Ordinary lives: Class, reproduction and everyday practice in contemporary Britain

Bradley, Harriet (2017). Ordinary lives: Class, reproduction and everyday practice in contemporary Britain. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: Economic and Social Research Council. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-850742

Data description (abstract)

Despite renewed interest in social class,very little is known about the meaning of class membership in twenty-first century Britain.
This project aims to fill a growing gap in sociological research and political understanding by documenting the ways in which the deepest layers of everyday life are differentiated by social class.
This includes:

the use of space and time;
daily routines and rhythms of life;
geographical mobility;
roles and activities in work and in the domestic sphere.
The latter will cover the household division of labour, relations with children and schoolwork, leisure activities and mealtimes. To capture all this, the project will involve intensive study of some twenty family households in Bristol.
The interest is in 'ordinary' representatives of the class structure rather than the most marginalised, so participants will be households in which at least one adult has full-time work and at least one child is living at home. Households will be contacted through a randomised mailout to selected areas in Bristol and suitable participants will be selected.
The project will deploy an innovative mix of research methods, including qualitative time-diaries, observation, photographic methods and interviews, to document the most taken-for-granted elements of their routine everyday lives.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Bradley Harriet	University of Bristol

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Atkinson William

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council

Grant reference:

RES-062-23-2477

Topic classification:

Society and culture

Date published:

30 Jan 2013 17:32

Last modified:

12 Jul 2017 09:15

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 July 2010	30 June 2012

Geographical area:

Bristol

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

Letters inviting participation in the project were sent to addresses selected at random from the electoral registers for three wards of Bristol. 29 families responded. Each family partook in a range of activities spread over 1 week:
1. Each member (adults but children too if they were willing) filled in a qualitative time diary detailing what they did when, who with, what else they were doing and any reflections. The diaries were filled in from Sunday through to Tuesday and have been transcribed verbatim.
2. On the Wednesday evening, Thursday evening and Saturday day time the families were observed by one of the research team – files are referred to as obs 1, obs 2 and obs 3 respectively. Participation of the observer was minimised so as to maximise ability to note as much of what was happening down as possible. In some families, only two observations were possible; for the Allen family, 4 observations were carried out as it was the first, pilot family.
3. Usually on the Friday evening the participants gave a tour of their homes, talking about the rooms and the items in them.
4. At some point in the week a ‘go along’ interview was conducted, in which members of the participating household would take the research on a routine journey and talk about it.
5. Finally, on the Sunday after the time diaries began, there was a semi-structured household interview. In some cases children were present and contributed, in others they weren't. On a few occasions, due to scheduling problems, adults were interviewed separately. The interviews covered demographic details, a brief life history and future plans/hopes of each parent and then various aspects of everyday life, including description of a typical day (at work and home), views on education, leisure activities and interests, division of domestic labour, uses of and views on the local area and Bristol, possibilities for mobility and what made them happy.

3 further families took part in interviews only. One of these was recruited in the normal manner but then was unable to take part in the full programme; two others were recruited via a debt advice agency so as to increase the diversity of participants.

Ordinary lives: Class, reproduction and everyday practice in contemporary Britain

Data description (abstract)

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