This week’s reading focused on capitalist market systems, being a visionary, and the methodology of data collection from ethnographers’ viewpoint. The reading demonstrated, in recent years, the capitalist market system is generating massive wealth; however, majority of investors or businesses are operating in similar fashions as decades ago, which creates vulnerability for the system to break down in serious ways. On the contrary, some positive examples are of those entrepreneurs who are changing norms by creatively redesigning, redefining and enhancing their approach to businesses, and entering new roles which are both necessary and possible for urban development. Keith Baker is a prime example of such an entrepreneur who is a visionary and helping bring new ideas to the Jonestown, Baltimore area through the redevelopment of the Hendler Creamery block. This project will revitalize two blocks of Jonestown, creating jobs and in the meantime, preserving the character of the community. Mr. Baker believes in valuing history, out of the box thinking to implement and grow a neighborhood and its surroundings. Lastly, the reading demonstrated that data collection varies between ethnographers. One particular trend of current ethnographers is to live in the same neighborhoods and communities of people they are studying to have meaning and true social context for the best results.
The theme of this week ties in perfectly to another class I am currently enrolled in, Corporate Governance. The two opposing views in Corporate Governance are expressed by Friedman, who matches the more negative view discussed above where the capitalist system has generated massive wealth for certain shareholders without respect for the surrounding communities and external stakeholders. Freeman, however believes in the more opportunistic for all approach mentioned above as well as the visionary idea to redefine and enhance their approach to business to include more than just a few select shareholders. The idea of corporations trying to maximize profits while externalizing costs to the surrounding stakeholders couldn’t relate more to what we are seeing in our communities across the country. Every business operates within a specific community, engages specific resources, affects its environment, engages its citizen through labor and otherwise, and ultimately affects more than just shareholders or employees. However, companies, to maximize profits have forgot about these “external” factors and only focused on wealth creation. True, this does create wealth, but at the expense of the communities, environment, and citizens that it exploits. However, how do we incentivize businesses to care about these external factors? I believe the only sustainable way to convince these businesses is to create value for doing so – after all, no one said that caring and supporting externalities and being profitable must be mutually exclusive. Many companies and corporations have specifically placed themselves into an area that is struggling and have, through focused corporate governance practices, helped both the community in which it finds itself while also generating significant profits for shareholders. The Port Covington development has this potential as it transforms a blighted neighborhood into something thriving. However, as the reading suggests, implementing these kinds of programs isn’t as simple as a company inserting themselves into a community. It takes ethnographers and cultural studies to evaluate the historical situation of the community and laying out a plan to implement and grow the neighborhood successful.
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