Re-Thinking Social Research by Beth Humphries Carole Truman

Author:Beth Humphries, Carole Truman [Beth Humphries, Carole Truman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138268968
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

6 Critical life histories: Key anti-oppressive research methods and processes

Derek Clifford

The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to social research which draws on a multidisciplinary methodology, which is anti-oppressive, and which is particularly valuable for people who are working and researching in the social, health and welfare professions. By ‘anti-oppressive’ I mean to imply an understanding of social life which regards social divisions as basic phenomena which condition our lives and thought, including not only class, gender and ‘race’, but also sexuality, disability and age. It is therefore important to explore alternative ways of conducting research which are not constrained by the dominant conventions. I have drawn on black feminist perspectives as a guide to anti-oppressive values and have attempted to describe and justify ‘Critical Life Histories’ as a research methodology which meets these criteria, and which is particularly relevant for the stated purposes.

I will argue that there is great relevance in the connections between life-course and life history methods in sociology, life-span developmental psychology, and oral history, relating all three to some of the central concerns of black feminism. There have been recent developments in all of these areas, and one - oral history - has only become an academically accepted and thriving discipline in the last two decades, with one key book providing both a summary of the emergence of the discipline and a platform from which subsequent work has developed, (Thompson, 1984). It is surprising that the study of the life-course, and the life history approach in sociology has not been utilised much more, as these two closely related areas of sociology have been studied for a long time. However, it is true that the life history approach largely disappeared after its initial popularity in the 1930’s, and there has only begun a slow revival of interest in it in recent years, (Plummer, 1983). Life course sociology has recently become the preferred phrase for the study of what was previously examined under the heading of ‘llife-cyle’ and ‘family life-cycle’, and represents a theoretical move forward in the attempt to link biography and history, (Morgan, 1985).

Life-span developmental psychology has been growing in influence considerably over the last two decades. The application of psycho-dynamic theories to the whole life span is particularly associated with Erikson, (Erikson, 1958,1975 and 1977), whose influential works not only founded the discipline of life-span developmental psychology, but also signalled the start of the modern period of the cognate field of psycho-history, (Runyan, 1988, pp. 12-14). The use of psychodynamic theories has not always been made with a life-span perspective, but it is significant that the doyens of attachment theory have only recently published an up-dating of their approach from this angle, (Parkes, 1991). One of the questions raised here will be the adequacy of any psychological approach to social research which is not explicitly and theoretically integrated with appropriate sociological and historical factors of interpretation, unconnected with anti-oppressive values.

It is being consistent with this methodology that makes it important to say something about my own specific ‘position’.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.