Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Pages: 480-498

Journal: Journal of Modern European History

Volume number: 13

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 1611-8944

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944-2015-4-480

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Abstract: 
This article takes a micro-historical look at the Peckham Experiment, conducted in South London between 1935 and 1950. In the Pioneer Health Centre, working-class families could freely organise recreational activities, their physical and social development being closely observed by physicians. The article traces how theories on social evolution were structuring the doctors' gaze on an experimental space; originally conceived to study the effects of health promotion. It also argues that the scientists' hands-off attitude evolved out of epistemological challenges they were facing when interacting with their guinea pigs. In a bestselling 1943 book, the experimenters were rejecting interventionist thinking, theorising on the creative potential of individuals and the power of social groups to self-organise generating insights that were discussed around the world, still haunting British political debates today. The article thus serves as a case study on hopes placed in social experimentation in the 20th century and its governmental effects.

Harvard Citation style: Kuchenbuch, D. (2015) A Laboratory of Anarchy? The London Pioneer Health Centre and the Experimentalisation of the Social, 1935-1950, Journal of Modern European History, 13(4), pp. 480-498. https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944-2015-4-480

APA Citation style: Kuchenbuch, D. (2015). A Laboratory of Anarchy? The London Pioneer Health Centre and the Experimentalisation of the Social, 1935-1950. Journal of Modern European History. 13(4), 480-498. https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944-2015-4-480