Orderly Britain: How Britain has resolved everyday problems, from dog fouling to double parking

by Tim Newburn, Andrew Ward

How do British pavements remain free of dog mess? Why are paths not littered with cigarette butts or roads not lined with abandoned cars? What does the decline of the public lavatory say about us and is the national reputation for queuing still deserved today?

Orderly Britain takes a topical look at modern society, examining how it is governed and how it organises itself. It considers the rules of daily life, where they come from and why they exist. It asks whether citizens are generally compliant and uncomplaining or rebellious and defiant. This quirky social history takes a close look at shifting customs and practices, people's expectations of each other and how rule-makers seek to shape everyone's lives - even when ignoring some of those rules themselves.

Taking the reader on a journey that covers a range of topics - dog mess, smoking, drinking, parking, queuing, toilets - Orderly Britain examines the rapidly changing patterns of everyday life, from post-war to present day, and concludes with an extended look at the unparalleled shifts in social routines that resulted from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Asking whether it is the proliferation of rules and regulations in the UK or something else that keeps people in line, authors Tim Newburn and Andrew Ward offer a unique insight into what creates orderly Britons.

Genres: Nonfiction, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2019

About the author

William Henry Timothy Newburn is an academic, specialising in criminology and policing. He was president of the British Society of Criminology from 2005-2008, director of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology from 2003-2008 and is currently head of the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Reviews

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[10 Sep 2022] A seriously odd book, but easy to read, informative and interesting in an unexpected way. The chapters are thoughtful and well researched. Although I thought they were ever so slightly inconsistent in tone and manner. Where this was most obvious was the chapter about parking - here the author's rightly identify that drivers are resentful about excessive parking restrictions, but fail to identify that this is based on a perception of money-making and the increasingly ridiculous charges in car parks, which rather than draw people off the streets - pushes them into them. The last chapter on the pandemic seemed 'tacked-on' and I wasn't sure it told us anything new.

An odd book that uses multiple examples to demonstrate the British are generally a conformist people. What it did not say was whether this was different to other nationalities or give examples of other rules or laws where there has been push-back or non-compliance. It was strangely unbalanced and not reflective enough. Good, but seemed strangely half-hearted. It needs deeper analysis, to contextualise the phenomenon and to truly develop the theory. In summary, good, but could have been much better.

[Sybiee Colvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone even slightly curious about our country and the process of learning and thinking. It's an excellent read