ABSTRACT
In the final chapter we summarize the main philosophical, theoretical and methodological pillars of our argumentation. Regarding the philosophical part, we highlight how biographical research can claim mechanism-based causal explanations without them being reductive. For that goal, we explain the reasons why the irreducibility of the social has to be defended through relational emergence. Next, we summarize the arguments underlining the importance of re-conceptualizing lived experience, as the focal notion of biographical research. This can be achieved by showing how causal powers, shaped by specific relational mechanisms, are acted out through biographically shaped latent meaning structures. Finally, we point out the relevance of the above ideas for making sense of the formation, the maintenance and the transformation of social phenomena.
