How Socio-Economic Classes Contributed to Events in 1800 Europe Essay

Described as â€Å"the divine distribution of men into different ranks, and at the same time uniting them into one society† (Gladstone, 1896), the socio-economic class order formed the structure and foundation of society in Europe. Consisting of three distinct entities and with a strong correspondence between economic prosperity and social standing, it would also serve as the backdrop for which historical phenomena would occur. Europe’s social order was not just the environment in which these events would materialize, but also a fundamental causal factor in three notable events; The French Revolution (1789-1799), The French Revolution of 1848 and Britain’s Industrial Revolution (1750 onwards). However, the origins of these events were also contingent upon other circumstantial factors. The roots of the first French revolution, arguably, are in The Enlightenment; the period of the philosophers. New philosophies advocating human rationality came to form by the mid 1700’s and were propelled into popular thought after the isolated, and highly charged, Jean Callas incident . Philosophers like Voltaire found the perfect vehicle in this incident to question the arbitrary use of power so prevalent in French society. The monarchy and the presence of the Social Order soon came into question. Across Europe, cafes sprung out to host discussion centered on the common theme of reason. Society cleaved toward enlightened ideas of rationality, equality and liberalism, leading to the growing questioning of the existing monarchial power structure. Alternative political ideologies for the state, from personalities like Rousseau and Locke, sprouted and undermined the legitimacy of the monarchy. While The Enlightenment is responsible for creating pressure from society against the monarchy, these ideas would have been impotent without suitable ground. The socio-economic categorizing of European society is a more fundamental cause of the first French Revolution because it provided this ground. The rigidity of the social order in late 17th century France accounts for the origins of the first French revolution. In theory, the social divisions were permeable and promoted mobility (Roberts, 1997). Across Europe, titles and estates could be purchased and so also, the privilege of the nobility. However the reality was often different. In light of booming trade, the demand for titles from the French bourgeoisie and returning nobility outstripped the number permitted by the social order . Furthermore, while the bourgeoisie enjoyed increasing economic power and could live equally, if not exceedingly, extravagant lives as the nobility, the social order shut this community out from the benefits of social privilege . This was exacerbated by the nobility’s stress on privilege in response to the new Bourgeois economic threat. The system’s disregard of merit in place of hereditary, and the fundamentally irrational social construct sowed discontentment within the second and third estate, where the ideals of enlightenment; rationality and equality, would find willing subscribers. Riding on the resentment toward society’s order and fuelled by The Enlightenment’s ideas did the French Revolution tear its way through to the Bastille. While the first French revolution was understandably a social battle, one could argue that the revolution of 1848 was born out of opposition to economic factors than on society’s social construct. The time leading up to 1848 was a time of gradual industrialization for France. Its products; rapid urbanization and changes in economic practices, broke familiar social patterns of the working class. For instance, the commercial system was rewritten by doing away with the cottage industry and previously public lands, privatized. Added to this, a burgeoning population, severe industrial and agricultural depressions in 1846 and Louis-Phillipe’s inaction in alleviating rural and urban poverty culminated to create great peasant discontent. The economic change that accompanied its deterioration galvanized the working class, triggering the third French revolution in 1848; aptly, also known as a Worker’s Revolution. However, it is artificial to separate economics from social class since there is a correspondence between social hierarchy and wealth. They are, after all, aptly named â€Å"socio-economic† classes. In analyzing yet another French revolution, an important observation to make is the persistence of Europe’s social order. Though the 1830 revolution delivered another great blow to the old social order (Magraw, 1987), and promised equality in opportunity and economic liberalism manifest in the abolishment of seigneurial practices for all, much had remained the same. Succinctly captured by Cobban’s argument that ‘it [did] not matter whether we [called] it aristocracy or bourgeoisie† , the cleaving of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie shows an adaption, not an eradication of the social order. The aristocracy kept to their ranks by continuing their distinctive politics and marriage practices (Magraw, 1987). Since most engaged with capitalism, they were mostly able to maintain their privileged lifestyle and control of much of the land . The Bourgeoisie continued to thrive, especially under the â€Å"Bourgeois King† and even went as far as to convert their wealth into land ownership. This neo-feudalism masquerading as the product of laissez faire economic practices, and the continuation of aristocratic dominance came at the expense of the working class. Thus did the working class continue in their economically disadvantaged positions. Their economic dependence on the old order’s aristocracy, had merely been replaced with a dependence on remnants of the same old order and a new Bourgeois one. The social order is a more fundamental account for the workers revolution, since it was responsible for creating the economic grievances of the working class which became the fuel for the 1848 revolution. The European social order again features as a causal factor in Britain’s Industrial Revolution. It is the very hierarchical nature of the class system that functioned as the engine for the Industrial Revolution. The industrial entrepreneurs of Britain, the main thrust for the innovation that characterized the revolution, took hold of Britain’s mineral resource advantage to affect rapid development. The motivations behind entrepreneurship are traced back to the make-up of society. Since social privilege was linked with economic wealth, successful merchants strived to purchase titles and convert their wealth into social status (Briggs, 1979). In this way, the extravagance of noble life, held in high regard, could be emulated. However, it is admittedly reductionistic to exclusively use the quest for noblehood to account for an entire revolution. Coupled with the desire for social advancement were also ideas from The Enlightenment and The Scientific Revolution; laissez faire economic practices and technological advancement respectively. Society as a whole was geared toward revolutionary development, equipped with the necessary ideology and possessing the necessary scientific capability. Nonetheless, the power of science and the power of thought would have remained a means without an end if not for the existence of Europe’s social class as the motivation to individuals for conomic advancement. Furthermore, the narrow elite which feature in Europe’s social order meant that there was a prolific number from the working class available for cheap employment and indeed, were the working class called upon for this. By 1850, more than 50% of the population were living in towns and city to work in factories and city-bound industries. The abundance of cheap labor comes from the old social order’s narrow top and wide base, and it sustained and accelerated industrialization to revolutionary measures. Thus, we trace back the origins of the Industrial revolution to socio-economic classes. Social hierarchical ascension was the motivation, and the demographic make-up, the sustenance. Evidently, the causality of the three historical events covered is not monolithic. Though the contributing factors are layered and many, the role of socio-economic class is central. Its rigid, persistent and hierarchical institution shaped the motivations of humanity and in doing so, account for the origins of major events in History.

Female Subjectivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga

Female Subjectivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga (Japanese Comics): Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics and Young Ladies’ Comics Fusami Ogi I. Sexist Reality and Ladies’ Comics: Women’s Lives and Experiences Shoujo manga experienced a turning point in the 1970s when more women began to choose different lives from those the traditional gender role system expected them to take. Although the Japanese social system supports women as housewives, the number of women who work outside the house has been increasing. In this article, I am going to survey the situation of women in Japan when ladies’ comics was born in the 1980s and consider how ladies’ comics could convey those women’s voices. The ? rst publication of the genre ladies’ comics is Be Love published by Kodansha in 1980. Its target reader is an adult female approximately 25 to 30 years old. Generally, the target readers of ladies comics are adult women or shoujo who are almost adult. Ladies comics seem to have performed two roles as a new kind of writing for women: the ? st is to present women’s desires when they are no longer girls; and the second is to offer alternate role models to adult women. In these respects, ladies’ comics is a genre which ? rst requires identi? cation with the category ‘‘woman,’’ rather than a genre which gives readers an objective point of view de? ned by the category ‘‘woman. ’’ The number of ladies’ comics magazines increased as if re? ecting women’s increased concern with their own lives. There were only two ladies’ comics in 1980, but the number went up to 8 in 1984, 19 in 1985, and 48 in 1991 (Shuppan 1996: 201; 1999: 226). The 1980s, when ladies’ comics became quite popular, was a time in which working women disrupted sexist myths which presented working women as unattractive and sexually frustrated (Buckley 1989: 107). It is signi? cant that after 1985 the number of ladies’ comics increased dramatically, because in 780 Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 781 1985 Kikai kintou hou [The Equal Employment Opportunity Law] was passed in the Diet, which guarantees equal employment opportunities to both men and women. However, the law was not strict and there was no punishment stipulated if companies did not follow the law. Since the law just encouraged companies to arrange equal opportunities for both men and women, most women had to continue their ? ght against the discrimination triggered by being women (Shiota 2000; Ueno 1995; Ueno 1990: 303; Sougou 1993: 268; Bornoff 1991: 452). Although the law barred sexual discrimination in the workplace, jobs and career expectations were still gender coded. The law was passed on May 17 in 1985, and by April 1 in 1986 when the law became effective, companies managed to invent two new categories to classify full-time jobs: sougou shoku [managerial career track] and ippan shoku [regular service]. According to Ueno Chizuko,1 in 1986, 99 % of male employees of new graduates were employed as sougou shoku, which includes business trips and transfers to other sections or branches in the future, and 99% of female employees recruited from among new graduates were employed as ippan shoku, which does not include the possibility of such transfer (Ueno 1990: 303). A woman in an ippan shoku position is generally called an ‘‘O. L. ,’’ or ‘‘of? ce lady. ’’ This position never allows the possibility of promotion. It is a position that re? ects the traditional feminine role as a housewife in a household. To cite Yuko Ogasawara: Most of? ce ladies are not entrusted with work that fully exercises their abilities, but are instead assigned simple, routine clerical jobs. They have little prospect of promotion, and their individuality is seldom respected, as evidenced by the fact that they are often referred to as ‘‘gifts. ’’ (1998: 155) Of? ce work that included preparing and serving tea to male workers was mostly reserved for the of? ce ladies (Allison 1994: 93). Ogasawara claims that ‘‘[I]ndeed, men in Japanese companies are dependent on women for their loyal and reliable assistance’’ (1998: 156). According to the data in 1996, women workers occupy 8. 2% of all managerial posts in Japan, while in the US, 42. 7% of the managerial posts are held by women (Inoue 1999: 115). The position of of? ce ladies only creates a glass ceiling. 782 A Journal of Popular Culture The law was not a happy avenue to equality between men and women. It was based on gender segregation. It forced female workers to work as late hours and at as physical and demanding jobs as men, and raised the number of female parttime workers (Sougou 1993: 268; Ueno 1995: 702). According to Shiota Sakiko, in 1987, 48. 2% of wives of employees had a job, and more than 40% of the wives with a job were part-time workers (Shiota 2000: 152). In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was not a law that encouraged women to pursue long-term careers. Rather, it was a law that aimed at protecting women who were also engaged in housework. Protecting the position of housewives, the Japanese government has maintained women as a low cost, secondary labor force (Shiota 2000: 175; Ueno 1995: 700). Shiota declares that in the 1990s the easiest lifestyle for a woman is still to choose the traditional female role, where a woman is economically supported by her husband (Shiota 2000: 165). Women who pursue careers have to choose either of two courses: to give up housework or to ? nd a substitute in the home for herself (Shiota 2000: 87). In fact, it seems dif? cult for most women to give up housework. Therefore, according to Shiota, if she cannot ? nd a substitute in the home for herself, she has to do with both housework and outside employment. However, the number of women who are pursuing careers has been increasing. The Equal Employment Opportunity Law opened opportunities for some women. The number of women whose work is not secondary is increasing (Konno 2000: 218-19). Moreover, the traditional form of marriage, in which men go out to work and women stay at home, is becoming obsolete. Anne E. Imamura remarks: [In the 1990s] The cost of living pushed women into the labor force, but the sluggish domestic economy cut into women’s gains in the job market. Women’s age at ? rst marriage rose to twenty-six, crossing the magic number of twenty-? ve, when womenFlike Christmas cakesF were supposed to become stale. Women were in no hurry to marry, and once married had fewer children. (1996: 4) Despite the reality of the current Japanese society, in which the birth rate (Inoue 1999: 5)2 is decreasing, according to Shiota, most women who work outside the house regard child raising as a part of their future happiness (2000: 84). According to Shiota, Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 783 n Japanese society, which values housework only in relation to housewives, women need different role models for their current lives from that of the conventional lifestyle for women, because more and more women do not conform to the conventional role models the society endorses. Ladies’ comics may provide women with such models and possible ideas for their futures. This genre may help women to generate a space where they can amuse themselves a s women and also consider their dif? culties in reality in the process of pursuing a more satisfying, ful? lling way of life. The increase in ladies’ comics magazines seems to re? ect ` women’s consciousness-raising vis a vis their position both within and outside the house. As we have seen, the Japanese social system has been more supportive of the position of housewife, which resulted in the increase in the number of housewives who also worked outside the home as part-time workers. The position as a part-time worker imposed a double bind on a woman: housework has continued being regarded as a woman’s duty and the woman’s labor force outside the house has been kept as secondary. However, the number of housewives who are engaged only in housework is decreasing and more women are participating in work outside the home. The Employment Equal Opportunity Law did not bring many bene? ts to working women, but as Ueno points out, the law permitted companies to require women to work outside the home as hard as men (Ueno 1995: 702). This meant that women had to be like men to work outside, but it also gave both men and women an opportunity to reconsider existing gender roles. That is to say, the law ironically exposed the fact that women were not the only ones that had suffered from traditional gender roles. Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics Ladies’ comics has become a genre which re? ects the contemporary dif? culties of women’s lives and their pleasures. In order to present ‘‘women,’’ the women writers each pursue the image in their own manner. As I pointed out before, the following two roles are crucial to examining ladies’ comics as writing for women: the ? st is to present women’s desires when they are no longer girls; and the second is to offer role models to adult women. In this section, I would like to explore 784 A Journal of Popular Culture these two points in turn, considering how ladies’ comics, as intended explicitly for a woman who is no longer a shoujo, is independent of shoujo manga, if they still share some aspects, I would like to examine how they rework the concept of gender and how the social background has been re? ected in those aspects. 1. A Woman as Sexual Subject The most crucial reason for the popularity of ladies’ comics in the 1980s, according to critics (Matsuzawa 1999: 29; Ishida 1992: 76), is the introduction of the theme of sexuality. Because shoujo is a common word in Japanese meaning a teen-aged female before marriage, it was very dif? cult to deal with the theme of sexuality in shoujo manga, in spite of its being a genre for women, by women, and about women. As a result, in the 1970s shoujo manga created a special way to use the male body in order to introduce the theme of sexuality. Ladies’ comics visualizes the theme of sexuality using adult women’s bodies. Ladies’ comics offered the theme of sexuality to both women writers and readers in a more suitable way for their age (Yonezawa 1988: 168) and the issues positively represent sexuality, showing women who frankly enjoy their sexual affairs (Fujimoto 1999b: 84). Employing women’s own bodies, ladies’ comics provided women, who were not allowed to be in a subject position for their sexuality and pleasure, with a space in which they can acknowledge and accept their sexuality. However at this point, we have a problem with ladies’ comics in that the texts represent women’s roles only from women’s points of view. For example, explicit sexual encounters from a female protagonist’s point of view are often depicted in ladies’ comics, which seem to challenge the pornographic discourse of maleoriented publishers. This may heighten woman’s consciousness, suggesting that women can also gain a subject position from which they can ‘‘look’’ at and objectify males. But we cannot say that the texts do not reinscribe the man/woman power relationship because they are written for female readers alone and thus do not affect male readers in any way. As long as these texts explore ‘‘women’’ only from the point of view of heterosexual women, the use of women by women is not much different from men’s use of women for purposes of sexual titillation (Pollock 1977: 142), which Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 785 retains the hierarchical power relationship; they remain mere image-promoters rather than image-makers. This limitation of ladies’ comics is re? ected in the fact that ladies’ comics present marriage as a natural goal for a woman. As Arimitsu Mamiko remarks, ladies’ comics mainly functioned as a reinscription of patriarchal values and a female version of pornography (Arimitsu 1991: 154). As long as the characters in ladies’ comics question whether they can get married or continue their marriage safely, they never question the system itself. To envision a woman’s future position as a ‘‘happy’’ housewife and mother might even enhance the myth of motherhood as a natural result of marriage. Here women objectify themselves according to patriarchal codes, reinforcing heterosexual gender roles and preserving a ? xed ideology. Considering that the genre ladies’ comics does not abandon the traditional view of ‘‘women’’ but perpetuates it, we cannot help but see the genre reinscribing the existing value of gender. However, considering the turning point in shoujo manga in terms of sexuality in the 1970s, it is crucial to note that ladies’ comics provided women with a space in which they could confront and acknowledge their own bodies. Although most ladies’ comics might only represent the traditional power relationship between men and women, the space of women in manga for women has been changing, generating different forms. The history of shoujo manga as women’s space has existed for only a few decades and has offered various ways to challenge the existing gender roles. After the turning point in the 1970s, in which shoujo manga introduced the subversive theme of sexuality, shoujo as a female body has been secured by employing a boy’s body to explore the theme of sexuality. In terms of the theme of sexuality, ladies’ comics is one of the ‘‘failures’’ of shoujo manga. adies’ comics is a genre which can deal with explicit sexuality that shoujo manga could not handle. As a gendered category for women, ladies’ comics is a younger sister of shoujo manga. But ladies’ comics is not a genre which takes over the characteristics of shoujo manga regar ding sexuality. Instead, dealing with a taboo subject for shoujo’s sexuality, ladies’ comics is a genre for a woman who fails to be a shoujo. Shoujo manga has interpellated readers and writers in terms of gender, while portraying taboo subjects in the form of the absence of the shoujo. The category ladies’ comics as a women’s genre would also tell women how to perform as 786 A Journal of Popular Culture ‘‘women’’ and signal writers and readers that they are reading what has been written for adult ‘‘women,’’ while portraying what shoujo cannot be or do. Here, the existence of ladies’ comics, which promises women’s sexual pleasure, seemingly performs what adult women want, and reinscribes the existing power relationship between man and woman merely by replacing male gazes with female gazes. However, as a ‘‘failure’’ of the category shoujo manga, it also disturbs a woman when she sees her sexuality in a traditional way. As a supposedly sexual ‘‘subject’’ in pornographic representations for women in ladies’ comics, a female reader may enjoy her sexual desire, but may also see her sexual desire of an adult woman as a ‘‘failure’’ of a shoujo or what is not shoujo. The female sexual subject of ladies’ comics destabilizes the idea of shoujo, which does not contain female sexuality of women and does not present women’s bodies. Ladies’ comics, as a category for women, reinscribes the traditional values of women, but at the same time, as a ‘‘failure’’ of shoujo manga, promising to introduce what shoujo or a future woman should not have, stimulates the world of comics for ‘‘women. ’’ This characteristic of ladies’ comics, which presents what shoujo manga cannot contain, might emphasize and develop ladies’ comics as pornographic representations of women’s bodies, which could not directly be represented in shoujo manga and needed to be transformed into other bodies. In this sense, pornographic representations of ladies’ comics are part of the concept of shoujo and its absence, rather than a result of a mere reversal of a male and female power relationship which merely looks at a woman’s body as a sexual object. 2. Role Models to Women Another function of ladies’ comics has been to present various images of women’s lifestyles as role models for other women. Mainly dealing with themes which closely report women’s daily lives such as love, marriage, and work (Yonezawa 2000: 1009), the purpose of the genre has been to describe ‘‘real’’ women’s lives (cf. Fujimoto 1990: 193-94). A shoujo manga writer, Shouji Masako, who is currently writing ladies’ comics, comments that writing shoujo manga is easier than writing ladies’ comics, because in shoujo manga you can Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 787 pursue dreams and readers would not recognize them as lies (Shouji Masako 1983: 110). A realist perspective on women’s lives is one difference between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. Since the 1970s, one of the crucial reasons for shoujo manga to be treated as serious ? ction has been its use of fantastic illusions in addition to realistic concepts. As Fujimoto Yukari remarks, in the world of shoujo manga, most of the working women’s occupations are special ones such as designers, pianists, actresses, or models, where talent and originality matter; ladies’ comics, however, even in the late 1980s, depict common women’s daily lives (Fujimoto 1994). Offering various familiar lifestyles and their problems, ladies’ comics becomes a sphere in which women can see their own lives as women. However, ladies’ comics, as well as shoujo manga, does not always encourage women to be independent (Matsuzawa 1999: 29) and to ? ht traditional, patriarchal values, which compel women to stay within a subsidiary position. For example, Waru [A Bad Girl], a long-run ladies’ comic from 1988 to 1997 in Be Love, presents the success story of a woman who continuously overcomes the dif? culties of her lower status as an of? ce lady and at the same time never gives up her love. Some readers regard Waru as an example of ladies’ comics with a feminist point of view which encourages women readers to be independent (Sakamoto 1999: 27). At the same time, this work has been criticized in that the heroine is totally passive and merely lucky (Erino 1991: 177). Erino Miya claims that the heroine does not do anything to further her career. The protagonist only accepts other people’s advice, and never doubts it, and she is asked to do things which seem to have no relation to her career, such as to remember a sweeper’s name. This work only regards a woman as a person who cannot do anything without help and never discovers her life by herself, but always thinks about love. Although some ladies’ comics depict the severe and unequal reality which women may face at the of? ce, most stories end with a happy marriage to a nice husband. Yet according to Murakami Tomohiko, since the 1990s, ladies’ comics began to be regarded as a genre which also deals with social issues. Until then, ladies’ comics had drawn attention only to its pornographic and radically sexual scenes (Murakami 2000: 1006). As a genre which deals with women’s 788 A Journal of Popular Culture eality, ladies’ comics began to focus on more social and political issues, such as domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, and so on, presenting how the woman character tackles the problems, suffers, and sometimes makes mistakes, rather than clearly suggesting which solution she should take. Ladies’ comics draws both women’s reality and their fantasies in a more serious way than shoujo manga, in that shoujo are at an age when they can still enjoy illu sions of gender, while the reality faced by readers of ladies’ comics requires them to consider marriage as if it were a social obligation. The theme of marriage in ladies’ comics begins to appear as one social and political issue, while shoujo manga deals only with a process to marriage. Moreover, differently from shoujo manga, ladies’ comics can present issues after marriage, including divorce as a principal theme. For example, Amane Kazumi, one of the most productive ladies’ comics writers, deals with current women’s issues in a serious way. Shelter, one of her ladies’ comics, depicts a woman who is beaten by her husband (see Figure 1). They had two daughters. The younger daughter was very smart and her father’s favorite. After she died in an accident on her way home with her mother, the father’s violence toward his family erupts. His violence unveils his male-centered values and contempt toward his wife. The wife and their elder daughter escape from the husband and go to a shelter for battered women. Shelter depicts how the female protagonist overcomes her problem, recovers her con? dence, and regains an independent life, which she once had as a lawyer. Presenting other women who share the same problem, this work considers different cases of domestic violence. As we see in this manga, ladies’ comics as a genre about women living in reality as adults, seems to show more concern about the process of how the heroine and other women change their lives, rather than about a solution leading to a happy ending. This work not only reveals male dominance within society, but also portrays each woman’s ? aws and how she easily spoils her partner and their relationship without knowing it, for example, by only being concerned about her ? nancial status and being supported by her husband although she does not love her husband any more. In this work, each story ends when a woman decides to change her life in a positive way, which leaves an impression of a happy ending. Yet in fact, it is not simply a happy ending. It is a new beginning for her life, Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 789 Figure 1. Amane Kazumi. Shelter. Tokyo: Hakusensha, 2001. 26-27. r 2000 Kazumi Amane/Hakusenha. which is not guaranteed to be a better life than before. However, some reference to the actual law related to women’s status and reliable comments by the heroine as a lawyer may suggest to readers that this manga could help and encourage women who are in reality suffering from a problem. Thus, ladies’ comics develops as a genre for female readers and their issues, which shoujo manga could not take up. Nevertheless, ladies’ comics seems still to contain a conventional sense of femininity, which shoujo manga also displays as a genre. The following two points especially emphasize the traditional concept of femininity in ladies’ comics. First, as I suggested before, ladies’ comics presents many women who depend upon their husbands or partners and are waiting for someone who would lead them and love them. Second, ladies’ comics rarely present elderly or middle-aged female protagonists, although the genre was generated from women’s need to ‘‘grow up. ’’ 790 A Journal of Popular Culture The ? rst point supports a passive femininity like that of Cinderella which can be seen in shoujo manga. As we have examined, it also re? ects the current status of Japanese women, in which, as Shiota and other critics remark, the traditional woman’s life as a housewife totally supported by her husband has been the easiest, most traditional, and socially acceptable life for women to choose. This may explain why ladies’ comics are more concerned with marriage, than with women living independently of marriage. However, as we have seen in Shelter, the treatment of marriage has been changing and ladies’ comics is becoming a genre which shows the problems of current social issues about women who can be part of an unhappy marriage. The second point also re? ects traditional femininity. That is to say, in the world of ladies’ comics, the concept of youth seems still effective as a key concept of ideal femininity, just like in the world of shoujo. In comparison with men’s comics which presents many middle-aged male main characters, ladies’ comics, which rarely show older females as main characters, seem a part of shoujo manga, rather than an independent genre. One of the characteristics of the genre for adults might lie in its treatment of various types of characters in part de? ned by age. In this respect, ladies’ comics as a genre for women could have focused on widely aged female characters and have even expanded a sense of femininity regarding age. However, middle-aged women, as Susan Napier points out, have been excluded from the world of manga: ‘‘It is also interesting to note that there seem to be relatively few manga concerning middleaged women or mothers in contemporary Japan’’ (Napier 1998: 105). Nevertheless, in comparison to other genres, we ? nd more middle-aged and older women characters in ladies’ comics as subcharacters. Their problems are depicted from the younger heroines’ point of view, and in that sense, ladies’ comics at least do not ignore elder women, but include them. Thus, ladies’ comics still maintains the traditional sense of femininity, which shoujo manga also holds as part of its conventional sense of shoujo. In this respect, ladies’ comics has not made a genre of manga for women in a general sense yet. Rather, ladies’ comics is a genre which presents what shoujo manga cannot do. In other words, dealing with both tradition and subversion to the existing notion of shoujo and making a dissonance between them to destabilize the existing system must be a way which ladies’ comics takes over from shoujo manga. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 791 Promising to show women who are not shoujo any more, ladies’ comics stimulates readers’ existing notion about women who still recognize imaginary shoujo in themselves. However these days, we see the term josei manga, which means manga for women, and which tries to replace the term ladies’ comics. Although it has not emerged yet, in a strict sense that there are no manga for women of different ages, this genre is gradually moving away from shoujo manga to a women’s genre. Performing what cannot be shoujo and promising the emergence of a genre of manga for women, the genre adies’ comics may also continuously urge women not to depend on the division anymore between shoujo manga for shoujo and ladies’ comics for women who are not shoujo, which divides women into only two types that supposedly never merge. Writing Women and Shoujo Manga The number of ladies comics magazines increased from two in 1980 to 48 in 1991, and to 57 in 1993, as I noted ea rlier. By 1998 the number had shrunk somewhat to 54. They still have a large readership, although their publication was reduced in the late 1990s. The total publication including special issues of ladies’ comics in 1998 was 103,820,000, which comprises 7% of all manga publication; the highest total publication of ladies’ comics was 133,520,000 in 1991 (Shuppan 1999: 226). However, the concept of ladies’ comics has gradually changed. As we have seen, the contents of ladies’ comics have experienced some change in that ladies’ comics also became a genre of political and social issues. Further, another genre of manga for women emerged from ladies’ comics and shoujo manga. In the late 1980s and 1990s, a different type of commercial magazine of manga for women came out: Young You in 1987, Young Rose in 1990, and Feel Young in 1991. While some data count these magazines as ladies’ comics, they have been regarded by critics and readers as another genre (Ishida 1992: 76; Fujimoto 1999a: 28). Since these early magazines share the word ‘‘young’’ in their titles, the new genre has been called ‘‘Young ladies’ comics. ’’3 Their target readers range from girls in their late teens to women under thirty. Yet the genre seems to cover a wider range of readers, since there are characters over thirty and readers’ pages often show letters from middle-aged 792 A Journal of Popular Culture women. Although we manage to distinguish these three genres, the actual boundaries regarding contents, readers, and writers among shoujo manga, young ladies’ comics, and ladies’ comics are somewhat vague, perhaps except for shoujo manga for lower teens and the special interest of ladies’ comics in pornography, horror comics, mothering, and so on (Yonezawa 2000: 1009). Besides, some young ladies’ comics magazines call themselves shoujo manga. For example, a phrase of the copy for Chorus, one of the popular young ladies’ comics magazines, signi? es the status of young ladies’ comics: shoujo manga mo otona ni naru [shoujo manga also grows up]. Young ladies’ comics is a contradictory genre which at once contains sexuality, shoujo, and adult women. How mi ght we explain the contradictory impulses at work in the new genre, which has both characteristics of shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, and at the same time, is different from the existing two genres in terms of women’s lives? I will explore what enables this alternative perspective, which can share and separate the two genres at the same time, considering how the genre young ladies’ comics can open a different perspective in the world of manga for women, and how the term shoujo, which these three genres share, functions upon this genre to create a new writing. Since the genre contains shoujo, young ladies’ comics can be regarded as a part of shoujo manga, but it also contains adult women and their issues and has characteristics of ladies’ comics. In this sense, young ladies’ comics is a genre between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. As Fujimoto remarks, the concept of marriage seems to play an important role to distinguish these three genres. shoujo manga represents women before marriage and ladies’ comics deals with women after marriage, while young ladies’ comics represents both women’s lives before and after marriage. Fujimoto’s idea of the division between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, i. e. , marriage, suggests that both shoujo manga and ladies’ comics are patriarchal products. Ishida Saeko also sees young ladies’ comics as a product between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. Yet Ishida regards young ladies’ comics as manga closer to shoujo manga. According to Ishida, although it contains sexuality, the genre takes over the world of shoujo manga, which is more concerned with shoujo’s inner mind and cannot escape the narrow and personal world of ‘‘herself. ’’ In this respect, young ladies’ comics is not a totally new genre. That is because shoujo manga as the ? rst genre of Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 793 manga for women has heavily affected other genres of manga in terms of women, especially this genre which employs shoujo as main characters. Yet simultaneously, we may also ? nd some signi? cant characteristics in young ladies’ comics, in its treatment of the same term shoujo. These three genres share the concept of shoujo, but their modes of representation are different. Shoujo manga has shoujo, ladies’ comics has a taboo concept for shoujo in the form of sexuality, and young ladies’ comics has shoujo, although it deals with sexuality. They are all manga, for women, by women, of women, but make use of the concept of women in terms of shoujo differently . The characteristic of young ladies’ comics appears in its treatment of shoujo and reality, which distinguishes this new genre from shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. On the one hand, shoujo manga visualizes the concept of shoujo and, as I suggested, even if it introduces taboo concepts like displacement into male bodies to shoujo, readers would notice their existence in the form of the absence of shoujo. On the other hand, ladies’ comics deals with what is taboo to shoujo as a counter category to shoujo manga and tries to depict adult women’s real lives and issues which shoujo manga cannot imagine. Young ladies’ comics maintains a shoujo’s point of view, but it also inherits a characteristic from ladies’ comics, which surveys reality rather than fantasy and tries to present shoujo’s life and issues as part of the reality surrounding them, just like ladies’ comics tries to deal with women’s issues and lives from their own perspective as women. Reading works published as young ladies’ comics, we would never think at least at the ? rst glance that they are presenting ‘‘reality. ’ Many elements remind readers of shoujo manga: their cute characters with big eyes, their concern for love and inner feelings, and special situations or happenings which would rarely occur to ‘‘actual girls. ’’ Yet their concern for reality makes young ladies’ comics unique and different from shoujo manga. For example, let us examine Onna tachi no miyako [Women’s Utopia] (1992-1994) by Matsunae Akemi , one of the most productive and popular shoujo manga writers who also writes for young ladies’ comics. In the late 1980s, an early series of this manga was published as shoujo manga. From 1988 to 1990, Katorea na onna tachi [Women Like Cattleya], which employs the same characters, was published in LaLa, and from 1992 to 1994, Onna tachi no miyako was published in Bouquet. 794 A Journal of Popular Culture LaLa and Bouquet are both shoujo manga magazines. In 1993, the series was also published in a new magazine Chorus, which has been one of the popular young ladies’ magazines. This work experienced a transition from shoujo manga to young ladies’ comics. It is about three women characters running a nursing home for elderly people. At ? rst glance, this work may seem to present typical cute shoujo characters. Then immediately, we notice that this manga uses the term shoujo in a double sense. One is shoujo in their teens and the other is shoujo in an ideological sense, which signi? es women who have either shoujo’s mind and feelings or appearance despite their age, even if they are in their seventies. In Figure 2, an interviewer mistakenly asks them a question for girls. The interviewer immediately runs away after she notices that she made a mistake, but the ‘‘aged’’ girls complain why the interviewer does not de? ne a girl’s age up to 74, instead of 24. Using aged protagonists, this manga unveils how the term shoujo is ? ated on the notion of youth. Simultaneously, this manga portrays issues of old age and sometimes depicts aged characters’ pasts, Figure 2. Matsunae Akemi. Onna tachi no miyako. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1994. 7-8. r 1994 Matsunae Akemi/SHUEISHA, Inc. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 795 in which they were physically â₠¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Ëœshoujo. ’’ Not seriously, but comically, this work depicts how they had to suffer as shoujo in a traditional world under the patriarchal society before the war, suggesting a contrast with the current meaning of shoujo, which appears totally liberal in the story. This disruption of the notion of age in the world of shoujo manga, which later moved into the category young ladies’ comics, might tell us how the term shoujo began to become a sign which can ? oat free from the body of shoujo. The characters insist that they are still shoujo. Yet their existence as shoujo might subvert our notion of the existing shoujo and the traditional shoujo image. In this work, shoujo is not a body anymore, but is an ideological concept that suggests that everyone can be shoujo if they want. Young ladies’ comics is a genre which visually uses shoujo manga’s technique and presents cute girls. Like ladies’ comics, the genre centers on female characters and their issues, but its representation offers ? exible images of shoujo, which does not always show the properly aged shoujo. The notion of shoujo can be applied to any body beyond its physical sense of being a teenaged female before marriage. A con? ict between the notion of shoujo and what is actually presented as shoujo subjects gives a twist to the world of shoujo. Young ladies’ comics is about shoujo, and does not always show a taboo concept to the category shoujo, as ladies’ comics tries to show. This aspect of young ladies’ comics, once again, refers to the fact that shoujo can be a signi? er which freely moves from the existing bodies of shoujo, emphasizing itself as an ideological notion, from which readers may take and get out whatever they want. Furthermore, such different treatments of reality among these three genres will appear in their different endings. A typical shoujo manga has been regarded as the story, of a prince and a princess with a happy ending to a love story such as Cinderella, in which a lower-status girl gains a higher-status husband through magic. Ladies’ comics present their works as part of real lives and expect the ending to provide readers with an actual solution which they would also have in their lives. Young ladies’ comics also concerns reality and many women writers for this genre claim that they want to write manga which does not end but continues in the same way as the real life that they are having now continues. In general, they regard shoujo manga as a limited genre which does not allow them to write what they are writing currently. The concept of the ‘‘real’’ 796 A Journal of Popular Culture ppears as if it were a common key word among them regarding their comments on the limit of shoujo manga. However, the concept of the ‘‘real,’’ which young ladies’ comics deals with, also seems to have a unique message, because young ladies comics does not abandon shoujo’s point of view, which also allows readers to see dreams. Despite its concern about real lives of women, the concept of shoujo still remains in young ladies’ comics. Yet, the difference between shoujo manga and young ladies comics can be found in their treatment of this shoujo. Basically, shoujo manga shows the world of a girl before the age of social duty. Young ladies’ comics seemingly present a similar world in which a character can appear as shoujo without any social obligations. However, young ladies’ comics also emphasize some aspects of the protagonist, which stress that she has also been living in a ‘‘real’’ life. In reality, ‘‘she’’ gets hurt, gets old, or gets changed in some way. She also witnesses somebody experiencing a change. A shoujo protagonist in young ladies’ comics appears not as a momentary existence which will ? nish once the story ends, but as an actual existence, just like the readers who are living and continue their lives after the story ends. This perspective, which sees shoujo’s life as one that will continue after the story ends, is common among popular authors in the ? eld of young ladies’ comics. For example, a wellreceived young ladies’ comics, Happy-Mania, by Anno Moyoko, which started in 1995 and ended in July 2001, presents a unique shoujo character, who easily makes love but cannot ? nd a boy whom she can trust. Unlike the existing type of shoujo, this heroine uses her body as her ? rst step to love. Anno says that she now writes a ‘‘real’’ love story with sexual scenes which Anno herself could have experienced but shoujo manga discourages (Anno 1999: 160). For example, in Figure 3, the protagonist is excited about her new love, while her friend, who is drawn as a smaller ? gure, asks her if they used a condom or not. Tracing this protagonist, who is easily blinded by her love, this story continues to show various cases of love affairs which young women might experience. Figure 4 shows a moment when she ? nds out that her boyfriend has another girlfriend. That does not end her love, and the story continues showing her pursuing her boyfriend until she becomes something like a stalker and ? nally notices what she is doing for a worthless male; she decides to ? d another lover. And then, another story Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 797 Figure 3. Anno Moyoko. Happy-Mania. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shodensha, 1996. 97. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. 798 A Journal of Popular Culture Figure 4. Anno Moyoko. Happy-Mania. Vol 1. Tokyo: Shodensha, 1996. 112. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 799 about this protagonis t begins. Although readers of shoujo manga may expect a happy ending, the readers here do not necessarily expect one (Anno 1999: 164). Moreover, Minami Qta, one of the popular young ladies’ comics writers, denies the concept of ending itself. Her work is quite different from typical shounen (boys) and shoujo manga which offer a clear ending. According to her (Minami 1997: 196), typical shounen and shoujo manga are stories about gaining something. Shounen manga deal with the pursuit of power, money, or a position, while shoujo manga aims at attracting a handsome boy. Yet, to her, ‘‘reality’’ does not cease the moment something has been attained. Makimura Satoru, a popular and renowned shoujo manga writer who has written for shoujo manga since the 1970s, refers to how she felt when she began writing for young ladies’ comics (Makimura 1999). She thought that she could not write any more dream-like works for manga. She wished to write ‘‘reality,’’ in which as long as she lived, she would face more uncomfortable facts. At the same time, she did not totally abandon shoujo manga. Yet she composed her works in a different way, using some aspects of shoujo manga. She began research outside the world of shoujo manga. Researching readers by herself, she found how deceitful and ? ctitious what she had written as shoujo manga was. Here, what she notes as the importance in the category genre of young ladies’ comics is to present ‘‘reality. ’ These young ladies’ comics writers ? nd shoujo manga full of deceits which tell only comforting myths to entertain shoujo with dreamlike ideas; young ladies’ comics allow them to write something other than fantasy. In fact, many popular young ladies’ comics writers share this wish for the ‘‘real. ’â€⠄¢ Onozuka Kahori, another popular young ladies’ comics writer, also makes similar comments that she is writing a life, not a story, with upheavals, which might even hurt you. They wish to show how shoujo will be if she continues her life. Even after the story ends, their characters’ lives would continue. Onozuka suggests that she would like to send a message to readers, which suggests that even if they can be hurt, they will be ? ne, and such experience will give them power to continue their lives (Onozuka 1999: 30). However, in speaking about the ‘‘real’’ that shoujo manga cannot present, we should note that these young ladies’ comics 800 A Journal of Popular Culture writers point out facts. On the one hand, they have shoujo, and on the other hand, they want the shoujo to grow up, move, and change. Can shoujo grow up? The term shoujo is a category for girls during a special period in which they are neither children nor adults. Yet some heroines in young ladies’ comics seem to already have grown up because they deal with the theme of sexuality. Considering the ideological function of the category shoujo, which has used even her absence as her substance, we note a similar function of the category shoujo in young ladies’ comics, which uses shoujo’s absence, rather than showing a heroine who is shoujo. By offering a heroine who grows up enough to deal with sexuality, but has not found a way to settle down herself in accordance with the social codes which her gender requires, such as marriage, young ladies’ comics make use of the concept of shoujo. This heroine, who already has a sexual body of a woman, offers shoujo’s absence, rather than her existence. The absence of shoujo functions here again as a key to perceiving the connection of the manga with a ‘‘real’’ life, which shoujo does not have; young ladies’ comics resists idealization which portrays only one piece of her life as if it were the best moment. The genre of ladies’ comics, which employs the theme of sexuality and women’s bodies and their issues, has been a practice of how to develop what shoujo manga has treated in the form of the absence of shoujo to describe women’s sexuality and their adult lives. Ladies’ comics enabled what shoujo manga could not contain. Then young ladies’ comics was born and dealt with what ladies’ comics could not contain. Showing both what ladies’ comics cannot contain and what shoujo manga cannot contain, the new genre, temporarily called young ladies’ comics, seems to occupy a place in between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, but it is more than that, rooted in the term shoujo. Showing the body of shoujo, it alters the meaning of shoujo into that of a future adult woman, who is still in the process of changing and considering her life in reality. In 1999, the Kikai kintou hou [The Equal Employment Opportunity Law] of 1985 was amended. A clause concerning sexual harassment was added and the law became stricter. The older version of the law only encouraged companies not to discriminate against women, but the revised law bans discrimination in promotion, education, and so on. It becomes a company’s duty not to discriminate against employees in terms Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 801 of gender. However, there are still many points which need to be amended. For example, the new clause concerning sexual harassment does not ban sexual harassment. According to the new version of the law, it is a company’s duty to take sexual harassment into consideration. Under such circumstances, women’s struggle at work will continue. The category shoujo functions as an ideological apparatus for women to be free from social obligations such as marriage. Women’s world of manga began with the term of shoujo. Even a new genre for adult women has been formed out of shoujo manga and seems to be still part of shoujo, which could escape from the reality and social obligation. houjo still functions as an important aspect of comics for women. When will women in Japan escape the world of shoujo? The Japanese society imposes many problems on women although women are trying to get out of the category shoujo, which they claim ignores ‘‘reality. ’’ However, women continue to question the disconnection between the category shoujo and themselves as adult women, allowing them both to think of their actual lives from the point of view of a shoujo who has not been involved in social obligations yet, and to imagine themselves as shoujo. In that sense, the category shoujo still gives female readers a performative power by promising to show another perspective which is the reality in which they live, in a process of their search for their own way of living. Notes Japanese names appear in the same order as they appear in their articles or books. 2 Number of children to whom one woman shall give birth when she is between the ages of 15 and 49 years old. In 1997, the birth rate in Japan was 1. 39. 3 Mediaworks. /http://www. mediaworks. co. jp/alt/000/text/ya. htmlS. 4 Yonezawa remarks that ladies’ comics magazines have three kinds of target readers: ‘‘young Mrs. ’ for housewives, ‘‘ladies’’ for working women, and ‘‘young adult’’ for younger women around twenty. Ladies’ comics by major publishers employ many manga writers who were once engaged as shoujo manga writers. According to Yonezawa, the main stream of current ladies’ comics has been closer to shoujo manga. 1 802 A Journal of Popular Culture Works Cited Allison, Anne. Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club. Chicago: The U of Chicago P, 1994. Amane, Kazumi. Shelter. Tokyo: Hakusensha, 2001. Anno, Moyoko. Happy Mania. 11 Vols. Tokyo: Shodensha, 1996-2001. Anno, Moyoko, Fushimi Noriaki, and Saito Ayako. ‘‘Renai no real wo kakukoto. ’’ Eureka 29. 4 (1997): 154-64. Arimitsu, Mamiko. ‘‘Yokubou surukoto eno yokubou. ’’ imago 2. 10 (1991): 152-61. Bornoff, Nicholas. Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage & Sex in Contemporary Japan. New York: Pocket Books, 1991. Buckley, Sandra. ‘‘The Case of the Disappearing Subject: A Japanese Pornographic Tale. ’’ Discours social/Social Discourse 1/2 (Spring/ Summer 1989): 93-109. Erino, Miya. ‘‘ ‘Shiawase’ no dou dou meguri. ’’ imago 2. 10 (1991): 175-81. Fujimoto, Yukari. ‘‘Onnano ryoseiguyu, otokono haninyou. ’ Gendaino esupuri 277 (1990): 177-209. FFF. ‘‘Oshigoto! ’’ New Feminism Review 5. Tokyo: Gakuyoshobo, 1994. 130-51. FFF. ‘‘Shoujo manga ga mederu otoko no karada. ’’ Queer Japan. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Keisoshobo, 1999a. 24-8. F FF. Kairaku denryuu. Tokyo: Kawaideshobo shinsha, 1999b. Fukami, Jun. Waru. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Kodansya, 1989. Imamura, Anne E. , ed. Introduction. Re-Imaging Japanese Women. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996. 1-11. Inoue, Teruko, and Yumiko Ehara, eds. Women’s Data Book. 3rd ed. Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 1999. Ishida, Saeko. ‘‘Shoujo manga no buntai to sono hougensei. ’ Comic Media: Media Co-Mix. Tokyo: NTT, 1992, 54-89. Konno, Minako. OL no souzou. Tokyo: Keisoshobo, 2000. Makimura, Satoru. ‘‘KaisetsuFShoujo manga karano rihabili. ’’ Renai wa shoujo manga de osowatta. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1999. 246-53. Matsunae, Akemi. Onna tachi no miyako. 3 Vols. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1994. Mediaworks. /http://www. mediaworks. co. jp/alt/000/text/ya. htmlS. Minami, Qta. ‘‘Minna ai wo shira nai. ’’ Eureka 29. 4. (1997): 191-201. Murakami, Tomohiko. ‘‘Manga. ’’ Chiezou 2000: The Asahi Encyclopedia of Current Terms. T okyo: Asahi Shimbun sha, 2000. 1006-07. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 803 Napier, Susan. ‘‘Vampires, Psychic Girls, Flying Women and Sailor Scouts: Four faces of the young female in Japanese popular culture. ’’ The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. 91-109. Ogasawara, Yuko. Of? ce ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: U of California P, 1998. Onozuka, Kahori. ‘‘Onozuka Kahori Interview. ’’ Talking Heads 14: Tokyo Cuties (1999): 24-35. Pollock, Griselda. ‘‘What’s Wrong with ‘Images of Woman? ’’ The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality. London: Routledge, 1992. 135-45. Sakamoto, Mimei, and Matsuzawa Kureichi. ‘‘Ladies’ Comics. ’’ Pop Culture. Tokyo: Mainichi shinbun sha, 1999. 24-9. Shiota, Sakiko. Nihon no shakai seisaku to gender. Tokyo: Nihon hyouron sha, 2000. Shouji, Masako. ‘‘Mangaka ha kudari no escalator wo nobotte yukuyounamono. ’’ Pafu 9. 5 (1983): 109-21. Shuppan Shihyou [An Index of Publication: An Annual Report]. Ed. Kurihara Kouji. Tokyo: Zenkoku shuppan kyoukai, Shuppan kagaku kenkyuujyo [The National Publishing League and Publishing Science Institute], 1996. Shuppan Shihyou [An Index of Publication: An Annual Report]. Ed. Kurihara Kouji. Tokyo: Zenkoku shuppan kyoukai, Shuppan kagaku kenkyuujyo [The National Publishing League and Publishing Science Institute], 1999. Sougou jyosei shi keikyuu kai. Nihon jyosei no rekishi: onna no hataraki. Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1993. Ueno, Chizuko. ‘‘ ‘Roudou’ gainen no gender ka. ’’ Gender no nihonshi. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Tokyo UP, 1995. 679-710. FFF. Kafuchousei to shihonsei. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1990. Yonezawa, Yoshihiro. Speech Baloon Parade. Tokyo: Kawaideshobo shinsha, 1988. FFF. ‘Manga bunka. ’’ Gendai Yougo no Kisochishiki: Encyclopedia of Comtemporary Words. Tokyo: Jiyuu kokuminsha, 2000. 1007-11. Fusami Ogi is associate professor at Chikushi Jogakuen University, Fukuoka, Japan, and has a PhD in comparative literature from SUNY Stone Brook. Copyright of Journal of Popular Culture is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not b e copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Field Trip Should Not Be Removed

NO TO THE REMOVAL OF FIELD TRIPS By: Maries Imee M. Venturillo BSEd1-1 Palawan State University College of Teacher Education Title: No to the Removal of Field trip Thesis statement: I am writing about keeping field trip in the curriculum of the schools and I am going to argue, show and prove that field trip should remain the curriculum by stating: the integration of field trip to teaching program, field trip as the ground of oral communication, studies about scientific exploration in field trips and as classroom extension. ————————————————-Students remember most of their experiences rather than the lessons they have learned during their school days. So, it is not a surprise of having field trips in school curriculum. Field trip aims to aggravate and support the educational program. Therefore, it should be reasonably provided for all students. There are many issues regarding field trips. Many suggest about its removal; some are in favor but some are anti. However, if this issue is addressed and informed to the public, they will see how important field trip is.I am writing about keeping field trip in the curriculum of the schools and I am going to argue, show and prove that field trip should remain the curriculum by stating: the integration of field trip to teaching program, field trip as the ground of oral communication, studies about scientific exploration in field trips and as classroom extension. â€Å"Field trips should be integrated into teaching program (Griffin et. al. , 1994). † They suggested that teachers need to use plans that will reflect informal teaching methods rather than use of formal classroom methods which are the main focus of their training.Teachers behold that this kind of activity aggravates students’ understanding of the process included and also enhance students’ attitudes toward the subject matter and in t he classroom as well. Furthermore, teachers have also seen that having field trips are potent pedagogy which they prefer to use both more often and effectual. In addition, most teachers assumed to be capable of adapting their teaching to participate students in small group but much of it is passing worksheets after field trip. Excursions or field trips are used as the ground of oral communication.Therefore, many find that it is a convincing way to make sure that the students having field trip are extracting the data or information. In addition, students can also have interactive learning through asking questions and discussing it to the other students to understand the matter fully. However, discussions of students should be regulated because this may cause noise that will distract other students. It may also involve in a class discussion wherein after the field trip they can print ideas or what is the implication of what they conducted to them.Therefore, students’ best learn while hearing and discussing things, and field trips can provide the students’ need in learning. Studies have shown that obligating students in scientific exploration may have a difficulty in class. However, if students are brought out of the classroom, scientific exploration often appears naturally. Therefore, these students are tactual learners that learn best through manipulating things. Bringing students at a science center or in historical museum accompanied by a hands-on staff, children will probably be excited to learn from someone or something new rather than in printed books.Therefore, if field trips are eliminated, students that do not learn well in scientific exploration in the classroom may decline interest in a particular subject. Making field trip as a classroom extension is also an effective way. Tests and classrooms may not be effective for some children; field trips give every student at the same level. Students often ask the importance of topic they study i n class. However, if you will take them to places where your topic is related they will know what it’s like. Teachers assumed that tudents are highly benefited on field trips and most students wanted to go on field trip. For many teachers, the main focus why they want to take field trips are learning new experiences and giving students a real picture of what is available outside their school. Moreover, getting out of a classroom to learn is good for some students. They want to see the real world other than the classroom. Students often see a field trip a free day out of the classroom. However, students will likely have an educational experience that they never could have had in the classroom.Field trips are important way for students to perform skills they have learned into action. Field trips are only naive tasks, but they teach students a lot of beneficial things in life that they will be needed in their future workplace. However, the enthusiasm of the teachers for field tr ip varied from highly enthusiastic to disillusioned. Therefore, these issues should be addressed in schools. The most powerful memories are those we have experienced. In addition, learning in new environments can provide challenges for more individualize learning.The learning is experienced rather than taught. Therefore, field trips should not be removed in the school curriculum. References: 1. Equitable Participation Opportunities for Student on Field trips Louise Herrity(2005) 2. http://www. newfoundations. com/ETHICPROP/Herrity718F04. html 3. â€Å"In Pursuit of Equity: An Idea Whose Time Has Come. † IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio: Intercultural Development Research Association, September 1990). 4. http://www. griffinlearning. com/GriffinLearning/about-us. php 5. http://www. ehow. com/info_8065185_importance-field-trips. html

Elizabeth Keith Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Elizabeth Keith - Personal Statement Example It depict one of the only form of entertainment available to the poor during thi period. Thi how their own way of enjoying the "blood port", which eem to be the only way to get their anger out, which wa building in them due to their failure of being the diadvantage cla of the ociety. The mueum contain a lot of intereting and beautiful art piece by variou artit. The culpture are amazing, becaue they gave a good view of the culture and art of the region, and I aw many culpture of Buddha, made in Bronze, Gold etc. Elizabeth Keith wa born in cotland, and i known to be a great artit (Helen, 66). Her iter married an Englih publiher, who lived in the Aia and Pacific region and work in Japan at that time. Elizabeth went to Japan to meet her iter in1915, and tayed there for quiet a long time. he thought to explore the region and viited the neighboring countrie, uch a China, Korea and Philippine. he pent her time in water painting the intereting and facinating cene, which he witneed. he made quiet a number of painting in that time and when he came back in Japan to her iter, he wa able to hold an exhibition of her painting. After looking at her painting, the entrepreneurial Japanee print publiher, Watanabe chozaburo, peruaded her to move further on thi regard. He convinced her that hi carver and printer would produce woodblock print for ome of her watercolor painting and thi will enhance her work a an artit. Thi idea facinated Elizabeth Keith and he prolonged her tay in Japan, and tarted learning woo dblock printing. Her work wa highly appreciated and he met ucce in Japan and her publiher wa ure that he would get a huge repone in Europe and America a well. (Waton, 54) Fritz Capelari, who wa an Autralian artit, influenced Elizabeth Keith work and Watanabe alo publihed hi work. Elizabeth Keith traveled a lot in Aia and epecially in Eat Aia and produced number of painting, which reflect the culture of the region. Her painting are very popular in United tate and European countrie and are counted a an important work when talked about the Aian and Pacific Art (herman, 11). Mot of her work wa diplayed in Watanabe tudio and wa detroyed in the earthquake, which hit Tokyo in 1923. he went to France to tudy art and tayed for almot ix year, but her love for the Eatern region made her come back to Japan and he tayed there for few year, until the World War II tarted. he came to United tate of America, where he completed the remaining year of her life and held an exhibition in Tokyo in her lat year. Cock Fight I aw her painting "The Cock Fight", in the mueum, which wa made in China, in 1925. It i a port in China, which i alo known a a blood port. It i a fight between two rooter, and i held in the ring, which i like a wretling ring, and thi ring i known a a cockpit. The owner of the cock, et pair of bird to fight, and gambling i a major factor in the fight. The term cockpit, wa alo ued in the ancient time, a in 16th century, it wa ued a a place, which wa ued for the entertainment purpoe and alo for the frenzied activity. We can ee the ue of thi

Four functions of Management Internal and External Factors Assignment

Four functions of Management Internal and External Factors - Assignment Example When considering the internal and external factors in the management of the above resources in an organization, such factors as globalization, diversity, technology, and ethics among many others affect the four basic functions of management as discussed in the essay below. Globalization is a contemporary social feature arising from the use of the efficient means of both transport and communication. Globalization in business refers to the engagement in business beyond the boundaries of a country. This implies that business enjoys a large market thus increasing the likelihood of success. Globalization requires increased presence of a business in the market in order to increase the coverage of the market. Managers must therefore plan effective operations of the business in order to sustain appropriate operation. Globalization for example requires increased resources since the cost of doing business will definitely increase. The organization must therefore have adequate human resource among other significant resources in order to enhance the success of the company. Managers thus portray their leadership skills as they motivate the employees thus increasing the company’s productivity. Controlling is a fundamental human function mandated with the process of measuring achievements against the organizations’ goals and established objectives. Growth and sustained profitability is always among such established objectives. Globalization is a type of growth thus compelling managers to plan for the utilization of the resources and portray effective leadership skills in order to sustain the growth of the company as it ventures in the global market. A company must employ appropriate production and marketing strategies in order to realize the desire profitability often associated with globalization. Diversity is an equally important factor that arises with globalization and

The City To Surf Fun Run Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The City To Surf Fun Run - Case Study Example The race is conducted in four categories which are Marathon, Half Marathon,  12km Run and 4km Run while each category has two sub-categories for male and female (City 2 Surf b). The event calls for a large number of runners around 60,000 runners from around the world to participate in the run in different groups to promote fast runners. On its 40th anniversary in August 2010 almost 80,000 people joined race making it largest run of its kind (The Sun Herald, 2012). A number of participants have been growing since then and last year 85000 people joined (Richardson, 2012). A similar event is also conducted in Perth state of Australia initiated by ACTIV foundation with the road course of 4km, 12 km and 42 km first initiated in the year 1975. This event is the largest in state and second largest in the nation (City 2 Surf c). This report will conduct the analysis of the event in reference to the project management factors in project management domain. Project Management, first coined in 1950’s has largely grown its domain in years. From the beginning of the topic, it was only confined with planning, budgeting and controlling areas of the given project (Bredillet, 2005) whereas now it has grown to link projects with corporate strategies to enhance corporate competitiveness (Richardson, 2012). For understanding nature of projects, it requires understanding the two fundamental modes in which firm operates; an operational mode and project management mode. In former existing competencies are exploited to increase firms’ competitiveness whereas latter is aimed at researching new opportunities, new competitive advantage by using resources and money (Alojairi and Safayeni, 2009). Difference between both is given in the image below:

Social Inequality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Response Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Response Paper - Essay Example At the beginning of his essay, McCloskey dismantles the three established and scholarly proofs of God’s existence. Although some people may wonder why McCloskey disproves these arguments first and would even accuse him of practicality for having done so instead of attacking God’s existence itself, one should remember that the basis of Christian faith rests upon these three arguments of God’s existence, which have been established by the greatest of Christian scholars in early history. McCloskey begins with the cosmological proof of God’s existence and disproves its validity. According to McCloskey, â€Å"The mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in the existence of [an all-powerful first cause or uncaused cause]† (McCloskey 63). This is logical. It would be perfectly all right to think that the existence of a computer necessitates the existence of a maker, because one knows that that is true. Nevertheless, the existence of the world is different from the existence of the computer, for the computer is man-made. Any man-made object is made by man, but since the world is not man-made, then it is definitely not made by man, OR perhaps nothing or no one really made it. The belief of theists is that anything that exists must have been made or created at some point. Nevertheless, no one can simply state this claim a priori; otherwise, it will be an assumption. Thus, McCloskey refutes the cosmological proof of the existence of God simply because he was speaking from what he knows and from the limits of his knowledge, which are simply and practically the same as the limits of any sane person’s knowledge. McCloskey is innocent in making his atheistic claims for it is true that he cannot see or perceive that the existence of the world necessitates the existence of a maker. Besides, anyone who can see such an existence must only be claiming to be able to do so perhaps on the basis of personal faith, an ima gined vision, or a physical proof to which he subjectively assigns meaning. In short, a theist believes that God exists because he has won the lottery that he was praying for, his sick child got better, the pastor said so, or just because he could â€Å"feel† it. Nevertheless, the point is that, in any case, no theist has seen the â€Å"connection† between God and the world. Moreover, since there is no way that a maker is seen as necessary, it also follows that it does not matter whether this maker is all-powerful or not. Aside from the cosmological argument, McCloskey refutes the argument from design and the teleological argument, because, according to him, in order to prove that this argument is true, â€Å"†¦genuine indisputable examples of design or purpose are needed† (64). This is also logical. What is â€Å"design† anyway? Perhaps, the theists have sought to define design as the series of events or an elaborate interconnection of things and ev ents that somehow either makes some sense to them or emotionally appeals to them. Perhaps, what the theists see that makes them believe in a design is a pattern or a cycle, like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, or the harmonious revolution of the planets around the sun. This is so dramatic and it feels so good to bask at these wonders of nature. Nevertheless, although it is possible that a pattern is

Discipline-- whether college education is important for future life or Annotated Bibliography

Discipline-- whether college education is important for future life or not - Annotated Bibliography Example The system of mechanization is in fact changing the tectonic sects of education particularly in college and also bringing various changes in thinking and interpretation of issues, which is completely different than the previous times. Clare, S. (2013) University Libraries are Shaping the Future of Learning and Research, The Guardian,retrieved on January 23, 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/aug/06/university-libraries-learning-shapes-design In this piece of writing, Clare has hinted at the moribund state of libraries in various universities. According to Diane Job, the Director of Library Services, a library is one of the most important places of growth and progress as far as an educational institution is concerned. As a matter of fact, it is a place of discussion and exchange of culture and religion and a hub in which some of the most significant ideas come up for the first time that goes on to become history later. Thus, it can be said that a college is not only a place for attaining higher education, but an institution that shapes the future life of an individual to a great extent. However, such ideals are on the verge of death and the feeling of being together in an educational institution has become nonexistent. Nevertheless, the hope for better never dies and the old tradition certainly prepare the students for a better life. The authors Clawson and Page certify that higher education is important for individual achievements and also to ensure economic development of a nation. However higher education in USA is undergoing a period of crisis while public funding is falling freely, tuition fees have increased drastically and hence colleges and universities are less inaccessible. The book anlayzes the crisis in higher education and describes the manner in which a strong neo-liberal

Grammer Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Grammer - Assignment Example The significant thing that I think I could develop in my paper would be the improper use of apostrophes and sentence fragments. For instance on bartleby.com there are many mistakes that can compromise the quality of the paper (Strunk, 2012). With the possessiveness of very many objects being indicated with lack of apostrophe and use of sentence fragments, it sounds irregular and odd. The website was very helpful and useful. I would definitely recommend it to another student to read it. The following is an example of two sentences in one of the paragraphs: â€Å"This boat is Peter’s.† This was the first original sentences, and after reading and understanding from the website provided, the first sentence does not sound great (Strunk, 20120. However, the revised one would sound like this: â€Å"This is Peter’s boat.† On the issue of sentence fragments, I found that the original sentence read like this â€Å"Working hard into the night in an effort to save his little boat†. After reading this sentence I discovered that something was missing, a noun. A correct sentence would read like this â€Å"Peter worked hard into the night in an effort to save his little

Professional Philosophy Essay Example for Free

Professional Philosophy Essay Kellie Boudreaux kab1631 9/12/13 HLTH-214-S4A (Personal Professional Philosophy) Health is a very important lifestyle choice. It is not only physical but also a mental way of thinking. Being healthy can change ones perspective on life in a positive manner. Health helps you achieve balance and tranquility. Health in general can bring a community together and enforce positive behaviors. I believe health educators can mentor individuals to make choices that would enhance their life style. Health Promotion and Wellness stresses prevention techniques and being conscience of ones state of health. It is valued because it directly affects ones daily lifestyle. Health promotion employees may work from schools, any work environment, or within the community to spread health promotion. As a health promotion and wellness major we should be a role model to the community. We are the example and should â€Å"practice what we preach†. Just with any other profession, a cardiovascular doctor would not promote smoking or anything harmful to the body to cause illness. With this major you can work in many environments such as a hospital, school, community center, and businesses. Health promotion is necessary in all aspects of the community. It is important that a community maintains a healthy value to restrict illness and viruses from spreading. You could serve as a personal mentor to someone who is searching for help with their health. Or you could work for a business promoting healthier lifestyles dealing with their work ethnic. Health education can be both formal and informal. Meeting scenario or classroom environments can be a type of formal education. An informal type of education can be just a one-on-one conversation in a relaxed environment. In the profession you are dealing with peoples health, so you need to be ethical and respect peoples privacy. It is your job to understand and respect peoples health history. Everyones health is equally important no matter of race, age, or social background. As a health educator, I need to always remember each person I work with will have a different attitude and out look on life. Supporting ones health is a major key to lead someone to their healthy life. I must always respect ones background and beliefs. If  they are willing to improve their health then that is what matters. It is our job to highlight the importance of ones health. It is not just going to the gym, it is managing stress and mental prosperity. I believe that health is an important aspect of life. Many things involve mental and physical health. I hope to contribute to individuals well-being by providing healthy lifestyle choices. I want to work with the client and also any outside support systems that would contribute to their success. I believe supporting my clients is an important factor in ones goal set for a healthier lifestyle. Health promotion also involves with an on going relationship with your clients. I believe in being committed and connected with all of my clients in all environments I work with. No only being committed, I also want to be a mentor and role model to show my clients what it takes to live a healthy lifestyle. Each individuals have different plans to manage their health according to their belief system and goals they want to achieve. Teaching my clients how to integrate healthy living into their daily lifestyles will be a goal of mine throughout my future career. I can achieve this goal by establish ing personal relationships and creating a personalized health plan for each of my clients.

Chemistry thermo lab, Hesss Law Essay Example for Free

Chemistry thermo lab, Hesss Law Essay Introduction: In this lab, we will be determining the change in enthalpy for the combustion reaction of magnesium (Mg) using Hess’s law. Procedure: 1. React about 100 mL of 1.00 M hydrochloric acid with 0.80 g of MgO. Note the change in temperature and any qualitative data. 2. React about 100 mL of 1.00 M hydrochloric acid with 0.50 g of Mg. Note the change in temperature and any qualitative data. Raw Data: Quantitative: Reaction, trial Mass ( ± 0.01 g) Initial temperature ( ± 0.1à ¢Ã‚ ° C) Final temperature ( ± 0.1à ¢Ã‚ ° C) Volume of HCl ( ± 0.05 mL) Reaction 1, Trial 1 0.80 22.0 26.9 100.00 Reaction 1, Trial 2 0.80 22.2 26.9 100.00 Reaction 2, Trial 1 0.50 21.6 44.4 100.00 Reaction 2, Trial 2 0.50 21.8 43.8 100.00 Qualitative: 1. Hydrochloric acid is colorless and odorless 2. Magnesium tape is shiny after cleaning it from oxidants, increasing its purity. 3. In both reactions, the solution became bubbly. 4. There was a strong odor from the reaction. Data Processing: Trial 1: Reaction 1: First, we have to calculate the ΔT by subtracting the final temperature by initial temperature: 1. 2. 3. Now we calculate the mass of the solution, assuming it has the density as water: 1. 2. 3. 4. Now, we can use q=mc ΔT to calculate the energy gained by the solution: 1. 2. 3. Therefore: 1. Now, we have to calculate the number of moles for MgO: 1. 2. 3. We can now calculate the change in enthalpy by dividing the q of the reaction by the moles of the limiting reagent: 1. Now, we do reaction 2, trial 1 so we can use Hess’s law to calculate the change in enthalpy of formation, but first we are going to calculate the uncertainty in this expression: First, we calculate the uncertainty for the: 1. 2. 3. Now for mass: 1. 2. As for the energy gained: 1. 2. Now for the energy of the reaction: 1. It is multiplied by an integer (-1) so it is the same unc. As for the moles: 1. 2. Finally, the change in enthalpy: 1. 2. 3. Reaction 2: First, we have to calculate the ΔT by subtracting the final temperature by initial temperature: 1. 2. Now we calculate the mass of the solution, assuming it has the density as water: 1. 2. 3. Now, we can use q=mc ΔT to calculate the energy gained by the solution: 1. 2. Therefore: 1. Now, we have to calculate the number of moles for MgO: 1. 2. We can now calculate the change in enthalpy by dividing the q of the reaction by the moles of the limiting reagent: 1. I will now calculate the uncertainties: First, we calculate the uncertainty for the: 1. 2. Now for mass: 1. 2. As for the energy gained: 1. 2. Now for the energy of the reaction: 1. It is multiplied by an integer (-1) so it is the same unc. As for the moles: 1. 2. Finally, the change in enthalpy: 1. 2. 3. Now, we use Hess’s law to calculate the change of enthalpy of formation: 1. MgO(s) + 2HCl(aq) MgCl2(aq) + H2O(l) 2. Mg (s) + 2HCl(aq) MgCl2(aq) + H2 (g) 3. H2(g) + 0.5 O2(g) H2O(l) (given) By reversing reaction number 1, we can get our targeted reaction: Mg (s) + 0.5 O2(g) MgO(s) Now to calculate the change of enthalpy, which will be the change of enthalpy of formation? 1. 2. Our final result is: 1. Mg (s) + 0.5 O2(g) MgO(s) Random error and percent error: We can calculate the random error by just adding the random errors of the component reactions: 1. 2. 3. As for the percent error: 1. 2. 3. Trial 2: Reaction 1: First, we have to calculate the ΔT by subtracting the final temperature by initial temperature: 1. 2. Now we calculate the mass of the solution, assuming it has the density as water: 1. 2. 3. Now, we can use q=mc ΔT to calculate the energy gained by the solution: 1. 2. 3. Therefore: 1. Now, we have to calculate the number of moles for MgO: 1. 2. 3. We can now calculate the change in enthalpy by dividing the q of the reaction by the moles of the limiting reagent: 1. Now, we do reaction 2, trial 1 so we can use Hess’s law to calculate the change in enthalpy of formation, but first we are going to calculate the uncertainty in this expression: First, we calculate the uncertainty for the: 1. 2. 3. Now for mass: 1. 2. As for the energy gained: 1. 2. Now for the energy of the reaction: 1. It is multiplied by an integer (-1) so it is the same unc. As for the moles: 1. 2. Finally, the change in enthalpy: 1. 2. 3. Reaction 2: First, we have to calculate the ΔT by subtracting the final temperature by initial temperature: 1. 2. Now we calculate the mass of the solution, assuming it has the density as water: 1. 2. 3. Now, we can use q=mc ΔT to calculate the energy gained by the solution: 1. 2. Therefore: 1. Now, we have to calculate the number of moles for MgO: 1. 2. We can now calculate the change in enthalpy by dividing the q of the reaction by the moles of the limiting reagent: 1. I will now calculate the uncertainties: First, we calculate the uncertainty for the: 1. 2. Now for mass: 1. 2. As for the energy gained: 1. 2. Now for the energy of the reaction: 1. It is multiplied by an integer (-1) so it is the same unc. As for the moles: 1. 2. Finally, the change in enthalpy: 1. 2. 3. Now to calculate the change of enthalpy, which will be the change of enthalpy of formation: 1. 2. Our final result is: 1. Mg (s) + 0.5 O2(g) MgO(s) Random error and percent error: We can calculate the random error by just adding the random errors of the component reactions: 1. 2. 3. As for the percent error: 1. 2. 3. Processed data: Trial 1 Trial 2 of reaction 1 -104 kJ/mol ( ± 2.10%) -99 kJ/mol ( ± 2.19%) of reaction 2 -463 kJ/mol ( ± 0.509%) -446 kJ/mol ( ± 0.525%) of MgO -645 kJ/mol ( ± 2.61%) -633 kJ/mol ( ± 2.72%) Conclusion and Evaluation: In this lab, we determined the standard enthalpy change of formation of MgO using Hess’s law. First, we reacted HCl with MgO for the first reaction and got -104 kJ/mol ( ± 2.10%) for trial 1 and -99 kJ/mol ( ± 2.19%) for trial 2. As for reaction 2, where you react, I got -463 kJ/mol ( ± 0.509%) for trial 1 and -446 kJ/mol ( ± 0.525%) for trial 2. When we use Hess’s Law, we have to reverse reaction 1 to get the targeted equation, Mg (s) + 0.5 O2(g) MgO(s), and we get an enthalpy change value of -645 kJ/mol ( ± 2.61%) for trial 1, and -633 kJ/mol ( ± 2.72%) for trial 2. For trial 1, my value got a percent error of 7.14%, which is not that bad considering the weaknesses this lab had that will be discussed in the evaluation. However, in trial 2, I got a better percent error, which is 5.15%, we got a better value because we had a bigger ΔH values thus when adding them (since one of them is positive and the other two is negative) we get a smaller value for the enthalpy change of formation thus bringing us closer to the theoretical value. The biggest weakness in this lab was the impurity of the substances, the assumptions that we made about the HCl solution, for example, we assumed that the specific heat capacity of the solution is the same as water, which is an assumption that is not a 100% accurate and affected our ΔH values for both reactions and eventually our final ΔHf value. To fix this, In the different range of specific heat capacity values, 4.10 j/g k would have been more appropriate to get closer to our theoretical values, as you get a bigger qrxn values thus bigger ΔH values. Another thing that I noticed is that the theoretical value that I got was the â€Å"Standard† enthalpy change of formation. Standard meaning at standard conditions which are at 293 K and 101.3 kPa for pressure. These weren’t the conditions in the lab when I did the experiment. This might alter the experimental value closer to the theoretical value reducing the percent error.

Haber-Bosch Process Alternatives

Haber-Bosch Process Alternatives â€Å"Should resources be invested in searching for an alternative to the Haber-Bosch process†. Introduction: Ammonia’s ongoing consumption in the world is startling. The production of ammonia (NH3) was the turn of the 20th century, a startling breakthrough in organic chemistry for the world to stand in astonishment. Two scientist; Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, made this breakthrough through the chemical procedure called the: ‘Haber-Bosch Process,’ (N2+ 3 H2→ 2 NH3.) However they weren’t the first to try the synthesis of ammonia from its elements (www.nobelprize.org, 1920.) prior to the discovery of synthetic ammonia and long before the commercial application of it, early farmers knew that certain properties of carbon based by-products which led to: human waste being scattered in Chinese farmlands, grinding of skeletons in Europe and the exploitation of Peru’s readily-available guano, due to its natural nitrogenous compounds, and the discovery of Nitrogen Fixation Processes (www.firt.org, 2012.) The need for Ammonia was directly related to the worldâ₠¬â„¢s survival, the fixed nitrogen from the air is an incredible and needed ingredient for fertilizing. Many principles of chemical and high—pressure processes were discovered and expended for the optimisation of the known nitrogen fixation process. Industries in the 19th and 20th century saw the ongoing need for nitrogen and turned to their already in use factories for producing coal to use the by-product of coking, ammonia sulphate. This along with the previously mentioned methods was how ammonia was produced pre-Haber-Bosch Process. From these early discoveries evidence can be seen as to why the Haber Bosch process is the best way of producing ammonia for the growing world. Two more scientists by the name of Priestly and Cavendish used electrical sparks in the air to produce nitrates, done by dissolving the oxides of nitrogen to form alkalis. Nitrogen Fixation, fixating Nitration as calcium cynamide proved evasive for commercial use, but later proved useful for the produc tion of chemicals requiring the cynamide configuration. There were numerous other process ect. Thermal Processing, cyanide formation, aluminium nitride formation and the slow process of decomposing to ammonia were deemed to elusive for sustainability due to the scarce amount of chemical components for the organic production to be made, resulting in to high of cost. With Habers-Bosch large-scale catalytic synthesis of ammonia from elemental hydrogen and nitrogen gas which had reactants that were inexpensive (Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Iron as a catalyst.) Using high pressure (~5000c) alongside high pressure (~150-200 atm), the process involved forcing almost completely unreactive gaseous nitrogen and hydrogen to have the product of Ammonia. This high-energy process has undergone extensive modifications in the 21st century which goes on to prove that resources should not be devoted in the search for an alternative to the currently used Haber-Bosch process because the structure of the proc ess is the most balanced of the mentioned processes of making ammonia even in the 21st century with a need of 150 million metric tonnes of ammonia (Chemical and Engineering News, 1996); 80% of which is used in agriculture where 48% of the resulting produce is responsible for the world’s ongoing consumption, however there are a few methods that give an idea for very good alternatives that could replace Haber-Bosch, but would not be as efficient. Discussion on Methods: What has made the Haber Bosch process so great is its low cost and readily available materials as seen in this method, this however has been as previously mentioned modified many times since Haber’s work: Ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and hydrogen, a reversible reaction is as follows: (1) And the equilibrium constant is (2) (www.ias.ac.in, 2012) From our understanding of organic chemistry we can see that production of ammonia is a exothermic reaction with a exponential amount of heat released. As previously mentioned the reaction is reversible, the forward reaction being ammonia synthesis, and the reverse reaction being ammonia decomposition. The decrease of the volume derives from the decrease in the number of moles of gas from the equations, two and one. With the use of Le Chatelier’s Principle (See appendix one), from this it can be seen that by increasing the pressure in the reaction causes the equilibrium to shift to the right resulting in a higher yield of ammonia produce since there is a pressure drop accompanying the transformation; the decrease in the temperature then also causes the equilibrium position to move to the right again resulting in a higher yield of ammonia since the reaction is exothermic as previously mentioned. Figures 1A and B show the effect of temperature and pressure on the equilibrium mole fraction of ammonia. It can be seen that the ammonia mole fraction decreases as the temperature increased just as the pressure increases. Figure one. (A is the mole fraction of ammonia in the state of equilibrium at varying temperatures to result in a given value of pressure. B is difference pressures at fixed values of temperature in Kelvin, data supplied by www.ChemWiki.org Temperature (K) Pressure (Atm) The conclusion then that ammonia synthesis according to the first equation is an equilibrium reaction that is favoured by low temperature and high pressure which. The reaction does not proceed at ambient temperature because nitrogen requires a lot of activation energy for the dissociation to happen (www.Topsoe.com). In the gas phase of the reaction, the dissociation occurs only at around 3000 °C (ChemWiki.com). Looking at the hydrogen molecule in the reaction, which has a weaker molecular bond, only dissociates markedly happened at temperatures above ~1000 °C (ChemWiki.com, 2012). Which shows that the reaction cannot be performed at lower temperature because it needs high activation energy to happen, if there was an increase in the temperature with a enough level, the reverse reaction predominates (www. http://abacus.bates.edu/, 2010). This is where scientist decided to have the role of the iron catalyst come in. Figure two below shows the energy profiles for ammonia synthesis in the absence and presence of the catalyst. The hydrogen and nitrogen molecules lose their translational ability to be bound to the catalyst surface. This reduces the activation energy dramatically and makes the forward reaction go faster, which makes sense to us because catalyst can’t do nothing else but speed the reaction up. Other minor components of the catalyst includecalciumandaluminium oxides, which are there to support the absorbent iron catalyst and help it maintain its surface area over time, andpotassium, which increases theelectrondensity of the catalyst and so improves its activity (ChemWiki.com, 2012). This means that scientist can rid the need for extremely high temperature conditions, a problem Haber encounted while trying to find commercial success. Something for us to know it the use of lower temperature reaction conditions means there is limited reverse reaction which is energy saving as well, this reinforces the idea of the Haber-Bosch Process being the bes t there is. For industrial use however, there is still a need for reasonably high temperatures (250–400 °C) to dissociate the N2 and H2. (Figure two, the effect of catalyst on the activation energy). Supplied by www.Chemguide.uk. Now that we know the advantages of the current Haber – Bosch Process, we can look into how carbon-free ammonia comes into the world. Licht wrote a paper on the two current chemical reactions that are now used most widely in ammonia synthesis: CH4+ 2H2O→4H2+ CO2 N2+ 3H2→2NH3 These won’t be explained because they already have previously. 3CH4+ 6H2O +4 N2→ 3CO2+8NH3 Licht wrote of a proposal for the use of ammonia as a fuel for automobiles. Although Licht did not specify the products of the ammonia oxidation, it looked into the possibility that this fuel cell might prove reversible in the case where a product was nitrogen gas, which looks into the fixation of Nitrogen, an electrochemical path to ammonia. However scientist need to overcome the extreme stability of the nitrogen-nitrogen bond in N2gas, nitrogen fixation always requires the need of gas with a metal (www.theenergycollective.com, 2012), which in biological systems the metal in question is molybdenum (as well as the used iron as the catalyst), making molybdenum, along with iodine, the only elements in the periodic table that are essential to this project.Haber he speculated that there was a better catalyst, uranium which we will look at later. A metal catalyst is required in the electrochemical process as stated, in this process the catalyst is iron, but in this case it is necessary that the iron, present as an oxide in the process, be in the form of nanoparticles suspended in molten alkali hydroxides, where future research can be done on the use of other molten oxides, notably, cesium hydroxide, which may prove superior however the variables in the process with respect to temperature, operating voltage, current and the physical nature electrodes will also need to be detailed in research before this can happen. (www.atomicinsight.com,2012). For this processto happen a eutectic melting mixture of KOH and NaOH, potassium and sodium hydroxides respectively; the authors explored also the use of other molten oxides, notably, cesium hydroxide, which may prove as a better source for the process. These hydroxides are only molten at higher temperatures, and steam and air or pure nitrogen gas are bubbled through the molten hydroxide s ( in the case of air, carbon dioxide, meaning that with the removal of this gas from the air would be a side benefit of the process, a benefit to the Haber-Bosch process.)The precise stoichiometry of the reaction varies with the conditions, but one form of reaction mentioned by the authors, this done through a controlled environment, is this: N2+ 10H2O → 2NH3+ 5O2+ 7H2 Both pure oxygen and hydrogen are important to the reaction, and goes to show that the reaction offers many potential synergies for the benefit of the scientist. The gases on the right side are not produced as an explosive mixture, because ammonia and hydrogen are formed on one side of the cell, at the cathode, whereas the oxygen is formed at the anode (www.atomicinsight.com).The mixture of cathodic gases, ammonia and hydrogen in the reaction, are easily separated by compression as Lecht found. The overall electrochemical efficiency is quite high compared to other attempts at the electrochemical reduction of nitrogen to ammonia gas, which is around 46%, an efficiency that may well be competitive with Haber-Bosch process ammonia synthesis, however this does not include the heat penalty associated with melting the alkali metal hydroxides and keeping them molten which is the reason nitrogen fixation was proved a commercial disaster when Haber was working, where 38% of the land would be needed and the cost being severely higher, Haber’s process uses only 14% of the land to produce ammonia. What else could aid in the Haber-Bosches super process? A better catalyst. Haber sought for a better catalyst in the 20th century with investigations into uranium. With an understanding of the activity of the key component of the Haber-Bosch process which is the catalyst, could help to better the industrial nitrogen fixation still further from what we previously discussed and remove the need for high temperatures and pressures. Ruthenium, osmium, uranium and cobalt-molybdenum can all catalyse the Haber-Bosch process (ChemWiki.com, 2012), but iron catalysts are cheap. It’s the most commonly used catalyst which was developed more than a century ago and is a potassium-doped iron catalyst. A soluble version of such a catalyst might be even more efficient because it could overcome the rate-limiting step of nitrogen dissociation from a solid catalyst surface, which was demonstrated before. Scientist have found that soluble iron catalysts have proven ineffective for the process in its need to be reducing the N-N triple bond as seen in figure three and also cannot produce large amounts of ammonia for commercial use. Germany has developed a molecular iron complex that can react with (Figure three, The N-N Triple bond, a problem that persist in the formation of an improved haber-bosch process). nitrogen gas in the presence of a potassium reducing agent to generate a complex containing two nitrides bound to the iron and potassium cations which contain a mixed iron (2+/3+) nitride.Germany suggests that the formation of this developed core structure has three iron atoms working together to break the dinitrogen triple bond through a six-electron reduction (NewScientist.com, 2014). The resulting nitride of the reaction then reacts with hydrogen gas to generate a high yield of the product ammonia. Unfortunately, this process leads to the use of the iron and so is not catalytic, a problem for the process as it reduces the yield on ammonia because with an absence of a catalyst the reaction is so slow that virtually no reaction happens in a reasonable time (ChemWiki.com, 2012). The catalyst ensures that the reaction is fast enough for a dynamic equilibrium to be set up within the very short time that the gases are actually in the reactor. Germany’s work on the core provides i mportant clues as to precisely how nitrogen cleavage and N-H bond formation occurs, which might allow them to build a complex that does work catalytically in solution, something that can be further investigated in the future. This is great because it means the Haber-Bosch Process can be simplified and eventually bring a greater yield of product, seeing the growth of ammonia grow in the world. Conclusion: Through economic situations, the Haber-Bosch Process is the most essential to the world, however it’s also the most relevant in terms of the future. Nitrogen Fixation as we looked at can potentially be a competitor to the Haber-Boch Process, due to it’s overall electrochemical efficiency which as stated is quite high in comparison to other attempts at the electrochemical reduction of nitrogen to ammonia gas, it is around 46%, an efficiency that may well be competitive with Haber-Bosch process ammonia synthesis. Unfortunately there is no process being studied in thermodynamics to reduce the heat loss from the process, ChemGuide.uk states that â€Å"A 46% increase is substantial for the future of Ammonia production, but heat loss is an issue for it that so far, can’t be reduced with what we know today†. The next thing we looked at was the catalyst in the current Haber-Bosch Process. Haber dwelled into Uranium but backed out of the idea because of the money, however with the advance we discussed in the study on catalytic effects it’s clear and hypothesises that there is a high possibility that in the future Ruthenium, osmium, uranium and cobalt-molybdenum can all be used in the synthesis of ammonia with a high yield in produce, which is being investigated currently. Advances in the Haber-Bosch Process are our best approach for the future, scientifically and economically, that is until thermodynamics are better understood. Appendix Summary of Le Chatelier’s Principle by www.ChemWiki.ucdavis.edu (1) If the concentration of a reactant is increased, the equilibrium position shifts to use up the added reactants by producing more products. (2) For gaseous reactions, gas pressure is related to the number of gas particles in the system; more gas particles means more gas pressure. Consider a reaction which is accompanied by decrease in number of moles, such as, ammonia synthesis (equation one). Increasing the pressure on this equilibrium system will result in the equilibrium position shifting to reduce the pressure, that is, to the side that has the least number of gas particles. (3) In an endothermic reaction, energy can be considered as a reactant of the reaction while in an exothermic reaction, energy can be considered as a product of the reaction. Consider an exothermic reaction which is accompanied by release of heat, such as ammonia synthesis (equation one). Reducing the temperature of this equilibrium system (which result in taking the heat away) will result in the equilibrium position shifting to increase the temperature (producing more heat), that is, to shift the equilibrium position to the right.