Biography research

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The life history is in Sociology and Education , a research approach of qualitative social research . Biography research deals with the reconstruction of life courses and constructions of meaning on the basis of biographical narratives or personal documents. The text material can also consist of interview protocols in written form. These logs are evaluated and interpreted according to certain rules.

History of Biography Research

Case-by-case biography research

Biographies , including autobiographies , have always contained sociological discussions since their appearance in antiquity (meaning: Plutarch ). For the most part, they dealt with outstanding individual personalities, politically, artistically or in other areas of life; but there were also exceptions such as Ulrich Bräker's life story and the poor man's natural wages in Tockenburg . With the rise of sociology , its perspectives entered the field of vision of the authors; Pronounced socio-biographies of individuals have remained rare to this day (e.g. Alphons Silbermann on Jacques Offenbach , Bettina Clausen / Lars Clausen on Leopold Schefer , Norbert Elias on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ).

Biography research to open up larger groups

The biographical method as a research approach for larger groups was first introduced into Polish sociology by Florian Znaniecki in the 1920s, where it was developed and expanded over decades as the dominant research approach in empirical social research . The study of farmers in Poland and as Polish immigrants in the United States, published by Znaniecki and William I. Thomas, is based on an extensive collection of diaries, letters, memoirs, autobiographies and administrative documents, which are thematically arranged and interpreted. The reception of this work was initially delayed due to language barriers, but it was then accepted and disseminated in the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The biographical approach to research formed an important foundation for the development of the Chicago School , which later spawned symbolic interactionism .

Another milestone in the development of biography research were the analyzes of the lives of delinquent youths written by Clifford R. Shaw in 1930 and 1931. After 1945, given the success of quantitative methods and structural-functionalist theories, interest in biography research declined .

Only in deviance research was the biographical approach never completely lost. In 1978, Aaron Victor Cicourel published a case study on the life story of a boy named Mark, which received widespread attention in social work . In his investigation, Cicourel shows in detail how a criminal career was constructed through police interrogations, one-sided and falsified interpretations as well as file entries.

Recent biography research

Since the 1980s, biography research has experienced a new upswing in the course of increasing qualitative social research and has developed into a recognized research approach in sociology (see Martin Kohli , Werner Fuchs-Heinritz and others). This development was supported by a tendency to turn away from the sociological focus of system and structure towards lifeworld , everyday life and actors and the resurgence of phenomenological theoretical approaches. Sociology turned again to individual, otherwise inconspicuous, but considered exemplary, case studies of résumés.

With the increasing pluralization of lifeworlds, the modernization and differentiation of postmodern societies , the dissolution of traditional values and meaning, the meaningfulness of biographical analysis presented itself with a new urgency towards the turn of the millennium. The actor became an intersection of different and sometimes diverging requirements, subsystem logics, Expectations, normative models and institutionalized regulatory mechanisms (cf. Georg Simmel's intersection of social circles ).

The "normal biography" dissolved and released the individual into the necessity of managing his / her own life course and finding solutions for the different and contradicting influencing factors and figurations . In this situation, the self-discovered biographical identity with its endangered transitions, breaks and changes of status becomes a field of conflict between institutional control and individual action strategy. In a DFG special research area “ Status passages and risk situations in the life course” at the University of Bremen , the dynamics of the modern life course regime was empirically researched from 1998 to 2001.

The reconstructive approach in biography research, which is closely related to phenomenological and gestalt theoretical approaches, was methodologically further developed by Gabriele Rosenthal , among others .

Methods and problems of biography research

Individual approach versus inductive generalization

Biography research is to be assessed as an individual approach within the framework of qualitative research approaches. The decision to conduct individual case studies indicates an approach to the research field, not a specific method. Biography research does not use a single method for data analysis, but rather different methods. The methods of data collection for survivors most commonly used are the narrative interview and / or the open guided interview , otherwise the classic (socio) predominates historical source development to modern content analysis . The diversity and variety of biographical sources make the attempt to proceed inductively , known from quantitative social research and demoscopy , seem hopeless. In their place there is often - colloquially put - a 'detective' approach.

Basically, the focus on individual cases gives rise to the question of the possibilities of generalizing scientifically valid, disparate individual statements. This is the question of the viability of abductive conclusions. The abductive approach of inferring socially relevant, general patterns of behavior , action and interpretation from one or more cases is very common in sociological practice, but has not yet been fully developed theoretically. Robert K. Merton has spoken of serendipity here. There are approaches for the methodical development of types and comparative typifications of the data material (cf. for example Uta Gerhardt 1984).

Experienced and told life story

A fundamental problem also lies in the difference between the actual, the experienced and the told life story. In the early studies of biography research, great value was placed on reconstructing the actual course of the biography from additional sources (administrative files, chronicles, representations of third parties, etc.) and thus eliminating "sources of error" in the memory and representation by the respondent. Today - in accordance with the phenomenological "bracketing" of the being of the objects - one increasingly assumes that the actual course of life cannot be reconstructed, that the experiences are always interpreted in the perception and classified in the memory within the framework of the overall biography. The subject of biographical research can and should therefore be the perceived and remembered biography - in contrast to the curriculum vitae. Of particular interest are the interpretations and constructions of meaning which, as an achievement of the individual, constitute and construct one's own biography in a coherent context. From experience with storytelling and the research method of the narrative interview , the method of biographical-narrative conversation has developed, which transfers the research principles to professional educational, advisory and social action.

Reconstruction of latent structures of meaning

The question of the constructions of meaning leads further to the question of the subjectively intended and objectively permissible meaning. According to Ulrich Oevermann , an actor always produces more and different meaning in a situation than he perceives. Some biography researchers therefore consider the reconstruction of both types of meaning to be the task of biography research. Behind and below the interpretations expressed by the interviewees lie the latent structures of meaning that constitute the meaning of life and are spelled out in the individual life situations. In these latent, hidden patterns of meaning , individual experience and societal conditionality are conveyed and intertwined. These give a direction and a framework for action to life behind the back of the actors. Objective hermeneutics and the structural reconstruction according to Heinz Bude are used as methodical procedures for the reconstruction of the latent structures of meaning in biography research .

See also

literature

  • Heinz Bude : Reconstruction of life constructions. An answer to the question of what biography research brings . In: Martin Kohli, Günther Robert (Ed.): Biography and social reality. New contributions and research perspectives . Metzler, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-476-00548-8 , pp. 7-28.
  • Werner Fuchs-Heinritz : Biographical Research. An introduction to practice and methods . 4th edition VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16702-2 .
  • Uta Gerhardt : Type construction in patient careers . In: Martin Kohli, Günther Robert (Ed.): Biography and social reality. New contributions and research perspectives . Metzler, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-476-00548-8 , pp. 53-77.
  • Martin Kohli : Sociology of the Life Course (Sociological Texts / NF; Vol. 109). Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-472-75109-6 .
  • Siegfried Lamnek : Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 2: Methods and Techniques . 3rd edition Beltz, Weinheim 1995, ISBN 3-621-27177-5 .
  • Helma Lutz , Bettina Dausien, Bettina Völter: Biography research in discourse. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005 a. 2009, ISBN 3-53116177-6
  • Gabriele Rosenthal : Experienced and told life story. Shape and structure of biographical self-description . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1995, ISBN 3-593-35291-5 (plus habilitation thesis, GHS Kassel 1993).
  • Theodor Schulze : General educational science and educational biography research in: Lothar Wigger (Hrsg.): Research fields of general educational science. Leske and Budrich Opladen 2002, pp. 129–146 (Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / supplement; 1); ( PDF; 1.6 MB )
  • Clifford R. Shaw: The Jack Roller. A Delinquent Boy's Own Story . Routledge, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-70093-0 (reprint of the Chicago 1930 edition).
  • Clifford R. Shaw: The Natural History of a Delinquent Career . Greenwood Press, New York 1968 (reprinted from Philadelphia 1931 edition).
  • William I. Thomas , Florian Znaniecki : The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Organization and disorganization in America . Kessinger Publ., Whitefish, Mon. 2010, ISBN 978-0-548-23963-6 (5 parts; reprint of the Boston edition, Mass. 1918/20).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krüger, Heinz-Hermann; Marotzki, Winfried: Educational Biography Research . Ed .: see authors. 1st edition. tape 6 . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1999, ISBN 3-8100-1281-5 (because both of them are proven educationalists, it would be criminal to call them sociologists. Moreover, the term life course (research) is more for sociology than for Educational Science occupied).