Dd101_Tma1

TMA 01 With reference to what you have learnt about City Road, outline how material things contribute towards differences on a street which you may know. Plan • Introduction to the Road and description. • Ethnic minority services / And Lack of. • Public access to the Road. • Differences I have observed. Assignment Ìn this TMA I am going to discuss some of the differences that I have observed on a Road that I am familiar with after learning about those that exist on City Road. The Road that I have decided to discuss is Stockport Road, Longsight in Manchester Stockport Road in Longsight is part of the A6 going through Stockport and there on. In the 1950’s the Road was lined with shops, offices, pubs and a cinema. They have since been replaced by a wide variety of shops, the majority being Asian takeaways and restaurants. There are three supermarkets in the area, Asda, Lidl and Farm Foods the last two are next door to each other. There are three banks on the road, TSB, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. The Road has an ethnically diverse population, Pakistani, Indians, Africans, Kurdish and other ethnic minorities. Pakistani and Indians are more of majority then other ethnic groups. There is a mix of ages, from children, those in their 20s/30s up to the elderly. Traffic flows both ways, with shops on either side. There are a lot of services provided for the local ethnic population, from the vast area of food outlets, clothes shops, to The Law Centre and a solicitor firm that deals with Immigration cases. The only lack of service provided would be if English was not the client’s first language they would need to attend the offices with someone who could speak English. So there are no translation services available readily in the area. City Road and Stockport are similar in many ways, but I have observed differences. Firstly even though there is a high Student population in Manchester, unlike City Road where there are students, they are in a minority on Stockport Road. There are more students in neighbouring Rusholme, this could be due to the facts that there are more rental properties available then there are on the Road. With shops I found that the Xquisite Africa Shop from City Road, was similar to a shop called The Afro Shop on Stockport Road. The shop caters for hair products for black women, and supply a wide range of food products also. The only difference is that while Xquisite is run by an African lady, Janet Symmons, The Afro shop is run by Indian gentlemen. On City Road there seems to be only one sari shop, which supplies Indian clothes and Jewellery. On Stockport Road, every fourth shop is a sari or shop that sells Indian jewellery. There are newsagents on Stockport Road, but they have not been around as long as the newsagent Auto Trader on City Road. The Auto Trader still has the essence of a newsagent/corner shop unlike the newsagents on Stockport Road who seem to have lost that. They do sell the usual newspaper, magazines etc, but they all sell mobile phones in the shop also. There is CCTV cameras in operation on City Road and are easily seen, on Stockport Road there are no readily observed cameras. Crime is similar as on City Road, with shop lifting. During the day the Road seems to be a safe place to walk along, but during the night as with City Road locals are afraid to venture out alone. There are no leisure clubs on the road unlike on City Road where there is a tennis and pool club. Youngsters in the area tend to hang out in groups on bicycles outside shops. The key points drawn upon in this essay shows that differences exist in any street and that through similarities how no street is unique. Differences are produced through the constant reshaping of our society that we live in today and impacts on the lives of all. Through society being made and remade can yes resolve issues but can also create tensions within our society. The second key point illustrates that how our identities through social activities can create divides within our society as not all of these are seen accessible by all through the economic divide, thus creating differences and inequalities. References Making Social Lives (DVD), (2011) Learning Companion 1, Introducing the social sciences, Milton Keynes, The Open University, (2011). Self-reflection What have I enjoyed about starting this module' The main things I found interesting in producing this TMA was researching the history of the street / town that I have chosen and understanding what it used to be like. I also enjoyed learning about the differences that exist within the Roads that I had never previously given thought to. What I found difficult I found it difficult initially to identify differences on the Road that I chose and to elaborate on them.