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Senate House in London is home to the Institute of Historical Research

University of Sussex politics experts organised a public engagement workshop on 18 June hosted by the Institute of Historical Research (Senate House) to explore how Mass Observation could be used to develop a better understanding of political engagement.

Dr Jonathan Moss, Associate Professor in Politics, and Emily Robinson, Professor of British Studies, worked with Kirsty Patrick from the Mass Observation Archive at The Keep on the event, which involved representatives from the Cabinet Office and various campaign groups - including Unlock Democracy, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust UK Democracy Fund – as well as academics from across the UK.

The workshop was a collaboration with History & Policy – an organisation founded in 2002 by Cambridge scholars which promotes better public policy through a greater understanding of history.

Describing the origins of the event, Dr Moss explained:

“The workshop came about in response to growing concern about political engagement in the UK, demonstrated by things like rising levels of political distrust and negative sentiment towards political institutions – as well as the record low turnout at last year’s election, of course. And this all coincided with a growing demand for new methods to understand political engagement from pollsters and political scientists which tell us more about how people feel about politics and what they say about it in their everyday lives.

“We made a case that the life writing available in Mass Observation provides this opportunity – whilst also pointing out that Mass Observation was originally conceived as a political project in the 1937. One of its founding aims was to challenge the voicelessness of everyman and the smallness of the group which controls fact-getting and fact-distributing.

“By revisiting the original vision and ethos of Mass Observation, we asked participants: Can this approach help bridge the gap between political elites and public feeling? And might a renewal of MO’s original ambitions offer a way to respond to challenges facing British democracy today?”

Discussion at the workshop focused on how Mass Observation might be developed into a valuable resource for addressing political engagement in the UK and highlighted both the challenges of working with this material and the unique insights it can offer that may not be accessible through other sources.

Important questions were also raised about the types of research Mass Observation could support, and the methods it might adopt to be more useful to policymakers, campaigners, and others concerned with the future of British politics.

Dr Moss will publish a policy paper in July based on recommendations from the workshop and establish a network to develop Mass Observation as a political resource. 

The workshop was funded by a University of Sussex KEI Policy Fellowship.

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