Publication details
Mass-observation: Příklad síly a slabosti přirozeného empirismu
| Title in English | Maas-observation: Strenght and weakness of a natural empirism |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 1998 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studie |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | mass observation;qualitative methodology; |
| Description | The Mass-Observation was brainchild of Charles Madge and Tom Harrisson in Great Britain. The collectives of artist, students and other voluntary workers led by them undertook the task of creating a new science of ourselves. The Mass-Observation was founded to records the everyday life of ordinary people - to collect data, not to interpret it. Madge and Harrison s approach was to study real life included everything from talking to sleeping, fighting to drinking, churches to brothels, jokes to crowd hysteria. In opposite to survey or opinion poll, his method was very close to natural empiricism like some anthropologists approach (as Harrisson argued, the real social questions will emerge from interaction of both the untrained observer and the scientific expert). The special procedure used by the Mass-Observation team was the Day Survey based on contributions from volunteer writers (volunteer panel). They kept a detailed daily records of their activities. During The Second World War researchers asked volunteer panel to write full personal diaries (for example about 150 women at some time between 1939 and 1945 kept daily diaries which they sent to Mass-Observation in monthly instalments). |