Social surveys
Authors
Loading...
Permanent Link
Publisher link
Rights
This is an author's accepted manuscript of a chapter published in the book Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century History. © 2020 Taylor & Francis.
Abstract
From the late nineteenth century, social survey researchers used door-to-door interviews to advance knowledge of everyday life and to transform methods in their field. Historians read social survey archives for the data they contain; to analyse how and why researchers selected particular topics, categories, and populations; and to uncover the labour, technologies, and personal interactions that created these authoritative records of social life. The University of Melbourne Social Survey visited well over 7,000 households between 1941 and 1943. Its interviewers worked on a piecework basis as they spoke with Melburnians and co-produced social science data that were never published in full. The Melbourne archive showcases their intellectual contributions and underlines what historians gain when they analyse raw data and research notes.
Citation
Greenhalgh, C. (2020). Social surveys. In Dobson, M., & Ziemann, B. (Eds.), Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century History (2nd ed., pp. 117-137). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429401916
Type
Series name
Date
Publisher
Taylor & Francis