we still survive as an industry in an environment where copyright does not?† A possible alternative, and an option that hearkens back to pre-print culture, is that musicians might be salaried on the basis that they provide a service. Their art would be free for public enjoyment, but the musicians themselves would be compensated on salary to ensure that music continued to be made at its current rate.

Sports Drink and Gatorade

In the summer of 1965, a university football coach began to question why his players were suffering from heat related illnesses. They were drinking plenty of water. University researchers soon discovered that players were losing electrolytes and fluids through their sweat, and water couldn’t replace what they were losing. The researchers took their findings into their lab and began to create a drink that would help the Florida Gators feel rehydrated, replenished, and refueled during their most intense athletic events. That’s exactly what the product now guarantees to achieve-rehydration, replenishment, and refueling. They called this new drink ‘Gatorade’. By 1969, Gatorade was named the official drink of the NFL (History of Gatorade, Retrieved December 2, 2006). Today, Gatorade has reached beyond the narrow market of elite athletes. They have many product lines designed to appease the most particular of sports drinkers. No matter what your gender, your occupation, or your age, they make a drink that you can enjoy. Gatorade has many different product lines within their Thirst Quencher Series. They distribute Gatorade Rain, Frost, Lemonade, Original, X-Factor, Xtremo, and Fierce. Within each of these different sub-categories come many different fruity flavors. Each flavor also ranges from a 12oz bottle-6 pack to a gallon jug. Gatorade also has a line of fitness water called Propel. Any consumer can purchase Propel Fitness Water or Propel Fitness Water with Calcium. Both come in a wide range of flavors similar to those found within the Gatorade Thirst Quencher Series, but with a few more. All purchases range from a 12oz-8 pack to a 1 liter bottle. Now we jump into the Gatorade Performance Series products. This series of products has specially designed formulated nutrition and hydration in order to aid the most intense athletes in their performance. Each product is packed with nutrition in order to replace the electrolytes lost by each athlete through exertion. Gatorade has an energy bar that comes in 2 different flavors, chocolate chip and peanut butter. This 2. 3oz bar is the perfect snack for athletes on the go, or anyone getting ready to do some physical activity for that matter. Then there’s the nutrition shake. This product comes in the obvious flavors, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. These 11oz shakes are a perfect way to fill an athlete’s stomach without slowing them down. And last, but not least, there are the Gatorade Performance Series Energy Drinks. These drinks are very similar to those of the Gatorade Thirst Quenchers. However, the Performance Series drinks contain a whopping 200mg of sodium. This is so that electrolytes and body fluids will be replaced within each athlete every time they take a drink. These drinks, however, come in limited flavors and are only available in 12oz bottles (Gatorade Products, Retrieved December 2, 2006). Gatorade has become the most popular sports beverage. It is widely known and is easily distinguishable among its competitors. First of all, its packaging hasn’t changed in years. Gatorade looks the same today as it did a decade ago. Because of this, Gatorade has remained popular and not forgotten. It’s easy for a consumer to remember something that is always there and never changes. Gatorade also remains recognized due to the number of contracts they have with several major sports leagues. As of now, they have contracts with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Women’s National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, United States of America Basketball, Major League Soccer, United States Soccer, Bowl Championship Series, and the Association of Volleyball Professionals (http://www. gatorade. com/athletes/leagues_and_teams/, Retrieved December 2, 2006). The NFL is also known for performing the ‘Gatorade Dunk’. This ritual is performed after a game by the winning team. Players pick up the Gatorade Barrel and dump what’s left over their coach’s head. This gives free publicity because it’s done by the teams without any prompting by Gatorade. Gatorade works on new products all the time. They’ve even created a special lab where their scientists can continually test new products to ensure the safety and abilities of all athletes. The most recent achievement Gatorade has produced is called G. I. D. S. (Gatorade In-car Drinking System). This system was specifically designed for NASCAR drivers. A special pouch, that guarantees to keep any liquid cold for hours, is filled with the driver’s favorite flavor and is then placed in a secure compartment within the vehicle. There is a tube with a special coming from within the pouch and into the driver’s helmet. At the end of the tube is a mouthpiece that is securely fastened to the driver’s mouth. When the driver is ready to take a drink, they bite down on their mouth piece, to open the tube, and push a button, to pump the cold liquid through the tube and into the driver’s mouth. When the driver’s lets go of the mouthpiece the tube closes and the pump automatically reverse pumps the Gatorade back into the pouch in order to stay cold for next time. NASCAR race cars can reach up to 130 degrees and their driver’s can lose up to ten pounds within a single race just by sweating. Gatorade keeps their body temperature down and helps replace the electrolytes and body fluids lost (http://www. gatorade. com/science%5Fand%5Finnovation/product%5Finnovations/gids/ Retrieved December 2, 2006). Product Life Cycle  Gatorade falls within the maturity stage of the Product Life Cycle. I do believe that Gatorade is still growing however its growth has slowed. According to the text, the maturity stage is reached when â€Å"the sales of a generic product category continue to increase (but at a decreasing rate), profits decline largely because of price competition, and some firms leave the market† (Etzel, 674). Table 9. 1 in the text gives another description to help define a products life cycle stage. In order to be in the maturity stage, the product must have a mass market of consumers, which Gatorade does. They have millions of consumers. The competition is somewhat intense and their growth has slowed down. Their profits, however, are still pretty strong. They aren’t as strong as they were in the growth stage, but are still significantly strong. They defend their product against competitors, water being most mentioned when addressing the health of athletes. Gatorade costs have remained stable and their prices are reasonable. If it’s too expensive to buy each drink individually, you can always buy in bulk from a grocery store or a wholesaler like Costco. There is extreme loyalty to Gatorade as well. Because they were the only specialty sport drink when it was created in 1965, they didn’t have to worry about winning their consumers away from a similar product. All the athletes and athletic trainers wanted this drink and became hooked on it after seeing the effect it had. By the time other brands came out everyone knew Gatorade and trusted its products. Most consumers would rather purchase a product they know works than try a new product that claims to do what everyone already knows Gatorade does. So it’s obvious that Gatorade has brand loyalty, another way we know Gatorade has reached the maturity stage. Although they have made to the maturity stage, they still have more growth to obtain. As long as Gatorade continues to produce new products, they will continue to grow. It may not be a quickly as it was when they first introduced themselves in 1965, but they will grow (Etzel, 674). Pricing Gatorade has a very simple pricing strategy. Even though Gatorade is the leader in the sport drink market, they still use the going-rate for their pricing level. The overall market does not have a large difference between competitors so Gatorade prices its products relative to the market pricing structure. An increase in price could lead to a loss in sales because the consumer could start to buy a competitor’s product and have the same relative advantage that Gatorade can provide. This is evident by visiting a local supermarket store. A 20 oz. Gatorade is priced at $1. 59; its main competitor, PowerAde, is priced at the same. It could be said that the market is demonstrating non-price competition (Etzel, 349). Gatorade has chosen market penetration as its pricing strategy (Etzel, 351). Some characteristics of market penetration distinctly describe the market for sport drink. The market has an elastic demand curve and low initial price for new produces (Gatorade has come out with Propel and Fierce, both coming into the market with identical or lower prices than competitors). For consumers that buy Gatorade on a regular basis, it can become an expensive habit compared to some alternatives (I. e. water). One way that a consumer can cut down on prices is by buying in bulk. Consumers will get more Gatorade for their buck when buying in bulk. Other than that, Gatorade does not have any promotions or coupons to induce sales. Distribution â€Å"A distribution channel consists of the set of people and firms involved in the transfer of title to a product as the product moves from producer to ultimate consumer or business user† (Etzel, 380). In short, a distribution channel will show the journey that a product or service takes from the producer to the consumer. It seems that everywhere someone goes, there is Gatorade for sale. How did it get there? PepsiCo. handles all the distribution for Gatorade. They have chosen to go with direct-store-distribution (DSD) (Annual Report of PepsiCo, Retrieved December 1, 2006). One advantage of DSD that PepsiCo. uses is having their delivery teams merchandise their product. This allows them to display Gatorade in a way that will induce high sales. A way they attempt to increase sales is by placing Gatorade in places that will influence impulse purchases (placing Gatorade by checkout stands at a supermarket is an example). Their retail stores are the middlemen for Gatorade’s journey to its consumers (Etzel, 379). This is what is called indirect distribution (Etzel, 384). Supermarkets are not the only place where Gatorade can be found; Gatorade is available for sales in liquor stores, department stores, supermarkets, and any place where drinks are sold. Since Gatorade is available in such a wide variety of places, Gatorade can be categorized as being intensively distributed (which means a â€Å"producer sells its product through every available outlet in a market where a consumer might reasonable look for it†) (Etzel, 393). Gatorade has been the staple in the sport drink market. Their overwhelming consistent market share can point to a strong assumption that their distribution channel is at peak efficiency. Promotional Mix Within Gatorades promotional mix, advertising probably uses the most funds on an annual basis. PepsiCo spent 183 million dollars for Gatorade’s advertising campaigns in 2005 which is a large increase compared to the 135 million dollars spent only two years before (Hein & Beirne, 6). The most common form of advertising for Gatorade is TV commercials (MacArthur, 51). There are four main types of advertising campaigns on television. The first type highlights the history and origins of the company as well as the scientific research that goes into the product. The second type highlights individual players that endorse Gatorade or groups of competing individuals. The third type highlights teams or leagues that Gatorade sponsors such as the NFL or the Men’s National Soccer Team (MacArthur, 22). Professional endorsements are also important to Gatorade’s advertising campaign. They endorse twenty-two professional American athletes and over twenty international athletes (MacArthur, 22). Equally important to Gatorade’s promotional mix is their public relations. They sponsor ten professional leagues. Among the list are some of the most popular sports in America such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS. They also affiliate themselves with 60 division one universities and 11 division one conferences. In addition to this they are affiliated to eleven professional organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine (MacArthur, 22). Their Outstanding Player of the Year program is another way that they can reach out and recognize many outstanding high school athletes of the year around the country. This is a large program that has a state and national selection process. There is one winner for each sport. For example, Peyton Manning was the national winner for football in 93-94 (Gatorade in the Community, Retrieved December 3, 2006). Gatorade makes a large international public relations effort. They are affiliated with many international professional soccer clubs such as Juventus and Manchester United but they extend their efforts to other sports besides soccer such as basketball, water polo, rugby, volleyball, and swimming (Hein, 5). The Gatorade Sports Science Institute is another effect tool for their public relations campaign. Through this organization they put out study results from a wide range of sport related topics and on the dynamics of specific sports. This part of Gatorade is most easily accessed through their own GSSI website (www. gatorade. com). The Gatorade website is another address that is very well done and depicts a very good image of the company. They also have 12 other country specific websites that are in the domestic language of the country. Sales promotions are also important to Gatorade’s promotional mix and it is substantially occupied by event sponsorships. Most of these events are marathons throughout the world including the famous Boston Marathon and the Gatorade Triathlon Series (Hein, 5). At these events they provide free Gatorade to the competitors throughout the race and for some events they offer the Gatorade Recovery Area where all competitors can be weighed before and after the race to monitor the level of fluids lost during exercise. The area later supplies food/refreshment bags, Gatorade drinks, massage and qualified dietitians (Hein, 5). To supplement this, they also print newsletters about upcoming events. The Annual Gatorade Junior Training Camp is another example of sponsoring athletic events. This is a summer camp that combines football instruction and teaching of life skills that focus on self-improvement and motivation and is hosted by the Seattle Seahawks (Gatorade in the Community, Retrieved December 3, 2006). Limited to the Canadian website, there is a direct link to request Gatorade to sponsor an event. This all leads to the conclusion that event sponsorship is a highly used tool for Gatorade to get its product out and into the hands of many athletes. Gatorade doesn’t use many discount sales promotions in the United States but does use promotions in a number of other countries. Last summer there was a big Indian promotion in which customers who bought the six pack received an instructional soccer CD with Rinaldinho (Buy 6 Gatorades, Win Ronaldinho CD). A number of European countries are having soccer promotions as well (Gatorade e lo Sport, Retrieved December 3, 2006). Canada is having a hockey promotion in which consumers have a chance to win professional hockey gear. I suspect that Gatorade also uses a number of sales promotions directed at their retailers; otherwise we wouldn’t see the large discounts that cut the price of Gatorade by almost in half in some of the large supermarkets.