The seemingly unwritten rules that society follows.

The following images will show scenes of everyday items, which you may or may not have considered before. They will show how seemingly ordinary everyday items, and areas, that we come across, have unwritten rules, or instructions, that society appear to be governed by even when there is no-one of authority around to enforce those rules.

Parking space

A line of garages indicate that this is probably a housing area, and since they are all uniform in build, design and colour, they have probably been constructed by the same person or organisation. The tracks in the snow show that they have been used for the purpose that they were built, which is to store a car/private vehicle. A garage can be used for many purposes, but the mere fact that a building is considered, or termed, a garage tends to convey the instruction to people that they should store their car in it; this is an unvoiced instruction that society seems to conform by.

Delineation of areas.

This photo shows how society is regulated by the rules of boundaries, even if there is no-one around to enforce them. A lone person walks on the pavement which is the designated area for a pedestrian, whilst the cars are parked at the side of the road which is the area that is likewise designated for vehicles. The boundary walls to the houses, lining either side of the road, can also be seen to be stretching as far as the eye can see.

What can we learn

A weird-angled shot, and a motorist decided to speed up in the slush when seeing me close to the road trying to get this, so I got a soaking, and was not very amused. But I wanted this photograph because it says a lot about society. The raised sections on either side of the road, we know as pavements, and they are primarily for pedestrians; the road is for vehicles; and the two remain separate. The fence indicates an area which is out of bounds to the general public, and is only accessible to those that have permission to be there. The street lights indicate that the area is made safe for society at night. The sign shows a person where they are in the area. The markings on the road, or roads, since there are two of them, allow for motorists to know when they should stop, and which side of the road they should be on; and the fact that there is a sewage system is evident by the drain in the road. The houses indicate that there is a community in close proximity, and all the houses are modern in style.

The road disappearing into the horizon

I just like this photo, which is why I put it in, even though it still informs us that the large slushy area is used by vehicles due to the tracks, thereby indicating that the road/area has a set function in society, even if there are no vehicles on it at any particular point in time it is still considered to be there for a specific reason.

Footsteps in the snow

This is an interesting sociological shot; the footsteps are constant in that they follow a direct route, but the path and grass are both hidden by snow. This indicates that society has been conditioned to walk on a pavement even if that pavement is hidden by snow and therefore indistinguishable from the grassy area around it. If society knows where the pavement is, they will still use it, even if they cannot see it; this is sort of amazing, and could only show up on a photo that has a snow base to it because the footprints can be seen to leave a trail of where the pedestrians chose to walk even though they were not instructed to walk along the snow-buried pathway, and could just as easily have walked on the snow covered grass areas.

Footsteps in the snow (opposite direction)

This is not such a good shot as the previous one as it shows pitted snow which could be regarded as footprints, showing that the camera can 'lie' even when there is no manipulation of the photo present.

The stile

This section in the fence is positioned in such a way as to allow for access across the fence; there is also a higher protruding piece of wood on the left in order that a person may grasp it for stability when climbing the 'steps' in the fence. This is effectively informing society that they may climb the fence at this spot, and the footsteps in the snow indicate that people have done precisely that, since the eye can follow the tracks right across the snowed area.

The sleeping policeman

This 'sleeping policeman' is there in order to slow the motorist down, it also depicts that the area is probably built-up, and not out in the country somewhere. The bump is made deliberately high enough to slow any driver down. The arrows on either side point in the direction the traffic should be going, so they also serve to instruct the driver as to which side of the road they should in fact be on. The central line is a divider keeping the motorists in their own section of the road, not only in order to allow for no accidents, in the form of vehicles hitting one another, but also to act as a 'directional signifier' ensuring that the 'flow' of traffic goes one way only on either side of the road.

Deadly electric

The heavy bolt, lock, and the solid wire fence indicate that this is not an area of unrestricted access. The fence is also high, and has no access points, other than through the front where the bolt and lock are situated. The warning sign at the top also backs up the point of the area being off limits to the general public.

The many functions of the door

This is a door, and acts as a boundary marker to a very private space, which society is not invited in to, but may have access to via the doorbell, or the letter box. The doorbell was the main feature of the photo, but looked odd out of context, so the complete package has been photographed and it is important that it has been done this way. The lock indicates that people cannot have unrestricted access, the letter box indicates that it is where mail should be placed (since some doors do not have letter boxes), and the doorbell insists that a person does not knock on the door. Sociologically the visitor is being directed to ring the bell due to the mere fact that there is one; this convinces a person not to knock on the door. If there is a bell it is normally rung by the visitor; society acts in this manner, even though they are not instructed by anyone that they may not knock on a door that has a bell.

Boundary fences

There is no gate between the wooden fence and the concrete style fence area to the back of the photo; this is a boundary marker indicating to the general public that it is private property, but also that it is allowing access and is therefore not acting in an overly aggressive 'keep out' manner.

The gate

The entrance to a play area for children, but this is not just any entrance point; it is too wide for pedestrians, and it is not designed for motorists in general, therefore it must be for Council workers and so forth. It is also a heavy metal fence set into a wooden fence, meaning it is made to last.

Enclosed space

A three-tier picture: the fence is in order to separate the people on the outside from those on the inside, and the play area depicts that this is for children, with the houses in the background signifying where the children may live, since the housing area is close to the playground.
Not the best of photos, but there didn't appear another angle that would have worked well at all.

Entrance

This picture shows the point at which people can enter the area that has been segregated off from the area outside of it. Because the fence is low, this would appear to depict that there is no real safety issue, but that the fence and gate exist mainly as boundary and entrance/exit points respectively, and that people are not necessarily to be kept out, so it is not an exclusive area.

Gate

An entrance point, indicating this is where pedestrian go, and that there is no entrance for vehicles. There is also no lock or latch on this gate, which shows it is capable of self-closing meaning that it has been designed, constructed and placed there with people in mind that may not remember to close a gate behind them, children for instance.

Signs

This image shows a minimum of three signs to the left in a relatively small area, in addition to the signs on the farther side of the road. All of these are informative or instructional signs.

Speed monitors

Traffic signs aimed at keeping children safe. A speed sign and a 'Children crossing' sign slightly further along on the left-hand side. The sign indicating that people should be travelling at 20mph cannot ensure that motorists do so, it is merely an encouragement for them to do so at a particular time of day.

No Golf!

A low fence area set into a tall wire fence. This picture shows that the wooden fence area is in fact steps, and allows for people to cross over or through the wire fence at this specified point. This ensures that people do not climb the wire fence, a wire fence that also acts to keep people in, or safe. This delineates those on both sides of the fence from one another, for whatever reason the fence has been constructed. The height of the wire fence depicts that it is there not only as a boundary but also in order to keep people out; or at least to stop people climbing over the fence at any random point. The 'No Golf' sign speaks for itself, and it is red and demands attention; golf is not allowed to be played in this area, for reasons which are not given. The odd thing is that it has the words 'No Golf' on it, indicating that those that see it may not understand the symbolism on the sign itself.

Barriers

The fences in the foreground are barriers on a pavement, looking through the first barrier to the second and the third barrier; they are there in order to slow a pedestrian down. They are informing the pedestrian that there is potential danger ahead. We can see that they are positioned in such a way that a pedestrian must swerve around the three separate solid metal fences in order to reach the roadside, and as such do not have a clear line to the road, thus ensuring that they comply with society's rules.

Dog waste only

A bin specifically for the purpose of 'Dog waste'. This says two things to the viewer: the first is that this is where dog excrement should be placed; secondly, and more subtly, it is informing society that they must clean up after their dog, but without saying it in a direct manner. This particular waste bin is aimed at adults because it is set at shoulder level, although other similar bins are also placed at hip height which means they are not solely targeted at the adult population, which means they encourage all ages to be responsible and clean up after their dog. The fact that it is red may be important, since red usually, in our society, tends to indicate danger, whether this refers to the danger of the contents within, or possibility of a fine should a person not comply, could be a debatable point because some dog waste bins are in fact black in colour.

Bus stop

This item, a bus stop, is an obvious one; but is it as obvious that in order to catch a bus the pedestrian is being directed toward using the bus stop just by the mere presence of it. As such, people are being directed to stand at a certain point along a road, although they may not be at all aware that they are being instructed to do so.

Bollards

These bollards serve two separate functions: one is to ensure that cars cannot skid off the road and into the area which is delineated by the bollards, and the other is to inform the driver that they are not permitted to place a vehicle beyond the line of bollards. The second reason is more probable because the bollards are situated alongside the side of the pavement which is furthest from the roadside, so a motorist would have to cross the pavement in order to access the area in the first place.

The huge wheelie bins

This picture shows that society knows exactly what the purpose of the big black containers are, and that they are expected to place their rubbish in them, even though they are not given the explicit instruction to do so.