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One means by which planning agencies may "hear" the constructive views of the public is the questionnaire technique. "A questionnaire is not just a list of questions. . .. It is essentially a scientific instrument for measurement and for correlation of particular kinds of data . . . it has to be specially designed." (Oppenheim). This paper considers the problems of questionnaire design, a number of examples of the use of the questionnaire in the United States and Britain, and attempts to draw lessons and profit from experience for those people committed to the use of the technique in exercises of public participation in the planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the items in the questionnaire by William Lovett, secretary of the Chartist General Convention, aimed at discovering the major economic, political and social matters affecting the working class in Great Britain. The answers to such a series of questions, with the comments of the local Chartist and Radical organizers, would provide a very considerable and useful body of information on the problems and grievances of the working classes and thus aid the central Chartist organization in its attempts to agitate the country. There is, however, no evidence to show that the Chartist Convention made any use of the information, beyond the general knowledge which it gave that body of the state of the working classes throughout the country. It may be that insufficient local associations completed the questionnaires to justify the drawing of conclusions, as is suggested by the fact that among the papers of the Convention there are collected together returns from only a few associations.

This paper consists of an account of an enquiry into the methods and procedures used in industry for the evaluation and control of Research and Development (R&D) carried out by the R&D Research Unit at the Manchester Business School. A great deal of material has been published recently on the evaluation and control of R&D, some of it being accounts of how it is carried out in a given organization and some being outlines of possible evaluation models and techniques. However, this literature gives little indication as to how widely used are the techniques described. The most recent large-scale survey in Britain to discover the evaluation techniques which were in use at the time was the 1959/60 Federation of British Industries survey amongst its members, published in 1960 under the title of "Research in Manufacturing Industry." It was considered valuable by the R&D Research Unit to organize a survey to gain some indication of the evaluation and control procedures at present in use: first to gain knowledge of the current situation and secondly as an indication to where research into methods and procedures could be of most practical use. A questionnaire survey, supplemented by some personal visits and a certain amount of correspondence was considered the best way to obtain the required information.

The article comments on trends in teaching the sociology of development in Great Britain. The way that a subject is taught and the kinds of development which are occurring within it give a strong clue as to the direction of academic thought in that subject. For this reason, a discussion of how the sociology of development is taught in Great Britain tells about more than the mere teaching of an option in some sociology degrees. It also tells something about the state of sociology as a discipline and supplies with some indication of the likely developments in that discipline in the near future. Following the British Sociological Association annual conference in 1972, a survey was carried out with a view to ascertaining exactly what was being taught in that slot in the curriculum called sociology of development, comparative sociology of developing societies, or modernization and development. All the institutions of Great Britain which had been represented at the B.S.A. conference were surveyed by means of a postal questionnaire.

The article focuses on the methodology and terms behind successful long term planning in Great Britain. The article suggests three areas on which this planning is based: analysis and forecasting for long-term decision making, analysis of individual steps necessary in developing plans, and research into the particular practices and experience of individual companies. The article comments on long term planning as it relates to operational planning, project planning, and strategic planning. It mentions the background of executives responsible for long ranged planning, and suggests that the majority of long ranged planning arises from an organization's finance group, and that the role of the long range planner is often combined with that of chief accountant or finance director.

The article presents information on the detailed results of a questionnaire on the attitudes of British economists on the economic desirability of Britain joining the Common Market, distributed in October 1971 prior to the British House of Commons debate on the subject and resulting in the publication in "The Times," on October 22 of two letters, one in favor and one against. The questionnaire was inspired by economist Nicholas Kaldor, jointly sponsored with economist Harry G. Johnson and distributed through the local secretaries of the Association of University Teachers of Economics (AUTE). The intention was to have a reasonably clear-cut definition of "an economist" and only the AUTE has the facilities, through its local secretaries, to contact the professional teachers of economics through the university system of Great Britain. The questionnaire asked respondents to express an opinion on the economic advantage or otherwise of British membership in the Common Market, on the grounds that the politics of the matter were not a matter of professional competence.

This article focuses on public opinion polls taken in 1949 in Great Britain, towards the next general elections. According to the author, the poll-takers of Great Britain hitched their slacks and attempted to avoid the pitfalls which had engulfed their U.S. colleagues. In 1948 presidential elections in the U.S., pollsters had forecasted a defeat for Harry S. Truman with only a 44.5 percent share of votes, which was later proved false by election results as Truman became the President. Research services in Great Britain completed six nation-wide public opinion surveys aimed at measuring the probable behavior of the electorate at the next British General Election. Five of the six surveys operated with a sample of 2,000 informants with the sixth one based on 3,800 informants. Moreover, the design of the questionnaire was also kept fairly constant. All of these exercises, taken on the part of the pollsters, resulted in a general prediction that the Conservative Party would win the next general elections in Great Britain, by a narrow margin.

While a number of surveys, on sex attitudes and habits have been conducted in the U.S., they are far rarer in other countries. This article outlines the results of a study along these lines in Great Britain. A national cross-section was asked for their attitudes on sex education, divorce, birth control, prostitution and related matters and a more restricted sample was asked about their personal sex habits. With some notable exceptions, results are consistent with the report given by researcher Alfred Kinsey with the help of his Mass-Observation survey carried out in the U.S. and Great Britain. The report was subjected to much criticism in Great Britain. Expert counsel was felt to be particularly necessary in a sex survey and a board of assessors was therefore assembled to give general advice throughout. Funds available for the survey were strictly limited and of the many ideas put forward for the survey clearly only a few could be implemented. Thus, it was finally decided that a national cross-section questionnaire was an essential background for comparison and therefore a direct interview was prepared and asked of a sample of 2,000 people.