Problems of Regional Survey
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1934.tb02370.x |
| Date | 01 January 1934 |
| Published date | 01 January 1934 |
| Author | A. Carr‐Saunders |
Problems
of
Regional
Survey
By
Professor
-4.
M.
CARR-SAUNDERS.
M.A.
[Pafier
to
be
discussed at the Northern Regional Groups' Conference,
Liverpool, February,
19341
The library
of
M
a
century ago, which may
sti~
be found intact in country
houses, contains surveys of many kinds. Surveys of the antiquities
of
a
country or of its social customs were especially popular.
But
the species
of
survey that is in view in this discussion
is
a
late evolution
within the genus. It would be interesting to look
for
the appearance
of
the
first example
of
the new species. For our purpose, however,
it is enough to remerr.ber that the impression made by Charles
Booth's
great survey
of
London fixed attention upon the new type, though
it may not have been the first
of
its kind.
To
it we
may
attribute
the spread of
the
modem habit of survey making all over the world.
Since this is
so,
we may ask what it is that characterises the new
form of survey.
In
the
first place its methods are scientific. Facts are collected,
classified and analysed; and upon them generalisations are founded.
So
far as possible the facts are measured and represented statistically.
While qualitative judgments are not ruled out, they are usually only
made with some reserve, and are put forward as the
sort
of impression
which the facts might be held by others to create, Moreover, quali-
tative judgments are as a rule only attempted,
if
attempted at all,
when there
is
statistical basis upon which to
found
them.
Since
I
am concerned
with
the objects of modem surveys and not
with the methods by which they are made, it may seem that when
I
refer to methods
I
am going outside
my
province. But
this
is not
so,
because the fact that the methods of the modem survey are scientific
sets a
limit
to
its
objects. Those things that cannot be fully
measured
fall
in
part at least outside the list
of
objects that are proper
to
this
particular species of survey. Religion may be taken as
an
example.
It
is
a
common practice when making
a
survey
to
collect
figures
of
church membership and of church attendance. From these
data certain generalisations are possible and legitimate. But
in
this
way the place of religion
in
modern life
is
hardly touched.
So
too
ODERN
surveys possess a lengthy genealogy.
47
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