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...