Call for Papers: Applied Biographical Research

Call for Papers

"Applied Biographical Research"

18th - 20th September 2010, Nuremberg, Germany

The issue of practical applications had already been a major topic in the
early phase of biographical research. In this context the classical studies
of Chicago sociology, e.g., Clifford Shaw's "The Jack-Roller" (1930), but
also similar studies of social scientists at the University of Poznan (under
the influence of Florian Znaniecki) like Stanislaw Kowalski's "Urke
Nachalnik" (1933), come to mind. A first interest in a "clinical sociology"
(Louis Wirth) emerged in working contexts in which sociologists developed a
special interest in the life histories of their research subjects and
encouraged and supported them to articulate and to write down "their own
story". Life history studies were not just relevant in the context of
academic sociological research (in a more narrow sense) but were supposed to
enlighten professional practitioners, the public and local elites. At the
same time the act of collecting data was marked by the fact that research
"subjects" intensely participated as co-workers or even co-authors: They were
prompted to actively turn to and reflect about their life history and by
doing so they gained new insights. This aspect was more or less neglected in
basic theoretical considerations of the early phase of biographical research
- as compared with new developments in which, e.g., the creation of knowledge
in story telling and "biographical work" (in the sense of Anselm Strauss)
become topics of inquiry.
The Nuremberg conference will focus on the practical uses and consequences of
biographical research. Such uses and consequences might be intended,
registered, surprising, subtle, neglected or just rhetorically invoked or
imagined. The idea is to reflect about our studies and to reconstruct what we
want to accomplish, whom we want to reach and how we have to deal with
restrictions and limitations.  Biographical researchers in different
countries have gained quite different experiences and specific traditions
have developed (cf. the relevance of the concepts of "user participation" and
"user empowerment" in the UK and other countries). It will thus be very
stimulating and rewarding for colleagues from different European countries to
share their experiences and discuss their insights and ideas.

In the last years the topic of practical applications and the applicability
of biographical research had been mainly discussed in the context of
professional work and education (cf., e.g., the articles in Chamberlayne,
Bornat and Apitzsch, eds., 2004). We would like to broaden the focus and
invite colleagues who are working on quite different substantive areas to
reflect about their studies in terms of their practical uses and
consequences. This is just a list of possible topics for our discussion which
might be expanded:

Ø  Biographical research for whom: clients, professionals, institutions,
social policy makers, the public? How is it possible to deal with possible
conflicts of interest?

Ø  The possible tensions between basic and applied biographical research

Ø  The acquisition of skills of biographical research among professionals and
the development of settings for acquiring such skills (workshops for
reflecting professional practice etc.)

Ø  The application and further development of procedures of data collection
and analysis (of biographical research) in professional interventions:
chances, risks and limits (in terms of legal barriers, ethical
considerations, institutional restrictions etc.)

Ø  The relevance of biographical research for different spheres of activity
(counseling, educational support, working with unemployed persons,
rehabilitation,  therapy, organizational development, medical diagnosis and
treatment, counseling of drug addicts, community organizing, supervision,
etc.), policy areas (social policy, health policy etc.) and political
discourses

Ø  Biographical research and the arts

Ø  Biographical research as a "meta" counseling procedure in order to
sensitize professional counseling of clients with regard to their
biographical processes

Ø  The influence of funding institutions and officials on different phases
and the results of a research project

Ø  Strategies of dissemination of research results in fields of professional
practice and their social arenas

Ø  The relationship with research subjects and processes of creating
knowledge in the research process

Ø  Practical applications in early "classical" biographical studies

Ø  Practical implications of different approaches of biographical research
(including oral history research)

Ø  Specifics of applied biographical research in different countries

Ø Arenas and debates in which the usability of biographical studies is
contested and defeated or defended

PLEASE NOTE

There will be both English and German language sessions. In any case the
organizers will do their best to make sure that the bilingual character of
the conference will be an asset for all participants, that everyone will be
able to participate in discussions and that no one feels excluded.  We invite colleagues from different countries and different disciplines of
the social sciences to submit abstracts until 30th April, 2010.

The abstracts should be no more than one page and can be written either in
English or German. They should be sent to Thea Boldt (theaboldt at gmx.de) for
the Research Network "Biographical Perspectives on European Societies" (ESA)
as well as to Gerhard Riemann (gerhard.riemann at ohm-hochschule.de) for the
Research Section "Biographieforschung" (GSA).

It is also possible to express an interest in research workshops for
discussing data from ongoing research projects (with reference to the topic
of the conference), to present posters and to opt for other forms of
presentation.

Conference venue: Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of
Social Sciences, Bahnhofstr. 87, 90402 Nuremberg, Germany.

Hosts: The Interim Conference of the Research Network "Biographical Perspectives on European Societies" of the European Sociological Association (ESA)
and  the Annual Conference of the Research Section "Biographieforschung" of the German Sociological Association (GSA) in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg, Germany