Nelson, Gillian (2010) A century of covert ethnography in Britain, c.1880 - c.1980. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2163/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A Century of Covert Ethnography in Britain, c.1880 – c.1980 Gillian Louise Nelson Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Department of Economic and Social History Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences University of Glasgow March 2010 Cover image reproduced from: http://revengelit.blogspot.com/2009/06/masquerade.html [accessed 9th March 2010]. Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to explore the history of covert ethnography in Britain between the 1880s and 1980. During this century, a range of academic and non-academic social researchers have used the method of covert ethnography. The starting point for this thesis is the observation that there is no adequate and sustained explanation of covert ethnography as a historical phenomenon. It is argued that the fragmented nature of the existing historiography precludes a full understanding of this important historical phenomenon. It is the intention of this thesis to bridge the gaps in the historiography, as it stands, and to promote an inclusive historical account of covert ethnography in Britain across time. Through an analysis of covert ethnographic projects undertaken in Britain between the 1880s and 1980, with particular attention being paid to the structure and language used by covert ethnographers, this thesis will locate the use of this research method in its historical context. This thesis will chart the changes and continuities over time in the use of covert ethnography and demonstrate how key forces, such as the establishment of new models of ethnographic research and the development of ethical concern regarding covertness, shaped the use of covert ethnography significantly. This thesis will contribute a more comprehensive account of covert ethnography to the existing historiography. Table of Contents Page Number Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 7 Author’s Declaration 8 Introduction 9 The Scope of this Thesis 9 A Discussion of Key Definitions 10 Participant Observation 10 Ethnography 14 Social Exploration 15 The Historiography of Covert Ethnography 17 Covert Ethnography and the Historiography of Academic Social Science 17 Historians and Covert Social Exploration 20 The Deconstruction of Covert Ethnography 22 A History of Covert Ethnography 26 Covert Ethnographers 27 Covert Fieldwork 28 Writing Covert Ethnography 28 Reading Covert Ethnography 29 The Structure of this Thesis 30 Chapter 1: Covert Ethnography from the 1880s to 1914 31 Introduction 31 Late Victorian and Edwardian Covert Ethnography 34 Howard Goldsmid and London Lodging Houses 34 Beatrice Webb and Sweated Labour in the Tailoring Trade 36 Mary Higgs and Women’s Vagrancy 38 The Structure of Covert Ethnography from the 1880s to 1914 40 Language and Imagery in Covert Ethnography from the 1880s to 1914 49 Literature or Social Science? 52 Late Victorian and Edwardian Covert Ethnography as Literature 53 Late Victorian and Edwardian Covert Ethnography as Social Science 61 Anthropology and Late Victorian and Edwardian Covert Ethnography 64 Philanthropy and Reformism in Covert Ethnography from the 1880s to 1914 68 Covert Ethnography and Other Methods of Research from the 1880s to 1914 75 Conclusion 83 Chapter 2: Covert Ethnography from 1914 to 1945 84 Introduction 84 Mass-Observation and an Anthropology of Britain 87 Social Anthropology, Bronislaw Malinowski and Ethnographic Method 90 Professionalisation, Academicisation and Institutionalisation 95 Social Psychology and ‘Functional Penetration’ 97 Hugh Massingham and Working-Class Life in London 100 Celia Fremlin and ‘the Domestic Service Problem’ 112 Mass-Observation, Celia Fremlin and War Factory Work 117 Edward Wight Bakke and Unemployment in the 1930s 124 Marie Jahoda and ‘Some Socio-Psychological Problems of Factory Life’ 130 Conclusion 132 Chapter 3: Academic Covert Ethnography from 1946 to 1969 134 Introduction 132 Post-War Social Research at the Crossroads 132 Post-War Covert Academic Ethnography 140 Pearl King and the Manufacture of Hosiery 140 John Spencer and the Relationship between Crime and Service in the Forces 142 Enid Mumford and Canteen Work at the Liverpool Docks 144 The Structure of Covert Academic Ethnography from 1946 to 1969 147 Researcher and the Researched in Post-War Covert Academic Ethnography 148 Methods and the Anthropological Paradigm 152 Research Ethics, Social Sanctions and Covertness 158 Conclusion 170 Chapter 4: Academic Covert Ethnography in the 1970s 172 Introduction 172 Sociology and Research Ethics in the 1970s 172 Academic Covert Ethnography in the 1970s 177 Covert Observations of Workplaces and Workplace Deviancy 177 Non-Work-Related Deviancy: Gambling, Alcoholism and Vagrancy 182 Ethnography and Religion: Covert Observations of Pentecostal Believers 186 Empirical Research with Practical Application? 194 The Structure of 1970s Covert Academic Ethnography 195 Researcher and the Researched in 1970s Covert Academic Ethnography 198 Covert Academic Ethnography and Journalism in the 1970s 201 Incognito Research and Ethics in 1970s Covert Academic Ethnography 202 Sociology in Post-War Britain: Public Reputation and Self-Image 209 Conclusion 211 Chapter 5: Non-Academic Covert Ethnography from 1946 to 1980 213 Introduction 213 An Absence of Non-Academic Covert Ethnography from 1946 to 1970 214 Non-Academic Covert Ethnography in the Early 1970s 216 Polly Toynbee and some ‘Stupid Boring’ Jobs 216 Jeremy Sandford and Homelessness 221 James Patrick and Glasgow’s Gang Culture 224 Robin Page and ‘Voluntary Vagrancy’ 227 The Structure of Non-Academic Covert Ethnography in the 1970s 231 Covertness in 1970s Non-Academic Covert Ethnography 237 Language and Imagery in 1970s Non-Academic Covert Ethnography 240 Advocacy and Empathy in 1970s Non-Academic Covert Ethnography 243 Sandford and Page: Covert Ethnography of Homelessness since the 1880s 247 Blurring the Boundaries: Patrick’s Covert Research and Academia 250 The Academic Aspects of Patrick’s Research 251 The Non-Academic Aspects of Patrick’s Research 252 Ethics and Non-Academic Covert Ethnography in the 1970s 254 Conclusion 258 Conclusion 259 Bibliography 264 Acknowledgements Having been a graduate student for over four years, I have mastered the art of procrastination and, even when it came to writing my ‘Acknowledgements’, I found time for a quick ‘Google’ of ‘PhD Acknowledgements’. I was not surprised to discover that there is an academic discourse on the construction of PhD acknowledgements. I was, however, surprised to learn that they can be a hotbed of ‘fawning’ and ‘vanity’, and that they ‘cannot be seen as merely a naïve listing of gratitude’.1 I beg to differ, and would like to give my wholehearted thanks to the following: • To the Economic and Social Research Council, for their generous funding. • To the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, for providing me with the office space and facilities needed to complete my thesis. • To Dr. Mark Freeman and Prof. Eleanor Gordon, my supervisors, for their patience, encouragement and advice. • To Norman Dennis, for his correspondence which informed my research. • To my fellow graduate students in Lilybank, for their support and humour, and especially to (nearly Dr.!) Alison Gilmour, for sharing my University career (and office space), and for helping me through the highs and lows of academia, and life. • To my friends and family, especially Elizabeth and Ian Nelson, my mum and dad, and Ross Simpson, my partner, for their warmth and tolerance. Without your help, I would never have reached the light at the end of the PhD tunnel. 1 Ken Hyland and Polly Tse, ‘“I Would Like to Thank My Supervisor”: Acknowledgements in Graduate Dissertations’, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Volume 14, Number 2, (2004), p.261. Author’s Declaration I declare that, except where explicit reference is made to the contribution of others, that this thesis is the result of my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree at the University of Glasgow or any other institution. Signature: Printed name: Gillian Nelson 9 Introduction The Scope of this Thesis Covert ethnography, the secret participation in, and observation of, a social group for research purposes, has a very long and complex history in Britain. It is reported, for example, that James V, king of Scots, would disguise himself as the ‘gudeman of Ballengiech’ in order to wander unhindered amongst his sixteenth-century subjects.1 More recent and well-known examples of covert ethnography include the Victorian journalist James Greenwood’s account of a night spent disguised as a tramp in the casual ward of a workhouse, and George Orwell’s semi-fictionalised Down and Out in Paris and London based on undercover research into poverty.2 Besides familiar examples such as these, however, many other, often more obscure, examples of covert ethnography have been published by a broad spectrum of individuals, from journalists to academics, on a variety of subjects, from common lodging houses to evangelical church groups. In the course of this thesis, a number of less well-known examples of covert ethnography will be discussed, including the journalist Hugh Massingham’s account of working-class community in the 1930s, and the sociologist Roger Homan’s study of Pentecostal believers in the 1970s.3 There are many reasons for undertaking an historical analysis of covert ethnographic research.