The Sibling Postcard Exercise

Bytheway, Bill, Weller, Susie, Bornat, Joanna and Edwards, Rosalind (2026) The Sibling Postcard Exercise. University of Leeds doi:10.23635/17 [Dataset]

Abstract

This data set is the written text of ‘postcards’ submitted to researchers at the Open University and London South Bank University by the public as part of an annual week-long Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) ‘Festival of Social Science’ public engagement series of events. The postcard exercise ran from 7-16 March 2008, where people were invited to write about their sisters and brothers. They could either complete an electronic postcard via a website, advertised through leaflets, email lists, chat groups, on the research team’s email sign-offs, etc., or a paper postcard at displays in offices, schools, public libraries, care homes and voluntary organisations. Both the hard copy and online versions of the postcard had three entry fields: tickbox gender, dates of birth and death, and a free text box where participants could describe anything they wished about their siblings/sibling relationships. 795 postcard responses were received from both children and adults from across the UK, two-thirds of them via the online portal. The copies of all the electronic and hard copy postcards have been transcribed verbatim. They have been lightly anonymised. The postcard exercise writers consented to future research. The text inviting participation stated: ‘We will anonymise your emails and place them in an Archive to be used for research and educational purposes … in emailing us you are assigning copyright to the researchers as part of The Sibling Postcard research project’.

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Contributors

Creator: Rosalind Edwards

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