Biographical Research Methods

Marta J. Eichsteller is Assistant Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin. Her research and writing projects focus on the qualitative and cross-generational aspects of social inequalities from local, national and global perspectives. She has worked on projects on local civil society participation in Poland and the UK, European identifications, and sustained escapes from poverty in the context of international development across Africa and South East Asia. She is particularly interested in biographical aspects of social change and their implications for social inquiry. Howard Davis is Emeritus professor of Social Theory and Institutions at Bangor University, Wales, and a former Co-Director of the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD). His research and writing have focused on social theories of culture; cultural formations and transitions in post-Soviet societies; and social identities at local, national and international levels. He has been responsible for a wide range of research projects on culture, language and identities, including several based on biographical methods.

This book is a practical and thought-provoking account of the use of biographical methods in social science research. The case studies are useful for advanced students and researchers, and for anyone interested in how we tell stories about our lives.

• Chapter 1 Discovering biographical narrative researchChapter 2 Theoretical approaches to biographical narrativesChapter 3 Interview process and ethicsChapter 4 Autobiographical Narrative Interview MethodChapter 5 Narrative ethnographyChapter 6 - Logical systems, qualitative comparative analysis, and quantitative codingChapter 7 Designing a project using biographical methodsChapter 8 Mixed qualitative methodsChapter 9 Mixed quantitative and qualitative methodsChapter 10 Challenges ahead for biographical research