ABSTRACT
Biographical Methods are gaining ground in contemporary social research impacted by the various ‘turns’ in sociology including the ‘narrative’, ‘visual and sensory’, ‘performative’ as well as being connected to a long and deeply embedded set of histories of doing life stories, biographies and oral histories linked to Chicago sociologists, historians, reformers and working-class politics. As Miller (2003: 15) makes clear, biographical methodologies place emphasis upon ‘the collection and analysis of an intensive account of a whole life or portion of a life … the biographical approach emphasises the placement of the individual within a nexus of social connections, historical events and life experiences (the life history).’ The biographical researcher focuses upon the ways in which narratives are constructed and reconstructed in response to social contexts as well as psycho-social ‘matterings’ and internal dialogues.
