Brief historical account of the Bat Trang ceramics village
Bat Trang is a traditional craft village located within the proximity of the Hanoi along the Red River delta in northern Vietnam, which it shares similar demographic composition in terms of work force, accessibility, policies and governance contexts. For centuries, the villagers have produced porcelain pottery such as bowls and cups for household uses in small producers’ cluster groups under a collectivized structure introduced by the government under the socialist system in the 1970s. The village administration is in charge of the production planning of the ceramics of each producers and sales to the state-owned shops all over Vietnam. Ceramics production was not lucrative as it provided stable, yet low income and caused environmental problems since charcoal fired kilns are used to make the potteries. This resulted in a polluted and poverty stricken village where respiratory diseases were widespread.
During the 1980s, the government shifted towards a free market economy and introduced new liberalized legislations to bring about new opportunities of production technology and a bigger market; some of which were without state involvement. Some entrepreneurs tested out new ceramics baking technologies from German Development agency GTZ, like firing the kilns with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to address the problems in the village problems by reducing the smoke emissions and quickening the production process. After a workshop organized by the state and GTZ to a small group of producers discussing about the new technology in detail, the villagers were keen in the new technology as it is cleaner and local officials and GTZ were motivated to continue support.
Small producers st...
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...nsibility for the environment which is why they decided to explore the new technology in the first place. Without an informal institutional, it would be difficult to resist a group of dominant actors within the actor-network as they would align and define specific roles during the problematization stage. While some may downplay the agency of non-human actors, the non-human actors in this case study highlights its importance relative to human actors. Lastly, the case study debunks the assumption that ANT is amoral where all actors are equal within network with no accommodation for power imbalances which the local small producers have a voice in the Ceramics association to be provided the option of free association to join the network as opposed to being forced.
All these point to a prospective value of actor-network theory in helping us understand development today.
In the movie Antz, power, conformity, and social inequality played a big role on its plot, characterization and theme. The movie had representations from the collectivism point of view, the political principle of centralized social and economic control and individualism.
Crain, W. (2011). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
One of the most well known figures of the twentieth century pottery world is Maria Martinez. Maria Martinez is a Pueblo Indian part of the San Ildefondo tribe. Pueblo pottery from the American Southwest holds a unique place in ceramic art forms of American art. It is full of age-old tradition and culture handed down form family members and potters of the past. The old Pueblo ways of creating it still hold true today and have not been changed or influenced like so many other styles in modern times.
Sawyer, R. K. (2005). Social emergence : societies as complex systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.
. Despite these unquestionable struggles many of the occupied factories succeeded in, not only drastically improving the welfare of its workers but also, either maintaining or increasing production within the factories. The economic successes of many of these businesses are undeniable in one factory alo...
...F. and Whyte, K.K., Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex (Ithica: ILR Press, 1988).
Lockard, Craig A. Societies, Networks, and Transitions. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 190. Print.
There are various theories of development which have an influence on current practices in schools today.
All development is contextual meaning that development can occur in places like churches, communities, and businesses. Development can also occur within family members, group of friends or with just everyday people. Development can be influenced by three major factors: normative age-graded and normative history-graded influences and non-normative life events. These influences can have either a big or a small impact on both the individual and the individual’s environment.
In order to understand the issues at play and to propose various solutions, three main concepts would be examined. The focus would be on context of development, self and identity development and social development.
Schlozman, S. (2017). What Are Some Of The Major Theories Of Development? Retrieved September 22, 2017, from http://www.mghclaycenter.org/
For functionalists such as Durkheim (1965) societies survive and prosper over time due to shared values. In other words,
theoretical model. Routledge, 13, 537-545. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from the Academic Search Complete (Ebsco) database.
According to Erikson, human development occurs in eight stages though-out life. At each stage, individuals work through transitional conflicts a necessary mean of development by undertaking certain developmental tasks (Nugent, 2005, p. 99). The theories of Erik Erkson were used to analyze and interpret the responses.