Using the data provided what can you say about the ethnicity of the population in the national parks of England and wales?

Assignment Plan
Part one
Beginning
What I am describing- The two tables showing ethnicity in national parks in England and wales.

Main
Brief description of the ethnic groups including the data provided- inaccurate
Three chosen parks to discuss- Northumberland, South Downs and Exmoor National Parks and the averages of white ethnic as it is the highest group and mixed group as it is one of the lowest groups.
Similarities with all the parks and differences.

Summery
Information the table doesn’t show
What I have covered in the short assignment

Part two
Beginning
Outlining points of which the argument is about- high lightened in the question that we need to discuss that places can be a source of inclusion and exclusion for specific communities.

Main
Identities including social identities which link people to places, how they are seen by where they are or what they are doing when their personal identity is different. Pictures in figure 1 page 165 and extract of page 167
Ethnic identity- often linked to physical body, skin colour or religion. Page 180 (Lewis and Phoenix, 2000) making social lives book.

Inclusion- Scheme to involve black teenagers to take part in working on a farm to integrate them with the countryside- Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones. ‘Within weeks many of them wanted to stay in Cornwall’ page 27 assignment booklet
‘Concrete to coriander’ project aimed to help women from places such as Pakistan, Kashmir and Bangladesh to connect socially. Page 207 making social live book.

Exclusion- minority of groups not comfortable visiting the countryside ‘not a welcome place to them’. Page 26 assignment booklet
Some ethnicities considered walking in the countryside demeaning to ‘traipse about like peasants’ page 26 assignment booklet.
Imagery of rural Britain and Ireland can be racist and exclusions occur to those who look different by skin colour, dress, body shape or ability. page 222 making social lives book.

Ending
What I have discussed

Part one
Using the data provided what can you say about the ethnicity of the population in the national parks of England and wales?

In the data provided it shows different groups of ethnicities in different national parks within England and wales. This consists of five main ethnic groups which are white, mixed, Asian, black and other and following from those five main groups are eighteen sub-groups. The tables 1 and 2 provide quantitative data obtained through the method of Census in April 2011.

Between the different parks the amount of white English/welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish and British people are relatively high throughout all the parks and the highest out of all the ethnic groups. Looking at the tables the lowest groups for all the parks are the black ethnic group and other ethnic groups.
Although accurate calculations of the mean cannot be completed as in some sections there is zero data for example in Northumberland national park there are no people with the ethnicity of mixed white and black African’s or mixed white and Asian therefore an average calculation will be inconclusive.

For the three national parks chosen for this assignment the average has been calculated for the entire white ethnic groups and the entire mixed ethnic group. For Northumberland National Park the average of all the white ethnic groups is 494 compared to the average of all the mixed ethnic groups which is 1 this is because as mentioned earlier in some groups there is no data therefore calculations are not completely accurate. In Exmoor National Park the average of white ethnic groups is 2,540 to the average of mixed ethnic group is 17. In South Downs National Park the average for white ethnic groups is 27,232 to the average of mixed ethnic group of 334. These calculations show that the majority of people that visit the National Park are of white ethnicity.

Looking at the total amount of people for each National park, a similarity that all the parks share is that the total of people amount to no higher than 50,000 apart from South Downs National Park. This is the only National Park which holds a difference when taking into consideration all of the ethnic groups to have a total amount of people at just over 110,000.

Over this assignment I have chosen three particular National parks to compare and calculate the data provided in the tables. It is in my opinion that this is not a true reflection on ethnicities in the national parks in England and wales. This is because as mentioned earlier in some areas there is zero data which makes any calculations inaccurate. One point I noticed is the table doesn’t provide information about is how this data on different ethnicities was gathered therefore how accurately is have been recorded so it is difficult to read the data and see a true link. I have also discussed the similarities and differences for all the National Parks with South Downs National Park being the one that stood out to me. Overall other than stating the population in each of the National parks for each ethnicity the table doesn’t provide any more information.

Word count 503

Part two
For the purpose of this assignment the subjects that will be discussed are different types of identities such as social identities and ethnic identities, inclusions, exclusions and finally summarise the assignment. Looking at the extract ‘A question of ethnics’ in relation to the assignment question it has been argued that places can be a source of inclusion and exclusion for specific communities. Dependant on the situation this statement can be true but also it can be misinterpreted and unintentionally excluding to some communities.

There are different types of identities but when looking at linking a person to a place either by inclusion or exclusion then this could be a ‘social identity’. After examining pictures of different places where people are located a social identity is created. (Figure 1, making social lives, page 165)
For example when looking at someone walking with shopping bags their social identity at the time is a shopper or if you see a person with a camera their social identity at the time may be a tourist. A social identity isn’t limited or set once it has been established as it can change from day to day and from place to place.

Ethnic identity is something commonly used on paperwork such as forms to determine a person’s sex, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity but one that is often linked to a person’s physical body, skin colour or religion (Page 180 Lewis and Phoenix, 2000, making social lives). Due to changes in racial categories some people may not feel as though they fit into one or the other this is because some peoples ethnicity maybe classed as one category in one place but different in another. For example in the nineteenth century England, Irish people was often categorised as black which to judge by their appearance are clearly not (Taylor,2009,Page 181).

Places can be a source of inclusion for specific communities when they are an inclusion for everyone. In Birmingham a project was set up and was named ‘concrete to coriander’ which was aimed at women to help them socialise and learn new skills as many of them had moved from rural areas. As an outsider locals may have assumed that this gardening project was only aimed at women who had migrated to the country when nothing states that it is. This project has included a group of women who may have felt isolated and disconnected with the community when moving here as well as helped the community’s appearance and creating a social activity (Hinchliffe,2009,Page 207).
Another example of inclusion which could also be seen as exclusion is in the extract by ‘Mian Ridge’ Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones talks about how he is Britain’s only black farmer and how he set up a scheme aimed at black teenagers to take part in working on a farm to integrate them with the countryside. He spoke about how he was ‘amazed by their prejudice’ and how they came ‘expecting racism every time someone looked at them’. This can be seen as inclusion as Wilfred tried to connect the black teenagers to the countryside by working on his farm when at one point it wouldn’t have been heard of a black farmer. On the other hand this can be seen as exclusion to other communities as it only mentions him inviting black teenagers to work with him and no other ethnicity. Wilfred mentions that ‘within weeks many of them wanted to stay in Cornwall’ so his scheme was a success by bringing young people from a different ethnicity into the countryside and enjoyed it.
In 2001 the council for national parks had created a project called ‘Mosaic project’ to encourage and organise ethnic outings in the countryside where many people from different ethnicities don’t often visit, if at all. This is including all communities along with the British people to enjoy what the country has to offer in the countryside.

Places can be perceived as exclusion to some communities especially in relation to the British countryside. A minority of people have mentioned they consider it to be ‘demeaning for middle-class Indians to traipse about like peasants’ so in reality some ethnicities exclude themselves from such places due to the view they have on the subject of walking or hiking in the dales.
The council for National Parks also mentioned that they was going to axe its free guided walks because they seemed to attract white hikers which this could be seen by white hiker as an exclusion as since there were no ethnic hikers. This was over ruled and they didn’t axe the free guides but more could be done to promote hikers from all ethnic back grounds to attend instead of attempting to cut it short.
Imagery of rural Britain and Ireland can be seen as racist and cause exclusions as is referred to the ‘real’ nation and culture which is British and Irish people. As we see from the tables of national parks the most visitors to these places are majority in the white ethnicity. This shows that other ethnicities still don’t visit the countryside even after schemes and projects that have been set up.

Over this assignment the subjects have been outlined of identities that we are linked to either by our own submission or been perceived by others. It has been discussed about inclusion and exclusion of communities and whether the groups of ethnics have been intentionally included or excluded or if projects and schemes have been aimed at people with disadvantages such as the women who take part in the ‘concrete to coriander’ project seem discriminating against certain communities. People’s preferred places to visit and idea of days out are different from one person to the next regardless of their ethnicity. But there is still an image of only white British people are welcome in the countryside when it is an individual’s or a group’s choice if they wish to visit the countryside.
Word count 986

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