1 / 12

UK Introduction

UK Introduction. Britain = three nations The UK includes Northern Ireland Long history Importance of tradition. National Characteristics. Reserved Polite Friendly Humorous Traditional (conservative) Patriotic. Divisions in society. Class Gender Race Education Wealth.

dcecilia
Download Presentation

UK Introduction

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. UK Introduction • Britain = three nations • The UK includes Northern Ireland • Long history • Importance of tradition

  2. National Characteristics • Reserved • Polite • Friendly • Humorous • Traditional (conservative) • Patriotic

  3. Divisions in society • Class • Gender • Race • Education • Wealth

  4. Is class still important? • 90% reply yes in recent survey

  5. Placing others (ascription) • accent • manners • tastes • occupation • education • residence

  6. Increased social mobility Social status based increasingly on ”what you do” • achievement-based criteria • career prospects • job security • income differential Trends • increase in service-sector jobs • decline in number of jobs in industry

  7. Women: changing role • more women seeking paid employment • but 45% work part-time • 2/3 of all new jobs created go to women • earn approx. 80% of men’s wage • 25% of middle managers are female • 7% of top management • in spite of Britain’s masculine business culture • rapid improvements in academic qualifications

  8. High mobility African-Asians Chinese well-educated professionals managers self-employed effective networks above average income Low Mobility Pakistanis Bangladeshis Afro-Caribbeans living in relative poverty in poorly paid jobs poor academic qualifications more likely to become unemployed many single-parent families among A-Cs Social mobility among immigrants

  9. Independent schools Pre-prep (4-8) Prep. school (9-13) Public school (14-18) 7% of school population based on fees highly-qualified staff small classes high % go on to university popular, but expensive State sector Primary school (6-10) Secondary school (11-16) Sixth-form college (17-18) varying standards larger classes new focus on results OFSTED set up to monitor standards league table of schools high drop-out rate Divisions in education

  10. Good news! improvement in average standard of living lower taxes low unemployment level (4.2%) job seekers increased social mobility more dynamic, individualist culture increased equality of opportunity Bad news! marked increase poverty reduced social benefits greater salary differentiation reduced job security less solidarity - tougher society wealth gap 17th highest among western democracies Differences in wealth

  11. Recent changes in values Margaret Thatcher – Britain’s Reagan • More “achievement-based” culture • Increased individualism • Increased competition • Focus on the market • Privatisation

  12. Continuing the change • Tony Blair - Britain’s Bill Clinton • Focusing on the future • Politician of the “radical centre” • The Third Way (rights and responsibilities) New Labour

More Related