Embodying Leisure: The Use of Images in Pearl Jephcott’s ‘Time of One’s Own’

John Goodwin and Henrietta O’Connor

While the lives and works of many sociologists have now been well documented numerous sociologists at the ‘coal face’ of social research remain ignored. As such, beyond the contributions of those more ‘well known’ scholars, considerably more needs to be done to examine the history of our discipline to reassess the significant contributions made by ‘other’ researchers so that we may reappraise what can be learnt from these ‘pioneer scholars’. To this end we have just completed this occasional paper relating to the work of Pearl Jephcott (1900-1980). Jephcott had a research career spanning forty years and made significant contributions to the understanding of social life especially urban living, youth, gender and class. Jephcott was also at the forefront of innovation in social science research methodology during the 1960s. Yet despite the quality and depth of her work she is now largely forgotten save for the occasional citation. A full review of her work and contribution is beyond the scope of a single paper so we consider in more detail one of the most striking features of her sociological practice – the use of images in the book Time of One’s Own (1967).

As well as reading this paper the previously unpublished images relating to Time of One’s Own, that we rediscovered in 2011 the University of Glasgow archives, can be view at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uofglibrary/sets/72157628015342067/

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