Life Story

The stories we are told? Brief glimpses, nothing more. Sometimes there is only one opportunity to talk, maybe a second, rarely more than that: arrangements are made and changed and rearranged and then cancelled, these are chaotic lives that people live. We collect these stories, attempting to tease out the narrative threads of their lives, of their involvement with Catch 22 1 .

Background. This study investigates the ways in which former offenders tell their life stories and integrate explanations for their previous criminal activity and desistance from crime into their personal narratives. It addresses an important gap in the desistance literature by including non-offenders as a comparison group. The specific aims of this study were to explore the similarities and differences in the personal narratives of desisters and non-offenders and to investigate the presence of generativity, agency and communion themes as well as the use of redemption sequences and contamination sequences in the life stories of both groups.

Methods. Respondents were identified through snowball sampling and targeted advertising (e.g., an organization that provides services to ex-offenders). Two groups were interviewed: men who had committed multiple crimes after turning 21 years old but were crime-free for the past year (desisting ex-offenders) and men who grew up in similar neighborhoods but reported no involvement in crime as adults (non-offenders). The final sample consisted of 19 desisters and 12 non-offenders; groups were matched on age and other background characteristics. Data collection included a life story interview and a set of open-ended questions about the respondent's juvenile offending and adult criminal history. Participants also completed two standardized instruments to assess generative concern and generative behavior: the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) and the Generative Behavior Checklist (GBC). Analyses identified themes through open coding, examined the structure of life narratives, and applied pre-established coding schemes for agency, communion and generativity themes and redemption and contamination sequences.

Results. Overall, the life stories of desisters and non-offenders were remarkably similar, even if they contained dramatically different content and reflected unique personal experiences. Respondents in both groups tended to craft narratives where they drew from earlier life experiences to identify reoccurring themes that helped to explain the trajectory of their lives and express deeply held beliefs about who they are as people. Desisters and non-offenders also were very similar in their use of redemption sequences and agency, communion and generativity themes. On the two generativity surveys, the desisting group reported levels of generative concern and generative behavior that were, at the very least, equivalent to average people their own age.

While almost all desisting respondents reported some kind of cognitive transformation, the degree to which they saw themselves as changing and how they described that change differed depending on the type of offenses committed. Two types of desistance narratives were identified. The hustler desistance narrative was used by former drug dealers. These men believed that they were involved in drug sales primarily for economic gain and could replace this source of income with legal pursuits. They did not view their past illegal activities as inconsistent with who they were as people. In contrast, the “real me” narrative was used by respondents who had perpetrated acts of violence. They argued that they were innately good people.

Conclusions. Overall, the study’s findings were consistent with previous research results that supported the “cognitive transformation and identity” view of  desistance, which emphasizes behavioral change as resulting primarily from internal rather than external sources. Previous offending patterns played an influential role in how ex-offenders viewed their past criminal activity, the ways in which they decided to change their lives, and their understanding of the desistance process. Involvement in peer-based programming, mutual support groups and mentoring relationships, whether they were institutionalized, volunteer-oriented, or self-initiated, were identified as major life changing experiences by many desisting ex-offenders. These activities also played a key role in shaping personal narratives and self-concepts in important ways that helped to sustain desistance over time.

En este trabajo presento una serie de aspectos del método biográfico —o método
de las historias de vida— que suelen surgir durante procesos de investigación y
acerca de los cuales los/as investigadores/as deben poder tomar decisiones fundadas.
Me detengo en distinciones terminológicas, diferencias con áreas fronterizas
—como el enfoque narrativo o la literatura— y en la relevancia del método para la
ciencia social. Analizo el «problema» de la objetividad y de la representatividad y
la disyuntiva entre (sólo) presentar o analizar el material generado. Comento algunos
criterios para la elección de un/a «buen/a» informante, las estrategias de producción
y análisis de la información y la cuestión de la (des)confianza en los relatos
de informantes e investigadores/as. Mi objetivo es plantear —no resolver— estas
cuestiones, con el fin de que sean tenidas en cuenta en la toma de decisiones
durante los procesos de composición de una historia de vida.

This paper, inspired by Goffman’s “presentation of self” and the way we appear to others, provides a framework for the methodological question of how to approach the analysis of life stories. Adopting an interactionist perspective, this analytical framework allows for the organization of co-constructed meaning of life stories, taking into account temporal and memory dimensions while also considering the identity aspect that these stories convey. The paper shows an interpretative approach, conducive to the analysis of life stories collected during some research focused on documenting how biology teachers approach issues involving living things. This was based on college biology teachers (in Québec) and lycée biology teachers (in France).

À la question d’ordre méthodologique du comment aborder l’analyse des récits de vie, cet article fournit un cadre qui s’inspire de la « présentation de soi » et de l’« entrée en scène » de Goffman. Selon une perspective interactionniste, ce cadre analytique permet l’organisation du sens co-construit des récits en tenant compte de leurs dimensions temporelles et mnésiques tout en considérant l’aspect identitaire qu’ils véhiculent. L’article illustre une démarche interprétative permettant une entrée analytique des récits de vie réalisée dans une recherche qui s’est intéressée à comprendre les approches du vivant chez des enseignants et enseignantes de biologie au collégial (Québec) et au lycée (France).

If a person's internalized and evolving life story (narrative identity) is to be considered an integral feature of personality itself, then aspects of that story should manifest some continuity over time while also providing evidence regarding important personality change. Accordingly, college freshmen and seniors provided detailed written accounts of 10 key scenes in their life stories, and they repeated the same procedure 3 months and then 3 years later. The accounts were content analyzed for reliable narrative indices employed in previous studies of life stories: emotional tone, motivational themes (agency, communion, personal growth), and narrative complexity. The results showed substantial continuity over time for narrative complexity and positive (vs. negative) emotional tone and moderate but still significant continuity for themes of agency and growth. In addition, emerging adults (1) constructed more emotionally positive stories and showed (2) greater levels of emotional nuance and self-differentiation and (3) greater understanding of their own personal development in the 4th year of the study compared to the 1st year. The study is the first to demonstrate both temporal continuity and developmental

Although Brazil is considered the country of soccer, athletics might be the modality which better represents sports in the country. Athletics was the modality holding the larger amount of Olympic medals, up to the Beijing Olympic Games. At that time, all the Brazilian medal winners were African descent, migrants and poor. Joaquim Cruz is part of this group and stands out not just because he is a medalist, but because he is an athlete and postathlete, concerned with social matters. The current article discusses the transformations in Joaquin's identity: a migrant -as well as a member of a poor community in Brasilia -who moved to the U.S.A, in order to study and practice. He got married, had kids and became a renowned and respected coach in the USA. However he did not abandon his poor community behind. He states a heroic status that just a few athletes are able to keep, after finishing their sport's career.

Władysław Ząbek was born and raised in France, in Pas-de-Calais department, as a child of Polish emigrants who had come to France looking for work. After the Second World War he returned to Wałbrzych in Poland together with his parents, where he still lives. Władysław Ząbek describes mostly his daily life in a mining town in the north of France, dominated by Polish immigrants, he speaks about a Polish school, friendly relationships and the lifestyle of Poles in France. A significant part of the account is dedicated to the years of war and Nazi occupation of France. The next stage of Władysław Ząbek’s life was his return to Poland, to post-war Lower Silesia, which at that time was a national and religious melting-pot. The account shows the difficult beginnings of life in the unknown homeland, issues of Wałbrzych’s reconstruction after the war, the housing situation but also about the habits of re-emigrants from France, who constituted a distinct group in the post-war Wałbrzych and the region. Another important fact in Ząbek’s account is the time of studies in Donieck in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic which he started following the advice of the headmaster of his secondary school. During his studies, Władysław participated in the Fifth World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw (1955) as a French interpreter. It was one of many significant events connected with his contact with France and the French language after his return to Poland proving that the childhood and teenage years spent in France had an impact on his life.

"If one takes three individuals and interviews them with respect to life changing experiences and how they relate
to education what would one expect to find? Certainly these people would speak about moments of educational challenge
and inspiration, or times where their goals have been unachievable or misdirected. Perhaps they would suggest ways in which learning has been an escape route from the perception that circumstances are pre-determined. This paper represents
a search for these pedagogic epiphanies. They are located in the narratives of three people - and they are loaded with
subjective principles in terms of the relationships that these narratives may build with pedagogic experience (Clough, 2002)
and skills, and the definition of a subject area about epiphanies and teaching and learning. It is critical that this paper
relates the three narrative strands to a theoretical stratum that embeds and grounds them without diminishing their singularity.
The theory and narrative evidence of this paper are part of the processes that not only comprehend and represent
pedagogic epiphanies, but also show how they may infuse readers with transformative forces through words."

Acting and suffering subjectivity makes a grand sujet in Ricoeur's philosophy. In his Time and Narrative Ricoeur created the notion of narrative identity which is an individual internalized and evolving life strory. The narrative alone might define the “who”. Whoever lives and exists, suffers. Ricoeur metaphorically defined life as a cloth. We can add, Wiercinski continues, that this cloth is woven with pain. It is pain which makes the cloth, and, at the same time, it is also a joy of the human condition. As humans, we are called to wear this cloth as well as to understand what does it mean - from the hermeneutic perspective.

This narrative study explores real-life experiences around language learning and around language learners' identities that emerge considering the act of positioning within an in situ perspective. Thinking of the language learner as a subject with agency, the study presents accounts of the empowered and disempowered language learner as narrated in life stories. The study took on analytical elements of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) to approach the life story as unit of analysis. Data collected unveiled that learners resist to positioning within the learning environment, and as a result they can exercise their agentic selves. The analysis also shed light into the importance of considering not just linguistic background but also the experiential one to get to understand learners from a very ontological but narrative perspective.
Este trabajo explora las experiencias de la vida real en torno al aprendizaje de idiomas y de identidades que emergen teniendo en cuenta el acto de posicionamiento dentro de una perspectiva situada. Pensando en el aprendiz de la lengua como un sujeto con la capacidad de actuar, el estudio da cuenta del alumno con poder y sin poder tal cual como se narra en las historias de vida. El estudio tomó en cuenta elementos analíticos de la teoría fundamentada (Charmaz, 2006) para acercarse a la historia de vida como unidad de análisis. Los datos recogidos revelaron que los alumnos se resisten al posicionamiento dentro del ambiente de aprendizaje y, como resultado, pueden actuar. El análisis también arrojó luz sobre la importancia de tener en cuenta no solo los antecedentes lingüísticos, sino también la experiencia, para llegar a comprender a los alumnos desde una perspectiva no solo ontológica, sino narrativa. Palabras clave: narrativa, identidad, historia de vida, aprendizaje de lengua.

The following paper strives after a philosophy of adventure from the perspective of narrative and aesthetic theory. Since childhood we have come across books that teach us about the spirit of adventures. They are, in a way, those narratives that tell of the unexpected in boundary experiences. I attempt to unlock the enormous potential in thinking of adventures as stories. Moreover, taking Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim as my point of departure, I seek to expose the close contact between adventures and self-care ("Selbstsorge"). This is unquestionably a clear sign of the intense longing for transformation (or refiguration in Paul Ricœur’s terminology) that accurately describes adventures. Georg Simmel’s notable and splendid essay from 1911 worked out the basic dialectics of adventures, raising questions about human freedom in general. In this way, it reflects the fierce struggle that comes with being human. Aesthetics must not evade these key issues. Life ("Dasein"), thus, seems to be an adventure itself if we try to actively shape it.

This case study illustrates the need for person-centred care. It postulates a central position for narrative in meaning making processes. Three social functions are discerned in the use of narrative. A narrative model deduced from the metaphor of the spinning top is proposed to be used by professionals in their contact with patients. It is been argued that there is a need for a context sensitive evidence-based practice in which circularity plays an important role. The context is found in the lifeworld, especially social interaction and the life story. Circularity is based on the recognition that both patients and professionals are agents who interact and that there should be reciprocity to some degree in order to realize a fruitful and therapeutic treatment outcome.

This paper proposes a new methodology for addressing inter-group tensions and "difficult dialogues", making use of interactive video technologies and oral history. It presents the theoretical and practical grounding on which the proposed methodology is built, including the immediate model and inspiration which is Harvard social psychologist Herbert Kelman's "interactive problem-solving workshop". Finally, it presents the case for micro-testing of the methodology in the context of today's Quebec (Canada).

The present era which is called the Research century has raised and diversified the elements of research in many different aspects, categories and subcategories. This research paper has first developed the theme for clearing the mirror of biographical research. The biographical research is based on an individual life and it revolves around aspects of life. This research owns the diamond shape because it includes method,

Why is life history a useful research method to advance in the generation of knowledge applied in
studies that work with life experiences? This article considers the present question by discussing
the application of the life history method in interviews with migrant women from South Asia in
the Basque Country. In doing so, we have used this method as a tool to visualize South Asian
women by listening to their experiences from early childhood until the present moment. Life
history has been widely used in feminist research as an alternative to other methods that have
failed at representing women´s life in research. After a bibliographical revision on life history
method, the attention was brought to our case of study, where we explain how to implement the
life history method to carry out the interviews with the participants. This work is in progress, and
at the end we present the possible future analysis of the collected data.
Keywords: life history, qualitative research, feminist research, South-Asian migration, Basque
Country

Tras quince años de vivir en un país del norte, en donde se formó académicamente, un intelectual latinoamericano prueba suerte regresando a su país para desempeñarse en su campo. Ejercicio de escritura creativa no-ficticia en la que se narra las primeras impresiones del retorno.

Escrito em vista de uma Aula Magna, quando se encerrava um ciclo de
vida acadêmica, o texto é um ensaio de autobiografia intelectual, dedicado
à convivência do autor com o pensamento de Paul Tillich durante mais
de cinquenta anos. Privilegiou-se o pensamento político, em relação com
a perspectiva histórica e escatológica, e a análise religiosa da cultura,
colocando em segundo plano a reflexão epistemológica e a concepção de
Deus. Todos os exemplos foram tirados de textos interpretativos do autor,
instaurando quase sempre um diálogo com diversos aspectos da cultura
contemporânea, principalmente brasileira. Nas considerações finais foram
lembrados os cuidados a serem tomados na atualização de um autor de
referência, num tempo e num ambiente diferentes dos seus.
This paper was written for a master lecture by reason of a former academic
work life end. It is an essay of intellectual autobiography, which
is dedicated to the author’s experience with the thought of Paul Tillich
for over 50 years. On the main frame there are the political thought in
relation to the historical and eschatological perspective, and on the reli-gious analysis of culture, having in the background the epistemological
reflection and the conception of God. All examples were taken from the
interpretative texts of the author, by frequently assuming a dialogue with
various aspects of contemporary culture, particularly Brazilian’s culture.
Final considerations remember the care needed for a reference author in
an environment and time different from his very environment and time.

Fihl, Esther (ed.): Dowry among fishers in Tranquebar, South India. A study of an ethnographic collection of material objects from 1981 and life-story interviews from 2007, written by Sofie Vilhelmsen. Published in Tranquebar Initiativets Skriftserie, no. 9, 2016, (pages 1-56).

https://natmus.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/Editor/natmus/forskning/dokumenter/Tranquebar/Skriftserie/Skriftserie_no_09_2016.pdf 

Abstract

In this publication, I compare dowry in the fishing community of Tranquebar – or Tharangambadi as it is also called - in 1981 and 2007. I do this on the basis of ethnographer Esther Fihl’s collection of material objects from 1981, and some of her life-story interviews from 2007.
The aim is to discuss the structural aspects of dowry as well as the pace of dowry inflation. I argue that the systems of dowry in 1981 and 2007 share a series of structural similarities relating to issues of class, social status and social mobility. However, the dowries in and of themselves have changed; they have grown bigger and the items have been adapted to modern consumption.
I conclude that this change happened gradually before the tsunami in 2004 and rapidly in the post-tsunami period, as Tranquebar experienced an influx of relief money. A high level of social mobility within the fishing community is depicted in girl-families in both 1981 and 2007, where a daughter’s upwards mobility was more likely if she had a low number of sisters and her downwards mobility was more likely if she had a high number of sisters. Social mobility is similarly depicted in the reconstructing period after the tsunami in Tranquebar, where families with a high number of men were more likely to experience upwards mobility than families with a low number of male members.

For further research results from the Tranquebar Initiative of the National Museum of Denmark, see https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/historical-knowledge-the-world/asia/india/tranquebar/

The paper concerns the cognitive function of literature. I show that literary stories, because of their narrative and mimetic structure, enable us to identify with fictitious heroes, and thus become able to widen our cognitive as well as moral horizon, and to influence our own life-stories. In such a process, we receive the opportunity to re-tell and re-think our personal narration and in such a way learn who we really are and what it means to be ourselves. In order to demonstrate this, I refer to Martha Nussbaum`s and Wayne C. Booth`s ethical criticism on the one hand, and to Paul Ricoeur`s, Alasdair MacIntyre`s, Charles Taylor`s, Marya Schechtman`s and David DeGrazia`s theory of narrative identity on the other. I argue that such a mutual exchange between the reader`s identity and a fictional character is possible as both of them have a narrative structure and are sort of a story.

In order to contribute to "enlighten" the dark side of organizations as an issue related to organizations studies, this article presents a research about bullying at homosexual men in Brazil. To this end, we performed a qualitative study in Brazilian major cities Aracaju, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Vitoria, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The method used was the story of life and to assess the corpus of interviews were employed some categories of the discourse analysis. Through the empirical analysis, it was observed that most recurring symbolic violence involved the homosexual depreciation. These rely not only on indirect or subtle insults but also ways of contempt, exclusion of non-heterosexual subjects of certain social cycles, with emphasis on formal organizations, and pressure for the adjustment of these heteronormatives standards. We note that such violence, in many cases, are introjected by the subjects, causing loss of confidence and disbelief in their own personal and professional potential, the experience of ambiguity and subsequent identity crisis, and the feeling of exclusion or non-belonging together with statements of anger with the status quo, constant feeling of loss and the disbelief in the possibility of a changing reality. In relation to the internalization, there is a reproduction of violence on others, especially those non-heterosexuals who become distant, in other respects, from the homogenic model. In this process, the association with women was essential since the closer to the feminine approach, the greater the risk of being socially unsuccessful. We concluded this work, emphasizing the importance of developing new studies in the area.

What is it like to have lived one hundred years? In the opinion of those who are active and well, what has contributed to their longevity? If asked to tell a story about being 100 years old what would they talk about? In 2010 we interviewed 16 UK centenarians. We travelled to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England to interview participants in their own homes. We (Koch, Smith, Hutnik and Turner) asked centenarians to tell us their story. We heard about celebrating their 100th birthday with friends and family. We heard that there were 100 balloons or 100 roses or 100 reasons to continue partying into the future. Many chose to talk about aspects of their life that were foremost in their minds. Each person was given space to retell, using their own words, something about themselves and the social context that had shaped their lives. Interviews often included interested friends or relatives. Their accounts ran to several thousand words. Together these stories comprise a social his...