Australian National Maritime Museum
Question:
Discuss about the Sociology for Social and Cultural Institutions.
The major cultural institutions in Australia include the Australian National Maritime Museum, Australian War memorial, museum of Australian democracy at Old Parliament House, the National Archives of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Gallery of Australia and many more.
The major social institutions include eSafety women, the Housing support programs, Living Safe together, online gambling, Reducing Violence and many more which look after a plethora of issues.
The societal functions in Australia are influenced by the media according to the age groups of the people. It is seen that the smaller age groups specially kids and teenagers are like sponges and absorb everything in the media very fast. The young adults also engage in activities which are influenced by the media. The influence is subliminal for those who are not constructive enough to form their own views. In certain cases there are instances of victimization as well (Barnett et al. 2014).
The majority of the population is skewed towards an older distribution. This is responsible for negligence towards older population and it has led to the social policy problems for the governments. There is a pressure to support the aged members of the family financially on all the citizens. There is a large proportion of the aged care which is usually managed by the families. The impact of death on the people can be prevented. On the other hand, the care of dementia patients and other mental diseases impacts the family members and their mental health. Taking up these responsibilities also makes the individuals a better person.
There might be discrimination amongst individuals on the basis of race, inequality, measurement, mechanisms and other minorities. These issues of discrimination might cause the clients to feel demoralized and they might lose the interest of working or interacting with people. The most important issue is that related to race which should not be the concern of any individual. The people who are discriminated against feel low and inferior in comparison to others.
The NDIS provides support to people with disability, their families and their careers. It is jointly funded as well as governed by Australian and state and territory governments. It proposes to help people access mainstream services including health, housing and education, access community services like sports clubs and libraries and maintain informal support which includes families and friends (Thill 2015).
Australian War Memorial
Long term unemployment is considered to be a persistent and destructive social issue. It needs to be addressed because it has terrible impacts on both individuals as well as society. According to studies, the people who are unemployed for one year are very likely to be unemployed for an elongated period of time. The personal and financial issues are also severe including that of economic crisis, poverty, debt, homelessness, housing stress, family tensions and breakdown, alienation, shame and stigma, increased social isolation, crime, erosion of confidence and self esteem and finally ill health (Feather 2012).
Adolescence is basically defined as the period between childhood and adulthood. It is that challenging period when a young person moves from dependency on their parents to independence, autonomy and maturity. There are biological, cognitive and also psychological challenges. It involves the puberty stage which leads to biological challenges. There are cognitive challenges involve issues of not being understood, psychological challenges are patterns of rules of change and that of individuation. The erratic behavior and indulgence in drugs and other additions leads to tension and huge worries in their families (Crone and Dahl 2012).
After people reach old age, they experience loneliness, complacence which can be solved by actively interacting with the society so that their issues can be resolved. The retirees can be a part of retirement communities and a range of organized activities to minimize isolation. Those who reside in buildings with gyms can exercise on a regular basis. They can join health clubs as well as golf, tennis or racket ball clubs which provide them with a social network. There are learning groups and even groups indulging in common interests like gardening, discussing books, films and so on in which the retirees can be involved in (Barnett et al. 2014).
The Vietnam veterans served as armed forces in the Vietnam War. There have been instances of post traumatic stress disorder in the veterans who have survived the war due to the issues related to witnessing of traumatic experiences. There have been instances of health hazards, weakening mental and physical health and lack of a proper balance (Brooks et al. 2012).
Baby boomers refer to those individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964. These people have certain characteristics which are specifically noticeable in their age group. These people do not shirk from their responsibilities and are actually self assured and capable of fulfilling their particular roles in the society. These category of people are competitive and have high motivation to reach their pre-determined goals. These people are focused mentally on a particular topic or a subject and usually possess amazing attention spans. These people are also resourceful, team oriented with strong sense of community and are extremely disciplined. In certain cases the people are non conformist and independent (Fingerman et al. 2012).
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
The people who have been born from 1977 to 1995 are known as generation Y. The micro-culture refers to the particular subgroups which are marked with specific languages and expectations as well as different perceptions towards the society. The generation Y has developed several characteristics such as minimal accomplishments, competitive sports and possesses unrealistic expectations of working life. According to reports, these people require “me time” on the job, non-stop feedback and also career advice from the managers. In certain cases they are also civically as well as politically disengaged. Over the years the generation Y is responsible for having built their own micro culture (VanMeter et al. 2013).
The Uniting Church in Australia is one of the most famous religious communities in Australia and over a million people identify with the church and it is basically a protestant church and its orientation is reformed and Methodist.
The Australian Labor party is a political organization in Australia. It has been in the opposition in the federal level from the time of the elections in 2013. The ideology of the organization is that of a social democracy (Lea and Nicoll 2013).
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is a national asset and is one of the top health and welfare statistics agencies in Australia.
One of the legal institutions in Australia is the Law Council of Australia. It is an association of all the law societies and bar associations in Australia. It helps in representing the legal profession at the national level.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Australia’s national broadcaster. The funding of this organization is provided by the taxpayers of Australia. It is famous for several shows on television and also has numerous subsidiaries (Lea and Nicoll 2013).
References:
Barnett, I., van Sluijs, E., Ogilvie, D. and Wareham, N.J., 2014. Changes in household, transport and recreational physical activity and television viewing time across the transition to retirement: longitudinal evidence from the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health, pp.jech-2013.
Brooks, E., Novins, D.K., Thomas, D., Jiang, L., Nagamoto, H.T., Dailey, N., Bair, B. and Shore, J.H., 2012. Personal characteristics affecting veterans’ use of services for posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric services, 63(9), pp.862-867.
Crone, E.A. and Dahl, R.E., 2012. Understanding adolescence as a period of social–affective engagement and goal flexibility. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(9), pp.636-650.
Feather, N.T., 2012. The psychological impact of unemployment. Springer Science & Business Media.
Fingerman, K.L., Pillemer, K.A., Silverstein, M. and Suitor, J.J., 2012. The baby boomers’ intergenerational relationships. The Gerontologist, 52(2), pp.199-209.
Lea, M.R. and Nicoll, K. eds., 2013. Distributed learning: Social and cultural approaches to practice. Routledge.
Thill, C., 2015. Listening for policy change: how the voices of disabled people shaped Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. Disability & Society, 30(1), pp.15-28.
VanMeter, R.A., Grisaffe, D.B., Chonko, L.B. and Roberts, J.A., 2013. Generation Y’s ethical ideology and its potential workplace implications. Journal of Business Ethics, 117(1), pp.93-109.