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PROMPT: To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. {Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.} A society is a major driver of a nation and it is also the society that determines its development. Cities are important to consider when studying a society but the major facets of a nation are more pronounced in the villages and towns as well as small cities of that culture. Thence, it is imperative to consider their culture and practices while formulating one’s viewpoints about a society to get a holistic understanding of how the society works. Studying major cities may facilitate a learning that is one-sided and skewed towards a certain section of society that resides in these important cities. Moreover, a significant part of the population is concentrated in the many villages and towns which form the main structure of the society. These entities are mainly agrarian in nature and are labeled as the backbone of a society. To ignore them and not consider their importance would be a shame. The approach of basing the exploration of a society’s elements merely on the processes and life in major cities is inherently classist. By doing so, one would be avoiding and disrespecting the development that the society’s peasantry and the townships have experienced. Metropolitan cities do not have an exclusive culture of their own when viewed from a reductionist lens of understanding. They are the hotspots for nearby villages, towns and cities to migrate to and seek better opportunities. A thorough understanding of a society is incomplete without giving enough credit to the pure cultural practices and rituals observed in these entities of a culture. It can be inferred that cities do not hold a pure culture and are continually experiencing major changes in terms of their population types and their practices. Therefore, it would result in an unstable understanding of the society. The signs of development in major cities are quite remarkable with some of them forming important epicenter or hubs to delineate a society’s understanding. However, the different colors and flavors of that development are a direct contribution of migrants and working class who in desolate search of opportunities have made the cities into what they are today. The cities can be considered as the creamy layer of a society with its advanced and much forward livelihoods and lifestyles but the rest of the cake is made up by the townships and village culture. It will be a problematic paradigm and would lack the inclusivity which is an important characteristic of a society. Nevertheless, the major cities can be broken down into small shards which are a subculture of their own, each derived from other villages, towns and cities. Hence, the elements which form the constituent parts of a society cannot be ignored while giving its large cities a major outlook.

The most important component of a society is the people who form it, nevertheless at the same time being influenced by the settings under which it forms. Rural and urban settings influence differences in a society in terms of the economic conditions and the way people lead their lives and interact with one another. In many parts of the world, villages are heavily dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry as the chief source of income and such activities usually thriving on the cooperation from a body of people working together. Thus, the bucolic pastoral villages often provides an insight to inter-human connections building up a society. It is the perfect mirror of co-existence and cooperation keeping society together as a unit. However, villages are less successful as representatives to dynamism of which cities are apt as examples. Life in cities is fast moving. Residents hold jobs, both in organized and unorganized sectors. Hence, it’s common to find employees of an MNC commuting to their workplaces on the same vehicle as a peddler and florist. What cities offer is diversity in terms of occupation of people and how it reflects upon the economy and behavior of people. However, none of the two settings is a complete representative of a society, often overlapping with each other. To get the holistic picture, it will be relevant to have an understanding of both.

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. In today’s world, we often find ourselves engrossed in the clutches of so-called “Globalization”. Whenever the topic of “culture” springs up in family discussions, my mother always delivers a harangue about how the cities are losing their grip on the core culture of our country. Unfortunately but indeed, this view-point is true. The ‘actual’ society of a country resides in its small villages and towns in the countryside. Being a boy born and brought up in two Indian megapolises, I can corroborate this quite well. Indian women residing in the cities, generally tend to demur when they are asked to wear the ‘saree’ (our national dress for women) to their workplaces. People in Mumbai or New Delhi have an increasing predilection for Italian, Chinese, Mexican and Turkish cuisines inspite of having their own variegated cuisine, which ironically is desired by people all over the world. Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency of the people residing in the cities, to eschew their respective mother language and converse only in English, just to elicit awe and respect from their peers and acquaintances. But is this all what actually represents the most important characteristics of our society??? Absolutely not. As an Indian with most of my relatives living in a small town in the countryside, I know that people living in the towns and villages are still not very well rehearsed in the daily usage of English. My cousin sister working in a small private firm in her town, still commutes to work daily wearing the traditional dress, and with her do the plethora of women in the smaller cities and towns. My friends coming from smaller cities, have revealed that people in their native places have never even heard of any other cuisine existing apart from their own!!! But here comes the point of how one defines the so-called “characteristics” of a society. If a person sitting comfortably in his drawing-room in New York wants to find out about the current fashion trends in India or the most-viewed Hollywood movie in India, then he/she definitely has to go through the statistics of the major Indian cities’ customers’ preferences. If a multi-national company desires to open a branch office in Mumbai, it will of course go through the demographics of Mumbai and not some small village of 100 inhabitants up in the hills of the north-east. But inspite of all the contradicting views, I would say that if you want to understand the most important aspects and characteristics of my country, you would have to hop to the countryside and visit the people there to appreciate what it means to be a part of my society.

Hi all, Can anyone please evaluate my essay and give a general idea on how much I would be able to score? To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.? The characteristics of a society are based on cultural and personal values when taken as a whole creates a uniqueness among the people belonging to the said society. In my opinion , I believe that although studying the major cities is important to get a general idea of the characteristics of a society it doesn't provide the most important characteristics. The population of Major cities are relatively less compared to the rural and semi suburban areas of a country. Therefore judging the characteristics of a society based on the populous of just Major cities which are not representative of the whole society can be erroneous. For example countries like India have Major cities like Mumbai and New Delhi where people live sophisticated and busy life styles. People in these cities work hard and are sometimes unable to even celebrate festivals like Diwali because they do not have the time. However this does not mean that the Indians do not celebrate Diwali anymore. On the contrary many people celebrate it for days quite extravagantly in Suburban areas of the country. In addition many oriental societies are known to spend time with elderly people and care for them even taking them into their homes. Most parents when they get old spend the last years of their lives with their children. However in most major cities elderly parents are sent to elders homes instead since most people do not have the time to take care of them due to their busy schedules. However, this does not mean that it is a characteristic of the said society. Additionally in Major cities the crime rates and thefts are high but this is not representative of the society as a whole and it certainly is not a characteristic of that society. However, the fact that the study of major cities will give a general idea of the characteristics of a community can be partly true. This can be due to the fact that Major cities are where people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds reside. In other words they are cultural melting points of a society. Therefore it can be said that some important characteristics of a society can be understood by observing the city populous. In conclusion while I believe that studying major cities can give a general Idea of the characteristics of a society it does not give us an idea about most of the important characteristics of a society. Thanks a lot

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.// Here the author tries to link the important features of a society with its major cities. The cities, in most cases, being impotant centres for trade and businesses, education and ministry, the author's argument seems more or less valid. Here it has been implicitly assumed that the most important activities that shape the features of a society happen in cities. In general, in a state, cities have ample centres for business. Most of rich and powerful businessmen reside in cities. From cities, they control the trade of commodities in towns and rural areas. Cities are not only centres for business, lots of major administrative centres are located in cities. From these centres, instructions are given what policies are to be adopted, what measures are to be taken for improvement of society. The Chief Minister of a state resides in the capital city of the state in general, along with his officials. They work hard to think of policies for welfare of state, and their instructions are followed throughout the state. In general, cities are far more urbanised than villages. The average standard of living in a city is also better than that in rural areas, in general. Thus, if standards of living in major cities in a state start to decline, if financial conditions of people living in cities somehow get worsened, one can conclude that the society is not in a very good shape. However, people esiding in rural areas tend to follow tradition and culture, and preserve them. So, if one wants to study folk culture of a society, it will not be wise to concentrate on cities only, ignoring rural parts of the state. In order to study major features of a society, one should concentrate on the cities, but it may not be wise to study the cities only ignoring towns and villages.

“Some people believe that in order to thrive, a society must put its own overall success before the well-being of its individual citizens. Others believe that the well-being of a society can only be measured by the general welfare of all its people.” Ethically speaking, the end does not justify the means when discussing the overall well being of a society. It is not in the best interest of the society as a whole if the well being of the individual citizens, who make up that society, are not valued. In the 1960s Jim Crow laws implemented separate but equal mandates in public spaces. It seemed to the policy makers that the society would thrive even though these laws were daunting on the African American population. When a select few are singled out for the “good of the whole society” protests occur and a society is polarized with those who are benefitting from certain policies and the select few that are not. The well being of a society is measured by the general welfare. General welfare can mean terms of happiness and health. When studying health care for example, it is important to make sure that health is a basic right that all citizens of a society have, and do not have to earn. If the people are generally healthy, the economy gets better; less people would need to owe the government money due to treatment they would not be able to pay for. The Affordable Care Act requires people to buy health insurance. In the economic cycle, the government is getting paid and people are receiving the health care that they need. When the general population is healthy, everyone benefits. Some may not agree when it comes to other aspects of success within a society. Some may argue that in other terms of a society, some countries put their average testing scores as a priority, because education is important. It is more important that all student should be able to succeed in schools and produce the best test scores compared to other countries. Yes, education is important in the success of a society, however high test scores do not mean that the well being of these students is put into the country’s best interest. Students often report high stress levels and the countries with the highest test score sometimes report the highest rating of student mental health issues like depression and suicide. In situations like these the success rate of the high scores should not take precedence over mental health. In addition to having the best test scores that also assumes citizens are able to pay for the resources to receive the best education available to implement these scores. Some European countries have proper mental health policies put in place for college students while also providing affordable education for those pursuing degrees. All in all, the general well being of a society does measure the success rate of that society and should be prioritized.

Please rate my essay. I have exam end of this month. To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. The culture, religion, basic society rules, education and so forth are the main elements to identify the most important characteristics of a society. At the same time, the society is made up of a collection of individuals. So to get the information about their root over centuries, as stated in the statement, only studying the major cities are always subjected to outside influences. Therefore, I believe that studying the major cities of a society won’t provide its most significant characters. Major cities particularly design to attract people with new tradition, styles, fashion, working opportunities, standard education and other main reasons. Most of its traditions are highly influence by outside countries which are developed. For example, Colombo is the major economic place in Sri Lanka. People in this place live in different styles than other areas in Sri Lanka. Major businesses, industries, garments, main education centers and other important sectors are located here. The perspectives of people are different such as wearing dresses, religious view, political background, choosing education. However, it won’t be most of their original life styles. Most of the people in city should have come from far away from cities and their ancestors and relatives should live in that distance places. This village people life style exposes the actual characteristics of the modern people who have shifted to cities. To study a society, we need to understand the behavior, custom, religion, education level of every person from most areas of a country and agriculture and other main works of these most region of the nation to measure people income level. For example, people in Jaffna mainly do farming. In Nuwaraelliya people work at tea plantation. However, other part of the Sri Lanka, People mostly work in IT industries and other standard jobs. Moreover, the dressing styles for women in Colombo and other main cities are also totally different from other village area. Celebrating any religious activities are for their entertainment in cities while in rural area, people celebrate with full of dedication for God. Food habits in main cities are mostly western related food such as Pizza, Burger, and Noodle etc. Conversely, we can get traditional foods in village area only. In conclusion, as the examples provides in the above paragraph, we definitely need to visit to most part of the country where we can study the most significant elements to perceive the society. On the other hand, as given in the statement, custom of cities are highly influenced by other places because cities confine with different countries, religion and language. Therefore, they won’t reveal the characteristics of the society.

Jacque Fresco has famously said: "Earth is abundant with plentiful resources. Our practice of rationing resources through monetary control is no longer relevant and is counter-productive to our survival... ...Today we have access to highly advanced technologies. But our social and economic system has not kept up with our technological capabilities that could easily create a world of abundance, free of servitude and debt... ...Whatever happens in the world is real, what one thinks should have happened is projection. We suffer more from our fictitious illusion and expectations of reality." I'm not sure of to what extent any of you have heard of Jacque Fresco, but I believe him to be man of incredible genius when it comes to social and cultural design. Do you believe the world is at the beginning of a new paradigm shift, evolving out of a monetary system (similar to how we evolved out of the bartering system)? Of course, I am not suggesting that people do not still barter today. However, I am asking economists to evaluate Jacque Fresco's claims, because I do believe there is a common sentiment shared accross the world concerning our current macroeconomic/international system. Isn't the study of economics concerned with maximizing social happiness in the most productive way possible? Cheers!