Questions on Sociology - Essay Example

Question Charles Leadbeater’s talk on innovation posed to be a very interesting talk however there were some notable similarities and differences with the dynamics discussed in Jacobs’s book. This contrast is first seen in the view of Charles on traditional approaches to creativity whereby Charles deems this notion as wrong (Jacobs 120). From Jacobs’s book there is evidence proving that these approaches consequently lead to cropping up of innovative ideas. Moreover, these ideas crop up in a more structured and even anticipated fashion as compared to the examples brought forth by Charles in the talk.

Another contrast would be the fact that Charles believes that innovation has a lot to do with spontaneous variety in that a community or group of persons react to a need that comes up and hence manufacture a commodity to fulfill this necessity. Nevertheless in Jacobs’s book creativity and innovation is not always all about spontaneous variety but can come up for other reasons. (Jacobs 180) Therefore everyone should be able to appeal to their creativity and innovativeness as it is not limited to specific people.

Charles talks of development, advancement, absconding failure, rightness for continued survival and unpredictability. Development, whether in nature or in financial farsightedness, is thus best observed as an unobstructed advancement by which disparities come up from simplification, which then convert other simplifications from which additional variations arise (Wharton 145). In his talk Charles requests the audience to imagine a world that is open source as compared to the traditional methods of carrying out routine activities.

The traditional methods that were applied consisted of inactive consumers, unquestioning laborers, commercial exclusivity, national monopolization and collectivism approach (Wharton 233). The new world would thus consist of vigorous consumer involvement, laborers and visionaries looking to fulfill their own needs and wants, decentralization for companies and nations and individualism Question 2 The business in this movie is a hierarchy and network. In comprehending this I will begin with the root of the business.

Price & Sons that is situated at Northampton, happens to have been inherited from son to son for four straight generations and a fully functional business that has focused on manufacturing men’s shoes. The current son who is supposed to take over the family business and ensure the continuity of the business has different plans. He plans to move to London with his fiancee, Nicola Marsden who have the vision of moving as far away from Northampton as possible to run away from its close mindedness.

Charlie’s plans are however altered with the sudden demise of his father Harold Price. As Charlie gets acquainted with the company that he was willing to abandon he realizes that their major contact had long expired. This was a secret that Harold had not told anybody. This meant that the company was heading for bankruptcy as there was no work and at the same time there was no way they could transform their current line of shoes into sales (Handel 123). Charlie is undecided on what to with the company.

However, Charlie is of the opinion that the only opinion would be laying off most of the laborers for the company in order to cut down on operational costs. Lauren, Charlie’s fiancee however believes that Charlie should sell the family business and even goes an extra mile to obtain a buyer who is willing to purchase the business area for a reasonable price and develop it into real estate. However Lauren who is one of Charlie’s employees sees the error in Charlie’s ways in that he believed that he is being a coward and taking the easy way out.

He believed that Charlie should transform his business model and create a different shoe line collection for a variety of niche markets. Upon a coincidental get-together with a comparatively big drag queen named Lola, Charlie brings forth an idea of concentrating in designer and stylish women's boots manufactured for the overall bulk of drag queens. There are many hindrances to transforming the industry to this new model as well as interconnecting fashionable design with the compulsory functionality of the boots, and coordinating a comparatively conventional urban community, business and workers into backing up this change, particularly with their target market being "unacquainted" individuals such as Lola.

With Lola's help, these alterations are both progressive and slowed down. Charlie trusts that to make the business truly prosperous in this new model, it is mandatory that he displays the boots in the course of the Milan fashion week. This requires a high amount of monetary funds that Charlie lacks. Moreover, Charlie has to take care of certain internal matters with himself to be fruitful in this undertaking. Question 3 The evidence from the The Nature of Economies is that human beings occur wholly inside nature as part of the natural order in every aspect – Therefore human being are bound to have justice and trust to be able to separate themselves from other natural creatures and also live co-exist peacefully with one another.

Considering this fact, Jane Jacobs attempts to reserve herself from both pessimistic environmentalists and economists, entrepreneurs, office-bearers, and others who have confidence in the possibility that human beings can dodge and surpass the natural order.  Written, in the same way as Systems of Survival (Jacobs, 1992), which is also among her books, which is in the usage of a companionable dialogue amongst a cast of five New York characters, the chief query she attempts to respond to is: Does economic life observe the equivalent rules as those overriding the structures in nature?

The response brought forward by one of the characters is upfront: “I'm convinced that economic life is ruled by processes and principles we didn't invent and can't transcend, whether we like that or not, and that the more we learn of these processes and the better we respect them, the better our economies will get along” (p. 11).  Jacobs' characters then deliberate in the subsequent chapters such procedures as expansion, growth, progress, escaping downfall, suitability for continued existence and volatility.

Growth, whether in nature or in financial prudence, is thus best observed as an unrestricted progression by which variations arise from simplification, which then convert other simplifications from which additional variations arise. Such growth nevertheless is hinged, on many, innumerable, and complex co-development associations. For example, tool creating originated from four prevailing simplifications: sticks, stones, bones and fire (Carruthers 124). Our descendants then distinguished those found simplifications into several things from hammers to scrapers and bags, improvements that necessitated the union of other, initially distinct, inventions.

  Works Cited Kramer, Roderick. Collective Identity, Collective Trust, and social Capital: Linking Group Identification and Group Coperation. Stanford University. 2009. Carruthers, Bruce. Economy/Society: Markets Meaning and Social Structures. Northwestern University forthcoming, 2000. Print Handel, Benjamin (ed.), The Foundations of Evolutionary Economics, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1998. Jacobs, Jane, The Nature of Economies, New York, The Modern Library (Random House), 190 pages, 2000 Wharton Thomas, Proffessional and Managerial Work: Rambo Litigators.

The Modern Library, 2003. Print