Homosexuality Post War

Homosexuality Post War The Democratisation of Gender after the Sexual Offences Act (1967) and How It Affects Queer Studies E.M. Forsters novel Maurice, written between 1913 and 1914, but not published after his death in 1970, is a seminal work providing a moving, personal portrayal of homosexuality and homophobia in 20th-century England. Exploration of its detailed accounts of attitudes about homosexuals and their various reactions to the discrimination they faced—for instance, denying their homosexuality and marrying; embracing their homosexuality, but discreetly; leaving the country for more open-minded cultures—serves as an excellent starting point for exploring the underlying cultural framework and values which will form the subject matter of this essay. Of no small note is that Forster, whose reputation as a literary genius, believed his own homosexuality too powerful a secret to come out, as it were, until after his death, in a way squandering his own social power and the potential to liberate both himself and other homosexuals. Britain, origin of so much cultural and political vibrancy and of the democratic principles which are now held to be self-evident in modern Western nations, had a particularly difficult time ridding itself of a virulent and persistent form of discrimination: its stubbornly conservative refusal to accept homosexuality and homosexual behaviours into the cultural norm of its society. Indiscreet homosexuals in England of the 20th century could look forward to a life of bigotry and discrimination, to say nothing of financial and personal ruin and imprisonment, as homosexuality was still a criminal offence in England until 1967. â€Å"The limits of the sexually acceptable are still there. Geographical location and economic status significantly affect how free individuals are to choose to be open about their sexual orientation. And some orientations are still problematic.† As the above quotation suggests, the issue of homosexuality remains a divisive issue. This is in spite of forty years passing since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain; forty years that have also witnessed the gay community (both males and females) move in from the margins of mainstream society in order to occupy more powerful positions of authority. This has been meted out in political office, in popular culture and in the global mass media. Yet, in spite of this, there remains at the dawn of the twenty first century a sense that homosexuality is a lifestyle that stands at odds to all that decent society holds dear. Even in the United Kingdom, probably the most secular country in the world, the moral aspect of homosexuality is never far from the surface of the debate over how gay people are supposed to integrate into a predominantly heterosexual sphere. This is the crux of the debate discussed herein. For the purpose of perspective, the following essay must adopt an integrated approach, attempting to synthesise the theoretical and historiographical debates regarding the experiences of gay people in post war Britain. In this way, we can trace the social, political and legal evolution of the democratisation and liberalisation of sexuality and gender in the UK while at the same time offering a critique of the aims and achievements of the gay movement at this time. Furthermore, the continuities and changes of the homosexual landscape in post war Britain can be more accurately depicted amid the relevant academic literature of the times. A conclusion can then be sought that attempts to place the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 within its correct historical and theoretical context. First, however, a brief overview of this Act of Parliament must be ascertained so as to establish a conceptual framework for the remainder of the discussion. The Sexual Offences Act that was passed by Westminster in 1967 was a landmark piece of legislation that sought to address the harsh legal inequalities between homosexual and heterosexual people with regards to their private lives and the way in which these private lives were dictated by the public and political sphere. The impetus behind the reform of laws pertaining to homosexuality in the United Kingdom came from the Wolfendon Report, which was commissioned in 1957 to highlight the essential differences between crime and sin. Essentially, while society and the manufacturing of cultural consensus may indeed have deemed homosexuality as a sin (or a sickness) to equate it with criminality was deemed in many circles to be anachronistic and blight against post war British civilisation and its values. This is an important point and one that ought to be borne in mind throughout the discussion: the 1967 Sexual Offences Act marked the first serious attempt at the legal decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom since the Buggery Act of 1533 when the British state first sought to wrest the issue of gay coupling away from the ecclesiastical courts and into the legal courts of the realm. Viewed through this prism, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act can be seen to be a symptom of the broader civil rights movement of the 1960s which oversaw the criminalisation of inequality relating to gender, race, creed and religion in all of the major countries of the western hemisphere. The Act could not have come about without there first having been in place the existence of liberal youth culture that was able to use the tools available within a democratic state in order to lobby the political establishment for social and cultural reform. Thus, although the Act itself has since been open to charges of hypocrisy (the result of the Act witnessed an increase rather than a decrease in the numbers of arrests of gay men for breaking the new law) and prejudice (the Act clearly and identifiably differentiates between homosexual and heterosexual people with regards to the ‘age of consent with twenty one being used for gay people in comparison to sixteen for straight people) it should nevertheless still be seen as an important milestone in the evolution of a more egalitarian British society. Certainly, in legal terms, 1967 must be seen as the starting point of any discussion with regards to the democratisation of homosexuality in post war Britain as before the advent of the Sexual Offences Act homosexual acts were seen as essentially criminal activities and therefore placed outside of the bounds of the rules, regulations and customs of decent, civilised society. Therefore, while mainstream culture and the political establ ishment may well have both publicly and privately continued to denounce homosexuality in all its forms as a sin (and preferred to keep homosexuality firmly outside of the realms of civilised society), the removal of the spectre of a criminal offence telegraphed a major turning point in the way in which gay people were viewed and treated in post war Britain. Furthermore, without the Act, the subsequent achievements of the gay movement in the UK would never have been able to begin to take place as the legal framework in which the gay movement lobbied for reform during the 1970s and 1980s would not have existed. Democratisation of sexuality in post war Britain thus begins in 1967. However, as suggested above, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act has left itself open (particularly within the gay community) to claims of being as an essentially conservative measure that was only passed due to reasons of political expediency as opposed to the political establishment in Britain actually wishing to see a tangible democratisation of sexuality. By establishing such a high age of consent for gay couples, the Act only served to cement the social stigma associated with homosexuality because after this point it was seen by law in Britain to be a coupling that was deemed unsuitable (and illegal) for young people to engage in. Considering that the teenage years are the most important stage of sexual development in both males and females, the high age of consent deliberately aimed to restrict the practice of homosexuality amongst the very demographic that would be most likely to engage in ‘experimental sexuality. This only increased the sordid image of homosexuals in Britain a t the time, implying that adult homosexual men were in some way intent upon ‘grooming young males to join their own sexual brand of subculture. Viewed through this prism, the Sexual Offences Act can be seen to be a positive legal step but likewise a negative cultural step. The increase in the number of arrests of gay men in the years that immediately followed 1967 should be seen as testimony to this ultimate perpetuation of inequality pertaining to sexuality which was the socio-political residue of the Sexual Offences Act. In this way, the myth of the permissive society was established to satisfy the libertarian ideology of the left wing of the political elite. The satisfaction and status of gay people, on the other hand, seems not to have been a consideration concerning the passing of this landmark piece of domestic legislation. In specific terms of the evolution of queer theory, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act can be seen to have helped to create fertile grounds for the blossoming of the domestic and international gay rights movement because of the way in which the Act of Parliament served to legally solidify the differences between homosexual and heterosexual people. This sense of marginalisation from mainstream society was aided by the Stonewall Riots which took place in New York City in 1969 in response to police brutality against homosexual and transgender people at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. This episode provided the impetus behind the formation of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) which was established in July 1969, quickly becoming a trans-national phenomenon that deeply influenced the gay rights movement in the UK. The cumulative result of the prejudices legalised in the 1967 Sexual Offences Act in addition to the prejudices brutally realised in New York City in the Stonewall Riots was to con struct a gay movement that was both durable and international. Furthermore, the perceived injustices of the 1960s also served to ally the lesbian and gay movements so that one tangible homosexual community was evident by the turn of the decade in both Europe and the United States of America. This time period was therefore a crucial moment in the development of queer theory in post war Britain. However, it can be argued that by forming a global gay movement that judged membership with the movement in terms of sexual identity, international movements such as the Gay Liberation Front succeeded only in affirming the divisions put forward by measures like the Sexual Offences Act. Queer theory, from the outset, was intent upon challenging the mainstream socio-political status quo by using means that were essentially counter productive in light of the gay movements arguments that gender and sexual identity was not ‘fixed or compartmentalised according to ones sexuality but was in fact much more fluid and interchangeable. Indeed, queer theorists have since argued that the compartmentalisation of gender is likewise flawed with Anne Fausto-Sterling arguing that â€Å"male and female are not enough.† By separating ‘them'(heterosexuals) from ‘us (homosexuals and transsexuals) the queer movement merely served to corroborate the fragmented vision of mainstream s ociety and to further alienate homosexuality from mainstream culture and, as a result, to condemn queer theory to a discernible subculture status. Consequently, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act taken within the broader context of the worldwide civil rights movement of the 1960s can be seen to be an important milestone within the evolution of queer theory as not only did politicised society initiate a clear dividing line between the homosexual and the heterosexual communities but also the homosexual community itself was largely responsible after this point for perpetuating this divide. In the final analysis therefore, it is difficult to envisage this development as positive or progressive. Indeed, as Michael Botnick demonstrates below, this lack of awareness on both sides of the historical debate resulted in a discernible lack of consensus by the turn of the millennium. â€Å"The lack of open-mindedness toward complex and graduated positions makes it difficult to obtain a full hearing of the issues, especially if those issues are value laden and cognitively dissonant to the audience (generally the public at large, the state, major corporations or other mega-organisations such as the media.)† At this point in the discussion, attention must move away from the historiographic look at the formation of the gay rights movement within the context of the late 1960s to turn instead towards analysis of queer theory in post war twentieth century Britain. As has already been intimated, the evolution of queer theory in the UK is intrinsically tied to the advent of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967. The injustices conceptualised in this Act served to galvanise the gay community amid the broader backdrop of a civil rights movement that was established in order to attempt to attain parity on the grounds of race, religion and gender as well as parity on the grounds of sexuality. This wider multicultural influence is the key to understanding how the doctrine of queer theory in post war Britain quickly became divorced from the social, cultural and political reality of maintaining a subcultural movement within the context of a liberal democracy. It is certainly no coincidence that the guiding principle of queer theory was inherently similar to the guiding principle of the other civil rights movements of the epoch: all highlighted the fallacy of using identity (be it sexual, racial, religious or gender) as a means of organising political society. All of these movements should therefore be viewed as part of a wider post-structuralist theory which advocated the end of identity based upon gender, sexuality, race and religion in favour of adopting a more egalitarian approach. In this way, post-structuralist theory was keen to destroy the link between â€Å"dominant western forms of rationality with male power and control over women and nature, which is associated with violence, oppression and destruction.† Queer theory should be seen as an important part of this desire to deconstruct male-ordered politicised society and to reconstruct this society not along lines pertaining to identity but along lines pertaining to humanity instead. In terms of results, the deconstruction of male-centric society can be seen to have had a positive impact upon the fusion of homosexual and heterosexual cultures in post war Britain, certainly after the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic in the United States quickly became a worldwide manifestation of what Stan Cohen had in the 1970s referred to as ‘moral panic disseminated by an increasingly powerful global mass media apparatus. Whereas the 1970s and the 1980s can be seen as a historical period of continuity with regards to the perpetuation of sexuality-based injustices in Britain, the 1990s on the other hand can be interpreted as a period of change when the barriers constructed by male-ordered mainstream society were slowly, yet clearly being eroded in o bvious ways. Politicians, for instance, in the 1990s were no longer punished in any tangible electoral way for being ‘outed as homosexual. The briefly successful New Labour career of Peter Mandelson is testimony to this development. Likewise in popular culture where international stars such as George Michael (who was afraid to admit his sexuality in the 1980s) have been able to thrive in both the heterosexual and homosexual spheres regardless of their own sexual preferences since the 1990s. The turn of the millennium also witnessed a legal progression concerning gay people and their civil rights with amendments to the Sexual Offences Act (passed in 2003) in Britain eventually giving rise to parity with heterosexual people with regards to the age of consent. Indeed, it can be argued that the 2003 Sexual Offences Amendment Act is as fundamental and extensive as the changes which were telegraphed when the Theft Act (1968) replaced the outmoded Larceny Act (1916). In the UK in the twenty first century the age of consent for both heterosexual and homosexual people is at last set at sixteen, finally putting to an end the decades-long association of homosexuality with perversity and social abnormality. Yet, appearances can be deceptive. While the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty first century may appear to be the dawn of a new era of equality with regards to gender and sexuality, the reality may in fact be better understood as a period of continuity with the perceived advances of gay people during this time being nothing more than a mirage as male-dominated society continues to give piecemeal concessions to those marginalised elements of post modern culture in order to maintain the faà §ade of a permissive contemporary society. â€Å"It seems were an altogether more open, more tolerant, sexier society and its getting better all the time. Or is it? Is mainstream culture just flirting with a bit of the other in order to keep us all on a broadly straight line?† This sense of duplicity inherent concerning queer theory and socio-political reality in the contemporary era has served to render queer theory a doctrine of continuing importance in western culture. Contemporary gender theorists such as Judith Butler (whos book Gender Trouble was published in 1990 selling over 100 000 copies internationally) directly challenged the notion of gender (and indeed sexuality) as a means of cultural identity, going so far as to cite the creation of international feminism as the reason behind womens continuing experience of inequality. Butler thus called for a re-evaluation of queer theory in light of the mistakes made by the various civil, gender and sexual rights movements of the 1960s. â€Å"The domains of political and linguistic ‘representation set out in advance the criterion by which subjects themselves are formed, with the result that representation is extended only to what can be acknowledged as a subject. In other words, the qualifications for being a subject must first be met before representation can be extended.† Butlers theory remains a cornerstone for queer theory in post war Britain as the travails of the womens since the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1964 largely mirrors the troubles of the gay movement since the inception of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967. As a result there is a large body of academic literature available that is dedicated to queer theory and to placing contemporary queer theory within the historiographical context of the gay experience in the past forty years. Much of the commentary bequeathed by this body of literature tends to underscore the essential continuity that characterises the development of sexuality in Britain (and indeed throughout the West) since the 1960s. Jeffrey Weeks, for example, sees this continuity as a symptom of contemporary societys inability to comprehend sexuality within its correct (and complex) historical context. â€Å"There is a struggle for the future of sexuality. But the ways we respond to this have been coloured by the force of the accumulated historical heritage and sexual traditions out of which we have come: the Christian organisation of belief in sex as sacramental and threatening, the libertarian belief of sex as subversive, the liberal belief of sex as source of identity and personal resource, all rooted in a melange of religious, scientific and sexological arguments about what sex is, what it can do and what we must or must not do. We are weighed down with a universe of expectations. Sexuality could be a potentiality for choice, change and diversity. Instead we take it as destiny, and all of us, women and men, homosexual and heterosexual, young and old, black and white, are held in its thrall, and pay its expensive dues.† Weeks succinct observations quoted above could quite feasibly have featured in his best selling book, Coming Out (originally published in 1977) such is the lack of tangible progress made by mainstream society in the authors view. This is entirely due to the fact that the vast majority of society has managed to evade the true nature of the issue where sexuality is neither a ‘choice nor a ‘cross to bear but is instead a complex fusion of the two. Weeks concludes that it is the very absence of a ‘right or ‘wrong answer with regards to the definition of sexuality that makes mainstream society unable to adequately confront the issue of homosexuality even at the start of the twenty first century. Of course, the issue of homosexuality has been greatly affected by the rise in significance (at least in cultural terms) of bisexuality. Not only has bisexuality served to confuse the majority of mainstream society (in so much as mainstream society has been instructed to think in terms of black and white; right and wrong) about the nature of homosexuality, the advent of bi-theory has telegraphed a schism in queer theory. Indeed, it is a common view of the bisexual community that traditional queer theory â€Å"can be understood as a particularly virulent strain of the disease affecting contemporary theory more generally, especially in so far as it addresses sexuality as a central concern in the guise of ‘queer theory.† Thus, the very term ‘queer is seen, ironically, as an exclusive phrase that implies that bisexual people, on account of their continuing sexual association with heterosexual people, are intrinsically more allied to straight culture than they are to the homosexual community. This schism mirrors the divide in the feminist movement when a more radical ‘second wave of feminism â€Å"drew, in the first instance, upon the theoretical writings of lesbian feminism in the early 1970s† only for the lesbian feminist community to later accuse the heterosexual feminist community of ‘betrayal on the grounds that straight women continued to participate in sexual activity and engage in what Pateman terms ‘sexual contracts with men in the guise of sex, marriage, home and family. Further confusion has been added to this maelstrom with the advent of trans-theory and the increasing legal and political recognition of trans-gender people, which has clearly impacted upon the evolution of queer theory in post war Britain. Jason Cromwell sees this development as â€Å"making the visible invisible†, which is in direct opposition to the principles of the gay community which has historically intended to make the invisible visible. In addition there are not surprisingly critics from the straight mainstream culture who see queer theory as a barrier (rather than a facilitator) to a greater democratisation of sexuality in the contemporary era. Critics argue that queer studies places too much emphasis upon differentiation which, in turn, elevates the status of the gay and lesbian experience to a position that is over and above its true worth within the broader sphere of cultural studies. This only serves to increase the gulf between the ‘included and the ‘excluded members of society. Furthermore, queer theory has been challenged in a more direct way as critics argue the primacy of the queer belief that sexuality is not ‘fixed. Tim Edwards, for example, has recently argued that sexual identity is in fact much more rigid and compartmentalised than queer theory suggests. Edwards does not agree with the assumptions made by, amongst others, Judith Butler and David Gauntlett who both show how, for ins tance, the media has helped to solidify the construction of identity based upon gender and sexuality respectively. Instead he argues that in real terms gender and sexual identity does not only exist at the level of discourse (as argued by Butler) but instead exists as â€Å"an institutional social practice.† It can be seen that queer theory and its discontents have historically argued over ideological terrain pertaining to sexuality, gender and identity with a discernible lack of consensus emerging from the ensuing theoretical debates. It is also noticeable that the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 remains largely conspicuous by its absence from the vast majority of this theoretical debate with regards to queer theory in post war Britain. Where the Act is mentioned, it tends to be referred to as a piecemeal political measure that â€Å"proved repeatedly unsuccessful, largely because of popular mobilisation against restrictive changes.† Even in legal terms, the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 remains open to charges of being a draconian, anachronistic measure by contemporary queer theory as it was still deemed a criminal offence for people under the age of twenty one to engage in homosexual activity. This only served to criminalise the essential experimentalism inherent in young people of b oth sexes and to perpetuate the association of homosexuality as a sordid and sinful affair. A more important watershed date according to post war queer theorists was the 1980s and the advent of the AIDS epidemic. Beginning on the west coast of the United States and quickly transferring over the Atlantic to Britain and Western Europe, the AIDS epidemic was an epidemic more in terms of the effect that it had upon mainstream, straight culture than the medical effect that the virus had upon the human race. Looking back on the media texts and images of the time, one can certainly see how the disease was blown out of all proportion to its true danger. Furthermore, it is plain to see that this was due to the sexual nature of the illness and, specifically, the fact that it had begun in the gay community. Once more, therefore, gay men were accused of leading a hedonistic lifestyle the lack of the practice of safe sex being the starting point for the spreading of the disease. The AIDS epidemic also served to re-ignite traditional Christian doctrine that was and remains vehemently opposed to the legalisation and democratisation of homosexuality. Hard-line Christian activists even went so far as to claim that the AIDS virus was Gods punishment to all society for allowing gay people the right to practice their sordid sexuality in mainstream culture. The combined effect of this hysteria served to make the 1980s as opposed to 1967 the key date in queer theory in post war Britain. As Jeffrey Weeks declares, â€Å"the homophobia that was encouraged by AIDS demanded, and in fact greatly strengthened, lesbian and gay identities.† With this in mind, attention must now be turned towards reaching a conclusion as to the significance of 1967 within the broader discussion of the democratisation of sexuality in post war Britain. â€Å"That some people have decided preferences does not seem to be in doubt. What is now fast disappearing is the myriad of ways in which various human societies have managed to cope with the fact.† As Naphy aptly suggests, the rate at which homosexuality has been integrated into mainstream culture should be judged within the much wider context of western civilisation over the past two thousand years as opposed to the forty years that have passed since the inception of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967. Ultimately, although progress concerning the democratisation of homosexuality may have met many obstacles in a variety of different guises be they legal, political, social, religious or cultural there cannot be any doubt that the gay community landscape has changed beyond all recognition in Britain since the end of the 1960s. Moreover, it would be difficult to launch an argument against 1967 being the key year within this evolution of queer theory in modern Britain as this was the date that marked the beginning of the solidification of a trans-national gay movement as well as the end of the historical marginalisation of homosexuals within the broader context of mainstream society . The fact that the fruits of this dual, spontaneous realisation did not immediately materialise in the form of a democratisation of sexuality should not be seen as a great surprise. Like the womens movement of the same era, there can be little doubt that the legal measures passed by parliament such as the Sex Discrimination Act served only to halt the advance of womens rights as the movement inevitably splintered on matters pertaining to race, ideology and increasingly sexuality. In this way, the lesbian agenda became increasingly divorced from the mainstream feminist agenda in the same way that the bisexual agenda has become noticeably more antagonistic towards queer theory and the homosexual community. It can be argued that this is nothing more than an inevitable by-product of a post-industrial capitalist society that has made a cultural and economic commodity of sex and sexuality to such a degree as to destabilise the solidarity of the global gay and womens movements worldwide. T hus, being a political as well as a sexual activity, homosexuality has been (and will remain) both historically and theoretically deeply influenced by the social, political and economic environment in which it is culturally defined. Bibliography Botnick, M.R. Gay Community Survival in the New Millennium. New York and London: The Haworth Press, 2000. Butler, J. Gender Trouble. Hammondsworth: Penguin Classics, 2006. Cohen, S. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London: Paladin, 1973. Cromwell, J. Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders and Sexualities. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999 Edwards, T. â€Å"Queer Fears: Against the Cultural Turn.† Journal of Sexualities. Vol. 1, No.4, 2004. Eisenstein, H. Contemporary Feminist Thought. London: Unwin, 1984. Fausto-Sterling, A. The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are not Enough. Kimmel, M.S. (Ed.) Sexualities: Identities, Behaviours and Society. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Gauntlett, D. Media, Gender and Identity: an Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002. Hall, L.A. Sex, Gender and Social Change in Britain since 1880. London: Macmillan, 2000. Kimmel, M.S. (Ed.) Sexualities: Identities, Behaviours and Society. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004 Naphy, W. Born to be Gay: a History of Homosexuality. London: Tempus, 2004. Pateman, C. The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988. Spargo, T. Foucault and Queer Theory. London: Icon, 1999. Storr, M. â€Å"Post-modern Bisexuality.† Weeks, J., Holland, J. and Waites, M. (Eds.) Sexualities and Society: A Reader. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002. Weedon, C. Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. Oxford and New York: Blackwell, 1987. Weeks, J. â€Å"Necessary Fictions: Sexual Identities and the Politics of Diversity.† Weeks, J., Holland, J. and Waites, M. (Eds.) Sexualities and Society: A Reader Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002. Weeks, J. Coming Out. London: Quartet Books, 1977. Weeks, J. Sexuality and its Discontents: Meaning, Myths and Modern Sexualities. London: Routledge, 1995. Homosexualities in Post War Britain: The Democratisation of Gender after the Sexual Offences Act (1967) and How It Affects Queer Studies Core Course: Gender and Society in Britain and Europe, c.1500 to the Present

Project Development and Control

1. Be able to identify the Components of project stage and lifecycle1.1. Main processes in the lifecycle of the project:Initiation –starting up the project; defining its purpose and scope; justification for initiating it and the solution to be implemented. Planning –defining organisational structure of the project; appointing the project team; defining the activities and mutual relationships, risks and criteria for a successful implementation of these actions; identifying stakeholders. Execution –the most important phase from the aspect of project results; execution and coordination of activities defined in the planning phase. Control –very often combined with the execution phase (2 most important phases); detecting mistakes incurred during implementation; suggesting corrective actions. Closing –analysis of the results; final project statements; identifying level of project success and noting down any lessons learned for future projects.Picture 1. G eneral Project Model1.2. Processes in the lifecycle in the project â€Å"Revitalization of the Grand Backa Canal†:Phase 1 – The territory of the Municipality Vrbas faces a big problem because â€Å"The Grand Backa Canal†, which runs through the municipality, is extremely polluted from the wastewater discharged into the canal nearby factories. Also, the canal is no longer navigable. Heavily polluted by unprocessed industrial and communal wastewaters, the canal today is a lifeless stream of poisons, including heavy metals. Due to contamination of the canal the whole environment, especially in a place where canal runs through the municipality of Vrbas is destroyed.Revitalisation of the canal is essential for Vrbas municipality and the whole environment. The solution for this problem is to  stop further pollution and to clean up and revitalize the canal and the area around it. Management of the Vrbas municipality organized a meeting with the topic – the con tamination of the canal. They noted the disastrous situation and agreed to start a project for revitalization of the Grand Backa canal.Phase 2 – The project manager is appointed. He formed a project team and organized a meeting to discuss the issues of this project. The project manager and his team defined the project objectives. Objectives of the project are contained in the following activities: Activity 1 – to build a plant in the factories to treat wastewater before it is discharged into the canal; Activity 2 – to purify the canal from sludge;Activity 3 – to provide sports and recreational facilities in addition to the Grand Backa canal. It was decided which software will be used to define activities, their duration, resources and costs of the project. Gantt chart will present activities, their duration and interdependence. The project duration is determined.The plan of periodical reporting on the project and monitoring of the project implementation i s defined, and the stakeholders are identified in the meeting. Phase 3 – in the implementation phase all activities that are planned in the phase 2 are carried out. All resources needed for the execution of the project are recruited. The processes of monitoring and control are also part of this phase in order to prevent delays in the implementation of the activities.The project manager is periodically checking whether the project goes according to a predefined plan, by using the software and through the meetings with his team. Close monitoring of each activity during implementation is important factor in this phase which helps to minimize a potential risks in delays of particular activities. Phase 4 – in the closing phase of the project level of project success will be identified. On the basis of final reports, results achieved will be compared with the planned results.1.3. Projects and operational management:Operations are an organisational function performing the on- going execution  of activities that produce the same product or provide a repetitive service. Examples include: production operations, manufacturing operations, and accounting operations. Though temporary in nature, projects can help achieve the organisational goals when they are aligned with the organisation ´s strategy.Organisations sometimes change their operations, products or systems by creating strategic business initiatives. Projects require project management while operations require business process management or operations management. Projects can intersect with operations at various points during the product life cycle, such as:At each closeout phase; When developing a new product, upgrading a product or expanding outputs; Improvement of operations or the product development process; or Until the divestment of the operations at the end of the product life cycle.At each point, deliverables and knowledge are transferred between the project and operations for implementat ion of the delivered work. This occurs through a transfer of project resources to operations toward the end of the project, or through a transfer of operational resources to the project at the start.Operations are permanent endeavours that produce repetitive outputs, with resources assigned to do basically the same set of tasks according to the standards institutionalized in a product life cycle. Unlike the on-going nature of operations, projects are temporary endeavours.2. Be able to describe project methodologies and their application2.1. The project methodology Project Management Methodology is a strictly defined combination of logically related practices, methods and processes that determine how best to plan, develop, control and deliver a project throughout the continuous implementation process until successful completion and termination. It is a scientifically-proven, systematic and disciplined approach to project design, execution and completion.The purpose of project methodo logy is to allow for controlling the entire management process through effective  decision making and problem solving, while ensuring the success of specific processes, approaches, techniques, methods and technologies. Typically, a methodology provides a skeleton for describing every step in depth, so that a project manager will know what to do in order to deliver and implement the work according to the schedule, budget and client specification. Referring to the mentioned definition, an appropriately chosen project management methodology paves the way for gaining the following achievements: The needs of stakeholders are definedA common â€Å"language† is established and understood by the team, so they know what’s expected of them Cost estimates are complete, accurate and credible Every task is done using a common methodological approach Most conflicts are spotted and resolved early Expected deliverables are produced and handed over Lessons are learned and solutions a re quickly implementedHere’s a simplified example of how a project methodology can be presented in the management hierarchical structure:Picture 2. PM framework In the Picture 2. can be seen that PM Framework precedes Methodology which in turn precedes Lifecycle Stages and determines the project management Processes, Tasks and Activities. 2.2. Project scope, project duration, objectives, stakeholder and possible restrictions on the project â€Å"Revitalisation of the Grand Backa Canal†: Project scopeGrand Backa Canal which runs through the municipality of Vrbas is an example of the worst environmental hot spot and one of the most polluted water streams in Europe thus, the direct environmental benefit of its revitalisation is quite obvious. More important is the fact that the Grand Backa Canal represents a serious health risk for the local people that also has significant adverse social as well as economic impacts on further development of the region.Environmental and h uman health hazard existing in Vrbas is not acceptable and it demands urgent action. The intention of this project is to find a solution for cleaning up and revitalisation of the  heavily polluted Grand Backa Canal. Before the clean-up can start, the imperative is to stop further pollution to ensure the sustainability of the entire project. Project duration16 months i.e. 01 December 2011 – 01 April 2013.Project objectives The project team defined the following project objectives: 1. Building a plant in the factories that treated wastewater before it is discharged into the Canal; 2. Purifying the Canal from sludge; 3. Providing sports and recreational facilities in addition to the Grand Backa Canal. At all three objectives, the activities are defined which will contribute to realisation of goals and projects.StakeholdersMany stakeholders are involved and have a vested interest in the project â€Å"Revitalisation of the Grand Backa Canal†. The key stakeholders are: Man agement of the municipality of Vrbas, Project manager and project team, Managers of factories that discharge waste water, Public-utility company Water of Vojvodina, Locals and the Community. Possible restrictions on the projectPossible restrictions are closely associated with the deadlines and the issues that may arise in the course of implementation of the project. If the deadlines are not met it will cause delays in the implementation of the activities, the expenses will be increased and therefor the realisation will deviate from the plan. The time dimension is one of the most important elements during the realisation of the project.2.3. Fundamentals of businesses to support a project.The basic elements for successful implementation of a project are: Goals must be clearly defined. Each project has its goal that should be achieved. A clearly defined project goal will help to determine necessary activities for its successful realisation. Deadlines are important elements that should help the project activities to be implemented within a timeframe. Good planning is the basis for successful project implementation. The basic elements of the project: time, costs and resources, must be carefully planned in order to achieve project objectives. Resources necessary for project realization are mainly: people, finances, equipment, all kinds of materials etc.Without adequate resources it is not possible to accomplish the project in its scope or planned time, therefor it is important to use the resources optimally for the successful completion of the project tasks. Organisational structure is an important element for project implementation because it determines responsibility, authorization and position of the project manager. Software tools can help project management to be much more efficient and effective. Information & control systems have a basic task to collect data and monitor project implementation. 3. Be able to implement and evaluate the personal development plan 3.1. Project planOne of the critical factors for project success is having a well-developed project plan. It provides a roadmap for project managers to follow and it is the project manager ´s premier communications and control tool throughout the project. The project plan can be defined as a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be summarized or detailed. Components of the project plan include:Baselines. Baselines are sometimes called performance measures, because the performance of the entire project is measured against them. They are the project's three approved starting points and include the scope, schedule, and cost baselines. These provide the ‘stakes in the ground.' That is, they are used to determine whether or no t the project is on track, during the execution of the project. Baseline management plans. These plans include documentation on how variances to the baselines will be handled throughout the project.Each project baseline will need to be reviewed and managed. A result of this process may include the need to do additional planning, with the possibility that the baseline(s) will change. Project management plans document what the project team will do when variances to the baselines occur, including what process will be followed, who will be notified, how  the changes will be funded, etc. Other work products from the planning process. These include a risk management plan, a quality plan, a procurement plan, a staffing plan, and a communications plan.3.2. Potential risks to the project of revitalisation of the Grand Backa Canal. Ways to reduce or eliminate risks:All projects share a range of features which inevitably introduce uncertainty. Factors found in all projects which make them in herently risky include: uniqueness, complexity, assumptions and constraints, people, stakeholders, change. These risky characteristics are built into the nature of all projects and cannot be removed without changing the project. It is undoubtedly true that projects are risky as a result of their common characteristics, by deliberate design, and because of the external environment within which they are undertaken.It is impossible to imagine a project without risk. Of course some projects will be high-risk, while others have less risk, but all projects are by definition risky to some extent. The important thing is not to keep risk out of project, but to ensure that the inevitable risk associated with every project is at a level which is acceptable to the sponsoring organisation, and is effectively managed. This of course is why risk management is such an important part of effective project management: since all projects are exposed to risk, successful projects are the ones where that risk is properly managed.Potential risks to the project of revitalisation of the Grand Backa Canal: Failure in implementation of project tasks which can cause delays in the implementation of the main three activities of the project. Mitigation:application of Gantt chart which will present activities, their duration, and interdependence. Also, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) will define the full scope of the project, to ensure that this is clearly stated and understood, and to form a basis for project control and monitoring. Budget increase during the implementation of the project as a consequence of delays in carrying out of individual tasks.Mitigation:budget item named Contingency which will be determined in a certain percentage compared to the total project budget to be used to cover unforeseen expenditures. Lack of cooperation by the factories which discharge the wastewater. Mitigation:clearly defined roles of all stakeholders of the project which  will be indicated in the a greement signed by all relevant parties. Unsustainability of the project. Mitigation:it is important that the factors that affect sustainability of the project are articulated well and incorporated , as far as possible, at the beginning stage. Later, the same factors can be followed up through monitoring.3.3. Strategy for monitoring the implementation of the projectGood management practices include regular monitoring on both short- and long-term basis. An effective monitoring process provides on-going, systematic information that strengthens project implementation. The monitoring process provides an opportunity to: a) Compare implementation efforts with original goals and targets, b) Determine whether sufficient progress is being made toward achieving expected results, c) Determine whether the time schedule is observed.Implementation together with monitoring show how important it is to work with indicators and SMART targets from the very beginning of the project implementation An ef fective monitoring and reporting system ideally includes the following elements: Clearly articulated targets and a set of indicators to measure performance; A schedule and set of guidelines for all responsible parties to report to each other; An opportunity for responsible parties and stakeholders to periodically meet to coordinate actions and review each other ´s performance;A link between the evaluation reports and progress achieved in the field. It is crucial to define the monitoring process in the project plan. Depending on the project duration and the budget involved, periodical reporting on the project progress should be defined at the beginning (quarterly, semi-annual, annual). A project manager is responsible for close monitoring of the project implementation, including timely appraisal of the reports and field visits to be able to monitor the work processes.

How to Write an Effective Research Paper about Calories in Fast Food

How to Write an Effective Research Paper about Calories in Fast Food Like any other academic research paper, the one about calories in fast food must contain basic elements. Here they are: title, abstract, background, results, discussion, conclusion and references. Abstract is the short summary of your work, where you point out the problem you research and methods you used for it. You can also present your key ideas for the problem and data from previous research in this field. You need to pay attention to make your abstract interesting, catching readers attention and pushing to read all the work. In the background part you state the problem and explain the concepts related to it. Here you can also bring recent data about the subject. You need to take special care while choosing reliable and up-to-date sources of information only. The results section should be devoted to the explanation of the data received. You need to underline the main tendencies discovered in your research and to compare them with your first hypothesis about the problem. Moreover, in the discussion section, which is closely related to the results, you need to provide your suggestions about the solution of the problem that has been researched. In conclusion you need to underline the main results of your research. For example, if you study the influence of calories information on the food choice, you can point out if this information has significant or little influence on choice made by different categories of people. Surely, you need to point out your own contribution in studying this subject. References should be organized according to the style chosen for the research paper (APA, MLA, Chicago or other).

Cat s Eye By Margaret Attwood - 1067 Words

In the book Cat s Eye by Margaret Attwood, Elaine s identity and her perceived sense of self is unique. The positive and negative experiences in her life have helped shape it. My own life experiences have also shaped me into the person I am today. Our childhoods and our nurturing during this crucial time has a powerful impact on what kind of individuals we turn out to be. Elaine s experiences as a child had a large impact on the development of her identity. Before moving to Toronto, Elaine was very content with her life, even though she had a few friends. She was happy, â€Å"until we moved to Toronto (Atwood 27). Elaine’s difficulty of socializing with others is with her childhood experience. Elaine retells that she was â€Å"put into the hole [as] it was a game; now I know it is not one. I feel sadness, a sense of betrayal. Then I feel the darkness pressing down on me; then terror (Atwood 143). Her innocence was taken for granted from her â€Å"friends†. She believed that Cordelia, Grace, and Carol were going to help her become one of them. Instead of telling an adult figure what has happened she copes, and eventually it destroyed her self-esteem. All of these experiences are the defining moments of Elaine s life. These have all contributed to the development of Elaine s identity and personality. My experiences and relationships d uring my childhood have also developed identity as a young adult. My childhood experiences have also had an impact on my identity. Like Elaine, I