1.1 2.1 The Observers and the Observed: The 'dual Vision' of the Mass Observation Project by Anne-Marie Kramer University of Nottingham Sociological Research Online, 19 (3), 7 <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/3/7.html> DOI: 10.5153/sro.3455 Received: 10 Dec 2013 | Accepted: 4 Jun 2014 | Published: 15 Aug 2014 Abstract In Summer 2008 I commissioned a Part 1 Directive on 'Doing Family History Research' from the Mass Observation Project as part of a Leverhulme-funded project on the status and significance of genealogy and its role and consequences in personal and family lives.฀ Drawing on examples from this research project, this article will consider how we can understand Mass Observation correspondents as generating sociological knowledge and insight through what I will call 'dual vision'. Correspondents write about personal, interior and family lives by being both the observers and the observed, simultaneously commenting upon personal and family life as a social phenomenon (detailing the 'typical case'), and able to document their own personal and family lives in detail. Further, given the function of the MOP to record for posterity, Mass Observers also consciously situate themselves and their accounts not just in social or geographical space, but also in relation to history, and in time. I will argue that MOP accounts of personal, interior and family lives are useful to sociologists both because this 'dual vision' makes possible rich and reflexive descriptions of personal and family life, but฀ possibly more importantly, because it allows us to see how people consciously imagine and embed themselves in their social, geographical and temporal context through relating their own experiences to the 'typical case'. Keywords: Mass Observation; Reflexivity; Situatedness/social Location;฀ Contextualisation; Temporality; Family History/genealogy; Social Observation Introduction Firstly, I will explore how the structure and purpose of the Mass Observation Project is premised upon collaboration, which facilitates Mass Observers' often considerable and detailed engagement with the Directive's theme and remit. Secondly, I will show that Mass Observers' sense of purpose in documenting the experiences and attitudes of 'ordinary' people, for researchers in the present and the future, means that they are particularly aware of the importance of contextualising their responses. This attentiveness to context means that many Mass Observers offer reflexive and considered accounts of social life in which they consciously and unconsciously฀ imagine and embed themselves in their social, geographical and temporal context, and insightfully consider how this situatedness frames and shapes the accounts they present. Lastly, I will argue that the dual role of Mass Observers both to document social life, and to write about their own experiences and opinions, results in what I call 'dual vision', where Mass Observers write simultaneously about social life by being both the observers and the observed. This 'dual vision' means that many Mass Observers are prompted to write reflexively about the฀ relationship between their own personal experience and their social observations, allowing them to draw out and reflect upon the distinctiveness of their experience and knowledge. I then argue that the richness of Mass฀ Observation data is facilitated by the unique status of the Mass Observer. But let me first introduce the 2008฀ Family History Directive. The 2008 Family History Directive Part 1 of the Summer 2008 Directive asked about family history, and in particular, why family history is popular, who does it, what questions it answers, who is most interested in it, the relationships between family history research and history, how people do family history, and the role of family history in correspondents' lives, [1] http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/3/7.html 1 22/08/2014