Muslim Women in Medieval Spain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Muslim Women in Medieval Spain - Essay Example wholly foreign race professing a strongly hostile religion took over the country, a totally alien language became the official tongue, a completely novel culture was imposed on the population. Entire sections of the peasantry and the urban à ©lite deserted their Catholic faith and embraced Islam. By the tenth century the territory called Al-Andalus was a country with a solid Muslim majority, and had become the single most powerful and civilized state in western Europe. The Moorish state was never so integrated or unified that it crushed out the cultures that had preceded it (Collins 43). None the less, Islamic culture itself became so imbedded in the Hispanic mentality that it ceased to be alien and became an ineffaceable and authentic part of peninsular history. In Medieval Spain women obtained an important role and had more rights and freedoms in contrast to Christian women and their position in society. In Medieval Spain, the subjected Christian population was usually treated with the limited religious tolerance customary to Islam. Occasional persecution was matched by outbreaks of religious zeal on the part of the conquered. Those who held fast to their faith were called Mozarabs, Christian in belief but Arabized in culture and language. Their numbers, however, shrank, and their faith itself became diluted with novel beliefs and heresies. Many were attracted by the higher quality of Islamic culture. The principal episcopal see, Toledo, once the Visigothic capital, found itself isolated as the sees of the Christian north freed themselves from its jurisdiction. Despite these drawbacks, Mozarabism remained a vitally important phenomenon (Carr 64). It represented a profound dialogue between Muslim and Christian civilization, and retained enough of an identity to prepare the way for an eventual re, conversion of the lands which the Muslims had made their own. Dillard (1993): â€Å"The settlement charters, drawn up by king or count to attract settlers who would defend

What is the relationship between social and economic development Do Essay

What is the relationship between social and economic development Do these imply democracy Use a case study to illustrate your argument - Essay Example Social development is driven by scientific, religious, cultural, economic, or technological forces. Social change can be observed in society relations, social institutions, nature, and the behavior of people. The need to cope with challenges is the prime motivator of social change or development. With enough resources and technology social development can happen very fast. Social development as early as the history of human beings, but in the last five centuries the rate has drastically increased. Improvements in social organizations have also helped in social change (Cleveland 1999, p. 4). Science and technology are the major factors that are known to have contributed to a great extent towards social development. A few centuries ago the social status of many communities is in no way comparable to the current status. People used to be confined in a specific geographical location for long periods with minimal changes in their ways of living. Currently, people move all over the world, interacting with different people from different parts of the world. This has been made possible by the increased discoveries and innovations in the transport and communication industries. Though the internet, in has been made easier for people to access information about others thousands of kilometers from them. The internet is one of the most effective tools of social change. It has really changed the way of living of people especially the youth. People have changed their cultures slowly by slowly due to the effect of other people from different areas. Successful social development depend s on factors such as stability of a government with a flexible system, availability of resources, and a community with a diverse social organization. Religion as a factor of social development cannot be ignored in this study. It is through religion that many communities have developed. The activities of mainly

Managing Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Organizations - Essay Example Modern people differ much from the people of the previous century in terms of their goals, methods of their reaching, communication, ambitions, etc. Managing people now is not an easy task thus it needs new approaches. Thus, managers of the modern companies are looking for the new ways of employee motivation. Freedom for action is an essential factor to consider. Actually, when we hear about the organization, where employees make decisions themselves, we usually can’t believe that, because a great number of successful companies are hierarchical bureaucracies (Microsoft, Apple etc.). It seems impossible also for many managers to provide staff with opportunities to set the goals for the company instead of them and to realize these goals without being controlled and thoroughly supervised. Also we all know the conclusion made by Max Weber: bureaucratic organizations are the most successful players on the stage of the market economy. However, modern experts admit that Weber’ s conclusion can’t be considered fully grounded as the famous sociologist may not know some important facts on bureaucracies. Modern investigations show that workplace stress prevents people from high performance. Working in the conditions of hierarchical bureaucracy, people are able to realize only 60% of their potential. Thus, it is essential to look for alternatives. Moreover, as it was mentioned above, modern people often refuse to work in the atmosphere of dictate, when they should only fulfill somebody’s orders and do not have an opportunity to express their own opinion. Such working conditions prevent people from the realization of their creative potential and it is obvious that such realization would contribute to company’s success. New ways of managing people should be found by modern supervisors. Recent studies held showed that there are some companies who successfully practice freedom of employees’ action. Their success is built on the principl es of liberating leadership listed below. Liberating leader is a one who: listens to employees’ propositions instead of imposing his own views; openly shares his views on successful organizational performance in order not to make employees confused; does not motivate employees to give them an opportunity to motivate themselves; plays the role of â€Å"culture-keeper†. Actually, the behavior of workers in the organization is determined by the number of factors, external and internal. These factors contribute to organization performance in freedom action conditions. Among the internal factors is first of all trust in leadership. Leadership plays an essential role in any type of organization, no matter if it is freedom company or hierarchical bureaucracy. Workers of any organization usually tend to mirror the work of leadership and the supervision should be implemented in the way so that employees may feel its support but not a dictate. The second important internal facto r is organizational culture. The atmosphere in the company should be friendly and positive, work schedule should be flexible. The external factors also mean much, for example, it is interesting to cooperate and communicate with another companies in the market. â€Å"Research findings show that collaboration with other firms and with customers can be a significant source of product

An Argument in Support of Illegal Downloading Essay

An Argument in Support of Illegal Downloading - Essay Example The music industry claims to be the most adversely affected by the trend in illegal downloading with lost profits amounting to billions of dollars according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Between the years of 2004 and 2009, an estimated 30 billion songs were file shared illegally even though legitimate download avenues such as Itunes and Rhapsody exist for song downloading at a minimal cost to the buyer (Adkins, Amy â€Å"How Does Illegally Downloading Music Impact the Music Industry?†). Leaders of the industry claim that this translates to around 12.5 billion in losses since Napster, the first free file sharing site first launched in 1999. Their only recourse in this situation is to try to track down the individuals who have illegally downloaded the music and then suing them for thousands of dollars in estimated lost revenue. Just thinking about the way that the music industry is trying to curb illegal downloading makes my head spin. There are not enough la w enforcers in the country to monitor the online activities of all the Americans, not to mention that such an act on their part is a violation of the privacy of that particular individual. Those who are unlucky enough to get caught are sued for what? An amount that the RIAA knows the individual cannot afford to pay? What lesson is taught then? Does it scare others into stopping the illegal activity? There are other and more effective ways to get to these people. The industry also claims that these activities result in layoffs and loss of capital for new music investments. That is because the music industry has only limited financial resources with which they can cater to existing talent while developing new ones. There is believed to have... There is believed to have been a 20 percent decline in album sales in 2002 as per data gathered by Peinz and Waelbroeck (qtd. in Shannon). This decrease in sales is being blamed on the illegal downloading of music. The music industry would have us believe that illegal downloading negatively affects them because the music that is downloaded for free through file sharing services does not give them a return on investment. They do not get any royalties for their company that produced the record, or the artist who made the record. Basically, this type of theft should be considered equal to economic sabotage in their dictionary. I will discuss how uneducated this assumption by the music industry is in a later portion of this essay. If one were to solely base his opinion of illegal file sharing on the doomsday scenario created by the movie, television, and recording industry, we would think that they are truly being hurt by the activity and, as caring and responsible individuals. Therefore , it would be in everyone's best interest to stop with the illegal activity since those who illegally download are directly participating in the economic demise of the entertainment industry. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Other sources of information have shown that the entertainment industry, whether they admit it or not also directly benefit, and benefit greatly from the illegal downloading of their materials. In fact, if there is anything that illegal downloading should be considered guilty of.

Sap (Enterprise resource planning) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sap (Enterprise resource planning) - Essay Example The ERP system enables the company to communicate with its customers, suppliers and business partners easily through the system. There is standardization of every procedure and employees throughout the organization can easily communicate with each other. Also, because of standardization the processes become simpler and easier to understand. Every vendor had its own practice of implementing an ERP system. The software developers have introduced some practices, through their experience that are the best. These are then known as the best practices. These best practices maximize efficiency and help the ERP Company carry out a transaction in the best possible manner. These best practices are mainly beneficial for the larger organizations or when the process is a commodity or also when there are compliance requirements. The best practice modification is one of the options that are given to the customer when he installs the system. After the Enterprise Resource Planning system has been implemented, the organizations usually have four functional departments, mainly, advertising and sales, human resources, accounting and finance and supply chain management. These are the four basic functional areas of the ERP system. Within a company, the ERP system is mainly utilized by these four departments. These four departments are vertically and horizontally integrated because of the ERP system. 8. What is management's role regarding ERP systems The management's role in the ERP system is to comply with the process and to be willing to share information. The management should not regard this as a threat. They should lead their employees to adopt the system as soon as possible and integrate it into their everyday use. As the ERP system is useful for the company and a move towards the future, the management in no way should hinder the process. The managers should take a horizontal view of the company this would help them be comfortable with the integration achieved from the system. 9. Why do some companies have more success with ERP than others Some companies are more successful at implementing the system because they are motivated from the beginning. These companies want to improve efficiency and maintain a competitive advantage. The companies which fail in implementing the system do so because, the employees don't see the need for the new system and are comfortable with the system that is currently being used. Sometimes companies have very high expectations and when the ERP system does not fulfill these they are disappointed. Lack of training and knowledge hinders them to accept the system. There may also be technical difficulties and the basic data input into the system may be inaccurate. L2

Evaluate critically the historical development of the interventions of Essay

Evaluate critically the historical development of the interventions of the UK government in sports policy; do political ideologies impact modern sport - Essay Example sports which entailed the creation of rules and regulations in the play of the sports and that this element of sports started only during the 19th century (Guttmen, 2008). Another factor that contributed to this shift is the direct governmental intervention in sports during the early part of the twentieth century, which has been made more manifest after World War 1 and at the onset of globalisation (Houlihan, 2002). One of the earliest governmental interventions in sports is the passage of policies prohibiting blood sports. Great Britain and United States are the first two countries who have implemented this policy (Houlihan, 2008). In fact until now, boxing is still banned in Sweden (Houlihan, 2008) What is significant and distinct about the direct involvement of the government in sports is the idea that the state has started to intervene on what sports is to be promoted and what is to be outlawed. In fact, after World War I, the state has found more reasons to become directly invol ved in sports because sports have been valued as a good way for the military to be physically fit (Houlihan, 2002). Although this is no longer a popular reason for state involvement in sports, it cannot be denied that the military reason for physical fitness and training has become an important policy in sports development from 1920s until 1980s (Houlihan, 2002). In the more recent years, the state involvement in sports has been motivated by the concept of social integration and cohesion (Houlihan, 2002). Social integration has been claimed to be a loose term that covers diverse policies which ranges from â€Å"combating juvenile delinquency, establishing a sense of community during rapid periods of urbanization the integration of diverse ethnic groups† (Houlihan, 2002: 215). While others have maintained that the social integration of sports is not just a means to attain social stability in the face of rapid developments and changes but that it is â€Å" defined as integrati on in the work

Sap (Enterprise resource planning) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sap (Enterprise resource planning) - Essay Example The ERP system enables the company to communicate with its customers, suppliers and business partners easily through the system. There is standardization of every procedure and employees throughout the organization can easily communicate with each other. Also, because of standardization the processes become simpler and easier to understand. Every vendor had its own practice of implementing an ERP system. The software developers have introduced some practices, through their experience that are the best. These are then known as the best practices. These best practices maximize efficiency and help the ERP Company carry out a transaction in the best possible manner. These best practices are mainly beneficial for the larger organizations or when the process is a commodity or also when there are compliance requirements. The best practice modification is one of the options that are given to the customer when he installs the system. After the Enterprise Resource Planning system has been implemented, the organizations usually have four functional departments, mainly, advertising and sales, human resources, accounting and finance and supply chain management. These are the four basic functional areas of the ERP system. Within a company, the ERP system is mainly utilized by these four departments. These four departments are vertically and horizontally integrated because of the ERP system. 8. What is management's role regarding ERP systems The management's role in the ERP system is to comply with the process and to be willing to share information. The management should not regard this as a threat. They should lead their employees to adopt the system as soon as possible and integrate it into their everyday use. As the ERP system is useful for the company and a move towards the future, the management in no way should hinder the process. The managers should take a horizontal view of the company this would help them be comfortable with the integration achieved from the system. 9. Why do some companies have more success with ERP than others Some companies are more successful at implementing the system because they are motivated from the beginning. These companies want to improve efficiency and maintain a competitive advantage. The companies which fail in implementing the system do so because, the employees don't see the need for the new system and are comfortable with the system that is currently being used. Sometimes companies have very high expectations and when the ERP system does not fulfill these they are disappointed. Lack of training and knowledge hinders them to accept the system. There may also be technical difficulties and the basic data input into the system may be inaccurate. L2