Mass Observation Project, 1981-2009

Mass Observation Project 1981-2009 provides digital access to a unique life-writing archive, capturing the everyday experiences, thoughts and opinions of people living through the final decades of the 20th century and the advent of the 21st century. Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. It is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation in the 1980s and 1990s and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. Topics covered are wide-ranging, from the deeply personal (sex, family) to everyday life (shopping, holidays), to global affairs. The digitized printed directives, prose responses to directives, newspaper cuttings, photographs, leaflets and other ephemera cover key themes in current affairs, family, home; leisure; politics, society, culture and the media, and work, finance and the economy. Source Archives is the Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex [UK], Special Collections.