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is an interviewing method used to record autobiographical history from an ordinary person's perspective, often gathered from traditionally marginalized groups. It was begun by anthropologists studying Native
American groups around the 1900s, and was taken up by sociologists and other scholars, though
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to the present. Another approach, dating from the Polish
Peasant, is to ask participants to write their own life stories. This can be done either through competitions (as in Poland, Finland or Italy) or by collecting written life stories written spontaneously. In these countries, there are already
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in general, and asked subjects to talk about their lives. The resulting report discussed (i) Chicago at that particular time; (ii) how the subject viewed their own life (i.e. 'how it was like to be this particular person') and (iii) how society viewed the subject and whether they would be
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In this method, the interviewer allows the subject to tell the story of their life on their own terms, as opposed to those of the researcher. It is common practice to begin the interview with the subject's early childhood and to proceed
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its popularity has waxed and waned since. One of the major strengths of the life history method is that it provides a kind of voice from a social milieu that is often overlooked or indeed invisible in intellectual discourse.
92:. The authors employed a Polish immigrant to write his own life story which they then interpreted and analyzed. According to Martin Bulmer, it was "the first systematically collected sociological life history".
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and Paul
Thompson whose life history research focused on such professions as bakers and fishermen. Major initiatives of the life history method were undertaken also in Germany, Italy, and Finland.
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The approach later lost momentum as quantitative methods became more prevalent in
American sociology. The method was revived in the 1970s, mainly through the efforts of French sociologist
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and specifically Native
American leaders who were asked by an interviewer to describe their lives with an insight as to what it was like to be that particular
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174:. The analysis of life histories was further developed by the biographical case reconstruction method of German sociologist
401:""Das ist Soziologe sein!" – Ein narratives Interview mit Fritz Schütze zur Geschichte seines Werkes in der Soziologie"
417:"Reconstruction of Life Stories: Principles of Selection in Generating Stories for Narrative Biographical Interviews"
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119:
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158:, which maintained close academic cooperation with American sociolinguists and social scientists such as
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Rundbrief 69/ Dezember 2015 der
Sektion Biographieforschung in der Deutschen Gesellschaft fĂĽr Soziologie
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The
Chicago School of Sociology: Institutionalization, Diversity, and the Rise of Sociological Research
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The landmark of the life history method was developed in the 1920s and most significantly embodied in
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39:. The purpose of the interview was to capture a living picture of a disappearing (as such) people/
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The
Copyright Thing Doesn't Work Here: Adinkra and Kente Cloth and Intellectual Property in Ghana
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150:). The development and improvement of the method are closely connected to German sociologist
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In the German context, the life history method is closely associated with the development of
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362:(2001). "The Story of Life History: Origins of the Life History Method in Sociology".
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The Turn to
Biographical Methods in Social Sciences: Comparative Issues and Examples
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Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences
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Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms
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large collections of life stories, which can be used by researchers.
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as a method for conducting open narrative interviews in empirical
186:. Rosenthal differentiates between the level of analysis of the
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Chamberlayne, Prue; Bornat, Joanna; Wengraf, Tom, eds. (2000).
344:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (published 1986).
317:. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
399:Köttig, Michaela; Völter, Bettina (December 2015).
453:Interpretive Social Research: An Introduction
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31:The method was first used when interviewing
455:. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen.
106:and biographical-narrative interviews. The
556:. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
75:, receive help, perform social work, etc.
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81:The Polish Peasant in Europe and America
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118:around 1975. It borrowed concepts from
46:Later the method was used to interview
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156:Bielefeld Sociologist's Working Group
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563:The Voices of the Past: Oral History
565:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33:indigenous peoples of the Americas
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525:Jolly, Margaretta, ed. (2001).
434:. Vol. 1. pp. 59–91.
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489:Bertaux, Daniel, ed. (1981).
432:The Narrative Study of Lives
415:Rosenthal, Gabriele (1993).
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376:10.1207/S1532706XID0102_02
313:Boateng, Boatema (2011).
178:for the analysis of life
66:-records, as well as the
58:. Interviewers looked at
261:Köttig & Völter 2015
200:erlebte Lebensgeschichte
192:erzählte Lebensgeshichte
561:Thompson, Paul (1978).
529:. New York: Routledge.
440:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-59294
340:Bulmer, Martin (1984).
128:symbolic interactionism
144:sociology of knowledge
552:Stanley, Liz (1992).
535:10.4324/9780203825525
508:10.4324/9780203466049
502:. London: Routledge.
462:10.17875/gup2018-1103
104:biographical research
424:Josselson, Ruthellen
132:George Herbert Mead
108:narrative interview
27:Life history method
16:Interviewing method
333:10.5749/j.ctttss7k
176:Gabriele Rosenthal
581:Human development
544:978-0-203-82552-5
517:978-0-203-46604-9
472:978-3-86395-374-4
351:978-0-226-08005-5
324:978-0-8166-7002-4
114:was developed in
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86:W. I. Thomas
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249:Bulmer 1984
196:experienced
52:prostitutes
41:way of life
220:References
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384:1532-706X
225:Footnotes
206:Technique
182:and life
48:criminals
575:Category
430:(eds.).
410:: 35–53.
364:Identity
188:narrated
180:history
142:), and
116:Germany
68:society
56:Chicago
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64:police
60:social
37:person
422:. In
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388:S2CID
329:JSTOR
184:story
539:ISBN
512:ISBN
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380:ISSN
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