Compare and Contrast Two Views of How Social Order Is Produced in Public Spaces.

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Compare and contrast two views of how social order is produced in public spaces. The concept of social order can be defined in a number of ways. Explanations of social order tend to be macro-theories, large scale studies, which focus on the analysis of society as a whole. More specific studies, on a smaller scale, of families, communities, and crime, for example, raise social order issues at the micro level (Scott & Marshall, 2009, p.707). This assignment will explore differences and similarities of two ideas of how social order can be created and maintained, using the findings of the Buchanan Report, ‘Traffic in Towns’ (Buchanan, 1963) and the ideas of Hans Monderman (late 20th century). In these instances the focus is the relationship between traffic and pedestrians, and how the governance of these variables act as agents in the creation of social order. Buchanan and Monderman explored how the relationship between traffic and pedestrians makes and remakes social order. Traffic congestion in Britain’s towns and cities increased in correlation with the exponential rise in car ownership following the conclusion of the Second World War (Silva, 2009, p.325). Buchanan was commissioned in 1961 by the UK Government to deliver the report ‘Traffic in Towns’. This report was deemed necessary to avoid demand for road space being greater than that available (Silva, 2009, p.327). The explicit recommendation of the Buchanan report was that traffic and pedestrians should be segregated. Buchanan’s principle was to isolate areas for working, shopping and leisure, separate to ‘corridors’ where traffic could move freely without
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