Summary
Contents
What is qualitative secondary analysis? How can it be most effectively applied in social research? This timely and accomplished book offers readers a well informed, reliable guide to all aspects of qualitative secondary analysis. The book: Defines secondary analysis. Distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative secondary analysis. Maps the main types of qualitative secondary analysis. Covers the key ethical and legal issues. Offers a practical guide to effective research. Sets the agenda for future developments in the subject. Written by an experienced researcher and teacher with a background in sociology, the book is a comprehensive and invaluable introduction to this growing field of social research.
Auto/biography and Life Histories
Auto/biography and Life Histories
Life histories are records of individuals’ personal experiences and the connections between them and past social events, while auto/biography treats these accounts not as established facts but as social constructions requiring further investigation and re-interpretation.
Section Outline: Snapshots versus histories. Collecting life histories. Wide content of life histories: world views. Oral history. Individuals in historical settings. Conflicting accounts. Collective life histories. Auto/biography: artifice; fabrication; reflexivity and creative inconsistencies.
Most social research has focused on very limited periods of time. Survey research normally concentrates on the state of things at the time of the interviews. While observation and depth interviews often follow events in a social process, they generally cover quite short sequences of action. In contrast, the people being studied actually live from ...