The montage below relates to a case study of Civil Dissent in Birmingham and uses archive materials about events in Handsworth in 1985 and the Priestley Riots in 1791 to explore contemporary concerns about social order.

Read the commentary for an introduction to the case study and then click on the images below to explore examples of sources which can be used as sociological evidence. The emphasis here is not on providing an historical interpretation, or telling the history of these events, but on using archives as a tool for social research.