Review Essay: Auto/Biography as Method: Dialectical Sociology of Everyday Life

Abstract: Our Lives as Database is the outcome of a project, in which the participant authors practice sociology by writing and analyzing their autobiographies. I review structure and content of the book and provide a sample analysis of one contribution. While the editor of the book makes a convincing argument why writing and analyzing autobiographies collectively is a suitable method for doing sociology, I propose the consideration of a more dialectical perspective on the issue that makes the (dialectical) relations between individual and society and Self and Other more explicit, and provide additional reasons for the feasibility of the project described. As a reflexive moment fitting the context of this review essay, I draw on the same writing genres and techniques as the authors. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0204176. https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/789

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Review Essay: Auto/Biography as Method: Dialectical Sociology of Everyday Life ; volume:3 ; number:4 ; day:30 ; month:11 ; year:2002 ; Forum qualitative Sozialforschung ; 3, Heft 4 (30.11.2002)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Roth, Wolff-Michael

Further information

• DOI: 10.17169/fqs-3.4.789
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0204176
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:28 AM CEST