Abstract
Why does a book on the history of social change in postwar Britain matter to readers of Qualitative Research? Because in ‘Identities and Social change in Britain since 1940’ Savage argues that the deployment of new social research techniques were integral to understandings of those changes. Patient digging in the archives of sociological research projects (particularly the Mass Observation archives) has given Savage a rich seam of materials from which to explore the emergence of modern qualitative methods. The excavation relies on a sophisticated theoretical toolkit; Foucault, Bourdieu, Benjamin, Latour, Law, to name but a few. Identities is a complex and occasionally over-ambitious undertaking, but its insights into the growing importance of interview and social survey methods make for a stimulating read for qualitative researchers.
The account begins with some wonderful vignettes of the social status that accompanied being interviewed in the early 1960s, along with the patronizing attitudes the researchers felt (and recorded) towards their respondents. A core theme throughout the book is the gradual ‘routinisation’ of research, the rise of a ‘demoralised’ professional sociology and its embedding into everyday life.
The book has a slightly complex structure. There is no neat chronological flow, each chapter being set in a different year. Part 1, ‘Technical Identities and the Rise of Social Science’ is made up of four chapters. In it, Savage argues that after the second world war, changing social attitudes to ‘highbrow’ culture and the rise of a middle class committed to a technical rationalism come up against the resurgence of ‘gentlemanly expertise’ in a contest over the shape of this new field of Sociology. The argument situates the histories of individual researchers projects within a history of the nascent discipline, whilst also ranging across broader debates in literature and society. The twists and turns are sometimes confusing, sometimes illuminating.
Part 2 - The Social Science Apparatus - is of most immediate interest for qualitative researchers. The first chapter, entitled ‘The End of Community’ argues that whilst the attempt to find the British equivalent of the American ‘Middletown’ ended in failure, it helped sociologists to conceptualise social change without relying on depictions of the social landscape. This led to a much greater methodological focus on the ‘individual respondent’, and on seeing structured interviews as part of larger social surveys, themes taken up in the chapters that follow. Later Savage argues that such surveys allowed a new way of understanding the nation, giving rise to the now ubiquitous approaches of market research and consumer research.
After a further discussion of changing social class identities in Part 3, the book ends with a provocative discussion of the ‘politics of method’ and the implications of the popularization of the languages and methods of the social sciences beyond the academy. For those interested in the social history of qualitative research in Britain, this is a real gem of a book, offering light on changing methodological approaches to the study of social change. Occasionally the sparkle is too bright, as Savage attempts to reconcile sophisticated and far-reaching theoretical arguments with detailed empirical evidence. Yet even if not all that glitters is gold, there is a great deal to admire here.