Petitioning and People Power in Twentieth-Century Britain

Start date: 1 August 2020
End date: 31 July 2023
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Value: £931,782
Primary investigator: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira
External co-investigators: Dr Richard Huzzey (PI – Durham University) Dr Anna Bocking-Welch (Liverpool University)

The project is seeking to understand how people in Great Britain used petitions and other forms of campaigning to represent their concerns or opinions. We are looking at the period 1900-2000, which permits us to see how a particular form of campaigning adapted to changes across a century. Our findings will be published and also shared with people whose work focuses on the organisation or reception of petitions, such as those working for charities or the staff of the UK’s representative institutions, such as Parliament.

Publications and outputs

Breaking barriers to engagement with parliaments

Summary report: What’s the point of petitions? What the last century reveals about petitioning and people power in modern Britain

Podcast: What's the point of petitioning Parliament? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 56