Politics and the everyday: a local study of British political attitudes and practice, 1945-1990

研究问题近年来，英国现代政治史学强调了政治语言在塑造大众政治中的作用。这一研究路线对现代政治史的一些更具教育性的解释提出了有益的质疑，但它受到了政治修辞的决定性重要性的影响。对人们的政治观点及其构成方式的直接调查很少。对阶级认同的研究表明，在1945年后的时期，研究大众态度是可能的，特别是如果历史学家参考了战后社会学家记录的许多访谈。这个项目没有尝试的是，这个项目提出的是探索人们的政治观点，特别是理解它们是如何产生的--来自社会条件，通过非正式的政治实践，以及通过代议制政治的修辞。目的这个项目源于我在英国政府担任高级公务员的经历。在我在白厅的整个时间里，政策制定者几乎没有能力考虑影响公众态度的更深层次的当前因素，因此，决策往往基于对政治结果的本能看法。我的目标是为研究提供一个测试案例，鼓励政策制定者采取更深思熟虑的、历史性的方法。方法和来源该项目将把它的分析放在一个特定的社区内。这项研究将首先调查社区的政治活动能力，正如社会、金融和文化资本的不平衡所描述的那样。研究的第二部分将探讨政治观点、资本差距和政治实践之间的关系。特别是在资本失衡与政治活动相关的情况下，这项研究将探索公众的观点是否被地方或国家政客的言辞所明确，或者他们是否借鉴了与正式政治几乎没有关系的当地条件和做法。这项研究将大量借鉴过去社会学的采访描述，因此，卢顿似乎是一个有希望的研究场所。社会学家对卢顿工人的态度进行了广泛的研究，除了不那么正式的采访和自传，还提供了一个不同寻常的，可能也是独特的机会，来追踪大众态度的变化。还需要更多的常规来源来了解这些第一手资料。详细的审查将包括来自工会、雇主、友好协会、当地教会、贸易委员会和政党的记录、理事会文件、人口普查报告和报纸报道。时间表和培训需求项目的前六个月将包括文献综述和更详细的评估，以确定研究的重点。一旦选定一个地区，详细的档案工作预计需要18个月的时间。任何口述历史也将在此期间收集。研究结果的书面综合--以及档案研究和实地考察的任何后续工作--将在研究的最后9到12个月内完成。口述历史方面的培训以及支持报纸记录研究的自动文本挖掘将是必需的。

Research questionIn recent years, the historiography of modern British politics has stressed the role of politicallanguage in shaping demotic politics. This line of research has helpfully disputed some of the morereductive explanations of modern political history, but it suffers from the determinative importancegiven to political rhetoric. There has been little direct investigation of people's political views andhow they were constructed.Research into class identities shows that the study of demotic attitudes is possible for the periodafter 1945, especially if historians draw on the many interviews recorded by postwar sociologists.What has not been attempted, and what this project proposes, is to explore people's political viewsand, specifically, to understand how they arose - from social conditions, through informal politicalpractices, and via the rhetoric of representative politics.PurposesThe project derives from my experience as a senior civil servant in the UK government.Throughout my time in Whitehall, policymakers had little capacity to consider the deeper currentsshaping public attitudes and, consequently, decisions were often based on instinctive views ofpolitical outcomes. My ambition is to provide a test case for research that encouragespolicymakers to adopt a more thoughtful, historicised approach.Approach and sourcesThe project will situate its analysis within a specific community. The study will firstly investigate thecommunity's capacity for political activity, as described by imbalances in social, financial, andcultural capital. The second part of the study will explore the relationship between political views,disparities in capital, and political practice. Particularly where imbalances in capital correlated withpolitical activity, the study will explore whether public views were crystalised by the rhetoric local ornational politicians, or whether they drew on local conditions and practices that had little to do withformal politics.The study will draw heavily on the interview accounts of past sociology and, for this, Luton appearsto be a promising site for the research. The attitudes of Luton's workers have been extensivelystudied by sociologists and - alongside less formal interviews and autobiography - offer anunusual, and possibly unique, opportunity to trace changes in demotic attitudes. More conventionalsources will also be required to set these first-hand accounts in context. A detailed review will berequired of records from trade unions, employers, friendly societies, local churches, tradescouncils and political parties, council papers, census returns, and newspaper reporting.Timetable and training needsThe first six months of the project will involve a literature review and a more detailed assessmentof where to focus the study. Once an area is selected, detailed archival work is expected to takearound eighteen months. Any oral history will also be gathered during this period. A writtensynthesis of the findings - and any follow up in archival research and fieldwork - will be completedin the final nine to twelve months of the study.Training in oral history will be required, as well as automated text mining to support research ofnewspaper records.