Examine the argument that neighbourly relations are always characterised by friendly distance.
The requirement to be friendly but without undermining the privacy of others, different spaces where neighbouring takes place. For example if a neighbour is busy at the front garden might do a quick chat, but never thinking of knocking on their front door. People don’t normally sit in the front of their home because they see it to public, more like in the back garden. Like Kate Fox says refer it as the grey area In her book called Watching the English: The hidden rules of English Behaviour Fox wrote that in 2004, who is a social anthropologist.
Some neighbours may pass one another and a have a quick hi, chat, and some don’t bother with each other. Most properties in the UK have distinct physical boundaries, for example, borders, hedges, fences or walls, most people respect these boundaries. We have them as a protection from others around us, so we can sit or sunbathe without onlookers, if someone were to pop their head over our fence this would, to most, be seen as intrusion. Many people have a relationship with their neighbours, most of them keeping a distance, not becoming too friendly, maybe borrowing a power tool or signing for a parcel and dropping it round when they finish work. Willmott, 1986, said neighbours are expected to have a ‘general disposition towards friendliness’ while, at the same time, respecting others ‘need for privacy and reserve’. This suggest the general feeling towards how a neighbour should be is friendly when seen but to respect the privacy and need for space.
Identify the argument that neighbourly relations are characterised by friendly distance. Before I identify the argument that neighbourly relations are characterised by friendly distance, I want to explore what neighbourly relations are, their responsibilities, how and why they act in a particular but also whether it’s the same throughout the