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The meanings of happiness in Mass Observation's Bolton

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posted on 2023-06-15, 13:55 authored by Ian Gazeley, Claire Langhamer
In April 1938, the social investigative organization, Mass Observation conducted an inquiry into the happiness of Bolton people. In this article we analyse the letters and questionnaire responses generated through a competition that asked, ‘What is happiness?’ We examine the extent to which these competition entrants were representative of Bolton population and conclude that they were broadly representative in terms of occupation and sex, but less so in terms of social class. We describe the factors which according to competition entrants determined individual happiness. These were remarkably stable across age groups and gender. Economic security emerged as the dominant consideration, whilst personal pleasure was represented as playing little part in generating happiness. A detailed analysis of the happiness letters and questionnaires suggests that introspective and relational factors were also important determinants of well-being. We demonstrate that these introspective factors were framed by an individual’s personal moral framework and that relational factors were under-pinned by gendered conceptions of domestic happiness.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

History Workshop Journal

ISSN

1477-4569

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

1

Volume

75

Page range

159-189

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-10-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2014-08-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2012-10-17

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