Working with material from the Sheppey archive

Abstract

This article reflects on the experience of working with archived data in the Living and Working on Sheppey project which revisited material from Ray Pahl’s research on the Isle of Sheppey, published in the modern sociological classic, Divisions of Labour (1984). The article considers the reasons for revisiting archived material and some of the opportunities and challenges of working with archived material. For this discussion, we focus on one particular element of the original research: a collection of essays written by school leavers in 1978, and the archived notes from Pahl’s preliminary analysis of these data. We also draw on interviews with Pahl about this aspect of his research, and our experience of repeating the essay-writing exercise. We conclude with some comments on the dynamic character of the archive.

Keywords:

• archival research
• community
• imagination
• secondary analysis
• work
• youth

Notes

1. The Living and Working on Sheppey project was funded by the HEFCE-financed South East Coastal Communities Programme. The project team includes academics from sociology and arts at the Universities of Kent and Southampton, staff from the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, the artists group Tea, and members (staff and community volunteers) of the Blue Town Heritage Centre which is an information, resource and visitor centre on the history of Blue Town and the Isle of Sheppey. Until his death in June 2011, Ray Pahl was an informal consultant to the project.

2. School Leavers Study, 1978: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4867; Creation and Collapse of an Occupational Community, the Case of Sheerness Naval Dockyard, 1950–1980: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4873; 17–19 and Unemployed on the Isle of Sheppey, 1980: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4860; Isle of Sheppey Survey, 1981: Divisions of Labour: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=1986; Social and Political Implications of Household Work Strategies, 1978–1983: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4876; Employers on the Isle of Sheppey, 1981–1985: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescrniption.asp?sn=4854; Changing Sociological Construct of the Family, 1930–1986: http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4872.

3. Pahl (1978) gave the number of essays as 142, but reanalysis revealed incorrect numbering, there were in fact 141 essays.