Re-using community oral history sources on food and family life in the First World War

This paper is about re-using archived oral histories from two contrasting community oral history groups, Ambleside Oral History Group in the Lake District and Waltham Forest Oral History Workshop in London, to study family food practices during the First World War. Analysis of thirty-eight transcrip...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Oral History. - Oral History Society. - 43(2015), 1, Seite 63-72
1. Verfasser: Knight, Abigail (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Brannen, Julia, O'Connell, Rebecca
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2015
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Oral History
Schlagworte:History Behavioral sciences Social sciences Applied sciences Political science
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This paper is about re-using archived oral histories from two contrasting community oral history groups, Ambleside Oral History Group in the Lake District and Waltham Forest Oral History Workshop in London, to study family food practices during the First World War. Analysis of thirty-eight transcripts from the archives reveal themes relating to farming and food growing, hardship, food shortages, meals and self-sufficiency. We discuss some of the methodological opportunities, challenges and limitations of re-using oral histories in a social scientific study focusing on food and family life in hard times, such as the type, quality and accessibility of the interview data; co-construction; the interviewer's use of local knowledge and stories from previous interviews to steer interviews; and questions of temporality and context. We conclude that, despite the challenges and limitations of re-using oral histories, there is a wealth of sources in community oral history archives available for both social scientists and historians.
ISSN:01430955