Essays on the History of British Sociological Research

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This book traces the history of British sociology and empirical social research over the last hundred years. Its coverage includes the census of population, the classic poverty surveys of Booth and Rowntree, the slow growth of social science between the wars, mass-observation, the rise of the Government Social Survey, the establishment of academic sociology after 1945 outside Oxford and Cambridge, and independent initiatives such as the foundation of the Institute of Community Studies. A concluding section considers the uses made of British sociology, the place of the citizen as the subject of research, social surveys for policy-making, and the success of social science in predicting the future. These essays reflect the interests of the distinguished British sociologist, the late Philip Abrams. In addition to him the contributors include a number of distinguished sociologists such as A. H. Halsey, Hannan C. Selvin, Edward Shils, Peter Townsend and Peter Willmott, as well as several well-known younger scholars.