Biographical Research And New Social Architectures

This volume focuses on the place of biographical research in shaping social futures and its creative applications in the new unprecedented societal circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Written by experienced and early career biographical researchers, it demonstrates how biographical research responds to the new ‘social architecture’: theoretically, empirically and analytically.

This volume focuses on the place of biographical research in social futures and its creative applications in the new unprecedented societal circumstances, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This sociological collection advances the argument that the concept of a "turning point" expands our understanding of life experiences from a descriptive to a deeper and more abstract level of analysis. It addresses the conceptual issue of what distinguishes turning points from life transitions in general and raises crucial questions about the application of turning points as a biographical research method. Biography and turning points in Europe and America is all the more distinctive and significant due to its broad empirical database. The anthology includes authors from ten different countries, providing a number of contexts for thinking about how turning points relate to constructions of meaning shaped by globalization and by cultural and structural meanings unique to each country. The book will be useful across a wide range of social sciences and particularly valuable for researchers needing a stronger theoretical base for biographical work.

Biographical research methods have become a useful and popular tool for contemporary social scientists. This book combines an exploration of the historical and philosophical origins of this important field of qualitative research with comparative examples of the different ways that biographical methods have been successfully applied internationally. Through these many illustrative examples of socio-biography in process the authors show how formal textual analysis, whilst uncovering hidden emotional defences, can also shed light on wider historical processes of societal transformation. Topics discussed include: *individual and linked lives *generational change *political influences on memory and identity *biographical work in reflexive societies *narrativity and empowerment in professional practice *ways of theorising and generalising from case-studies. Biographical Methods in the Social Sciences promotes debate and provides opportunities for students and researchers to widen their uses of narrative research.

This book considers the methodological and theoretical questions associated with the use of life stories, oral histories, personal narratives, autobiographies, and biographies, as they are incorporated into sociological, ethnographic, and narrative studies. The collection and interpretation of materials, the uses of biographical research, the interview relationship, the construction of the story, memory, and audience are all considered. Roberts teaches sociology at the University of Huddersfield. The book is distributed by Taylor and Francis. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This title was first published in 2003. The transition from socialism experienced by the countries of Eastern and Central Europe during the last decade has been recognised as a profound historical watershed. It is only now, however, that the meanings and dimensions of 'post-socialism' are becoming apparent. The use of the 'biographical perspective' in research provides a unique avenue for studying these changes. Biographical Research in Eastern Europe is the only edited volume that brings the work of many of the most advanced and active biographical researchers working on Eastern Europe together in one volume. The book is organized into four parts. 'The Potential of Biographical Research,' explores the methodological issues. Arguments for the appropriateness of the biographical approach as a humanistic perspective are put forward and emphasis is laid on its fruitfulness for research into everyday lives and for the study of identity construction with particular reference to transition. 'Communists, Informers and Dissidents,' deals with the structural features of Soviet regimes, with a particular focus on the problematic divisions between public and private spheres of life. 'The Impact of Social Change,' demonstrates the value of the biographical approach as an instrument for the study of social and cultural change. 'Exile, Migration and Ethnicity,' centres on the problem of constructing and maintaining ethnic identities under repression; a context that can be seen as disturbing life-trajectories and framing the life story. Covering a wide range of 'post-socialist' countries, the chapters are unified by a common research perspective and an informative introduction that identifies common themes across the selections.

Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of museum building around the world and the subsequent publication of multiple texts dedicated to the subject. Museum Architecture: A new biography focuses on the stories we tell of museum buildings in order to explore the nature of museum architecture and the problems of architectural history when applied to the museum and gallery. Starting from a discussion of the key issues in contemporary museum design, the book explores the role of architectural history in the prioritisation of specific stories of museum building and museum architects and the exclusion of other actors from the history of museum making. These omissions have contemporary relevance and impact directly on the ways in which the physical structures of museums are shaped. Theoretically, the book places a particular emphasis on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Henri Lefebvre in order to establish an understanding of buildings as social relations; the outcome of complex human interactions and relationships. The book utilises a micro history, an in-depth case study of the ‘National Gallery of the North’, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, to expose the myriad ways in which museum architecture is made. Coupled with this detailed exploration is an emphasis on contemporary museum design which utilises the understanding of the social realities of museum making to explore ideas for a socially sustainable museum architecture fit for the twenty-first century.

Bringing reconstructive biographical research into dialogue with critical realism, this book argues that causal explanations are not at odds with biographical research and that biographical research is in fact a valuable tool for explaining how and why things in social and personal lives are one way and not another.