Temporalities, Ritual, and Drinking in Mass Observation's Worktown
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8958368 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jennie Taylor (0000-0003-3980-5626, Film Independent), Simon Prince (0000-0002-8292-5319, Canterbury Christ Church University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1083-1104 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x20000461 |
| OpenAlex | W3096407150 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 31 |
In Bolton's pubs at the end of the 1930s, the research organization Mass Observation pursued answers to big abstract questions about time by studying small concrete actions. Drawing on field notes, draft manuscripts, and published works, this article sets out the different understandings and experiences of time documented by the team of investigators. Outside the ‘time-clock factory-whistle dimension of living’ and inside ‘pub-time’, individuals bought drinks for their companions, drank at the same pace, and engaged with everyone around them on an equal footing. Mass Observation presented such behaviours as proof that the pub fostered a socially harmonious, egalitarian community from a pre-industrial age. However, this article shows that the pub study's archive contains material that goes against the published findings. Observers turned in reports about authoritarian conduct, hierarchical power structures, and the intrusion of contemporary politics. Blurring the research subject and object, it was sometimes the investigators themselves who broke the spell of the pub. These moments of tension, confusion, and contradiction offer insights into the observers’ own perspectives on modern temporalities and subjective experiences of time. All the people in the pubs were caught up in a state of flux
Aesthetics · Art · Contradiction · Epistemology · Geography · Media studies · Object (grammar · Pace · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Spell · State (computer science · Subject (documents · Temporalities · Anthropology · Biographical and Historical Analysis · Data Analysis and Archiving · History · Law · Race, Genetics, and Society
Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal
Futures Past
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
The Mass Observers
Mass Observation and Everyday Life
A History of Drinking
Everyday Life and Cultural Theory
Off Beat and in Drink
Tutankhamen, Egyptomania, and Temporal Enchantment in Interwar Britain
Turning night into day
Who the Hell Are Ordinary People?’ Ordinariness as a Category of Historical Analysis
Mass-Observation
Mass-Observation, Market Research, and the Birth of the Focus Group, 1937–1997
Pennies from Heaven and Earth in Mass Observation's Blackpool
Mass-Observation, Left Intellectuals and the Politics of Everyday Life
Young Women, Work, and Leisure in Interwar England
Theorisations of leisure in inter-war Britain
"The Literary Impact of "The Golden Bough
Tool Shock
Time, Temporality and the History of Capitalism
Research Methodology in Mass Observation Past and Present
The Meanings of Happiness in Mass Observation's Bolton
Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism
The Most Offending Soul Alive
Brief Encounter
The creation of coevalness and the danger of homochronism
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |