212:, gained a reputation as an expert authority on market research and mass communication techniques in Britain, and published widely in academic journals as well as newspapers and the popular press. Two of his most influential market research reports coined the phrase 'teenage consumer', drawing attention to the new significance of a rapidly expanding youth market for products and advertising. Abrams was one of the founding members of the
254:. Between 1971 and 1975 he worked on the 'Quality of Life in Britain' surveys, which included the innovative use of 'subjective social indicators' to track perceptions of social change. Between 1976–1985, Abrams was Research Director at the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, where he undertook studies of living standards among people aged 65 and over. He was also Vice-President of the
191:
Abrams returned to the London Press
Exchange in 1946 to direct its research department as an independent subsidiary consultancy, Research Services Ltd. By the early 1960s the company employed over ninety members of staff and produced surveys for 300 clients a year, including academic as well as
183:
Overseas
Research Department, then at the Psychological Warfare Board, where he carried out government surveys into working-class diets under rationing and the impact of bombing on civilian morale, and also commissioned covert psychological analysis into the mind of
156:, one of Britain's leading advertising agencies. Here Abrams began developing his pioneering work in social investigation, market research, and opinion polling by conducting large-scale statistical surveys into
160:. His national newspaper readership surveys, which included over 20,000 participants between 1934 and 1938, were landmarks in survey research and were credited with establishing the widespread use of the
209:
620:
Scott
Anthony, 'Governing for Happiness: Mark Abrams, Subjective Social Indicators and the Post-war Explosion of 'Middle-Opinion', in Don Leggett and Charlotte Sleigh (eds.),
113:(27 April 1906 – 25 September 1994) was a British social scientist and market research expert who pioneered new techniques in statistical surveying and opinion polling.
508:
Stefan
Schwarzkopf, 'The Statisticalization of the Consumer in British Market Research, c. 1920–1960: Profiling a Good Society', in Glen O'Hara and Tom Crook (eds.),
164:
of social classification in
Britain. Abrams's contacts with other social scientists working abroad during this period led to his work retrieving refugees from
478:
425:
350:
683:
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Mark Abrams was born Max
Alexander Abramowitz in Edmonton, North London in 1906 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Lithuania and Latvia to the
125:
in the 1890s. He later described his father Abram
Abramowitz, a journeyman bootmaker, shopkeeper, and house agent, as a 'philosophical anarchist'.
525:(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 99; Mark Clapson, 'The Rise and Fall of Monica Felton, British Town Planner and Peace Activist, 1930s to 1950s',
713:
521:
Lawrence Black, 'The
Impression of Affluence: Political Culture in the 1950s and 1960s', in Lawrence Black and Hugh Pemberton (eds.)
251:
394:
Mark Abrams, 'The Gold and Silver Thread
Monopolies of James I', unpublished PhD dissertation, London School of Economics, 1929.
708:
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Abrams left his chairmanship of
Research Services Limited in 1970 to become Director of the Survey Research Unit at the
657:
188:. His studies of food consumption during the war contributed to the establishment of the National Food Survey in 1940.
568:
Sean Nixon, 'Understanding Ordinary Women: Advertising, Consumer Research and Mass Consumption in Britain, 1948–67',
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and carried out many of their private opinion polls, first with the modernisers in the party aligned with
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commercial, political, and public sector organisations. Research Services Ltd. was commissioned by
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136:. He went on to complete a PhD in early modern English economic history under the supervision of
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Joe Moran, 'Mass Observation, Market Research, and the Birth of the Focus Group 1937–1997',
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220:. Research Services Ltd. (later known as RSL) was one of the founder companies of
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324:(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1985), with David Gerard and Noel Timms (eds.)
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90:
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The First Teenagers: The Lifestyle of Young Wage-Earners in Interwar Britain
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137:
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Statistics and the Public Sphere: Numbers and the People in Modern Britain
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641:
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Between 1931 and 1933 Abrams was a research fellow at the progressive
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457:"Inside Hitler's Mind, University of Cambridge Research (4 May 2012)"
382:"An interview with Mark Abrams (19 September 1984) 1. Family Origins"
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in Washington, DC. In 1933 he joined the research department of the
197:
403:
Dawn Mitchell, 'Research for the Truth: Mark Abrams (1906–1994),
300:(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960), with Richard Rose and Rita Hinden
217:
523:
An Affluent Society? Britain's Post-War 'Golden Age' Revisited
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newspaper. Abrams, along with contemporary pollsters such as
624:(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), pp. 274–94.
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From the mid-1950s Abrams became closely connected with the
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16:
Britush social scientist and market researcher (1906–1994)
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555:(London: London Press Exchange, 1959) and Mark Abrams,
580:(London: Bloomsbury, 2013), p. 341. cf. David Fowler,
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to undertake social surveys prior to the building of
611:(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 67–70.
471:
418:
343:
473:"UK Data Service: National Food Survey 1940–2000"
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280:The Condition of the British People, 1911–1945
482:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
429:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
354:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
116:
609:The Politics of Marketing the Labour Party
622:Scientific Governance in Britain, 1914–79
684:Alumni of the London School of Economics
304:The Newspaper Reading Public of Tomorrow
128:Abrams received a scholarship to attend
479:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
426:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
351:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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559:(London: London Press Exchange, 1961).
512:(London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 144–62.
469:
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341:
714:People educated at The Latymer School
420:"Oxford ODNB: Abrams, Mark Alexander"
345:"Oxford ODNB: Abrams, Mark Alexander"
294:(London: London Press Exchange, 1959)
584:(Oxford: Routledge, 1995) pp. 93–94
322:Values and Social Change in Britain
210:British Institute of Public Opinion
13:
595:"Market Research Society: History"
200:new town and the establishment of
14:
725:
631:
557:Teenage Consumer Spending in 1959
276:(London: Allen & Unwin, 1945)
268:Money and a Changing Civilisation
179:Abrams was employed first in the
172:make his final move to England).
286:Social Surveys and Social Action
132:, then studied economics at the
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274:The Population of Great Britain
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248:Social Science Research Council
572:, 2:3 (2009): fn. 14, p. 320;
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1:
709:Members of the Fabian Society
653:An interview with Mark Abrams
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496:UK public library membership
443:UK public library membership
368:UK public library membership
318:(Mitcham: Age Concern, 1983)
312:(Mitcham: Age Concern, 1980)
7:
570:Journal of Cultural Economy
10:
730:
578:Modernity Britain, 1957–62
540:Journal of British Studies
310:Beyond Three Score and Ten
134:London School of Economics
70:London School of Economics
642:Churchill Archives Centre
638:The Papers of Mark Abrams
288:(London: Heinemann, 1951)
270:(London: John Lane, 1934)
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470:Warren, Michael (2004).
417:Warren, Michael (2004).
342:Warren, Michael (2004).
282:(London: Gollancz, 1946)
256:Policy Studies Institute
168:Europe (in 1939 helping
117:Background and education
646:Mark Abrams's entry in
316:People in Their Sixties
258:between 1978 and 1994.
214:Market Research Society
488:10.1093/ref:odnb/54696
435:10.1093/ref:odnb/54696
360:10.1093/ref:odnb/54696
306:(London: Odhams, 1964)
218:Consumers' Association
216:and an advisor of the
527:Planning Perspectives
241:1964 general election
154:London Press Exchange
150:Brookings Institution
694:English sociologists
553:The Teenage Consumer
542:47:4 (2008): 827–51.
407:, 27 September 1994.
292:The Teenage Consumer
699:Jewish sociologists
529:, 30:2 (2015): 216.
704:Market researchers
158:consumer behaviour
130:The Latymer School
123:East End of London
658:Mark Abrams Prize
494:(Subscription or
441:(Subscription or
366:(Subscription or
298:Must Labour Lose?
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77:Scientific career
49:25 September 1994
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459:. 4 May 2012.
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262:Publications
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229:Labour Party
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206:Henry Durant
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186:Adolf Hitler
177:World War II
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138:R. H. Tawney
127:
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76:
51:(1994-09-25)
18:
679:1994 deaths
674:1906 births
660:(1986–2005)
162:ABC1 system
111:Mark Abrams
99:gerontology
58:Nationality
25:Mark Abrams
668:Categories
498:required.)
445:required.)
370:required.)
329:References
222:Ipsos MORI
37:1906-04-27
648:Who's Who
235:and then
140:in 1929.
250:, under
198:Peterlee
208:of the
202:The Sun
175:During
61:British
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144:Career
83:Fields
166:Nazi
46:Died
31:Born
484:doi
431:doi
356:doi
181:BBC
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