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

这个项目调查了从1918年到1992年，英国公民如何理解政治，以及他们如何看待政治与他们生活的关系。它侧重于日常的政治观点，讨论和互动的普通英国人在这段时间内，从建立一个接近民主的人民代表法案1918（该法案赋予所有成年男性和大多数30岁以上的女性投票权），直到英国政治文化的转型随着24小时新闻频道和互联网的出现在20世纪90年代初。什么样的问题被视为“政治”？他们看起来重要吗？它们是如何以及何时被讨论的？人们对政治家和政治制度有什么样的期望？这项研究将特别关注妇女和年轻人与中年男性主导的政治体系之间的关系。该项目植根于这样一种信念，即精英和大众对政治的理解之间往往存在鸿沟，政治家、媒体和学者经常使用的定义和标签（“左翼”或“右翼”，“保守派”或“自由派”）不一定映射到普通英国公民（尤其是女性和年轻人）的观点和经历。该项目将利用来自社会调查、生活写作、民意调查和流行文化的证据，识别和分析政治在日常生活中的变化，以及影响政治反应的更深层次的态度和假设。这项研究将用于撰写一本学术性的、但通俗易懂的书，将政治参与模式与更广泛的社会和文化变化联系起来。该项目旨在利用这项研究为公共政策辩论做出贡献。政治上的疏离和疏离——从选举投票率下降、对政治家、官员和“专家”的信任度下降，以及在“脱欧”运动中对欧洲机构的排斥——是英国最紧迫的政策挑战之一。然而，最近的许多评论都存在误诊当代形势的风险，因为它依赖于不准确或未经证实的历史假设——例如，在过去的几十年里，公民更多地参与政治，有更清晰的意识形态立场，更恭敬，更尊重和信任政治家，获得更可靠的信息，对国家和政治体系的期望更低。这个项目将对这些问题提供一个复杂的历史处理，并将挑战许多这些假设。它对日常政治和日常生活的关注也有助于我们理解精英和大众的政治观点和语言之间的鸿沟，这是当前文化的一个明显特征。PI将与历史与政策（一个在网上免费提供高质量历史研究的组织，并为历史学家、政策制定者和记者创造相互联系和学习的机会）、克里克公共政治理解中心（设在谢菲尔德大学）和曼彻斯特人民历史博物馆合作，让政治家、政策制定者、媒体和广大公众，以便重新构建和背景下的当代发展。这项活动计划将使首席研究员能够发展他的领导技能，使他能够追求新的研究议程，促进新的学术和专业合作，并加深他在与决策者、媒体和广大公众接触方面的专业知识。

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.