LON220928015

Study and Research Skills

BUS393
Module Leader: Sebastian Lesniewski
Portfolio
AS3
My organisation is a no-profit coffee shop that simultaneously poses as an art gallery, which allows
local, underground artists to present their art. The funding for the art gallery will come from donations
through the purchasing of coffee (but otherwise, the coffee is free) and hopefully, gain recognition
through the use of social media platforms (such as TikTok) in which the collective and I will spread
the message on the failure of capitalism, urge other business owners to adopt a business plan
revolving around socialist economics: where goods and services will be produced directly for use, as
opposed to profit, which is one of the three modes of production often defined as ‘tributary’, as
opposed to now where production is defined as ‘capitalist’ (LibreTexts, 2021) and lastly, advertise our
business whilst doing so.

Figure 1
During my research questionnaire and conversations with my peers, I found extremely useful
information which I can apply to my organisation, for example, two-thirds of reported yes to a
question regarding whether they have given up their dream job solely because the wage was low, as
you can see in Figure 1 above. When asking about their opinion of this through a small conversation, I
found that they had primarily capitalist thinking whilst having socialist views. I figured this is because
most people genuinely believe there is no other option as we live in a post-Communist era and the fall
of the Soviet Union has unfortunately left everyone thinking socialism is no longer viable. However,
the younger generation is considerably more promising and aware to the faults of our economy, the
failure of our elders and lastly, the greed and inaccessibility of the rich which is more prominent in
our lives as opposed to older generations (The Guardian, 2021)

Figure 2
After reflecting on my findings, I have found that the awareness and discussion of the failure of
capitalism must be discussed to a wider degree. My business will do this through videos uploaded to
social media, consistent podcasts within our place of business allowing debates with anyone and
everyone, and our blog where we shall simultaneously publicise the fall of profit as well as advertise
our business. Furthermore, as seen in Figure 2 above, three-quarters of those who completed my
questionnaire voted that they would support a non-profit organisation to spread awareness (of
something they are passionate about), I will use this finding through advertisement – to cling to the
hearts and minds of the community, and hopefully bringing about real change. However, I noticed the
peers I’ve had discussions with struggled to understand my broader use of terms, often times, having
little to no idea what socialism or communism was besides that it was bad, I will blame this on the
miseducation of the youth and Western propaganda – on the other hand, I understand that politics
itself is quite a controversial topic and isn’t really discussed with comfortability in a lot of
environments, which unfortunately leads to widespread confusion amongst the youth – I believe this
is changing, and my business “the collective” will do our best to bring about this change faster. My
research could’ve been considerably better, unfortunately I did not have many subjects respond to my
questionnaire which ultimately led to an extremely minute sample size, I will change this in the future
by perhaps asking strangers in a busy street, videoing it possibly and if the discussions are of any
meaning, I will upload them and hopefully gain traction towards the business.

To conclude, none of my findings were useless, I engaged in conversations of substance with my

peers, I learned that businesses itself are rooted in some indescribable darkness, as the simple joy of
sharing, generosity and vulnerability gets you nowhere besides bankruptcy in a capitalist economy. I
also learned that people are voting for things they do not understand, by spreading information on the
very things that are presented to us on ballot papers, I genuinely think my business can make a change
regardless of whether we make a profit.
Bibliography:

Jones, O. (2021) Eat the rich! Why millennials and generation Z have turned their backs on
capitalism, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at:
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/20/eat-the-rich-why-millennials-and-
generation-z-have-turned-their-backs-on-capitalism (Accessed: January 7, 2023).

Libretexts (2021) 7.2: Modes and means of production, Social Sci LibreTexts. Libretexts.
Available at:
https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Courses/HACC_Central_Pennsylvania's_Community_Co
llege/ANTH_205%3A_Cultures_of_the_World_-_Perspectives_on_Culture_(Scheib)/
07%3A_Economics/7.02%3A_Modes_and_Means_of_Production (Accessed: January
7, 2023).