ABSTRACT
One of our respondents chose ‘Diogenes’ as his pseudonym. Diogenes worked for a charity that supports homeless people. On the first occasion we met, he was the warden of a hostel for homeless men and the interview took place in the hostel. The year after, in the year he became 60-years-old, Diogenes was seconded to manage a day centre in a town about 25 miles away from his home. In 2006, he told us that he had agreed to the transfer becoming permanent and he travelled daily to his place of work. It was in the day centre that the other six interviews took place. Diogenes proved to be an articulate participant in the project, able to talk at length during interviews that tended to last for around two hours. He talked eloquently about work and our interviews were able to monitor something of his response to the changes that took place in his life routine as his work role changed. Through this Diogenes provided stories with high narrative intensity and much analysis and evaluation. It was also clear that, unlike some of our participants, he made a clear distinction between his public and private selves in the stories he was prepared to tell. The power of his story-telling was directed in ways that he carefully controlled.
