Blogging through Sociology of Development (2020)

LEGO is a really profitable company. Their toys are what most of the kids of a few generations have played with. LEGO is also proved to accelerate a child's development and also supports in developing parts of the brain that are closely related to the science-related major. The struggle with lego appeared when they started to change the way figures looked like. The male figures started for example to have facial hair and female figures would have long lashes. Also, the outfits of the figures changed dramatically. With years there was a spike in new figures being presented after the year 2000. Although different faces were introduced already earlier. Also, the marketing strategy has changed. From a toy designed for both girls and boys to that being target mostly to boys - only 18 out of 160 have had feminine characteristics. Since LEGO was criticized for its gender gap, it created a new version that oppositely was filled with feminine features. The thing is that the 'boys' ...

There are universal gendered cultural symbols. However, some of the symbols would most likely differ also depending on the place in the world. Those symbols are often the construction of mass media influencing individuals and their understanding of the environment. Symbols don't have to necessarily object or something that can be pictures. Those may be also concepts. For example, the gendered cultural symbol would be some characteristics that are associated more with some gender. Examples would be: behavior trying to imitate a child or an approach presenting dependence would be mostly portraited as female associated symbols. Examples of male symbols would be perceiving them as those more capable of official, qualified, public, leading roles. I think in mass media, one of the symbols that we can also distinguish is a concept of a male superhero, taking a risk and a female supporter. Not long ago gendered symbols would be also those regarding professional lives where for example poli...

Even though we learn about ethnic cleansing and genocide from history books, all of that takes place still in the current world. One of the recent are: The Rohingya in Maynmar - the Rohingya are a Muslim minority in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, besides being treated as second-class citizens or even being perceived as illegal immigrants and terrorists. The Rohingya crisis a case of ethnic cleansing was declared by the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017. The genocide is still happening. The Nauer ad other ethnic groups in South Sudan - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, a Dinka ethnic group member used his army with aim of ethnic cleansing against the Nuer (Dinka's main rival) and other smaller local groups through killings and rapes. The Nuer took similar actions against the Dinka. Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria - during ISIS's presence in the region they exterminated Yazidis, Shiites, and Christians and destroyed their villages. They also committed ma...

I think most of the time foreigners are treated with curiosity. Often the interaction between Korean citizens and foreigners can be limited because of the language barrier. Either Koreans don't feel comfortable about their English, or people from other countries don't feel comfortable with their Korean. That may cause some trouble in communication but usually, it goes away after some time of the conversation. There is a racist situation that some would encounter. I haven't experienced them myself but I have witnessed such a situation towards people from other South Asian countries. Also, some of my friends would experience it too. I can surely say I have received more kindness acts. However, I'm also aware that people can experience different treatments depending on their nationality. The situation from the subway that I mentioned: the car was full but not overcrowded so you could see easily people that were there. In one part of the car, there was me with two of my ...

The article presents the correlation between Social Development and Ethnic Groups. I show its framework. The author notes that the approach the role of ethnic groups in social development critically when it comes to the so-called Third World countries in general and South Asia countries in particular. One of the factors that make social development possible is the mobilization of and actions of the groups in society. moreover, social development is an even more complex concept than economic development. The authors examines also the ethnic solidarity. When it occurs and what are the factors that make thee ethnic solidarity actually work. Another concern in the publication is social development and equal distribution of the benefits of development. These days no country is fully homogenous in terms of race, religion, language, script, customs, ideas, and ways of life. The role of the ethnic groups raised because there is an emphasis on larger collectivities. The debated co...

The trends are showing that in South Korea there are more and more foreigners living. Still, the number of foreigners living in South Korea compared to the overall amount of Korean nationals living in Korea is very little. I think South Korea is becoming more diverse though I think the process of multiethnicity if happens, it's a slow process. The question is also when the country can be thought to be multiethnic. The number of people coming to South Korea is rising due to the expansion of the Korean culture and entertainment. However, it may influence more tourism than people actually living here in the long run. Still, South Korea is a country with strong economy and a good income level so it may be a good direction for many people. On the other hand, considering the globalization that happens worldwide I think the trend will continue like everywhere else in the world, with nations becoming more multiethnic.

The publication tries to examine the topic of the correlation between poverty and gender. Are Women Poorer? They ask. They go through the analysis of poverty, then reviewing consumption/income poverty and human poverty. Then the author brings different approaches to understand the topic better. The question that is examined is whether gender inequalities increase overall poverty. They also try to answer what can be done in the future and what is already in use to fight the inequalities. The overall conclusions are that there is a correlation between women and poverty in such measures as they tend to have a higher incidence of poverty, their poverty tends to be more severe than men's poverty, and the incidence of poverty is increasing over time unlike the men's. This subject isn't an accidental occurrence. Women tend to be discriminated at work, credit, and other markets. Also, social expectations often happen to limit women. Widows or divorced often are perceived of lower s...

Gender and equal chances for all people despite their sex are relevant for the development that can be seen in multiple studies and examples. Gender and development is actually a field of research that helps us understand better how societies work. Even though in this world the influence of genders is visible on the economic level, the history of the field dates back to just the 1950s. The researchers show a positive correlation in supporting women in their development (since in many societies female is the gender that is somehow suppressed by limiting rights or social expectations). Educating women, family planning brings high results in fighting poverty in countries with development problems. We can also see that empowering women in many economies brings positive financial results. The article says that development affects men and women differently. It was interesting to read about the frameworks: WID, WAD, and GAD but also the neoliberal and alternative approaches. Also that s...

The solution for countries where the majority of the poor lives is to strive for economic development. However, what is highlighted in many publications, economic development doesn't guarantee reducing poverty or income inequality. The questions remain: how to combine poverty reduction and economic growth. South Korea and its transformation from one of Asia's poorest countries in 50' to one of the 4th largest economy in Asia, 12th largest in the world and cone of the most complex economies in the world. Analyzing South Korea's history we know that the sate left after the Japanese colonialism period and the destruction experienced due to the Korean War left the country in a fragile state with little natural resources and financial means. We can point out a few figures that influenced significantly the Korean economy and strategy. Main changes are thought to happen in the 60s and 70s during Park Chung-hee preisdency. That's the period when major state-led policies too...

Social Development and Economic Development are both really complex ideas concepts. Economic doesn't have economic growth itself as a goal but improvement of human welfare overall. How people's lives have improved due to different policies that were introduced. This development doesn't;t go equally fast everywhere in the world. Some of the regions note slower improvement than other regions. That's of course due to economic background, governments in power over the last decades, economic resources, and many others. Some of the regions struggle with additional that others aren't affected by. Social development improves some aspects such as mortality rates, school enrolment. An example of South Korea shows how school enrollment resulted in later economic growth and that relying on natural resources doesn't let countries to have that intense economic growth. In the next author underlines the role of education in social development. Interesting was introducing a stud...

Investing in social development is important but it doesn't guarantee economic development. Making progress is a complicated process. "Why don't governments put more resources into these high-return investments? If there is no tradeoff between social programs and economic growth, why in some settings are social programs bereft of resources?: The text suggests some answers to this topic. Tries to answer what should be done to make progress in social development and economic development. Debates also on the situation of the poor countries. The development is not only desirable but possible and for example, South Korea, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China are examples of that. THere's a thing in common among those countries: focused on universal access to basic services like education, health, family planning, they also relied on private initiatives rather than on centrally planned actions. The article describes also a role of the World Bank in the Social Development ...

These days human rights are thought to be one of the biggest principles for each government, hard to imagine regarding the fact its an "invention" of post-World War II conclusions. It has started even earlier but hose were the first global legal actions taken to prevent Human RIghts violation. World War II was also a period of time were globally Human Rights were violated resulting in crimes on a huge scale and with deaths of millions. That's why securing them should be a major responsibility of all of us. Even though it evolved in the so-called Western World, the concept has spread across the world resulting in global policies. The Western-viewed approach was undermined. They were trying to introduced the law while those Western states were mostly responsible in the past of colonial legacy and rights abuses around the world including Asian countries, where now they were trying to influence. There's also a dissonance between the values put as first in Asian and Wester...

Human rights are the rights that refer to all of the people. Human rights are also rights that you cannot give up on. They belong to every person and should be respected. The rights base on the shared core values. Human rights also find its answer in the law that is supposed to protect them. Human rights are necessary to provide people with their basic needs and guarantee their presence is respected by others. Putting all human beings as equal and securing that state. Those are human rights in the theory and purpose of it. However, Human Rights are not respected everywhere, moreover, even developed countries violate human rights. I encountered this topic in the past and once again the most surprising thing for me is that Human Rights were legally introduced after World War II. Something that seems so basic in the current world and can't imagine the world without it, was absent just 100 years ago. I think it is important to remember that violating human rights doesn't come o...

The documentary examines climate change, fossil fuels, pollutions, and the green energy movement, and many more. The documentary seems to be a complex work. Presents the concerns and some solutions that people tried to imply. The question is, behind those solutions, is there really an answer to the problems we're trying to solve? The documentary debates about the sources of energy and presents a myth regarding renewables and their actual influence on the planet. The authors point out solar energy as not efficient and with a short lifespan, wind power also has low efficiency and is not a permanent solution, all of those energies need fossil fuels for the equipment to be produced and biomass is partly responsible for the deforestation. The documentary brings sad and hard truth behind our everyday life and how much cost our development. The story presents not only the environmental influences of those practices but also shows people's motivation. Hiding the truth, not providing e...

The world is aging. The population of people over 65 years old have never been so high before. That participation is predicted to keep on rising during the 21st century. As it's a situation that we haven't experienced before on that scale, it's still an expected outcome of the past occurrences like improving health care, better dealing with the diseases worldwide and also the population of the post World War II boom reached 65 years old. It brings a diametrical change to our lives especially in terms of economy. Many governments support their older citizens financially but it's often based on the work of the younger generations that through their work generate part of the country's budget. Since there are more and more people getting older and fewer young people, the current system is in threat. The problem starts to be present not only because of the lower fertility but also family model in many countries has changed. People are more likely to live separately and m...

Demography is a study regarding population dynamics. Its size, structure, and distribution and how those indicators change over time and different matters that are influencing it. The topic is especially important in the current era where we have experienced enormous population growth that is not stopping. It brings questions and worries about the future. Preserving enough lands for agriculture that can feed that amount of people, while not destroying the environment through the agricultural process and through living spaces and pollutions created by humans. Studying geography help to explain many social occurrences. The article points out many important indicators that help to monitor the situation around the world and explain some tendencies. The analysis of it can help find solutions and avoid wrong answers. For example, there's thought to be a correlation between the level of women's education and fertility rates. However, not education itself results in lower fertili...

The digital divide is a situation that different social groups have uneven access to Information and Communication Technologies. Mostly due to costs, hardships, and differences in adaptation and utilization depending on the region. For people living in advanced societies, access to technology and information is an expected "good". Wide access to information seems to be a necessity in the current world. Unfortunately, there's a dissonance in the access to those goods in different groups. The digital divide is present in social groups characterized by different income or living in a less urbanized area. That applies to both local and global contexts. A the beginning the digital divide was referred to more of having and not having access to the internet but with time when access to the mobile phone is more common now, this divide is not actual anymore. The article describes the means of connectivity, the reasons, and correlations between different indicators. Interesting asp...

The world is developing, which includes new areas are created that we wouldn't in the past even think of. One of those areas is technology, including modern inventions such as cellphones, video games, virtual world, and social networking and media. The article brings up the topic of technology and how different aspects of it have involved. Technology is defined both as practice accompanying the production process and the product of that technology as they can facilitate other production processes or help in achieving specific objectives. Technology is something that really influences societies and the development process. The following elements of technology have been introduced: mobile phones - widely used in developed countries, influencing extensively societies and their way of living, social networks, and social media - its influence of life, people trying to belong to some social groups. Social networks and media are also thought to influence one's productivity, vide...

I do believe that future technology is sustainable technology. We can see big trends in countries and the private sector investing a significant amount of money into the technology sector. I think in the future it's going to be not only a choice for us to stand for more sustainable focused alternatives but it's possible that we're going to be forced to do it because of the consequences that we can meet otherwise. We come to a point in the world when in terms of technology it's harder and harder to come up with innovative ideas. A big part of the technology needs to be improved in order to get more of it. In many cases making it more sustainable will make them also more profitable because of eliminating the costs that are held by utilization if the current technology. With all the support and topic raised, sustainable technology will be also the favored technology, at least in more developed countries that can afford that. Moreover, obtaining moe sustainable technology w...

Firstly, I wanted to define globalization as the interdependence of the world's 'players' such as countries, economies, societies, cultures, etc.. Globalization is thought to start in the XVth century, and ever since it's a not stopping process. I think the main effect on globalization that the internet had is speeding up the process: it influences cultures, through sharing information and communication between people, it's letting the cultures to interact and influence each other what has been discussed in a separate post, it influences economies through the digitalization of international trade, making the way we trade much simplified, we are no longer limited by the time, location or the time zone, it influences the businesses making it much easier to enter the international market, it influences media, spreading the information and influencing that way politics, economies, etc..