The life history or biographical research method was popular in the
early decades of the twentieth century and, after a period of
eclipse caused by the rise of quantitative methods, is enjoying a
resurgence of interest. This burgeoning of interest is enough that
we can now speak of a biographical `turn' as the social
sciences These four volumes present the first established
collection of the biographical method literature and brings
together the many diverse strands. The set will serve to set the
canon for this re-established research area. The collection is
organized around eight themes: the classical statements dominated
by the pre-war American `'Chicago School' of sociology; the
neo-classical statements of the first wave of renewed interest in
the 1970s; interviewing, including reflexivity, recall and
narrative structures; analysis and the principles of selection in
generating stories for narrative biographical interviews;
biographical concepts such as life courses and generations;
transitions and social trauma; biography and social policy; and
controversies in biographical research.
Main description:
The life history or biographical research method was popular in the
early decades of the twentieth century and, after a period of
eclipse caused by the rise of quantitative methods, is enjoying a
resurgence of interest. This burgeoning of interest is enough that
we can now speak of a biographical `turn' as the social
sciences
These four volumes present the first established collection of the
biographical method literature and brings together the many diverse
strands. The set will serve to set the canon for this
re-established research area.
The collection is organized around eight themes: the classical
statements dominated by the pre-war American `'Chicago
School' of sociology; the neo-classical statements of the first
wave of renewed interest in the 1970s; interviewing, including
reflexivity, recall and narrative structures; analysis and the
principles of selection in generating stories for narrative
biographical interviews; biographical concepts such as life courses
and generations; transitions and social trauma; biography and
social policy; and controversies in biographical research.
Table of contents:
VOLUME ONE: TIME AND BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
PART ONE: `THE PLACE OF HISTORY
Uses of History - C Wright Mills
`Peasants and Workers - John Madge
Life Record of an Immigrant - Wladek Wiszniewski
Biographieanalyse eines Mullerlebens - Fritz Schutze
Biographical Research and Historical Watersheds - Robert Miller,
Robin Humphrey and Elena Zdravomyslova
`Trajectories of Coping Strategies in Eastern Germany - Olaf
Struck
PART TWO: `GENERATIONS AND LIFE COURSES
The Problem of Generations - Karl Mannheim
Mannheims Sociology of Generations - J Pilcher
An Undervalued Legacy
Generation as a Sociological Problem - D I Kertzer
The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change - N B
Ryder
`The Time of Generations - Michael Corsten
Overview and Highlights of a Sociological Perspective - Matilda
White Riley
`The Historical Context - Robert Miller
Everyday Time and Life Time: On the Problems of Healing
Contradictory Experiences of Time - Peter Alheit
`The World We Forgot: A Historical Review of the Life Course -
Martin Kohli
Social Organisation and Subjective Construction of the Life Course
- Martin Kohli
VOLUME TWO: THE CONSTRUCTION OF BIOGRAPHICAL MEANING
SECTION ONE: `NARRATIVE AND BIOGRAPHY
`Narrative Configuration in Qualitative Analysis - Donald E
Polkinghorne
`Strategic Uses of Narrative in the Presentation of Self and
Illness: A Research Note - Catherine Kohler Riessman
`Marking Absences: Holocaust Testimony and History - Naomi Rosh
White
`To Rebuild Life: A Narrative Analysis of Three Generations of an
Israeli Holocaust Survivors Family - Dan Bar-On and Noga
Gilad
Veiling and Denying the Past: The Dialogue of Families of Holocaust
Survivors and Families of Nazi Perpetrators - Gabriele
Rosenthal
`Transcendent Stories and Counternarratives in Holocaust Survivor
Life Histories: Searching for Meaning in Video-Testimony Archives -
Sarah K Carney
`Texts in a Changing Context: Reconstructing Lives in East Germany
- Molly Andrews
SECTION TWO:`THE PAST IN THE FUTURE: QUESTIONS OF BIOGRAPHICAL
IDENTITY
The Problem with Identity: Biography as Solution to Some
(Post)-Modernist Dilemmas - Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal
`Toward a Social Phenomenology of Aging: Studying the Self Process
in Biographical Work - Jerold M Starr
Undaunted Courage: Life History and the Postmodern Challenge -
William G Tierney
On Auto//Biography in Sociology - Liz Stanley
`Kognitive Figuren des Autobiographishen Stegreifezhlens - Fritz
Sch tze
`LIdologie: Un Mode de Connaissance - Gilles Houle
`Die Haltung zur Eigenen Biographie - Gerhard Riemann
VOLUME THREE: CONTEXTS
SECTION ONE: `THE GERMAN SCHOOL
`Biographical Analyis: A German School? - Ursula Apitzsch and Lena
Inowlocki
`Biographical Research - Rosenthal, Gabriele
`Structures of Meaning and Objective Hermeneutics - Ulrich
Oevermann with Tilman Allert, Elizabeth Konau and J rgen
Krambeck
Accompaniments of Chronic Illness' - Juliet Corbin and Anselm
Strauss
Changes in Body, Self, Biography and Biographical Time
`Trajectory As a Basic Theoretical Concept for Suffering and
Disorderly Social Processes - Gerhard Riemann and Fritz Sch
tze
SECTION TWO: `THE SIGNIFICANCE AND ROLE OF THE FAMILY
`History and the Family: The Discovery of Complexity - Glen H Elder
Jr
`The History of the Family and the Complexity of Social Change -
Tamara K Hareven
`Family Time and Historical Time - Tamara K Hareven
`Family Myth, Models and Denials in the Shaping of Individual Life
Paths - Paul Thompson
`Biography, Family History and the Analysis of Social Change -
Brian Elliott
Artisanal Bakery in France - Daniel Bertaux and Isabelle
Bertaux-Wiame
How it Lives and why it Survives
Social Genealogies Commented On and Compared - Daniel Bertaux
An Instrument for Observing Social Mobility in The Longue
Dure
`The Trans-Pacific Family: A Case Study of Sam Changs Family
History - Haiming Liu
`Memory of Slavery in Black Families of So Paulo, Brazil - Maria de
Lourdes Monaco Janotti and Zita de Paula Rosa
VOLUME FOUR: DISPUTES AND CONCERNS IN BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
PART SEVEN: `METHODOLOGICAL DEBATES AND ISSUES
`Biography: Acccount, Text, Method - Martin Kohli
Interpretive Guidelines - Norman K Denzin
`Positioning and Autobiography: Telling your Life - Luk van
Langenhove and Rom Harr[ac]e
`The Story of Life: Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Relationship
between Narrative and Life History - Guy A M Widdershoven
`Biographical and Empiricistic Illusions: A Reply to Recent
Criticism - Thierry Kochuyt
A Response to Thierry Kochuyts `Biographical and Empiricist
Illusions: A Reply to Recent Criticism' - Daniel Bertaux
Daniel Bertauxs Complaints or Against False Dichotomies in
Biographical Research - Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal and Gabrielle
Rosenthal
Could Objective Realities Tell Us a Story? Reply to Bertaux -
Thierry Kochuyt
`Context, Authenticity, Referentiality, Reflexivity: Back to Basics
in Autobiography' - J P Roos
`Le Mthodologique: Implication et Explicitation dans LEnqute de
Terrain' - Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
`Maintaining a Sense of Individual Autonomy under Conditions of
Constraint: A Study of East German Managers' - Ulrike
Nagel
`A Propos des Biographies - Franoise Battagliola et al
Regards cross sur Questionnaires et Entretiens
SECTION TWO: `ETHICS
`Doing Life Histories - Annabel Faraday and Ken Plummer
`The Moral and Human Face of Life Stories - Ken Plummer
Reflexivity, Power and Ethics
`Ethical Issues in Ageing and Biography - Gary M Kenyon
On Writing Other People's LIves: Self-Analytic Reflections of a
Narrative Writer - Ruthellen Josselon
`The Healing Effects of Storytelling - Gabriele Rosenthal
On the Conditions of Curative Storytelling in the Context of
Research and Counselling
`Ethical Aspects of Biographical Interviewing and Analysis - Kaja
Kazmierska
`Field Ethics for the Life History - Carl B Klockars
VOLUME ONE: TIME AND BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH PART ONE: `THE PLACE OF HISTORY' Uses of History - C Wright Mills `Peasants and Workers' - John Madge Life Record of an Immigrant - Wladek Wiszniewski Biographieanalyse eines Mullerlebens - Fritz Schutze Biographical Research and Historical Watersheds - Robert Miller, Robin Humphrey and Elena Zdravomyslova `Trajectories of Coping Strategies in Eastern Germany' - Olaf Struck PART TWO: `GENERATIONS AND LIFE COURSES' The Problem of Generations - Karl Mannheim Mannheim's Sociology of Generations - J Pilcher An Undervalued Legacy Generation as a Sociological Problem - D I Kertzer The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change - N B Ryder `The Time of Generations' - Michael Corsten Overview and Highlights of a Sociological Perspective - Matilda White Riley `The Historical Context' - Robert Miller Everyday Time and Life Time: On the Problems of Healing Contradictory Experiences of Time - Peter Alheit `The World We Forgot: A Historical Review of the Life Course' - Martin Kohli Social Organisation and Subjective Construction of the Life Course - Martin Kohli VOLUME TWO: THE CONSTRUCTION OF BIOGRAPHICAL MEANING SECTION ONE: `NARRATIVE AND BIOGRAPHY' `Narrative Configuration in Qualitative Analysis' - Donald E Polkinghorne `Strategic Uses of Narrative in the Presentation of Self and Illness: A Research Note - Catherine Kohler Riessman `Marking Absences: Holocaust Testimony and History' - Naomi Rosh White `To Rebuild Life: A Narrative Analysis of Three Generations of an Israeli Holocaust Survivor's Family' - Dan Bar-On and Noga Gilad 'Veiling and Denying the Past: The Dialogue of Families of Holocaust Survivors and Families of Nazi Perpetrators' - Gabriele Rosenthal `Transcendent Stories and Counternarratives in Holocaust Survivor Life Histories: Searching for Meaning in Video-Testimony Archives' - Sarah K Carney `Texts in a Changing Context: Reconstructing Lives in East Germany' - Molly Andrews SECTION TWO:`THE PAST IN THE FUTURE: QUESTIONS OF BIOGRAPHICAL IDENTITY' The Problem with Identity: Biography as Solution to Some (Post)-Modernist Dilemmas - Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal `Toward a Social Phenomenology of Aging: Studying the Self Process in Biographical Work' - Jerold M Starr 'Undaunted Courage: Life History and the Postmodern Challenge' - William G Tierney On Auto/Biography in Sociology - Liz Stanley `Kognitive Figuren des Autobiographishen Stegreifezählens' - Fritz Sch tze `L'Idéologie: Un Mode de Connaissance' - Gilles Houle `Die Haltung zur Eigenen Biographie' - Gerhard Riemann VOLUME THREE: CONTEXTS SECTION ONE: `THE "GERMAN SCHOOL"' `Biographical Analyis: A "German" School?' - Ursula Apitzsch and Lena Inowlocki `Biographical Research' - Rosenthal, Gabriele `Structures of Meaning and Objective Hermeneutics' - Ulrich Oevermann with Tilman Allert, Elizabeth Konau and J rgen Krambeck 'Accompaniments of Chronic Illness' - Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss Changes in Body, Self, Biography and Biographical Time `"Trajectory" As a Basic Theoretical Concept for Suffering and Disorderly Social Processes' - Gerhard Riemann and Fritz Sch tze SECTION TWO: `THE SIGNIFICANCE AND ROLE OF THE FAMILY' `History and the Family: The Discovery of Complexity' - Glen H Elder Jr `The History of the Family and the Complexity of Social Change' - Tamara K Hareven `Family Time and Historical Time' - Tamara K Hareven `Family Myth, Models and Denials in the Shaping of Individual Life Paths' - Paul Thompson `Biography, Family History and the Analysis of Social Change' - Brian Elliott Artisanal Bakery in France - Daniel Bertaux and Isabelle Bertaux-Wiame How it Lives and why it Survives Social Genealogies Commented On and Compared - Daniel Bertaux An Instrument for Observing Social Mobility in "The Longue Durée" `The Trans-Pacific Family: A Case Study of Sam Chang's Family History' - Haiming Liu `Memory of Slavery in Black Families of São Paulo, Brazil - Maria de Lourdes Monaco Janotti and Zita de Paula Rosa VOLUME FOUR: DISPUTES AND CONCERNS IN BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH PART SEVEN: `METHODOLOGICAL DEBATES AND ISSUES' `Biography: Acccount, Text, Method' - Martin Kohli Interpretive Guidelines - Norman K Denzin `Positioning and Autobiography: Telling your Life' - Luk van Langenhove and Rom Harr[ac]e `The Story of Life: Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Relationship between Narrative and Life History' - Guy A M Widdershoven `Biographical and Empiricistic Illusions: A Reply to Recent Criticism' - Thierry Kochuyt A Response to Thierry Kochuyt's `Biographical and Empiricist Illusions: A Reply to Recent Criticism' - Daniel Bertaux Daniel Bertaux's Complaints or Against False Dichotomies in Biographical Research - Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal and Gabrielle Rosenthal Could Objective Realities Tell Us a Story? Reply to Bertaux - Thierry Kochuyt `Context, Authenticity, Referentiality, Reflexivity: Back to Basics in Autobiography' - J P Roos `Le <Je> Méthodologique: Implication et Explicitation dans L'Enquête de Terrain' - Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan `Maintaining a Sense of Individual Autonomy under Conditions of Constraint: A Study of East German Managers' - Ulrike Nagel `A Propos des Biographies - Françoise Battagliola et al Regards crosès sur Questionnaires et Entretiens' SECTION TWO: `ETHICS' `Doing Life Histories' - Annabel Faraday and Ken Plummer `The Moral and Human Face of Life Stories - Ken Plummer Reflexivity, Power and Ethics' `Ethical Issues in Ageing and Biography' - Gary M Kenyon On Writing Other People's LIves: Self-Analytic Reflections of a Narrative Writer - Ruthellen Josselon `The Healing Effects of Storytelling - Gabriele Rosenthal On the Conditions of Curative Storytelling in the Context of Research and Counselling' `Ethical Aspects of Biographical Interviewing and Analysis' - Kaja Kazmierska `Field Ethics for the Life History' - Carl B Klockars
