Biographical Narrative Interview: Application to Studies of Migration

Life stories are relevant for the analysis of social phenomena because they represent the complexity of social action and enable us to re-define concepts on new presuppositions. Life stories therefore need to be analysed, not merely collected and reproduced. This article analyses and critically evaluates the biographical narrative method and the narrative interview. It focuses on practical experiences with the biographical narrative method and reflects upon the working alliance between the researcher and the interviewee, highlighting certain practical dilemmas of this type of research based on actual fieldwork experiences. The article introduces into the Slovene context certain new theoretical and practical reflections on the use of the biographical approach and the method of the biographical narrative interview.
KEY WORDS: biographical research method, Fritz Schütze, biographical narrative interview, working alliance, migration research