Victorian Social Reform: A Bibliography of the Published Papers of the Social Science Association 1857-86
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Grant Holder:
Dr Lawrence Goldman
The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, known as the Social Science Association, was an influential forum for the development of social policy between the 1850s and 1880s to which many notable Victorians gave papers and addresses. Leading politicians, intellectuals, bureaucrats, churchmen and businessmen were among its members. It was influential in many different areas - legal reform, penal policy, education, public health and commercial relations – and provides vivid insight into Victorian social and institutional development. This project has produced an exhaustive bibliography of all contributions to the Association over three decades. Nearly 4,500 of these, given by over two thousand contributors, have been traced and entered on a database accessible via the internet. This will give scholars access to sources which will assist many different projects studying the development of British social policy. Until now scholars have had difficulty forming a view of the work of the Social Science Association, and tracing contributions to it by many different Victorians, women as well as men. The bibliography now produced is a guide to specific contributions by named individuals, and to groups of papers and discussions on major and minor social questions of the era.
| Project start date: 2003-09 | Project end date: 2005-06 |
Subject domains:
Era(s):
Country/region(s):
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| Data modelling | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Text encoding - descriptive | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Searching and querying | Data analysis |
| Manual input and transcription | Data capture |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data
Software tools used:
Microsoft Access, MySQL, Active Server Pages (ASP)
Source material used:
The bibliography has been produced from the published proceedings of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science which was active between 1857 and 1886. The key sources were the Association's Transactions, published annually in 29 volumes, and its 17 volumes of Sessional Proceedings, which began in 1866. Other publications associated with the Association have also been used and included in the database. Each paper, address or contribution has been examined and assigned to a subject area in the bibliography. These sources are held in various research libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as in the United States and Europe. The bibliography will now make it possible for scholars to locate relevant publications in hitherto impenetrable and little-known sources and go to read them in libraries across the country. The database includes a convenient list of all the holdings of the Association's publications in the different research libraries in Britain.
Digital resource created:
We have produced a bibliography comprising all the papers - nearly 4,500 - delivered to the Social Science Association by over two thousand contributors in the period 1857-1886. This bibliography is based on the unpublished work of the late Professor Lord McGregor of Durris, Professor of Social Institutions in the University of London, who began work on a bibliography of the Association in the 1970s which was left unfinished at his death in 1997. The bibliography contains details of all the traceable papers given to the SSA that were published or mentioned in the 29 volumes of its Transactions (1857-1884 inclusive) and the 17 volumes of its Sessional Proceedings (1866-1884 inclusive). Papers delivered to it and published in a variety of other volumes and ancillary publications have also been included. The bibliography is searchable by author, by place and date of delivery of the address or paper, and also by a complex subject index which breaks down the many contributions into different social categories. The subject index is a guide in itself to the key questions of social reform in the mid-Victorian period. The bibliography will be of use to anyone undertaking research into any aspect of Victorian social and institutional history.
Access to digital resource:
Open Access
Data Formats created:
Active Server Pages (ASP), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), MySQL
Publications:
‘Victorian Social Science: From Singular to Plural’ in Martin Daunton (ed.), The Organisation of Knowledge in Victorian Britain (Oxford University Press, 2005, forthcoming)
Institutions affiliated with this project:
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| University of Oxford |
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| University of Oxford |
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Dr Lawrence Goldman |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Lawrence Goldman |
| Title | Victorian Social Reform: A Bibliography of the Published Papers of the Social Science Association 1857-86 |
| Record created | 2005-11-07 |
| Record updated | 2011-01-25 16:06 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2196 |
| Citation of record | Lawrence Goldman: Victorian Social Reform: A Bibliography of the Published Papers of the Social Science Association 1857-86. <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2196> created: 2005-11-07, last updated 2011-01-25 16:06 |