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

研究问题近年来，现代英国政治史学强调政治语言在塑造民众政治中的作用。这一研究路线有益地反驳了现代政治史的一些更简化的解释，但它受到了政治修辞的决定性重要性的影响。对人们的政治观点以及它们是如何形成的几乎没有直接的调查。对阶级认同的研究表明，对1945年以后的民众态度的研究是可能的，特别是如果历史学家利用战后社会学家记录的许多访谈的话。没有尝试的是，而这个项目提出的是，探索人们的政治观点，具体来说，了解他们是如何产生的-从社会条件，通过非正式的politicalpractices，并通过修辞的代议制政治。目的该项目源于我的经验，作为一名高级公务员在英国政府。在我的整个时间在白厅，决策者几乎没有能力考虑更深层次的电流塑造公众的态度，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，使政策制定者能够采取一种更深思熟虑的、历史化的方法。方法和来源该项目将在一个特定的社区内进行分析。本研究将首先调查城市的政治活动能力，如社会，金融和文化资本的不平衡所描述的。研究的第二部分将探讨政治观点、资本差异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地方，这项研究将探讨公众观点是否是由地方或国家政客的言辞所决定的，或者他们是否借鉴了与正式政治关系不大的地方条件和实践。这项研究将大量借鉴过去社会学的访谈记录，因此，卢顿似乎是一个有希望的研究地点。社会学家对卢顿工人的态度进行了广泛的研究，除了不太正式的采访和自传外，还提供了一个不同寻常的、可能是独一无二的机会来追踪民众态度的变化。还需要更多的传统资料来源，才能将这些第一手资料与背景联系起来。需要对来自工会、雇主、友好协会、地方教会、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进行详细的审查。时间表和培训需求项目的头六个月将包括文献审查和对研究重点的更详细评估。一旦选定了一个地区，详细的档案工作预计需要大约18个月。任何口述历史也将在此期间收集。在研究的最后9到12个月里，将完成对研究结果的书面总结--以及任何后续的档案研究和实地考察。需要进行口述历史的培训，以及支持报纸记录研究的自动文本挖掘。

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.