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- Creators: School of Politics and Global Studies
- Creators: Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
At first, this project intended to uncover a link between massacres of minority populations in the United States and the idea of Great Replacement Theory (GRT), sometimes known as White Genocide Theory, which originated in Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints. GRT is an offensive aimed at eliminating Black and Brown people and their cultures before they, according to the thought process of the theory, eliminate the white race and Western culture through mass immigration, insurgence and interracial breeding, which is depicted in vivid and disturbing detail in The Camp of the Saints. There exists a clear trail in which the theory spawned in French Catholic circles then was exported all throughout the Western powers during the second wave of globalization with particularly devastating impact in the United States. Raspail’s work coincides with a 1972 French hate law that was decried as authoritarian and overprotective of minorities by putting in strict standards to prevent hate speech but was accused of being too lenient about what is defamatory of whites and Catholics (2003, Bleich, pp. 56). Because of this interaction in the French legal system, this project seeks to find out if there is a correlation between GRT and the United States Supreme Court, the American cultural equivalent of the French legal system, by finding frequency of five key words associated with GRT within Supreme Court syllabi and opinions then performing general linear regression in search of statistical significance between the phrases and whether the court cases are associated with race, a variable purely independent of the five key words being monitored.
Globalization, characterized by growing interdependence between countries on goods and services as a result of technological advances in society, has brought about immense change in the formation of culture. This phenomenon has gone beyond the market itself, reflecting changes in consumption patterns, shifting the way food is consumed (Labonté and Schreker 2007a: 1). When cultures start to intermingle in this context, what is considered traditional today? Traditional foods are generally characterized by the passing of cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. However, the concept of traditional food is dynamic, as it depends on many factors such as the individual who is carrying it out, territory, and time period (Rocillo-Aquino et al., 2021). The focus of this investigation centers on traditional foods in the context of Brazil. Home to 60.1% of the Amazon rainforest and more than 220 indigenous tribes and traditional communities, the country has rich biodiversity and a complicated social-economic background. In the early 90s, with the opening of the market, there was considerable growth in the country’s food imports (Moura & Mendes, 2012). As a result, globalization in the Brazilian context has brought about a change in the country’s food production industries through political, technological, and economic forces that have led to a population’s change of consumption and habits, all of which affect traditional methods of production and consumption (Valduga, & Minasse, 2020). These factors are what contribute to the line between traditional flavors and interpretations becoming progressively more blurred with time (Rezende & Avelar, 2012). Food is a principal actor in what shapes society 's identity and relationship with the world. While the standardization of food practices has facilitated life in contemporary society in various ways, mainly influenced by the need for time, practicality, and efficiency, it also poses a challenge by disrupting cultural traditions, heritage, and health. The quotation, “Ou seja a saúde do homem depende da sua alimentação, que por sua vez, é baseada nas tradições culturais e nos alimentos disponíveis na região onde vive”*, exemplifies the relationship between society, culture, and food underscoring how human health relies on dietary habits rooted in cultural traditions and the locally available foods (Moura & Mendes, 2012, p.1). This results in a noticeable tension between commercial and traditional goods where quality and culture are replaced with practicality and efficiency. In an increasingly homogenized food landscape emerges the question: why should society be preserving these methods if they are being lost to market forces? With the aim of clarifying this question, this project investigates the role traditional food products have in the contemporary Brazilian context, and their adaptation in a globalized environment. To develop a deeper comprehension of how traditional foods have adapted to globalization in Brazil, the investigation utilizes the TEP10 framework. The TEP10 framework is designed to analyze, systematize, and conceptualize the nuances between traditional and modern foods. Within this study, the framework is applied to investigate the Slow Food Indica project centered in Salvador, Bahia, which aims to promote the visibility of food products from regional cooperatives and family producers. The investigation will analyze the food products featured in the project and examine factors that contribute to their categorization as traditional or modern. By shedding light on what discerns traditional and modern foods, the investigation aims to understand how these foods are presented and preserved in the current globalized context.
In the end, an increase in repurchases of company stock will also influence the rate of dividends to increase. This means, an investor should not necessarily worry about the dividends they receive, but rather to see if the company is making profit at a consistent rate and reinvesting into value-added activities. Through the major pillars of finance, technology, legal, and human resources, the budget for reinvestment can be optimized by investing into these respective categories with percentages that are mindful of the specific companies needs and functions. Any firm that chooses to ensure proven methods of growth will enact a combination of these four verticals. A larger emphasis on finance will branch out efficiency in the entire organization, as finance control everything from the toilet paper to the acquisitions the company is making. The more technology is used to reduce redundancy and inefficient or costly operations, the more capability the organization will have. IT, however, comes with its technical challenges; having a team on-hand or even outsourced, to solve the critical problems to help the business continue operation. Over-reliance into technology can be detrimental to a business as well if clear processes are not set about straight to counteract problems the business will face like IT ticketing systems or recovery and continuity support. Therefore, technology will require a larger chunk of attention as well.
The upcoming legal and HR investments a company will make will depend upon its current position and thus the restructuring will differ for every firm. Each company has its own flavour and style of work. In that regard, the required legal counsel will vary; different problems will require different solutions for risk control and management, which are often professionally advised by intelligent corporate counsel. This ability to hire efficient legal counsel would not arise in the first place if a firm were to give out dividends; the leftover profit would have gone towards the shareholders and not back into growing the equity of the business. Lastly, nothing is possible without the contribution of people, and their efforts. A quality that long-lasting, successful businesses have, is they are investing in their people and development. Paying salaries, insurances, bonuses, all requires extra capital that is needed to be set aside in order to grow human capital. Good people, better people. There are qualities for each role that need to be defined and a process for attracting talent needs to be invested in. This process can also include outsourcing to an external firm who specializes in these strategies. By retaining profits internally, the company is able to stretch its legs to have further reach upon the market they work in. Financially and statistically, dividends are likely to grow as well with the increase in equity due to the increase in security an investor feels with more cash reserve and liquidity within the company.
All in all, a company should not be pressured into giving out periodic payments in predetermined timeframes, in other words a dividend, to investors even when they are insisting. Rather, pitch and prove, a new method for reinvestment within the company that will raise the value of the company, through proven methods like the value chain model, to increase the equity in the company. By expanding the scope and capability, the company is allowing for a larger target market which will reap more benefits; none of it would be possible if it had continued to give out large percentages of capital to investors as dividends. Companies, and investors, should not be worried about dividends at all as a matter of fact; an increase in stock buyback, in other words reinvesting into the company, will increase the rate of dividends anyway, due to increased confidence and capital within the company.