What is a commission

You can commission a Directive to generate a collection of qualitative data from our national panel of volunteer writers, known as Mass Observers or Correspondents. 

For a fee, this collaboration would involve buying in to a relationship which Mass Observation has nurtured with for over 40 years. 

Mass Observers contribute openly and candidly and with great trust. Observers are committed to the ethos of documenting the ‘everyday’ for the purposes of contemporary research and safekeeping for future generations.  

‘Observers have had the opportunity to reflect upon a directive in their own time and write their response at their own pace. This is clearly reflected in the quality of many of the responses which tend to be in-depth and reflexive’ 

Dr Vanessa May, University of Manchester and Commissioner Belonging Directive 2018 

Producing a Directive

Ideally, discussions about commissioning will take place in the early stages of planning a research project and MO can provide advice during the process of applying for funding. 

The design of the actual Directive text is a joint process between the researcher and the Archive and usually takes place in the two or three weeks running up to the Directive mail out.  

We encourage researchers to look at earlier Directives and at samples of replies to help design their questions.  

Directive Responses

Directives are produced in Spring, Summer and Autumn. Each directive contains 2-3 parts. Each part has a different theme with a range of open-ended questions. 

The responses are particularly rich, detailed and personal, often providing insights which are difficult to obtain using other methods. It is therefore much more than a simple questionnaire mail-out or data collection service. 

It is not a survey in the traditional sense and the Panel does not constitute a representative sample of the population. There is no guarantee that contributions from specific kinds of people will be represented in the material. This has implications for the methodological approach to analysis and interpretation which the researcher chooses and the Archive can advise if required. 

Costs and Terms of Commission 

As a registered charity we charge a fee for collaborating on a Directive, which supports our project costs. You can read our terms of collaboration here. Please contact us to find out more about fees.