Franco Ferrarotti is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Doctoral Program at the University of Rome. He is the editor of La Critica Sociologica.

Ferrarotti brings to life C. Wright Mills's project of linking the "personal troubles of milieu" with "public issues." Chapter by chapter the "life history" method is shown to link biography to history and to social institutions. As works in qualitative methods have gained ground in recent decades, Ferrarotti's important contribution to these discussions is to locate biographical methods of study within the broader context of sociological understanding and hermeneutics. His concept of "mediations" will be used by researchers for years to come.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 A Sociological Methodology as the Technique of ListeningChapter 3 The Quality of the Everyday and the Practice of LifeChapter 4 Biography as InteractionChapter 5 The Social Nature of the Individual6 The Symmetrical Limits of Naturalistic Objectivism and PsychologismChapter 7 The Specificity of the Biographic Method: From Naturalistic Social Research to "Joint" Research

Franco Ferrarotti is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Doctoral Program at the University of Rome. He is the editor of La Critica Sociologica.

Ferrarotti brings to life C. Wright Mills's project of linking the "personal troubles of milieu" with "public issues." Chapter by chapter the "life history" method is shown to link biography to history and to social institutions. As works in qualitative methods have gained ground in recent decades, Ferrarotti's important contribution to these discussions is to locate biographical methods of study within the broader context of sociological understanding and hermeneutics. His concept of "mediations" will be used by researchers for years to come.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 A Sociological Methodology as the Technique of ListeningChapter 3 The Quality of the Everyday and the Practice of LifeChapter 4 Biography as InteractionChapter 5 The Social Nature of the Individual6 The Symmetrical Limits of Naturalistic Objectivism and PsychologismChapter 7 The Specificity of the Biographic Method: From Naturalistic Social Research to "Joint" Research

Franco Ferrarotti is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Doctoral Program at the University of Rome. He is the editor of La Critica Sociologica.

Ferrarotti brings to life C. Wright Mills's project of linking the "personal troubles of milieu" with "public issues." Chapter by chapter the "life history" method is shown to link biography to history and to social institutions. As works in qualitative methods have gained ground in recent decades, Ferrarotti's important contribution to these discussions is to locate biographical methods of study within the broader context of sociological understanding and hermeneutics. His concept of "mediations" will be used by researchers for years to come.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 A Sociological Methodology as the Technique of ListeningChapter 3 The Quality of the Everyday and the Practice of LifeChapter 4 Biography as InteractionChapter 5 The Social Nature of the Individual6 The Symmetrical Limits of Naturalistic Objectivism and PsychologismChapter 7 The Specificity of the Biographic Method: From Naturalistic Social Research to "Joint" Research