Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives: Democratic Engagement in Britain, 1918-1992

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This project investigates how British citizens understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives, from 1918 to 1992. It focuses on the everyday political opinions, discussions and interactions of ordinary British people in the period from the establishment of a near democracy with the Representation of the People Act 1918 (which gave the vote to all adult men and most women over 30) up until the transformation of British political culture with the emergence of 24-hour news channels and the internet in the early 1990s. What sorts of issues were regarded as being 'political'? Did they seem important? How and when were they discussed? What sort of expectations did people have of politicians and the political system? The research will pay particular attention to the ways in which women and young people related to a political system dominated by middle-aged men.The project is rooted in the belief that there is often a gulf between elite and popular understandings of politics, and that politicians, the media and scholars have frequently applied definitions and labels ('left-wing' or 'right-wing', 'conservative' or 'liberal') that do not necessarily map onto the views and experiences of ordinary British citizens (and especially women and young people). The project will draw on evidence from social surveys, life writing, opinion polls, and popular culture to identify and analyse the changing place of politics in everyday life, and the deeper attitudes and assumptions that informed political responses. This research will be used to write a scholarly, but accessible, book that will connect patterns of political engagement to wider social and cultural changes.The project seeks to use this research to contribute to public policy debates. Political disengagement and alienation - seen in declining turnouts at elections, low trust ratings for politicians, officials and 'experts', and the rejection of European institutions in the 'Brexit' campaign - is one of Britain's most pressing policy challenges. Yet much recent commentary risks misdiagnosing the contemporary situation because it relies on inaccurate or unproven historical assumptions - for example, that in previous decades citizens were more politically engaged, had clearer ideological positions, were more deferential, had greater respect for, and trust in, politicians, received more reliable information, and had lower expectations of the state and the political system. This project will provide a sophisticated historical treatment of these issues and will challenge many of these assumptions. Its focus on everyday politics and ordinary lives will also help us to understand the gulf between elite and popular political opinions and languages, which is a glaring feature of the current culture. The PI will work with History & Policy (an organisation that makes high-quality historical research freely accessible online and creates opportunities for historians, policy makers and journalists to connect and learn from each other), the Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics (based at the University of Sheffield) and the People's History Museum in Manchester to engage politicians, policy-makers, the media and the wider public in order to reframe and contextualise contemporary developments.This programme of activity will enable the PI to develop his leadership skills by enabling him to pursue new research agendas, to foster new scholarly and professional collaborations, and to deepen his expertise in engaging with policy-makers, the media and the wider public.