Social Cultural Issues in Europe - Case Study Example

Social Cultural Issues in Europe Name of Student Name of Institution Course Name Instructor Due Date Total word count excluding Reference & Title page and headings: 2,994 Social Cultural Issues in Europe Introduction Just like any other continent, Europe has its share of social and cultural issues rocking it both positively and negatively. One would argue that the vast development in terms of economy the continent has enjoyed than any other continent hardly correlates with the social and cultural effects it experiences. However, according to Theobald (2004), economic development has no control over social and cultural aspects of a society; irrespective of how a society is developed economically or civilized, social and cultural issues will continue to be the defining factor of that particular society. Therefore, the socio-cultural issues in Europe are identified or addressed in various ways; through the media, politically, educational set ups work environments and even in sporting events (Bell and Garrett, 1998) and (Kettemann and Wieden, 1993). This paper will concentrate on the media depiction of the socio-cultural issues in Europe by focusing on a particular European film. The film of focus is called The Legacy. It is a Georgian film with both French and Georgian Directors. The Legacy This drama is about a long and unresolved feud involving two families which comes to a shocking and bizarre ending. In the film, one character by the script name of Celine who is at mid twenties originates from Paris and gets to learn of her inheritance of a castle that was growing old in Tblisi- a village in Georgia. As a result of curiosity regarding her newly acquired property, the young woman gets her two friends together and plans a journey to Georgia to see the estate; the friends are Patricia and Jean (Young, 2006). However, the journey to Georgia does not seem easier either and this is the epic of the drama. Owing to the difficult circumstances, the three ladies are forced to do most of the journey by bus. In the bus they come across an old man accompanied by his grandson and the ladies’ attentions are drawn towards the empty coffin the old man is carrying. The three lady friends learn that the coffin won’t be empty for long. This is because the old man decided that he should be executed by the rival clan; this is according to the old man will act as a respite between two families who have been in dispute for centuries (Young, 2006). At once dismayed and mesmerized, Jean wishes to card along and confine the gloomy episode on film. This is not possible as the trip turns out to be more perilous than anticipated, and there is an astonishing turn of events when the old man dies of natural reasons prior to being hanged (Young, 2006). However, the film leaves room for suspense but the cast is enough to put the message across. Social Cultural Issues in Europe as depicted by the film There are a number of Europe’s socio-cultural issues that are evident in this film. These issues are analogous to the cultural set ups of the other continents. Based on this film, the following are the socio-cultural aspects the film is depicting; inheritance, individual sacrifice, conflicts and resolution, social cohesion or togetherness. Inheritance The strangest thing about Europe is that in majority of countries their inheritance is not all about allocating it in a will. It is impossible to be given all for charity due to the illegality involved in it (McCrea, 2010). Rather one is required to apportion the inheritance equally to his/her children a scenario termed as forced heirship. Currently there are provisions to scrabble back funds allocated to people in the last few years of life in order to thwart people from dodging the heirship law by bequeathing even as one is alive (Rabaka – 2011). As such, if one donates a big blob of money to a charity and die a few years later-two to three years-, the government may take it back and allocate some of it to his/her children. From the film inheritance is a subject that appears new. Celine is depicted as learning later on that she was allocated an inheritance. All along she had no glimpse of this kind of inheritance to her name. This explains what transpires in Europe currently where many children are kept in the dark regarding the inheritance their parents wrote in their name. According to several accounts, close to 25% of children in each European country only get to know later that they have inheritance to their names (Reading, 2002). Additionally, the process of identifying these inheritances is not a rosy affair either since many complicated events surround the inheritance. The whole aspect paints a picture of children not being aware of their parents’ possession or dealings. Debates in many parliaments across Europe have resulted in enactment and passage of legislations and policies guiding property ownership business operations (Hoffmann, 1996). Many countries within the continental Europe are urging families to be open to their children and their other beneficiaries about their actual dealings in business and properties they own (Hingley, 2005). The other aspect regarding inheritance as a socio-cultural feature in Europe is that inheritance is not limited by gender or sex. Unlike in countries from other continents particularly Africa, in Europe the female gender has equal access to the inheritance of her parents’ properties and stakes (Zhang, 2010). This is quite evident in this film where Celine being the female gender is allocated inheritance to her name. This on the other hand urges countries which have not embraced gender equality when it comes to inheritance to do so, even though in many centuries ago this was not the case as the female gender was overlooked in many critical aspects of a family such as share of inheritance (Tseng and Jing Xu, 1991). In light of these several legislations a have been passed over time in European parliament to ensure that there is continued equality in allocation of inheritance to all the children regardless of their sex because some families have children belonging to only one particular gender. In fact in Georgia legislation was passed two decades ago regarding equal allocation of inheritance to all the children irrespective of gender to counter the increasing feuds among the siblings because of unfair allocations of inheritance (McCrea, 2010). The same is evident in many other European countries while others have adopted it long ago with the commencement of civilization. Conflict and Dispute The central theme in the film is conflict and how this conflict is resolved. This however is a global concern let alone in continental Europe. The movie highlights inter family conflicts particularly those touching on property and possessions. Looked at in the bigger picture, the continent is also currently involved in many conflicts related to resources and economic benefits with countries from other continents. Feuds, conflict and settlement are component of the structure of collective living and early contemporary Europe was no exclusion (Zielonka and Pravda, 2001). Undeniably, in a time when antagonism or rivalry could be a force, delicate or eye-to-eye, a prescribed and public stipulation conflict was more than ever important. Nevertheless, the ways in which disagreements and feuds were handled varied from individual to individual as well as from one tradition to the next (Zartman, 2007) and (Kurtz and Turpin 20100). As we had mentioned before there is suspense in the film as we have no idea if Celine is related to the old man and if the impending clan dispute is property related; a property that is an inheritance to Celine. However, it is clear that the cause of dispute between the clan is property related. This depicts the basis of many family or clan conflicts in larger continental Europe to be property related. Also in the film we see a scenario where inter family disputes are only handled and portrayed by the older people in the family. There is no mention of the parents of the young boy, probably they a misfortune happened to them or simply they are not interested in the disputes of the family. The other aspect is that may be the younger people are less informed of what is transpiring among their families. According to statistics 50% of the young people in Europe currently are not aware if their family is in rivalry of any kind with other families, their parents or grandparents admit that their families are involved in some dispute of property nature with other rival families without the knowledge of their children (Council of Europe, 2000). A host of many other European films also highlight the existence of family conflicts without the knowledge of younger generation who only get to learn of the conflicts later on when some misfortunes have happened to one of their family members (parents or grandparents). On the same subject, it could be inferred that the younger generation are also less interested with the affairs of their families. In fact prior to civilization, the younger generation was not to mingle with their older counter parts (Brown and Piotr Górecki, 2003). This has since changed in the modern Europe hence, according to the film, why would the younger generation be less interested with the affairs of their family? And why would their parents not want to divulge family affairs especially in matters disputes to them? It is therefore time for this culture to change significantly where both the children and their parents engage each other openly and significantly discuss family issues that will benefit all of them. Unless this is done as is portrayed by the film, the culture of social interaction among family members will continue to deteriorate and the younger generation of Europe will be completely detached from their older counterparts. However there is a change to this culture whereby most governments in Europe have devised laws and legislation regarding how to settle property disputes (Zartman, 2007) and (Goertz and Diehl, 2002). Individual Sacrifice This socio-cultural aspect is directly linked with the cultural issue mentioned above; that is, conflict in the society. The old grandfather being among the main characters in the film is as offering to die by hanging since he thinks this is the surest way of bringing the long standing inter clan dispute to an end, although prior to this happening he dies from a natural death. This is quite a dominant culture in the larger continental Europe where even among the citizens themselves, they would go to any extent to ensure that the image of their country is not tarnished but instead is built (Corr, 2010). A good example is in the sporting arena. Each of the European nations is so much concerned with ensuring that the country is at the par in terms of realizing victories and getting the relevant trophies. Statistics show that over the last seven FIFA world cup tournaments, fans from the European nations formed the larger part of the total fans present in the country where the tournament is held (Vendramin, 2010). This is attributed to the passion with which the said citizens have towards their country with some even taking leave from their work or businesses to go out there and offer the much needed support. Addition to the sacrifice of time, there is also the financial sacrifice that these citizens have to make. It is also reported that many types of games originate from the continent and this games are included in major sporting tournaments such a Olympics. This is exactly the same situation the film is trying to portray where the old man in the desire to see peace prevail in his clan, he has purposed to offer himself as a sacrifice. In terms of economic and technology fronts, the same passion is seen among the citizens. For instance the current economic difficulty that has rocked a number of countries in the continent has shown how sacrificial and concerned the other members of the European block are. The debt crisis in Greece led to the coming together of the countries in the block to formulate ways of helping Greece come of the danger of tumbling economically (Sarikakis, 2007). Therefore, the culture of individual sacrifice in Europe as depicted in the film has been there for quite a long time dating back to the colonial era on to industrial and civilization era. This culture continues to leave on in the continental Europe. This culture astonishes a section of sociologists owing to the fact that the European continent is a capitalist continent. Therefore, they think that the level of collectivity expressed by the citizens in ensuring prestige does not correlate with the capitalist nature of the continent. On the other hand, some sociologists believe that this culture in itself is a characteristic of capitalism; it facilitates the exercise of capitalism (McCrea, 2010). Social Cohesion, Togetherness and globalization According to Koff (2009), this is the capacity of a society to make certain the welfare of all its members, minimizing differences and circumventing marginalization. The legacy film depicts the social cohesive and togetherness culture in Europe. One incidence is where after Celine learns of her inheritance in a far of village in Georgia; her two friends are available and more than willing to accompany her to see the castle. Vendramin (2010) also defines social cohesion as the activity that entails the construction of common morals and communities understanding, plummeting inequalities in possessions and wages and by and large permitting people to have sagacity that they are occupied in a shared venture faced common challenges and that they belong to a similar community. Two practices are fundamental regarding the social cohesion in Europe; one is globalization and the shift in the direction of monetary and political unification in Europe. Globalization is considered as creating homogeny among countries; according to Sarikakis (2007), globalization implies to growing dominance of a particular, international market with mounting streams of capital goods, service, employment and information transversely in the nationwide borders. As has been mentioned under the individual sacrifice section, there is a perception that social cohesion in Europe is a daily endeavor. However, many reports indicate that there are incidences where social inequalities have been rampant (Famagusta Gazette, 2012). This is why the film is casted to urge the countries that hardly practice social cohesion to embrace the culture. However since time immemorial Europe has been in the lime light exploring every possible effort to encourage social cohesion. It is a theory that is not very common with the many European nations. This is because of the capitalist nature of the continent unlike in the Asian continent that is purely socialist continent. Just like in the film La Haine, the issue of social cohesion is highlighted where in the society of the main characters, each individual is so much concerned with his/her own gain and careless about the well being of others (Young, 2006). In the face of globalization and cross cultural relation, this should not be what Europe’s populace ought to practice. According to the assertions of Kettemann and Wieden (1993) globalization is comprehensively facilitated by real social cohesion among countries while capitalism is an impediment to globalization. On the other hand social cohesion is a culture that is not as popular in the continent as highlighted in the film where there is persistent inter-clan conflict. The other clan did not care about the need to bring to an end the long standing issues between them and were even ready to take some one’s life for the sake of getting what they believe is theirs. Had there been real social cohesion among these clans, such long standing disputes would be very minimal or none at all. The effort that Europe is making currently to foster social cohesion is evident in globalization and monetary fronts. Monetary wise, there are positive measures to ensure that the block uses a unifying currency that will ensure unity among the countries in the block (Council of Europe, 2005). On the globalization front sociologists have established that the continent is making efforts to foster cross border trade among the countries existing with the European block. In fact, there were recommendations to make a solitary work permit for citizens belonging to member countries of the European Union so that they have freedom of seeking employment in any of the country they find an opportunity (Council of Europe, 2005). There have also been efforts to establish an official language for communication during conferences. Debates have emerged over this move as some sociologists and economic experts argue that it should be open to countries from other continents and without this the claim that Europe is a continent that is socially minded would be null and void. The listed four aspects are the social cultural issues that the film depicts and it is analogous to other a host of other European films. These are among the socio-cultural issue that characterize the continental Europe besides political economic and educational aspect that have not been highlighted in the film. The Choice of the Movie and the Lessons Drawn from it I chose this movie for social cultural analysis of Europe because brings out a direct social and cultural aspects of communities in Europe. This is because the movie revolves around two European countries; France and Georgia therefore we are able to easily identify the common cultural and social aspects in Europe as depicted by the two countries. The inspiration that one can draw from this film is that no matter the extent of family or clan feuds, a time will surely come when such feuds will be over and people will live in harmony. It also inspires at how the old people always stand up for the good of their families, that is they will do whatever it takes to ensure peace abounds in their family. The movie therefore has very important lessons that we can learn from; much as family conflicts are normal, we are to avoid these conflicts as the consequences are gravies. Secondly, we learn of the level of sacrifice of old man towards ensuring peace abounds. Finally, we get to learn the importance of communication between parents and their children in terms of informing them aspects of their families for instance, property and passions as well as conflicts. References Bell, A and Garrett, P 1998, Approaches to Media Discourse, Oxford: Blackwell Theobald, J 2004, The Media and the Making of History Basingstoke, Ashgate Wen-Shing Tseng, Jing Xu 1991, Culture and Family: Problems and Therapy, Haworth Press Inc.: Binghamton NY. 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