Tma01 Dd101

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 over others.

When looking at any street we know, the material things can easily be taken for granted and go unnoticed, however they do play a huge part in our daily lives. I will be discussing how some of these material things, specifically on City Road favour the activities of some groups of people over others. In particular I will be focusing on street fittings and buildings on City Road.
Every street we know is made up of street furniture, buildings and several other infrastructures, and each of these serve different purposes for different people. This is where we begin to see how inequalities are produced. For example, when watching the ‘Making Social Lives DVD’, Rodney Berman talks about the bollards that have been fitted on City Road in order to stop cars parking and blocking the way for pedestrians, particularly with pushchairs and those in wheelchairs (Making Social Lives on City Road DVD, Material Lives, 2009, scene 1) They have had white stripes painted on them in order to help those with poor vision to notice these bollards and keep them safe. Nevertheless, in keeping a particular section of the community safe, they are also proving to go against the favour of another. For example, people who choose to travel by car, do not have enough access to parking on City Road so therefore may not feel as welcome. City Road is described as a “conduit” road, in the sense that it serves traffic as a place to travel through in order to reach another destination. We can see from this that, unless you are in walking distance or using public transport, it is very difficult to stop and park on City Road.
When watching the ‘Making social loves DVD’ we also see the distress that Jose is going through because of a decision that the council has made to move a bus lane   (Making Social lives on City...