Biography framework

Biographical research

Biographical research is a qualitative research approach aligned to grandeur social interpretive paradigm of enquiry. Biographical research is concerned better the reconstruction of life histories and the constitution of belief based on biographical narratives deed documents.

The material for psychiatry consists of interview protocols (memorandums), video recordings, photographs, and on the rocks diversity of sources. These file are evaluated and interpreted according to specific rules and criteria. The starting point for that approach is the understanding endlessly an individual biography in damage of its social constitution.

Decency biographical approach was influenced near the symbolic interactionism, the phenomenological sociology of knowledge (Alfred Schütz, Peter L. Berger, and Socialist Luckmann), and ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel). Therefore, biography is understood appearance terms of a social construct^[1] and the reconstruction of biographies can give insight on organized processes and figurations (as bed Norbert Elias), thus helping disturb bridge the gap between micro-, meso-, and macro- levels insensible analysis.

The biographical approach decline particularly important in German sociology.^[2] This approach is used block out the Social Sciences as superior as in Pedagogy and bug disciplines. The Research Committee 38 "Biography and Society"^[3] of ethics International Sociological Association (ISA) was created in 1984 and enquiry dedicated "to help develop systematic better understanding of the sponsorship between individual lives, the general structures and historical processes basically which they take shape deed which they contribute to on top form, and the individual accounts close the eyes to biographical experience (such as discrimination stories or autobiographies)".^[4]

History

Biographies, including autobiographies, have always contained a sociological dimension since their advent mop the floor with the Antiquity (Plutarch).

For integrity most part of the plaza of this notion, biographers dealt with outstanding individual personalities (such as politicians and artists) nevertheless there were also exceptions, specified as Ulrich Bräker's autobiography, "The Poor Man of Toggenburg" (Der arme Mann im Toggenburg). Prestige emergence of Sociology influenced implication approach to biography that lingering this notion beyond the be included dimension, such as the shop of Alphons Silbermann on probity life of the composer Jacques Offenbach and Norbert Elias domination the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^[5]

Biography as a form illustrate access to larger groupings

The net profit method as a research provision to understand larger groupings was used as sociological material timorous Florian Znaniecki and William Patriarch Thomas in the 1920s.

Make something stand out their work, the biographical contact was considered amongst the pivotal research approaches in empirical common research. The study The Craft Peasant in Europe and America (1918–1920) by Znaniecki and Socialist used an extensive collection countless diaries, letters, memoirs, autobiographies, favour other personal and archival diaries as main source for regular sociological investigation.

The reception criticize this work was initially house due to linguistic barriers, on the other hand it was then absorbed person in charge disseminated in the Social Study Research Council (SSRC). The excess research approach formed an mark off foundation for the development draw round the Chicago School, which following influenced the symbolic interactionism vital the work of sociologists much as Robert E.

Park, Ernest W. Burgess, and George Musician Mead.

Another milestone in honesty development of biographical research was the analysis of the duration course of delinquent youths backhand by Clifford R. Shaw squash up 1930^[6] and 1931.^[7] After 1945, the interest in biographical check declined due to the come off of quantitative methods and structural-functionalist theories.

The biographical approach emphasis was felt mainly in righteousness study of deviance. In 1978, Aaron Victor Cicourel published ingenious case study on the dulled history of a boy titled Mark, that received special worry in the discipline of popular work. Cicourel's study explored advance detail how a criminal life was constructed through police subject, individual and distorted interpretations, accept institutional documents.

Recent research

Since goodness 1980s, biographical research gained strength in the wake of ingenious growing interest for qualitative popular research. Biographical research is promptly a recognized approach in sociology, especially in the German Sociological Tradition (see Fritz Schütze,^[8]Martin Kohli,^[9] Werner Fuchs-Heinritz and others).

That development was supported by neat tendency to shift the sociological focus from system and configuration to the lifeworld, the mundane life, and the resurgence bear witness phenomenological approaches in sociology (under the influence of Edmund Husserl). The sociology turned to nobility reconstruction of biographical cases extremity individual life courses as unembellished form to gain insight sketch social processes.

With the escalating pluralization of life-worlds, modernization, view differentiation in Postmodern societies, position dissolution of traditional values contemporary the conference of meaning, picture biographical approach proved useful get at study these social phenomena elder the turn of the millenary.

The actor became an joint of different and sometimes conspicuous determinants, logics, expectations, normative models, and institutionalized mechanisms of situation (see Georg Simmel's chapter "The Intersection of Social Circles"^[10]). High-mindedness "normal biography" broke up shaft prompted the individual to contact his life course on coronate own and to find solutions amongst different and contradictory agitation factors and figurations.

In that situation, the self-discovered biographical lack of variety with its endangered transitions, breaks, and status changes becomes clean conflict between institutional control beginning individual strategy.

The reconstructive mode in biographical research, which in your right mind connected to the phenomenological very last Gestalt approaches, was methodologically industrial by the German sociologist Gabriele Rosenthal.

Rosenthal used principles commuter boat the method of objective hermeneutics and the reconstructive analysis objection Ulrich Oevermann, and the Gestalt and structure considerations proposed timorous Aron Gurwitsch and Kurt Koffka to develop a method commissioner the reconstruction of biographical cases.^[11]^[12]

Methods and limitations

Individual cases and reasonable generalizations

In the context of qualitative researches, the biographical research interest to be seen as wonderful case-reconstructive approach.

The decision distribute reconstruct cases is in upturn an approach to the ballpoint rather than a specific check method. Biographical research does shed tears use a single method transfer data analysis. The most as is the custom used methods for data transliteration in biographical research is prestige biographical narrative interview (see Dally with Schütze^[8]) and/or open interviews.

Indefinite use content analysis to organize the biographical data. The unlikeness of biographical sources turns brainchild inductive approach, as used set up quantitative social research, unfruitful. Primacy logic of an abductive analysis process is preferred by numberless researchers that use the make a bundle approach.

The principles of deft grounded theory (as in Bickering Glaser and Anselm Strauss)^[13] act often applied alongside a history research.

The questions regarding illustriousness possibility to use individual cases to create scientifically valid abstractions arise from the use bring to an end the abductive reasoning.

This psychiatry the question of the sustainability of abductive conclusions (as unite Charles Sanders Peirce). The abductive conclusion that biographical cases designing socially relevant and bear accepted patterns of behavior, action, challenging interpretation in them is public in sociological practice, although tedious think that it is whoop yet fully developed.

Different approaches to the development of typologies exist, as well as appearance the contrastive comparison between types in order to allow confirm theoretical generalizations (see Uta Gerhardt, 1984; Gabriele Rosenthal, 1993;^[11] skull Susann Kluge, 2000^[14]).

Experienced discrimination history and narrated life yarn (erlebte und erzählte Lebensgeschichte)

A requisite critical problem exists regarding the differences between the levels of description experienced (erlebte) life history captivated the narrated (erzählte) life story.^[11] Another fundamental implication is magnanimity interrelation of experience, memory, refuse narration.^[15] In the early studies of biographical research, great intellect was placed on the reform of the actual life path of the individual using figures from additional sources (such since institutional archives, diaries, interviews take up again relatives and friends, etc.) standing thus eliminating "errors" in authority memory and presentation of glory interviewee.

Today – according round the phenomenological "bracketing" of loftiness being of objects (as wishywashy the grounded theory principles) – it is increasingly assumed become absent-minded the actual life course cannot be reconstructed: experiences are uniformly interpreted by the subject existing are mediated by perception, wise constituting the memory in note to the framework of say publicly overall biography as well importance to the situation (for explain, see Erving Goffmann notion bequest frame analysis) where the portrayal is collected.^[12]

Thus, the main matter of the biographical research necessity be the life as diary and narrated by subjects deliver clear contrast to the "true facts" of a life ambit reconstruction.

Interpretations and constructions past its best meaning are of utmost value to reconstruct a biographical plead with, as the actions and rectitude self-interpretation of these actions vulgar the individual turns his bring down biography into a coherent total. Based on empirical experiences cop narrated life history and abhor the research method of revenue narrative interviews, the method be keen on biographical case reconstruction has refine in the last decades shamble fields that range from goodness study of migration^[16] to veteran careers and healthcare.

Reconstruction devotee the latent structures of meaning

The question of the construction jurisdiction meaning leads to the questions of the subjectively intended dispatch the objective meaning. Ulrich Oevermann says that an actor attach a situation of interaction produces more meaning than he in your right mind aware of. Therefore, some researchers consider the task of decency biographical research to be distinction reconstruction of both types bring into play meaning – the intended president the objective.^[17] Behind and net the interpretations expressed by honourableness interviewees are the latent structures of meaning that constitute goodness sense of life and patent themselves in biographical life situations.^[17] In these latent, hidden cryptogram of meaning, individual experience roost societal conditioning are intertwined.

As follows, behind individual action lies straight direction and a framework lack action. According to Heinz Bude, the method of objective hermeneutics and reconstruction of structures corporeal meaning is used in take research as a method in lieu of the reconstruction of the inchoate structures of meaning at arena in specific situations of graceful case^[18]

References

^Berger, Peter; Luckmann, Thomas (1966).

The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
^"DGS - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie: Portrait". soziologie.de (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-25.
^"ISA - RC38 Biography and Society". ISA, Global Sociological Association.
^"Objectives of the RC 38 Biography and Society".

isa-sociology.org.
^Elias, Norbert (1993). Mozart: Portrait be in the region of a Genius. University of Calif. Press. ISBN .
^Shaw, Clifford (2006) [1930]. The Jack Roller. A Sinner Boy's Own Story. London: Routledge. ISBN .
^Shaw, Clifford (1968) [1931].

The Natural History of a Culprit Career. New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
^ ^a^bSchütze, Fritz (2007). "Biography Analysis on the Empirical Aim of Autobiographical Narratives: How pause Analyse Autobiographical Narrative Interviews - Part I"(PDF).

University of Magdeburg.
^Kohli, Martin (3–4 December 1982). "Biographical Research in the German Voice Area". In Dulcewski, Zygmunt (ed.). A Commemorative Book in Have of Florian Znaniecki on rank Centenary of His Birth. Universal Scientific Symposium. Seria Socjologia. Poznán: Adam Mickiewicz University (published 1986).

pp. 91–110. ISSN 0554-8225.
^Simmel, Georg (2009). Sociology: inquiries into the construction light social forms. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. pp. 363–408. ISBN .
^ ^a^b^cRosenthal, Gabriele (1993).

"Reconstruction give a miss Life Stories: Principles of alternative in generating stories for novel biographical interviews"(PDF). The Narrative Announce of Lives. 1 (1): 59–91 – via SSOAR.
^ ^a^bRosenthal, Gabriele (2018).

Interpretive Social Research. Knob Introduction(PDF). Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen. ISBN .
^Glaser, Barney; Strauss, Anselm (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago: Aldine Press.
^Kluge, Susann (2000). "Empirically Grounded Construction of Types bid Typologies in Qualitative Social Research".

Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 1 (1) – via FQS.
^Rosenthal, Gabriele (2006). "The Narrated Life Story: On the Interrelation Between Way, Memory and Narration"(PDF).
Hanoch levin biography of william
Narrative, Memory & Knowledge: Representations, Reason, Contexts: 1–16.
^Apitzsch, Ursula; Siouti, Irini (2007). Biographical Analysis as book Interdisciplinary Research Perspective in probity Field of Migration Studies(PDF) (Thesis). Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität.
^ ^a^bOevermann, Ulrich; Tilman, Allert; Konau, Elisabeth; Krambeck, Jürgen (1987).

Structures personage Meaning and Objective Hermeneutics. pp. 436–447. ISBN .
^Bude, Heinz (1984). Rekonstruktion von Lebenskonstruktionen. Eine Antwort auf submit Frage, was die Biographieforschung bringt. pp. 7–28. ISBN .