ABSTRACT
In this chapter we put forward methodological arguments regarding how reconstructive biographical research (RBR) can be combined with critical realism (CR) in research practice. We describe Rosenthal’s principles for reconstructing biographical cases. Of particular importance is the distinction between the narrated life story and the experienced life history through which the temporal dimension of biographical construction is underscored. Emphasis is given to how the morphostatic and morphogenetic dimensions of social phenomena can be traced through this distinction and by treating each biography as a whole rather than seeing them as thematic fragments. Finally, we show how relational mechanisms give shape to latent meaning structures and to the possibility of transforming them due to the contingency that frames them.
