Mass-observation, market research, and the birth of the focus group, 1937-1997

Journal of British Studies

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 827-851

  Moran, Joe ^a  

^a LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149568735     PISSN: 00219371     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/590170     Document Type: Review

References (142)

1. Philip Gould, The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party (London, 1999), 326
2. For a history of the use of focus groups within the Labour party, see Margaret Lees-Marshment, Political Marketing and British Political Parties: The Party's Just Begun (Manchester, 2001 ), 134-210
3. David Thomas, "What Does Tony Blair Have in Common with a Pair of 501s?" Observer, 11 August 1996
4. Gould, The Unfinished Revolution, 328, 326
5. See, e.g., James Buzard, "Mass-Observation, Modernism, and Auto-Ethnography," Modernism/ Modernity 4, no. 3 (September 1997): 93-122
6. and Julian Yates, "Shift Work: Observing Women Observing, 1937-1945," in Women's Experience of Modernity, 1875-1945, ed. Ann L. Ardis and Leslie W. Lewis (Baltimore, 2003), 274-76
7. Tom Jeffery, Mass-Observation: A Short History, 2nd ed. (Brighton, 1999), viii
8. Nick Hubble, Mass-Observation and Everyday Life: Culture, History, Theory (Basingstoke, 2006), 3
9. James Vernon, Politics and the People: A Study in English Political Culture c. 1815-1867 (Cambridge, 1993), 332
10. See, e.g., Vernon, Politics and the People
11. James A. Epstein, Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790-1850 (Oxford, 1994)
12. and Jon Lawrence, Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 (Cambridge, 1998)
13. For a discussion of these two models, see Harold D. Clarke, David Sanders, Marianne C. Stewart, and Paul Whiteley, Political Choice in Britain (Oxford, 2004), 5-10
14. See also Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York, 1957)
15. Lawrence, Speaking for the People, 150
16. See, e.g., Lawrence Black, "'What Kind of Peopl Are You?' Labour, the People and the 'New Political History,'" in Interpreting the Labour Party: Approaches to Labour Politics and History, ed. John Callaghan, Steven Fielding, and Steve Ludlam (Manchester, 2003), 23-38
17. and Steven Fielding, "A Mirror for England? Cinematic Representations of Politicians and Party Politics, circa 1944-64," Journal of British Studies 47, no. 1 (January 2008): 107-28
18. Lawrence Black, review of Moments of Modernity: Reconstructing Britain 1945-1964, ed. Becky Conekin, Frank Mort, and Chris Waters, Contemporary British History 14, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 188
19. Charles Madge and Tom Harrisson, eds., First Tear's Work, 1937-38, by Mass-Observation (London, 1938), 87
20. See Judith Heimann, The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life (Honolulu, 1998), 158
21. Daniel J. Robinson, The Measure of Democracy: Polling, Market Research, and Public Life, 1930-1945 (Toronto, 1999), 4, 8
22. Tom Harrisson, Humphrey Jennings, and Charles Madge, "Anthropology at Home," New Statesman and Nation, 30 January 1937, 155
23. Angus Calder, "Introduction to the Cresset Library Edition," in Mass-Observation, Britain, ix
24. Colin McDonald and Stephen King, Sampling the Universe: The Growth, Development and Influence of Market Research in Britain since 1945 (London, 1996), 69
25. Philip Kleinman, Market Research: Head Counting Becomes Big Business (London, 1985), 9-10
26. Mass-Observation, Britain, 7
27. Madge and Harrison, First Year's Work, 32-40
28. George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937; repr., Harmondsworth, 1989), 82
29. See "Holborn Contest," The Times, 22 June 1938
30. Christopher Durrant, "Those Who Are Not Interested in Politics," Daily Mirror, 25 October 1924
31. See "Prison for Non-Voters," Daily Mirror, 22 April 1921
32. "Make Them Vote," Daily Mirror, 28 November 1935
33. "Vote or Be Fined," Daily Mirror, 29 May 1939
34. Ramsay Muir, How Britain Is Governed: A Critical Analysis of Modern Developments in the British System of Government (1940; repr., London, 1930), 3-4
35. Ernest Simon and Eva M. Hubback, Training for Citizenship (London, 1935)
36. Tom Harrisson, "Whistle While You Work," in New Writing, New Series I, Autumn 1938, ed. John Lehmann (London, 1938), 56-57, 66
37. Madge and Harrisson, First Tear's Work, 32
38. Tom Harrisson, Britain Revisited (London, 1961), 79-81, 106
39. Harrisson, Britain Revisited, 107
40. Julian Trevelyan, Indigo Days(1957; repr., London, 1996), 100
41. Trevelyan, Indigo Days, 101
42. Dominic Wring, The Politics of Marketing the Labour Party (Basingstoke, 2005), 16-19
43. See, e.g., Raymond Firth, "An Anthropologist's View of Mass-Observation," Sociological Review 31, no. 2 (April 1939): 166-93
44. Paul Addison, The Road to 1945 (1975; repr., London, 1994), 121
45. Tom Harrisson and Charles Madge, eds., War Begins at Home by Mass-Observation (London, 1940), v
46. Robert Mackay, Half the Battle: Civilian Morale during the Second World War (Manchester, 2003), 66
47. See also Ian McLaine, Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War II (London, 1979), 84-86
48. Tom Harrisson, World Within: A Borneo Story (London, 1959), 162-63
49. For a further discussion of Mass-Observation's research on morale, see Angus Calder, "Mass-Observation, 1937-1949," in Essays in the History of British Sociological Research, ed. Martin Bulmer (Cambridge, 1985), 130
50. Mackay, Half the Battle, 10 11
51. Hubble, Mass-Observation and Everyday Life, 187
52. National Statistics, 60 Tears of Social Survey, 1941-2001 (Norwich, 2001), 7
53. Tom Harrisson, "Preface," in Mass-Observation, The Pub and the People: A Worktown Study (1943; repr., London, 1987), xvi
54. Report of the Committee on the Provision for Social and Economic Research [Chairman, Sir John Clapham] (London, 1946)
55. National Statistics, 60 Tears of Social Survey, 15
56. A. H. Halsey, A History of Sociology in Britain: Science, Literature, and Society (Oxford, 2004), 96-99
57. Calder, "Introduction," x
58. Tom Harrisson, "Who'll Win?" Political Quarterly 15, no. 1 (January 1944): 23
59. Mass-Observation, "Don't Know, Don't Care," in The Adventure Ahead, ed. A. G. Weidenfeld (London, 1948), 56
60. See David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 (London, 2007), 40-43, 69
61. "Do the Forces Want the Right to Vote?" Picture Post, 19 August 1944, 25
62. Tom Harrisson, "The Public's Progress," in The Public's Progress, ed. A. G. Weidenfeld (London, 1947), 1
63. Mass-Observation, Peace and the Public: A Study by Mass-Observation (London, 1947), 55, 2-3
64. Mass-Observation, Voters' Choice: A Mass-Observation Reportan the General Election of 1950 (London, 1950), 5
65. Mass-Observation, "Don't Know, Don't Care," 57
66. Harriet Jones, "'New Conservatism'? The Industrial Charter, Modernity and the Reconstruction of British Conservatism after the War," in Moments of Modernity: Reconstructing Britain 1945-1964, ed. Becky Conekin, Frank Mort, and Chris Waters (London, 1999), 180-82
67. Ina Zweiniger-Ba gielowska, "Rationing, Austerity and the Conservative Party Recovery after 1945," Historical Journal 37, no. 1 (March 1994): 189-93
68. See also Mark Abrams, "Public Opinion Polls and Political Parties," Public Opinion Quarterly 27, no. 1 (Spring 1963): 11
69. See also Andrew J. Taylor, "'The Record of the 1950s Is Irrelevant': The Conservative Party, Electoral Strategy and Opinion Research," Contemporary British History 17, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 81-110
70. and Laura Dumond Beers, "Whose Opinion? Changing Attitudes towards Opinion Polling in British Politics, 1937-1964," Twentieth Century British History 17, no. 2 (2006): 199-200
71. Jeffery, Mass-Observation, 47-48
72. Jon Lawrence and Miles Taylor, "Introduction: Electoral Sociology and the Historians," in Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Britain since 1820, ed. Jon Lawrence and Miles Taylor (Aldershot, 1997), 3
73. Steven Fielding, "'Don't Know and Don't Care': Popular Political Attitudes in Labour's Britain, 1945-51," in The Attlee Years, ed. Nick Tiratsoo (London, 1991), 114
74. Tom Harrisson, "What Is Sociology?" Pilot Papers 2, no. 1 (March 1947): 18
75. Mark Abrams, Social Surveys and Social Action (London, 1951), 61-62
76. "Postwar Boom in Market Research," The Times, 27 April 1960
77. McDonald and King, Sampling the Universe, 83
78. John S. Downham, Eric Shankleman, and John A. P. Treasure, "Introduction: A Survey of Market Research in Great Britain," in Readings in Market Research, ed. John S. Downham, Eric Shankleman, and John A. P. Treasure (London, 1956), xxiv
79. "Rapid Expansion of Market Research Interviewing," The Times, 27 March 1962
80. Harry Hopkins, The New Look: A Social History of the Forties and Fifties in Britain (London, 1963), 316
81. See Henry Durant, "Public Opinion Polls," The Times, 15 February 1951
82. Cassandra, "The Straw in the Wind," Daily Mirror, 23 September 1959
83. Abrams, Social Surveys and Social Action, 107-8
84. Dorothy Sheridan, "Appendix to the Cresset Library Edition," in Mass-Observation, The Pub and the People, 352
85. See, e.g., Mark Abrams, The Teenage Consumer (London, 1959)
86. See also Len Jackson, "A Market Research Expert Says ... 'This is you!'" Daily Mirror, 19 November 1959
87. Hopkins, The New Look, 451-52
88. "The Don't Knows," The Times, 3 February 1950
89. "One for the Road?" The Times, 18 May 1956
90. "Crossman Says," Daily Mirror, 20 March 1959
91. David Butler and Anthony King, The British General Election of 1964 (London, 1964), 67
92. Abrams, "Public Opinion Polls and Political Parties," 14
93. Wring, The Politics of Marketing the Labour Party, 57
94. Mark Abrams, Richard Rose, and Rita Hinden, Must Labour Lose? (Harmondsworth, 1960), 71
95. Robert M. Worcester, British Public Opinion: A Guide to the History and Techniques of Political Opinion Polling (Oxford, 1991), 25
96. Butler and King, The British General Election of 1964, 69
97. John Treasure, "Research to Make Guessing Easier," The Times, 18 October 1962
98. Abrams et al., Must Labour Lose? 23, 14
99. See Matthew Hilton, Consumerism- in Twentieth-Century Britain: The Search for a Historical Movement (Cambridge, 2003), 270-71
100. Ben Pimlott, Frustrate Their Knavish Tricks: Writings on Biography, History and Politics (London, 1994), 386
101. and Philip Williams, Hugh Gaitskell (London, 1979), 538-39
102. Harry Henry, Motivation Research: Its Practice and Uses for Advertising, Marketing, and Other Business (London, 1958), 11, 50-51
103. Kleinman, Market Research, 3
104. Downham et al., "Introduction," xxix
105. Frank Mort, "The Commercial Domain: Advertising and the Cultural Management of Demand," in Conekin et al., Moments of Modernity, 69
106. Henry, Motivation Research, 184
107. Terence Morris, "Motive Research," The Times, 17 April 1959
108. Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders (London, 1957), 25-27, 31-35
109. "Selling to the Unconscious," The Times, 19 January 1959
110. Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy (Harmondsworth, 1958), 201, 180
111. Raphael Samuel, "Dr. Abrams and the End of Politics," New Left Review, 5 (September-October 1960), 3-4
112. Abrams et al., Must Labour Lose? 71
113. Harrisson, Britain Revisited, 18, 211
114. "At the Heart of the King Consumer," The Times, 31 May 1985
115. Wendy Gordon, Goodthinking: A Guide to Qualitative Research (Henley-on-Thames, 1999), 38, 18, 41, 45
116. Frank Mort, Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth-Century Britain (London, 1996), 104
117. Carroll J. Glynn, Susan Herbst, Garrett J. O'Keefe, and Robert Y. Shapiro, Public Opinion: Politics, Communication and Social Process (Boulder, CO, 1998), 419
118. see also Winston Fletcher, "Consuming Quest for the Holy Grail," Guardian, 25 July 1988
119. David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 1987 (Basingstoke, 1988), 32-34
120. Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication, 2nd ed. (London, 1999), 110
121. For a further discussion of Saatchi and Saatchi's role, see Deborah Mattinson with Tim Bell, "Politics and Qualitative Research," in Qualitative Research in Context, ed. Laura Marks (Henley-on-Thames, 2000), 176
122. Jose Harris, "Labour's Political and Social Thought," in Labour's First Century, ed. Duncan Tanner, Pat Thane, and Nick Tiratsoo (Cambridge, 2000), 39
123. See Stanley B. Greenberg, Middle-Class Dreams: The Politics and Power of the Middle-Class Majority (New York, 1995)
124. Philip Gould, "The Politics of Victory," Guardian, 6 November 1992
125. Gould, The Unfinished Revolution, 327, 15, 272
126. See Barrie Gunter and Adrian Furnham, Consumer Profiles: An Introduction to Psychographics (London, 1991)
127. and R. T. Whitehead, "Geodemographics: The Bridge between Conventional Demographics and Lifestyles," Admap, May 1987, 23-26
128. See Paul Barker, "Search for the Middle," Prospect 110 (May 2005): 43
129. S. A. Matheison, "Home in on Votes," Guardian, 3 March 2005
130. Jon Goss, "'We Know Who You Are and We Know Where You Live': The Instrumental Rationality of Geodemographic Systems," Economic Geography 71, no. 2 (April 1995): 183, 187
131. Nick Collen, "Angry Young White Man," New Statesman, 15 July 2002, 20-21
132. Nick Cohen, Pretty Straight Guys (London, 2004), 34
133. John Rentoul, Nick Robinson, and Simon Brannholtz, "People Metering: Scientific Research or Clapometer?" in Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1992, ed. Ivor Crewe and Brian Gosschalk (Cambridge, 1995), 108
134. Andrew Neil, "Only Cowards Listen to Focus Groups," Daily Mail, 15 August 1997
135. Simon Jenkins, "The Curse of Chequers," The Times, 29 January 1997
136. Colin Brown, "Blair Denies Focus Group Rule," Indepe dent, July 30 1997
137. see also Jenny Kitzinger and Rosaline S. Barbour, "Introduction: The Challenge and Promise of Focus Groups," in Developing Focus Group Research: Politics, Theory and Practice, ed. Jenny Kitzinger and Rosaline S. Barbour (London, 1999), 1
138. See Penny Simimerfield, "Mass-Observation: Social Research or Social Movement?" Journal of Contemporary History 20, no. 3 (July 1985): 446
139. Kirsty Milne, "The Memo-Mad Ad Man Turned Political Strategist for Blair," New Statesman, 25 October 1996, 24
140. See Lees-Marshment, Political Marketing, 32
141. and Nick Moon, Opinion Polls: History, Theory and Practice (Manchester, 1999), 177
142. Philip Johnston, "Lowest Turnout since 1874 Poll," Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2001