Belonging: Mass Observation Project Correspondents' Writings, 2010

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. This study is available via the UK Data Service Qualibank, an online tool for browsing, searching and citing the content of selected qualitative data collections held at the UK Data Service. This research results from the work of the social research organisation, Mass-Observation, founded in 1937 to create an 'anthropology of ourselves'. Material was collected from a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers who aimed to study the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain. This directive was carried out in June-July 2010 and with the aim of exploring experiences of belonging in relation to a variety of things, including individual people, a group or a community of people, a place, a culture or a nation. The directive also asked about less happy experiences of not belonging, such as feeling `not at home' or labelled 'an outsider'.