Drawing on What You Have Learned About City Road from the Making Social Lives Dvd and Learning Companion 1, Describe Some of the Ways in Which Order Is Made and Repaired on the Street Which You Know

Drawing on what you have learned about City Road from the Making Social Lives DVD and Learning Companion 1, describe some of the ways in which order is made and repaired on the street which you know.
The purpose of this assignment is to compare and contrast the social order of City Road with a local road to demonstrate how order is made and is continually repaired over time. Abington Street, has changed considerably over the past 50 years, from a quiet street of individually owned shops such as, Halford Jewellers, Benefit footwear, and only one a big convenience store. Today, you will find fewer individually owned and many more big name high street shops, such as Primark and Tesco Express.
Firstly, I will compare Abington Street, and how it has changed to City Road. Abington Street used to be the main thoroughfare to the town centre, with a tram running down the centre of the street creating “invisible order”, nowadays the street remains invisibly ordered but is used differently as it is now completely pedestrianised. It is both a daytime shopping zone and a night time social space. Meanwhile City Road has changed from a simple country road to a busy town through road, however similarities still exist with Abington Street as both are now shopping and social spaces, as City Roads 1960’s car showrooms, have been replaced by shops, cafes, takeaways and restaurants designed for a wide range of people.
With the changes in use, have come the changes in visible order, Abington Streets use changes throughout the day, in a very similar way to City Road. Shopping is the daytime occupation, with people eating and drinking in the cafes, visible order is demonstrated by adherence to the society’s rules as people queue in orderly fashion to purchase goods. Disruption of social order occasionally happens when for example, shoplifting occurs, however this is deterred by CCTV keeping invisible order and is repaired by the presence of security guards preventing further

Bibliography: * Blakeley, G., Bromley, S.,Clarke, J., Raghuram, P., Silva, E. and Taylor, S. (2009) Learning Companion 1, Introducing the social sciences, Milton Keynes, The Open University. * 'The street ' (2009) Making Social Lives [DVD], Milton Keynes, The Open University. * What have you enjoyed about starting this module? I have enjoyed getting back into studying again, after leaving college. I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of this course. What have you found difficult? Time management is my main difficulty, juggling working and writing an assignment but I’m sure I will find this easier as time goes on.