Quantitative easing (QE)

Quantitative easing (QE) is an unconventional monetary policy used by central banks to stimulate the economy when standard monetary policy has become ineffective.

A central bank implements quantitative easing by buying specified amounts of financial assets from commercial banks and other private institutions, thus raising the prices of those financial assets and lowering their yield, while simultaneously increasing the monetary base.

(In economics, the monetary base in a country is defined as the portion of the commercial banks' reserves that are maintained in accounts with their central bank plus the total currency circulating in the public (which includes the currency, also known as vault cash, that is physically held in the banks' vault). The monetary base should not be confused with the money supply which consists of the total currency circulating in the public plus the non-bank deposits with commercial banks.)

The Expansionary monetary policy is used to stimulate the economy which involves the central bank buying short-term government bonds in order to lower short-term market interest rates.However, when short-term interest rates have reached or are close to reaching zero, this method can no longer work. 

Quantitative easing may then be used by monetary authorities to further stimulate the economy by purchasing assets of longer maturity than short-term government bonds, and thereby lowering longer-term interest rates further out on the yield curve.

Dependency theory

Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. 

It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system".

The premises of dependency theory are that:

1. Poor nations provide natural resources, cheap labour, a destination for obsolete technology, and markets for developed nations, without which the latter could not have the standard of living they enjoy.
2. Wealthy nations actively perpetuate a state of dependence by various means. This influence may be multifaceted, involving economics, media control, politics, banking and finance, education, culture, and sport.

The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that therefore the task in helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. 

Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy.

Narrative analysis

Narrative analysis, like the name implies, centers around the study of stories or accounts – usually of individuals, but also of groups, societies, and cultures.

Narrative analysis or narrative methods are a product of what was termed the "narrative turn" in social science research, which has been described and analyzed as a response to the lack of human stories in traditional social science in the 1960’s. 

Early works delineating the historical foundations of narrative methods included works on life histories and oral narratives. The focus of these methods were life stories that described the personal experiences of poverty, inequality, sexism, and many other social and cultural experiences.

Approaches to narrative analysis are four different analytic approaches: 

• Thematic Analysis, 
• Structural Analysis, 
• Dialogic/performance analysis, and 
• Visual Analysis

1. Thematic analysis relies on categorizing accounts or aspects of accounts that are being told.
2. Structural analysis looks into the ways in which the narratives are structured and what the language in the stories does both on the textual as well as the cultural level. 
3. Dialogic/performance analysis focuses on the difficulty in analyzing accounts that are co-constructed or performed. 
4. Lastly, visual analysis focuses on the analysis of all visual media including art, video, and digital media.

Researchers can collect data for narrative analysis using any means that involves capturing an account. Common means are through video, interview, and participant observation though none of these means are mutually exclusive.

Methodological dualism

Methodological dualism is an epistemological position which holds that it is necessary, based on our current levels of knowledge and understanding, to utilize a different methodology in our attempts to analyze the actions of human beings than the methodology used in the physical sciences (i.e. physics, biology etc...) to study external events.

This position is based on the presupposition that humans differ fundamentally from other objects in the external world in that humans act, or in other words use means to achieve ends, while other objects in nature, such as stones, planets, molecules and atoms do not.

Furthermore, we do not at present know how external events affect an individual's "thoughts, ideas, and judgements of value" and this ignorance forces us to adopt a dualistic approach to the two classes of phenomena.

This view was emphasized by Ludwig von Mises and formed the central basis of his epistemology. 

Methodological dualism, especially in Mises's case, was a reaction to the notion held by groups such as the logical positivists that the study of human action, and as such economics, should utilize the same experimental scientific method as the physical sciences, a view that has been referred to by Mises, Friedrich Hayek and others as scientism. 

The alternative methodology that Mises developed and utilized for his study of human action was praxeology, which formed the basis for his work in economics. Praxeology differs from the mainstream neoclassical approach to economics, in that the mainstream approach utilizes the same overall methodology as the physical sciences in an attempt to develop economic theories and predict future economic.

Social Class

When sociologists talk of social class, they refer to a group of individuals who occupy a similar position in the economic system of production.

• Upper Class – Elite
• Upper Middle Class
• Lower Middle Class
• Working Class
• Poor

There are two classical sociologists who are most important in the discussions about class – Karl Marx and Max Weber.

Karl Marx:

Assertion that there were two great classes – 

• the owners of the means of production (capitalists) and 
• the workers

The only thing that the workers owned was their ability to work, what Marx called “labor power.” Because owners (capitalists) paid wages to workers and could for the most part determine that wage, owners had power over workers. Marx felt that the lack of power of workers was the source of exploitation and the basis of class conflict.  

• Marx argued that owners and workers developed ideas, understandings about their positions and this Marx called class consciousness. 
• When owners convinced workers that their situations were compatible – Marx called this false consciousness.

Although Marx talked mainly about the two great classes – owners and workers – he was aware as well of a third category which he called petit bourgeoisie – literally little middle class and these were owners of own small businesses.  Finding a location for this group was difficult because they lacked the power if the owners and at the same time had control over their work and wages unlike the workers. Moreover, according to Marx, sometimes they identified with the owners and sometimes with the workers.

Max Weber:  

The other sociologist was Max Weber. He argued that class referred to economic interests. It was a quantifiable economic position – groups that share a common set of life-chances and circumstances. 

• But Weber also talked about status, prestige – important part was awareness of its value. 
• Weber also talked about party – essentially putting the class interests into action.

Annihilation of Caste: B R Ambedkar views

In The Annihilation of Caste, Ambedkar, probably for the first time, raised many profound questions with respect to caste. 

First, he rejected the defence of caste on the basis of division of labour and argued that it was not merely a division of labour but a division of labourers. The former was voluntary and depended upon one's choice and aptitude and, therefore, rewarded efficiency. The latter was involuntary, forced, killed initiative and resulted in job aversion and inefficiency. 

He argued that caste could not be defended on the basis of purity of blood, though pollution is a hallmark of the caste system.

According to Ambedkar, caste destroyed the concept of ethics and morality. To quote him: “The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible. A Hindu's public is his caste. His responsibility is to his caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his caste. Virtue has become caste-ridden, and morality has become caste-bound.

He quoted from D.R. Bhandarkar's paper “Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population” that “there is hardly any class or caste in India which has not a foreign strain in it, (and that) there is an admixture of alien blood not only among the warrior classes – the Rajputs and the Marathas – but also among the Brahmins who are under the happy delusion that they are free from all foreign elements.” Ambedkar thus argued that caste had no scientific basis. He painfully maintained that Hindu society was a collection of castes, fixed in watertight compartments with graded hierarchy that made an associated corporate life virtually impossible.

He suggested inter-caste marriage as the remedy to destroy caste.

Ambedkar was convinced that political empowerment was key to the socio-economic development of the untouchables.