{"id":33926,"date":"2021-06-02T14:39:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T13:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/library\/?p=33926"},"modified":"2024-07-19T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T09:11:14","slug":"thoughts-on-margarine-what-does-the-man-in-the-street-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/library\/thoughts-on-margarine-what-does-the-man-in-the-street-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on margarine – what does the man in the street think?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mass Observation <\/em>(1937-1967) and Mass Observation Project<\/em> (1981-2009) are two social research projects conducted during the 20th century. Read on to find out more about the mass observation project, and how reading the diaries of untrained observers can help enrich our understanding of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What is it?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mass Observation was founded in 1937 by anthropologist Tom Harrisson, film-maker Humphrey Jennings and poet Charles Madge. Their aim was to create an ‘anthropology of ourselves’ – by everyone, of everyone, for everyone – which would be richly autobiographical. By recruiting a team of observers and volunteer writers, they studied the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain; asking questions about margarine, sex, drink, capital punishment and whether people cried at the ‘pictures’. Material collected by investigators, was accompanied by diary entries submitted by volunteers, who recounted their day on the 12th of every month.  Thousands of documents were generated allowing a unique insight into life in Britain, during a period of great social change. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Image by Pexels<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mass Observation (1937-1967)<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Covering three decades, the first mass observation project is a rich source for students studying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n