Tobias Kelly, a Professor of Political and Legal Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, is conducting research on private detectives in post-1960 Britain. The research aims to uncover what private investigators try to uncover, how they go about doing so, and the social and ethical conflicts involved in their work. The project will provide insights into the meanings and implications of privacy, secrecy, and investigation in contemporary Britain.
The research will focus on Britain since 1960, examining changes in the social and legal implications of adultery, cultures of confession, and data protection. Kelly plans to use ethnography, oral history, archival research, and visual methods to explore the work of private investigators. The outputs of the research will include journal articles, a monograph, an illustrated collection, and an exhibition.
This research will be of interest to policy makers, historians, anthropologists, and lawyers concerned with privacy, secrets, and investigation. [87f6bfa4]