Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Life history is somewhat of a stealth term – on the outside it looks harmlessly simple, but inside it is cloaked with ambiguity and its meaning is both slippery and elusive. The simple part derives from its point of origin: a researcher interviews a particular individual and elicits a richly detailed account of her or his life. It is in how that account is understood, and what is done with it, that the uncertainty and messiness begin. Nothing is straightforward. The life history interview, while privileging the informant in that that person decides what to share about his or her life and how to structure the telling, is nonetheless a co-construction between the researcher and the informant, both of whom are situated within a discursive context that shapes the definition of story as well as its telling. The product of the research, the life history itself, is the interpretive work of the researcher. That person has framed the research from the beginning around particular interests, which may or may not be significant to the informant; working from the narrative generated by the informant, it is the researcher who through the life history makes knowledge claims about the larger issue under study. Cole and Knowles (2001) define life history as “illuminating the intersection of human experience and social context” and it is that intersection that makes all the difference. People live ... log in or subscribe to read full text