Identities Place As A Source Of Inclusion And Exclusion Analysis

Examine the argument that identities of place can be a source of inclusion and exclusion

Identities of place refer to geographic locations and their meanings in relation to how people live, work, socialise and establish themselves in them. The way they effect the shaping of individual and collective identities plays an important part of who people think they are and who they become, which invariably has an impact on societies and how they function as a whole. In relation to this, this essay will look at social inclusions, which refer to people’s allocation to specific rights and social exclusion, which refers to disadvantages and inequalities in certain rights of groups or numbers of people. Whilst identities of place can provide inclusion
Between 1831 and 1841 Manchester’s population grew by 71 %, causing it to be described as the ‘shock city’ of its time (Briggs, 1990). Industrialisation drove large numbers of people from the countryside into the city, hopeful perspectives for better incomes and with that better lives were giving people all the reasons necessary to take this drastic step. With increasing numbers of inhabitants and decreasing space, life in the cities changed for many families and individuals. Although the city provided a wide spectrum of opportunities to the broader public in respect to employment, ways of life, environment and connections people made with each other as well as with the space and things they were surrounded by and had to deal or engage with on a day to day basis ( Steve
An article in The Guardian by Laura Smith (9th Oct. 2004), includes the statement of the Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips, that there is ‘passive apartheid’ in Britain’s countryside. Looking at one place in particular, Brockenhurst in Hampshire, which is approximately and hour and a half away from London, he referred to the low numbers of people of ethnic minorities and the high percentage of white people (98.6 % in Brockenhurst) and the results of a research which show that only one person in 85 in the south-west is black or Asian. Phillips outlined the fact that majority of migrants fear to move to the countryside. The reasons for this can be the non-existent access to their needed and/or preferred food items, hair and body care products, certain services related to their ethnicity, religion or heritage as well as some of the stereotypes created by travel agencies, advertising firms or television producers, showing only people of white ethnicity spending their lives or holidays in the countryside (Jacqui Stern, Countryside Agency). Despite the fears of not being welcome or appreciated in these places, interviews with some of Brockenhursts migrant inhabitants show that there is hardly any presence of racism and all of the interviewees described how welcome and comfortable they feel in their home in the