OPEN EYE: Amateurs Watch over Our History ; Much of Our Social Research Is Carried out by Unpaid, Untrained, Invaluable Volunteers

Cook, Yvonne, The Independent (London, England)

"When I die, I want to leave this... I'd like to think there is a lot left of me." These words of a retired clerical worker from Brighton explain why she, like hundreds of others, became a contributor to one of the 20th century's most famous social research projects: Mass-Observation.

The diaries kept by about 500 untrained amateur observers during and after the Second World War now provide a unique insight into that period of British history. They are just a small part of the huge, often unrecognised, contribution made to research in Britain by non-academic "amateurs".

The extent of that contribution was revealed in Research Outside the Walls, a conference …

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Publication information: Article title: OPEN EYE: Amateurs Watch over Our History ; Much of Our Social Research Is Carried out by Unpaid, Untrained, Invaluable Volunteers. Contributors: Cook, Yvonne - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: June 3, 2003. Page number: 13. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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