Biographical ResearchBiographical Research reflects a rapid expansion of interest in the study of lives taking place within the social sciences. Life story, oral history, narrative, autobiography, biography and other approaches are being used more and more to explain how individuals interpret experiences and social relationships. The book examines the methodological and theoretical developments associated with research on lives in sociology, oral history, ethnography, biography, and narrative analysis. The author includes numerous examples of biographical research from his own work and other studies, and addresses important areas such as the collection and interpretation of materials, uses of biographical research, oral and written accounts, the interview relationship, the construction of the story, memory, audience, and the researcher's own biography. In conclusion, it draws out common themes and emerging concerns. |
Contents
The life history | 3 |
Uses of biographical research | 18 |
Autobiography and biography | 55 |
Copyright | |
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accounts Analytic induction anthropology approach areas argues ation Atkinson audience autobiographical memory autobiography Bertaux biographical research Bornat Bryman challenge Coffey collection complex connection construction context cultural Denzin and Lincoln diaries disciplines discourse discussion ence Erben ethnography examination example experience explore feminist fieldwork Finnegan forms genre Gergen give Grele grounded theory Hammersley hermeneutics historians identity important indi individual influences instance interaction International interpretation interview issues Josselson Lieblich literary London material meanings method methodological myth narrated narrative analysis notion oral history Oxford participant observation Passerini past personal documents perspectives Plummer political Popular Memory Portelli postmodern postpositivist practice present psychology qualitative research questions range reflexivity relation research process researcher's Riessman role Routledge Sage social sciences sociology Stanley stories structures study of lives symbolic interactionism theoretical Thompson traditional types understanding University Press various vidual voice W. I. Thomas wider writing