Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Life History
an intensive account of a life, usually gathered through unstructured interviewing the analysis of personal documents such as letters, photographs, and diaries
(Scott & Marshall, 2005).
Used in many fields: Anthropology, History, Literature, Psychology, Social Welfare, Sociology Called by different names: Autobiography, Biography, Case Study, Oral History, Life History
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/wildershores/index.htm
Barrett (1906)
Radin (1920)
(1916)
Birth
1918-1920: William I. Thomas & Florian Znanieckis seminal 5-volume work, The Polish Peasant in Europe & America
Subjectivity matters
1920s-1930s
Ordinary People
Extraordinary Lives
[FWP] Life histories were described as life sketches, living lore, industrial lore, and occupational lore
The quality of collecting and writing lore varies from state to state, reflecting the skills of the interviewer-writers and the supervision they received.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/question2.html
The following two interviews with the same person, one conducted by an African-American interviewer, one by a white interviewer, present a stark example of the way the narrator's response to the social identity of the interviewer shapes the interview. Both interviewers worked from a common set of questions Read the two interviews, paying close attention to the interaction between Hamlin/ Hamilton and each interviewer and to the way she recounted her memories of slavery to each of them.
Death: 1940s-1960s
3)
4)
Social action springs from subjective disposition & must be factored in any analysis T&Zs proposed laws of social change/ becoming had no substance due to deficiencies in their concepts of attitude & value Human documents used in PP did not prove/disprove validity of their theories/ generalizations & failed to meet test of scientific criteria Even so, the docs clarified & supported theoretical assertions & vice versa!
1970s -
1972: Chambliss Box Man 1974: Bogdan Being Different 1975: Klockars The Professional Fence
in other news
http://www.studsterkel.org/galleries.php
1967: Division Street 1970: Hard Times: an oral history of the great depression 1974: Working: people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do 1980: American dreams, lost and found 1984: "The Good War" : an oral history of WWII 1992: Race : how blacks and whites think and feel about the American obsession 2003: Hope dies last : keeping the faith in difficult times
Hearing voices
1989: PNG Interpreting Womens Lives 1993: Behar Translated woman: crossing the border with Esperanza's story McLaughlin & Tierney Naming Silent Lives Middleton Educating Feminists 1994: Sparks Self, Silence & Invisibility (journal article) 1995: Plummer Telling Sexual Stories 1998: Munro Subject to Fiction: Women teachers life history
1999: Robinson Gay lives: homosexual autobiography from John Addington Symonds to Paul Monette 2000: Howard & Stevens Out & about campus 2003: Faderman Naked in the promised land 2004: Galliher Laud Humphreys : prophet of homosexuality and sociology 2007: Cruz Queer Latino testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza
McPheeters, Annie L. 1988. Library service in black and white. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press Powell, Lawrence Clark. 1988. An orange grove boyhood: growing up in southern California, 1910-1928 . Santa Barbara: Capra Press Richardson, John V. 1992. The gospel of scholarship: Pierce Butler and a critique of American librarianship. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press Sayers, Frances Clarke. 1972. Anne Carroll Moore: a biography. NY: Atheneum Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney. 1989. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, black bibliophile & collector. NY: NYPL Vosper, Robert. 1989. International library horizons. Washington : Library of Congress Wiegand, Wayne A. 1996. Irrepressible reformer : a biography of Melvil Dewey. Chicago : ALA
Selected Bibliography
Barrett, Stephan M. 1906. Geronimos story of his life. NY: Duffield Becker, Howard Saul. 1970. Sociological work; method and substance. Chicago: Aldine Pub Co Behar, Ruth. 1993. Translated woman : crossing the border with Esperanza's story. Boston: Beacon Press Blumer, Herbert (1939) An appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki's The Polish peasant in Europe and America, by Herbert Blumer, with statements by William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, a panel discussion, and summary and analysis by Read Bain. NY: Social Science Research Council Cruz, Arnaldo. 2007. Queer Latino testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza. NY: Palgrave Macmillan DeVault, Marjorie. 1997. Personal Writing in Social Research. In Reflexivity & voice, ed. Rosanna Hertz, 216-28. Thousand Oaks: Sage
DeVault, Marjorie L. 2007. Knowledge from the Field. In Sociology in America: a history, ed. Craig Calhoun, 155-182. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Faderman, Lillian. 2003. Naked in the promised land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co Galliher, John F. 2004. Laud Humphreys: prophet of homosexuality and sociology. Madison: U of WI Press Goodson, Ivor. 1980. Life History & the Study of Schooling. Interchange 11 no.4: 62-76 Goodson, Ivor. 2001. The Story of Life History: Origins of the Life History Method in Sociology. Identity 1 no.2: 129-142 Harvey, Lee (1987) Myths of the Chicago school of sociology. Brookfield, VT: Gower Howard, Kim & Annie Stevens. 2000. Out & about campus. LA: Alyson Books
Phelan, Thomas J. 1989. From the Attic of the "American Journal of Sociology": Unusual Contributions to American Sociology, 1895-1935. Sociological Forum 4, no.1 : 71-86 Radin, Paul. 1920. Crashing Thunder: the autobiography of an American Indian. University of California series in American archaeology and ethnology 16, no.7 Robinson, Paul A. 1999. Gay lives : homosexual autobiography from John Addington Symonds to Paul Monette. Chicago: U of Chicago Press Scott, John and Gordon Marshall. 2005. Dictionary of Sociology. OUP. http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry =t88.e1269&authstatuscode=200 Siegel, Kristi. 2004. Gender, Genre, & Identity in Womens Travel Writing. NY: Peter Lang Sparks, A. 1994. Self, silence and invisibility as a beginning teacher. British Journal of Sociology of Education 15 no.1: 93-118
To Be Continued
Methodology
Isms.
Realism Idealism Naturalism Culturalism Humanism Pragmatism Antipositivism Constructivism
Oral History is
The systematic collection of living people's testimony about their own experiences.
Judith Moyer, Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History Judith Moyer 1993, Revised 1999, http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.htm
Oral historians attempt to verify their findings, analyze them, and place them in an accurate historical context. (We're looking for validity and reliability here!!!) Oral historians are also concerned with storage of their findings for use by later scholars.
Qual or Quan?
In comparison to traditional standardized questionlist (Q-list) interviews, paper and pencil Event History Calendars (EHCs) have been shown to provide better quality retrospective reports on social and labor histories for a two-year reference period.
Agrawal, Sangeeta., Andreski, Patricia. and Belli, Robert. "CATI Event History Calendar and QuestionList Methods: Accuracy of Life Course Retrospective Reports" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs, Phoenix, Arizona, May 11, 2004. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p115882_index.html
Oral history depends upon human memory and the spoken word. The means of collection can vary from taking notes by hand to elaborate electronic aural and video recordings. Either way, prepare for...
*Moyer, 1993
"The importance of oral testimony may often lie not in its adherence to acts but rather in its divergence from them, where imagination, symbolism, desire break in. Therefore there are no 'false' oral sources. Once we have checked their factual credibility with all the established criteria of historical philogocial criticism that apply to every document, the diversity of oral history consists in the fact that 'untrue' statements are still psychologically 'true', and that these previous 'errors' sometimes reveal more than factually accurate accounts.
Portelli, A. (1981) The peculiarities of oral history, as quoted in Plummer, 1983.
Preparation
1.Decide your research goals and determine if oral history will help you reach them. You may find that your goals change. 2.Conduct preliminary research using non-oral sources. 3.Define your population sample. How will you select the people you will interview? Contact potential interviewees, explain your project, and ask for help.
Preparation
4.Assemble your equipment to fit your purposes. Research and choose the kind of recording that you need to produce and then choose your equipment. For example, does it need to be broadcast quality? Does it need a long life? What can you afford?
Preparation
5.Use an external microphone for better sound quality. This also applies to video. 6.Test your equipment beforehand and get to know how it works under various conditions. Practice using your equipment before you go to the real interview. 7.If audio casssette taping, use sixty-minute tapes that screw together.
Preparation
8.Compile a list of topics or questions. 9.Practice interviewing. 10.Make a personalized checklist of things you must remember to do before, during, and after the interview.
The Interview
1.Verify your appointment a day or two before the interview. 2.On the day of the interview, give yourself extra time to get there. 3.Interview and record in a quiet place. When setting up, listen for a moment. Make adjustments, such as stopping the pendulum on the tick-tock clock, putting out the dog thats chewing noisily on the recorder cord, and closing the door on the noisy traffic.
The Interview
4.Make sure the interviewee understands the purpose of the interview and how you intend to use it. This is not a private conversation.
5.Start each recording with a statement of who, what, when, and where you are interviewing.
The Interview
6.Listen actively and intently.
The Interview
9.Ask one question at a time.
The Interview
Usually ask questions open enough to get "essay" answers unless you are looking for specific short-answer "facts." Start with less probing questions. Ask more probing questions later in the interview.
The Interview
4.Wrap up the interview with lighter talk. Do not drop the interviewee abruptly after an intense interview. 5.Be aware of and sensitive to the psychological forces at work during the interview.
The Interview
6.Limit interviews to about one to two hours in length, depending on the fatigue levels of you and your interviewee. 7.In general, don't count on photos to structure your interview, but you can use them as initial prompts. Carry large envelopes for borrowed and labeled artifacts such as photos.
Wrapping Up
1.Label and number all recordings immediately. 2.Have the interviewee sign the release form before you leave or send a transcript to the interviewee for correction before the release form is signed. 3.After the interview, make field notes about the interview.
Wrapping Up
Wrapping Up
5.Have a system to label and file everything. Do it. 6.Copy borrowed photos immediately and return the originals. Handle all photos by the edges and transport them protected by stiff cardboard in envelopes. Make photocopies for an interim record.
Wrapping Up
7.Copy each interview tape. Store the original in a separate place and use only the duplicate. 8.Transcribe or index the recordings. Assign accession numbers to recordings and transcripts. Make copies of all work. Store separately.
Wrapping Up
9.Analyze the interview. Verify facts. Compare your results with your research design. Did you get what you need? What further questions do the interview results suggest? What improvements in your method do the interview results suggest?
Wrapping Up
10.Go back for another interview if necessary. 11.If you decide to, give the interviewee a copy of the recording or transcript. Ask for transcript corrections and a release form. 12.Make provisions for long-term storage.
*All numbered lists on these slides derived from Moyer, 1993
1. Rehearse
Reassess
Selected Bibliography
Agrawal, Sangeeta., Andreski, Patricia. and Belli, Robert. "CATI Event History Calendar and Question-List Methods: Accuracy of Life Course Retrospective Reports" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs, Phoenix, Arizona, May 11, 2004
Author Unknown. History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. Accessed 4/24/08. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/online.html Fry, A.R. 1975. Reflections on Ethics. The Oral History Review, Vol. 3: 16-28. Retrieved 4/23/08 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3674971
Jones, L.A. 2004. Review of The Oral History Manual " by Barbara W. Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan, in The Oral History Review, Vol. 31, No. 2: 98-100. Accessed 4/24/08. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3675382.pdf.
Selected Bibliography
Kerr, D. 2003. "We Know What the Problem Is": Using Oral History to Develop a Collaborative Analysis of Homelessness from the Bottom Up. The Oral History Review, Vol. 30, No. 1: 27-45. Retrieved 04/23/08 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3675350 Menninger, R. 1975. Some Psychological Factors Involved in Oral History Interviewing, The Oral History Review, Vol. 3: pp. 68-75. Retrieved 4/23/08 13:21 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3674974 . Moyer, Judith 1999. Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History. Retrieved 4/20/08 from http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.htm
Selected Bibliography
Plummer, Ken 1983. Documents of Life. London: George Allen & Unwin. Roberts, Brian 2002. Biographical Research. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Yow, V. 2004. Review of Key Themes in Qualitative Research: Continuities and Change by Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, and Sara Delamont, in The Oral History Review, Vol. 31, No. 1: 104-106 .Retrieved 4/23/08 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3675545