ABSTRACT
Writing an essay about one's life or career is not easy. It feels as though one is being superficial and pompous at the same time. Furthermore, the story might not be interesting enough to hold the reader's attention. What parts are the most interesting or central to the narrative? Another annoying feature is that such an essay can focus so much on the self that the embeddedness of the self in a particular historical and contextual period is lost. At the same time, such a focus might not do justice to the relationships that were central to becoming a researcher and that sustained that research (two earlier autobiographical essays of mine were critiqued for spending too much time discussing others' influences on my work; Brooks-Gunn, 1990, 1996). Is the story about the person, or about the person as developing within a time and place and surrounded by others who define that time and place (as well as the person)? Clearly, social scientists who study lives over time think about such issues, especially if their work emerged in the tradition of life course and developmental theorists such as Glen Elder and Urie Bronfenbrenner, to name two of my major influences. Add to this a concern with how the self emerges in the context of relationships brings other theorists to the mix, such as George Herbert Mead and Merleau-Ponty. A dollop of sociologists who were concerned with how the self is defined by larger aggregates, such as neighborhoods (and how neighborhoods emerge as a function of the individual make-up of the neighborhood as well as the relationships among these individuals) with an interest in social stratification such as William Julius Wilson, and the earlier scholars from the Chicago School adds depth to the stew. And, let's not forget the importance of the genetic and biological influences in concert with the environment, in shaping one's personal characteristics, as evidenced by the writings of Sandra Scarr, Eleanor Maccoby, Harry Harlow, and Jerome Kagan. Finally, a late entry is the economic take on the emergence of self, especially family economic theory as presented by Gary Becker. Mix well, and add a few other ingredients, and my research trajectory emerges.
