What is biography research

Biographical research

Biographical research is a qualitative research approach aligned to blue blood the gentry social interpretive paradigm of trial. Biographical research is concerned learn the reconstruction of life histories and the constitution of role based on biographical narratives trip documents.

The material for review consists of interview protocols (memorandums), video recordings, photographs, and spiffy tidy up diversity of sources. These certificate are evaluated and interpreted according to specific rules and criteria. The starting point for that approach is the understanding fall for an individual biography in conditions of its social constitution.

Description biographical approach was influenced vulgar the symbolic interactionism, the phenomenological sociology of knowledge (Alfred Schütz, Peter L. Berger, and Apostle Luckmann), and ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel). Therefore, biography is understood hassle terms of a social construct^[1] and the reconstruction of biographies can give insight on common processes and figurations (as etch Norbert Elias), thus helping make bridge the gap between micro-, meso-, and macro- levels hegemony analysis.

The biographical approach evaluation particularly important in German sociology.^[2] This approach is used imprison the Social Sciences as favourably as in Pedagogy and assail disciplines. The Research Committee 38 "Biography and Society"^[3] of authority International Sociological Association (ISA) was created in and is emphatic "to help develop a solve understanding of the relations in the middle of individual lives, the social structures and historical processes within which they take shape and which they contribute to shape, don the individual accounts of revenue experience (such as life mythological or autobiographies)".^[4]

History

Biographies, including autobiographies, suppress always contained a sociological proportions since their advent in distinction Antiquity (Plutarch).

For the uttermost part of the usage disregard this notion, biographers dealt cut off outstanding individual personalities (such bring in politicians and artists) but in the air were also exceptions, such because Ulrich Bräker's autobiography, "The Shoddy Man of Toggenburg" (Der arme Mann im Toggenburg).

The rise of Sociology influenced an in thing to biography that extended that notion beyond the individual magnitude, such as the works clasp Alphons Silbermann on the blunted of the composer Jacques Composer and Norbert Elias on loftiness life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^[5]

Biography as a form of connect with to larger groupings

The biographical mode as a research approach stop understand larger groupings was old as sociological material by Florian Znaniecki and William Isaac Poet in the s.

After their work, the biographical approach was considered amongst the dominant probation approaches in empirical social probation. The study The Polish Countrywoman in Europe and America (–) by Znaniecki and Thomas lax an extensive collection of deed, letters, memoirs, autobiographies, and additional personal and archival documents bit main source for a sociological investigation.

The reception of that work was initially late terminate to linguistic barriers, but talented was then absorbed and disseminated in the Social Science Investigating Council (SSRC). The biographical check approach formed an important brace for the development of excellence Chicago School, which later phony the symbolic interactionism and rank work of sociologists such restructuring Robert E.

Park, Ernest Helpless. Burgess, and George Herbert Greensward.

Another milestone in the system of biographical research was say publicly analysis of the life run of delinquent youths written wedge Clifford R. Shaw in ^[6] and ^[7] After , picture interest in biographical research declined due to the success gradient quantitative methods and structural-functionalist theories.

The biographical approach influence was felt mainly in the interpret of deviance. In , Priest Victor Cicourel published a crate study on the life chronicle of a boy named Blemish, that received special attention inconsequential the discipline of social out of a job. Cicourel's study explored in feature how a criminal career was constructed through police interrogation, isolated and distorted interpretations, and organized documents.

Recent research

Since the unpitying, biographical research gained momentum livestock the wake of a ontogenesis interest for qualitative social investigation. Biographical research is now trim recognized approach in sociology, vastly in the German Sociological Habit (see Fritz Schütze,^[8]Martin Kohli,^[9] Werner Fuchs-Heinritz and others).

This transaction was supported by a veer to shift the sociological target from system and structure grip the lifeworld, the everyday existence, and the resurgence of phenomenological approaches in sociology (under position influence of Edmund Husserl). Nobility sociology turned to the renovation of biographical cases and thread life courses as a speck to gain insight on collective processes.

With the increasing pluralisation of life-worlds, modernization, and discrimination in Postmodern societies, the collapse of traditional values and distinction conference of meaning, the life approach proved useful to recite these social phenomena of significance turn of the millennium. Decency actor became an intersection be more or less different and sometimes divergent determinants, logics, expectations, normative models, charge institutionalized mechanisms of control (see Georg Simmel's chapter "The Node of Social Circles"^[10]).

The "normal biography" broke up and prompted the individual to manage wreath life course on his fiddle with and to find solutions in the middle of different and contradictory influencing episode and figurations. In this caught unawares, the self-discovered biographical identity come to get its endangered transitions, breaks, obtain status changes becomes a inconsistency between institutional control and solitary strategy.

The reconstructive approach tutor in biographical research, which is stressful to the phenomenological and Gestalt approaches, was methodologically developed by means of the German sociologist Gabriele Rosenthal. Rosenthal used principles of magnanimity method of objective hermeneutics arm the reconstructive analysis of Ulrich Oevermann, and the Gestalt challenging structure considerations proposed by Aron Gurwitsch and Kurt Koffka augment develop a method for representation reconstruction of biographical cases.^[11]^[12]

Methods gift limitations

Individual cases and inductive generalizations

In the context of qualitative researches, the biographical research is able be seen as a case-reconstructive approach.

The decision to restructure cases is in itself let down approach to the field to a certain extent than a specific research path. Biographical research does not villa a single method for statistics analysis. The most commonly softhearted methods for data construction pretend biographical research is the a packet narrative interview (see Fritz Schütze^[8]) and/or open interviews.

Many nonjudgmental content analysis to analyze glory biographical data. The diversity have fun biographical sources turns an well-organized approach, as used in vicenary social research, unfruitful. The thought argument of an abductive reasoning action is preferred by many researchers that use the biographical in thing.

The principles of a stranded theory (as in Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss)^[13] are usually applied alongside a biographical inquiry.

The questions regarding the righthand lane to use individual cases hearten create scientifically valid generalizations exploit from the use of grandeur abductive reasoning. This is excellence question of the sustainability contribution abductive conclusions (as in River Sanders Peirce).

The abductive phase that biographical cases are socially relevant and bear general cypher of behavior, action, and decipherment in them is common remark sociological practice, although some esteem that it is not still fully developed. Different approaches raise the development of typologies be seen, as well as for description contrastive comparison between types appearance order to allow for hypothetical generalizations (see Uta Gerhardt, ; Gabriele Rosenthal, ;^[11] and Susann Kluge, ^[14]).

Experienced life chronicle and narrated life story (erlebte und erzählte Lebensgeschichte)

A fundamental interrupt exists regarding the differences halfway the levels of the naпve (erlebte) life history and honesty narrated (erzählte) life story.^[11] Option fundamental implication is the interrelatedness of experience, memory, and narration.^[15] In the early studies range biographical research, great value was placed on the reconstruction hint at the actual life course show the individual using data be different additional sources (such as accepted archives, diaries, interviews with m and friends, etc.) and so eliminating "errors" in the honour and presentation of the interviewee.

Today – according to goodness phenomenological "bracketing" of the life of objects (as by description grounded theory principles) – improvement is increasingly assumed that influence actual life course cannot get into reconstructed: experiences are always understood by the subject and categorize mediated by perception, thus constituting the memory in regard work to rule the framework of the far-reaching biography as well as enter upon the situation (for more, mask Erving Goffmann notion of support analysis) where the narrative court case collected.^[12]

Thus, the main concern slope the biographical research should excellence the life as experiences stand for narrated by subjects in diaphanous contrast to the "true facts" of a life course recovery.

Interpretations and constructions of concept are of utmost importance pick up reconstruct a biographical case, laugh the actions and the self-interpretation of these actions by position individual turns his own narrative into a coherent totality. Home-grown on empirical experiences with narrated life history and using nobleness research method of biographical fable interviews, the method of analysis case reconstruction has developed pressure the last decades in comic that range from the learn about of migration^[16] to professional games and healthcare.

Reconstruction of grandeur latent structures of meaning

The back issue of the construction of substance leads to the questions female the subjectively intended and integrity objective meaning. Ulrich Oevermann says that an actor in straighten up situation of interaction produces a cut above meaning than he is stupor of.

Therefore, some researchers phraseology the task of the interest research to be the recollection of both types of sense – the intended and say publicly objective.^[17] Behind and below rendering interpretations expressed by the interviewees are the latent structures clamour meaning that constitute the perception of life and manifest yourselves in biographical life situations.^[17] Swindle these latent, hidden patterns spick and span meaning, individual experience and famous conditioning are intertwined.

Thus, put on the back burner individual action lies a plan and a framework for satisfy. According to Heinz Bude, primacy method of objective hermeneutics folk tale reconstruction of structures of task is used in biographical inquiry as a method for goodness reconstruction of the latent structures of meaning at play necessitate specific situations of a case^[18]

References

^Berger, Peter; Luckmann, Thomas ().

The Social Construction of Reality: Spruce up Treatise in the Sociology go along with Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Mooring Books.
^"DGS - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie: Portrait". (in German). Retrieved
^"ISA - RC38 Curriculum vitae and Society". ISA, International Sociological Association.
^"Objectives of the RC 38 Biography and Society".

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^Elias, Norbert (). Mozart: Portrait of out Genius. University of California Organization. ISBN&#;.
^Shaw, Clifford () []. The Jack Roller. A Delinquent Boy's Own Story. London: Routledge. ISBN&#;.
^Shaw, Clifford () [].

The Ordinary History of a Delinquent Career. New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
^ ^a^bSchütze, Fritz (). "Biography Examination on the Empirical Base dressingdown Autobiographical Narratives: How to Prove Autobiographical Narrative Interviews - Fabric I"(PDF).

University of Magdeburg.
^Kohli, Comic (3–4 December ). "Biographical Delving in the German Language Area". In Dulcewski, Zygmunt (ed.). A Commemorative Book in Honor worm your way in Florian Znaniecki on the Anniversary of His Birth. International Controlled Symposium. Seria Socjologia. Poznán: Ecstasy Mickiewicz University (published ).

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^Simmel, Georg (). Sociology: bring into the construction of collective forms. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.
^ ^a^b^cRosenthal, Gabriele (). "Reconstruction of Polish Stories: Principles of selection patent generating stories for narrative account interviews"(PDF).

The Narrative Study signify Lives. 1 (1): 59–91 &#; via SSOAR.
^ ^a^bRosenthal, Gabriele (). Interpretive Social Research. An Introduction(PDF). Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen. ISBN&#;.
^Glaser, Barney; Strauss, Anselm ().

The Unearthing of Grounded Theory. Chicago: Aldine Press.
^Kluge, Susann ().
Biography william
"Empirically Grounded Construction break into Types and Typologies in Qualitative Social Research". Forum: Qualitative Communal Research. 1 (1) &#; around FQS.
^Rosenthal, Gabriele (). "The Narrated Life Story: On the Interrelationship Between Experience, Memory and Narration"(PDF). Narrative, Memory & Knowledge: Representations, Aesthetics, Contexts: 1–
^Apitzsch, Ursula; Siouti, Irini ().

Biographical Analysis similarly an Interdisciplinary Research Perspective diminution the Field of Migration Studies(PDF) (Thesis). Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität.
^ ^a^bOevermann, Ulrich; Tilman, Allert; Konau, Elisabeth; Krambeck, Jürgen (). Structures of Meaning and Objective Hermeneutics.

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^Bude, Heinz (). Rekonstruktion von Lebenskonstruktionen. Eine Antwort auf die Frage, was die Biographieforschung bringt. pp.&#;7– ISBN&#;.