The re-enactment survey 2021

The 2021 survey results are formally released! Check them out now!

The 2021 outlined how difficult it can be to propagate such a project in the community. The compartmentalization by re-enacted age is strong, even between social medias. As a result, it was fairly easy to reach the European medieval scholars, but much harder to push through communities based around different ages.

The result analysis was also a time-consuming task that was under-estimated, and we will be working to improve this aspect in the future edition.

While the results of the Survey are not to be generalized, given the current figures of 36 accepted answers out of 37 provided, we are happy with the feedback.

Having said that, we hope these first results will show a testament to the quality we are aiming for. We are more than happy with the diversity shown in terms of geographics, but we need to work more towards inclusivity of modern period reenactors.

Those who want to explore the raw results can do so. Anonymized results of the survey are available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Be sure to email us with any new findings and keep us involved!

Methodology

This report is based on a survey of 36 reenactors from 14 different countries.

This figure is the number of responses we considered eligible for analysis based on the self-evaluated skill level in the English language submitted in the answers. An additional 1 response was excluded because of very low understanding of the English language. No further criteria were used at this time to exclude answers.

The survey was fielded from August 21 2021 to January 30 2022. Respondents were recruited primarly through social media, using a standard call-to-action message and without the promise of rewards. Each respondent was encouraged to share the survey amogst their social group.

The survey has been hosted digitally via Google Forms. Its results are published on 1496 at this page. The Survey didn’t receive any monetary incentive, not any other form of external infuence.

All answers have been recorded anonimously, without gathering personal information about the respondants beside the ones explicitly requested. Each respondant was provided with a privacy of data consensus digital form prior the beginning of the Survey. All participants decided to join freely, without any kind of reward or incentive. Only 6 of them previously visited this journal before taking the Survey (as per their own answer).

The survey polled several aspects relevant to define a re-enactor; below an explanation of each section and their goals. The responders didn’t know about the sections explicitly before or during the survey.

Demographics

In this section we asked responders to provide information about themselves. All answers in this section were mandatory. This section was necessary to allow demographic-based analysis of the answers. This survey is primarely intended as an anthropologic study.

Sustainability of re-enactment as a hobby

In this section we asked responders some questions about their work status, their average expenses related to reenacment and wether they consider themselves reenactment-centered content creators.

We asked responders to tell us how much they spent on their reenactment kits over the past 12 months. This question was optional. Euros (€) were used as reference currency.

Associations and re-enactment

In this section we asked responders wether they were part of an association. We were interested in understanding the impact associations have in the activities of a reenactor.

When it came to anonimizing the results of the survey, we felt the need to remove the names of the associations from the results.

Re-enactment as a whole

In this section we asked responders to tell us how they approach reenactment: which era(s) do they research and represent, what aspects are considered when preparing a reenactment kit, etc.

Evaluation of the survey

Finally, in this section we gave voice to the responders to freely state their opinions on the survey. The answers will be taken into consideration for the next iteration of the survey.

Demographics

The Survey was answered by 37 individuals, 31 males and 6 females. Nobody identified themselves outside the binary male/female connotation, even while the option was provided.

The age of al participants is below 45 years, with only one participant selecting the “I prefer not to say” option.

The participants submitted 14 different Nationalities.

Out of 37 answers, 29 participants rated their English skills as the maximum value, 7 as the intermediate value and only 1 as the lowest value, on a three-value scale. The result was accepted as self-assessment and the answers from the participant rating as a low-level English speaker were excluded.

All participants are from a highly educated group of people, with a large portion of University-educated individuals. 10 individuals (27.8%) stated their institutional education was focused in History, Art or Anthropology.

Sustainability of Re-enactment as a Hobby

Associations and Re-enactment

Re-enactment as a whole

Evaluation of the Survey