A phobia of numbers?” the labour movement and social surveys in the German Empire
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10253042 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Philipp Reick (0000-0002-9407-5542, Aarhus University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 575-592 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Labor History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-656X • E-ISSN: 1469-9702 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0023656x.2023.2230905 |
| OpenAlex | W4382983905 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 15 |
Historians have long studied how statistical offices and parliamentary bodies made use of surveys to explore the lives of workers, and, in so doing, how they produced new social categories and strategies for political intervention in the process. Less attention has been paid to the role that surveys played in the history of the early labour movement. Drawing on extensive discussions in socialist and trade-union periodicals, this article explores how the labour movement in the German Empire perceived, responded to, and used social surveys. The article is divided into three parts. The first part discusses labour’s critical response to the growing number of surveys on working-class life by middle-class reformers, social researchers, and the state. The second part studies what appeared to be the only logical consequence of their critique, namely the independent gathering and analysis of data. The third part finally analyses why, despite the large number of independent surveys launched by party functionaries and local trade unions, participation among ordinary workers remained strikingly low. In the conclusion, the article shows that this might have stemmed not only from disinterest and inertia but also from how the labour leadership conceived of and presented the benefits of social surveys
Archaeology · Art · Demographic economics · Economics · Empire · German · Labour economics · Movement (music · Political science · Sociology · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Psychology
From Political Arithmetic to Social Statistics
Sozialismus statt Religion
Survey Research in the United States
Cultural practice and utopian desire in German Social Democracy
Colonial Research and the Social Sciences at the End of Empire
The Social Survey in Historical Perspective, 1880-1940
Empirical Social Research in Germany (1848-1914)
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |