What_Does_This_Table_Tell_Us_About_the_Identities_of_People_Visiting_England's_National_Parks_

Table 1 uses quantitative data to tell us of the collective identities of trip-takers in England in 2005. We can see from table 1similarities in age being 45+, employed full-time, not having children in their household, owning or having personal access to a car, not having a disability and being of white ethnicity between people visiting England's national parks, rural trip-taker's and all trip-taker's. The differences I have noted are that people under 45 are more likely to be rural trip-taker's than national park trip-taker's, and that the majority of visit-taker's to England's national parks are wealthy achievers or comfortably off the amount of visit-taker's that are of urban prosperity , moderate means or hard pressed are very low and that visit-taker's with children in their household were more so rural trip-taker's. Table 1 also shows that people with disabilities were of higher percentage of rural trip-taker's than national park trip-taker's. The main difference I noticed was that of ethnicity. Only 2% of rural trip-taker's and national trip-taker's were of non-white ethnicity compared to that of 96% of white ethnicity, this is a substantial difference. Table 1 identifies many different identities, and covers basically the majority of people living in the UK today broken down into groups according to age, sex, job/earnings, ethnicity, disabled etc. and I feel the majority of people of visit England's national parks are middle aged (younger than retirement age) with perhaps grown up off-spring but this is merely an assumption bought on from the children in household category, white, wealthy achievers or comfortably off, more than likely professional home and car owners. 279 words. Part 2. What does the following article tell us about the relationship between place and identity' The article in question focus' on 'Ethnic minority groups' or 'non white' people and there lack of using the UK's National Parks for their own enjoyment. Using this article we shall discuss the relationship between place and identity. Narendra Bajaria is the new chairman of the Peak District National Park Authority. In the article he describes where he lives and his favourite places within the national parks, from the beginning of this article, if there wasn’t a photograph, I would imagine Bajaria to be white, thin, middle aged with a bobble hat and hiking stick, this is called a collective identity, they can be imagined, as I have created a certain identity for the kind of person who lives in the countryside, however Bajaria is in fact doing identity work, describing the positive features of the place where he lives and works, as he positions himself we can get a feel for the type of person he is. Identity is usually connected to the place where we live and associations of a particular place can become a part of us and the way we talk and think of as ourselves. Bajaria not only works for the Peak District National Park Authority but he also lives only 10 minutes outside the derbyshire park which the article states places within, and Bajaria's favourite spots, using bits of discourse which we could call 'nature.' This positions him as the type of person he is and this is very much related to where he lives but also not where he was born. Bajaria was born in Zanzibar, India. P1. When we describe ourselves or where we live or other things we are making small choices about wording that give one meaning rather than another. (p187 making social lives) The reason Bajaria did this article, I think, is because how other races and ethnicities not using the national parks is because it would not of had the same effect as if for example a white British man had done the article. It would be like a florist doing an article on accountancy. This backs up my relating the article and identity work. 'So Bajaria is an enthusiast. But he is also the first member of an ethnic minority to chair a national park authority' (p25 of assignment booklet taken from Access for all article) Leading from this the 'Who I am' theory, social scientists suggest everyone of us needs a personal identity. So many traditions give us a collective identity from birth and family background, especially those which refer to the jobs we do e.g. farming, fishing etc. are less important in today’s society, this emphasises personal rather than social identity, which the article is a perfect example. We would not usually see a man of ethnic minority doing a job we would associate with a different 'group.' So we see where we live seems to play a role in who we are and we often assume people who live in the same place have the same collective identity, we also assume that most of us have a link to some particular place. We may ask people who we have just met where there are from and where they were born. Identities of race and ethnicity often involve some sort of imagined link. This is not really logical as so many times with have moved and have connections with so many other places as with Bajaria. Race and ethnicity are widely referred to, Race referring to the physical body and ethnicity referring to language. Race and ethnic identities are not only collective but also marked identities that have a historical basis and refer to differences of colour, origin, religion etc. The British Empire established unequal identities for both people and places, differences in identity were essential to the power relationships through which a large part of the world was ruled from Britain as the imperial centre. The unmarked identity being that of former colonisers and the marked being those associated of different race and identity. Which then leads to the racist rhetoric and the people should 'go home.' (p182 making social lives) The racist rhetoric is when people speak or write as though society is divided into completely separate and closed groups as if they are inferior as with marked and unmarked identities being unequal as with discourse is when a set of ideas is shared by some members of society. Bajaria broke away from his collective and social identity that is all to often cast upon people and is a fine example of a personal identity, we categorise people without even meaning to, we expect them to have certain jobs and live in certain areas, and so many of us think of things we do as 'not being for them' for example visiting the UK's national parks because we don’t dress or behave in the same way as we would expect e.g.; national park trip takers too, but as Bajaria states 'The park is there for everyone to enjoy!