TY - JOUR
T1 - Life history and the critique of American sociological practice
AU - Luken, Paul C.
AU - Vaughan, Suzanne
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - This paper is a contribution to the uses of life histories and the dialogue regarding the "standards" for their use. Through a meta-analysis of life histories in the United States since the publication of the Polish Peasant, we develop a typology to critically evaluate their methodological/theoretical practices in sociology. We find a broad range of uses of life histories in the areas of substantive focus, analysis, relationship of oral history and the subject, relationship of oral/life history to other materials, purpose of the research, and relationship of oral/life history to other phenomena. We conclude that life history methods have not had the transformative effect on sociology that they have had in other disciplines. By and large, the actual production of life histories continues to be ahistorical, to be characterized by abstract empiricism, to extinguish subjects, and to ignore the link between biography and history.
AB - This paper is a contribution to the uses of life histories and the dialogue regarding the "standards" for their use. Through a meta-analysis of life histories in the United States since the publication of the Polish Peasant, we develop a typology to critically evaluate their methodological/theoretical practices in sociology. We find a broad range of uses of life histories in the areas of substantive focus, analysis, relationship of oral history and the subject, relationship of oral/life history to other materials, purpose of the research, and relationship of oral/life history to other phenomena. We conclude that life history methods have not had the transformative effect on sociology that they have had in other disciplines. By and large, the actual production of life histories continues to be ahistorical, to be characterized by abstract empiricism, to extinguish subjects, and to ignore the link between biography and history.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1475-682X.1999.tb00878.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1475-682X.1999.tb00878.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0033243089
SN - 0038-0245
VL - 69
SP - 404
EP - 425
JO - Sociological Inquiry
JF - Sociological Inquiry
IS - 3
ER -