Tma_One

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. “As social and material lives change, so some people benefit and others lose” (Blakeley et al., 2009, p. 33). Throughout this prose I shall look deeper into this and find out just how material things can affect different social groups on City Road, and outline a few of the inequalities and differences that are produced because of this using various observations, narratives and interviews. Whilst watching the Making Social Lives DVD, one factor that was most prominent to me was how throughout time, transport & the transport system has shifted from favouring motorists, to favouring pedestrians. “Death Junction” is perceived to be so called due to the design of it being biased towards motorists without concern for the pedestrians, we know that this isn’t the case but it shows acknowledgement by the users of city road, the favouring of motorists over pedestrians. In scene 1 of the Material Lives film of the DVD Rodney Berman goes on to talk about the environmental improvement to City Road in 2001. Some of the improvements included bollards to prevent motorists coming onto the pavement, as well as street islands to make the road safer to cross. This scene is also a good example of how people can have multiple identities, as Berman goes on to say “We also thought about how it might affect people who are partially sighted and that’s why, for instance, we have the white stripe on the bollard.” Not only are certain people being classed as pedestrians, but also abled or disabled. Putting the white stripes on the bollards in an attempt to equalise abled & disabled people has also caused awareness of the difference in doing so. Another way, in which various social groups have joined, is with a focus on the night life on City Road. The Cardiff Tertiary Building was made from an old Post Office building in 1994 & brought in many new students and I quote “The college occupies a very prominent role within the population use of City Road”, (Dr Elizabeth Silva, ‘Material Lives’, 2009, scene 4). This increase in students has fuelled the take away business, causing a growth in them & joining the 2 groups. However in doing so this has cause City Road to be perceived as unsafe during the night (‘Making social lives on City Road’, 2009, Scene 5), favouring the students & other people wanting night time entertainment, over others such as older residents of City Road. So far the things I have discussed have shown that various social groups compete for not only space for things, but time as well. So material things are created by these different groups, which then influence and govern not only those groups, but others as well. This can be said for the old petrol station (‘Material Lives’, 2009, scene 3) which used to serve motorists (again favouring motorists in the past) but has now closed down and become an eyesore. Rodney Berman states that nothing can be done about it yet as it is privately owned and the owner is waiting for the market to be better suited to develop the property. The owner is favoured, not only as an individual, but also as a wealthy person (or people) over citizens and visitors of City Road, as well as the Council. Thus a tension, or conflict, has been created between these groups of people, over a physical space as well as time. As previously mentioned however, we have learnt that the recycling of an old material thing, can not only create new social groups within the area, but influence and change previous social groups, such is the case with the Cardiff Tertiary Building. However in the case of Denis Robinson, a point is made that “the ways in which material lives are bound up with social lives has continuities as well as very dramatic changes” (Dr Simon Bromley, ‘Material Lives’, 2009, Scene 3). Dr Bromley made this statement, due to the fact that Denis Robinson has had to develop strong person connections with people in order for his company to continue. In conclusion, we have learnt that material things don’t just influence social groups, in physical space, but also throughout time. I have also shown that material things can actually create identities, as well as inequalities such is the case of owning a building to demonstrate wealth, as well as being abled or disabled.