A comparison of benefit and loses on a street that you know and City Road.

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Social lives lived out in and around streets offer to social sciences an insight into modern society. By comparing benefits and losses for different individuals on City Road in Cardiff and Holloway Road in London, this text will show how streets provide a space to transform ways people view their identities. It will be shown that people create communal lives, as well as re-imagine national identities. On the other hand, streets also exemplify separation and inequality, such as an undermining of national belonging, or a division on bases of economic success. Thus, what is seen on city streets is transferable to other places and people, showing patterns of human behaviour that are universal on all streets in the world. Firstly, making and repairing of society is significant for identities that are maintained and formed on a street. People take part in services, activities and communication, which make them interact and relate to one another in different ways. Different places and premises have a dual function, and offer a space for interaction and a formation of communal life. On City Road, Taste Buds Cafe is not only a place to sell food, but to also 'foster a sense of community' (Blakeley et al., 2009, p.24), and belonging. Similarly, Holloway Road's cafes such as cafe and tearoom Temptations creates a space for an exchange of ideas and experiences. City Road also supports a certain way of life through Saturday farmer's market in the Mackintosh Centre, where local people come together due to a shared interest in foods. Holloway Road offers community support in the same fashion within Lorraine Community Centre facilities, which provide opportunities for socialising from community gardening to sporting events. Moreover, the street ... ... middle of paper ... ...owners losses in profit. Holloway Road manifests the same trend with increasingly more supermarkets. However, on this street, change is a frequent matter. Therefore, there is not the same nostalgia some people, such as members of the Municipal club on City Road, experience, and transformation of Holloway Road is accepted more easily. In conclusion, there are positive and negative developments one can observe on city streets. Repairing society means different things and different results for various people, keeping some included and some not, adding to a complex web of social interactions. Works Cited Blakeley, G., Bromley, S., Clarke, J., Raghuram, P., Silva, E. and Taylor, R. (2009). Introducing the Social Sciences. Learning Companion 1. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Introducing the Social Sciences. Making Social Lives. (2009). [DVD] Open University Press.

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