Tma01_City_Road

Drawing on what you have learned about City Road, outline some of the inequalities on a street that you know. I have chosen to consider Bold Street in Liverpool city centre and the main inequalities that are present on the street. Bold Street is famous for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end contains more shops which are chain stores. Liverpool Central, Liverpool's main train station, can also be accessed via an entrance on Bold Street next to The Lyceum, a post office which was Europe's first lending library. The middle area contains bars as it leads towards Concert Square, a square containing clubs and bars, and the top end contains more independent shops and cafes. For the most part, Bold Street is pedestrianised and cars do not have access. The essay will look at three inequalities and compare them with, if possible, similar inequalities on City Road. The first one will look at different ethnic backgrounds and how they are represented within the street. I will then look at the commercial side of the street and an economic inequality. Finally I will look at provisions for people with disabilities and how they are able to access the street. Firstly there is an uneven representation of ethnic shops in the street. Liverpool is a fairly multi cultural city and I can only think of one shop, Mattas that sells foods from around the world. This shop is always full of shoppers and has been there for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately there continues to be a gap in the market with ethnic shops as no other shops have opened like this one. In City Road, the African shop is a fantastic example of bringing culture into society while the producers of the goods in Africa making a fair wage for their produce. (Making Social Lives on City Road, scene 2) Like on City Road, there are always new faces on Bold Street and many immigrants and tourists moving in and out of the city. (Making Social Lives on City Road, scene 6) However there is a gay and lesbian bookshop on the street which has been there for some time and has proven very popular in the area. Above the book shop there is an alternative style church which, while is open for all to attend, actively encourages gay and lesbian people to attend. This shop is similar to the café on City Road as it serves as a dual purpose of being a bookshop as the main business while also creating a sense of community and belonging for the people who attend. (Making Social Lives on City Road, scene 5) Bold Street highlights economic inequality in many ways. There are many upmarket restaurants and wine bars which only cater for people with high disposable incomes. There is only one bakery which customers on a low income are able to buy from. This is further highlighted by the amount of Big Issue sellers and homeless people asking for money. There are also many high end clothing boutiques in the street. Many small independent shops have closed down due to the bigger chains of high street shops, creating constant reshaping. This is similar to Colin the traditional newsagent on City Road whose business has been affected by Tesco and Spar opening near his shop. There is also a constant theme of change and continuity on Bold Street where some people win and some people lose with this reshaping of society. (Making Social Lives on City Road, scene 3) Lastly, I would like to talk about disability inequalities. Unfortunately, in Bold Street there are not enough facilities for the people with disabilities. I have noticed that there is limited access into may of the shops and wine bars as the majority of the venues are old buildings and not purpose built. As in City Road, the old buildings acquire new uses, creating constant repair and renewal. (Blakeley et al., 2009, p26) Few of the shops have disabled access as there are steps leading up to the shop. However on the road there are raised dots on the floor and lowered pavements to allow people to cross. Recently bollards have been installed to prevent cars from parking illegally but this presents another problem as people with impaired vision have to manoeuvre around the bollards. When examining the layers of meaning, patterns, connections and themes of modern day society, Bold Street is an interesting example to use as it is also typical of the rich variety of life in a modern city. References ‘Making Social Lives on City Road’ (2009) Making Social Lives (DVD), Milton Keynes, The Open University. Blakeley, G., Bromley, S., Clarke, J.,Raghuram, P., Silva, E. and Taylor, S. (2009) Learning Companion 1, Introducing the social sciences: part one, Milton Keynes, The Open University.