Ethnographic questionnaires and respondent network

By participating in the SKS archives’ ethnographic questionnaires, you leave your mark in the collective memory. Our questionnaires, which focus on various themes, enable us to enrich our national cultural heritage. The narratives of individuals are a key part of cultural heritage; your memories and experiences are important for understanding our common history. By providing written personal narratives to the Archives, you will leave a permanent mark, since your narrative will be stored for future generations. We value your answers and always accept materials.

We arrange approximately 10 ethnographic questionnaires each year, which are open to everyone. The topics of the questionnaires may be related to topical phenomena or historical events. In addition to recalling past events, writing down oral history provides a depiction of current and future expectations. The questionnaires produce narratives of peoples’ personal experiences depicting cultural information in society and the world in a broader sense.

The responses to the questionnaires are valuable for academic research. They may enrich, or at times even challenge, historical conceptions. The writings preserved in the Archives also influences our future thoughts and interpretations of our current times. The questionnaires may also be significant for respondents as well: by writing your narrative, you get an opportunity to tell your story just as you have experienced it. Writing about your experiences and views may also increase your understanding and help you structure and process even difficult matters.

Many writers responding to our questionnaires are part of the SKS Archives’ respondents’ network, from which the Archives has collected material for decades. The respondents’ network, which originated from the respondents to the Kalevala Jubilee Folklore Collection Contest in 1935, currently includes over 400 individuals of different ages across Finland.

Anyone can join the network, and membership does not oblige you to respond. However, by joining the network, you will personally receive information on the newest collections and their results twice a year.

Photo: Gary Wornell, SKS.