Time-span
1981 - 1999
Subscription Type
SUBSCRIPTION
Publisher
Adam Matthew
Notes
  • Social history in late 20th-century Britain, 1980s, 1990s. See Also: Mass Observation Online: 1937-1967
Languages
English
Resource Types
Images and Sound, Reference Source
Description
Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation in the 1980s and 1990s and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. Topics covered are wide-ranging, from the deeply personal (sex, family) to everyday life (shopping, holidays), to global affairs. The digitized printed directives, prose responses to directives, newspaper cuttings, photographs, leaflets and other ephemera cover key themes in current affairs, family, home; leisure; politics, society, culture and the media, and work, finance and the economy. Source Archives is the Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex [UK], Special Collections.