Dd101_Tma_01

Drawing on what you have learnt from the Making Social Lives DVD and Learning Companion 1, outline how material things on City Road favour the activities of some groups of people over others. The groups living on City Road have been shown to value and have conflict with a variety of different material things in their lives, each one personal to their own identity. One of the first business’ shown on the Material lives DVD is that of “Xquisite Africa”. This shop is owned by a female African who sells a wide variety of goods within; all of the produce sold in this shop is food and material goods that you would also find in Africa. The proprietor’s main custom will come from Africans and then a smaller group of white South Africans now living in and around the local area of City Road. Other migrants have also set up thriving businesses on City Road. Nof, came from Iraq and, although unable to use his desired skills in employment, he started a small eatery “The Hawaiian” that has since thrived and its profits have provided the ability to open a second. There are many working migrants living and working on City Road. This group of individuals is connected to both material objects and society. Many of the activities will and will not be shared by this group. The sports centre is one activity that perhaps this group will feel unable to reach, due to the club being perceived as expensive and/or exclusive. Food seems to be a connection for all groups, there are many takeaways and diners that provide different cultural foods to cater for the many types of individual living on City Road. This activity shows us how society is being built and repaired by using diversity. The conflict of time and space seems to be ever present on City Road and will determine which groups will use which activity at what time. For instance, retired individuals will use the takeaways during the day for a cup of tea in their daily routine but would not however venture out to do the same at night (when a younger generation perhaps students might fill the space) through perception of a rough and dangerous road. This may also trigger social conflict between groups at different times of day. Traffic travelling through City Road can be identified as a group, a group that will perhaps find ill favour with the material objects that order provides, order dictates the safety of the pedestrians on the road but perhaps slows the task of travelling through. By using tools, order creates as said by Dr Elizabeth Silver a “complex communication system between traffic and pedestrians” to co-exist on the road. Providing training is given. We can see through connected lives how each group, individual and activity can be intertwined by common denominators. We see one student that Dr Elizabeth Silver interviews that can be connected to many material things on City road and might therefore favour more activities. As a taxi driver this student will use the roads, perhaps drink in the town during the evening with fellow students and/or daytime on lunch break from work. Being a member at the local tertiary college also may lead him to correct knowledge of the misperceived sports club. Elderly or retired groups of people may favour the farmers market by way of cheaper costs, imagined memories of a happy past and perhaps a place where friends and other members of the group will shop. The farmers market also proves to be an activity in favour with the students for ease and preferred shopping relating to an individuals identity. There are three men that drink in the local working men’s club and a girl playing pool with her friends that may not be so keen to involve themselves with activities present at night due to a “Dangerous and rough” outlook. This conflict between the three men, girl in the snooker club and the groups drinking at night show that the group’s willingness to participate in an activity can change depending on the time of day. The social order and rules that use material tools in everyday life to aid and better the law both visible and invisible change the way groups will act in time and space. At night groups drinking in town are less likely to commit crime when in a bar, if understanding that there is a visible preventative measure (bouncers in a nightclub) and perhaps invisible (CCTV). In summary, material objects both visible and non-visible not only determine what activities a group may take part in but how groups and individuals in a group are connected in their social lives. Bibliography - Dr Elizabeth Silver, The Open University - Dr Simon Bromley, The Open University - DD101, Introducing the social sciences, learning companion 1. - DD101, Introducing the social sciences, Making lives DVD Self Reflection Although finding it difficult to find time away from work to allow myself to both “sharpen the saw” (prepare) and to even write albeit my first essay at this level, I have been tested positively and found the course to leave me learned and wanting more.