Writing
for the Mass-Observation Project |
About
the Mass-Observation Project |
Since
1981, the Mass-Observation Archive has been recruiting
a national panel of writers. The project was initiated by David Pocock,
Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex, who wanted
to record the 'concrete and specific contexts of particular lives' in order
to capture the kind of everyday detail which can be lost from 'large-scale'
summations of history. |
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The
project is rooted in the ideals of "Mass-Observation", an organisation
set up in 1937 by Tom Harrisson, Charles Madge and Humphrey Jennings who
sought to develop what they called an 'anthropology of ourselves' by recording
the day to day activities and thoughts of the British public. The original
organisation had two main strands to its research technique. The
first was co-ordinated by Tom Harrisson who employed paid investigators
to work in industrial Lancashire. The second strand was the inspiration
of Charles Madge and Humphrey Jennings, who recruited volunteers to send
in diary material and answer open-ended questionnaires (directives) on
a variety of different themes. |
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David
Pocock's Mass-Observation Project (taken over by Dorothy Sheridan in 1990)
is a revival of Madge and Jennings' idea of a volunteer panel of writers,
which incorporates their use of a directive to
prompt the correspondents to comment on their experiences and opinions.
When a volunteer joins the project they are added to the mailing list
and are sent a directive at least three times a year in Spring, Summer
and Autumn. Each directive asks the correspondent to write about
two to three different topics or themes with an emphasis on the self and
the subjective. The topics vary from national and international issues
to more personal themes which have included politics, religion, relationships,
education, work, pleasures, dreams, shopping, holidays, age, death, war
and reading habits. Since the project began 2533 correspondents have
taken part, and this year (1999) around 350 people have been actively writing
for the project. |
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The
length of time each correspondent takes part varies from person to person
and a single directive reply can be as long or as short as the correspondent
desires. Some correspondents answer with a few sentences, others
will write 10 or more pages. The correspondents are free to choose
how they wish to communicate with the archive. Replies are generally
written in pen and paper or word processed but audio or visual recordings
are also acceptable and can be sent in via post or e-mail. All the
replies are processed, sorted and boxed by the archive staff and are preserved
under temperature controlled conditions in the archive's
store. They are open to research and are used by a range of different
sectors of the community including academics, writers, the media, students
and people who just have a general interest. The users come from
all over the world and access the material under supervision at the Mass-Observation
Archive. |
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