- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
[Page last updated 2 September 2012]
Dr Mark Abrams (1906 - 1994)
One of the founding fathers of survey and market research in the UK, Dr Mark Abrams (pictured in 1957) was an eminent social scientist who pioneered a range of research methods and major surveys (including the National Food Survey during the second World War). During a career spanning six decades, he became the youngest ever Director of the London Press Exchange (LPE). In WW2 he was seconded to the BBC to head up a special unit interpreting and advising on German propaganda. In 1946 he founded Research Services Ltd (RSL) as an independent vehicle within LPE conducting surveys for major clients, initiating a number of regular major surveys and coining the phrase "Teenage Consumer".
In 1970, Dr Abrams was invited by Michael Young, Chairman of the (then) Social Science Research Council, to leave RSL and become Director of a new Survey Unit, specially established to do surveys for Council and to offer advice and assistance in survey methods to academics and others doing surveys with public funds. When he retired in 1976, aged 70, SSRC conspicuously failed to appoint a new Director and controversially closed the unit, making all staff redundant.
Dr Abrams continued to be actively involved in research, becoming Research Director at Age Concern and also External Examiner for the Social Research and Planning pathway of a brand new BA Applied Social Studies at the then Polytechnic of North London (PNL, now part of London Metropolitan University). This pathway, designed and headed up by John Hall, (freshly redundant from the SSRC Survey Unit) was the first and only undergraduate degree in social research the UK, consciously filling gaps identified by Dr Abrams and himself in social research methods training. In 1978, with Dr Abrams' encouragement and support, PNL agreed to set up a new Survey Research Unit (with John Hall as Director) which broadly continued the work of the SSRC Survey Unit, but on a much smaller scale.
In 1986 Dr Abrams was persuaded to give his name to the Mark Abrams Prize, to be awarded annually via the Social Research Association for the best piece of work linking survey research, social theory and/or social policy, based on his 1974 paper Social Surveys, Social Theory and Social Policy. In the same year the Polytechnic awarded Dr Abrams an Honorary Fellowship (the only British academic institution to honour him in this way) in recognition of his services to social science and to PNL, where he continued to support, and work closely with, the Survey Research Unit until 1992.
This site now has a new page with details,of a 1984 interview recorded by his grandson, Dominic Abrams (then aged 26 and having recently completed his PhD., now Professor of Social Psychology at Kent University)
With the agreement of the Abrams family, Professor Abrams has released a full transcript of the recordings together with copies of the original tapes. The recordings run to over four hours and the transcript to 102 pages. Accordingly the transcript has been divided into sections, for each of which there is a corresponding audio file. The full transcript and the separate transcript sections are available from An interview with Mark Abrams (transcripts)
The interview took place during the afternoon of September 19th 1984, during which Dr Abrams described in fascinating detail his early childhood growing up in an émigré Jewish family in North London, his student days at Latymer School and LSE, his early political education, his research career from the 1930s onwards, his wartime work at the BBC and his work for the Labour Party. Many of the people he knew and worked with (referred to during the interview) are now household names in the pantheon of the social sciences.
He also talked about the birth, childhood, education and academic career of his son Philip Abrams (Dominic's father) who was Professor of Sociology at Durham University when he died suddenly in 1981.
Corresponding audio files have been extracted from the tape recordings and are available from An interview with Mark Abrams (audio files)
Dr Abrams' personal papers were donated to Churchill College Cambridge by his widow Jean and his daughter Evelyn. See The Papers of Mark Abrams for a list of items in the archive.
Dr Abrams continued to be actively involved in research, becoming Research Director at Age Concern and also External Examiner for the Social Research and Planning pathway of a brand new BA Applied Social Studies at the then Polytechnic of North London (PNL, now part of London Metropolitan University). This pathway, designed and headed up by John Hall, (freshly redundant from the SSRC Survey Unit) was the first and only undergraduate degree in social research the UK, consciously filling gaps identified by Dr Abrams and himself in social research methods training. In 1978, with Dr Abrams' encouragement and support, PNL agreed to set up a new Survey Research Unit (with John Hall as Director) which broadly continued the work of the SSRC Survey Unit, but on a much smaller scale.
In 1986 Dr Abrams was persuaded to give his name to the Mark Abrams Prize, to be awarded annually via the Social Research Association for the best piece of work linking survey research, social theory and/or social policy, based on his 1974 paper Social Surveys, Social Theory and Social Policy. In the same year the Polytechnic awarded Dr Abrams an Honorary Fellowship (the only British academic institution to honour him in this way) in recognition of his services to social science and to PNL, where he continued to support, and work closely with, the Survey Research Unit until 1992.
This site now has a new page with details,of a 1984 interview recorded by his grandson, Dominic Abrams (then aged 26 and having recently completed his PhD., now Professor of Social Psychology at Kent University)
With the agreement of the Abrams family, Professor Abrams has released a full transcript of the recordings together with copies of the original tapes. The recordings run to over four hours and the transcript to 102 pages. Accordingly the transcript has been divided into sections, for each of which there is a corresponding audio file. The full transcript and the separate transcript sections are available from An interview with Mark Abrams (transcripts)
The interview took place during the afternoon of September 19th 1984, during which Dr Abrams described in fascinating detail his early childhood growing up in an émigré Jewish family in North London, his student days at Latymer School and LSE, his early political education, his research career from the 1930s onwards, his wartime work at the BBC and his work for the Labour Party. Many of the people he knew and worked with (referred to during the interview) are now household names in the pantheon of the social sciences.
He also talked about the birth, childhood, education and academic career of his son Philip Abrams (Dominic's father) who was Professor of Sociology at Durham University when he died suddenly in 1981.
Corresponding audio files have been extracted from the tape recordings and are available from An interview with Mark Abrams (audio files)
Dr Abrams' personal papers were donated to Churchill College Cambridge by his widow Jean and his daughter Evelyn. See The Papers of Mark Abrams for a list of items in the archive.
Biographical/Historical
Abrams, Mark Alexander
(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Mark Alexander Abrams
(Wikipedia)
Mark Abrams and the Remaking of Modern Britain
(Dr Scott Anthony, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, History Faculty, Cambridge University)
Publications
Mark Abrams: Publications
(comprehensive list of publications dating from 1931 to 1985, many downloadable from this site.)
Obituaries
The Guardian (27 Sep 1994)
Daily Telegraph (4 Oct 1994)
The Times (29 Sep 1994)
Mark Abrams Obituary (undated, by Dawn Mitchell for the Social Research Association)
There was also one in The Independent (yet to be tracked down)
Appreciations
The Guardian (5 Oct 1994)
Sunday Telegraph (2 Oct 1994)
Correspondence [on this site]
(following his death on 25 Sep 1994)
(26 Sep 1994) Prof Martin Bulmer to Rebecca Abrams (Mark's grand-daughter)
(19 Oct 1994) John Hall to Martin Bulmer
(19 Oct 1994) Notes on Mark Abrams (by John Hall)
(21 Oct 1994) John Hall to Roger Jowell
(26 Oct 1994) Roger Jowell to John Hall
(31 Oct 1994) John Hall to Jean Abrams (Mark's widow)
Abrams, Mark Alexander
(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Mark Alexander Abrams
(Wikipedia)
Mark Abrams and the Remaking of Modern Britain
(Dr Scott Anthony, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, History Faculty, Cambridge University)
Publications
Mark Abrams: Publications
(comprehensive list of publications dating from 1931 to 1985, many downloadable from this site.)
Obituaries
The Guardian (27 Sep 1994)
Daily Telegraph (4 Oct 1994)
The Times (29 Sep 1994)
Mark Abrams Obituary (undated, by Dawn Mitchell for the Social Research Association)
There was also one in The Independent (yet to be tracked down)
Appreciations
The Guardian (5 Oct 1994)
Sunday Telegraph (2 Oct 1994)
Correspondence [on this site]
(following his death on 25 Sep 1994)
(26 Sep 1994) Prof Martin Bulmer to Rebecca Abrams (Mark's grand-daughter)
(19 Oct 1994) John Hall to Martin Bulmer
(19 Oct 1994) Notes on Mark Abrams (by John Hall)
(21 Oct 1994) John Hall to Roger Jowell
(26 Oct 1994) Roger Jowell to John Hall
(31 Oct 1994) John Hall to Jean Abrams (Mark's widow)