1. 8. Social Order

2. What is social order?  social stability, an orderly society  social hierarchy, order of social importance

3. ‘to be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.’ (Williams) To make hope possible depends upon ‘an understanding of the current social order and what maintains social order, how to question these and – if and where they are found wanting – what alternatives might be considered...[i]f the regulations of society are open to question, development and change, as they must be in a democratic society, so must the social structures upon which they depend.’ (p)

4. Is social order breaking down? Identify evidence of broken social order in the UK in the last five years In the same categories, identify evidence of social cohesion and/or stability in the same period

5. ‘[O]ur society as presently structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members – like working-class adolescents – and then condemn whatever solution these groups find.’ (Cohen 1994; p1 and p204)

6. Those who want to bring about change are always a nuisance – just consider the irritation which Jesus and Mohandas Ghandi caused to the authorities of their times – but they are essential. (p) ‘Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class in the community, and sow seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so abundantly necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization’. (Wilde, 1891; p73)

7. Bibliography Cohen, S. (1994) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers Oxford: Blackwell Leighton, R. (2011) Teaching Citizenship Education: A Radical Approach London: Continuum Wilde, O. (1891) ‘Disobedience: Man’s Original Virtue’ in G. Woodcock (ed) (1980) The Anarchist Reader Glasgow: Fontana/Collins