Research 1960s – madeinleicester

Gender, Youth, Community, Methodology and More: A Symposium Celebrating the Life and Work of Pearl Jephcott College Court Conference Centre University of Leicester July 9th 2015 Pearl Jephcott (1900-1980), in a research career spanning some forty years, made an outstanding contribution to British social science research. Her key works, including Girls Growing Up (1942), RisingContinue reading

Paradata, Marginalia and Fieldnotes in Restudies of Youth Unemployment, Insecurity and Work

Re-Read ‘Education and the Working Class’ (and other Classics)

C Wright Mills suggested that to avoid the ‘academic pose’ sociologists needed to get rid of the ‘academic prose’. Mills was an ardent advocate of clarity in writing and warned against the obfuscation of both grand theory and abstract empiricism. Mills sought criticism for his work with a view to making his writingContinue reading “Re-Read ‘Education and the Working Class’ (and other Classics)”

Pearl Jephcott: The Legacy of a Forgotten Sociological Research Pioneer

Our paper on the legacy of Pearl Jephcott is available online first: http://soc.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/22/0038038514530536.abstract Abstract While the lives and works of many sociologists have now been well documented, numerous sociologists at the ‘coal face’ of social research remain ignored. Consequently, beyond the contributions of those more ‘well-known’ scholars, considerably more needs to be done to examineContinue reading “Pearl Jephcott: The Legacy of a Forgotten Sociological Research Pioneer”

Archival Research

In our research we have found archives to be an essential source of data and material. Indeed, for our restudy of Elias’s Young Worker Project and for our on going work on Pearl Jephcott, archival research has been central to all we have done. Archives, although used by some social scientists, could be used toContinue reading “Archival Research”

Leicester and Married Women Working:

John Goodwin and Henrietta O’Connor As we have suggested (Goodwin and O’Connor 2013b) our first encounter with Pearl Jephcott was not a direct one. We were not aware of her books, beyond the occasional citation, and we were certainly unaware of the sheer breadth and depth of Jephcott’s contribution to British social science. We becameContinue reading “Leicester and Married Women Working:”

Homes in High Flats

Henrietta O’Connor One of the striking aspects of Pearl Jephcott’s archive in the University of Glasgow Library is the breadth and depth of her research activity. For her seminal study on high-rise living, ‘Homes in High Flats’, Pearl carried out extensive research on the development of tower blocks in the UK and overseas. Her archiveContinue reading “Homes in High Flats”

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