Tutor profile: Sai W.

What is the most important aspect of Writing a good Essay?

The most important thing to keep in mind when writing an Essay is planning, and having an underlying argument. With every paragraph you have to ask yourself why you are including it, and how it contributed to your underlying argument.

Critically discuss the theory of ‘reflexive’ or ‘liquid’ modernity, with reference to the work of Anthony Giddens and Zygmunt Bauman.

Ultimately whilst both theorists do point out key differences in the society of the 20th Century compared to today, their criticism of classical theorists generalising and therefore creating meta-narratives contradicts their own work. Both theorists generalise and even though they do not claim in which direction society progressed, they by no means avoid creating a meta-narrative, in addition to their claims not being rooted in empirical studies (Atkinson, 2008, Davies M., 2008, Turner, 1992). Durkheim wrote in the 19th Century that moral individualism and therefore the binding glue of society would be endangered by a growth in egoistical individualism and consumerism (Durkheim, 1973, “Intellectuals and Individualism”). Simmel wrote ‘The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the... ...individuality... ...in the face of overwhelming social forces’ (Simmel 1902/1950; 409, in Craib, 1997, p. 169). Even Weber, whose entire theory was based around individuals and their allocation of meanings to interactions, admitted that if society was merely a collection of individuals, there would be nothing for social sciences to study (Craib, 1997, “Max Weber”). So, when Giddens and Bauman revoke all these theories, what do they offer as explanation for the existence of society? As this question is not answered, theories on a late or liquid modernity are at best inconsistent and incomplete.

How far were African American women empowered by the Civil Rights Movement?

The question of whether women were empowered by the Civil Rights Movement or not is more complicated than a yes or no answer. Empowerment does not only refer to an amelioration of situation, but rather to a significant change in the relative power held by a communal body.57 On the one hand, women played an important role in the racial politics of the 20th Century; the Civil Rights Movement allowing them to exercise the power of their citizenship arguably to greater extent than ever before. On the other hand however, this emancipation remained entrenched within a gendered hierarchical system, severely limiting the scope of this empowerment and confining women to their traditional role as wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of black men. Ultimately, whilst the Civil Rights Movement gave African American women a political voice, all it really allowed was a whisper.